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Because ears are a miracle of engineering, and the signal processing the brain does is similarly brilliant. The shape of the pinner - the fleshy bit - means that sounds sound different if they get into your ear canal from different directions - otherwise (and I used to wonder this as a kid) how could you tell whether a sound source was directly ahead or directly behind?

As I recall, your brain can also use the tiny timing difference (on the order of 1/3000s) to determine distance and direction

You can fake all of this with just two speakers (the virtual haircut is highly recommended: http://onemansblog.com/2007/05/13/get-your-virtual-haircut-and-other-auditory-illusions/), but only if the two speakers are completely isolated to each ear - i.e., through the use of headphones. And then you have to resort to a "one size fits all" mix. They record these things using dummy heads with realistic inner and outer ears - brilliantly simple.

If you tried to do the same thing with two external speakers, both ears would hear both speakers and the effect is ruined.

http://onemansblog.com/2007/09/06/death-valleys-sailing-stones-mystery-solved/

No, ice has not ruled out,in fact it's been recorded happening.

Did you just toss the sentence out because?

anyways:
http://onemansblog.com/2007/09/06/death-valleys-sailing-stones-mystery-solved/

I remember reading about a guy who got so fed up with it he beveled the edge with a file. Here he is: http://onemansblog.com/2010/03/11/video-rant-taking-the-sharp-edge-off-the-macbook-pro/

It is not just the olympics. International scientific conferences are tending to shy away from the US as well. I'm involved in the organization of three computer science conferences that traditionally alternate between North America and Europe. The North American Slots are ending up in Canada because it is to much of a hassle for the European participants to enter the US. I was at one conference in the US several years ago, and several of us were in the security lineup to leave the country, and one of my colleagues remarked to me, that "it just isn't worth the hassle anymore". Throw in the drama that happens if you happen to take a picture in public (omg a picture of a library or a hotel), and you have to wonder why anyone would visit the USA.

I agree :)

I actually got a creative zen vision, and I am very pleased. Plays anything and outputs to TV at a good resolution. However, 30GB = not enough (and the interface is a flaming turd in comparison to other MP3 makers). I'm going to do that drop-in 100GB hard drive trick soon, I think.

This Al ?