brilliant mistake

"The down side of coming off junk was that I knew I would need to mix with my friends* again in a..."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:54:38 -0800

“The down side of coming off junk was that I knew I would need to mix with my friends* again in a state of full consciousness. It was awful: they reminded me so much of myself I could hardly bear to look at them.”

- *or family, as the case may be

Forgot laptop power cord at home while packing for Thanksgiving. The battery isn’t even dead yet and I’m feeling withdrawal symptoms.

Trainspotting - John Hodge, Irvine Welsh

(via )(via Gizmodo)

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:18:51 -0800

(via )(via Gizmodo)

The first protons collide in the LHC. Earth not destroyed.

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:52:17 -0800

The first protons collide in the LHC. Earth not destroyed.

Sideshow Preemies

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:11:36 -0800

How did I not know about this? Premature infants provided entertainment as a Coney Island summer amusement for 40 years, starting in 1903. Dr. Martin A. Couney used gas-heated glass incubators to simultaneously rear and exhibit the babies. Sideshow barkers solicited outside, and visitors paid admission to file past rows of tiny preemies ensconced in the “peanut roasters.” A team of wet nurses provided milk, and could be summarily fired for eating the wrong food, such as a hot dog.

Winter preemies were SOL, since the show closed for the winter. Serves them right, being born in a non-revenue generating time of year.

Bonus Trivia: Cary Grant was once a barker for the show.

David Littschwager, Larva of the slender mola, Ranzania laevis

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:35:00 -0800

David Littschwager, Larva of the slender mola, Ranzania laevis

The Hollow Earth

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:33:25 -0800

The Hollow Earth

“A blast of highly explosive magnesium flash powder...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:28:00 -0800

“A blast of highly explosive magnesium flash powder allowed photographers Longley and Martin to photograph underwater life for the first time. When the men wanted to take a photograph, they clicked the camera’s shutter, which tripped a battery on a raft they dragged behind them. The battery, in turn, triggered the magnesium powder explosion, which illuminated the sea down to 15 feet (4.6 meters).”

William Longley and Charles Martin invent underwater photography in 1926.

"Maybe armies of sexbots will scuttle around the streets of these metropolitan superbrains,..."

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:28:00 -0800

“Maybe armies of sexbots will scuttle around the streets of these metropolitan superbrains, desperately humping any available USB port. It’s fine by me as long as I can still send emails.”

- Cybersex in Swindon? Count me out | David Mitchell | Comment is free | The Observer

Josef Spacek, Vessel Architectonics of Leaf of Lime Spacek gets...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:47:37 -0800

Josef Spacek, Vessel Architectonics of Leaf of Lime

Spacek gets bonus points for use of the word “architectonics.”

David Millard, Urania riphaeus (Sunset Wing Moth Scales) The...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:42:00 -0800

David Millard, Urania riphaeus (Sunset Wing Moth Scales)

The tiny scales on the moth’s wing surface. Its colors do not come from pigment. Rather, the cuticle of the scales and their shape act to scatter certain wavelengths and reflect back others.

James Nicholson, Fungia Fragment Fungia are corals. Like most...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:13:06 -0800

James Nicholson, Fungia Fragment

Fungia are corals. Like most corals, they exhibit epifluorescence, meaning they will fluoresce naturally when certain light wavelengths shine upon them, as in this photo.

M. Reza Dadpour, Citrus Floral Primordium Submission in the 2009...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:53:53 -0800

M. Reza Dadpour, Citrus Floral Primordium

Submission in the 2009 Olympus Bioscapes Competition. The specimen is a developing flower - the cells have yet to become differentiated into specialized tissue.

“Customs officials at the Los Angeles Harbor received a...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:53:00 -0800

“Customs officials at the Los Angeles Harbor received a shipment from China listed as Christmas ornaments. But when they opened the “presents” Tuesday, they found 316,000 bongs and pipes. […] Gamez said no arrests have been made, and an investigation is pending. She said that it is illegal to import, export or sell drug paraphernalia in the United States and that all the items would be destroyed.”

Looks like there will be a sad, bare christmas tree at Snoop Dogg’s this year.

Agents seize bongs at L.A. Harbor listed as Christmas ornaments | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

I have no idea why the video I tried to embed below isn’t...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:42:13 -0800

I have no idea why the video I tried to embed below isn’t working. However, if you desperately wish to see the video of Ralph “Father of Video Games” Baer playing the original pong, you can see it at the pong museum.

Bonus quote: “Here we are playing ping pong when we ought to be working.”

Pong, 1969 pongmuseum.com

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:31:44 -0800

Pong, 1969

pongmuseum.com

Students protest fee hikes at UCLA. via latimesblogs.latimes.com

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:03:19 -0800

Students protest fee hikes at UCLA.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

"Today, foods are structured using a formulation, or recipe, with structure formation (i.e.,..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:24:45 -0800

“Today, foods are structured using a formulation, or recipe, with structure formation (i.e., biopolymer transformation, phase creation, reactions) and stabilization (i.e., vitrification, crystallization, network formation) occurring at the same time. The end result is a metastable structure. In the future, with nanotechnology, foods will be structured from the bottom up. Rather than using a recipe, food structure engineers will use molecules as their starting material, modifying those molecules and building interactions in order to get the desired properties. The process will be more akin to engineering design than recipe-reading, much like how computers and cars are assembled. By building foods from the molecule up, rather than relying on a coupled structure-formation-structure stabilization process, food engineers will utilize an uncoupled “matrix precursors/structural elements” paradigm. That is, microstructural elements will be engineered separately and then dispersed into a matrix precursor, which will have been developed independently. The end product will be a more functional product. As Aguilera said, ‘the beauty that I see in going down[ward] on the size scale is that we can control and really design and assemble new foods.’”

- Nanotechnology in Food Products: Workshop Summary

Who is John Scott? “What he is to you is a window to...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:38:51 -0800

Who is John Scott?

“What he is to you is a window to another world, a mystery to perpetuate, a brand to flaunt. Wear the t-shirt, paste the sticker, ponder life; you will amuse your friends, confound your enemies, and inspire the masses to wonder what the hell is going on.”

This is John Scott

“‘Up until this year, the oldest guy we had arrested was 36,’ said sheriff’s Lt. Erik Ruble. ‘We knew our guy was older, but not 73.’

Ruble said Scott was caught with stickers in his pockets as well as a black brief case, which appears to be similar to a case that is pictured on the whoisjohnscott.com website.

Investigators said they were not sure how long Scott had been vandalizing buses or the particulars of his life story. But Ruble said deputies believe Scott was driven to tag by the same motivation as his younger cohorts: ‘fame and notoriety.’”

“A tree grows through the bumper of a VW Beetle in a...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:18:52 -0800

“A tree grows through the bumper of a VW Beetle in a garden near Fuldatal, Germany. The Beetle was supposedly the first car to cross the border after the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago”

The blue-faced snub-nosed golden monkey, Rhinopithecus...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:48:00 -0800

The blue-faced snub-nosed golden monkey, Rhinopithecus roxellana, named by David Attenborough as the animal he would most like to observe in the wild, but has never been able to.