The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- Caster Semenya and the apartheid of sex
- Donate $20 to Haiti, get $1481 worth of free RPGs
- Did CoCo buy a $1.5 mil comedy skit on NBC's dime?
- Sugar Smacks + Spock
- Pirate Bay's VPN goes public: Ipredator
- Sweet Jules Verne covers
- "Mr. Fix It" van
- NYT fingered in fat photo fracas
- Int'l. Olympic Committee: gender difference is a disease
- Wu Tang vs The Beatles
- Does Animal Fat Get a Bum Rap?
- From 50 Dangerous Things: boil water in a paper cup
- Photo Essay: On The Road In Search of Old Time Country Music
- In Praise of Passion
- What lessons should Americans take away from the 2010 Haiti disaster?
- Blueberry juice for better memory
- N.A.S.A.: "O Pato," feat. Kool Kojak + DJ Babao (BB Video)
- WWI and WWII Propaganda Posters
- Boston student must pay RIAA $675K for 30 songs, Obama administration approves
- Shiba Inu Puppy Cam: The Sequel
- Nytimes.com to start charging for some site access: your thoughts on meter model?
- Poe's mysterious stranger misses annual grave visit
- Pardon me?
- Virtual museum for 17th century anatomist
- Cave tour in Costa Rica: Freedom vs. Preservation
- Blessed are the orangutan peacemakers
- Dewey Music: making public domain music friendlier
- Cooking with Uncle Carl
- Acoustic levitation ... on Mars!
- It's all about the apps
| Caster Semenya and the apartheid of sex Posted: 21 Jan 2010 02:58 AM PST  Xeni asked me to give a brief analysis of her earlier post on the International Olympic Committee's decision regarding sex tests for athletes like South African sprinter Caster Semenya. Caster is one of the millions of people in the world who challenge our simplistic male/female sex binary by their very existence. Most intersex people are unremarkable in appearance; in fact, many people who would be classified as intersex do not even know it. The only time it becomes an issue is when they are subject to our prevailing reproductive ideology, which organizes the world around procreation. People like Caster are so controversial because they challenge many of the most deeply-held beliefs people have about sex. The comments sections in my recent posts here show what a hot-button topic reproduction is, even among techno-progressives, hipsters, and people who are on the leading edge of other critical 21st-century paradigm shifts. Reproduction as well as policing sex and gender boundaries will get increasingly more complex in coming decades, and technology always outpaces ethics. Reproduction issues have major ramifications for other causes near and dear to Boing Boing readers, including privacy, intellectual property, mind/body hacks, and the pathologization of human diversity. Still, it's often considered impolite or too political or too controversial, so it doesn't get discussed enough. Caster also challenges our most deeply-held beliefs about sports. Sporting has a long tradition of "fairness" that expresses itself in numerous forms. Boxers and wrestlers are evenly matched by weight class, for instance. We currently ban performance-enhancing drugs as "unnatural" and "unfair." Another South African runner, amputee Oscar Pistorius, raised questions about whether his prosthetic legs gave him an "unfair" advantage over those with "natural" legs. We usually don't care if someone is a "natural" athlete. But what if we decided anyone over 7 feet is "too tall" to compete fairly in basketball? That's the question Caster poses in terms of sports philosophy. What if someone like Caster naturally produces "too much" of this or that chemical? Does their "natural" advantage cross into being an "unfair" advantage? It's this nexus of sports philosophy and reproductive ideology that makes Caster such a compelling case. Read on for some background on how the "sex science" being used to enforce these sports rules is the same as the "race science" once used to enforce slavery and anti-miscegenation laws. Caster is being subjected to the latest "sex science" in order to fit her into our neat little binary, so that the apartheid of sex can be upheld within the sporting tradition. Many people who consider "race science" intellectually problematic (e.g., eugenics, The Bell Curve, etc.) think "sex science" is no problem at all. They often imagine sexologists as noble and objective iconoclasts tackling a topic full of shame and taboo, rescuing human sexuality from morality and religion. Many feel that anyone who has concerns about sex science is just a prude, or a religious fanatic, or anti-porn feminist, or an anti-science zealot, or sex criminal, etc. This simplified "us vs. them" is often perpetuated by journalists, since it's the story sexologists themselves want to present. In fact, lazy journalists know that writing about the latest evidence produced by "sex science" is a guaranteed ratings winner for their media outlet. That has led to a certain kind of laziness endemic in science journalism. As an example, hardly a news special, talk show, or documentary exists where the authors/producers don't trot out some "sexpert" to explain sex and gender minorities like Caster or me, since we are clearly unable to articulate anything but subjective viewpoints, and we're incapable of self-analysis. The few outlets critical of bad science journalism are rather obscure and are largely ignored. Sex science emerged from the eugenics movement at the same time as race science, criminology, phrenology, and a number of other fields used to intellectualize and justify state action against "the unfit," in what Edwin Black calls "the war on the weak." Early sexologists sought to categorize and pathologize traits and behaviors deemed "degenerate," caused by bad genes that were the opposite of those deemed "eugenic" (good genes). Sexology oppresses women and sexual minorities by describing their bodies, desires, and behaviors as exotic and diseased. The latest technologies like fMRI get misused in the service of biological reductionism and neo-eugenics (euphemistically called sociobiology and evolutionary psychology). What we are seeing with Caster is no different than the blood quantum laws that used to be in place to maintain slavery and anti-miscegenation laws. The only difference is the newfangled tech being misused. What we are seeing with Caster is no different than the standardized tests used to classify people into normative categories based on personality or intelligence, testing that has in the past led to "scientific" categories like moron, idiot, and imbecile, and led to sterilization of the "unfit" here in the US (a key tenet of reproductive ideology). Unless you've been affected by it, understanding how social realities like a sex binary get reified and justified through technology can be hard to see. It all gets framed as "natural" and "normal," while anything that disrupts social realities gets labeled "unnatural" and "abnormal." The words created by "sex science" reinforce the binary and uphold the primacy of procreation: homosexual, bisexual, transsexual (across to the "opposite" sex), intersexual (between two). There's an inherent danger with looking to the body for absolute truths, but that's in fashion right now. Famed sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld believed in "justice through science," meaning that findings would eliminate prejudice against sex and gender minorities. That has not come to pass. We know of several genes that affect skin and hair pigment, and that hasn't stopped racism. We know of several genes and environmental factors that affect characteristics associated with sex, but that hasn't stopped sexism. Researchers have recently found genetic repetitions implicated in gender identity and expression, but that hasn't stopped transphobia. In fact, science, as we see in the Caster case, it often misused to reinforce prejudice and prevailing ideology.
What is the "disorder" Caster has? Clearly she has a naturally-occurring advantage under current sporting rules, so that's not the disorder. Being declared a disorder means that there is an order. In a social order based on racial ideology, blood quantum laws were not devised for whites who were "too black." They were devised for blacks who were "too white." In a social order based on reproductive ideology, sex tests in sports were not devised for men who are "too feminine." They were devised for women who are "too masculine." It's nothing new: check out this trailer for the remarkable documentary Pumping Iron II: The Women. This social order will be challenged again and again in coming decades. That's what's really being challenged here: the belief that human diversity can fit into some clean orderly binary of male and female. Caster's "disorder" is that her body disrupts the social order. As with my other posts on these very complex topics, I'm just skimming the surface to make more people aware. This post's title is a reference to Martine Rothblatt's 1995 must-read book on the topic, The Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender. Martine is one of the many super-brilliant trans women who have made major scientific contributions (real science, not sex science), and she is also a leading voice in the transhumanist movement. Her work was very influential in my own political awakening, and I feel this book holds up 15 years later. Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender Organisation Intersex International (online support and information) |
| Donate $20 to Haiti, get $1481 worth of free RPGs Posted: 21 Jan 2010 01:58 AM PST  Chris sez, "Digital RPG vendor DriveThruRPG.com, in conjunction with a number of gaming companies, is offering a coupon good for a total of $1481 worth of digital RPG products in return for a $20 donation to help Haiti. The assortment includes a number of popular indy titles, as well as the tie-in RPG to Joss Whedon's Firefly, Serenity. Even gamers who would not otherwise care about Haiti might find this deal attractive for its own sake." Gamers Helping Haiti $20 Donation with Coupon (Thanks, Chris!) Previously:
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| Did CoCo buy a $1.5 mil comedy skit on NBC's dime? Posted: 20 Jan 2010 11:57 PM PST Tonight's edition of the Conan/Leno/NBC debacle was amazing. The Masturbating Bear returned from hibernation, and it looks like CoCo purchased 1.5 million dollars worth of revenge comedy in the form of a Bugatti Veyron car and licensing fees for the original master recording of a Rolling Stones song. If only late-night US TV were always this awesome! |
| Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:47 PM PST  On the Vintage Ads LJ, one of history's great Sugar Smacks boxes. Previously: |
| Pirate Bay's VPN goes public: Ipredator Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:33 PM PST As governments around the world consider proposals to hand surveillance powers to the entertainment industry and twitchy cops, the Pirate Bay is striking back. Its new €5/month IPRedator service is an encrypted VPN that you can use to hide your traffic (whatever it may contain) from prying eyes. The name comes from Sweden's adoption of IPRED (the "IP Rights Enforcement Directive," a punishing piece of anti-Internet legislation). I've been looking for a reliable VPN to use on public hotspots -- this might just be it. In fact, I just signed up. I'll let you know how it works out. Pirate Bay's Ipredator VPN Opens To The Public (TorrentFreak) (via Memex 1.1) |
| Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:06 PM PST  Jim Tierney, an illustrator studying at UArts in Philadelphia, produced some extremely wonderful Jules Verne cover-art for his senior thesis. I say give him a sheepskin! Jules Verne sketches part 1 (via Super Punch) Previously:
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| Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:06 PM PST |
| NYT fingered in fat photo fracas Posted: 20 Jan 2010 09:27 PM PST Did someone at the New York Times alter the presentation of a photo of Christina Hendricks to give weight (heh) to an assertion that the Mad Men actress is "big"? NYT denies, and the image has since been swapped. If it was, as the NYT says, an "error during routine processing"— it was an unfortunate one. And: she's gorgeous. More at Gothamist, Jezebel, and Salon. Related: a fashion writer for the NYT makes fun of Michael C. Hall's hat at the Golden Globes. The Dexter star is in treatment for cancer. (via Instapundit) |
| Int'l. Olympic Committee: gender difference is a disease Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:13 PM PST Following the Caster Semenya debacle, The International Olympic Committee plans to create health centers that would seek to diagnose and treat athletes who have "disorders of sex development." In other words, being born "intersex" is a disease? Not long ago, doctors and psychologists in the US thought homosexuality was a curable disease (some still do, but most of us regard these "professionals" as kooks). |
| Posted: 20 Jan 2010 07:21 PM PST Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers: Wu Tang acapellas over beats made with samples of Beatles songs. Produced by Tom Caruana. (via Brian Lam) |
| Does Animal Fat Get a Bum Rap? Posted: 20 Jan 2010 09:15 PM PST Virginia Messina, author of The Dietitian's Guide to Vegetarian Diets responded to my post about the new study indicating that animal fat is not very dangerous to your health. Two things to note: one, the study was supported by the National Dairy Council and Unilever Corporate Research, and two, Messina's response was written for a site that promotes veganism. This is a good time to remember Robert Anton Wilson's motto: "Be open to anything, but skeptical of everything." (RAW was probably even skeptical of his motto.) |
| From 50 Dangerous Things: boil water in a paper cup Posted: 20 Jan 2010 06:12 PM PST  A few days ago I wrote about Gever Tulley and Julie Spiegler's kids' activity book called Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do). Gever and Julie kindly gave me permission to post another activity from the book: boiling water in a paper cup. Click the thumbnail for the full size image. |
| Photo Essay: On The Road In Search of Old Time Country Music Posted: 20 Jan 2010 04:55 PM PST  Again, I have to apologize for a self-indulgent post... When I was a kid, my dad would haul the projector and screen out of the closet and put us all to sleep with endless carousels full of vacation slides. Blogging is a much better way to share our everyday stories. (If only because of brevity of posts!) I've recently been on a pilgrimage, along with my long-time pal Richie, to see as many icons of old time country music as I can before they are all gone. Along the way, we've had a lot of interesting roadside adventures. I tried to capture them in these photo essays. I hope you are more interested in them than I was in my dad's slides! Down Every Road: Calico Ghost Town and Merle Haggard
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| Posted: 20 Jan 2010 04:07 PM PST  Kerov writes: The nature of propaganda is to use emotion to bypass rationality. That, to me, qualifies it as a "bad thing" generally.In my post on propaganda, I mentioned that propaganda is a tool that can be used for good as well as evil. This is a concept that the "great generation" largely accepted, but we "baby boomers" and "post-boomers" have never been required to understand. After the jump, I'll explain why appealing to emotions is so important, both in words and with a classic cartoon... The aptly titled "great generation" was born and raised in the Great Depression, and as soon as that lifted, they were thrust into a World War that threatened freedom and peace between nations in a way that the world had never faced before. Today, we've endured hardships and faced challenges, but nothing like the ones our grandparents faced. How did they motivate themselves to make those sacrifices and answer the challenges? Here's a hint... They didn't do it with reason alone. This is a cartoon made by the Disney Studios in 1943 to explain why both reason and emotion are so important. (Leonard Maltin only gets it half right in his introduction.) Why do we contribute money to Haiti when an earthquake devastates their country? There isn't much of a logical reason... Haiti isn't really all that important to us strategically or economically. They'll probably never be in a position to return the favor. Why not just let them sort it and go about our own business? Because we feel an emotional link to people who are suffering. Soulless corporations flourish with lots of "bottom line common sense" but no sense of altruism, and they make billions of dollars in profits. Why is that a bad thing? Isn't that what they're supposed to do? You and I both know the answer to that question. The problem with this world isn't that there isn't enough logic. The problem is that there isn't enough compassion. Logic won't cut it alone in each of our own lives either. There are a million things that make sense to do. I have a whole laundry list full of logical things to do in my own life- more than I'll ever get around to doing. Guess which ones I actually go out and do? Reason may be the reason to do things, but passion is what makes things actually happen. Why do we admire Carl Sagan? Is it because he was factually accurate? No, it's because he was able to convey a passion for science to us. Walt Disney, Gandhi, M. L. King... people with passion move mountains. In my own small life, I've tried to follow my own passion and share it with others. Sure, it makes total sense to have an archive and museum dedicated to animation, but until I had the passion to quit my job and start building it, it didn't happen. If it wasn't for the passion of hundreds of dedicated volunteers, our collection wouldn't include 50,000 high resolution images and over 5,000 digitized animated films. Passion makes things happen that would never have happened otherwise. If I get any idea across to you, gentle readers of Boing Boing, in my two week stint as guestblogger here, let it be this... BELIEVE in what you do- really feel it in your heart- and then go out and do it. P.S. I just appealed to your emotions as a call to action. Feel free to call me a propagandist! |
| What lessons should Americans take away from the 2010 Haiti disaster? Posted: 20 Jan 2010 02:40 PM PST Glenn Reynolds says one of the lessons Americans should take away from the earthquake in Haiti is the imperative of self-reliance: "If you're at the scene of a major disaster, it may be a long time before outside help arrives. But one person is sure to be there: you. And nobody cares more about helping you and your family in time of disaster than, well, you. So it makes sense for you to be prepared to take care of yourself—and look out for your neighbors—for some time afterward." |
| Blueberry juice for better memory Posted: 20 Jan 2010 01:42 PM PST A new study supports the belief that ingesting blueberries can improve memory. Robert Krikorian of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Psychiatry and his colleague published a paper suggesting that the anthocyanins in the berries may boost neuronal signaling and help get rid of glucose in the brain, both of which would slow the death of brain cells. From the American Chemical Society (Wikimedia Commons image): "First evidence that blueberry juice improves memory in older adults" (Eurekalert) "Blueberry Supplementation Improves Memory in Older Adults" (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry) |
| N.A.S.A.: "O Pato," feat. Kool Kojak + DJ Babao (BB Video) Posted: 20 Jan 2010 02:22 PM PST Boing Boing Video presents "O PATO," featuring Kool Kojak and DJ Babão, from the NASA music project (North America South America). Directed by Didiu Rio Branco and Robson Minghini, this NSFW, raunchy romp features animated versions of NASA project founders Sam and Ze getting funky with their fine feathered homies in São Paulo, Brazil. Bonus: a moonwalking Michael Jackson cockroach. My, the bugs really are bigger in South America... You can buy the project album here: N.A.S.A. - The Spirit of Apollo
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| WWI and WWII Propaganda Posters Posted: 20 Jan 2010 11:51 AM PST 
The concept of propaganda is widely misunderstood. Many people automatically assume that it's a negative thing. But propaganda is just a tool that can be used for either good or bad. Propaganda involves bypassing the intellect and appealing directly to emotion to motivate a group of people to action. During the World Wars, time was of the essence and masses of people needed to work together for the common goal of defending the nation. It would have been too slow to talk each and every move out with the whole population, so governments used powerful imagery to bring everyone together in the war effort.
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| Boston student must pay RIAA $675K for 30 songs, Obama administration approves Posted: 20 Jan 2010 11:36 AM PST The Obama administration supports the ruling that a Massachussetts student must pay $675,000 in damages to the RIAA for filesharing 30 songs. (via @seanbonner) |
| Shiba Inu Puppy Cam: The Sequel Posted: 20 Jan 2010 11:54 AM PST  Last year, we all fell in sugary sweet love with the pups on the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam. On Saturday, the momma, Kika, birthed a new litter! Now we can fall in love all over again. It's, er, better than Cats."Puppies 2: Electric Boogaloo" Previously: |
| Nytimes.com to start charging for some site access: your thoughts on meter model? Posted: 20 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST The New York Times announces that it will begin charging frequent readers for access to NYTimes.com sometime next year. Boing Boing readers, what do you think about this experiment in a metered model? I link often to stories there, but would think twice about doing so if it meant sending readers to a paywall. |
| Poe's mysterious stranger misses annual grave visit Posted: 20 Jan 2010 12:50 PM PST Every single year for the last 60 years, a mysterious man would visit Edgar Allan Poe's grave on his birthday and leave a bouquet of roses and a bottle of cognac. Yesterday though, the man never showed up. From the Associated Press (Litho from E.A. Poe Society of Baltimore): "Mystery visitor to Poe's grave is a no-show" Previously: |
| Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:34 AM PST |
| Virtual museum for 17th century anatomist Posted: 20 Jan 2010 10:02 AM PST Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731) is a legend among anatomists, and also curious folks like me who have a penchant for antique medical illustrations and strange specimens floating in formaldehyde. He pioneered ways to preserve specimens and also maintained his own cabinet of curiosities that he eventually sold to Peter the Great. The University of Amsterdam and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography have recently launched a virtual museum dedicated to Ruysch's anatomical preparations. At the moment, the site is only available in Dutch, but English and Russian translations are to come. Meanwhile, the pictures provide plenty of enjoyment. From the always engrossing (sorry!) Morbid Anatomy blog where Joanna calls Ruysch her patron saint: "Announcing a New Virtual Museum Dedicated to Frederik Ruysch" (Morbid Anatomy) De anatomische preparaten van Frederk Ruysch |
| Cave tour in Costa Rica: Freedom vs. Preservation Posted: 20 Jan 2010 08:59 AM PST  Tourist caves in the United States lean toward the disappointing—paved trails, teenage guides spouting corny dialogue, stalactites bathed in the purple stench of theater stage lights. That's why I was excited to find out about Venado Caverns, a cave in north central Costa Rica. My guidebook advised me to think long and hard about any issues I might have with either claustrophobia or bats before going on a tour. Clearly, that meant it would be awesome. And it was. When you get to Venado Caverns, you're given a pair of rubber boots and a helmet with a light on it, and sent out tromping across a muddy pasture to a spot where a little creek flows out of a gaping, ragged cleft in the side of a hill. This is, as they say, more like it. But the freewheeling sort of tourism at Venado has its own drawbacks. What you gain in wild, unfettered adventure, you lose in cave preservation and public understanding of what's actually going on in the world beneath. To that effect, it's somewhat telling that the real name of the cave is lost in tourist rhetoric. Venado is a town near the cave. Gabinarraca is the actual name, a fact I heard nothing about until I talked to Gustavo Quesada, president of Costa Rica's national caving society, Anthros. Founded in 1995, Anthros is the largest caving group in Central America and is in charge of the national caves registry for all of Central America, through its project ICEKE (Central American Institute for Karst and Speleological Studies). Quesada was able to shed some light on things I noticed in the cave that my tour guide couldn't really explain, and he corrected some "facts" the guide led me astray on.
First, a little background. Gabinarraca is the second longest cave in Costa Rica, at just over 8,900 feet long. But it's not a deep cave, in the sense of elevation. In fact, from the main entrance, Gabinarraca actually rises about 114 feet. It's really a mostly horizontal tunnel through the hillside, with lots of water passages, which is part of what makes it such a great tourist cave—there's no serious rock-climbing or rappelling skills required. What is required is a certain level of comfort with tight spaces. Several times, I had to scuttle through a tunnel on my hands and knees. Once, even that was too tall, and I ended up army crawling on my belly. I waded and forded running water from the creek, and splashed around an underground waterfall. At one point, the guide had us shut off our helmet lights and we stood in thick blackness so dense I couldn't see my hand even when it was touching my nose. In short, it was an amazing experience, but the sort of amazing experience that could give some people panic attacks.
Another thing about my tour of Gabinarraca that was very different from any cave tour I'd been on in the United States: How often we were encouraged to touch things. In particular, a large formation called 'The Papaya', which our guide told us to lean against or hug for a photo op. I thought you weren't supposed to touch cave formations, but the guide told me The Papaya was, essentially, a dead formation, so I couldn't harm it. That's not true, according to Quesada. The Papaya is a flowstone, formed from layer upon layer of calcite left behind on a rock by a thin, continuously flowing film of water, he said. And it's still growing. Touching it can chip off layers of calcite, or leave behind skin oils and mud that alter the flow of water and change the formation.
When I touched The Papaya's wet, rough, snakeskin-like surface for this picture, I probably damaged it. My guide also misidentified Gabinarraca's other major formation—The Altar. The chalk white steps of The Altar look like a brain, and the guide told me it was 3 million-year-old petrified brain coral. Wrong again. Instead, The Altar is a series of rimstone dams, Quesada said. They form when pools of calcite-saturated water basically dam themselves up by depositing a wall of calcite along their overflow edge.
In the U.S., programs like Geoscientists-in-the-Parks get experts involved in what the public hears about caves. Even when the actual tours are led by non-experts, the facts often come from summaries written by scientists. There's no analogous program in Costa Rica. I'm glad I got the opportunity to visit a "wild" cave like Gabinarraca, but it's been disheartening to see how little factual information on the cave makes it to tourists—even on the Internert, there's little outside of Anthros' site. Ultimately, I'm not sure the adventure experience is worth the trade-off in preservation and information. All photos in this post are the work of a photographer from Video Producciones Arenal, who accompanies tour groups into the cave with a waterproof camera kit. |
| Blessed are the orangutan peacemakers Posted: 20 Jan 2010 08:12 AM PST  A new video captures one orangutan mediating peace "talks" between two other, fighting, orangutans. (You'll have to go to the BBC story to watch.)
Researchers said this was the first time peacemaking behavior has been observed in orangutans, which are, in the wild, loners. Basically, it looks as though this group of captive orangutans—forced to live together—have learned a behavior that's previously only been known among more social apes, such as chimpanzees and gorillas. BBC: Bornean organgutan acts as "peacemaker" in Japan zoo Image courtesy Flickr user mybulldog, via CC |
| Dewey Music: making public domain music friendlier Posted: 20 Jan 2010 08:05 AM PST  Dean Putney is Boing Boing's developer and a student at Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a large server of ancient and evil vintage. Two years ago during a summer internship at a business with filtered Internet access, I turned to Archive.org to have some music to listen to at work. Finally having some tunes was great, but it was hard to find good music in the huge Live Music Archive collection. After considerable thought, I began a project much bigger than I could handle: making Archive.org's public domain music easy to listen to. |
| Posted: 20 Jan 2010 07:49 AM PST Recipe for Carl Sagan's Apple Pie begins, "Preheat oven to 375 F. Make the universe as usual." One commenter helpfully points out that you should probably "make the universe first, then preheat the oven." |
| Acoustic levitation ... on Mars! Posted: 20 Jan 2010 07:30 AM PST  Last week's Saturday Morning Science Experiment was all about acoustic levitation, using sound waves to create high pressure areas that can move objects. Today, Wired has a story up about how that phenomenon could be used to help astro-colonists deal with pesky space dust on Mars and the Moon.
Acoustic levitation could remove the dust from space suits and equipment, once they've been brought back inside a space station, or other pressurized environment—kind of like an interstellar car wash. Wired: Stereo Speakers Can Levitate Dust For Mars Colonists Image courtesy Flickr user x-ray delta one, via CC |
| Posted: 20 Jan 2010 07:32 AM PST Gartner claims one company has 99.4% of the global market for applications that run on mobile devices. [Ars] |
(book) 
(NSFW! Adults, watch this video: 
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"I'm confused, befuddled," said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. "I don't know what's going on."
Internet funnyhunter 
Frederik Ruysch was a true artist of human remains, his works being referred to in his time as "'Rembrandts of anatomical preparation'". A high-ranking doctor in Amsterdam, Ruysch was famed far and wide for his uncannily life-like and imaginative preparations, and he used his access as "chief instructor of midwives and 'legal doctor' to the court" to legally obtain scores of cadavers with which to create memorable preparations, including fanciful allegorical tableaux composed of fetal skeletons and other human body parts...
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