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• Coachella: LA Times Brand X webcast rolls today, Xeni hosting
• Sometimes, "lady funk" is caused by sperm
• So far, Icelandic volcano isn't likely to cause a cooler summer
• Treehugger wants you to "Save the Beers!"
• Soviet statues as comedy fountains

Coachella: LA Times Brand X webcast rolls today, Xeni hosting Posted: 17 Apr 2010 01:06 PM PDT Above: Live stream of LA Times Brand X Coachella webcast at Coachella Oasis. Hello from the Coachella Oasis (at Merv Griffin's estate), where I'm hosting a weekend-long webcast with the LA Times/Brand X. I'm here with Richard Metzger of Brand X and Dangerous Minds. From about 12-5 today and Sunday, artists performing at Coachella will be dropping by, and I'll be taking your questions and streaming video live all weekend. Here's the Ustream link. Deejays will be spinning live all day today. First up is Rick Rude. Then, DJ Spider, DJ Edski, Seth Cohen, Gaslamp Killer, then Nosaj Thing. We're also expecting a number of artists on the The Coachella festival lineup to stop by. This year's roster includes Gary Numan, Jay-Z, Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem, PiL, The Specials, Echo and the Bunnymen, Them Crooked Vultures, MGMT, Die Antwoord, Thom Yorke, Tiësto, Imogen Heap, Major Lazer, Faith No More, Benny Benassi, Hot Chip, DEVO, Sly Stone, Mike Snow, David Guetta, King Khan & the Shrines, Aterciopelados... and many others. Brand X: Live from the Coachella Oasis

Sometimes, "lady funk" is caused by sperm Posted: 17 Apr 2010 09:36 AM PDT In 1978, a team of scientists succeeded in proving that "vaginal malodor" among women using the contraceptive sponge is caused by sperm—specifically, the components sperm breaks down into after having been killed by spermicide. That's the interesting part. The funny part, as pointed out by blogger Scicurious, is imagining the awkward lives of the grad students involved in this study. Money quote: "Hey, go put this is in, get it on, and come back immediately, please, we'll need that spunk."

So far, Icelandic volcano isn't likely to cause a cooler summer Posted: 17 Apr 2010 09:26 AM PDT It may have succeeded at stranding Cory in the U.S., stranding Lisa in London and producing some beautiful sunsets (not to mention forcing John Cleese to pay for the world's most expensive taxi ride), but Mt. Eyjafjallajokull (say it 10x fast) isn't shaping up to drastically alter temperatures this year. At least, not so far, according to Alan Robock, professor of environmental sciences at Rutgers. Robock told Climate Central's Andrew Freedman on Thursday that the output of Mt. Eyjafjallajokull hasn't put enough sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to create the sort of "Two-thousand-and-froze-to-death" conditions some have feared. Sulfur dioxide particles from volcanoes can temporarily cool the planet by reflecting solar radiation back out into space, effectively limiting the amount of warmth that reaches Earth's surface. Big eruptions—including some in Iceland—have led to short-term cooler temperatures in the past, and it's possible that, if the eruption lasts long enough, Mt. Eyjafjallajokull could as well. But there's another factor working in favor of a comfy summer, Robock said. The volcano's climate impacts may also be limited by its high latitude location, since the air circulation in the upper atmosphere in the high latitudes tends to be more efficient at getting rid of volcanic material, compared to lower latitudes where sulfur dioxide particles from volcanoes can linger for years. Beautiful Eyjafjallajokull sunset shot courtesy Flick user Danny Mekic, via CC

Treehugger wants you to "Save the Beers!" Posted: 17 Apr 2010 09:02 AM PDT Treehugger's Chris Tackett brings this sad story of corporate waste and legal sillyness to our attention. Two employees of the Columbia, Missouri Solid Waste Division and beer rescuing heroes, Beer Heroes or Beeroes, if you will, have made headlines for rescuing some 50-odd cases of beer from being needlessly destroyed at the landfill, at which they work. ... And it was a victory, one to be celebrated with say a couple truck loads of free beer, even, that is until word got back to the fun haters in the main office who are going by the book on this one and calling the beer salvaging rescue effort, which some are now calling Operation Safe Suds, a theft and possibly a matter for the police. See, because anything left at the landfill officially becomes city property, these city employees were technically stealing this beer. America, we cannot allow this injustice to stand! If there's one thing that can bring America together it is a love of beer. We've got problems when we criminalize attempts to reduce waste...even more so when we're talking about rescuing beer! It's time we do something about it! I hereby am launching the Save the Beers Campaign. This is an effort to bring attention to Beer-related waste. Share this story with your friends, family and elected representatives. Post our "Save the Beers!" image on your blog, Facebook profile or any spare billboards you have access to as a sign of solidarity. And don't waste ANY beer yourself. One drop wasted is one drop too many! Beers, they're like kind of like whales if you think about it real hard. Extra: Included in this story is possibly the greatest understatement ever written in an American newspaper. When explaining the motives behind why one would want to take some free beer, the evil man responsible for dumping the beer, Joe Priesmeyer said, "Beer is a popular product." Treehugger: Save the Beers!, includes helpful list of 8 ways to use beer instead of throwing it out Columbia Tribune: Discarded Beer Causes Stir

Soviet statues as comedy fountains Posted: 17 Apr 2010 08:05 AM PDT I'm not clear on whether this Cracked.com image is a photoshop job or an actual fountain somewhere in the world (the former USSR?) or just a clever idea for repurposing all that Stalin-era monumentary, but it's sure a fine idea. I once got to visit the Soviet theme-park outside of Budapest, which is basically a giant field filled with Soviet-era statues, and it was a kind of Stalinist Easter Island experience, all these nigh-identical socialist realist piles looking bravely into the future. But this is even better. Craptions Feb 25th, 2010 (via Making Light) Previously: Statues of Lenin with a boner for communism Soviet bunker as theme park

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