"It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which gives happiness." --Thomas Jefferson

US based electronics retailer Etroduce offers a tiny low-cost pendant style MP3 Player.

The I.T MP3 Player comes in 128MB ($79.99) and 256MB ($99.99) versions. Usually this coin-sized MP3 Players appearing once in a while are OEM versions of t...

The Economist on new smart drugs:

At least 40 potential cognitive enhancers are currently in clinical development, says Harry Tracy, publisher of NeuroInvestment, an industry newsletter based in Rye, New Hampshire. Some could reach the market within a few years. For millions, these breakthroughs could turn out to be lifesavers or, at the very least, postpone the development of a devastating disease. In America alone, there are currently about 4.5m people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and their ranks are expected to grow to 6m by 2020. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), defined as memory loss without any significant functional impairment, is estimated to afflict at least another 4.5m people. Because the majority of MCI patients will eventually develop Alzheimer's, many doctors believe that intervening in the early stages of the disease could significantly delay its onset.

Link (via R.U. Sirius).

Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake on Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or 3 millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.

Most condoms contain a milk by-product called casein. This is problematic for vegans.

Fear no more, dear Vegans, Condomi comes to your rescue as it contains absolutely no casein.
Options include strawberry and orange flavored.

JOHANNESBURG -- Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a sixth sense for disasters, experts said Thursday.

Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.

"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit," said H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department. "I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening."

X-Rated Disney on eBay

Here's your chance to own a piece of art/porn history: the original printing plate for legendary illustrator and comic artist Wally Wood's "Disneyland Memorial Orgy" went up for sale on eBay this week.



Eye Of Science




Penis Tree

A rather lewd tree grows in some parts of the world. Its branches resemble a penis.

Empathy in the Brain and In Art is the theme of the upcoming fourth international conference on neuroesthetics to be held on January 15th, 2005 at UC Berkeley.

While last year's conference focused on "Emotions in Art and the Brain," here is a brief overview of this year's event from the organizers: (click here for schedule)

"Empathy, one of the most extraordinary feats of the human brain, plays a major role in social and artistic communication. We empathize with others and often respond with emotion to their condition. Artists, photographers, actors and film directors use our capacity to empathize to give their works heightened emotional appeal. But what are the neurological foundations of empathy, and on what specialized brain cells and systems does it depend?

Last week researchers at the University of Tokyo unveiled a flexible, pocket sized scanner as thin as a sheet of paper. The device would cost approximately $10 when it bocomes commercially available. Future development will allow connection to a mobile phone, with scanned images displayed on the screen of the phone. [via New Scientist]

Imagine a great metropolis covering hundreds of square miles. Once a vital component in a national economy, this sprawling urban environment is now a vast collection of blighted buildings, an immense petri dish of both ancient and new diseases, a territory where the rule of law has long been replaced by near anarchy in which the only security available is that which is attained through brute power.... Yet this city would still be globally connected. It would possess at least a modicum of commercial linkages, and some of its inhabitants would have access to the world’s most modern communication and computing technologies. It would, in effect, be a feral city.

Out of its natural habitat, the giant squid Architeuthis dux is something of a flop. “They’re so heavy, they collapse under their own weight. You lose the lovely cylindrical mantle and arms,” says Steve O’Shea, squid expert at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand.

But now for the first time, two huge giant squid specimens are being prepared to go on display. And the preparation is being done by controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who will use the “plastination” technique that he uses to display human bodies.

I gotta say, the year's ending with a bang: first the Understatement of the Year Award, bestowed in today's noon post, and now the Best Company Name of the Year Award, given to the firm whose name headlines this post.

No, it's not a comic-book creation in an upcoming Batman sequel, nor is it a recently unearthed lost film of Roger B. Corman but, rather, the cutting edge of genetic research.

The Sausalito, California-based company, co-founded by billionaire John Sperling in an effort to clone his dog Missy, hasn't quite got to canines yet, but in the meantime, cats 'R them.

The company created the very first cloned cat - a calico born in 2001 named CC.

They've got five more in the works, being weaned before delivery to their owners-to-be.

The first of the current batch to make it home - and for Christmas, yet - is Little Nicky, pictured above.

The kitten is a clone of the beloved pet cat Nicky of a Texas woman.

Nicky died earlier this year, but not before a skin cell from his body was removed and fused with another cat's hollowed-out egg cell to create Little Nicky.

Before you get your hopes up, though, you'd better hit that piggy bank really hard: it costs $50,000 - and no, your insurance won't cover it - to recreate your pretty purring pet.

Here's the full story by Dan Vergano, from today's USA Today.

Snow flakes and Snow Crystals

Bentley Snow Crystal Collection

Photographing Snowflakes

Ice Crystal Engineering - Weather Modification Specialists

Merry Christmas.

Israeli doctors use a CO2 laser to ablate the tonsils of patients suffering from severe halitosis. Laser therapy could be the answer to bad breath according to Israeli research. In a recent study, a team of doctors used a CO2 laser to cure 51 out of 53 patients suffering from severe halitosis.

"Providing 'A Peek into 2050' noted futurologist Zack Lynch predicted that 'Neurotechnology' will be for the future what Information Technology is for the present.

Speaking at a dinner hosted by General Motors (Cadillac) for delegates and speakers for Arab Strategy Forum 2004, NeuroInsights managing director Lynch, pointed out that one in four people in the world today suffer from some brain-related disorder and predicted that by 2020, the incidence of depression would double. "More people will suffer from depression than people suffering from AIDS, heart disease and traffic-related accidents - combined," Lynch told a rapt audience.

Near Berlin, a former zeppelin hangar has been transformed into Europe's largest covered leisure resort (five million cubic metres).

Tropical Islands offers 850 sun-loungers on its two beaches, waterfalls tumbling into tranquil lagoons, a rainforest, sunrise projected on to a 450ft long screen, speakers disguised as boulders broadcasting bird song and insect noises appropriate to the time of year and day ... and best of all, workers trained to "use smiles to enthuse stressed and winter-wearied Europeans".

Price is €20 for four hours, plus €1 for every hour over that. It is hoped that Tropical Islands will boost the local economy in the former communist east, where unemployment is around 20 per cent.

Could this sun-kissed leisure at home be the future of tourism?

Via Archinect < The Telegraph and The Guardian.

In Japan we don't only have capsule hotels. No -- we also have capsule buildings. At the outskirts of the posh Ginza district stands the now almost forgotten Nakagin Capsule Tower, the world's first capsule architecture built for actual use.

Built from 1970 and opened in 1972 the Nakagin Capsule Tower was a innovative masterpiece by architect Kisho Kurokawa. Kurokawa developed the technology to install the 2.3m x 3.8m x 2.1m sized capsule units into a concrete core with only 4 high-tension bolts, making the units detachable and replaceable. The capsules were designed to accommodate the individual as either an apartment or studio space, and by connecting units they could also accommodate a family. Complete with appliances and furniture, from audio system to telephone, the capsule interior was pre-assembled in a factory off-site and then hoisted by crane and fastened to the concrete core shaft. Today the Nakagin Capsule Tower is in rather bad condition and most capsules are rented out as mini-offices for a monthly fee of about 70,000yen each.

"The research enabled us to determine the close connection that exists between the sequence, structure and functions of the proteins," said (researcher Uri) Gat. "From a practical viewpoint, mass production of fibers, whose diameter is one-thousandth of a millimeter, is likely to be useful in the future for manufacture of bulletproof vests, surgical thread, micro-conductors, optical fibers and fishing rods; even new types of clothing may be envisioned."

When put on a high-fat, high-calorie diet for 13 weeks, the transgenic mice gained only a third of the weight that their unmodified brethren did. What is more, mice on this diet remained resistant to obesity even when they were kept inactive....

Although Evans recognizes the potential for abuse by athletes, he believes that his work has more practical implications in treating metabolic ailments, including obesity and heart disease. Patients with such conditions often cannot exercise because of their weight or other complicating problems. "This work could lead to an exercise pill that gives many of the benefits of training without the need to sweat," Evans predicts.

This video is a little strange. I mean, not out of this world strange...just 'girl with poodle cut muscles exercising with poodle people' strange.

I'm counting on you people to please explain this video...check out some excerpted pics:

Thanks to Janice for the link!

Via Andrea's Photo Blog

The new book, Masters of Deception, features the work of several illusionists, including the sculptor Shigeo Fukuda. Fukuda's mastery is in creating physical forms that take on a second identity when the viewing angle changes or a light is introduced. In the Lunch with a Helmet On (above), the shadow of a motorcycle is built entirely out of welded forks, knives and spoons. Movies of this piece, and several others, are available here.

From China comes soybean clothing.

Yes, they've created a new fiber made from the leftover dregs of soybean oil and tofu production.

Soy-based yarn is being exported by Shanghai Winshow Soybeanfiber Industry Company.

Many hip clothing companies are rolling out soy lines, among them Of The Earth, of Bend, Oregon, which will offer in its 2005 catalog a line of "soy yoga" clothing. (That's their Yoga Top heading this post.)

Mei Fong wrote an informative story for last Friday's Wall Street Journal.

Here's the article.

"Part manual, part manifesto, part monograph: a comprehensive look at the methods and techniques of Spuybroek's hugely inventive architecture.

In the avant-garde of digital architects, Rotterdam-based Lars Spuybroek and his studio NOX are among the few who have completed built projects. Before the advent of large-scale processing power, digital modeling, and computer-aided manufacturing, NOX's structures would have been unbuildable. Today, the work is taken seriously on an international scale as the possibilities for construction and spatial innovation attain new levels of feasibility.

Written and compiled largely by the architect, the book reveals the inspirations, insights, and techniques that allow him to conceive—and build—such experimental work. There is a complete documentation of NOX's oeuvre, including built and unbuilt work—some twenty-three projects in total; essays by leading critics Manual De Landa, Detlef Mertins, Andrew Benjamin, Brian Massumi, and Arjen Mulder; and explanatory texts by Spuybroek that link the projects together.

It turns out that tumbleweed, the very emblem of the wild west, sucks uranium like nobody's business. Bioremediation, high noon style. [defensetech]

An unusual apartment building was inaugurated in Brazil, each of whose 11 stories turns independently, giving lucky residents 360-degree views of the eco-friendly city of Curitiba. Read

The perfect thing for all those near-sighted neo-tribalists out there, James Sooy designed a pair of piercing-mounted eyeglasses that attach to that hunk of metal you hopefully already have spiked through the bridge of your nose. Also a good option for anyone without ears, but who needs glasses and doesn’t want to have to resort to wearing something as barbaric as goggles.

This company sends data through household lighting systems, by modulating the AC signal that powers the lights with the data to be transmitted, so that the lights "pulse" the data at a level imperceptible to people trying to use the lights to see.

MIT scientists have cultured small pieces of heart tissue which beat in the same way as the organ.

The approach involves seeding cardiac cells from a rat onto a 3D polymer scaffold, which slowly biodegrades as the cells develop into a full tissue.

The cell/scaffold constructs were bathed in a medium that supplies nutrients and gases, then were stimulated with electrical signals.

The key might be this electrical stimulation that helps condition the cells so that they communicate with each other and contract in a synchronized form.

The next stage will be to try to create samples of tissue that are the right thickness for potential use in transplants.

The work could lead to new ways of repairing heart damage since heart muscle cells cannot regenerate after injury and heart cells are difficult to culture by conventional methods.

Video of the heart tissue beating.

Via BBC News.

the video is a must-see! wild. -BT

Mathematicians Hinke Osinga and Bernd Krauskopf, of Bristol University have represented the Lorenz equations with 25,511 crochet stitches.

The academics are offering a bottle of champagne to anyone able to follow the pattern published in Mathematics Intelligencer.

Via BBC News.

Virus warning: Cyborgs at risk | CNET News.com

Warwick says that computer and organic viruses will become a single entity in cyborg bodies.

"Speaking this week at Consult Hyperion's fifth Digital Identity Forum in London, Warwick spoke of a future when those who aren't cyborgs will be considered the odd ones.

'For those of you that want to stay human...you'll be a subspecies in the future,' he said.

Warwick said he believes there are advantages for a human being networked to a computer. It would mean an almost 'infinite knowledge base,' he said, adding that it would be akin to upgrading humans.

The security problems that dog modern computing won't be much different from those that could plague the cyborgs of the future. 'We're looking at software viruses and biological viruses becoming one and the same,' Warwick said. 'The security problems (will) be much, much greater.'"

China is holding the Miss Artificial beauty contest, exclusively for women who have had plastic surgery. All contestants must provide a doctor's certificate to prove that they have had surgical alteration.

Plastic surgery is a booming business in China, and those who have acquired beauty through surgery are called "renzao meinu" (man-made beauties).

There are nineteen finalists, ranging in age from 17 to 62, including one transsexual.

BBC.

Dogs with paralyzed hind legs could walk again courtesy of a shot of a chemical cousin of antifreeze that helped repair nerve cells in their damaged spinal cords.

For the research, 19 paraplegic dogs were injected with polyethylene glycol, a nontoxic liquid polymer containing the same type of molecules found in antifreeze.

"This stuff is kind of like a radiator stop-leak for the nervous system. The polymer spreads out and forms a seal over the damaged areas in the nerve cells and allows the membrane below to reconstruct itself," explains Richard Borgens, director of Purdue's Center for Paralysis Research.

Within eight weeks, 13 of the 19 canines regained the use of their hind legs and some were able to walk almost as well as before their injury.

The researchers hope the therapy can soon be tried in people, but caution that there are significant differences between human and canine spinal cords.

Via Mercury News and New Scientist.
Picture, via Glubibulga.

Scott Hamel, who lost the use of his legs 27 years ago, volunteered for a brain wave project that could help people who are totally paralyzed to communicate and control their environment.

In what looks like a video game, Hamel is moving colored squares on the screen without touching any controls. It's his brain waves that control the computer cursor.

"If you can move a cursor in several dimensions and you can select items, then you can have the panoply, the whole universe of computer programs available to you," says Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw, who heads the project at at the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center.

The computer program, called BCI2000 (BCI stands for brain-computer interfaces), that translates a person's waves into computer movement takes some practice.

"You and I would consider that slow, but if that’s your only means of communication, it’s not so slow," comments Wolpaw. So far, BCI enables the patient to control a cursor in two dimensions. Use of multiple dimensions may eventually allow disabled persons to control a robotic arm or an electric wheelchair.

Via MSNBC.
Related: Moving brain implant seeks out signals, converting brainwaves into letters, Brain powered device mobilizes quadriplegics.

Using the combination of chemistry, high-tech equipment, concrete expertise, and graphics technology, Intaglio Composites has developed a process which allows an image to be permanently embedded into the surface of structural concrete.

This particular application benefits from a high performance self consolidating concrete (SCC) to create a higher strength, denser, lower permeability concrete. Intaglio Composites also provides an unlimited range of pigments and additional pozzolanic materials to produce a high quality "fair finish" which achieves the greatest contrast between the form or smooth surface and the etched impressions in the concrete.

Panels are currently available in sizes up to 3' x 3' with larger sizes becoming available soon. Panel thickness can range from 1.5" up to 12" depending on the application. Intaglio Composites has been testing "textile concrete" for applications requiring panels as thin as 3/8" such as floor or wall tiles.

Intaglio Composites recommends the use of high performance fully penetrating siloxanes for maximum weathering and protection, although nothing is required. Horizontal applications require a high performance sealer to reduce wearing of the image.

PTW Architects' design for the National Swimming Center in Beijing, known as The Watercube, is one of the most extraordinary buildings I've seen in a long time - even more so than the elegant and innovative Olympic Stadium by Herzog + DeMeuron (pictured top.)

"It appears random and playful like a natural system, yet is mathematically very rigorous and repetitious. The transparency of water, with the mystery of the bubble system, engages those both inside and out of the structure to consider their own experiences with water", said PTW Director Andrew Frost.

The building's skin, made from an innovative and lightweight transparent 'teflon', abbreviated as etfe, has been designed to react specifically to lighting and projection - and particularly the advanced systems which will become available in the coming four years - to create a stunning visual and sensory experience that will also be shared by millions of television viewers around the world. this state-of-the-art material provides a cost effective cladding solution for modern architecture, enabling a wide range of applications where traditional materials, such as glass, may not be possible.


More images at Archinect.

I received an email from a Chinese wholesaler offering this USB powered Eye Massager.

To me this USB gadget looks more like a USB powered eye poker than a eye massager, but what do I know. We recently reported about the USB Massage Ball. Looks like USB gadget go big time in the health and wellness market.

More details on EC21.

On Tuesday, 1 June 2004, an 11-year-old Japanese girl led 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai into an empty classroom. The girl slit Satomi's wrists with a box-cutter and slashed her throat open, then returned to her homeroom in bloodied clothes. Satomi died later that day.

The story, an unprecedented and grisly murder, was printed in newspapers around the world. However, nobody could have anticipated what happened next. On the Japanese side of the Internet, a class picture was discovered, and two of the girls stood out. On the far left, wearing glasses and a green sweatshirt, Satomi stood grinning, giving a victory sign to the camera. Right next to her, with an inexplicable expression on her face, stood the killer -- Nevada.

For some reason, the specifics of the murder -- a seemingly normal 11-year-old girl, with a box-cutter, in a Nevada sweatshirt -- made a clear impression in communal consciousness of the Internet. In Japan, she was given the name "Nevada-tan"; "-tan" being the way a young child would pronounce the honorific "-chan", i.e., "Widdle Nevada".

...I felt this website was necessary. There are currently no other websites, even in Japanese, that I could find devoted to the strange fate and fandom of Nevada-tan. Even a reprehensible subculture deserves some discussion...

Men all over the world distort the teachings of Islam and Christianity to justify abusing their wives and daughters, leading to thousands of "honor" killings a year for which courts provide virtual impunity, experts say.

U.N. estimates show that more than 5,000 women are murdered every year in "honor"-related violence, but the real number could be much higher, said experts at an international conference near Stockholm, which ended Wednesday.

Horror stories of women and even girls as young as seven being beheaded, burned to death, maimed, beaten, raped, forced into suicide or mentally abused underscored that patriarchal violence against women pays no heed to religion.

...men found it "very convenient to say that what they don't want to do is against Islam and what they want to do is in the name of Islam..." ..."honor" violence also occurs among Christian families...

"The interior of our bodies is hidden to us. What happens beneath the skin is mysterious, fearful, amazing. In antiquity, the body's internal structure was the subject of speculation, fantasy, and some study, but there were few efforts to represent it in pictures. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century-and the cascade of print technologies that followed-helped to inspire a new spectacular science of anatomy, and new spectacular visions of the body. Anatomical imagery proliferated, detailed and informative but also whimsical, surreal, beautiful, and grotesque — a dream anatomy that reveals as much about the outer world as it does the inner self."

"Five years ago, I decided to fulfill a childhood dream by learning to fly with a cluster of large helium balloons. I have made twenty-three helium cluster balloon flights since that time. All of them have been among my most magical flying experiences... With half a dozen pilots worldwide, cluster ballooning remains something between an extreme sport and a personal eccentricity..."

Wired News: Rocket Fuel in Milk, Lettuce.

A large portion of the United States' milk and lettuce supply may be contaminated with potentially unsafe levels of a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel, according to data released by the Food and Drug Administration on Monday.

The data, part of a preliminary survey of milk and lettuce in 15 states, revealed perchlorate contamination in nearly 94 percent of reviewed samples. The results echo earlier findings by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog that issued a warning about perchlorate contamination in California-produced milk in June.
"The study confirms what we and some other people have been saying for a while -- that perchlorate is not only a problem in areas with known water contamination but for anyone who eats food grown in the U.S.," said Bill Walker, vice president of the Environmental Working Group's West Coast operations.

SPANDEXMAN.COM
Via jwz
Don't miss the galleries of customer submitted photos.

A Chilean woman was horrified when she received a box through the post with a human brain inside it.

Susana Erana from Santiago, who works as a pharmacist, told Las Ultimas Noticias: "I was waiting for some mushrooms that I was going to test, now you imagine my horror when I opened it!"

Treating hair with caffeine products can stop men from going bald, according to a new German study.

Professor Peter Elsner, part of the team at the Jena University, said that the stimulant has the most effect on men whose hair roots were very sensitive to testosterone, one of the causes of hair loss.

But the research does not mean that coffee drinkers will be spared a bald head in later life, only those who smear it directly on their heads.

In Kingdom of Cockroaches, Leaders Are Made, Not Born

t might seem counterintuitive - or, let's face it, silly - for scientists to create an artificial cockroach. Nature has, after all, given us so many of them, and considerable energies of humankind have been focused on exterminating them.

But an international team of scientists has done just that.

The purpose of the matchbox-size robo-roach is to study "collective intelligence," said José Halloy, senior research scientist at the Free University of Brussels, one of the institutions collaborating on the project. Roaches, ants, bees and many other creatures are gregarious and share a kind of mob intellect, he said.

Watch A Monkey Rot(en)


Decomposition: Stages of Decomposition

Exotic Guitars are more than works of Art, they incorporate advanced instrument construction techniques for the ultimate results in sound and playability. The instruments that you are seeing were constructed using classical instrument building techniques - and are elaborate sculptures - they are not merely airbrushed paintings on the same old guitars. To learn more about each of these unique instruments click on the images or titles below.
Dragon Lyre	Eden	Folk Legend	MotorGuitar
The sound of these instruments must be heard to be fully appreciated. The worlds finest materials are hand sculpted, to form the ultimate sound and visual experience . To learn more about the what goes into these most unique creations, please click here. Egyptian Fantasy King Of Bass Skeletar Cosmophonic Black Bird Electric Autumn Jazz-n-Fly Monarch

Intervention makes middle-aged mice grow younger

A prize meant to inspire antiaging research has been awarded to a scientist who rejuvenated middle-aged mice, making them grow biologically younger while extending their lifespan.

The first-ever Methuselah Mouse Rejuvenation Prize was awarded to Stephen Spindler of the University of California, Riverside for research called "astounding" because it worked in mice later in life.

The intervention extended the average and maximum lifespan of the mice by 15% and reduced the number of deaths from cancer, the risk of which normally increases with age. DNA microarray analysis—a technique for examining the activity of genes—confirmed that the mice actually became physiologically younger.

Technique could lead to artificial vision

A new technique that engineers certain nerve cells so that they can detect light could lead to a therapy that would restore sight in blind people.

American researchers from the University of California, Berkeley have inserted a light-activated switch into brain cells normally insensitive to light. This switch allows the researchers to turn the cells on with green light and turn them off with ultraviolet (UV) light.

The approach could potentially help people who have lost the light-sensitive rods and cones in their eyes because of nerve damage or diseases. In these cases, the photoreceptor cells are dead, but other nerve cells downstream of the photoreceptors are still alive.

The research team believed they could use these cells, called retinal ganglions, to take over some of the functions of the photoreceptors.

Breathing Chaos is a new installation work by media artist Sachiko Kodama. A small, black mountain grows organically in the glow of many small candles. The heat of the candles let the mountain move as if it were breathing. The mountain is however, made up of competely inorganic matter; it is a fluid formed by ferro magnetic micro-powder dissolved in a solvent; and it is designed to transform, creating a very sensitive chaos.

This summer I saw Protrude, Flow at Ars Electronica Center / Linz (Austria) and was I was totally fascinated by it. A black magnetic fluid is transformed by the interaction with environmental sound. The sounds (created by voices of visitors, for example) are caught by a microphone, a computer converts the sound amplitude to electromagnetic voltage which determines the strength of the magnetic field. At the same time, the magnetic fluid changes its patterns sequentially. Each pattern appears synchronized to the environmental sound, the points of the shapes move correspondingly and the magnetic fluid pulsates according to the sound.

"Breathing Chaos" is exhibited at Telic, 975 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, through February 27, 2005.

Via Art Future.

The BBC reports how smartphones suffer skulls attack. I am mesmerized by the headline. Then, a thought runs the rope back to a bunch of photos of contemporary pirates.

• National Public Toilet Map of Australia When you gotta go you gotta know where to go. (via Incoming Signals)
• People coming out as representational artists "“It’s like having a heterosexual relationship if you’re gay,” the Los Angeles–based painter says of the earlier pictures"
• Korean Face Sizes Are Getting Smaller, Attributed to Hamburgers 'Professor Kim Hee-jin from the department of dentistry in Yonsei University explained, "The decrease in face length can be attributed to the diet of preferring soft food such as hamburgers.” and added, “If one gets in the habit of eating food that mainly uses the front teeth when one is young, the jaw muscles which we use for chewing food may become weak and it may cause the size of the jawbone to become smaller."'
• Guys do their best gangsta poses and get rated on their badassness. The comments are all in great street slang -- "not feelin da kickz" and "You can't flaws the unflawsable" -- but what's really great about it is here these guys are acting all tuff and "I don't care what you think about me" and it's really just a thinly disguised Queer Eye for the Badass Guy: "I really like the look because its clean. The colors are fine, but the sweater has to go given it doesn't really compliment the rest of your outfit. I would suggest a SLEEVELESS zip up or pullover hoodie with a hot graphic on it instead of the creme sweater you have in the picture.***Oh, and just like FUBU & Phat Farm, Enyce is on its way out of respectibility. And don't wait for Jay-Z or P.Diddy to tell you this! I'm saving you all from embarassment! Say no to Enyce!" (from The Daily Jive)

Dr Karl Swann, and a team at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, claim to have made a major breakthrough in overcoming opposition to stem cell research by creating human embryos which cannot develop into babies.

The "ethical" embryos were made with the help of an enzyme called the "spark of life" which tricks human eggs into believing they have been fertilised even without the presence of sperm.

These embryos contain two sets of chromosomes from the mother, but none from the father and so are unable to develop into babies.

The scientists believe that the new technique should allay the fears raised by pro-life campaigners opposed to stem cell research.

Via Scotsman.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland are unraveling the circuitry in an eel's spinal cord to help develop a microchip implant that may someday help paralyzed people walk again.

The neuroprosthetic implant would mimic the signals sent by the brain and coax nerve control centers into sending "walking" instructions to muscles in a patient's legs.

"Even though the lamprey is a very primitive vertebrate, we and others have shown that it's remarkably like humans in the ways it makes and controls its locomotion," says Avis H. Cohen from the University of Maryland. "But unlike that of humans, the lamprey's nervous system is remarkably easy to study."

Plus, the eel's spinal cord can be removed and kept alive in a lab solution. By adding chemicals, the eel's excised spinal column can be stimulated to produce the pattern of nerve signals seen when a live eel is swimming. The scientists tried to model the lamprey's spinal cord circuits on a silicon microchip, which provided them with a more natural way to control robotic limbs and showed a possible way to interface electronically with human biology.

The device would contain mixed-signal (analog and digital) integrated microchips and would run on a rechargeable battery.

After the researchers conclude their studies on lampreys, they will try to transfer the results to small mammals, such as rats. Application on humans could be at least 10 years away.

Via KurzweilAI < Hopkins News.

Toyots'a "i-unit" aims at uniting the driver and vehicle to expand human abilities and possibilities.

The upright position allows the wearer/driver to move among other people, while inclined position ensures stable handling and high speed.

A driver support information system uses sound, light and vibration to facilitate interactive communication.

The body is built using environmentally friendly plant-based materials such as kenaf.

The mountable, walking "i-foot" robot can climb the stair and is driven with a joystick.

Now, my obsession is to go to EXPO 2005 in Aichi next year where these prototypes will be displayed.

Via Gizmodo.

A squatter "shack" that bulges like a tumor off the outside wall of a Mexico City museum is an experiment in living _ or an eyesore, a waste of money, an affront to the country´s millions of real squatters, depending on whom you ask.

Whatever it is, Hector Zamora´s work of art is hard to ignore. It crawls down the side of the Carrillo Gil art museum about 30 feet above street level, reachable from the sidewalk only by a rickety wooden stairway.

Zamora, 29, says the red cocoon-like shack is a three-month experiment in living in a public space, a technical exploration of lightweight buildings and an opportunity to "spark a discussion."

"People have left me angry notes in my mailbox saying, ´I hope someday you live in real poverty,´ and ´Now I know where the arts budget is going,´" said Zamora, a designer who builds canopies and pavilions.

continued here...

Naked food preparation seems to be a common fantasy, but the risk of injury can be high, especially when deep-frying. There's an easier solution: the supermodel apron.

Fuel the flames of fantasy without burning any sensitive bits. Tomato and basil pasties leave a little to the imagination too.

erototoxins
yes, erototoxins
it's a sciencishy word, cause it's got all those o's in there. erototoxin.
so bad, it even subverts the first amendment:

An offensive strategy should be planned, mandating law enforcement collection of all pornography data at crime sites and judges, police, lawyers and law schools should receive training in the hard data of sexology fraud and erototoxins as changing brains absent informed consent.... Congress should also remove the authority of so-called sexology institutes--most of whom are pornography grantees--to confer professional credentials and serve as expert witnesses.... Thanks to the latest advances in neuroscience, we now know that pornographic visual images imprint and alter the brain, triggering an instant, involuntary, but lasting, biochemical memory trail, arguably, subverting the First Amendment by overriding the cognitive speech process.

The internet is dangerous because it removes the inefficiency in the delivery of pornography, making porn much more ubiquitous than in the days when guys in trench coats would sell nudie postcards, Satinover said. source

What's this?

Remember when mom would tell you how filthy money was?

Too bad you didn't have a bar of this soap at hand to show her.

It's real soap - but wait, there's more!

In the center is cold, hard - well, by the time you get to it it'll probably be warm, soft, and soapy, but no matter - cash.

Yes, there's a prize, "guaranteed to be one of the following: a real $1, $5, $10, $20, or even a $50 bill!"

Well, what's it gonna be?

Are you feeling lucky?

$10.98 here.

"This article describes an attempt to make artificial (plastic) 'shells' to be left on the beach for wild hermit crabs. 30% of hermit crabs have shells that are too small for them, and must often resort to using refuse for housing."
Link to The Hand Up Project: Attempting to Meet the New Needs of Natural Life-Forms