Genetic
modification has produced
fluorescent
potatoes that signal when they need watering.
Genetic
modification has produced
fluorescent
potatoes that signal when they need watering.
An
animation
of a dymaxion map. More pretty than useful, but definitely pretty.
In Java; the base page also has QuickTime versions and the source
code.
The August
11 solar eclipse through a variety of
pinhole
cameras in European churches. The pinhole cameras were built, if I
read this right, to help determine true local noon, and someone
asked the churches to take these pictures during the eclipse. The
text is almost entirely in Italian, but the pictures--mostly of
the partially eclipsed Sun--are worth
looking at even if you don't read Italian.
Like most
multiple-choice personality tests, this
Machiavelli personality test
is more amusing than insightful, but it is entertaining.
A brief
article on
the
myth of 'standard' and 'substandard' language and its political
and social uses. There's nothing here to surprise a linguist--that,
in fact, is part of the author's point.
Flying south
with sandhill cranes: a diary with some nice photos.
Howard
Rheingold on the
methodological and other flaws
of most of the studies claiming that people are "addicted" to the
Internet. He points out that the idea started as a joke, and
then people started taking it seriously.
Semi-random
poetry:
Icon Poet
online lets you choose kinds of words--such as "adjective,"
"verb," or "degree"--or specific words like "I" and "when"
to create poems. It comes with a "submit" button if you want to
give them your creation to post; there's no explicit "save," but
you can always copy the text and paste it to a file. [Requires
JavaScript]
There's
something eerie about a
total
solar eclipse as seen from above.
A handy
guide to
apple
varieties,
including when they're harvested and which ones keep well. [via
Looka!]
There are
two varieties of yellow toadflax (a.k.a. butter-and-eggs),
The Earth
hums,
very quietly but constantly. Geologists don't know why: one theory is
that it could be picking up vibrations from the atmosphere.
Despite the
label, this
disclaimer
may not be quite standard, but it's certainly thorough.
Batteries not included.
A new angle
on the overuse of antibiotics:
"Respect
and love your own bacteria. Don't try to swap them for anyone
else's."
For all you
rogue and nethack players, some pictures of
slime molds,
specifically snow-dwelling slime molds.
The vendor
thinks of these as "promotional opportunities," but I happen
to know that they're great toys:
radio-controlled
inflatable blimps, available in your choice of white or silver.
A new
Homo erectus skull unlike any previously known has
iurned up
in a Manhattan bone and fossil shop, Maxilla and Mandible.
Luckily, researchers were able to identify its
origin (important for scientific study), and the shop-owner has
given it to the Indonesian government. The braincase suggests
greater linguistic ability than in other H. erectus specimens.
"I have two relationships with the outside
world: One is with my hair, and the other
is with the rest of me." Veronica Chambers on her
dreadlocks.
Americans
are
working
longer hours than anyone else in the industrialized world--and
it isn't leading to higher productivity. Happy Labor Day!
I'll stay
home, thanks: a compilation of
amusement
ride accident reports. Unsurprisingly, most of the
accidents seem to involve roller coasters; the carousel is
probably safe.
Christopher
Hitchens praises
polarization
and points out the dangers of the muddle-headed avoidance of
controversy and divisiveness. [found in
Arts and
Letters Daily]
A gallery of
photos
of the 1998 Canadian ice storm. A year and a half later, on a
warm summer day, they're beautiful, and far less frightening than
they must have been at the time.
The fast way
to plant trees:
drop the saplings from airplanes. The promoters claim they
could plant 900,000 trees a day, in any basically unforested areas,
such as the Scottish hills.
David Roy makes
kinetic
sculptures, abstract wooden carvings powered by springs or
electricity. I can't afford one, but I enjoy visiting them in
local galleries from time to time.
Mostly for
the amusement value: how to use a
New York
subway map as a Fahrenheit-Celsius converter.
A Martian
mound may be a
stromatolite,
a mound left behind by ancient bacteria.
Marylaine Block
reflects on the
meaning
of bookmarks. As a librarian, she's seen more of other people's
abandoned bookmarks than most of us ever will.
Hydropower
is generally considered environmentally clean--but drowning
forests for reservoirs that feed hydro plants produces
large amounts of
carbon
monoxide and methane, both greenhouse gases.
For all you
advice-column fans out there, this week's Onion features
Ask
a Conspiracy Theorist, addressing readers' questions about
relationships.
Also in this
week's Onion is a preview of the upcoming
Los
Angeles earthquake, expected to be "the biggest thing to hit
this town in a long, long time." The story combines geology with
show biz and describes the quake as a "major motion event."
Preliminary
research suggests that
parasitic
worms may protect against autoimmune diseases. The underlying
theory is that, lacking alien organisms to deal with, the human
immune system sometimes goes after the normal, helpful gut
bacteria, and then overreacts, attacking the person's own
organs as well. As a test, the researchers gave half a dozen
patients with autoimmune diseases doses of pig parasites, with
excellent results. Controlled trials
are still in the future, and the researchers are carefully not
naming the worms they worked with--they don't want anyone trying
this outside a medical setting, although all six of the patients
in the first study were helped significantly.
Copyright 1999 Vicki Rosenzweig. Comments welcome at vr@interport.net.
If you like this, you might also like my home page.