India’s Voluntary Plague

Researchers are predicting that in the 2010’s India will suffer over 1 million deaths a year from . . . smoking.

One million.

It is truly remarkable that one single factor, namely smoking, which is entirely preventable, accounts for nearly one in ten of all deaths in India.

If those numbers don’t stagger you, then consider yourself unstaggerable. And ask yourself this: In all the conversations you’ve had about the future did anyone ever predict that in 2015 one million Indians would die from voluntary herbal poisoning?
Read the whole story here.

New Glue Does Whatever a Spider Can

from physorg

. . . or more accurately, whatever a gecko does, I guess, I mean who cares about accuracy in a post when I have magic glue that lets me climb up walls like Spiderman. They’re calling it “directional adhesive” and it looks like this way up close:

The adhesive sticks when it’s pulled along a surface but doesn’t stick when it’s lifted. So your hand wouldn’t slide down the wall but you could pull it free easily. Well, actually you could pull it off easily as long as you were able to lift your hand in a perpendicular line to the surface. If you were just hanging by one hand from a beam you’d be stuck there a while with no way to support your weight enough to pull your hand straight away. So you could climb up walls like a super mutant, but not across ceilings, and you sure wouldn’t want to high-five anyone as they passed by in a speeding train.

That being said however, the truly coolest application of this will be, finally, a great way to hang stuff on walls. Am I the only person disappointed by our civilization’s failure to find a better way to hang stuff on walls? It’s 2008 and I’m still worried about getting my deposit back on my apartment because I’m putting nails into drywall. I mean come on, Science, fix it! Oh wait, you just did.

Best Pull Quote of the Day:

This is a major milestone in the new field of gecko-inspired adhesives.

Click through for related video treats. You’ve earned it.

Innovation in Other Species

from sciencedaily

Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have released the first known photographs of gorillas performing face-to-face copulation in the wild. This is the first time that western gorillas have been observed and photographed mating in such a manner.

“Understanding the behavior of our cousins the great apes sheds light on the evolution of behavioral traits in our own species and our ancestors,” said Thomas Breuer, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

But the award for best pull quote goes to:

“It is also interesting that this same adult female has been noted for innovative behaviors before.”

Whatever, they can keep The Upright Missionary. I won’t be impressed until the gorillas figure out The Four Tongued Monkey. (I’m sorry.)

Winning the War on Sharks

from physorg.com

Fatal shark attacks worldwide dipped to their lowest levels in two decades in 2007 with the sole casualty involving a swimmer vacationing in the South Pacific, according to the latest statistics from the University of Florida.

USA!USA!USA! Boy, it feels good to win something.

Allow Me to Dork Out Over Complexity Theory For a Second

I was just reading an article in WIRED Science about how complexity theorists are pushing revisions to neo-Darwinist theory that better account for sudden advancements in early biological complexity, and it wasn’t long until I came across this gem of a passage that made me explode and get blood on all my stuff:

The jumps — saltations, in complexity parlance — appear to be non-linear emergent phenomena, the result of networked interactions that produce self-organization at ever higher levels. From this perspective, Darwinian evolution is a mechanism of a higher universal law, perhaps even a variant on the second law of thermodynamics.

And so I would like to say thank you to Brandon Keim, author of the article. Thanks Brandon, now there’s geek juice all over my keyboard. Thanks alot.

Augmented WoWality

from grinding.be

Even the most mundane possible application of augmented reality becomes beautifully surreal/real and really rather charming in a quick outing for coffee. What might just be a clever World of Warcraft gag becomes a micro-glimpse into a future where the data cloud is permanently wrapped around your optic nerve. If you’re going to be in New York in March maybe I’ll bump into you at Eyebeam.

Breakthrough in Drug Design

from PhysOrg.com

Scientists at UNC Chapel Hill have discovered a new and remarkable pathway to controlling cell function. It involves the ability to fiddle with “G-protein receptors” from within the cell instead of from outside, a drastic difference from almost all of modern medicine.

. . . reactions to everything from taste and smell to stimulants like adrenaline or caffeine requires G-protein signaling. More than half [!!!-Ed.] of all drugs, from asthma and heart medicine to antidepressants, target G-protein receptors. Discovering a protein that activates G-proteins from inside a cell could open up an entirely new pathway for drug development, said Henrik Dohlman, Ph.D., senior study author and a professor of biochemistry and biophysics in UNC’s School of Medicine.
“No drug is 100 percent effective, 100 percent free of side effects and 100 percent safe. The more options we have biochemically, the more selective we can be in designing new drugs. If we can find another way of modulating G-proteins, we could expand the drug targets that are available to pharmacology,” Dohlman said.

This brings us much closer to the age of drug design and further away from the age of pharmacology-by-trial-and-error.

Argh! I Can’t Breathe In This Thing.

from DVICE

The Use-Thing is designed to make the presence of a crowd a little more easier to bear for the horribly anti-social, and we’re betting it’ll do just that one way or another. Its designer, Guido Mamczur of Germany, intended it to simply block out the sound and sights of those awful people you’re forced to coexist with, but we’re betting folks will give a wide berth to the crazy ball-headed person walking down the street anyway. Both ways, you’re covered.

I think that helmet is big enough to count as architecture, right? Fill that thing with beer and television, and you may count me in for approximately five minutes. Then you may count me unconscious.

BOOM!

In a surprise twist, nuclear fusion has been upgraded from “20 years away” to “just around the fucking corner”.  Shortly after this story ran, however, Mr. van Lierop was last seen being herded into a large government building.  Chevron CEO David J. O’Reilly was quoted as saying “every couple of years you have these quacks coming around with their perpetual cold motion fusion whatevers screaming ‘oh look! free quantum energy!’ or some shit.  it won’t work.  just let us professionals worry about getting the good stuff in your SUV while you watch American Idol.”

s:1, n:1, o:3, p:1, d:1, g:2

yeah yeah this has been around for months, but i just discovered it at the beginning of the month and can’t think of a reason not to spread awareness of a truly majestic cultural artifact as far and wide as possible:

where to even start?
-Snoop Dogg has become a parody of a caricature of himself. seriously.
-This is the best appropriation of 70s culture I’ve ever seen.
-The song involves a keytar and a talk box (step aside, Frampton… or, should i say, nuzzle up? [nizzle up. heh heh. nizzle.]).
-Someone (his name rhymes with poop hog) approached a music video director and demanded something like “A flying circular bed, super-lo-fi-looking-hi-fi-radiation coming off my body, one of those crazy photobooth mirror tricks, and star wipes… lots and lots of star wipes.”
-For the first time in recorded history, Snoop Doog sings. And then he kicks a nasty flow.
-The original name of this song is “Sexual Eruption”, which apparently needed to be censored (wtf, America? wtf?! you ruin *everything*).
-Grammar is bent so violently that it still transmits meaning and maintains flawless aural candor, despite total syntactical incoherence.
-Did I mention the keytar?!

Just bask. Bask in the unbridled awesomeness that is the transcendent masterpiece of contemporary popular culture’s true arbiter.

for shizzle.

Eat me, Drink me

(from io9.com)

Imagine a world unlike any which you have ever conceived. The very motivations, values, and abilities you possess have been radically altered and the meaning of the world itself has been upended. Now imagine that this comes in easily consumable pill form…

As Alice stepped through the Looking Glass into a world which was alien to her, now we too may take this journey through our own minds. Science has now approached the event horizon of the mind, beyond which lies realities that challenge our definitions of being human. As we stand on the brink of an age of change that has the capability to shake the very foundations of civilization, we are now forced to consider the ethics and implications this change holds. Is it man’s right to change his nature? I, like many transhumanist progressives, argue that this is only a logical extension of our innate desire to evolve and improve. However, the Pandora’s Box before us is filled with more than just Hope. As was the case with unlocking the secrets of the atom, the ability to fundamentally alter people’s entire perception of reality has great promise but the potential for abuse is great and the implications dire. It is easy as a scientist or optimist to paint a picture of the future in which aliments are instantly, and permanently, alleviated, quality of life is greatly enhanced, and complex social challenges can be met and deftly conquered. But scientific knowledge is a tool just as surely as any we have developed in our long journey from tree to skyscraper. The knowledge that gives rise to the plowshare may also yield the sword and herein lies the challenge to the virtuous. The dark endgame of this toolset may be the construction of a society which is shaped, nay, engineered, by its craftsmen down to the most fundamental level of the soul towards serving the interests of those in whose hands these tools lie. This warning applies to many of the issues we face in this technological age. Unfortunately the diligence and effort required to educate oneself to the issues and their potential impact and the willingness to take a stand lies outside of the comfort zone of American Idol and Brittney Spears coverage. And thus we may find many have abdicated the shaping of their futures for the promises of chicken and security who will awaken one day to blindingly and unquestioningly love a mustachioed sibling.

No, women are not stupid.

Reuters reports that ASDA, Britain’s second-biggest food retailer and a Wal-Mart subsidiary, announced yesterday that it will end “one of the last prejudices” by charging the same rate across cup sizes for any given model of brassiere. Perhaps the store’s intentions are well-aligned in aiming to reduce the disparity between the financial burdens placed on women of varying ’sizes,’ but it seems to me but another swift sleight-of-hand distracting the universe from the ways in which women—as opposed to men—are socially encouraged (if not fully obliged) to spend an absurdly higher amount of money on beauty and sexual vanity products.

Examining just the Georges line sold by ASDA, bra prices range from £4-16 (appx. $8-32), which remain modest when compared to typical US prices for lingerie available at such outlets as Victoria’s Secret and Frederick’s of Hollywood. A comparable men’s product sold under the George brand offers six pairs of briefs or four pairs of boxers for $15.34.

Justice? Let’s not even get started on the thong business. Our solution? Bruno Banani for everyone.

I never knew there were so many penises in Star Wars…

(from DoubleViking)

There are few things on the Net quite as humorous as a vastly overdone analysis of geek-culture.  I mean, where else are you going to find people willing to metaphorically reference the Sarlacc pit as a huge, sandy vagina?  God bless this crazy series of tubes.

RadioWHATTHEFUCK?!?!!1!

• selling your album online at higher-than-iTunes quality for an individually-consumer-named price: subversive.
• selling that same album at starbucks: not metal.

so-po-mo? maybe: but i smell Coran Capshaw’s latte-and-One-Sweet-Whirled-drenched fingers all over this one… what’s next, a DJ Logic-authored remix of “Idioteque” and “Shine”? Sheesh.

Heath Ledger is Dead

It’s true     

Who let the uptight white guy out?

Gotta love it when politicians make that extra effort to connect with the voting public. It makes me wonder when he’s going to start referring to things with the article “the” (i.e. The Kids, The Rap, The Drugs). It’s just another example of a broken system giving us non-choices that don’t reflect the needs or the demographics of the people in general. Now I realize its hard (if not impossible) to give everyone what they want, but my question is: Who wants this? It doesn’t seem hard to image him wandering around post-Katrina, shirt sleeves rolled up to give the impression of the can-do work ethic, preaching about the need for compassion and how government contracts farmed out to the highest campaign contributor will ultimately help the afflicted. The only thing holding Romney back from slaughtering the other candidates at the polls is his religion (which is a stupid reason, remember JFK and Catholicism?) as he perfectly fits the modern Republican mold in every other way. At least he didn’t try to dance…yet.

just when you thought it was safe…

HOBOS WITH CHAINSAWS!

ok I couldn’t resist posting this one.  it makes me wonder what the wacky headlines of tomorrow will be.  “homeless man wielding fusion laser sheds light on housing problems downtown”  God the future is gonna be awesome.

Get In To My Individual Lifting Vehicle

. . . and Outta My Dreams. It comes as a kit and sells for $50,000. The manufacturers, Performance Aviation Manufacturing Group, are marketing it towards “law enforcement (border patrol), aerial photography, agriculture, and search and rescue (SAR) missions.”

50,000? Really? Wow. Fifty thousand. Remember those hovercraft kits made out of vacuum cleaner motors you could order out of the back of Boy’s Life? I always wanted one of those, but I don’t think I fifty thousand dollars wanted one, if you know what I mean.

Wait a minute. Law enforcement?! Really?! I guess we should laugh it up now before the shock troops descend from the sky, heavy with riot gear astride roaring airships of spinning death. I hope the older border patrol officers make the rookie border patrol officer shave with it.

“Come on, rookie, don’t be scared! You gotta get closer!”

“Guys, I don’t know if this is saaaaaAAAARGHFLARGthupthupthupthupthupthup.”

“Ahhhh, worth every penny.”

Fuck the planet: save the humans!

Here’s the trailer for a new series producer by the History channel entitled Life After People:

http://www.history.com/minisites/life_after_people

The show promises to be modestly interesting and features the work of several extraordinary artists and model makers (the bombed out cities, in particular, which are now being used to carry out the 21st century’s most epic Warhammer 40k campaigns, were probably constructed somewhere like this.), but the content of the show barely concerns me.

What does concern me, however, is a childhood chock full of Earth Days and Save the Planet rhetoric, which are deeply flawed in ways that I hope this show (and perhaps other cultural objects created in its spirit) will raise awareness about.

This rock has been here for—as far as we can tell—about 4.54 billion years. It’s been through some serious shit. Humanity and our trite smog and garbage don’t really compete with whatever the fuck knocked out the dinosaurs, or the formation of a breathable atmosphere, or a series of ice ages.

Earth will be just fine.

The real problem is that, if homo sapiens continue to live and produce as we do, this planet will be rendered uninhabitable to humans by the end of the century. It is my earnest hope (shared by many more scientifically advanced minds than my own) that technology will provide Christ-like salvation, either slowing and eventually stopping the environmental degradation that will be our demise, or simply terraforming Mars so we can all get the fuck off this piece and (hopefully) get shit right elsewhere.

Will someone please make me this t-shirt?

Fuck the planet: save the humans!

The Lego of Gadgets

BUG is a collection of easy-to-use electronic modules that snap together to build any gadget you can imagine. Each BUGmodule represents a specific gadget function (ex: a camera, a keyboard, a video output, etc). You decide which functions to include and BUG takes care of the rest letting you try out different combinations quickly and easily. With BUG and the integrated programming environment/web community (BUGnet), anyone can build, program and share innovative devices and applications. We don’t define the final products – you do.

This thing is so geek friendly they even have a special “Early Adopter” price. The motion sensor/accelerometer module is fifty bucks. Will anyone buy one and not take it apart?

title borrowed from CNET