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10 SF Concepts Ruined by Human Nature
Alien Relationships If there’s one thing humankind is known for it’s tolerance. Except for how the exact opposite is true. A sure fire way to get a bug in someone’s ass, other than with a speculum and generous amounts of lubricant is to present to them something they find unnatural. While Star Trek would have…
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How to Build a Wimshurst Influence Machine
Jake von Slatt at the Steampunk Workshop wrote an article for MAKE Magazine describing how to build a Wimshurst Influence Machine (an electrostatic generator) out of easily-obtainable materials. He’s re-posted the article at his site, so we can all pretend to be mad scientists.* Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 *Or…
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It’s Like Julie and Julia with Phasers
My Star Trek Year follows the efforts of a “lapsed Star Trek fan” to watch every episode of all of the ST series plus all the films and also immerse himself in other assorted ST paraphernalia (like reading the novels), all in the course of one year. I am not a geek. I swear I’m…
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Science Marches On
Surgery to create an artificial hymen and “restore” virginity has been around for a while now and is particularly popular in Japan. Now the Japanese have devised an even cheaper alternative: A $14.99 gadget which is inserted about 20 minutes before intercourse. It expands to create a “tight feeling” and releases a blood-like fluid. Traditional…
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The Bloggage of the Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle site takes entries from Charles Darwin’s daily journal and posts them as blog entries, including pictures and maps. The day has passed delightfully. I have been wandering by myself in a Brazilian forest: amongst the multitude it is hard to say what set of objects is most striking; the general…
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DNA Sequencing Made Easy
Gene sequencing has been in the news a lot lately (in fact, an international team has just cracked the potato genome), and Ars Technica has posted the first of what they promise will be a series of articles on the basics of DNA sequencing. Link
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Cosmos Remixed
Lyrics: [Sagan] If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch You must first invent the universe Space is filled with a network of wormholes You might emerge somewhere else in space Some when-else in time The sky calls to us If we do not destroy ourselves We will one day venture to the…
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The Day the Death Star Went Down
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars, where many of the comments are highly entertaining)
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Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager
I’m not sure how these escaped my notice until now, but there’s a whole series of short videos featuring Darth Vader’s younger brother Chad, who’s a day shift manager of a grocery store. Episode 1 is below. The rest are available on Chad’s YouTube Channel. (Also I’m not sure why I’ve suddenly got a Star…
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Star Non-Violent Resistance
Star Wars as environmentalist manifesto, using eco-tourism to establish independence from the Empire. I’m really enormously taken with the idea of Darth Vader having to file environmental impact statements. (via BoingBoing)