Category: links

A bit more on Electron Boy – Major blub warning.

Neil Gaiman feels like a political football – and after reviewing the facts, I don’t blame him. There’s also a link from that post to the comments from a BoingBoing post about this. Cory Doctorow’s spot on as far as I’m concerned. I read over most of the rest of the comments, and man… I’m starting to think there’s really something to the conception that scifi/fantasty fandom has more than its fair share of entitled brats.

Doubt is cast on many reports of food allergies – I thought this was quite interesting, since I’ve been (quietly, since I’m not expert) doubtful about the perceived massive leap in food allergies in recent years. Mostly because a lot of it smells a bit… naturopathic¹. Also, I found the bit about IgE antibody tests interesting, since I recently had one that showed some antibodies for shellfish and milk, though I’ve never been allergic to either of those.

1 – Money quote:

Because of the inflammation, the lining of the gastrointestinal tract can develop little openings that bits of undigested or partially digested food can pass through. This is referred to as “leaky gut syndrome.” When these particles enter the bloodstream, the body’s immune system recognizes them as foreign and attacks them. Thus, an immune response is initiated at this point, but it is still not identified as a true food allergy.

Partially digested food floating around in my bloodstream WHAT?

Caterpillar that takes over ant colonies – these guys aren’t quite as creepy as the wasps that turn caterpillars in to zombies or botflies, but they’re up there on the list.

Green “Volcano” to power UK town – it’s not actually green in color, and it’s not actually a volcano, but this is a pretty cool idea for an alternative energy power plant.

Study asks if mom and dad are the best match for children – This was something that just plagued the Prop 8 trial, this notion that it’s a mommy and a daddy or else.

Another reason to love Mark Twain – he wrote a nasty, nasty letter to a snake oil peddler. Now he was a man that knew how to wed clever and nasty like chocolate and peanut butter.

Well, it’s Wednesday, which is the one day a week I said I’d get a post on the blog, hell or high water, rain or shine. Except today I have a cold and feel just ghastly. So have a couple extremely lame links, since they’re quick and mean I can go meld with the couch again.

Odds of being a terrorism victim on a flight – a beautiful and also very hilarious infographic via Boing Boing. And while we’re talking terrorism on flights, I would also like to point toward Bruce Schneier’s op-ed on CNN about the topic. Which is more serious and less hilarious, but still interesting.

Doctor Who bingo cards for part two of “The End of Time” – Part one didn’t really knock my socks off, but I’m still excited about part two because there appear to be Time Lords, funny hat/shoulder/whatever things included. And Timothy Dalton.

A quick hit about ocean acidification from National Geographic – because this post needed a buzzkill.

Have a lovely Wednesday. I’ll go snot elsewhere now.

The periodic table of elements has never looked so tasty.

The same sex marriage debate, greatly simplified. – Thank you, PZ. I laughed a lot.

Reading Rogue – a series of blog entries by a man heroically taking the bullet and reading Going Rogue and blogging about it. Entertaining, yet I fear for his sanity.

Before I go scooting out the door for school.

Koreans make plastics without fossil fuel chemicals – I’m waiting for the E. coli strain that will vacuum my floor for me. Oh bacteria, is there anything you can’t do once properly tinkered with?

Trailblazing: Three and a half centuries of Royal Society publishing – From the Royal Society (the UK’s equivalent of the NAS) there’s an array of historic and important papers from its 350 years of publishing online for our perusal. Very, very cool stuff.

Balloon Boy’s Dad — Not Smart, Not Funny – Well, we already knew that Heene was a total crank after his balloon hoax where he tried to prostitute his young son to the media in a bid to get his own reality show. Apparently he’s a racist, too. Just when we thought we couldn’t get less classy than a six-year-old barfing on national TV…

Many cool things that require little comment today.

Eric Lusito – After the Wall: Traces of the Soviet Empire. Link via io9. Haunting pictures of the modern, skeletal remains of Soviet Russia.

Dwarf Goat More Reptile Than Mammal. They apparently were doing just fine in their little evolutionary niche… until they ran in to us. That’s what they get for tasting so good.

Crocodile Gets F***ed Up by Angry Hippos. Not the real title of the article, but accurate. And scary. Really scary. I will never forgive Disney for their lies in the original Fantasia.

Many scientific experts say using Mayan end-is-near calendar is off base. Just another good anti-2012 nonsense article. And I linked to it because I’m an unabashed Phil Plait fangirl.

The Going Rogue Index. The unauthorized index of Sarah Palin’s book by Slate. It made me giggle. And the single sentence from the book they included certainly made me feel better about myself as a writer. I still wish that woman would just go away, though.

Presidential election outcome changed voters’ testosterone – people are getting an immature giggle out of this one, since it just begs for jokes about Obama unmanning the opposition. I think it’s more an interesting look at the effects of perceived defeat, rather than a chance to meditate on how Obama is a psychologically castrating force for conservatives.

Discovery of the Largest Orbweaving Spider Species: The Evolution of Gigantism in Nephila – Very cool stuff about spider evolution. io9 has a really neat gallery of pictures of the species.