Parasite Rex?
Has <I>Toxoplasma gondii</I> affected human culture? Maybe so, claims Kevin Lafferty. Toxoplasma guru Karl Zimmer points us toward Lafferty's just published paper and tells us what to look for.
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New York Spo-Dee-O-Dee
Just prior to the morning hour at which most liquor stores open, Don Byron and I are sitting outdoors at a sidewalk cafe on a steamy Park Avenue South (Technology Gulch)when a scene breaks out on the sidewalk.
Byron (head turns and he murmurs): "Oh my god."
A stringy–haired, smelly, obviously intoxicated woman staggers after a younger, taller man who's also worse for wear, and hollers in a drunken growl: "I got my own phone now. Yes it is. It works you used it."
Byron (laughing): "It's the metropolitan wino scene. You know what I mean? You know the scene in Firenze, now here it is in New York. It has all the elements: the dirty clothes, the ruddy skin, the formaldehyde lips."
Dare to be Dumb!
Feel confused by the pace of scientific progress? Ah grasshopper, that is but the first step on the path to enlightenment.
Not Another List!
Yup, but this five book list of technological books that matter from the <I>WSJ</I> is a corker. The only book on it that I've read in Dava Sobel's superb <I>Longitude</I>, but if the others match it for page-turning readability, I'll hoover 'em all up.
Not a Comet!
I <I>love</I> NASA's <I>Astronomy Picture of the Day</I>, but today's image of a planetary nebula is spectacular even by <I>APOD</I>'s standards.
IBM's Primer on Quantum Teleportation
It <I>is</I> theoretically possible, but they'd have to destroy the original. You go first.
Girls Have Gotten Prettier
As my buddy Jeff and I were walking around the neighborhood recently, I was struck by how many drop-dead gorgeous high-school age girls there were. Feeling sort of dumb for asking, I said, "Is it my imagination or have girls gotten prettier since we were in high school?"
Continental Aikido
Conventional wisdom holds that continental strength relies upon the solidity of rock at a depth of 15km and that below that pressure and heat cause the rock to flow as liquid. Not so fast, say Klaus Regenauer-Lieb, Roberto F Weinberg, and Gideon Rosenbaum. Their new study says that "through dynamic interaction the strongest part becomes the weakest."
Red States, Blue States, Yellow States, Green States
The linguistic distribution of the generic names for soft drinks.
This Is Not My Jetpack
But the Ace Craft Gen H-4 personal helicopter is pretty darn cool. If you have a Y chromosome, I bet you want one, too.