I have been typing dirty words and body parts into Google Patents for some time now, trying to decide what to order. Please point out to me your favorite patent illustrations. For example... I'm afraid I will be paralyzed by choice like I was when trying to decide which velvet painting to commission...

Current Music: Laurie Anderson -- Big Science
Tags: art, mad science, perversions, retrocomputing

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Несколько слов о представляемом предмете . Сейчас это называют стимпанком . Но это определение стиля в данный момент не совсем верно ,я бы предпочел называть это техноромантизмом .
Представляемая штуковина изготовлена без всякого заказу . и без идеи продать ее . эта хрень не разборная и довольно крупная . блестит поскрипывает и машет крыльями если ее катить перед собой . выглядит забавно и в движении и просто так .
некие дизайнерские задачи ставились. например вписать ручку в конструкцию так чтоб она не торчала чужеродным элементом . уделить внимание виду сзади подчеркнуть детскость предмета и тд .
Продолжение серии “НАСТОЯЩИЕ ИГРУШКИ ”

в принципе я доволен . редко когда удается сделать вещь просто так - не вникая в то сколько она должна стоить и когда надо ее закончить .

Tags: Новости

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http://goatsend.blogspot.com/2009/12/ministrys-later-forays-into-anti-bush.html

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Rabbits Milked for Human Protein

Pharming has been milking rabbits experimentally for years, and recently developed a drug called Rhucin from the rabbit milk-derived C1 inhibitor protein. If the drug is approved in Europe, Pharming would start milking a herd of about a thousand rabbits.

The rabbits are milked using mini pumping machines that attach to the female rabbits' teats. The method "can roughly be compared to cow milking, but of course on a smaller scale," de Vries said. And like dairy cows, the rabbits stay relaxed and appear to suffer no discomfort during milking.

Gene Doctors Milk Mice; Yield Human Breast Milk Protein

Thanks to human genes spliced into their genome, the mice are the first genetically modified animals to produce lactoferrin. This human breast milk protein protects babies from viruses and bacteria while the infants' immune systems are still developing.

To milk mice, the research team had to anaesthetize the rodents and use specially adapted pumps fitted to their tiny teats.

Previously, previously.

Current Music: Gram Rabbit -- Something Fuzzy
Tags: boobs, monkeybutter, mutants, parts

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http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/12/02/kwaidan/

http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=6426

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904), a book by Lafcadio Hearn retelling Japanese ghost stories. Later an incredible film by Masaki Kobayashi and a drawing by Vania Zouravliov.

Kwaidan (aka Kaidan; 1964).

Kwaidan by Vania Zouravliov (no date).

• Kwaidan, Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn with an introduction by Oscar Lewis (1932).

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The art of Bertha Lum, 1869–1954
• The Boy Who Drew Cats
• The art of Takato Yamamoto

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http://markvanname.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-do-you-react.html

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Current Mood: ....calm.
Current Music: Tom Waits - Singapore (live)
Tags: honeydew, the glamour!

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http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2009/12/pinker-round-two-.html

In Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, Stephen Pinker responds to my description of him as occupying the  “lonely ice floe of IQ fundamentalism”:

What Malcolm Gladwell calls a “lonely ice floe” is what psychologists call “the mainstream.” In a 1997 editorial in the journal Intelligence, 52 signatories wrote, “I.Q. is strongly related, probably more so than any other single measurable human trait, to many important educational, occupational, economic and social outcomes.” Similar conclusions were affirmed in a unanimous blue-ribbon report by the American Psychological Association. . .

A few things here are worth mentioning:

First, the editorial in question made a number of other arguments that, I think, most observers would agree fall on one end of the nature-nurture continuum: that all IQ tests measure the same thing, that heredity is more important that environment in determining it, that group differences are relatively unaffected by schooling or socioeconomic factors. It also said that the IQs of different races cluster at different points, with the average IQ of blacks falling about a standard deviation lower than that of whites, and that these differences show no sign of converging over time.

Second, two thirds of the editorial board of the journal Intelligence declined to sign the statement.

Third, the statement originally appeared on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal in 1994, explicitly in defense of “The Bell Curve,” a book whose supporters are typically quite happy to call one of the most controversial books of the past 25 years.

Fourth, fifteen of 52 signatories to the Wall Street Journal statement have had their research supported by the Pioneer Fund. For those who have not heard about the Pioneer Fund, here is a brief description of its history from “The Pioneer Fund: Bankrolling the Professors of Hate,” by the historian Adam Miller:

In 1937 the Pioneer Fund was founded by Wiclife Draper, whose New England textile fortune started the fund's endowment and helps finance it today. Harry Laughlin, the first president of the fun, was a well-known eugenicist who in 1924 was instrumental in pushing through legislation blocking U.S. Entry to Jews fleeing pograms in Russia. Before Congress he testified that IQ data proved that 83 percent of Jewish immigrants were born feeble-minded and therefore were a threat to the nation's economy and genetic makeup. Laughlin subsequently lobbied to keep those barriers in place, successfully cutting off sanctuary for Jews seeking refuge from the Third Reich.

    In 1922, Laughlin also wrote the Model Eugenical Sterilization Law which was adopted in one form or another by 30 states and resulted in the forced sterilization of tens of thousands of people in the United States.

    Among the fifteen Pioneer Fund-sponsored signatories were Arthur R. Jensen (who has cited the heritability of IQ to argue against interventions to boost academic performance of minorities), J. Philippe Rushton (who, since 2002, has been the president of the Pioneer Fund, and who has argued that the size of what he terms the “Negroid brain” is inversely related to that of the Negroid penis); Rushton's colleague Douglas Jackson (best known for arguing that men are significantly more intelligent than woman), and Seymour Itzkoff (a eugenicist who holds that blacks and whites have such distinct evolutionary histories as to belong to different subspecies).

Fifth, the APA’s own report on the subject,“Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns,” which Pinker suggests is in sympathy with his position, was largely directed against IQ fundamentalism.  For example, it noted that IQ results correlated well with total years of education—in part because high scorers receive encouragement, and are placed in "college preparatory" classes where their peers provide encouragement, too. The amount of education someone receives then itself has an effect on social status. ("In summary, intelligence test scores predict a wide range of social outcomes with varying degrees of success. Correlations are highest for educational achievement, where they account for about a quarter of the variance.") The paper points out that one reason intelligence scores predict occupational level is that "admission to many professions depends on test scores in the first place," and also explores the evidence that "workplaces may affect the intelligence of those who work in them." It delves into the Flynn effect, and the various possible explanations for it; and suggests that what little evidence is available "fails to support the genetic hypothesis" for the black/white differential in psychometric scores.

I don’t mean to suggest that Professor Pinker agrees with the more eccentric positions of the some of the 52 signatories. (Though the Pioneer Fund website does describe one of his books as a “must read”; the New Yorker, where I work, was less generous). The fact that ideas are sometimes supported by people with unsavory connections does not make them invalid. An ice floe is not necessarily a bad place to be. It’s just that if you are plainly floating on one, it doesn’t make much sense to insist that you are standing on solid ground.

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http://www.tiltfactor.org/?p=1390

Tonight, Kathe Kollwitz of the Guerrilla Girls joined the variable_d salon to discuss activism in a digital age. Formed in 1985, the artists assumed the names of dead women artists and wore gorilla masks in public, concealing their identities and focusing on the issues rather than their tastes adn personalities. Between 1985 and today, over 100 women, working collectively and anonymously, have produced posters, billboards, public actions, books and other projects bring gender issues to the forefront of public debate and discussion.

Our variable_d discussion centered around questions of anonymity, data, inequity, and strategy. How the group arrived at decisions, consensus, and maintained confidentiality were all subjects for lively debate. Ms. Kollwitz noted that at times, one will simply not know if something is an effective approach until she tries it. All the planning in the world can enter into a campaign, but it is always a little bit surprising what connects with people, and what does not. She suggests, “Try it!”

The DIALOGUES are student-conducted interviews and conversations with leading artists, scientists, and scholars of our time with the support of the Digital Humanities initiative. The conversations are digitally mediated via SKYPE software and held in the context of the weekly digital salon at Tiltfactor.

Professors Flanagan and Evens hosted at Dartmouth College.

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http://www.tiltfactor.org/?p=1385

Tiltfactor explores human values in games and in the game design process. Some of these values include things like sharing, loyalty, privacy, and cooperation. Often, these values are necessary for altruistic acts to occur.  Looking at the evolutionary roots for altruism, however, Dr. Michael Tomasello, a developmental psychologist, studied how 18 month old children will automatically assist an adult who needs help opening a door. This behavior seems to arise earlier than most children are taught to be polite, suggesting that there is a natural inclination to help embedded within the human spirit. Read the November NY Times article, and
look at Tomasello’s book Why We Cooperate, with Carol Dweck, Joan Silk, Brian Skyrms and Elizabeth Spelke.

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http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/12/spice_flow_the_new_.html

Forensic Science International recently published an eye-opening study on a new generation of synthetic cannabinoids that have become popular as 'legal highs', provided by a highly organised neuroscience-savvy industry that is ready and waiting with new compounds before the law changes.

The study concerns several legal smoking mixtures, 'Spice' being the most well-known (pictured), which were recently found to contain synthetic cannabinoids.

Cannabinoids are named for their abundance in the cannabis plant, but this class of substance also naturally occurs in the nervous system as part of the normal biological signalling system. In fact, the street drug cannabis has its effect because its various cannabinoids, the most famous being THC, target one or more of the brain's cannabinoid receptors.

Marijuana and its derivatives are illegal in most countries but the brain's cannabinoid system is complex and so it is possible to synthesise other types of drugs in the same class as the plant's active ingredients, which target the same receptor sites, that have similar effects, but which are completely legal.

Although officially labelled as incense and not for human consumption, Spice was typically marketed as one of the many 'herbal smoking mixtures' which traditionally have been sold in head shops on the basis of their druggy associations despite having no psychoactive effects to speak of.

However, this brand became wildly popular and in 2008 scientific analysis found that it also contained the synthetic cannabinoids CP 47,497-C8 and JWH-018 which are structurally similar to THC.

I can't imagine what it was like when this was first discovered. It reminds me of the hair bristling moment in movies when the scientists discover that some form of ultra-advanced technology is behind a spate of odd occurrences.

You see, drugs like speed, heroine, cocaine and ecstasy require legally controlled raw materials but the processing stage is low-tech. That's why some types of speed are called 'bathtub crank', because some of it is literally synthesised in a bathtub, as images of meth lab busts illustrate.

But this is not the case with cannabinoids which require a complex and careful lab process with many stages and sometimes the separation of mirror image molecules (enantiomers) from each other as only one of the 'reflections' is desirable.

These are not trivial process. They can't be done in back rooms and they can't be done by amateurs.

What's more, these aren't just copy-cat syntheses done by your average underground lab who know the illicit process and just want to recreate it. These are new compounds, perhaps reported only a handful of times in the scientific literature and selected for their specific effect on the brain.

The authors of the Forensic Science International paper note "It is evident that the producers of these products have gone about in a very methodical manner to mine the scientific literature for promising psychoactive compounds. Most likely the published CB1 binding affinities were exploited as primary criterion."

CB1 is a specific type of cannabinoid receptor and is the one most activated by THC, the principal active ingredient in marijuana, and it seems the producers were making their selections based on their knowledge of neuroscience and psychopharmacology.

Several countries have now banned, or are in the process of banning, the synthetic cannabinoids found in Spice and related products. In fact, Germany was particularly quick off the mark and outlawed the products in January 2009.

Now this is where it gets interesting because the researchers note that a new product appeared on the market, containing JWH-073 - another synthetic cannabinoid, within four weeks of the ban. JWH-073 has similar similar effects, but isn't covered by the law and so remains legal.

The speed at which it appeared suggests that it had been selected and synthesised in advance, in anticipation of the ban:

Our analysis demonstrated that just 4 weeks after the prohibition took effect a multitude of second generation products were flooding the market. The speed of introduction of new products and the use of JWH-073 as a substitute for JWH-018 not only showed that the producers are well aware of the legal frameworks, but that they likely anticipated the prohibition and already had an array of replacement products on hand (JWH-073-positive products are still available on the German market; last checked: June 5th, 2009).

In other words, the legal high industry is packing neuroscientists and heavyweight lab pharmacologists. It is no longer just head-shop hippies repackaging obscure psychoactive and barely recreational plants as a poor substitute for street drugs. The legal high industry has become professionalised.

Seemingly based on the model of the pharmaceutical industry, it is becoming science-led, regulation savvy and is out-manoeuvring the authorities well before they catch up.

To use drug war terminology, it's an interesting new front because the producers are not trying to evade capture, they're using the agility of science of evade regulation.

Link to PubMed entry for Forensic Science International paper.
Link to .rar archive with pdf of full text inside (weird huh? via Google)
Link to good EMCDDA page on synthetic cannabinoids.

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http://www.weirdvibrations.com/2009/12/01/children-are-our-future-audiences/

http://www.weirdvibrations.com/?p=670

One of the buzz safety issues this holiday shopping season is toy volume.

A quick walk through any store targeted to people twenty or younger – in other words, almost any store – reveals the importance of emphatic sensory appeal to product value, especially for toys and games. The best-selling holiday items are often outfitted with literal bells and whistles, or the 21st century equivalent.

This has perpetrated something of an arms race among toy manufacturers. It’s not unheard of, according to some reports, for holiday toys aimed at children younger than three to reach 115 decibels or higher. The risk of hearing loss is made worse, many note, because children have short arms, and generally play with their toys at a very close distance. For accuracy, decibel measurements thus must be taken from just a few inches away. Children also have smaller ear canals, which make them more susceptible to auditory damage even after a few seconds of listening.

Here is the Sight and Hearing Association’s top offender from 2008, the Shake ‘N Go, a toy car that reaches 120.8 db, in action.

The United States issues recommendations for toy volume, but compliance is voluntary. Canada has stricter regulations, but many toys surge past the limits anyway. A number of independent tests quoted in news stories found that well over half of popular holiday toys significantly exceeded guidelines or recommendations.

–

The research in audiology is conclusive: children experience real risk by playing with loud toys. Hearing loss, especially at a young age, is not only inconvenient, but a demonstrable impediment to learning. There is a definite need for regulation that would limit these harmful effects.

Toys are loud because it’s profitable, and so in a sense necessary, to make them that way. We’ve discussed in this space a certain general trend toward greater silence in product manufacture, as a way to signify modern and especially “green” technology. But such a shift has hardly taken effect among children’s toys. One can see the stirrings, however, of a kind of elite response, underwritten by boutiqueish nostalgia, for playthings that would never blare out music or canned phrases. When I (b. 1980) was little, interactive educational toys were de rigueur among concerned parents; adjusted for the volume demands of the contemporary marketplace, would these still even qualify as safe?

With respect to noise, toys are in the same ironic position as most consumer goods. Even once sound became too loud for political comfort, industry couldn’t turn down the volume on consumer taste. Niche markets, ostensibly healthier for our ears, began to develop, but these are an incomplete solution, because they stigmatize noise rather than diminishing it. Meanwhile, those who consume “mass market” goods (i.e. the most affordable offerings), through no fault of their own, put their children in a disadvantaged position.

There is a clear burden on government to introduce significant regulation. But we should also recognize that the origin of the problem is deep-seated.

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trillian_stars

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: imogen heap: little bird

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http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/12/01/albert-einstein-as-youve-almost-certainly-never-seen-him-before/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=9225

Physics professor and friend of Whatever Chad Orzel ran a fundraiser for science education a few weeks ago and promised if certain financial goals were met that he would re-enact the quantum physics debate between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr using puppets. Well, the goals were met, and Chad, a man of his word, has the re-enactment up on his blog. Because Niels Bohr puppets are in tragically short supply, however, Chad improvised, substituting dog puppets for the eminent scientists. Which makes it even better.

I’ll note, incidentally, that Chad’s upcoming book How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is getting great reviews, and will be featured here in a Big Idea later in the month. Here’s the book’s Web site, in case you can’t wait.

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Current Music: Ethyl Meatplow -- Queenie
Tags: perversions

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The footage and Linnman's report made the evening news and eventually found its way into the national media, something that only earned him $90 extra bucks and $110 for Brazil "because he had a better union than I did apparently."

"When it airs now, it's kind of tough for me to watch. I don't think it's that good and I've got four grown sons who are able to repeat any part of that story word for word and they do so frequently just to bug me," Linnman said with a laugh.

Current Music: Whale -- I'll Do Ya
Tags: doomed, mpegs, parts

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/uIZwT8hBZeI/

http://mutateweb.com/?p=8630

Now that the comics industry has overtaken film, its outstanding writers are starting to step up to the biopic bar. Subversive brainiac Grant Morrison is up next, with a dedicated documentary due in time for next year’s Comic-Con International.

“He has an uncanny ability to tell stories that are both accessible and progressively avant-garde,” explained indie director Patrick Meaney, whose untitled Grant Morrison documentary, previewed in the exclusive clips above and below, will analyze the writer’s storied run for Marvel and DC Comics on standout titles like The Invisibles, X-Men and Final Crisis as well as more esoteric series like The Filth and Flex Mentallo.

Wired: Grant Morrison documentary due by next year’s Comic-Con International

Related posts:

1. Grant Morrison’s International Guide To Living Fabulously
2. New Grant Morrison interview (updated 2/18/00)
3. Grant Morrison discusses upcoming Superman project

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http://feeds.infosthetics.com/~r/infosthetics/~3/YlA2eiWBWb4/who_lives_where_income_demographics_versus_rent_in_nyc.html

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2009/12/who_lives_where_income_demographics_versus_rent_in_nyc.html

The slick interactive map titled Envisioning Development: What is Affordable Housing? [envisioningdevelopment.net] solves the questions "Who lives where?" and "Who can afford to live here?".

Users are able to select individual neighborhoods in New York City and investigate the number of families in each income category on an animated bar-graph-like construct at the bottom of the page. Selecting the question 'Who can afford to live here?' allows for the exploration of more detailed rent price information.

Housing is 'affordable' if one spends 30% or less of income on rent or mortgage payments.

See also Social Explorer. Via @DataMasher.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/T_2Coj3vv4o/

http://mutateweb.com/?p=8628

President Obama’s brief proclamation of Thanksgiving Day on November 26 was unique among all recorded Thanksgiving proclamations by his predecessors: it is the first one that fails to directly acknowledge the existence of God. [...]

Obama’s unprecedented proclamation, however, only makes indirect mention of God by quoting George Washington, stating: “Today, we recall President George Washington, who proclaimed our first national day of public thanksgiving to be observed ‘by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.’”

The proclamation goes on to call Thanksgiving Day “a unique national tradition we all share” that unites people as “thankful for our common blessings.”

“This is a time for us to renew our bonds with one another, and we can fulfill that commitment by serving our communities and our Nation throughout the year,” it continues.

All other presidential Thanksgiving proclamations directly refer to “God,” “Providence,” or another appellation for the divine being.

Lifesite News: Obama Makes History: Thanksgiving Proclamation First Ever to Omit Direct Mention of God

(via Accelerating Future)

Related posts:

1. Obama orders air strikes on villages in tribal area
2. Birther Site Is Already Lying About Ft. Hood Shooter and Obama
3. How to Make Barack Obama Keep His Promises

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takaza

Current Location: Volo, IL
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: William Coulter - Rain Into Snow
Tags: birthday

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