The Americans are forever releasing bigger and supposedly better SUVs with ridiculous names like Warrior and MegaSuperHeManMobile, whereas the Russians don’t bother, largely because they’ve got nothing left to prove. Since creating the most bizarre and clearly superior all-terrain vehicle known to man, there’s precious little left to do except sit back and reap the kudos.
Via +megabunny
1 comment July 31st, 2007
In honour of our new-found readers directed from the pages of Arena magazine, here’s a story combining science and titillation. Not content with levitating small animals and creating pigeon cyborgs, Chinese scientists have laid waste to the 70 year old “alphabet” method of bra sizing, using three-dimensional scans of hundreds of women to perfect a system that would provide more comfortable bras. Writing in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, researchers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University stated that the existing system may be “inappropriate in the categorisation of breast sizes for bras”, and aim to increase the number of bra sizes by eight or sixteen combinations. SciencePunk predicts that, if shoes are anything to go by, women will still strap themselves into torturous brassiere for the benefit of us men. Sweet Schadenfreude!
1 comment July 29th, 2007
If anyone was in any doubt that SciencePunk is not a geeky repository of science angst but actually an über-hip commentary on the state of science today, look no further than this month’s issue of Arena magazine. Page 86 reveals sciencepunk.com is one of several “easy science sites to make you sound brainy”. Eat that, PZ Myers! Of course, the selection process must have been pretty slack as they also bestowed the same status on badscience.net, which everyone knows is a naked parody of the genius on display here.
2 comments July 29th, 2007
On this day in 1945: French engineer Louis Réard, along with fashion designer Jacques Heim, launch a new swimming costume, a two piece consisting of just 70cm2 of cloth. Réard named it after Bikini Atoll, a nuclear test site, hoping his invention would cause just as great a splash. The swimsuit was so scandalous that no model was willing to wear it onstage, so Réard hired Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris.
At least that’s the story. But Heim is also stated as Réard’s rival, and had released his own two-piece swimsuit, the Atome, two months earlier. To compound matters, not only are there images of two piece swimsuits in antiquity (Greek women being especially fond of them), but Réard and Heim almost certainly took their idea from local girls who were already fashioning their own home-made bikinis. On top of that, Dorothy Lamour appeared in a two piece swimsuit in the 1937 film Hurricane, which may well have been pushing the Hays Code ban on exposed navels as far as allowable. While sometimes derided as an instant failure, the fact that youths were already wearing these suggests it was simply a niche fashion until adopted by the cultural powerhouse that is the USA.
Originally I was only posting this for the notable science tie-in (and a gratuitous picture, I’d hoped), but it turned out for such a small piece of clothing, the bikini has a long and interesting history.
Add comment July 25th, 2007
Via BoingBoing: Caddis fly larvae usually form their protective sheaths by spinning silk with sand, minerals, plant particles, and bits of bone they find in their aquatic environments. French artist Hubert Duprat collects the larvae, carefully strips their shells, and then puts them in aquaria filled with stuff like pearls, rubies, gold, and diamonds. The larvae make new coverings out of these materials.
Add comment July 24th, 2007
A huge dust storm is threatening to starve the Mars rover Opportunity of much-needed sunlight, perhaps to the point where vital systems will shut down and NASA will be unable to revive the intrepid explorer. If you think the picture on the left looks awesome, like I did, then be disappointed to learn that it’s only an artist’s impression. The reality is below.
Link to NASA video (37 mb, Quicktime)
1 comment July 23rd, 2007
In a week where it turned out that most of parliament were pot-heads in their student days, we’ve been reminded that while journalists have a hard time getting things right, they have an even harder time separating meaningful data from nonsense when it comes to drugs. Usually the confusion is understandable - journalists simply don’t take the time to get their facts straight. Far more dubious is the release something that is so loaded with opinion, so utterly without balance, that it can only have been intentionally wrong - a story that was written in spite of the facts, rather than in support of them.
This was the case several months ago with the Independent on Sunday, when a paper that was traditionally level-headed on its approach to science suddenly plunged headlong into Daily Mail-esque ravings of youth corrupted into degenerate axe-wielding maniacs by super-strength cannabis.
You can read a thorough and entertaining debunking of the Independent on Sunday’s cannabis story over at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation. The key point is: even if cannabis is getting stronger, which no-one has proved, “da kids” will only smoke less. Whisky is 20 times stronger than lager, but it doesn’t come in pint glasses, see?
Anyway, now two months on since the IoS whipped its readers into a panic about the demon weed, feast your eyes on today’s story on page 15: “Debunked: politicians’ claim that cannabis has become stronger“. What? Here’s a choice quote:
“There has been a widespread assumption bandied about that the country is in the grip of an epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis”
Gee, I wonder where they got that idea? Luckily for us, nothing on the internet ever goes away, and the original IoS article is still online. Let’s have a quote.
“Robin Murray, professor of psychiatry at London’s Institute of Psychiatry, estimates that at least 25,000 of the 250,000 schizophrenics in the UK could have avoided the illness if they had not used cannabis.”
Argh! If there’s one thing worse than a paper that intentionally creates a moral panic, it’s one that performs an about-face two months later and blames the furore on someone else. A shameful chapter in the downward spiral of a once-quality newspaper.
7 comments July 21st, 2007
If there was ever a solution in need of a problem, it’ll be found within the pages of the Innovations catalogue. Sadly this mighty tome is no more, although there are many companies out there desperately trying to convince us to buy something we don’t need. Take for instance, the following stress-reliever. Thoughtful Products Ltd start off with the somewhat unbelievable claim that 50% 0f GP consultations each year are from people seeking relief from constipation. Luckily, they have the answer. Behold the mighty Loo Stool®!
Using this cutting-edge fusion of toilet technology, expect to flush away constipation problems as the Loo Stool® corrects your pooing posture for more meliorated movements. Of course, big improvements to the smallest room in the house don’t come cheap. The Loo Stool® vends at a hefty £45. What’s more, if you’d like to take the Loo Stool® with you on holiday (presumably to one of those countries that doesn’t already have squat-holes) you can purchase the handy Loo Stool® Bag for only £4.50, which Thoughtful Products suggest can also double as a laundry bag. Nice.
3 comments July 19th, 2007
You might wonder to yourself - what do drunken yokels aliens do in the winter when they can’t mow crop circles into golden fields of wheat? Well, wonder no more, for I give you the latest form of stella-terra communication: Ice Circles!
These have been appearing at various frosty locations, causing much consternation and curiosity among local townsfolk. Some claim that the ice was too thin to support the weight of a cutter (just like crop circles that were “too complex” to have been made with a string and plank). Which leads me to conclude that these must have been cut from underneath. By scuba diving aliens.
Add comment July 18th, 2007
Sure, it’s not quite as awesome as a Japanese Neutrino Observatory, but this star-gazing outpost is still pretty amazing. The BBC reports:
Tests have begun on one of the world’s largest optical telescopes, installed on a mountain in the Canary Islands.
Situated on a 2,400m-high (7,900ft) peak on the island of La Palma, the huge telescope consists of a mirror measuring 10.4m (34.1ft) in diameter.
2 comments July 17th, 2007
After much laughter reaped from humourous Jesus-Dino posts, I stumbled across this delightful entry to our theosaurus sketchbook.
Does anything strike you about this one? A little too gentle perhaps? Maybe a little… earnest? Well, you’d right. This particular image comes to us from the weird world of Objective Ministeries, who insist that yes, humans did live alongside dinosaurs. That is, until they tried to domesticise them, and therefore make themselves like God, which made God very angry and He drowned all the dino-farmers in a great flood. He spared the dinosaurs though, but people then used these gentle herbivores to build the Tower of Babel, which really pissed Him off. Since then, God has seen fit to hide them from us, though he inexplicably allows people living near Loch Ness to see the odd plesiosaur and allows Latin Americans to get eaten by velociraptors, which go by the local name los Chupacabras (hey, guess God is a Protestant!).
Do you think I’m making this up? No, it’s all in the Bible and it’s all true. I’m calling Poe’s Law on the entire of Objective Ministries - I honestly can’t tell whether this is dead-pan satire or mind-blowing stupidity.
2 comments July 16th, 2007
Various sources are reporting the bizarre case of Dr Joyce Pratt, a GP in Westminster who told a woman seeking contraception advice to drink holy water and seek out an exorcism. Dr Pratt told the patient, known only as Mrs K, that she had been possessed by an evil spirit and that her mother was a witch plotting to kill her. Full story
Add comment July 11th, 2007
Wow! It’s the Super-K neutrino observatory in Japan. Resting 1000m below the surface in a disused mine, this colossal room will filled with 50,000 tonnes of pure heavy water. Once renovations are complete, the observatory’s 11,200 photomultiplier tubes will detect subatomic particles thrown out by supernovas billions of miles away, as well as study neutrino activity in our atmosphere. I’m pretty sure that’s a scientist in the bottom left of the picture. Awesome!
3 comments July 10th, 2007
It wasn’t the bright lights that frazzled poor Orbo. It was the bearings all along. Watch the video of a supremely unconvincing Steorn CEO Sean McCarthy explaining away the failure below.
2 comments July 10th, 2007
Sure, when you’re riding around the open plains, you need an off-roader, like a brontosaurus. But for nipping around the city, a compact is far more preferrable. Isn’t that right, Jesus?
From the wonderful Uncyclopedia.
Add comment July 9th, 2007
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