As subtle as a flying brick.

Archive for March, 2007

Edible chess cookie-cutters

I can’t figure out of Biggles sells these edible chess brass cookie-cutters/candy molds, or if they just exhibit them to taunt those of us who dream of eating our way to victory in the game of kings.


Finding Nemo at the sushi bar

I’m 99.99% sure that this Finding Nemo sushi is a fake, but oh, man, if Disney had the guts to actually release this as a product, wouldn’t that be the best thing ever?


Wasabi spill spices up the ISS

Sunita Williams, an astronaut on board the ISS, had a “wasabi spill” while preparing a special fake-sushi meal on the space station. Astronauts on the ISS get “bonus containers” filled with their favorite foods, and Williams’s included the sushi kit and its nuclear-hot mustard-paste. The astronauts have banished the wasabi to a cargo pod, and vowed to prohibit the consumption of too-spicy condiments on board.

Williams, whose father was born in India, has several Indian dishes in her bonus container, including Punjabi kadhi with pakora – vegetable fritters topped with yogurt and curry – and mutter paneer, a curry dish. The dishes are packaged to have a long shelf life in space.
Her U.S. crew mate, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, is an even bigger “foodie.” Lopez-Alegria, who was born in Madrid but grew up in California, had Spanish muffins known as magdalenas, chorizo pork sausage and latte in his bonus container.


Led Zelda tees

The Zelda/Led Zep mashup tees from Hot Topic allow you to express your allegiance to both metal and 8-bit video games, two of the best things about the 80s.


Post office solves long lines by removing clocks

The US Post Office has removed clocks from 37,000 postal outlets in order to alleviate the problem of people feeling like they’re waiting in line for two long. A clockless atmosphere will apparently encourage a state of meditative interest in the workings of the postal service, without distracting with the sense of time’s fleeting passage. Consumerist’s Meghann Marco nails it:

Um, correct us if we’re wrong here but:

* People carry timepieces.

* The post office is not a casino. People aren’t going to lose themselves in the fun and mail more letters than they’d originally intended.

Is this the best they can come up with?


Vancouver Olympics will own words like “winter,” “2010” and “Vancouver”

Canadian Industry Minister Maxime Bernier recently introduced Bill C-47, the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act, through which the Vancouver Olympics are guaranteed exclusive public use of the following words: winter, gold, silver, bronze, sponsor, Vancouver, Whistler, 2010, tenth, medals, and games.

It’s amazing how the Olympics have come to symbolize bullying corporate greed; overreaching, violent “security measures;” drug abuse and destruction of public facilities and low-income housing.

Bernier has no time to deal with spam, spyware, privacy, or net neutrality but commits to legislation on behalf of the organizers of a sporting event? Moreover, the legislation grants the Olympic organizers enormous power to police the use of anything approaching association with the Olympics. For example, the bill contains a list of expressions to be considered by the federal court to determine whether someone has misled the public into believing that their business is endorsed or associated with the Olympics. The expressions include: winter, gold, silver, bronze, sponsor, Vancouver, Whistler, 2010, tenth, medals, and games. While this looks like a recipe for abuse, the Olympic organizers have assured the public that it “is committed to applying the proposed legislation in a disciplined, sensitive, fair and transparent manner.” Perhaps, but many Canadians may justifiably be left to ask whether anyone should be granted the right to govern the use of generic words such as winter or Vancouver.


Sleep naked

SleepNaked.org seems to be a one-man campaign in support of a good cause: sleeping in the raw. I hadn’t realized that there were people who chose to sleep otherwise these days, but I guess the sinister forces of Big Pyjamas aren’t to be underestimated.

Not only is sleeping naked more comfortable, but it’s good for your health too. Increasing your level of comfort makes it easier for you to relax and sleep, so you get a better night’s kip. The resulting deeper, longer sleep makes it easier for your body to regenerate and repair itself, and build up your energy for the day ahead.

If you sleep with a partner, being naked heightens the level of intimacy between you and you are likely to have sex more often. You may also feel closer to your partner as a result of sleeping naked with them.


Tadpole limb regeneration, human tissue regeneration?

Researchers have identified the electrical switch that turns on a tadpole’s regeneration system so it can grow a new tail or leg. Someday, a detailed understanding of this phenomena could possibly lead to a way to stimulate human tissue regeneration. Michael Levin and his colleagues at the Forsyth Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in Boston report that a molecular pump that moves protons across the cell membrane, generating a current, is the “master control to initiate the regeneration response.” From News@Nature:

Researchers have known for decades that an electrical current is created at the site of regenerating limbs. Furthermore, applying an external current speeds up the regeneration process, and drugs that block the current prevent regeneration. The electrical signals help to tell cells what type to grow into, how fast to grow, and where to position themselves in the new limb…
…The complex networks needed to construct a complicated organ or appendage are already genetically encoded in all of our (human) cells (too) � we needed them to develop those organs in the first place. “The question is: how do you turn them back on?” Levin says. “When you know the language that these cells use to tell each other what to do, you’re a short step away from getting them to do that after an injury.”


Attack it’s weak point for massive damage.

Giant Crab, Enemy Crab
After a Sony exec gave gave a really bad demo at E3 for an upcoming PS3 game, mean gamers re-edited the embarrassing footage to segue into a cool dancefloor remix.


More interesting looking than the sum of its parts

STEAM. Australian artist Donna Marcus uses kitchenware to make geodesic spheres to be placed in conspicuous locations.


The Unlawful Accommodation of Donkeys Act of 1837??!?

“A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised “to get out and meet people,” the local court heard last week…."


Creation of Lung Cells from Embryonic Stem Cells

"Molecular scientists . . . have developed a new procedure for the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells, with which they have created the first transplantable source of lung epithelial cells."