A relatively new podcast by Joe Fulgham, Kevin Leeson, and Toren Atkinson (who has been featured on Ectoplasmosis before). Each week, the crew gathers to rap about the science, history, myths, and pop culture surrounding some horrible but fascinating topic. Today, I listened to the episodes about cannibalism, volcanoes, and black holes. While I did pick out a few errors here and there on topics I’m more familiar with, over all it’s fun stuff and worth a listen. And I’m just not brave enough to listen to the episode about parasites.
I was going to post this today either way, so their episode this week (Tentacles) is purely coincidental.
Notice, a fair dose of the material is graphic and not for the squeamish. I was surprised by the lack of punches pulled in the cannibalism episode.
University of Ottawa researchers Jing Zhang and Marie-Andrée Akimenko have discovered that if the proteins actinoden 1 & 2 are suppressed in fish, fin development gives way to something like leg development. These two proteins are found in fish, but not in reptiles, mammals, or other tetrapods. The date of this original transition is immensely far into the past, in the middle of the Devonian, and new research continues to push it back into the temporal gulf.
That such a small alteration is all that governs such a huge change should not be surprising to those familiar with the history of Innsmouth and similar communities.
“everything alive come aout o’ the water onct an’ only needs a little change to go back agin.”
– Zadok Allen, Innsmouth, Massachusetts, July 15, 1927
One wonders what the researchers would find if they were able to examine biological samples collected by the federal investigation of the Massachusetts shore eighty years ago.
As someone who lives in the United Kingdom I am extremely fortunate to have near constant access to the BBC. A broadcasting organization who not only provide the country with BBC 4, a channel filled with intelligent material for adults, but with the few radio stations which I listen to on anything you can call a regular basis.
One of these radio stations, Radio 4, makes it a feature of its weekday schedule in the late afternoon and early evening to broadcast comedy panel programs such as “Just a Minute” and “The News Quiz.” A relatively new program on Radio 4 (only in its second season and not its fifty-sixth) is called the “Infinite Monkey Cage”, and it has rock star physicist Brian Cox and skeptic stand up comedian Robin Ince presenting it.
The program is billed as a: “Witty, irreverent look at the world through scientists eyes.” This weeks episode, the third of four episodes, in the second season, covers the subject of “sci-fi” with a string-theorist, Brian Greene, a comic book writer, Alan Moore, and celebrity geek and chat show presenter, Jonathan Ross, as guests.
For one week only, wherever you are in the world, you can download as an mp3 or stream this half hour program for free from here.
There is a particularly amusing section where Alan Moore is told by Brian Cox that he inadvertently in a comic he wrote with a “fun idea” at the center of it postulated one of the consequences of Einstein’s general relativity correctly.
Funny or Die is hit or miss but I thorougly enjoy the Drunk History lessons. I get a dirty sense of guilt from the voyeristic aspect to this segment which I think is part of what makes it so good. These people are consenting to drinking to the point of stupor and then discussing in impressive detail for even a sober person, their knowledge about an historical person or event. Their narration is acted out giving you a visual to their story. The results are hilarious. John C. Reilly and Crispin Glover star in this episode. Keep your eyes out for Mark Twain’s beautious moustache.
It is, perhaps, unfair to join the army of “haters” who would criticize the lyrical stylings of the rap group who, donning the warpaint of the ageless harlequin, call themselves the Insane Clown Posse. And it would be, perhaps, enabling to their followers, the so-called Juggalos — the females being called Jugglettes — to join in this cavalcade of sneering judgment, as much of their identity is dependent on an overblown sense of Us (Jugglos) versus Them (Everyone Else).
That said, I feel I would be remiss if I were to ignore the the fantastic mess that is their newest single “Miracle” (or disingenuous of me to imply that I am above snatching such low-hanging fruit). Atop I giant ziggurat, telescoping into the cosmos, the duo of Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope pontificate on the majesty and mystery of the universe in all its stunning facets. Here then is the miracle of birth, with Mr. Dope positioned in front of a woman, her legs splayed beneath a maternity gown in such a manner as to let the viewer know that, indeed, there be a baby totally crowning out that pussy. Here is the delightful anecdote of a pelican seeking to abscond with Mr. J’s cellular phone, even after the man had gone so far as to provide the thieving fowl with a delectable fish.
Mad Science isn’t about GMO falling prey to a parasite, giving you cancer, or triggering an allergic reaction. It isn’t about business practices, regulations, or balancing caution vs. benefits. No, Mad Science is about creating massively over-muscled fish that in a couple of generations will escape into the wild, and grow to incredible size. Mad Science is about rainbow trout, with jaws to rival Dunkleosteus, slicing yachts in half and ganging up on container ships full of smoothie powder and muscle growth supplements.
Researchers at IBM in Zurich, using non-contact microscopy in an ultrahigh vacuum at 5 degrees Kelvin, produced this first ever high resolution image of a single molecule.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
