Proven By Science

the proof at last!: alien caught blinking

“authentic” video released today (authentic here seems to mean that YES it is indeed a video, and not for example a sellotape dispenser)

volcano and electric storm!

chaiten with lightning: i can’t get the pictures to embed, i guess they want you to click through — it’s well worth it (cf esp 12/35)

IN SALAD (of all the) NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM(s)

huntin for images of BRANES in pulp culture i came across THIS via boingboing: “In November 2006 Till Nowak created the image SALAD. For this image he created 12 digital vegetable models in 3ds max using photographic references. They were combined to become a tribute to the fantastic biomechanical creations of H.R. Giger and the vegetable portraits of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.”

full size here

A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou - Episode 2

Tom Ewing joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to discuss Fritz Leiber’s “A Pail of Air”, written in 1951. It’s a short story about a kid, some rugs, and an Earth so cold that helium crawls. Will it crawl onto YOU? Elisha reads from the story in case you haven’t.

Next week: Isaac Asimov - “Segregationist”

Kids Toothpaste

This morning I discovered that the new toothpaste I bought had vanished. Knowing my 1-year-old son’s love of raiding shopping bags I worked out quickly what had happened to it: the where proved more elusive, and to avoid being late I decided to nick his toothpaste. Here are my science findings as an adult using children’s toothpaste: … read on …

that resonance fm time machine in full

Click on this tantalizing thumbnail for a full schematic. (Credit goes to goopymart.com)

For more on how this wormhole faff works, you know what to do. Just click here.

Freaky Trigger & The Moomins of Pop - 13 February

PLUG PLUG!

Tonight leading Moomin academic Dr Vick, Tom Ewing and Pete Baran, corralled into brilliance by the Atommick Brane herself halloo the return of the kid-lit husband list! (Ms Puddleduck come on down!) (PuddleDUMB more like!) We’ll tackle Tove Jansson, Raymond Briggs, Uncle (<— the Elephant in the Castle!) (he has a B.A.!), the general disjunction between morals and quality in children’s art and the horrific not-so-SUBtext of Toy Story II. Plus something SO SCARY even Beaver Hateman and Knobsman Carsmile will tremble in fear. Tune in and find out for yourself! 7pm GMT, 104.4 Resonance FM, online at www.resonancefm.com and follow-ups at freakytrigger.co.uk, wild surmise to ftlollards@gmail.com.

253. To. Euston

I mentioned on Lollards last night my growing (petty) irritation with the introduction of automated announcements on London buses, whereby the bus route and each stop is announced regularly throughout the journey. This morning I did a small, non-scientific, non-representative experiment to see whether my annoyance was reasonable - afterall, tube and overland trains have similar systems which are not half as irritating, and perhaps bus announcements just need adjusting to. Here are my results.

Journey: Stamford Hill Broadway to Brecknock Road
Bus: 253
Length of Journey: 19 minutes
Number of Stops: 18
Number of times announcement said ‘253. To.    Euston’: 20
Number of times bus stop was announced: 18
Total number of announcements: 38

The pattern of announcements was this - on approach to bus stop announce stop name, on arrival at bus stop announce destination before opening doors (why?!), then once doors are closed and bus is pulling away, announce it again, for the benefit of passengers who have got on the bus and immediately forgotten which bus they got onto. There were a couple of stops where the destination was announced only once, but most of them got 2 announcements per stop. With the bus stopping approximately every minute this gives an average of 2 announcements every minute.

I’m not saying that this system doesn’t have merit - it is clearly quite useful in a number of ways, but it is excessively intrusive. Buses are quieter than trains, on the whole, so the announcement is clearer, and harder to tune out. I am fully convinced of the value of announcing the stop name, but announcing the destination is surely not as important, especially this frequently. I know it benefits people with visual impairments, but it’s not like they get on random buses then sit there waiting for an announcement that will let them know whether they’ve got on the right bus or not.  And people getting off a bus have no real need to know what bus they are alighting from.

My experiment also suggests that no one will sit next to you if you have an open notepad into which you record a tally.

The Poptimists Cookbook

It will be no surprise to our readers that despite much food science and interest in cooking, the FreakyTrigger Cookbook is still a few years away. But it behooves me to remind contributors and anyone using a recipe on this site of the following:

CONTRIBUTORS:
No matter how slapdash your general cooking method, or indeed how drunk you are while cooking, someone out there may follow your culinary Amundsen footprints. Thus if you use terms such “a handful”, we need to know if you have big hands. Ingredients may be particularly British, so think about how you would talk about - for example - cream where single and double is a UK only affectation. A good example of the problems in translation just across the Atlantic can be gained from this brave chef in the US, taking on Sarah’s admittedly avant garde spicy chocolate cupcakes. … read on …

Elephants Not Suitable As Pets: SHOCKER

In proper old Web 1.0 fashion*, I thought it worthwhile to bring to your attention that the UK Government is ignoring a petition of 650 signatories and outlawing Elephants as pets. WELL 650 PEOPLE IS HARDLY GOING TO SWAY THEM IF THE IGNORED TWO MILLION MARCHING AGAINST THE WAR**.

That said, not all elephants are bad as pets. Who can forget poor old Stampy in the Simpson?

*ie Linking is good enough for a story like this.

**OK, editorialised a bit. Blame where I work for that outburst.