The Daily Rumpus
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From Stephen Elliott
There’s an awesome Mother Jones article on how we intake our science like lawyers and how our reasoning is inextricably linked to our emotional centers. We’re used to scientific evidence and opinion-based beliefs competing or being on opposite sides of our reality spectrum, but they do, indeed, inform each other.
...moreThere is a romantic idea that great genius emanates from the tower.
The novelist, the philosopher, the architect, all retreat to their places of solitude to channel their minds and await inspiration. A few hours, days, months, years later, they emerge with a masterpiece.
...moreIn the department of You Can Prove Anything With Science, this statistics-happy chap finds that “the more intelligent, who scored high on a vocabulary test, … drink more than the dumb, who scored low.”
(via @electriclit)
...more“Results suggest that facial hair is worn to enhance a man’s marriage prospects by increasing physical attractiveness and perception of social status. Men shave their mustaches, possibly to convey an impression of trustworthiness, when the marriage market is weak and women might fear sexual exploitation and desertion.”
— A new study shows that facial hair “increas(es) physical attractiveness and perception of social status.” (via Andrew Sullivan)
I mean, they used a regression.
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I’ve just got this hunch that things might be ok.
Hey, so, what happened to that tsunami?
Related: The Chilean earthquake did however probably (possibly?) make the day shorter.
Why the internet will never catch on.
...moreNY Times on how your brain physically manifests abstract ideas and the Tanzanian Spray Toad.
The Hubble has detected an alien spacecraft (or just a comet or something, whatever).
The universe is hella closer to death than we thought. (via Gerrycanavan)
“Don’t you ever link to anything nonscience related?” Here are some pictures of a frozen house in Detroit.
...moreTiny Swedish lighthouses.
A walk through JD Salinger’s New York.
Philip K. Dick’s book covers. (via MeFi.)
Behold the molecular Venus flytrap!
...moreToday is MLK Day so perhaps you’d like to kill time with first person Tetris?
Behold the sleep suit!
Alligators and birds breathe similarly! (psst… this is actually about dinosaurs, don’t tell anyone.)
...moreResin macrophotography. Because it is cool that’s why.
US Geological Survey map of the moon. (via Metafilter.)
It’s been a long time since we’ve talked about the red devil squid.
The creator of letters of note would also like you to appreciate fine letterheads.
...moreWarhol’s sport star polaroids.
Who doesn’t love a sweaty bat?
Contemporary artists design New York taxi signs. Yep.
Seed Magazine, going through their best articles of the year, brings you this look at scientists competing to find new worlds.
...moreThis is about as festive as I get, Australian Tesla Christmas tree!
A very serious problem this Christmas season.
These pictures were taken by creating a fake company. They are pretty rad.
...moreA melting polar bear makes the point pretty clearly.
Some of Berlin’s mighty fine outdoor art installations.
Let’s face it, science is boring.
Laredo Texas has no use for your books.
Letters of Note (my current favorite website) brings us Clyde Barrow’s thank you note to Henry Ford.
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Today is the shortest day of the year, it’s all up from here.
The electronic telegraph is going to destroy the newspaper industry. (via Moviecitynews.)
The Korean airforce have developed a pedal powered airplane. Dang!
Meanwhile scientists have figured out to harness the power of bacteria, or something.
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Mystery lights in the Norwegian sky. I love the universe! (update: Bad Astronomy has gotten to the bottom of it!)
Photographing Las Vegas’ neon boneyard.
Gerry Canavan points us to this epic document of classic scams.
A family portrait of China’s 56 ethnic groups.
...moreFun fact: lobsters don’t age!
Scientists want to know why your brother won’t share with you.
Chip Kidd on designing Nabokov.
Everyday is a good day for insect macro-photography.
The world’s coolest subway stations. Hurray for public transportation!
...moreIs the Bible too liberal for you? Too much of that “help the poor” and not enough sinner-smiting? Do you have no knowledge of ancient Greek and no experience in translation? Then you’re perfect for this project.
Shirley Dent talks about the difference between idiom and slang, especially as it relates to culture.
...moreKurt Vonnegut’s letter home.
Abandoned wood burning stoves.
A look inside a San Francisco opium den circa 1889.
Rebecca Ward‘s tape installations.
Pickled evidence for evolution.
...more1970s lowbrow super 8 design. hurray!
Journey Around my Skull continues its look at Polish children’s books.
Is ALL marriage illegal in Texas?
Imaging alien Earths in the near future.
...moreJim Kazanjian’s aberrations.
We try to stay away from foreign language links as much as possible, but these x-rays of speech are pretty universally rad.
If your kid isn’t afraid of things they are going to stab you (or maybe just do a lot of petty theft, whatever).
...moreIn Sweden, official’s have decided to start rounding up bunny rabbits and burning them for bio-fuel. Looks like SOMEONE’S got a case of the Mondays!
Writer and artist Alasdair Gray is his own best nightmare. It took the modern Scottish bard twenty-five years to finish Lanark: A Life in Four Books (1981), his fat, strangely inspirational novel of urbanism gone awry.
Johnny Cash in German.
IS the Large Hadron Collider being sabotaged by ITS OWN FUTURE?
A behind the scenes look at Swedish rug mill. Because, really, why not?
One of my closest friend’s doesn’t have a sense of smell, if this article is correct that means he doesn’t feel any emotions at all!
...moreThe Heart of Great Alone: haunting images of polar expedition.
Lighting design exhibition uses actual dandelions.
What makes Ardi, the oldest known skeleton of a human-like primate, so dang important.
Vermont domes of the alternate future. (via Mefi.)
...more90 Years of Vogue Magazine covers. You know, if that’s your thing.
New Scientist wants to tell you about the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in physics.
Sometimes extreme measures are needed to stop book theft.
NY Magazine on Nicholson Baker’s creative process.
...moreWater on Lens celebrates the art of cinematic underwater photography.
Chimpanzee masks make your crippling fear of breathing the air fun!
What do optical illusions tell us about our brains?
The best and worst thing about the internet is that nothing is all that rare anymore.
...moreHoward Hughes’ un-flyable plane makes for a pretty great boat.
One bank is letting people with good credit deposit checks by phone.
Ohio is a piano for some reason.
Trying to photograph Raymond Chandler’s LA.
New Scientist on bomb-throwing deep sea worms.
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“How many people want to spend their entire day — their entire life, I guess, at this point — collecting heads from rotting marine mammals? Well, Ray does!”
From Shelf Life, a 25-minute documentary you can watch here, about Ray Bandar, a volunteer for the California Academy of Sciences whose personal collection of skulls fills his home.
...more“A good history of science unreels like the practice of science itself. It wends through a world of experiments until a new reality arises. But the more layered story of that journey is that science is not just a process but is the men and women performing it.”
From a review on Salon of The Age of Wonder, by Richard Holmes.
...moreAn Illustrated History of the War on Drugs. (via TPM)
In case you’ve ever wonder what has more calories, polar bear or grizzly.
Check out this sweet fence!
We don’t usually do legos, but sometimes you need to fill in the cracks.
...moreHey there July, how are you today?
Steven Pinker picks his three favorite pieces of science writing for 3quarkdaily. (via Metafilter.)
Bacteria as psychedelic art piece.
Scientists have developed a way to fuel hydrogen based engines on chicken feathers.
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