When you look at that blank space on your bedroom wall don’t think of putting a picture of your in laws there. No, by all means you should have a handsome squirrel trophy head or a attractive FeeJee Mermaid gracing that honored space on your wall. As you can see I’m partial to the flying monkey my self. You know, nothing says you have class better than by having a drinking fez wearing flying monkey perched on your desk.
Category: Mad Science
Replica Submarine Make Waves
You just have to love New York…
A man in a Revolutionary War-era submarine was cited by the U.S. Coast Guard for drifting into a security zone, and for unsafe sailing in New York’s East River near the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner, the Coast Guard and New York City Police Department said Friday.
I remember when I first saw a drawing of the famous ‘Turtle‘ I was fascinated by the entire concept. It’s a good thing that I didn’t live around any lakes or I might not have survived my childhood.
I applaud the artist for making such a cool contraption I have to wonder why he didn’t think of the obvious repercussions of taking such a craft into a busy water way. Lights, reflectors, having a line to a boat… I’m all for the coolness of an adventure like this but you have to use some common sense and think about safety.
(sorry about the headline, it was such an obvious joke I just had to do it)
ABC News: NYC Man Cited for 1775 Submarine
Adventures With an Egg – Flickr photoset
Duke Riley home page
Transmission of Power via Long Range Induction
This demonstration never fails to be a crown pleaser. However, this one was quite a bit more practical.
The idea of transmitting energy wirelessly isn’t new. For almost two centuries, scientists have known that rapidly changing magnetic fields, such as those produced by an alternating current flowing through a wire, can induce an electric current in another wire. That’s how the coils inside power transformers transmit energy from one coil to another without touching. But this form of induction usually works efficiently only when the two coils are very close to each other.
[via boingboing]
The Power of Induction: Science News Online, July 21, 2007
The Steampunk Home
If your looking for decorating ideas that are a little out of the norm…Mechanical Fingers For Amputees
Not that I’d ever want to lose a finger myself but if I did I’d want something at least as good as one of these.
Mechanical Fingers Give Strength, Speed to Amputees-Wired Magazine
Chimera Embryos Need Rights Say Bishops
As my good friend Greg (who told me of this story) pointed out "Have these people not read The Island of Dr. Moreau?" Well said Greg!
Hybrid animal-human embryos created for medical research should be viewed as human and permitted to develop into children, Roman Catholic bishops have urged the British parliament.
Arrgh… My inner scientists cringes at this. Sure, we could use a race of lion men to defend our borders and what better to attend to the sick than bunny girls but I know that the Bishop has no concept of this utilitarian purpose and that any decent scientists with any sense of morals or ethics would never bring one of these monstrosities to term. Who is the mad man here, the man of faith or the man of science?
He probably thinks that the hideously deformed offspring would make a great argument that all science is evil and must be burned with the pure fires of mythic faith. He may feel that it also prove, so one might say, that god has mighty compassion for these poor creatures and has allowed them to live and we must worship him/it all the more because of it. If it’s the ‘every egg is a future contributor to the churches coffers’ (ok, a little crass there, I’ll admit that but by all accounts true) argument, then we might as well shoot all the teachers, lobotomize the scientists, and turn the calenders back to the year 1200.
Animal-human embryos need human rights, bishops say | Reuters