What kind of person needs a scale in their mouse? A small-time hustler, obviously. Brando's mouse offers a kind of discrete simplicity that any drug dealer could appreciate. More »
A Mouse Made for Drug Dealers [Gadgets]
Gadget Girls Have the Sexiest Spy Adventures [Video]
This short film, created by Kevin Dart, shows of Yuki 7 and the Gadget Girls, a group of 60s-style spies who love to blow things up. Dart already has a book and DVD out on them. I'm already a fan. More »
Definite Time Relay
what is definite time relay...?? i have seen the relay in tat sme time setting is there... for what these time setting is mentioned...??? psl explain in detail....
The Emergency Cocktail Case Will Get You Drunk in Times of Trouble [Desired]
You've just woken up. It's 3 in the afternoon after your all night bender, and you feel like death's shit. There's only one solution for the modern lush: hair of the dog. Luckily, the emergency cocktail case has you covered. More »
Next Friday at The Coney Island Museum: Launch Party for the New Video Series "The Midnight Archives: Tales From the Observatory" with Ronni Thomas
Next Friday, August 12th, please join Morbid Anatomy and The Coney Island Museum for a launch party celebrating The Midnight Archives: Tales From the Observatory, a new video series "centered around the esoteric and always exotic personalities that spring from the Brooklyn Observatory." This project is the creation of many-time Observatory lecturer and film-maker Ronni Thomas, and promises to provide a fascinating and informative look into some of the topics explored by Observatory events past and future.
Come for the party and the screenings, stay to check out the exhibition The Great Coney Island Spectacularium and to experience The Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire, and linger on for the complementary midnight martinis!
Full details follow; Hope very much to see you there.
Date: Friday, August 12
Location: The Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn MAP
Time: 8:00pm
Admission: $20
COMPLIMENTARY "MIDNIGHT MARTINI'S" AND SPECIALTY DRINKS FOR ALL!Another in a series of exciting events in the Coney Island Museum, the Great Coney Island Spectacularium invites you to the Midnight Archive LAUNCH PARTY with filmmaker and collector Ronni Thomas!
Join us for the launch of the web series The Midnight Archives: Tales From the Observatory. The series is the work of Ronni Thomas (Alias Ronni Raygun) of the IKA Collective and is centered around the esoteric and always exotic personalities that spring from the Brooklyn Observatory. It attempts to briefly document some of the truly unique people, talents and objects from around the world who gather there on a weekly basis. Mummies, Taxidermy, 18th century robotics, early French demonic 3d horror... its all here.
Series creator Ronni Thomas will give a brief lecture followed by the screening of episode 1 "Petrifying Pets: Modern Day Mummies" (6 minutes) and a short montage reel.
You can find out more--and purchase tickets!--by clicking here. For more on The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, click here. More on Observatory here.
Today’s Tabloid News: Royal Party Boy Wants to Be a NASA Astronaut
Prince Harry's bid for Nasa training, The Sun
"Army pilot Harry, 26, is a closet Star Trek fan and "obsessed with space", according to friends. They say he has already asked Sir Richard Branson's son Sam for a seat on one of the first Virgin Galactic sub-orbital flights. But he hopes to become an honorary member of the elite US space programme after returning from Afghanistan next year."
AntiSec Hackers Dump 10 Gigs of Police Data [Hacking]
Hackers with ties to the AntiSec movement released 10 gigs of sensitive data last night from more than 50 police departments across the country. This is their brazen show of solidarity with Anonymous' cause and retribution against an oppressive police system. More »
Are Taller People at Heightened Cancer Risk?
(HealthDay News) -- Tall folks may be more likely than shorter people to develop cancer, new British research says.
Among women, the risk of breast, ovarian, uterine and bowel cancer, leukemia or melanoma appears to go up about 16 percent for every 4-inch bump in stature, the researchers said.
"Taller women in our study had increased risk of a wide range of cancers," said study co-author Jane Green, from the cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford in England. "And all the evidence from past studies is that this link is seen equally in men and women."
The findings also suggest that gains in height over the 20th century -- Europeans' average height grew nearly half an inch per decade -- might help explain some of the cancer differences seen in recent generations, the researchers said. Read more...
Ayurtox for Body Detoxification
31 US Special Forces Troops Die In Largest Loss of Life In Afghanistan (Updated) [Military]
The Wall Street Journal reports that a Chinook helicopter carrying 31 US special forces troops and 7 Afghan troops was shot down last night by a Taliban insurgent's missile. The crash killed everyone onboard. More »
Book Excerpt: Just Hospitality
Letty Russell on why the ministry of the church is to be partners with and hospitable to strangers.
Doctor Who infographic | Bad Astronomy
I somehow totally missed the fact that the mid-season premier of Doctor Who will be August 27, in just three weeks! Yay!
Still, for us squeeing Whovians, that seems like ages. So why not fill this long, dark tea-time of the soul by looking over Bob Canada’s cheeky Doctor Who infographic? It’s pretty good, and has some solid stuff in it for newbies and Who veterans alike. He also has one for the 1960s and 70s era villains, too.
As for the premier, I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible — I haven’t even watched the trailer for the next series. The past two series have opened up a lot of questions that remain unsolved, but I’ve been a Steven Moffat fan for a long time (have you watched the adult sitcom "Coupling"? Brilliant!) so I know patience will pay off.
BTW, Buzzfeed has a great gallery of Doctor Who graffiti too. And of course, there’s also this from your humble host.
Related posts:
- An observatory that’s bigger on the inside
- Blastr: My favorite ...
How Ordinary Girl Scout Cookies Can Be Morphed Into Incredible Graphene [Science]
Next time you're inhaling an entire box of Girl Scout shortbread cookies, just think of the potential you're wasting: a full $15 billion worth of graphene. At least, that's the estimate given by a team of Rice University researchers working on a dare. More »
Jon Stewart Satirizes Atheists Over Ground Zero Cross | The Intersection
By Jon Winsor
The Daily Show–still pretty funny. (The Atlantic Wire has a play-by-play on this story.)
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Update: Is John Stewart “tone trolling” here? Maybe there’s something new atheists (gnu atheists, neo-atheists, etc.) miss in dismissing criticisms of “mere tone”?
Michele Bachmann late night on Greta, S&P downgrading
From Eric Dondero:
Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann first out-of-the-gate with strong words for the administration on the Friday eve S&P downgrading of America's credit rating:
Our country has had a Triple 'AAA' rating since 1917. That rating has never been downgraded. It has endured the Great Depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Terrorist attacks on 9/11. This president has destroyed the credit rating of the United States, and failing to control the debt, and once again raising the debt ceiling. We were warned by all the credit agencies, that a failure to deal with our debt would lead to a downgrading of our credit rating.
Note - We are thankful to our friend Jim Hoft of the libertarian-conservative website Gateway Pundit for linking to our breaking story late last night.
UPDATE! Stacy McCain now has the Michele Bachmann video at the Iowa event, first calling for Geithner to resign, up at his site.
Green tea better at preventing cancer and dementia than previously thought
For years, we covered the mounting research linking green tea and its extracts to a host of disease-fighting benefits -- from halting the progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (http://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=22310&view=previous) and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease to protecting the oxygen-deprived brain from memory loss (http://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=22813) and preventing breast cancer (http://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=24272, http://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=69&start=50). It almost sounds too good to be true, right? Actually, a new study has revealed that green tea is an even more incredible natural health enhancer than anyone knew previously.
Scientists at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have just discovered that when green tea is consumed, the digestive process in the gut creates powerful chemicals that work to protect the body against two of humankind's most dreaded diseases -- Alzheimer's and cancer. The research, headed by Dr. Ed Okello, was recently published in the academic journal Phytomedicine. Read more...
Tipping points in digital pathology
Interesting blog post on tipping points in digital pathology:
“Social consensus through the influence of committed minorities” (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.84.011130) is a fascinating read. In it, Xie et al. of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute take the well-known phenomenon of an inflection point in thinking – a tipping point past which a minority opinion will become the majority opinion – and use computational and analytic simulations to try to determine what that point might be. Their conclusion? That when the number of “true believers” reaches 10% of a given population, conversion of the rest of the population becomes inevitable. Below 10%, it would take far longer for such a conversion to take place.
Mummification Class Open Spots, This Sunday, August 7th
We have 8 open slots for Observatory's final scheduled mummification class, which will take place this Sunday, August 7th. Full details follow; if interested, drop me a line to RSVP!
Date: Sunday, August 7th
Time: 1-4 PM
Admission: $60
Location: Observatory, 543 Union at Nevins, Brooklyn, Buzzer 1E
*** Please RSVP at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.comIn today's class, learn the mummification process as described in the "Egyptian Book of the Dead" (Book of Coming Forth By Day). Instructor Sorceress Cagliastro will guide students in the use of the traditional materials--such as natron salts, canopic jars, oils and herbs, dried flowers and linen or gauze wraps--and traditional ritual--such as ritual of the opening of the mouth--in the creation of an authentic and perfectly respected animal mummy. Each student will leave class with an animal mummy of their own making.
Please note: No animals are harmed or killed for this class; the materials are found already deceased, obtained either from a food service such as a meat market that serves a clientele seeking intact animals, or from a pet feeder supply.
Sorceress Cagliastro has a background as a teacher, author, and forensic reconstructionist. She worked as a trade embalmer and spent many years of work at the office of the Chief Medical Examiner. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter, and two dogs.
More info about this class and Observatory can be found here.
Amazing Taxidermy Books Alert: New Stock of "Walter Potter" and "History of Taxidermy" Books Now Available for Sale!
Morbid Anatomy now has several additional copies of taxidermy collector/historian Pat Morris' lavishly illustrated taxidermic tomes A History of Taxidermy: Art, Science and Bad Taste and Walter Potter and his Museum of Taxidermy in stock and available for immediate sale.
Morris' new and encylopedic History of Taxidermy: Art, Science and Bad Taste (pictured above in images 1-3) is an extensive (nearly 400 pages), large-format, and lavishly illustrated 4-color tome that details the entire history of the art, science, and sometimes questionable trends of taxidermy. This thoroughly-researched and liberally illustrated text discusses the earliest historical pieces, collections public and private, changing techniques throughout its history, human taxidermy (such as shrunken heads, Jeremy Bentham and other examples), anthropomorphic taxidermy and its roots at The Great Exhibition of 1851, the taxidermy and natural history craze of the 19th century, taxidermic kitsch, gentleman country house collections, and much, much, much more.
Morris' other book (images 4-9) details the life and work of Walter Potter, the undisputed king of Victorian anthropomorphic taxidermy and artist behind unforgettable taxidermic tableaux depicting kitten tea parties, bunny schoolhouses, kitten croquet matches and more, not to mention founder of a museum dedicated to his own curious pieces. The book, entitled Walter Potter and his Museum of Taxidermy is large-format, full-color, and features scores of nearly impossible-to-find photographs of Potter's unforgettable works, archival photographs of the early museum, and antique and vintage ephemera related to the museum. The book is also extremely well researched, providing a through biography or Mr Potter, a detailed history of his museum of curious taxidermy, and the stories behind the making of his iconic pieces of anthropomorphic taxidermy.
You can find out more about these books--and order copies of them--by clicking here. But supplies are limited, so order quickly!
My Favorite Aruba Beaches: #5 – Palm Beach
Aruba's Palm Beach
Aruba’s Palm Beach is that beach – the one that almost every tropical island with a tourist center has — the beach with all of the jet ski and float rentals, the bars and restaurants and a ton of people. It’s located smack in the middle of the Hi-Rise area, where all of the island’s largest and nicest hotels sit. However, unlike a lot of touristy beaches I’ve been to in the Bahamas or in Mexico, Palm Beach does not have people walking up to you trying to sell test tubes of liquor or cheesy t-shirts and jewelry. And that was really nice! It wasn’t that surprising though, given the entire island has a very laid back, friendly vibe. My suggestion would be to snag some shade under one of the dozens of palm trees that line the beach, or the many palapas, grab a drink and proceed to people watch. It’s a real sport at this beach.
Aruba's Palm Beach and Pirate Ship
Keep an eye out for pirate ships here! Jolly Pirates has a snorkeling tour that starts at Palm Beach and takes snorkelers and those who simply want to make merry in the sun on a pirate ship to Malmok and Boca Catalina. The beach closer to the pier where you can board the ships is a bit nicer than the beach in the other direction — it’s simply too crowded with people, boats and tour outfitters. Alternatively, head to the very southern part of the beach, which is also more quiet than the central portion.
We visited Palm Beach on a day when we wanted to do some shopping and be near some restaurants and bars and it worked out perfectly. The huge advantage to Palm Beach is that you never have to worry about finding a bathroom or a bite to eat. And these things are important when you’re too busy relaxing to worry about anything.
A view of Aruba's Palm Beach and Hi-Rise hotel area
IF YOU GO: Take the time to wander around the beautiful hotels along the beach — there are some fabulous gardens and fountains to explore! You can sneak into the Marriott’s lazy river if you’re, well — sneaky. Grab a casual bite at the Pelican Pier Bar - the grouper sandwich was one of the best we had on the island!
Photos: Jenny Bengen-Albert
My Favorite Aruba Beaches: #4 – Baby Beach
Aruba's Baby Beach
My husband and I enjoyed Baby Beach on a recent trip to Aruba, but to be completely honest, it didn’t live up to some of the hype we had heard about the beach beforehand (You must rent a car and go! It’s unbelievably fabulous and you will want to pitch a tent and live on the beach forever!) Baby Beach is located on Aruba’s very southwestern tip, and it takes a good 40 minutes to get there by car. The beach is so named because the water is remarkably shallow – rarely more than 5 feet deep – and the beach is in the shape of a large half-moon. As such, Baby Beach is very popular with families with small kids, so it’s not the quietest on the island — but watching kids snorkel is very cute and entertaining (“MOMMY! Look at all the BWUE fishes!) But, the water’s shallow depths also mean that for adults, at least, the snoekleing here isn’t fantastic — I found that too much sand gets kicked up from the bottom on due to the windy summer days and the visibility was nowhere near as good as it was at Arashi or at Boca Catalina. Snorkelers used to be able to easily swim around the reefs that surround Baby Beach, but a recent storm damaged the reefs, and the waves outside of the protected lagoon area are a bit rough and choppy. Not necessarily dangerous, just not the best place to be if you’re an inexperienced snorkeler or swimmer.
With all that said — I would definitely go back to Baby Beach because it is a wonderful swimming beach. The reefs create a large, safe area to swim around in and there are often very little waves to speak of close to shore. The drive to Baby Beach is about 40 minutes from Oranjestad, and it’s a pretty drive. If you’re hungry when you get there, be sure to stop by the Rum Reef Bar & Grill for some tasty fish sandwiches! There are a few palapas to relax under, but I preferred to take a nap under the sea grape trees.
Secluded Baby Beach in Aruba
Baby Beach has a somewhat isolated feel to it, partly due to the fact that it takes a good 40 minutes to get there Oranjestad — Baby Beach is at the very southern tip of the island. It reminded me a bit of Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, for some reason. If you’re looking for a more private place to swim near Baby Beach, drive over to Rodger’s Beach –though be forewarned that the setting is a bit strange and spooky. The backdrop is an oil refinery, and the towers are continuously putting out plumes of black and gray smoke. You can’t really smell it and the water looks fine, but it’s just a bit odd. Both Baby Beach and Rodgers Beach are where to go if you want to hang out with locals, simply because getting there is a bit harder than the island’s other beaches.
IF YOU GO: It’s best to rent a car to get to Baby Beach, because the Arubus doesn’t go here — it stops in San Nicolas, but that’s still a ways from Baby Beach. You could also take a taxi for about $40 each way, but car rentals are about $40 per day, so it’s your best bet. Do stop for lunch at the Rum Reef Bar & Grill, the food’s great! You can also rent snorkeling and suba equipment at the JADA shop there next to Rum Reef.
Photos: Jenny Bengen-Albert
