Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

I found this spectacular video linked on Phil Plait’s intelligent and responsible blog Bad Atronomy, where he introduces the clip, writing:

You are immersed in magnetic fields right now. Your computer, your house, your office, your street, your TV, your iPod… they all have magnetic fields around them, and you are embedded in them as well.

Sweet Christ! I never knew. It’s like something out of a an old Jon Pertwee era Doctor Who episode…a cheesy invisible monster made more frightening through the stark reality of this video.

But now that we know…something must be done! Clearly it is these magnetic fields that have been invisibly fucking up everything for us always: mediocre love [...]

My bestest buddy, the BBC, is reporting that TOFU GONNA EAT YO FUCKIN’ MIND!

Or rather – back in reality – the article concerns itself with a study in Indonesia focusing on the effects of soy product consumption on memory – that’s human memory for those keeping score at home. High tofu consumption was associated with worse memory, further theories even connecting it to aiding the onset of dementia. However, the 719 subjects of this survey were all elderly participants so they may have quite naturally not remembered whether they ate Tofu or not, yet kindly nodded when asked by the researchers if they did.

The science actually points to the culprit being things called Phytoestrogens, micronutrients found in many soy products that have effects similar to the female sex hormone oestrogen. This is the same ingested compound [...]

The other night, Professor Pikachu was on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell hocking his new book, Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel. I will eventually buy Pikachu’s book, likely enjoying it immensely, but will write a mini-review here:

In Physics of the Impossible, Pikachu leads his readers through a myriad of technologies and events previously held as fantasy by physicists, but now theoretically within reach of our very distant future. Truly edutainment, I was fascinated by the vivid descriptions and was left with a very cursory understanding of physics, an understanding I misunderstood to be much greater than it was as I tried to lord my newfound genius over friends in conversation, only to be revealed as the fool I am when [...]

previously: The Lost Safari: Part 1

So where does reality finally take hold in this silly imagining. Well…it’s at the point that we stare high into the elephant’s eye.

I truly believe most animals wouldn’t be as overwhelmingly formidable as most people fear. With lions and tigers, and indeed even polar bears, oh my, it should simply be a matter of making a few clever escapes and striking one of the many relative soft spots…repeatedly…probably in a carving manner.

But elephants are a different and far more ugly proposition. First…they are fucking huge and weigh an incredible amount. They are obviously the much more robust land-equivalent of the jellyfish. You may not even be doing battle…they may not even know you [...]