2005 - The Year in Ideas

December 11, 2005 5:15 AM

2005 - The Year in Ideas. From Accredited Bliss to Zombie Dogs, the NY Times runs through the year's scientific, cultural, and academic developments.
posted by ph00dz (13 comments total)

By the way -- might be worth pointing out that matthowie got a mention in there.
posted by ph00dz at 5:21 AM on December 11, 2005

I have to say, I would hate to be the researcher in charge of putting the dogs under. That strikes me as the saddest job in the world.

Er, other than slaughtering cattle, I guess.
posted by JHarris at 7:26 AM on December 11, 2005

Medical Maggots has to be the one that gets my vote. Some of those medieval-era medical techniques need a closer look after this. Trepanation, anyone?
posted by olbiadle at 7:43 AM on December 11, 2005

Medical maggots come around every few years. Never seems to catch on.
posted by Hogshead at 9:02 AM on December 11, 2005

Some things that caught my eye...

Lynch harbors broader hopes that the seven universities of peace could enable the square root of 1 percent of the world's population - about 8,000 people - to simultaneously do an advanced version of the T.M. technique called "yogic flying."
Apparently not a joke.

And some film purists, like the director M. Night Shyamalan, have said that universal release is also a threat to the traditional moviegoing experience.
Is it just me, or are purists nearly always wrong?

(A good example is the blogger Matthew Haughey's evocative project, "My Childhood, Seen by Google Maps.")
Yaaaay! Go Matt!

Ergomorphic Footwear
Newsflash - science creates sandals that are even uglier then Birkenstocks!

Fried mayonnaise? Hot ice cream? Chocolate pudding that can be sliced and cut?
[...] a 20-course tasting menu can begin with "sushi" made of paper that has been printed with images of maki and wrapped around vinegared rice
does any of this sound appealing.... to anyone?

Bernanke pointed out that Japan, Germany and other advanced industrialized nations have been squirreling away money to help support aging populations and that because of a paucity of attractive domestic investments, a sizable share of those savings has been put to work in the United States.
Doesn't this just mean that if our economy crashes, that (A) we're fucked for not saving anything and (B) everybody else is fucked for investing in us? "We're all in this together..."

It's called the controlled-viewing-angle LCD: a screen - for either a computer or a television, or a combination of the two - that shows different images depending on the angle from which you view it.
I won't be impressed by this until they do the same thing with sound. Otherwise, wouldn't you would have to wear headphones?

A tissue engineer at the Medical University of South Carolina has even proposed a countertop device similar to a bread maker that would produce meat overnight in your kitchen.
Haha! Wrestle with that one, vegans! (How I love to see you squirm...)

And so this October he put out a plea for help, asking his readers to share their knowledge of the spreading Washington scandals. He termed the effort "open-source investigative reporting."
Negroponte suggests that we take this idea one step further.

Stash Rocket : Its payload consisted of two gallon-size Ziploc bags that contained roughly two pounds, or 917 grams, of methamphetamine.
Y'know, only a tweaker would come up with an idea like this.

"The Crawl" Makes You Stupid
Haha! Eat that, Flash enthusiasts! I was right all along!
posted by Afroblanco at 9:47 AM on December 11, 2005

"wouldn't you would" = "wouldn't you"
posted by Afroblanco at 9:48 AM on December 11, 2005

The controlled-angle LCD - your coworkers and random passers-by think that you're working on a report when you're actually reading metafilter.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 10:36 AM on December 11, 2005

The device they've got on there that disables digital cameras "to protect celebrities from the paparazzi" sounds very much like something governments will probably be using regularly.
posted by hermitosis at 12:06 PM on December 11, 2005

Why should the idea of vat-grown meat make vegans squirm? I for one am completely in favor of it. The only thing I have against the current production of meat (environment damage concerns aside) is the suffering the individuals experience.
posted by Vulpyne at 3:22 PM on December 11, 2005

These are always fun, because they're generally not the usual rehashed items we've all heard about, and the Gray Lady seems to forgo the journalistic Botox in favor of a bit of whimsy. What often grabs me most, in the tradition of The New Yorker's newsbreaks and Esquire's Dubious Achievement Awards, are the clever, WTF? titles.
posted by rob511 at 4:18 PM on December 11, 2005

Why should the idea of vat-grown meat make vegans squirm?

It would be interesting to see them wrap their heads around the idea. Specifically, I wonder if they would start eating meat again.
posted by Afroblanco at 5:29 PM on December 11, 2005

The stash rocket is, indeed, the story of the year. I guess there's a meth scientist behind every meth lab.
posted by ph00dz at 6:19 PM on December 11, 2005

The thing about the stash rocket is that it's so obviously a creation of the meth mindset. I could totally see some tweakers going at it for hours (or days), designing an elaborate stash-jettisoning rocket, without once thinking, "Umm, maybe the cops who are busting us will think something is up when they see a rocket take off from the trunk of our car," or, "Maybe we should just put it in a backpack and drive carefully."

Methies. Gotta love 'em.
posted by Afroblanco at 7:21 PM on December 11, 2005