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3 Quarks Daily's top three 2009 science blog posts As chosen by Steven Pinker: Bands of Iron, The ecological disaster that is dolphin safe tuna and Ten Things You Don’t Know About Hubble. If that's not enough for you, you can read the seven finalists or the 20 20 semifinalists (or the 171 nominees)
posted by delmoi at 11:26 PM PST - 48 comments

Have you ever dreamed of moving an object with the power of your mind? Mindflex, the new mental acuity game from Mattel, makes that dream a reality. A lightweight headset containing sensors for the forehead and earlobes measures your brainwave activity. When you focus your concentration, a small foam ball will rise on a gentle stream of air. Relax your thoughts and the ball will descend. By using a combination of physical and mental coordination, you must then guide the ball through a customizable obstacle course, the various obstacles can be repositioned into many different configurations. [more inside]
posted by litterateur at 10:22 PM PST - 39 comments

Sex Galaxy (trailer 1, trailer 2, NSFW) is a new film that claims to be the first "green film," as it is made of 100% recycled material. In an Wired article, director/producer Mike Davis discloses his film sources. "Boarded-up libraries, abandoned schools, decaying drive-in movie theaters…. These are the realms in which I unearth my wares," he said. "And actually, many of these films are available on the internet. You can find amazing collections through the Library of Congress." The Wired article notes that the recycled material isn't itself wholly original, and Bad Lit expands the history of film plunder further. Sex Galaxy is sourced from Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, which relied on footage from Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which in turn is sampled from the Russian film Planeta Bur. The history of film reuse is long and storied, and continues after the jump. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:12 PM PST - 17 comments

Tip of My Tongue: Find that word you've been thinking about all day but just can't seem to remember.
posted by Miko at 8:26 PM PST - 29 comments

TOE breaking Lorentz invariance - "by treating space and time differently as well as separately, the infinities in the quantum mechanics equations vanish, and gravity behaves as it should." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 6:54 PM PST - 44 comments

Sega has developed a 15-inch tall robot girlfriend, who can identify human heads and will kiss them on command. But they seem to be licensing it from WowWee, who call it Femisapien.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 5:17 PM PST - 54 comments

A pair of Swedish parents are keeping their child's ("Pop") sex a secret. The parents believe that gender is a social construction, and they want to keep Pop from being placed into any categories based on his/her gender. Psychologists, medical specialists, and other researchers disagree on how this decision may affect the child, and some believe this secret is similar to the one David Reimer's family kept from him. Via Feministing.
posted by Four-Eyed Girl at 5:01 PM PST - 202 comments

Escape and other tools made by inmates in German prisons, from the photographer Marc Steinmetz. My favorite is the functional battery-powered shotgun, although the hand-made toaster is a testament to the love of a decent breakfast. via.
posted by Rumple at 2:21 PM PST - 21 comments

In the heart of Greenwich Village, New York City at 1:20 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, 1969 eight New York City police raided a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn (later deemed a National Historic Landmark). "As the police raided the bar, a crowd of four hundred patrons gathered on the street outside and watched the officers arrest the bartender, the doorman, and a few drag queens [see: police arrest reports]. The crowd, which eventually grew to an estimated 2,000 strong, was fed up."* Thus began three days of rioting and the advent of the modern gay rights movement. In honor of the Stonewall Riots, many gay pride celebrations around the world are held during the month of June, including this week(end)'s NYC Pride, celebrating 40 years of Stonewall's impact on seeking to bring civil rights to all, including the LGBT community. Happy Pride! [more inside]
posted by ericb at 2:05 PM PST - 65 comments

Daryl Peveto is a freelance photographer and videographer with a passion for social documentary storytelling. Over the last few years he has worked on issues ranging from American nomads to bullfighting in Tijuana to Antarctica: The White Continent to the black market economies of Peru. His photoblog is a sketchbook for story ideas and visual explorations.
posted by netbros at 10:56 AM PST - 4 comments

The Book of Genesis illustrated by Robert Crumb. Extracts of Crumb's latest work, years in the making and to be published in October, are serialized in the French cultural weekly Telerama during this summer (warning: bad interface, text in French). Short interview with the author here. [more inside]
posted by elgilito at 10:06 AM PST - 51 comments

Amazing Pooktre Sculptures. A gallery of living art. Previously. (with bonus extra Previouslies inside!)
posted by hippybear at 9:51 AM PST - 10 comments

There are worries that a new geothermal project in California may cause earthquakes (nice animation from NYT and here's the full article). These worries are not just theoretical, its happened before... [more inside]
posted by 445supermag at 8:23 AM PST - 33 comments

Our new silicon overlords might end up carbon based after all.
posted by flabdablet at 6:44 AM PST - 29 comments

We had a great Obit post yesterday and a great post on the music video work of Michel Gondry. Why not join the two? After all, he was one of the great pioneers and innovators of the format and worked with some of the great film and art directors there were... Here's The complete videography of Michael Jackson to enjoy for your weekend. Actual videos inside: [more inside]
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 2:53 AM PST - 64 comments

"The digested mouse generates the energy to power the trap door, sensor and an LED graphic display on the front of the table."
posted by orthogonality at 2:07 AM PST - 36 comments

Giovanni Arrighi, the renowned authority in the fields of world systems analysis and historical sociology, died earlier this month. A retrospective interview on his intellectual trajectory was published in the March/April 2009 issue of New Left Review. A major international conference was held in his honour in late May in Madrid, featuring several top scholars in an exploration of the insights of Arrighi’s work.
posted by Abiezer at 1:08 AM PST - 6 comments

Stephen Hawking: "Asteroid Impacts Biggest Threat to Intelligent Life in the Galaxy" Dare I say... there's more outside. [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:00 AM PST - 44 comments