www.leefur.com

 

"I appreciate that many readers will be profoundly distrustful of the tack I am taking here," he writes. "They will see me as just another liberal professor trying to cajole them out of some of their convictions, and they are dead right about that -- that's what I am, and that's exactly what I am trying to do."

The future looks bleak, indeed, as the nation's first digitally patrolled highway rolls out ... link

(Thanks Jesse) 

This looks like a lot of fun. Those mad scientists at MIT have come up with a paintbrush-looking doodad that can "pick up" any color, texture, or movement in the real world (an apple, someone's hat, etc) and then "paint" it onto a screen. It's a bit tough to explain, but it's worth a viewing.

Links to the video: 27MB Quicktime and relatively inferior 9MB quicktime; and the page. Technology is fun!

Have you seen that mediocre John Travolta / Nicolas Cage vehicle Face Off? Where they slice off each of their faces and switch them? That shit's about to become reality.

Doctors are interviewing potentials to receive the first-ever face transplant. The new face is to be supplied by a dead donor, and computer models show that the new face will look like neither the original face or the dead guy's face. The recipient will have to be on powerful anti-rejection drugs for the remainder of his/her life, and there's fantastic risk that this will blow up in the worst way. (Two pun opportunities in that sentence, rejection and blow up ... you fill them in)

So if you're as ugly as you think you are, hold on. A few years down the line, perhaps you can kill me and steal my face.

Link

I've posted a lot today already, but I had to post this.

It seems that Coke is working on a beverage that actually burns calories. Each 12oz can burns 50 to 100 calories by speeding up your metabolism.

Now, this sounds a bit like heroin to me, but who am I to split hairs?

Link

A recent study shows that, after much debate, the naysayers said nay for good reason. Echinacea is ineffective to treat or prevent colds.

I'll leave it to my research-minded friends to poke holes in this (and you can generally poke holes in research until you're blue in the face), but consider this a promotion for Airborne, which I've still never used, but I've heard is a miracle treatment for colds ... despite their circa 1996 web design.

Link

Your children will usher in the Apocalypse, it seems.

This new dolly has fantastic 'artificial intelligence' that allows it to recognize it's "mommy's" voice, recongize her stuff, and even pout if mommy yells at her. And the photo is just striaght eerie. Link  (Thanks Jesse)

Interesting article here on the progressing science of the female orgasm. Seems that after the barnburner success of Viagra and its followups, scientists got right to work on a pill to help stimulate the female orgasm. Turns out that while the male 'gasm is primarily a phsycial phenomenon, the female 'gasm is actually based in the brain. So just flooding the underpants area with blood won't do it.

So they got right to work on mapping the areas of the brain activated during the 'gasm. But to do this, they had to find women who could 'gasm without moving. Afterall, movement activates other parts of the brain. So they apparently found 12 women who can "think off". All together now ... "damn them!"

I loved this line:

"Orgasm is probably incredibly good for the brain," Komisaruk says. "The entire organ is being oxygenated."

 

Even crazier, women with spinal cord injuries that left them paralyzed - i.e. without feeling - below the waste were still able to come (ahem) to orgasm via physical stimulation. Seems there's a separate nerve path running along the front of the body from the ever-elusive G-spot.

That same never apparently is also involved in transmission of pain signals. An interesting side effect of this is that women's pain threshold grows by 50% during sexual stimulation, and by 100% during 'gasm. (There's something to the Donkey Punch afterall!)

Way to end on a high note, Lee. Link

Those crazy scientists ... their next kooky invention? The male birth control pill. Finally, we men can be freed of our subordinate sexual role and be free to have indiscriminate sex with as many willing partners as we can find. This is going to change the world! (Thank Josh for the link)

For those of you in the computer usability world, this is something we've been talking about for years. For those of you in the computer world but not in the usability world, this is no surprise. For everyone else, you may not give a crap.

But anyway, here's further evidence that the days of files going into folders that fit into other folders in a neat hierarchy are ending. Google's Desktop Search was an earlier warning shot, but the Spotlight Search in the new Mac OS really matures the idea. In short, instead of hunting for files through this clumsy, error-prone hierarchy, finding files is done through a sophisticated, quick, easy-to-use search. Also, programs like iTunes and iPhoto make it unnecessary to find files.

Cool, if you care. Link