dynagirl

Synasthesia in Art at the Smithsonian. That looks so fun.

If I’m lying in bed, half-asleep (or even a quarter-asleep), a loud noise will register in my vision as a flash of white light. Maybe I can pay more attention and learn this?

OK, I’ve just spent five minutes, with my eyes open but my ears really open, and all I have to say is that this quiet office is entirely too loud. Really, do the lights have to buzz quite so loudly? I don’t even like the light they put out, and now they’re screaming at me like in that Clockwatchers movie. Ugh.

Interesting article at Treehugger quoting the Los Angeles Times about how the EU may be changing the shape of cosmetics and personal care manufacture, and also including this paragraph that explains why I’m going to switch brands:

“Cosmetics sold in Europe cannot contain about 600 substances that are allowed in U.S. products, including, as of last September, any compound linked to cancer, genetic mutations and reproductive effects.”

Yikes! I want to wash my face now.

Google + census data. Sweet! There are one-hundred and forty-eight people on my block, in seventy houses.

I was always fairly skeptical about the vaccine/autism link, and mostly dismissed it as grasping at straws, until I read this article on Salon. Our wee ones will still get their shots, but I’m going to make damned sure that they’re thimerisol/mercury/whatever free.

Updated, 6/27/2005: New York state has banned use of thimerasol in vaccines.

Homebrew air conditioning, for under $30. Brilliant!

Whoa.

A manager at a Wisconsin Culver’s Custard read an article about vegetable oil-fueled cars, saw the 60 gallons of oil they were paying to have taken away, and started saving $500 a month after he converted his truck. Now the whole Culver’s chain has teamed up with the Madison Environmental Group to convert all the company cars to biofuel.

Vote for the Most Amazing Galactic Images Ever over at Space.com.

Siberian zoo has a Liger ( not a Tigon — those eat too much and totally smell like poo) on display, showing off its skills in magic.

I’m so not surprised.

My mother has these perfect, little, sized-seven feet, with high arches and beautiful ankles — and it’s no wonder she has a serious shoe fetish. Seriously, I’ve seen her in flats twice and she wears stockings every day.

My feet tend more to the Frost side; they’re not horribly unattractive, but mostly they’re just wide and fairly practical; more for transport than adornment. As a result, I’ve been fairly sensible in my shoe choices. I stay shod in fashionable, comfortable boots and shoes, and keep the dainty “things” for rare and special occasions.

Imagine, then, the stink-eye I’ve been giving the shoe karma fairies that have given me a lovely and painful bunion. The last six months have found me confined to my Land’s End clogs and dreading my options. A little research, after a tip from a colleague, places the blame not on the shoe karma fairies — but, instead, square on my monkey feet. They’re shaped in such a way that the big toe has a nice gap away from its bretheren, and more motility; this comes from the way the first knuckle of that toe is more distal than the rest. Handy for swinging from tree branches, yes, but resulting in a foot shape naturally prone to such bunions. Shit!

Bill Nye has a new show!

Cooking for Engineers has a great (and kinda scary) chart cataloging a huge number of common food additives. All the more reason to cook your own damned food.

Virtual keyboard projected with LAZERS — and it’s to be integrated into wireless appliances by next year. Guess I’m going to be holding off on that Treo…

If the soda is customarily stored in the front porch, and the air temperature in the front porch is 15°F, it is best to wait a while before opening the soda. Durr.

A History of Garbage in New York City.

Prisoner Inventions.

Understanding telephones.

Articles from Slate and The New York Times about how pregnant women can’t/won’t eat anything.

(Disclaimer: currently eating for one.)

Am I nuts for thinking that maybe this is why we see so many allergies in kids now?

Last year, a co-worker’s baby shower was at a sushi restaurant. But she didn’t eat anything, because OMG, raw fish. (How does Japan keep producing healthy babies?! Don’t these women know what they’re doing to their babies?!)

This summer I was at the deli counter at the Jenifer Street Market (neighborhood, but definitely upscale). It was busy. They had a little dish of centimeter-sized cheese samples. A woman went up to the counter, grabbed a toothpick, and flagged down a worker. In a tone that was all, “I’m pregnant, and special, and you. are. so. not.” asked, “Is this pasteurized? Because I’m pregnant.” The worker didn’t know, had to find someone else, then they had to hunt down the cheese label, because she really needed that itty-bitty fucking cheese cube. Ah, but they couldn’t find the answer, so she left it — without buying anything. And left ten people fuming in line.

While I’m certainly not planning on the Manhattans-and-Marlboros Diet that my maternal grandmother preferred, I WILL BE EATING CHEESE. I will be eating EGGS. I will have a cup of coffee. If I can stomach it, sushi, too. Maybe even a wee nip of wine or Guinness once a week. I hate peanut butter, but maybe I’ll eat some anyway, just to toughen up the lil’ sprog. This assumes, of course, that morningall-day sickness ever goes away and I manage to eat once in nine months.

Jesus, the French and the Japanese are OK… and if you can’t handle CHEESE, maybe you’re NOT MY KID. (And while I’m on a food rant, if MSG is so bad, how come all of China isn’t one big fucking walking migrane?)

I wonder how this increased anxiety is tied to the way that so many new parents (in this class, let’s not forget that aspect) run right back to work…? Same with this whole antibacterial-everything freakfest, but that’s another rant (For god’s sake go outside and eat some dirt or something. Tighten up your panties, boy!)

I would love if some of the Cultural Studies people started writing about this…
via DaddyTypes

Tiger and Piggies. What it says. Cutest thing I’ve seen all week.

One scary-ass big bridge, in Japan.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this…

MRPs: Meals Ready-to-Pee — A company has developed food packets for the army that can be rehydrated by peeing on them. Yum! Eew.

Breeds of Livestock.

Jealous of Dick Cheney’s robotitude, the Attorney General of Mexico has gotten a microchip implant. It will give him access to a crime database, D Cups of Justice, and will track him if kidnapped. The chip will be deactivated when he leaves office but cannot be removed.

Meanwhile, a school in Osaka is RFID-chipping all of its students (but not with implants). Scary.

Crash Testing, Ford 150 truck vs. Mini Cooper. Big, safe-looking Ford Truck is a DEATH MACHINE. And I mean for its occupants.
Via Reenhead

The vulva skin microclimate: influence of panty liners on temperature, humidity and pH.

…the brains of people deeply in love do not look like those of people experiencing strong emotions, but instead like those of people snorting coke…

Voyager 1 is leaving the solar system, 8.4 billion miles away. 8.4 billion miles. Holy fuck!

Goodbye, Galileo!