] A study showing the link between country music and
] suicide has taken one of the top prizes in this year's
] Ig-Nobel awards - the humorous alternative to the Nobel
] prizes.
]
] Other winners include the inventor of the karaoke
] machine, the man who patented the "comb-over" for
] covering the head of bald men and a student who
] investigated the danger of eating food that has fallen on
] the floor. The 10 winners of the 2004 Ig-Nobel prizes -
] which celebrate the bizarre, weird, funny and improbable
] elements of genuine scientific inquiry - received their
] awards last night at a ceremony at Harvard University in
] Boston.

Strange but true: country music saps will to live

] The work of M.C. Escher needs no introduction. We have
] all learned to appreciate the impossibilities that this
] master of illusion's artwork presents to the layman's
] eye. Nevertheless, it may come as a surprise for some,
] but many of the so-called 'impossible' drawings of M. C.
] Escher can be realized as actual physical objects. These
] objects will resemble the Escher's drawing, of the same
] name, from a certain viewing direction. This work below
] presents some of these three-dimensional models that were
] designed and built using geometric modeling and computer
] graphics tools.
]
] Convention:
]
] In the following sequences, figures are frequently
] presented in pairs. The left figure in each pair is the
] front view-Escher's drawing's direction, whereas the
] right figure gives a general view. Whenever a real,
] tangible model has been created, it will be presented as
] a second pair to the right of the pair of computer
] rendered images. The objects were physically realized
] with the aid of layered manufacturing systems: a Z402 3D
] Printer from Zcorporation and a Stratasys FDM3000
] printing machine. Click on any image below to get the
] full size version of these images. In addition, some
] models are also accompanied by AVI movies that present
] them from a multitude of directions. Many of these movies
] are using the DivX CODEC which you can get free of charge
] for private use from http://www.divx.com/divx/download.

Escher for Real

Mummy hair has revealed the first direct evidence of alcohol consumption in ancient populations, according to new forensic research.

The study, still in its preliminary stage, examined hair samples from spontaneously mummified remains discovered in one of the most arid regions of the world, the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru.

The researchers decided to look into mummy hair following previous success in demonstrating cocaine and nicotine traces in the hair of other Andean mummies.

Discovery Channel :: News :: Mummy Hair Reveals Drinking Habits

] Secret Worlds: The Universe Within
]
] View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the
] Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in
] successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak
] tree just outside the buildings of the National High
] Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After
] that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a
] microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell
] nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic
] universe of electrons and protons.

Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You - Secret Worlds: The Universe Within - Interactive Java Tutorial

] Here's a discussion of (instantaneous) FTL and causality
] that shows how to make a time machine (and hence results
] in time-travel paradoxes).

FTL and Time Travel Paradoxes

Article from Economist Magazine regarding researchers wanting more open access to information and science publishers being unhappy about it. God bless the internet.

Science Publishing Needs to be more open

]
] Recently in the magazine Nature, we proposed a
] mathematical model to calculate and classify all possible
] tie knots. Of the 85 found, we duly predicted the four
] knots in widespread use (see below) and further
] introduced nine new aesthetic ones.

I ran across this page while googling for "how to tie a necktie" (as a prototypical geek I can barely tie a tie and have been feeling some pressure at work to wear one). Interestingly they have several -new- methods for tying ties. So right now I'm wearing a new Tommy Hilfiger tie w/ a 7,2 slim knot!

Theory of Tie Knots

] The dreaded Africanized honey bee -- better known as
] the "killer bee" -- may be buzzing slightly northward.
] Entomologists believe that an Africanized swarm was
] responsible for an attack in Tipton, Okla., earlier this
] month. Africanized bees were first discovered in Texas in
] 1990, setting off panicked reports that they'd be
] ubiquitous throughout much of the United States in a
] matter of years. But they've only made it to six
] Southwestern states so far. Why are the killer bees
] moving so slowly?

Why Are Killer Bees So Slow? - Aren't they supposed to be here already? By Brendan I. Koerner

Purty Graphics.

Has nice interactive animations of the planets and various space probes.

JPL NASA Solar System