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Self-healing bio-concrete.

Vanish. Writer Evan Ratliff finds out how easy (or hard) it is to disappear with a $5000 bounty on his head.

Chris Foss concept art for Dune, with bonus Nostromo. The images were produced for Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1974 attempt at filming the story, with other artists involved including Moebius and HR Giger. Though the project failed Jodorowsky collaborated further with Moebius to lay the groundwork for his own Dune-like comicbook universe (and a trailer for an animated version of it was even created). M...

I'm not "jolly". I'm in the most high-risk group for gastroesophageal reflux disease. For some, Christmas starts a little too early each year.

Lexington's Mayor, Jim Newberry, bristled at critical questions about The Dame block, "Nothing of consequence ever happened on that block." Richie Wireman begs to differ.
Wireman spent 4 months documenting the final stages of the long and controversial demise of one city block full of established local businesses to make way for a dubiously financed high-rise development.

While no longer a ...

You got typography in my cooking.

25 students at Lincoln University may not graduate, because they failed -- to lose weight. The students are members of "the first graduating class required to either have a BMI below 30 or to take 'Fitness for Life,' a one semester class that mixes exercise, nutritional instruction and discussion of the risks of obesity" in order to graduate from Lincoln.
In a similar vein, you may remember last ...

Internet Vices: various Web 2.0 sites and services, recast as drugs and alcohol.
For example, myspace "is huffing spray paint: Destroys any chance of looking credible. You will be perceived as having the mindset of a middle schooler, and probably do." ...

DIY Forges: not forgery, but making your own smithy. There are plenty of variations available, but there's something special when a teenage boy builds his own forge and teaches himself black smithing.
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A women's prayer group was expelled from the area of Jerusalem's Western Wall on Wednesday for wearing tallitot and reading from the Torah, in violation of an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that restricts these activities to men in the area directly in front of the wall. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the majority of non-Orthodox rabbinical students are female, with the Reform movement being the most fema...

Luxirare is about killer clothes and fine cuisine. Recent features include: Thanksgiving Part I, creating a thanksgiving meal that is less about an abundance of leftovers and instead maximizing the visual appeal of "thanksgiving" symbols like the pumpkin, as a dessert; and Pie Pops, for those who want to eat pie, but don't want a whole slice—who want to try multiple flavors, but for just a bite or...

From Matthias Wandel, the inventor of the wooden marble calculator and the non-wooden eyeballing game, now comes the wooden Jenga pistol and its successor, as well as the wooden geodesic cat storage device and wooden wasp sucker.
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In case you haven't, please meet Ricky Williams. He has had one of the most fascinating careers of any professional athlete: he was a high school phenom in Football, Baseball, Track, and Wrestling. He played FOUR YEARS of minor league baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies organization. He was a two time all American at Texas and winner of the Heisman Trophy. He translated that success into a gre...

"I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it ...

The University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit suffered a security breach this week. Hackers made off with thousands of email correspondences between some of the world's top climate scientists, and posted them to the Internet¹.

Tony Hake has posted an article at The Examiner, highlighting what he feels are the most egregious examples of scientists manipulating and hiding data to support ...

Photographer Matt Logue's empty L. A. shows the effect of the city being completely people-less.

CERN has successfully circulated beams in the Large Hadron Collider. This news was announced via Twitter, where they will be accepting questions for an upcoming press conference; in the meantime, check out explanatory videos on their YouTube channel, some lively podcasts, or an overview of particle physics on their website. The home of the Web has done a pretty good job keeping up with technology....

What should we do instead of the Obama health reform bill?

Merriam-Webster's Ask the Editors blog is the centerpiece of the Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary site. It is an excellent source of sensible advice about English language and usage. Editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski also has a Twitter feed where he highlights various interesting things about words. Finally, Merriam-Webster has started producing Ask the Editor videos, four so far, where they'...

In a soft voice, chuckling frequently and gazing intently with gray-green eyes, Mr. McCarthy talked about books vs. films, the apocalypse, fathers and sons, past and future projects, how he writes—and God.
My favorite quote:

WSJ: But is there something compelling about the collaborative process [of filmmaking] compared to the solitary job of writing?

CM: Yes, it would compel you to avoid it at all costs. ...

The Awl wants you to stop being a wuss and bake a pie crust. See also How To Barbecue A Turkey–The Super Easy Way For Morons and Fundamentalist Macaroni and Cheese. Or you can just cook a fucking steak.
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50 Practical tips to save you half a lifetime. Such as the indispensible: "If you think you might be about to be sick, you are about to be sick: run to the loo."

Shifting Blame Is Socially Contagious. Merely observing someone publicly blame an individual in an organization for a problem -- even when the target is innocent -- greatly increases the odds that the practice of blaming others will spread with the tenacity of the H1N1 flu, according to new research. "When we see others protecting their egos, we become defensive too," says Fast, the study's lead ...

Google is rolling out free PowerMeter software that works with the TED 5000 smart meter to transmit near real time utility usage to Google servers. This data can then be securely displayed on your Android or iPhone. With stimulus money earmarked for smart meters they will eventually become ubiquitous as standards evolve from the current patchwork.
Not only can we yell at the kids to turn off ligh...

Dell Hymes, a giant of sociolinguistic theory, has died. "He didn't have much patience for wasting your time in academic endeavors that wouldn't have a direct relevance for the world and for righting some of the inequalities in the world," [Dr. Nancy] Hornberger said. Or as Dr. Hymes himself put it, describing his approach to anthropology: "I am always interested in combating elitism and narrowness. . . . Th...