The Curio

The Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time:

“To research my new book, Elephants on Acid, I scoured scientific archives searching for the most bizarre experiments of all time — the kind that are mind-twistingly, jaw-droppingly strange…”

Including the awesome “Experiments in the Revival of Dead Organisms”:

(A bit gruesome, and if actually genuine of questionable scientific value - but hey, what the hell)

He’s a zombie.

Teenager confesses to killing and eating room-mate - Times Online:

“A teenager has confessed to murdering a man he met in a homeless shelter and eating parts of his brain and internal organs.”

[Via Karl's Weird News]

Interesting for entomologists, but not great news for arachnophobes.
 
CANOE — CNEWS - Weird News: Sprawling spider web fascinates:

“WILLS POINT, Texas (AP) - Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-metre stretch of trail in a North Texas park.”

Billion light-year-wide hole in the universe, future massive-scale instrumentation and your entire life captured - but what for? Plus, I admit to a little blog envy. Join me on my way back home along the M6 from Birmingham, UK.

Show links:

• Huge hole found in the universe
• Sensors give rise to “life recorders”
• Posthuman Blues

Music is “Mandelbrot Set” from the rather clever Jonathan Coulton, courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network. Most excellent.

 

 Standard Podcast [20:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

It’s all in the hairs. Or the carbon nanotubes.

‘Spider-man’ suit secret revealed:

A “Spider-man” suit that enables its wearer to scale vertical walls like the comic and movie superhero could one day be a reality, according to a study.

Evidence of living ancient microbes found in permafrost:

“Scientists studying ancient organisms locked in permafrost from Canada, Siberia and Antarctica say they have found evidence of living microbes more than half a million years old.”

[Via Noumenal News]

A trip down memory lane for me here. I loved these books as a kid (yes, I was that kind of kid). No train or car journey would be complete without a trip to John Menzies to select a new book of horror stories. The cover art was quite scary too. Here’s one of my childhood favourites:

Pan Books of Horror Stories:

“The decade or so that preceded the reinvention of mass-market horror by The Exorcist was a lean period for the genre in fiction terms. But there was a chink of light with The Pan Book of Horror Stories…”

Nice piece, highlighting both the short life span (and our attention span) of modern technology, and the apparent decline in craftsmanship that goes with it.

I suppose steampunk represents a yearning for a child-like sense of wonder, that heady rush of innovation - senses that sterile digital technology simply does not provide.

Or maybe it’s just an age thing. Kids have always been able to assimilate new technologies rapidly, putting their parents to shame. Adults probably think too much about how it all works, rather than just using it. That, or they’re intimidated by it.

I know that whenever I try to explain, for example, the phenomenal resources they have at their instant disposal whenever they use Google, my kids just give me that “Yeah. Too much detail, Dad” look.

The age of steampunk - The Boston Globe:

“Steampunk has its roots in science fiction literature, where it describes a corner of the genre obsessed with Victoriana and the idea that the computer age evolved alongside the industrial.”

[Via]

The Home of the White Dragon Magazine:

“WHITE DRAGON is an independent quarterly pagan magazine covering witchcraft, northern traditions, the occult and earth mysteries serving the ancient kingdom of Mercia in the English Midlands.”

Nice set of links.

Mysterious Britain Links Page:

“Here is list of quality sites related to the topics within outlined within Mysterious Britain”