Pinnacle of Coziness Technology Achieved, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Snuggie

Also good for posing in, apparently.

You have probably heard of the Snuggie, especially if you are really into Harry Potter or belong to a cult.

This shitty piece of cloth with a hood and holes in it has been dubbed the 'raiment of the zeitgeist' (it's not, btw), and its creation and marketing represent one of the first stages in a growing global crisis known as the "Cold War of Comfort". Other competing blanket-garments advanced onto the stage and the resulting "Coziness Gap" between competitors destabilized the world to the brink of Global Thermo-Nuclear Blanket War, leaving millions living under a shadow of fear, uncertainty, and very comfortable lounge-wear.

As the world teetered on the edge of a comfort apocalypse, some smart fucking dudes went ahead and played their trump card: Enter the Lippi Selk Bag, the ultimate in comfort atire. I AM BECOME COMFORT, DESTROYER OF WORLDS! We are all doomed.

Oh, Here is Some News:

FUCK YEAH.

On Saturday April 18th, 2009, the Praise Science web-log turns one years old. That is craziness. Things have admittedly been slower in the past 6 months than they were out of the chute, but it's cool. We are still here, Praising the shit out of Science. So expect some sort of super-rad-one-year-commemorative-retrospective-feature(tte)/Children's Treasury of PS History. Also, if anyone has any burning Science-related questions they must have anwers to, email that shit into praisescience@gmail.com BEFORE SATURDAY, and Praise Science will make all of your 1 year birthday wishes come true.

Praise and Follow Science!

This could be you...

Hey, look over there, on the side of the page; there is a new thing! Use it, and become not only a true Praiser of Science, but also a follower of this blog. What does this 'following' mean, you ask? I don't really know. Something about a cloud and 'Web 2.0' and collaboration. Also it will make me happy. So show your support and pride for this blog and FOLLOW IT NOW!

Science Fair winner

It looks like this child won some type of award for her project. Not only for providing excellent information on AIDS, but also including all components of the traditional scientific process: hypothesis, materials, procedure, and conclusion.

Existence of Twitter Finally Justified

Okay poop is coming out.

Here is one of the greatest questions of our time: WHY DOES TWITTER EVEN FUCKING EXIST???!??!? A man, who must be a great philosopher or something, has come up with the answer to this burning question. He has programmed his office chair to "tweet" to a "Twitter" "page" every time he farts while sitting on it. Here is a link to said Twitter page and also to a technical explanation of how this latter day renaissance man hath achieved such enlightenment. There haven't been any updates in 19 hours as of this posting. We assume this is because the creator of this device achieved Nirvana and transcended this plane of existence so he can no longer provide input to the chair.

Bacterial Communication

The TED talk series has been highlighted on this blog before, but I would like to point out one specific talk on the ability of bacteria to communicate with each other. The speaker, Bonnie Bassler, speaks at a frantic pace for twenty minutes straight, so be prepared to dedicate some time to the endeavor. However, it left me quite amazed, so I would recommend the full viewing.

Bonnie Bassler: Discovering bacteria's amazing communication system

Controlling Lightning

Would you like to trigger lightning strikes?

Would you like to be able to choose where the bolt strikes?

Well, all you evil scientists are in luck. Scientists have developed a method that may be able to induce lighting, and best of all it involves lasers.

Full Story

Goodbye Encarta

You've had a good run, but Microsoft is finally discontinuing the encarta franchise later this year: http://education.zdnet.com/?p=2328

My aging bones remember sitting in front of the computer perusing encarta to short-cut on my research paper about the Titanic.  Now I can go to wikipedia and copy and paste a lot more information.  Did you know that the Titanic housed both a Turkish bath and a squash court?

Goodbye Encarta, you have served us well.

Undersea Volcano Erupts

The Boston Globe's Big Picture Series has an impressive collection of shots detailing the eruption of an underwater volcano in the South Pacific. If you have any interest in thing that go boom, and I know you do, I would recommend checking out the full gallery.

Teenage Dinosaurs hang out in swaps, cause trouble, expirement with drugs, get stuck in mud.

Paleontologists have recently discovered a group of teenage (juvenile, not literally teenage) Sinornithomimus dongi in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The find presents a new understanding of thunder lizard social dynamics. The adolescents stuck together and got into trouble, while the parents raised the young. Sounds vaguely familiar.

Approximation of my bedroom's appearance circa 1989