Last Thursday, GFY Icon of Irreverence Tilda "SWINTON" Swinton turned 49. We celebrated by stapling curtains around our bodies and then drinking champagne out of our highest stilettos -- the former because, let's face it, sometimes that's what SWINTON's outfits look like, and the latter just because it seemed like fun and Intern George hadn't washed our champagne flutes in a few days.SWINTON evidently feted the day by taking a lesson from Lindsay Lohan on makeup application:[Photo: WENN.com]Between the orange foundation and the intense eye brightener, her face looks like a creamsicle. Which is doubly jarring because I believe she's wearing an undertaker's sofa.I love you, SWINTON. Never change. Happy belated birthday.

I don't for a minute buy cannabis "fatalities". It's impossible to kill yourself with pot. The press reports "cannabis-related" deaths which is surreal. David McCandless, who devised the graph and runs Informationisbeautiful, adds:There has never been a single documented case of fatal cannabis overdose. Also, the government's own figures don't tally. While drug figures from the Office Of National Statistics register 19 cannabis related deaths, the mortality stats from the same office log only 1 death.But even granted that, you can see how the media irrationally focuses on what isn't the biggest problem by any objective assessment. And this focus can distort public policy. What would this graphic look like if the death-rate were assessed per user of each drug? Marijuana would appear as less toxic than aspirin. Below the fold:

In all the discussion surrounding the experimental nature of FATALE, it’s easy to forget the amount of hard and loving work was put into its creation. So we decided to pay homage to one of the most complex elements in the production -the Dance of the Seven Veils- by putting together a “Making Of” [...]

[Photo by MISTER MORT]I spotted this fella while walking through the garment center. When I asked if I coule take his photo, he happily obliged.

Let's consider the proposal that resistance to funding scientific research on drugs of abuse or on treatment is, at bottom, motivated by the view that taking drugs is a moral failing.(I'm curious to know how many people holding this view include alcohol and tobacco as drugs. Or caffeine. Or psychiatric drugs. Or drugs to reduce cholesterol, or acid reflux, or wrinkles. Or drugs to address erectile dysfunction, or diabetes. Where on the "drug facts" label is the language that will identify which of the many substances that interact with our bodies and brains are moral and which are immoral? Is legality the relevant line here, as the commenter I'm quoting suggests, or something else? If the "legalize it" crowd were to succeed in the push to get marijuana decriminalized, would its use move to the morally acceptable column?)The implication of the view that taking drugs is a moral failing is that if you make this wrong choice, you fully deserve everything that follows from this choice -- and you ought not receive any assistance in undoing the mess that your wrong choice got you into.(Drug use is a moral failing but investment in mortgage-backed securities is not, apparently.)Science can ask all the questions it wants about drugs, then, but not on our dime. We already know everything we need to know about drugs. Using them is bad ... which must mean only bad people use them. Bad people deserve punishment, so the nasty effects of drug use are entirely appropriate.Of course, even if we were ready to stipulate that the people who take drugs are all bad, they are not the only people who get to deal with the nasty effects. These effects may impinge on their ability to do their job, which can impact their employers, their co-workers, the people who depend on the goods or services their workplace produces, not to mention, further out, impacts on things like tax revenues and GDP.There are also people too young to be holding jobs to consider here. The kids who are taking drugs may be impacting their ability to grow into responsible adults, who can hold jobs and otherwise contribute to their communities. They may be making things even harder for the teachers trying to teach them in school, or for the kids sharing the classroom with them to learn. Even if you're prepared to let a child suffer lifelong consequences for a choice you see as morally wrong, it's not clear that they won't be causing significant harm to others on the way -- including their families, their friends, their neighborhoods.(Having kids of my own, this is not an abstract question for me. I know my kids are likely, in the process of growing to adulthood, to make some choices I'd rather they didn't. My hope is that this happens in a way that avoids permanent damage all the way around.)If the nasty effects of their bad choice are such that folks taking drugs can't get or keep jobs (or otherwise take care of their families), there may be impacts on social service programs (whether governmental or private) that they rely on for help getting food and housing, or that might be called in to intervene if the safety of their kids or partners or elders were in question. There may be impacts on hospitals, where the folks taking drugs may end up relying on the emergency room for medical care (since if you can't keep a job, chances are good you don't have the health insurance that would cover regular non-emergency medical visits). These costs will get shared with the rest of the public -- even the people who have avoided the moral failing of taking drugs.As will the costs of law enforcement, if the people taking drugs resort to crime to support their drug habits. As will the costs of incarceration, if the people taking drugs are taken off the streets to protect the rest of us from that crime. We get to foot the bill for the effects of other people's "moral failings" here as it is. Why, then, should it be so objectionable to consider spending some public money to figure out how to help people stop? Is it so important that people be punished for their moral failings that we're willing to sustain large-scale societal collateral damage just to enact that punishment?Because honestly, I'm not sure that this kind of vengeance is terribly moral. Even if it were fair to the person making the choice you view as morally wrong, it seems pretty unfair to all the other people who will also be hurt.Why can't we, as a society, turn to scientists to get reliable information on how drugs impact human bodies, brains, and behaviors? Why can't we fund scientific research to develop effective ways to treat drug dependence -- to help people who want to stop doing this thing so many people view as morally wrong? Why can't we get behind research efforts to determine what kinds of genetic and environmental factors make people -- including kids -- more vulnerable to dependency, or to the harms that may impact a much larger circle of people?Couldn't better knowledge help people make better choices?Couldn't better knowledge help society minimize some of the collateral damage from the bad choices that have already been made?And really, seriously, are we committed to a one-strike policy with bad choices, with no room for compassion or fresh starts? Is that really who we want to be as a society?It's not who I want us to be. I'm not ready to take a stand that amounts to throwing away a family member, a friend, a coworker or student, a neighbor, even a stranger, for one bad choice -- especially if they are looking for help to change. I'd rather we be a society that stands ready to help people change -- and to help get them the best information we can that will support the change they're trying to make. It's not just in their interest, but in ours, too.

My Fetus Totally Looks Like The Emperor From Star Wars » Think you can do better? Make your own! Pictures by: dunno source, Kate Look-alike by: dunno source via Totally Looks Like Builder

A few weeks ago, the CA in my dorm put up some signs about STDs and pregnancy. One of them said "Abstinence is the only 100% effective way of avoiding pregnancy." One morning I noticed that someone had taped next to it a picture of Mary and Jesus with the caption "99.9%" MLIA.

via http://whileyouwerentlistening.posterous.com/

comosehomo:

ryking:

livejamie:

This is a Congolese “Sapeur” - They’re gangs of men that spend tens of thousands of dollars on expensive European designer suits while frequently otherwise living in abject poverty. They have gang battles where instead of fighting each other, they have “Defi de Sape” - They go to another gang’s turf where their presence demands that the host gang run home and change into their finest suits to prove that they’re classier. Their gangs have names like “L’Association des Anglais” (The Association of Englishmen) and “Deux Grands Dandies de la Capitale” (Two Rich Dandies.) They are awesome.

cjmeetsworld: This is, without a doubt, the best fucking thing I’ve EVER HEARD OF. scottfriday: i was gonna say exactly the same thing, cj. ryking: I think it’s the weirdest form of self-destruction I’ve ever seen… “I live in poverty because rather than eating well and living in a good home I spend every penny I get emulating white Westerners’ culture as part of a murder-free gangster lifestyle.” Reminds me of anime, with its Japanese people drawn as Caucasians; there’s a weird self-loathing here. ryking: Update: More on “The Sape:” George: The Sape emerged from the chaos that was the Congo during the reign of Mobutu. It was really one way of coping with a society that had broken down. For a young person growing up at that time, there wasn’t much to grasp hold of to help you feel better about yourself. Politics was out, so you found a lot of cargo cult religions in the Congo… The distinctive look of the sapeurs was also a rebellion against one of Mobutu’s dictatorial decrees, which was that everyone was expected to dress in a very traditional, standard African costume - the abacost. Cosima: The sapeurs in Paris and Brussels are using these European status symbols not to integrate into European society but to ‘be someone’ back home in the Congo… They aren’t so much concerned with proving anything to the outside world but rather to one another, among their own community. These people have grown up with no kind of social structure to rely on. The Sape is a mini-state providing its own social strata: president, ministers, acolytes and so on.

This is absurd.

THIS IS AWESOME.  Best dressed po’ folks in the whole damn world.

Popular Science is reporting that a piece of bread, dropped by a passing bird, has managed to damage the Large Hadron Collider.

The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.

If this really is the work of time-traveling Higgs boson particles, however, they're demonstrating a lot of creativity, but not a lot of competence. The Bird Incident won't delay the reactivation of the facility, which is still scheduled for later this month.

Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down the Large Hadron Collider (Really), Popular Science. You should follow the link just to see their illustration "according to eyewitness accounts". Via stevesilberman.

This is a cute pair of twins rocking Mac copy/paste shirts. There's a shot of twin boys after the jump wearing the Microsoft equivalent. Honestly, did you know this was how twins were made? Because I didn't. I just thought you had to do it twice in a row!

Hit the jump for the boys.

metricula: NreallySFW TMI tweet: is my ass to big to wear this in public?

Symphony of Science - 'We Are All Connected' (ft. Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye)Source: http://www.youtube.comMP3 available at http://www.symphonyofscience.com. "We Are All Connected" was made from sampling Carl Sagan's Cosmos, The History Channel's Universe series, Richard Feynman's 1983 interviews, Neil ...    So many of my favorite science personalities in one song! Bill Nye totally rocks it.    

Inspired by this post I went looking for other examples of Russian color & design and came across this site. "Most posters in our collection are originals, acquired in Russia in the 80's, political posters, made in the period 1950 - 1990, published with the supervision of the Communist Party, and were designed to make people work harder, be better communists and good patriots. Please be careful, most of these posters contain ruthless propaganda. Let's take them as historical artefacts..."

Lee sez, "Kevin Van Aelst, who photographs household objects to explain basic life processes. He uses gummy worms for DNA, clothes for the heart and other things you'd find around the house."

While the depictions of information--such as an EKG, fingerprint, map or anatomical model--are unconventional, the truth and accuracy to the illustrations are just as valid as more traditional depictions. This work is about creating order where we expect to find randomness, and also hints that the minutiae all around us is capable of communicating much larger ideas.

Kevin Van Aelst

(Thanks, Lee!)

Previously:Beautiful glass sculptures of deadly viruses and bacteria - Boing ... Boing Boing: Art of Science gallery Princeton's Art of Science Competition winners - Boing Boing Mark Dion: art, science, and natural history - Boing Boing

(Aquarium | Seattle, WA, USA)(At the aquarium where I volunteer, a guest sticks her whole hand in our touch tank, rips off a sea urchin and proceeds to stuff it in her bag.) Me: “Excuse me, ma’am, but you can’t do that.” Guest: “What do you mean?” Me: “You can’t rip the urchin off the tank’s wall. Could you please hand me it?” Guest: “But I was going to take it home and eat it. Isn’t that okay?”

Michael A. from Newtown, MA inquires:It's perplexing enough why someone would want to pull off the road in Newtown, Massachusetts, and pick up some "POOl WATER." But actively choosing a lowercase l out of a box of letters is a whole different ballgame from simply writing one. Why, oh, why, pool water purveyor? That takes the kind of singlemindedness and sense of purpose that our nation so sorely lacks today.I'm wondering if that red sequence of numbers is the phone number, or the number of people who have stopped by to ask, "Why the f**k are you selling POOl WATER?"

I am very grateful that the Feministe crew saw fit to bring me in, but I must admit to being very surprised and not feeling quite deserving. I want to deconstruct some of the patriarchal influence that had its role in shaping my reaction. Now, I’m hardly in a position to judge the value that my writing might have to other people, because I’m coming from inside my own head. I can’t speak to what another person might find valuable; I am speaking to express my ideas, connect with the lovely blogosphere and share awareness of issues that matter to me. But I can say that I frequently worry that my writing isn’t good enough, that there’s some standard that I’m failing to meet, that I will be unmasked as the fraud I really am, who knows how I’ve lasted this long? This worry is so bad that I feel nauseous when going to see blogger friends in person. And I’m acquainted enough with the patriarchy to see that it’s rearing its head in this thought, and that other women have this problem, too. (Well, I don’t know about the nausea, maybe that’s just me!) Irrespective of what value my writing actually has to the universe – and who can judge something like that, really? – this kind of thinking has a component of misogyny. Women have long been told that our writing isn’t good enough, that writing is the domain of men. There’s a famous story about feminist science fiction writer Alice B. Sheldon, who wrote as James Tiptree, Jr. Before she was unmasked, one of her editors, Robert Silverberg, wrote about the rumours she was a woman: ‘It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree’s writing. I don’t think the novels of Jane Austen could have been written by a man nor the stories of Ernest Hemingway by a woman, and in the same way I believe the author of the James Tiptree stories is male.’ Not so much, mate. (Then again, people also thought Tiptree was a pseudonym for Henry Kissinger. Fun fact.) But it’s telling that Sheldon had to become a man to tell women’s stories, and it’s wonderful that in doing so she shook the science fiction establishment. And how many women besides Sheldon have written under masculine or gender-neutral pseudonyms just to get a toe in? How many Internet-based writers have been flamed because of their gender? Women’s words cannot be of value, because recording history, having ideas and being creative are surely the realms of men. To return to the idea that one will be unmasked as not good enough after all, this is colloquially known as imposter syndrome. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a fair bit lately. Imposter syndrome is when you think you haven’t earned your place. I feel it in my friendships, – how problematic to have social ‘leagues’! – in my creative work, so many aspects of my life. On some level I know I have these friends because we care about each other, I do this work because I am talented, I have earned my place, but there’s always the idea that I didn’t earn it. I’m sure most of you know the feeling I’m talking about. It emerges from the same reason why an insult is more cutting than a compliment is affirming: we think the bad stuff must be true. We learn to approach ourselves in a warped fashion: my body isn’t good enough, I sound silly, I’m not smart enough, professional enough, lovable. From our appearances to our emotions to what we have to say. In daily life, women’s words are seen as less than. I know I’ve stopped myself commenting on blogs many times because I thought, What could I possibly have to contribute to this conversation that anyone would find of value? I frequently silence myself, let a man go first, let him interrupt me, rather than incur wrath by continuing to speak. It’s an old habit, and one I’m trying to break. But the fear of deep booming angry voices is a hard one to overcome. I can’t think where I read this now, but I remember a story about a professor who was careful to let the women and men in his class speak equal numbers of times. There were complaints from male students that the female ones were dominating the conversation. There’s a reason for a stereotype of the irritating talkative woman. Patriarchy finds women’s voices terrifying. We use our voices to speak out against it. And the patriarchy uses its strategies of shaming and delegitimising to make us shrink our opinions and ourselves, smaller, smaller, until we fit the way it wants us to. So, I am writing here, and the patriarchy – the kyriarchy! – had better watch out. This woman will not shut up.