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| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 04:40 PM |
| Hovels and Shovels |
 by Fëanor |
- Scientists have created "optical matter" - matter bound together only by light. Why is this good? Well, because...that's cool! I mean, we made optical matter!! Also (and I'll let scientist Colin Bain take over here):
As well as being a new way to assemble matter on the nanoscale, such arrays [of optical matter] may also provide a way of visually studying, in real time, the processes that occur invisibly in crystals on sub-nanoscales. So there. Really, I couldn't resist this article, as it throws around awesome geeky phrases like "polystyrene nanospheres" and "orthogonally polarized laser beams." (Via Digg)
- Maybe you didn't notice in all the flash and flair about the Oscar nominations this morning, but yesterday morning the obviously far more important Razzie nominations were announced. And the winners will be decided by your vote! Well, if you fork over the $15 to become a voting-only member of The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation. Frankly, I don't care enough, but if you do, by all means go ahead. Just go to the official site of the Razzies here. Beware, though; it's slow, ugly, and covered with ads. I think they did a pretty good job with the nominees, except for Tom Cruise as Worst Actor for War of the Worlds. Say what you want about the movie as a whole, and say what you want about Tom as a human being, but I think his performance was quite good.
- I'm not always a fan of Stephen Colbert's style of comedy, but I really enjoyed this interview with him on the Onion A.V. Club. It's mostly serious and quite interesting; he sounds like an intelligent guy. Check it out. (Via Backwards City)
- Enjoy this wonderfully whimsical gallery of bloody, gruesome, knitted (or, in most cases apparently, crocheted) art by Patricia Waller, via Drawn. Yum!
- More crazy sci-fi science: a couple of researchers in England have used a form of ink-jet printing to create "jets" of living cells. This technique "could be used to grow biological tissue or even human organs." Apparently this kind of thing had been done before, but the former method was limited and imprecise; this new technique is much better. Nice. Hopefully they can print me up some new organs when I inevitably ruin mine. (Via Digg)
- Heh. Check out this portable cell phone jammer from Japan. Apparently this baby's illegal here as yet, but wouldn't it be great to have in the movie theater sometimes? I don't know if it's great enough to pay 71 bucks for, but still. (Via Digg)
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