The human body is made up of more bacteria cells than human cells. Now, researchers at Harvard have isolated the genes responsible for producing amino acids that can block ultraviolet light and managed get E. coli bacteria to produce them too. Can I interest you in some sunblocking bacteria living on your skin?

Musicians don't often end up on FBI watch lists, but the Last Poets did, thanks to their links with the Black Panthers.
They were the rappers of the civil rights era.
Made in Amerikkka.
Niggers Are Scared Of Revolution!.
Before the White Man Came.
True Blue.
(wiki) Tongues on Fire a tribute; and a hommage from Living Colour. Finally . for one more lost poet.

Phos Pictures makes beautifully candid documentaries that are simultaneously heart-wrenching, haunting, and raw: The Last Minutes with ODEN^[previously], Pennies Heart, 5 Hours with Woody, My YiaYia, and more (or, click here if you prefer Vimeo). [warning: good chance of rain on face]

I totally overlooked The American Astronaut (2001) and perhaps others did too? Musician and indie filmmaker Cory Macabee has a history as a huge misshapen head, has been to Reno, been a lounge act for the seedier offworld colonies, been smuggling illegal female embryos for the Jovian mining concerns, & been a father.
Macabee's 2-man interplanetary ships tend towards diesels with 1905 wallpaper ...and porcelain washbasins for when you're not dry-shaving to please the ladies. He offers a unique take on the asteroid miners' spaceport bar and their all-male pastimes. He reminds us that regardless of future genetic catastrophes, still we'll always have male pregnancy. And what's up with the odd religion practiced by those hypersapient zero-G Nevada silver miners? Yes, I too need to know about Th' CHART. More recently we find that Stingray Sam is not a hero, but he does do the things that folks won't do that need to be done. Macabee's stuff is available online; I'm picking up my copies now, so he won't have to hurt me.

95 snakes found in bag at Malaysia airport. That's 95 live boa constrictors. Keng Liang "Anson" Wong, 52, was previously convicted of wildlife trafficking in the United States. It is unclear whether he served the full term. (previously)

"If the male partner withdraws before ejaculation every time a couple has vaginal intercourse, about 4 percent of couples will become pregnant over the course of a year" Which birth-control method is more effective: condoms or withdrawal?

Eddie Izzard has been on the Blue before, but this time there are five full-length stand-up acts. Particularly don't miss what I consider the finest two hours of stand-up comedy ever performed, Dress to Kill.
Stripped — 2008 Sexie — 2003 (Released in the US as Live from Wembley) Dress to Kill — 1998 Glorious — 1997 Definite Article — 1996

Q: Does stretching before running prevent injury? A: No.

Eric Archer has created some really great electronic devices, using primarily 1970's technology. His audio work includes a sort of retro synth studio in a box, a generative sequencer based on LFSRs (more commonly used in cryptography), and and several infrared synced devices like this analog drum machine. He's also made an analog computer and oscillography art generators.

So where would you go looking if you wanted to find the deepest and sickest cold wave synth-beats of all? Then I think we would have to look all the way back to John Bender, avant-garde synth pioneer, who released three seminal albums in the early '80s and then just disappeared, forever. What else sounds this fantastic, and has that addictive, computerized, lo-fi ice beat? Maybe Ultravox, and the frosty, hollow majesty of Hiroshima Mon Amour. Or Soviet with Candy Girl, or Lori and the Chameleons and Touch

Chilean graphic designer Juan Pablo Bravo (Flickr profile, blogspot blog) makes some pretty awesome character infographics. (Warning: the following links go to large sized flickr photos) 70 Disney Villains : 250 Disney Characters : 100 200 Pixar Characters (sorta previously) : 50 Movie Cars : and his most recent (and my personal favorite) 600 Hanna-Barbara Characters (via).
Bonus link: Here is a set of some of Bravo's professional infographic work for the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio.

"Earlier this week, Tribune's KTXL Sacramento aired what it says is the first-ever TV station ad for marijuana. The Fox affiliate aired a 30-second spot, paid for by Sacramento-based medicinal marijuana advocacy group CannaCare and produced by KTXL, advertising a medical marijuana dispensary." CannaCare Commercial.

Ugly Vegas Carpets Want You to Keep Playing. "Mathematician-philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said, "It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." This certainly rings true with Chris Maluszynski's Las Vegas Carpets series, whose name explains it all. The photos draw out the psychology of Las Vegas through the simple observation of carpet."

To promote his newest film, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, director Werner Herzog is interviewed by twitter. (MLYT) (Via the AV Club.) (Previously on Herzog.)

A new cheat code for the GameCube's (internally developed) launch title Wave Race: Blue Storm has been discovered. What does it do? Make the race commentator a complete bastard.

NASA once sent a robot in - and nobody ever saw the machine again or collected any scientific data from it...
The Iron Mountain Mine, outside of Redding, is a hellish pit where acid water sloshes against your boots, greenish bacterial slime gurgles out of the walls, and stalactites and stalagmites of acid salt, copper and iron jut out like rusty daggers. The low pH level and the heavy metal contamination from the mine have caused the virtual elimination of aquatic life in sections of Slickrock Creek, Boulder Creek, and Spring Creek. Chemistry textbooks usually describe pH values as ranging from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Values of pH near 0 are highly acidic, becoming less acidic and more alkaline at the higher numbers. Because pH is measured on a logarithmic scale, each declining unit represents 10 times more acidity. Alpers said several of the drip-water samples at Iron Mountain had pH values below zero, indicating hydrogen ion activities greater than one. The lowest pH found at the site was -3.6. On the upside, it has colorful slime, weird bacteria, and rocks that burst into flame!

The elegant, understated Clothes On Film features interviews with film costume designers (most recently, an insightful series with the designer for Inception), and fashion analysis of films as diverse as The Big Lebowski and Top Hat. Neatly accessorised with The Costumer's Guide.

Arizona Republicans accused of fielding phony Green candidates in this week's primary. Arizona Dems react. The Greens' response.

Go Where? Sex, Gender, and Toilets.

"The ultimate movie scene of India,or the world may be" (SLYT)

An idle brain may be the self's workshop. 'Recent research suggests that mind-wandering may be important and that knowledge of how it works might help treat such conditions as Alzheimer's disease, autism, depression and schizophrenia.' Once upon a time, scientists didn't regard idle musings of the wandering mind as very important. 'But in the span of a few short years, they have instead come to view mental leisure as important, purposeful work — work that relies on a powerful and far-flung network of brain cells firing in unison. Neuroscientists call it the "default mode network."''Understanding that setting may do more than lend respectability to the universal practice of zoning out: It may one day help diagnose and treat psychiatric conditions as diverse as Alzheimer's disease, autism, depression and schizophrenia — all of which disrupt operations in the default mode network. Beyond that lies an even loftier promise. As neuroscientists study the idle brain, some believe they are exploring a central mystery in human psychology: where and how our concept of "self" is created, maintained, altered and renewed.'
'During these moments of errant thought, the brain is forming a set of mental rules about our world, particularly our social world, that help us navigate human interactions and quickly make sense of and react to information — about a stranger's intentions, a child's next move, a choice before us — without having to run a complex and conscious calculation of all our values, expectations and beliefs.' 'Neuroscientists suspect that the default mode network may speak volumes about our mental health, based on studies in the last three years that suggest it is working slightly differently in people with depression, autism and other disorders.' 'That fact underscores a point: Just as sleep appears to play an important role in learning, memory consolidation and maintaining the body's metabolic function, some scientists wonder whether unstructured mental time — time to zone out and daydream — might also play a key role in our mental well-being. If so, that's a cautionary tale for a society that prizes productivity and takes a dim view of mind-wandering. Such social pressure, Schooler says, overlooks the lessons from studies on the resting brain — that zoning out and daydreaming, indulged in at appropriate times, might serve a larger purpose in keeping us healthy and happy.'

Nanotech researchers have developed, quite by accident, the first all-natural metal organic framework (MOF) made from renewable sources. And it turns out, you can eat them too. "They taste kind of bitter, like a Saltine cracker, starchy and bland" Doesn't sound very promising as a snack food, but it is very interesting to those looking to use MOF to store gases, say hydrogen, in a more renwable manner. You can actually make these for yourself, you just y-cyclodextrin, potassium benzoate, water, and, well, Everclear. Yum?

Desert Gazette, "Mojave Desert, True Facts Legends and Lies". With links to other sites about the Mojave, including the excellent Digital Desert. Stories of life and death in the desert. The blogger, Walter Feller's photographs. About the Mojave Desert.

Crusty Punks in Tompkins Square Park, tell stories of their sometimes dangerous lives on the highways and trains, in rehabs and unconventional families of America.

Monkey Business: four short films (about three minutes each) by Matthew Killip, about people who work with monkeys and apes. India: Rhesus Macaques as pests; USA: Chimpanzee as research subject; Nigeria: baboons as entertainers; Indonesia: macaque as harvester.