tech@vedella

After Herman Cain drew an utter blank when an interviewer asked him how he felt about Obama's handling of Libya, and proceeded to unconvincingly fake a response, Andrew Sullivan rounds up the responses of bloggers around the net, from Cain's supporters and detractors alike. Drezner invokes the mercy rule: There's a mercy rule in Little [...]

You see that whitish stuff in the petri dish? That, my dears, is lab-grown meat. Meat made without all the physical, environmental, and ethical mess that goes along with raising actual animals for food. The little tabs on either end of each piece of meat are Velcro, used to stretch and "exercise" the muscle cells [...]

The biology of itching and the biology of pain are intertwined in interesting ways, writes graduate student and science blogger Aatish Bhatia. Understanding itching can help us better understand how to treat pain. I'd not seen Bhatia's blog before, but I'm really liking his style. He does a great job of breaking down the science [...]

Machinima (real-time animation in a 3D engine) grew out of the gamer-hacking community who, back in the mid-'90s, took games like Quake and figured out how to hack the game's pod camera to create a new 3rd person perspective camera. Death matches and speed-runs were some of the early “films” using this 3rd person camera [...]

A large study of men from Southern California found a correlation between men who are taking more medications, and men with an increased risk of erectile disfunction. Medical reporter Helen Branswell points out that this poses an interesting chicken/egg problem: Does taking lots of medications cause ED? Or do guys with ED have lots of [...]

Meanwhile, it's still flooding in Thailand. And, after three months of this, the Thai people have been forced to get creative. Thai Flood Hacks is a Tumblr that feels like a pean to human ingenuity. Here, you will find boats made out of old water bottles. Homemade jet skis. Raised walkways built from shopping carts. [...]

Fiona Romeo, who has worked with Greenwich Observatory on some successful "citizen science" initiatives, gave a presentation called "The near future of citizen science," explaining what she's learned and what she thinks the future will hold: It’s my contention that the near future of science is all about honing the division of labour between professionals, [...]

[Video Link, thanks @kaepora]

The Guardian has an excellent cheatsheet of city-by-city police crackdowns so far for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

I'll be honest. I did not realize that you could just apply to be an astronaut like it was any old job listing. Nor would I have guessed that the NASA "Apply to be an Astronaut!" recruitment video would feel as odd and strangely lame as the recruitment video for any old normal job. Astronauts: [...]

After years of hearing the Christian right complain about the nonexistent "War on Christmas," the Florida chapter of American Atheists have decided to finally essay a skirmish. They'll be placing bus-ads in Florida this season advertising the fact that millions of Floridians are atheists and inviting atheists to attend their Ft Lauderdale convention Dec 18-19. [...]

This photo was taken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Virunga National Park, where the Nyamulagira volcano is currently erupting. The man in the photo is named Romeo. No last name given, and I can't help but wonder if that's for the same reason that he carries a rather large gun. Romeo is a [...]

Mother Jones reporter Josh Harkinson was one of the few, if not the only, reporters inside the police perimeter at Zuccotti during the raid (previous BB blog post here). At Mother Jones, his first-person acccount is now live. I waited, and when nobody was looking, I crossed back over as confidently as I could and [...]

[Video Link] I forgot all about Colonel Bleep! In 1990, I brought a VHS of this cute but odd spaceman to the ArmadilloCon in Austin and we played it during a Boing Boing party in our hotel room. The timing, sound effects, animation, and narration of this cartoon are off-kilter, making it feel otherworldly, as [...]

MIT researchers have fabricated a computer chip that uses 400 transistors to mimic the activity of a single brain synapse, the junction between neurons. The device is a step toward in silico simulation of plasticity, the ability of neurons to adapt based on new input. From MIT News: While most chips operate in a binary, [...]

A cute couple is getting married in Zuccotti park this morning in New York City. Have fun occupying a happy future together, kids. Here's a photo of the bride, and here's the "sacred space." Here's the ring. @Newyorkist says, "Friends of couple inform they met here at spiritual circle months ago. Emery and Micha. Being [...]

Ahram: "Egypt's military prosecution Sunday ordered the renewal of prominent activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah's detention for another 15 days pending investigation into charges of inciting violence and assaulting military personnel during the Maspero clashes of 9 October."

Berlusconi is ready to return to politics, having been absent from office for (almost) a whole day. In a message to a neo-fascist gathering, Il Mafioso wrote, "I share your spirit and I hope to resume with you the path of government."

Bossini's "Premiu​m Edition Slinky Dog Muffler" is, apparently, a Slinky Dog scarf. I can't make up my mind whether this would look insanely great around someone's neck, or just silly. Or both. Someone find me a pic of it in action, as it were? TOY STORY Collection by Bossini

From The Daily Californian: "For UC Berkeley graduate student Alex Barnard, the most disempowering moment of Wednesday night was not when he was repeatedly hit with a police baton, cracking one of his ribs. Instead, the most disturbing moment of his experience came afterward, when he says an officer told him he had 'no rights.'" [...]