Link roundup

1. If you like scholarly analysis of comic books, then you should definitely check out Andrew Hickey's multi-part analysis of Grant Morrison's excellent Seven Soldiers of Victory. For example, here's a provocative theory:

The question of abiogenesis has never properly been resolved – we know that at some point a set of non-self-replicating molecules became a self-replicating molecule, from which all further life on earth evolved (at least all the evidence points to life having only arisen once on the planet, though it’s possible this happened multiple times). One of the neatest hypotheses that I’ve heard was one from the chemist Graham Cairns-Smith. He pointed out that clay has two interesting properties. The first is that it’s made of crystals – which grow in consistent shapes. If you break a crystal, but allow it to continue growing, you get two crystals with the same basic pattern.

The second is that silica – which clay is made of – is a catalyst for all sorts of interesting chemical reactions.

Now, the first of these things means that natural selection, of a sort, will act on clay – different shaped crystals will be more or less likely to be destroyed by weather conditions, and the ones less likely to be destroyed will be able to reproduce. Some of these shapes will also be conducive to the creation of some molecules than others. But those molecules cold, in turn, make it easier for clay to form the shapes which make it most likely for them to appear. Suddenly, those molecules are helping the clay ‘reproduce’, and so the clay which produces those molecules is being selected for. And the molecules themselves are being selected for – increasingly complex molecules that can produce increasingly stable clay formations, and play an increasingly important part in reproduction.

Until one day one of those molecules becomes so complex, and plays such an important part in the reproductive process, that it breaks away from the clay and carries on reproducing itself without any clay at all. The clay gets left behind, as organic matter goes on to become ever-better at reproducing itself, and the clay just stays clay. The pattern has moved from one substrate to another, and transcended its origins.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

2. How to make a hedge maze area rug. Via.

3. Amazon is giving away $2 in music credit. (Here's my recent music recommendations.)

Headache

Byron Eggenschwiler posted a few new illustrations including this one for an article by Carl Zimmer for Discover Magazine about chronic pain and the pain networks of the brain.

CERN mug, Aperture Science propulsion gel

Mug from the CERN gift shop (there's apparently an "error" with the equation).



Aperture Science interactive gels available at Think Geek. Via.

Link roundup

1. Looks like the link is overwhelmed right now, but apparently "when a caterpillar goes into its chrysalis it's body literally melts down into a sac of fluid cells. These cells in turn recreate the entire body from scratch, forming a butterfly."

2. The big internet news today was Andy Baio reporting that he had been sued for profiting off another artist's intellectual property, and had settled because he couldn't afford to fight. I'm inclined to think it was not fair use. But mostly I was surprised that someone already facing a lawsuit he couldn't afford to defend would do something like create an index for The Daily.

3. The BBTS added several new vintage models, including the Mystery Machine, Batcycle, and Batboat.

Image roundup

Bruins conquer Vancouver.



This should cost extra, right?



Tesla.

Bonus: These two were too disturbing to post.

Bonus #2: And to make up for those, here's a cat animated gif.

Link roundup

1. The Australian National Measurement Institute has a position called "Head Of Time."

2. These are great - - make your own Haunted Mansion stretching portrait book marks. Apparently 20 minutes to make (although Jen is a fairly accomplished crafter).

3. Intimidating sheep animated gif. Relatedly, putting LED-covered jackets on sheep to sell Samsung tvs. Via.

Link roundup

1. I certainly want to believe this is true:

Baseball was an important part of American life in 1887, though the rules were very different. "Batters" got their names from the wooden sticks they used to fend off rabid dogs while standing in the "batter's box."

2. And this sounds good, too:

One in four U.S. hackers is an FBI informer

3. "Battery made up of 144 potatoes powering 12 LED lights."

Peacock Spider; Diving Bell Spider

Two incredible spiders. First up, the tiny Australian Peacock Spider. To attract a mate, it first holds up a leg or two:




And then, when it's gotten a female's attention, it folds up its vibrant fan-like abdomen extension and vigorously waves its legs:







Here's a terrific video showing the mating dance in action (one attempt goes disastrously, another gets a little steamy):




Second, here's the Diving Bell Spider:

Argyroneta aquatica is found in Northern and Central Europe and up to latitude 62°N and northern Asia. It is the only spider that spends its whole life under water. However it breathes air, which it traps in a bubble held by hairs on its abdomen and legs.

Via these sites.

*Previously: Disturbing spider attack.

Link roundup

1. Great article at Wired. Here's the start:

James Scott encountered that scent for the first time a decade ago in a town called Lakeshore, Ontario. Just across the river from Detroit, Lakeshore is where barrels of Canadian Club whiskey age in blocky, windowless warehouses. Scott, who had recently completed his PhD in mycology at the University of Toronto, had launched a business called Sporometrics. Run out of his apartment, it was a sort of consulting detective agency for companies that needed help dealing with weird fungal infestations. The first call he got after putting up his website was from a director of research at Hiram Walker Distillery named David Doyle.

Doyle had a problem. In the neighborhood surrounding his Lakeshore warehouses, homeowners were complaining about a mysterious black mold coating their houses. And the residents, following their noses, blamed the whiskey. Doyle wanted to know what the mold was and whether it was the company’s fault. Scott headed up to Lakeshore to take a look.

When he arrived at the warehouse, the first thing he noticed (after “the beautiful, sweet, mellow smell of aging Canadian whiskey,” he says) was the black stuff. It was everywhere—on the walls of buildings, on chain-link fences, on metal street signs, as if a battalion of Dickensian chimney sweeps had careened through town. “In the back of the property, there was an old stainless steel fermenter tank,” Scott says. “It was lying on its side, and it had this fungus growing all over it. Stainless steel!” The whole point of stainless steel is that things don’t grow on it.

2. Broccoli Gratin recipe.

3. Negative review of the new Games Workshop resin finecast miniatures.

Link roundup

1. Totally bizarre story of a nuclear power plant mishap that killed three men in 1961 Idaho. "When one of the trio was buried, his family asked to see the coffin: permission was only granted when they agreed to rush through the funeral in five minutes."

2. Fast Company chose Reshma Shetty as one its most creative people in business:

At MIT Shetty earned her synthetic-biology chops by helping engineer a strain of E. coli bacteria that smelled minty fresh, eliciting praise from experimental biologists who hated the outhouse stench of unadulterated E. coli.

3. It's Star-Lord and a sort of space Dr. Moreau in "More Than Human" by Doug Moench, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Bob McLeod.

Link roundup

1. Sky on fire. Via.

2. Fast Company has a great article about Cargill's creation and marketing of the sweetener Truvia:

TRUVIA HAS ITS OWN tribute message, an ode to the comfort Cargill wants to provide. "Have you ever cured bad news with hot choc-olate? Ever snuck downstairs to eat a cookie before breast-feeding the baby at 3 a.m.?" If the answer is yes, you are part of Cargill's new demographic, the Yoga Momma, the company's name for the typically harried but well-intentioned working woman.

On a recent day, McFerson and Truvia's marketing director, Ann Tucker, explain the tao of Yoga Momma-ism. "The Yoga Momma wears yoga pants but may never make it to class," Tucker says. "It's more about a mind-set," McFerson adds. Both readily admit this sounds like them. "I've never been to class, but I have the pants," McFerson deadpans.

The brand homage was conceived by mothers at Ogilvy & Mather in Chicago. "What is cool about Cargill is it's a pretty female-based group," says Donna Charlton-Perrin, one of the campaign's architects. "There is a line in there about how women have a complicated relationship with sweetness. Everyone just had this autobiographical understanding of how that goes." Not surprisingly, Yoga Mommas tend to be prime spenders on health-related supermarket goodies. To reach them, McFerson spent lavishly to secure a name (which sounds like true plus stevia, and was devised by Lexicon Branding); a logo (light green type with a tiny stevia leaf, by Pentagram); and clever print and TV ads designed by Ogilvy.

3. Goofy mystery awaits Detective Rex Starbuck in House of Mystery #251.