In Which Science Corner Is Always There For You Even In The Most Tumultuous of Times

Norman Mailer RIP:

At different points in his life Mr. Mailer was a prodigious drinker and drug taker, a womanizer, a devoted family man, a would-be politician who ran for mayor of New York, a hipster existentialist, an antiwar protester, an opponent of women’s liberation and an all-purpose feuder and short-fused brawler, who with the slightest provocation would happily engage in head-butting, arm-wrestling and random punch-throwing. Boxing obsessed him and inspired some of his best writing. Any time he met a critic or a reviewer, even a friendly one, he would put up his fists and drop into a crouch.

Gore Vidal, with whom he frequently wrangled, once wrote: “Mailer is forever shouting at us that he is about to tell us something we must know or has just told us something revelatory and we failed to hear him or that he will, God grant his poor abused brain and body just one more chance, get through to us so that we will know. Each time he speaks he must become more bold, more loud, put on brighter motley and shake more foolish bells. Yet of all my contemporaries I retain the greatest affection for Norman as a force and as an artist. He is a man whose faults, though many, add to rather than subtract from the sum of his natural achievements.”

Mice no longer fear danger.

Toys with the date rape drug in them.

Salamanders have jungle fever

New Age guy gets really high, comes up with a solution for global warming

Hobbit Galaxies made of Dark Matter? Sounds downright LOTHRian.

Curly hair tangles less.

FLAVONOIDS!

People see common letters in brighter colors. Is hypchondriacal synaesthesia going to be the new thing? Because I disapprove.

Deep voiced men have more kids.

Evolutionary origins of the New York City marathon.

Pregnant women prone to depression.

Neptune is frigid, and Earth got Mars knocked up. Earth, you whore.

New Halley’s-like comet.

New file-sharing service changes world.

Solar system looks like ours:

The new planet, which Dr. Fischer called “one of the more annoying planets” because it resisted being folded into their mathematical models for such a long time, basks in the lukewarm light of its star from a distance of around 70 million miles, taking 260 days to complete one orbit. Although too massive for life itself, Dr. Marcy said, the planet could harbor rocky moons, just as Saturn and Neptune in our own solar system do, and these would be warmed to the same lukewarm temperatures as Earth.

The moons would have to be as massive as Mars, however, in order to keep their water from escaping into empty space. Dr. Marcy said, “All bets are off on what evolutionary biology would be like on one of these moons.”

Scientists invent “clean gum” that won’t stick to your shoe. Are they working for Willy Wonka?

Anti-oxidants make you a worse parent.

Scandinavians regret that you can’t have their Aryan sperm, are only trying to protect you from Mad Cow.

While some sperm banks have had enough frozen stocks to cope with demand, they are now facing shortages. “We still have a little bit left, but not much,” said Claus Rodgaard, manager of Cryos International, a Danish-based sperm bank, “We’re not here to promote people to have blond, blue-eyed babies, but if those are the kinds of characteristics you’re looking for, then Danish sperm is good for that,” Rodgaard said. “That’s all we have in Denmark.”

Russia tests vacuum bomb

Flemish fight Walloons, put Belgium up for sale on eBay:

“It was a really fun listing made by a Belgian,” Peter Burin, PR manager of eBay Belgium. “This person, in a very funny way, reminded the Belgians what a great country Belgium actually is and it would be a shame to sell it.”

Omaha Senator sues God.

Bees smother their enemies by thermoballing them, sniff out bombs. Sounds like an M.I.A. song. Alangalangalang.

Oldest Man turns 115.

Molly Lambert is the senior editor of This Recording.

“Bearing Witness” — Collective Soul (mp3)

“Good Morning After All” — Collective Soul (mp3)

Collective Soul wiki

Pseudo-Christian rock pays off, kinda

PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING

Molly likes talking about Ian Mathews.

The Fleshlight amused us to no end.

We sort of opined on pet peeves and Swan Lake.