• Bruce Sterling zings! "Reviving Neandertals. (((So they can become Creationists and cut your stem-cell funding.)))" That parenthetical parenthetical parentheses? That's the zing.
• Randy Dotinga over at Bodyhack reminds us why so many people smell: they've all suffered severe head trauma that has robbed them of their olefactory sense. Now we need a neurological explanation for why people are so fat and ugly.
• "Before, during, and after radio, chronometry, and that chap Alexander Neckam mentioning in De naturis rerum that magnets might have uses at sea, what remained the mariner's most valuable gadget? The sextant, perhaps? The sand glass? None of the above: the heart of navigation is ruled by the humble, immmortal Map." At Gear Factor.
• I will never, ever use one of those iPod vending machines, terrified that my iPod will get caught on the last curl of the vending spiral and the next customer who comes along will get two. This happens to me with candy bars all the time.
