Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• The IEEE Spectrum reports on the increasingly tiny medical robots that can fix us from the inside. The Sangruse Device is pretty good at that, and the Protea Device is even better. Maybe we won't have to wait until 2350 for such things after all.
• The more we look, the more influence we see of fragments of Neanderthal genes on the Homo Sap genome. I have got to try one of those gene tests that reports on Neanderthal DNA. (And doesn't that artist's conception of a Neanderthal guy for damn remind you of Tolkien's dwarves?)
• This isn't an especially good article, but look at the photo of the two skulls. To me, Homo Sap looks like a neotenic Neanderthal. The young are generally more flexible than the old. Maybe we outbred the Neanderthals by being more versatile and willing to adapt to changing conditions and new environments.
• Here's a nice summary of the case for high-fat, low-carb diets, with lots of good supporting links. Our issues there (and in certain other areas of science) tend not to be bad science (which is common enough) so much as corrupt science.
• Wine and craft beer evidently weren't enough: There are now meat-doneness snobs.
• Irene Governale Smith, one of my PC Techniques authors, has started a new online magazine for flash SF and fantasy, leaning toward fantasy. Nimue's Grotto presents eight stories in its first issue, including what is probably the only time-travel story I've ever let the public see.
• I never gave this much thought, but it makes sense: When the CRTs in classic arcade games fail, they can't be replaced, because the supply of 29" CRT glass screens is almost gone and no more are being made.
• 37 years later, and I never knew this until today: My fanzine PyroTechnics came within seven recs of being on the final Hugo Awards ballot for Best Fanzine in 1980. It took 31 recs to get on the ballot; Pyro got 25. It was enough coming close; I don't need the cigar.
• This startlingly ill-advised amusement park ride was never built. I don't care. I still don't like amusement park rides.
• More from DRB: Peculiar submarines, diving suits, and early submersible craft of several sorts. Plus a salting of modern subs, for comparison. What? The Turtle? But no Hunley?
• Whoa. I wasn't expecting this: Several Republican legislators have introduced a bill ending federal prohibition of marijuana, returning control of the plant to the states.
• Answering the big questions: Was Kellyanne Conway sitting barefoot on the couch or not? Well, she could have been wearing nude shoes, which are flesh-colored shoes that come in several colors to approximate common human skin tones. Carol says they make the wearers' legs look longer. That's useful, I guess. I'm thinking that that the guy who develops chameleon shoes, which alter their colors to match the wearer's skin, will make a fortune.
• And if Kellyanne Conway putting her shoes on the couch is the worst thing the media can tell us about these days, I'd say we're in pretty damned good shape.