Interesting Links for 19-10-2011

[andrewducker]

• This is why you don't want to put liquid Nitrogen in your mouth
  (tags: EpicFail IceCream LiquidNitrogen )
• New study is first to identify a happiness gene
  (tags: happiness genetics emotions psychology )
• Paging Jesse Ventura: Iowa Guard Builds Predator-Style Ammo Packs
  (tags: predator military technology movies )
• TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA NOSES. Possibly the most awesome site on the internet.
  (tags: TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles noses funny awesome photoshop )
• Fifty Things I Discovered At New York Comic Con - including slight Marvelman news!
  (tags: Marvelman comics news )
• Finally, we have an effective Malaria vaccine!
  (tags: malaria vaccination disease health )
• What happens when The Daily Mail serialises your book
  (tags: dailymail media libdem )
• Fascinating interview with Android's head of User Experience
  (tags: android google design ux MobilePhones )
• Google's search page is moving to https (if you're logged in)
  (tags: google search security ssl )
• The Willat Effect: Side-by-Side Comparisons Create Connoisseurs
  (tags: taste comparison aesthetics )
• The nicest Steve Jobs story I've seen
  (tags: SteveJobs )
• Hands On With Motorola’s Droid Razr, World’s Thinnest Smartphone
  (tags: motorola razr android MobilePhones )
• If the PC Is Dead, Someone Forgot to Tell Intel's Customers
  (tags: pc intel )

Comments

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Teachers have been putting liquid nitrogen into their mouths "for years?"

What. The. Fuck.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My first thought reading this was "a new reason not to put LN₂ in your mouth? I thought that pretty much went without saying". I genuinely wasn't expecting the "well, it nothing bad happened yet" defense! :)

I mean, normally I'd trust them to know if that sort of trick was safe, and believe them if they said it was, even if it didn't sound likely to me. But apparently not.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It is as perfectly safe as any stunt involving a hazardous material can be.

He just not only did it wrong, he did it WAY WRONG. Like a fire-eater who breathes the flames onto his own pants, or a knife juggler who gets custom knives made with no handles and fails to anticipate the potential problems.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I'm aware that you can often do this kind of trick, so I'm not surprised that putting on your flesh is perfectly safe, but I wouldn't have known that there's no chance of involuntarily swallowing. I mean, if you say that's not a risk, then you're probably right, but it wasn't obvious to me -- can a hiccup cause cause that? someone not realising it's dangerous and startling you? something else? Maybe that just doesn't happen (except this once) but it didn't seem obvious -- I never normally have to think about whether swallowing will be deadly, and know I sometimes end up swallowing holding something else in my mouth, so it didn't seem clearly safe (although if people DO do it, maybe it is).

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

If you're doing a fire breathing demonstration, or a sword-swallowing demonstration, and you do it wrong you will injure or kill yourself.

Same with blowing liquid nitrogen.

It's a stunt, with a hazardous material, that can be done safely, and that is done safely all the time all over the world.

It's just, if it goes wrong, it extremely dangerous.

That's why people juggle torches and knives and chainsaws, and not just balls: The danger factor. It being dangerous makes it more impressive that you're doing it without being hurt.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess if it is widespread, it's not more dangerous than those things, which I know can be done safely if you know what you're doing. So, um, still dangerous, but I guess not ridiculous :)

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

I've seen it done - it's not unusual in the sort of workplaces where people have everyday access to these materials. When I worked at Strathclyde Uni a couple of the guys there used to do it as a party piece. I've poured liquid N2 over my hand but have never been brave stupid enough to try putting it in my mouth.

[tysolna]

We learn from the liquid Nitrogen fail that you should never put anything into your mouth if you're not prepared to swallow.

badum-TSH! ;)

[andrewducker]

Ouch!

Literally!

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Haha!

Though

> instantly expanded from a volume of about 3 or 4 cc's to about 3 or 4 liters

Fucking hell.

[tysolna]

I think I remember an early 1980's movie where something like that made it into an erotic dream sequence...

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

I so totally should NOT have clicked on the LN2 article... pretty soon I'm going to have to explain to the RNs in the office why I'm making gagging and meeping noises. Argh...

-- Steve thinks the new Razr looks pretty sweet, but still isn't considering getting one. (The plans around here are ruinous.)

[andrewducker]

Yeah - I do _not_ want things expanding to 100 times their previous size inside my chest cavity!

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

1,000 times, surely?

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Android’s head of user experience? They've got one???

[i-ate-my-crusts.livejournal.com]

I think the home desktop family PC is dead. Note how tightly I limit that...

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

That Razr phone is sexy. Pretty sure it's the same kind of screen as my current phone, which is very nice.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - you can't do huge amounts of styling with phones that are basically a rectangle of glass, but they're really trying.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I think it's interesting that touchscreen phones (regardless of claims about the iphone's physical design) are pretty much identical. I thought it was interesting that Motorola had that incredibly distinctive blue-lit keypad on the Razr and various other phones (both clamshell and candybar) which meant that even quite a way off, you could tell what brand of phone a person was using.

[andrewducker]

The thing about touchscreen phones is that if you want to maximise the touchable surface area then you're left with a big rectangle of black.

So you make different interfaces "behind" the glass, but you can't do a whole lot with the glass itself, I guess. You're left with styling the back of the phone, or the surround, if you have one.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Journalist sells the rights to publish extracts of his book (and the right to choose which extracts to publish) to a newspaper that is perfectly honest about espousing a particular viewpoint. He then gets annoyed when said newspaper chooses extracts which espouse that viewpoint.

Well, duh...

[andrewducker]

Well, yes. I wouldn't sign that kind of contract without reading it in great detail.

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

And I'd be having a serious discussion with my agent about their part in the process.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

He seems to have chosen to take the money over retaining artistic control over his work.

That’s his choice, but as earlier commentators have so cogently, brilliantly and succinctly put it: Duh!