We are all Bozo's on this Republican Bus! Republicans Explain Evolution!

Mystical Male Voice: [rumbling sounds] Before the beginning, there was this turtle. And the turtle was alone. And he looked around. And he saw his neighbor, which was his mother, and he lay down on top of his neighbor, [coyote howl] and behold, she bore him in tears, an oak tree, which grew all day, and then fell over, [coyote howl] like a bridge. And low, under the bridge there came a catfish, and he was very big, [coyote howls] and he was walking, [more howls] and he was the biggest he had seen. [starts fading] And so, with the fiery balls of this fish, one of which is the sun, and the other, they called the moon… [sounds end]

Calm Male Narrator: Yes, some uncomplicated peoples still believe this myth. But here in the technical vastness of The Future, we can guess that surely, the past was very different. [begins fading] We can surmise, for instance, that these two great balls… [sounds end]

Echoey Male Voice: We know for certain, for instance, that for some reason, for some time in the beginning, there were hot lumps. Cold and lonely, they whirled noiselessly through the black holes of space [reverb effect here]. These insignificant lumps came together to form the first union, our sun, the heating system. And about this glowing gas bag, rotated the earth, a cats-eye among aggies, [reverb begins to really build] blinking in astonishment across the face… of time. [reverb overwhelmes everything, sounds disappear]

First Male Lecturer: [lecture room noises, voice quiet in the room] Well, we were covered with a molten scum of rocks, bobbing on the surface like rats. Later, when there was less heat, these giant rock groups settled down among the land masses. During this extinct time, our Earth was like a steam-room, and no one, not even man, could get in. [coughs start in audience] However, the oceans and the sewers were simmering with a rich protein stew, and the mountains moved in to surround and protect them. They didn’t know then that living as we know it was already taken over. Thank you. [a round of applause, constant coughs begin]

Second Male Lecturer: [brief rustling of paper] Animals without… backbones… hid from each other, or fell down. Clamosaurs and oysterettes appeared as appetizers. Then came the sponges, which sucked up about 10%… of all life. [more rustling] [clears throat] Hundreds of years later, in the Late Devouring Period, fish became obnoxious. [clears throat] Trailerbikes, chiggerbites, and miskweetoes collided aimlessly in the dense gas. Finally [bit more rustling], tiny, edible plants sprang up in rows, giving birth to generations of insecticides and other small, dying creatures. Thank you. [applause, new rumbling sound sets in]

Male Voice With Throaty Reverb: [some African flutes and drums play] Millions of months passed, and, 28 days later, the moon appeared. This small change was reflected best, perhaps, in the sand dollar, which shrank to almost nothing at the bottom of the pool, where even dumb amphibians, like catfish, laid their eggs in the boiling waters, only to be gobbled up every three minutes by the giant sea orphans and jungle bunnies, which scared everybody. [music begins to build] And so, IN FEAR AND HOT WATER, [music approaches a climax] A REPUBLICAN IS BORN!!!"

Firesign Theater - “The Wall Of Science”

I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus (1971)

WTF Steve?

Liquid Glass Super Protective Coating

Invention starts when someone takes a thought and makes it work. This is what Apple did when they saw the graphical user interface (GUI) proposed by Xerox. It didn't actually work but not knowing that, they designed the Apple OS.

"SiO2- ultra thin layering” is the technical term for Liquid Glass.

The flexible and breathable glass coating is approximately 100 nanometers thick (500 times thinner than a human hair), and so it is completely undetectable. It is food safe, environmentally friendly and it can be applied to almost any surface within seconds . When coated, all surfaces become easy to clean and anti-microbially protected. Houses, cars, ovens, proctologist or any other protected surface become stain resistant and can be easily cleaned with water; no cleaning chemicals are required.

But wait! That's not all, there's more!

Items such as stents can be coated, and this will create anti sticking features. Catheters and sutures which are a source of infection, will also cease to be problematic.

Vines coated with SiO2 don’t suffer from mildew, and coated seeds grow more rapidly without the need for anti-fungal chemicals.

How the technology works, is in essence, they extract molecules of SiO2 (the primary constituent of glass) from quartz sand, and then we add the molecules to water or ethanol. The really clever part is that there are no added nano-particles, resins or additives. The coatings form and bond due to quantum forces.

WTF! this scenario was in a sci-fi story years ago. An old farm house, covered in a tough protective layer, like glass, never aged as it stood the many decades it housed the extraterrestrial. 

This is not science fiction! Very soon almost everything you buy will have this coating. This technology is now available for domestic use in Germany. Full scale retail availability in the UK will commence in early 2010. 

As for the US, what do you want to bet me that some "Special Interest Group, LLC" will fight this to save or make $ no matter the cost or harm done to the public.

Can you think of a way to use Liquid Glass?

Steve

Artificial spider Hair Surfaces with a Nearly Perfect water sheding ability.

Engineering researchers Shu-Hau Hsu and Wolfgang M. Sigmund have created what they say is a “nearly perfect hydrophobic interface” by borrowing from another of nature’s wonders - spiders. By reproducing, on small bits of plastic, the shape and patterns of the minute hairs that grow on the bodies of spiders the researchers have created what may be among, if not the, most water-phobic surface yet. 

The potential applications for the ultra-water-repellent surface developed at the University of Florida , Go Gaters, are many. When water scampers off the surface it picks up and carries dirt with it, in effect making the surface self-cleaning.

Unlike many water-repelling surfaces, this one relies entirely on the microscopic shape and patterns of the material — rather than its composition.

 In other words, physics, not chemistry, is what makes it water repellent. Theoretically, that means the technique could transform even the most water-sopping materials – say, sponges – into water-shedding ones. It also means that Sigmund’s surfaces need never slough off dangerous chemicals. Provided the surface material itself is made safe, making it water repellent introduces no new risks.

The surface works equally well with hot or cold water and Sigmund says a variation of the surface also repels oil, a first for the industry.

While inexpensive, it is hard to produce successful surfaces with great reliability, and different techniques need to be developed to make the surfaces in commercially available quantities and size, Sigmund said. Also, he said, more research is needed to make the surfaces hardy and resistant to damage.

WTF !? Spiders are just insect! What are we, the mightiest species on the planet. going to learn from a bug?

A paper about the surface appears in the journal Langmuir.


Steve