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Venture down the rabbit hole to the very limits of human understanding.
The Seven Deadlies: Pride Cometh Before the Brain
by Robert Lamb | February 22, 2012
Yes, Julie and I are here to guide you on a tour of the seven deadly sins. You know the lot: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony. In a series of podcasts, we’ll study each “sin” from a scientific, psychological and personal point of view. Plus, yeah, I’ll probably talk about hell and Satan a little bit.
Up first? The father of all sins: pride.
This Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of Warhammer 40k, which is sort of a big deal if you’re male between the ages of 13 and 60 who digs sci-fi violence and the sweet, seductive scent of acrylic paint. The franchise kicked off in 1987 as a sci-fi take on Games Workshop’s fantasy tabletop game “Warhammer.” From there, it steadily sucked in sci-fi influences to become its own distinct world: novels, movies, video games and of course vast armies of tiny soldiers.
I grew up painting figurines and playing war games with my dad, so I have a warm place in my heart for Games Workshop. But the don’t pay me to reminisce. They pay me to bring the science. So here, for your enjoyment, are five sciencey reasons to be thankful for the Warhammer 4oK universe:
My wife and I love a good museum. They factor into every trip we plan and we visit our local favorites several times a year. But last week marks the first time we made it up to Cartersville, GA (just north of HowStuffWork’s home base in Atlanta) for the Tellus Science Museum.
Blow Your Mind: In the Lair of the Rat King
by Robert Lamb | February 7, 2012
The furniture is chewed and the cupboard raided of every last crumb. Feces litters the house and very walls seem alive with the clawed scurry of diseased rodents. You’ve evacuated the the children, grandmama and the family dog.
Even now they seek refuge at the church, as you drive your axe into the floor and pull back splintered boards. As you cast your flickering lantern light down on the horror that squirms beneath your home: a dozen worm-like tails knotted in blood and excrement, gleaming mad eyes and the hideous shriek of the Rattenkönig.
Mandala: Memory Palace, Inception and Simulated Worlds
by Robert Lamb | February 7, 2012
A world simulated in the mind, where fortresses of bone rise above a sea of blood. Where a pantheon of wrathful and serene deities assemble in precise arrangement. Where multi-limbed beings dance, cyclopean architecture looms high and a mountain bridges Earth to the cosmos.
That’s the rich world of the Mandala (Sanskrit for “circle”), an artistic visualization tool that allows Tibetan Buddhism ‘s most advanced psychonauts to enter heightened states of meditation. It’s essentially an imagined palace, not unlike the dreamscape architects in the sci-fi film “Inception,” or the famed “memory palace” mnemonic device that emerged in ancient Rome.
Want to blast into space with Angelina Jolie and Stephen Hawking? Well Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic might just be your ticket to ride.
In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I discuss the landmark space tourism venture and what it means for the future of manned space travel. Plus what might happen if Kanye West ventured into suborbital space?
Space Music: DJ Food and ‘The Search Engine’
by Robert Lamb | January 26, 2012
Few artists embody “space music” quite as well as DJ Food AKA Strictly Kev.
I spoke to the man back in 2010 about cosmic DJ mixes and he had quite a bit to share about sci-fi samples and his own psychedelic space music (you can read that here). But now it’s 2012 and Kev is back with his first full-length album in 11 years. So I checked in with him for the scoop on “The Search Engine.”
Just what sort of hugger are you anyhow? Do you go squeeze random strangers in deep? Do you grapple your pals in a manly bear bug or go for the dreaded side-hug?
Our affectionate embraces come in a variety of forms and, in this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I discuss the psychology, sociology and evolutionary science of hugging it out.
We’ll even get into the topic of man-hugs — and I think you may agree that the one in the accompanying photo may be the manliest hug of all time.
Space Music: Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Film Music Video in Orbit
by Robert Lamb | January 12, 2012
They’ve already brought a new child into the world and purchased it a $614,000 rocking horse made out of gold, so it’s only natural that pop culture’s favorite one percenters now ascend into orbit aboard Virgin Galactic and film the mother of all music videos. Or at least that’s what record executives are thinking, according to MTV News.
Just look at that photo. It was 1935 and a leviathan of dust advanced on a parched and decimated land. Families fled. Farms fell into ruin. The Dust Bowl terrorized the prairie lands of North America and threatened to turn the entire region into desert.
In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie an I travel back to the ruined farms and black blizzards of the Great Depression. What agricultural practices led to this near-apocalypse and how did we plant trees to combat the ecological damage?
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Sailing, Takes Me Away…To The Seychelles
- Cute Animal Tuesday: Black Vulture
- Traveling on the Orient Express
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- The Seven Deadlies: Pride Cometh Before the Brain
- Warhammer 40K: 25 Years of Orks in Space
- A Visit to the Tellus Science Museum
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Was Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime in America” Super Bowl commercial a little too political?
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
How-to Stuff
- How to Make the Most of a Gallery Crawl (When You’re on a Shoestring Budget)
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 43: Drag Queens: You Better Work!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 42: Road Trip!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 41: Celebrity Couples
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
