I want to marry that man.
Well, either of them really.
Or both?

Current Mood: amused

did anyone buy an sparklers this year? mine are duds, and I really want to light a sparkler.

Happy 4th of July, lovelies! The lake is already filling up with boats, and I'm off to go to the boat festival. Will be back in time to fire up the bbq, though! Yay! Come over around 7 or 8, and we will have fun.

Milk Cameo:

Techniques for producing organic materials enable the fabrication of plastics made from human or animal milk by solidifying their casein content. The `Perle de lait' range of jewellery imagines a new set of personalized post-natal objects. The breast-feeding mother sends a feeding bottle full of her milk to a laboratory where it is transformed into a gem-like substance that can be mounted on a neck-piece or any other form of jewellery.

Tags: boobs, monkeybutter, parts, perversions
Current Music: The Vanishing -- Your Image

Originally posted on liz.vox.com

Tags: art
Current Music: Doubting Thomas -- Come in Piece

Tags: movies, mpegs, the future
Current Music: Doubting Thomas -- Come in Piece

Caloric Restriction Comes in a Pill

Scientists have provided the strongest evidence yet that the anti-aging benefits of calorically restricted diets can be duplicated -- minus the near-starvation -- by a pill.

In a study published today in Cell Metabolism, mice given resveratrol -- the first of an eagerly-anticipated class of longevity drugs -- enjoyed dramatically improved health, even when they started taking the drug late in life.

Resveratrol didn't extend the lives of normal mice, but it did protect them from the ravages of time. The rodents had stronger hearts, clearer eyes, more limber muscles and firmer bones. Closer analysis revealed the same cell-level changes produced by caloric restriction, an extreme form of dieting that consistently lengthens the lives of lab animals but is impractical, if not dangerous, for people.

"For the first time, we can mimic caloric restriction in an otherwise healthy animal," said study co-author David Sinclair, a Harvard University biologist and co-founder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. "That's been the goal of the field for decades. We didn't know it was possible to let an animal eat whatever it wants, but still get the benefits. We now have evidence."

Regardless of mouse weight and diet, resveratrol worked wonders. At two years of age, or the mouse equivalent of senescence, the mice were more coordinated than their non-dosed counterparts. Their bones were thicker and stronger, their eyes free of cataracts, their hearts beating strong. At the cellular level, tissues displayed gene-level changes almost identical to those produced by caloric restriction.

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals has already started clinical trials of resveratrol and a more-refined sirtuin activator. In June they were purchased for $720 million by Glaxo Smith Kline, signaling the seriousness with which academics and the pharmaceutical industry views the field.

"You've got to take aging research seriously if a company is willing to put down three-quarters of a billion dollars on it," said Sinclair.

Tags: the future
Current Music: Presets -- Pretty Little Eyes

The function of Spore appears to be the generation of ridiculous Youtube clips like this. After having watched the demo videos of the game itself, though, I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would play it. But then, The Sims baffled me too, with all of its SimKafka tedium.

Tags: mpegs, mutants, tentacles
Current Music: d.A. Sebasstian -- Monster Monster