Periodic Table. Literally.

Eating Seasonably Chart

True Story

Love Your Legos

These simple and adorable lego heart jewelry pieces can be found at Shana Logic for less than $15

Best Lunchbox Ever

 I need this lunch box.
Like, right now.
Though, if I work in a hospital, then I run the risk of having my delicious turkey sandwich transplanted into some random guy. And I love my turkey sandwiches too much to risk that happening.
It would probably suck for the guy too.
As delicious as turkey is, it is a poor substitute for the organ responsible for blood transport.

Tardis Wedding Ring

I love it soooo much.
So shiny!
So nerdy!
So full of awesome!

Eddie Izzard

I’ve been a fan of Eddie Izzard since high school, though I never dreamed I would have a chance to see him. Shows like Eddie Izzard are too big for Alaska, which due to our location has a hard time time attracting big names and is notorious for having shows cancelled. In the past few years, White Stripes, Lamb of God, and Godsmack (in Fairbanks) are among many cancelled shows. Even our own Jewel has cancelled on us twice. It’s just one of those things you come to terms with when living up here. (Fortunately we have a fairly dedicated music community which has pushed for big acts, and the recent filming of movies here has expanded our name as an entertainment venue). We also have a pretty religious and conservative community. Anchorage has a pretty strong progressive community, thanks largely to the university, but even that population wasn’t enough to pass the recent controversial Prop 5, a proposed law which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation for housing and jobs.  In 2012 Anchorage, Alaska, one can be denied a job based on their sexual orientation. It’s not right, but it’s how it is for now.

Given the conservative atmosphere and our less-than-desirable venue, I would have never of dreamed of seeing Eddie Izzard’s act in Alaska. But the concert board of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) brought him up. Tickets sold out in less than 10 minutes. So they offered a second show. Those tickets sold out in less than 1 minute, even with a “two-tickets-per-person” restriction. I didn’t even try to get a ticket; I didn’t want to get my hopes up. But the super awesome Margherita surprised me with a ticket, which has earned her eternal hugs.

Our show started at 10:30 pm, but people were already lining up by noon. When I arrived at 7:30, over 20 people were waiting. It really encourages me to see so many people with my kind of humor. I found these super awesome people armed with board games and tauntaun sleeping bags. 
I grabbed a spot near the front of the line, armed with ALL THE COFFEE!!!
Soon my friends arrived and joined me (bringing with them more coffee, because they’re awesome and they love me).

We were all quite excited.

His nails were fabulous, his goatee was adorable, and his act was brilliant, based mostly on history, religion, Atheism, and the stupidity of creationism/intelligent design. My face hurts from laughing so much. A few of my favorites:
 “Anchorage, what kind of a name for a town is ‘Anchorage’? That’s like naming a town ‘Bus Stop’.”
“Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin lived two vowels away from each other on alphabet street.”
“We have to hunt in packs! Like cigarettes!”
“Can we kick animals in the bollocks?”
As well as watching him fight an invisible badger on the stage.

Oh, Mr. Izzard, you have made my life complete.

Has The Star Trek Tricorder Finally Arrived?

*SQUEEEEE*
OMG OMG OMG OMG
I want it.
I want it now.
Live long and prosper, fellow nerds

Scientist beams up a real “Star Trek” tricorder

By Frank SimonsPosted 2012/04/13 at 4:56 pm EDT

LOS ANGELES, Apr. 13, 2012 (Reuters) — Starships, warp speed, transporters, phasers. Think “Star Trek” technology is only the stuff of fiction? Think again.

Dr. Peter Jansen, a PhD graduate of the Cognitive Science Laboratory at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has developed a scientific measurement device based on the tricorders used by Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and other space adventurers on the classic TV series that has spawned numerous spin-offs in more than 45 years.

“Star Trek inspired me to be a scientist” said Jansen, who has been formally working on his tricorder prototypes since 2007, but toying with the idea of making a functioning device since he was “a kid in high school.” The 29-year-old Jansen’s school days spanned the late 1990s when “Star Trek: Voyager” was on the air. It featured his favorite tricorder, a model with screens on top and bottom. The first tricorder appeared on the original show’s initial episode in 1966, when Capt. Kirk swaggered toward audiences with his phaser weapon holstered to his side but a tricorder in his hand. The hand-held devices for data sensing, analysis and recording, have been a part of “Star Trek” ever since. But if Jansen, a self-confessed “addicted maker” of things, is successful at developing, testing and bringing his instrument into the public, the tricorder may not be just the stuff of “Star Trek” prop rooms. It may be used for real. Jansen said his tricorder can take atmospheric measurements, or ambient temperature, pressure or humidity. It can take electromagnetic measurements to test magnetic fields, and it can make spatial measurements of distance, location, or motion.

 Fascinating, as Spock might say.

Jansen thinks of his tricorder as a “general tool” — a kind of “Swiss Army Knife” — with practical uses in building inspection, for instance, where it might help taking temperature and humidity readings or be a distance sensor to measure rooms. It resembles the device carried by countless “Away Team” members in “Star Trek – The Next Generation” – his favorite of the “Star Trek” shows, he notes.

NO SCIENCE FICTION

No independent group has yet verified his claims for the device which, he said, is one reason for placing his designs on a public website as an “open source” that technology makers can utilize to test and tinker. Jansen has posted schematics and designs of his first and second prototypes, the Mark 1 and Mark 2, for anyone to see and build. Jansen expects to have his latest version, the Mark 4, produced for “about $200.”

Everything you need to build one is online at www.tricorderproject.org, according Jansen. He hopes others will follow his lead.

While it may sound like the stuff of science fiction, Jansen isn’t the only one to take notice of just how useful a real functioning tricorder would be – especially as a medical tool. Telecommunications giant Qualcomm Inc this year launched the “Tricorder X-Prize Contest” with the slogan “Healthcare in the palm of your hand.” Qualcomm hopes to motivate developers with a $10 million prize to make medical tricorders a reality.  Wanda Moebus of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, who is not affiliated with Jansen or Qualcomm, told Reuters the X-Prize “is really cool,” but cautioned that making a real medical tricorder device “would have to be measured on its safety and effect, like all other medical technologies.” Jansen said he has been approached by “a couple of teams” about the X Prize, but added that his prototypes are more for science research than medical tools.

Besides, he said he already is on to his next frontier, making a sort of “replicator,” another “Star Trek” device that will create 3D objects and foods that are dimensional copies of real items. Jansen’s “replicator” is a 3D printer, which in itself is not really new, but the scientist thinks about it in terms reminiscent of “Star Trek’s” famous prologue. It’s “like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” Jansen said.

Science Last Supper

Vintage Spock

You Will Never See Mold The Same Way Again

This video is mind-blowing in it’s quality and dedication. Many of these molds take days or even weeks to grow, and all such organisms, due to their spore-forming nature, must be handled in a designated Class III lab. This wasn’t some bored dude in his kitchen, this was a person with access to a designated space and a great talent for videography.

Lego Jewelry

These adorable little lego delights are the brainchild of Jacqueline Sanchez, as part of her charmingly named “Forever Young” collection.
A classy gift this is sure to appease your significant other’s inner child.
❤ ❤ ❤

 

Knitted Gnome Sodomy

This past week has been my birthday week, and full of awesome shenanigans as well as continuing packing and preparing for the move. My apartment is full of boxes, my tummy is full of microbrew and strawberry-rhubarb pie, and my brain is exploding with happiness.
But before I curl up in bed, I can’t resist sharing the wonderful presents I received tonight from my dear friend Margherita, who is a yarn genius and a connoisseur of cute.

Knowing that I am absolutely in love with blood, particularly red blood cells, she knit me a tiny RBC:

 I shall call him Eric the Erythrocyte!

She also made me 10 gnome minions!

I absolutely love gnomes!
They have beards, which I’ve always had a weakness for, and are kind of creepy, but in an cute way.
(Like me!)
When I was a teenager, while all the other girls dreamed of marriage and children, I dreamed of being a part of the Garden Gnome Liberation Front. (aka the Front pour la Libération des Nains de Jardin. The French are weird in an oddly lovable way, and fifteen-year-old me believed that stolen gnomes were essentially catnip for French people).

If you look closely, you’ll see that one of the gnomes (lower left) has a red beard.
Ginger gnome!
And another (lower right) is missing his shirt.
And one of the gnomes (on the very top) is completely nude.

Newton, The Nudist Gnome!
I plan to let him go skinny dipping in my sink.
Fortunately, his beard is long enough to allow for some modesty, though Margherita admitted that she was tempted to make him anatomically correct.

And two gnomes are engaging in what has to be the most adorable depiction of sodomy I’ve ever seen.
Gnome sex has never been so cute.
Which is really saying something, as tiny gnome sex is already pretty damn adorable.

Also, to top things off, she made me an itty bitty narwhal named Natalie:

*squeeee!*

Star Trek Amigurumi

*Sigh*
One day my crochet and knitting skills will be good enough to do uber nerdy awesome stuff like this.
But for now I’ll stick to crocheting scarves and jellyfish.
(via Jana Ford Knits)

Crochet Bactierophage

Made by  Rachael Penzo, and seen on Geek Crafts and Craftster, this adorable bacteriophage amigurumi is a million kinds of awesome. I love it so much. I’m tempted to try it, but I will just stab myself with crochet hooks again.

I Can’t Hear You…

Glass E.coli

Glass E.coli sculpture makes me swoon with delight.

Etsy Find: NBDesigns

I love finging science-themed artists on Etsy! NBDesigns features designs that perfectly balance talent, adorableness, and delight.
Their products include:
Bacterium earrings, complete with adorable monotrichous flagella and organelles.

Bacteriophage earrings

DNA Electrophoresis Ladder earrings

Erlenmeyer Flask of Love, complete with a itty bitty heart.

Petri Dish earrings

A microbiology charm necklace, featuring a bacterium, a heart flask, and a petri dish.

A necklace of a macrophage eating an itty bitty heart

And, because I am a complete coffee addict, I have to include these awesome golden coffee bean earrings.
 If I brewed them, would they taste like art?

I Must Have These Shoes

I love chemistry.
And I love shoes.
They were clearly designed for me.
*squeeeee!*

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batman!!!! (On Dinosaurs)

 Art by Joe Carr (at least the first three. The last one was found on a different site and uncredited). Prints can be found at his Society6 page.