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BSODs have been plaguing NIN on their current tour. In fact, one has been popping up on the giant display behind them at just about every concert. So what’s the deal? Will Trent be forced to fire his tech guy? Hardly. The truth is that it is all part of the act. The BSOD pops up for a split second near the end of the song The Great Destroyer, and there are videos after the break from two separate concerts to prove it. We all know Trent is a Mac man—so this is obviously a subliminal jab at Windows. I’m sure the nerds in the audience get a kick out of it.

Read here!

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mumblemumblr:skiribilla: hardcorejudas:florencio:Más Jim Lee

So here's one thing you probably didn't know about Peter Parker: All that spider venom in his bloodstream not only makes him super-powerful, but also keeps Mary Jane satisfied through the night. Yes, you read that right - new research is showing that spider venom could be used to treat impotence. That's not the end of the story, either; radioactive scorpion venom can also be used as a cancer treatment. You may have heard that chocolate-covered bugs are crunchy and delicious, but it turns out that arthropods have even more to offer us.

An October 1 article in the Telegraph describes the useful properties of scorpion venom:

The scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus lives in the Middle East and among the powerful cocktail of neurotoxins packed into its venom is a peptide that is non-toxic to humans but binds to tumour cells.

In laboratory experiments, the peptide has invaded tumours in breast, skin, brain and lung tissue, but left healthy cells untouched.

"It's as if the tumours collect it," Michael Egan of the company TransMolecular in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told the New Scientist.

Researchers at TransMolecular treated peptide cells with a radioactive isotope of iodine, and then injected them into the malignant brain tumors of 59 patients. On average, the patients who had received a high dose of the radioactive peptide lived three months longer. This was an encouraging enough result to inspire a team at the University of Chicago to start new trials, delivering the radioactive peptide directly to the bloodstream of other patients with brain cancer. If that goes well, it'll be a surprising gift from the frightening-looking thing in the picture above — a scorpion that Middle Easterners call the deathstalker.

The deathstalker could have a pretty exciting face-off with the American brown recluse spider (above), whose bites can destroy human limbs and cause death. Despite the danger of the brown recluse spider, however, two professors from Cornell University set out to analyze their venom. Another Telegraph article reports:

"We show how using NMR spectroscopy for the analysis of a complex mixtures such as spider venom one can find new and entirely unexpected chemistry," said Prof Schroeder.

"Our research shows that brown recluse venom contains important, previously undetected components that have been overlooked."

... The venom... contained messenger chemicals that work in the brain and on nerves.

In addition, the venom has been shown to contain several different proteins, including enzymes such as hyaluronidase, deoxyribonuclease, ribonuclease, alkaline phosphatase, and lipase, which help to break down tissue, among other things.

These researchers are hoping that these newly discovered compounds could treat conditions like arthritis and erectile dysfunction.

Don't let the fascinating chemical composition of the spider's venom fool you, though. You should still avoid it and (obviously) the deathstalker. With the right lab preparation, they could be responsible for keeping your brain and your genitals fit — but you can thank them later.

Radioactive scorpion venom could be used to fight brain cancer [Telegraph]
Spider venom could be used in impotence treatment [Telegraph]

Images from Wikipedia.

Gadgets like this Beer-Filled USB Flash Drive really make me question the basics. More than my first-year university philosophy class did, anyway. Existential angst, the downfall of western civilization, and "customizable floaties" after the jump.

Is capitalism really that great, if it leads to beer-filled USB flash drives with "optional customizable floating objects" inside? Should we Americans really be that pleased with our free speech, if it means I get emails from people who make flash drives with BEER in them? And am I really secure with myself as a gadget dork, getting all excited over the latest and greatest shiny toys, if that same email brags about the floating objects being in 3D? How could they be anything but 3D, when they're actual, physical objects? I can't pretend like the world is the same after this. The sun doesn't shine as bright. The air doesn't taste as sweet. Congratulations, Beer-Filled USB Drive Manufacturer. You've broken me. [CNK]

Last year, the Writers Guild of America strike stepped in to save America from having to endure too many substandard episodes of Heroes (or any episodes of Bionic Woman in general), but once that dispute was resolved, what could stop the production of more substandard Heroes — or this year's version of Bionic Woman, Knight Rider? The answer may be coming as early as October 18th, and this time, it may be the actors' turn to stop television and movies in their tracks.

This Wednesday, the Screen Actors Guild’s contract negotiating committee passed a resolution asking the SAG National Board to vote on seeking authorization for a strike from its membership. The vote — scheduled for October 18th — could ultimately lead to the much-discussed actors strike that could paralyze the industry just as much as last year's WGA strike. Understandably, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — the body that the SAG are currently in negotiations with that may end up forcing the strike — aren't in favor of this move, releasing the following statement in protest of the possible protest:

Is this really the time for anyone associated with the entertainment business to be talking about going on strike? Not only is the business suffering from recent economic conditions, but if ever there was a time when Americans wanted the diversions of movies and television, it is now.

Don't listen to them, actors — It's much better that America doesn't see another Knight Rider or Sanctuary than anything else.

SAG negotiators urge strike vote [Variety]

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