{ Why identical twins differ—despite having the same DNA }

images { Walt Disney with elephant at the American Museum of Natural History }

{ Awful Library Books }

{ The Descriptive Camera works a lot like a regular camera–point it at subject and press the shutter button to capture the scene. However, instead of producing an image, this prototype outputs a text description of the scene. | Matt Richardson, Descriptive Camera, 2012 | thanks Tim }

{ Hans Hemmert’s “Same Height Party” }

{ Mathilde Roussel }

Homophobia is more pronounced in individuals with an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex and who grew up with authoritarian parents who forbade such desires, a series of psychology studies demonstrates. The research is the first to document the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear of homosexuals. (…)

“In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,” adds co-author Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester who helped direct the research.

{ University of Rochester | Continue reading }

photo { Jessica Eaton }

Red seems to affect us in a way that other colors don’t. (…)

Johns and colleagues test an hypothesis for why red on women looks so attractive to me. The hypothesis is that red is sexy because it reminds men of… lady parts. (…) One version of the hypothesis is that as females are approaching ovulation, the vulva becomes more red than is is at other points in the cycle.

If this “red is code for female sex organs” hypothesis is true, you might predict that men would judge female genitals as more attractive as they became more red.

Explicit images of anatomically normal, un-retouched, nonpornographic, similarly-orientated female genitals were surprisingly difficult to obtain… We selected photographs that … did not contain other, potentially distracting, objects (fingers, sex toys, piercings etc.) and were hairless to account for current fashion.

They showed their pictures to 40 males. Most of the men were in their 20s. (…) They rated the attractiveness of each image.

The ratings of attractiveness were the exact opposite of those predicted by the signalling hypothesis. The reddest images were rated the least attractive.

The authors are then tasked to come up with an hypothesis as to why redness is less attractive. Their suggestion is that red is suggestive of menstrual blood.

{ NeuroDojo | Continue reading }

{ Ho Ryon Lee }

All natural hair colors are the result of two types of hair pigment. Both of these pigments are melanin types, produced inside the hair follicle and packed into granules found in the fibers.

Eumelanin is the dominant pigment in dark-blond, brown hair, and black hair, while pheomelanin is dominant in red hair.

Blond hair is the result of having little pigmentation in the hair strand.

Gray hair occurs when melanin production decreases or stops.

{ Wikipedia | Continue reading }

photo { Matthew Spiegelman }

{ Glithero, still from Burn Burn Burn Glithero, 2007. Video featuring wood and flammable paint. | Dust, Ashes, and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design, at Museum of Arts and Design, NYC, through Aug. 12 }

{ Ursus Wehrli | more }

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious { The Oxford English Dictionary says there was an earlier form of the word, supercalafajalistickespialadojus, first documented in a song in 1949. The song’s writers were unsuccessful in taking legal action for alleged copyright infringement against the company that published the Disney song. | BBC | Continue reading }

{ 1. Paul Kwilecki | 2. Robert Ball }

{ Maddie the Coonhound | Thanks Glenn }

{ The Mystery of Trephination: Why did ancient peoples cut holes in their heads? }

art { Nicola Samori }

Codex Seraphinianus, originally published in 1981, is an illustrated encyclopedia of an imaginary world, created by the Italian artist, architect and industrial designer Luigi Serafini during thirty months, from 1976 to 1978. The book is approximately 360 pages long (depending on edition), and written in a strange, generally unintelligible alphabet. (…)

The book is an encyclopedia in manuscript with copious hand-drawn colored-pencil illustrations of bizarre and fantastical flora, fauna, anatomies, fashions, and foods. It has been compared to the Voynich manuscript,[3] “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”, and the works of M.C. Escher[6] and Hieronymus Bosch. (…)

In a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles held on 12 May 2009, Serafini stated that there is no meaning hidden behind the script of the Codex, which is asemic; that his own experience in writing it was closely similar to automatic writing; and that what he wanted his alphabet to convey to the reader is the sensation that children feel in front of books they cannot yet understand, although they see that their writing does make sense for grown-ups.

{ Wikipedia | Continue reading | Thanks to Adam John Williams }

{ Barneys New York logo by Chermayeff & Geismar | “Barney’s” was a long-established New York institution known for medium-priced clothing for men and boys. When the ownership decided to upgrade to a high-fashion, high-priced emporium for women’s as well as men’s wear, an elegant new logo was developed. By eliminating the apostrophe, adding the words New York, and using a classic typestyle, the store’s graphic and verbal identity was transformed. | Chermayeff & Geismar | more }

{ Anton Repponen / iOS’ 86 }