Jim Moriarty

Etsy seller Craftandcrochet has crocheted R2D2 beanies, made to order. I wonder if you can get a yarmulke version?

Crochet Robot Droid Hat (Thanks, JMD!)

I suppose if you're going to take handouts from pharmaceutical reps—a practice that's been proven to influence decisions doctors make, even if they think it doesn't—you may as well get exactly what you want out of the deal.

Carmen Drahl, an editor at Chemical & Engineering News who blogs about the cool science that comes out of pharmaceutical chemistry, sent me this example of the industry's less-awesome side. She says:

Even though it's frowned upon these days for doctors to be getting free lunches from pharmaceutical company sales reps, that doesn't mean it doesn't still happen. And at least one medical practice is acting like a real diva about it- specifying everything from what time the food should be delivered to which local eateries are do's and don'ts. Journalist Ed Silverman's Pharmalot blog has posted a memo from a Baltimore practice that reads "like a rider for a concert tour", as one commenter put it.

To be fair, as far as concert tour riders go, this ain't a J.Lo level of detail. But it is amusing/depressing to see a medical practice specify exactly what it takes to buy their loyalty, potentially at the expense of their patients. Especially when that loyalty can be bought, apparently, with lunch from Macaroni Grill.

Image courtesy Flickr user avlxyz, via CC

With a capacity of 5 MB, the IBM 350 disk storage unit could have stored about two MP3 files. This photo, showing a unit getting forklifted onto a plane, is from 1956.

IBM's history website has more information about the drive.

IBM 350 disk storage unit (Thanks, Roy Doty!)

A sinuous green aurora appears above a deck of clouds in this dramatic astronaut photograph from May 29, 2010.

Techno artist Jeff Mills produced this CD/5" vinyl single for "The Occurrence." One side of the disc is a normal CD, the other side plays on a normal analogue turntable.

The Vinyl And CD Release On One Disc From Jeff Mills

Axis Records (unlinkable Flash-blobs ahoy!) (via Make)

Great graphic on how deep the Deepwater Horizon was drilling. (Answer: really deep.)

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These pictures of Shanghai taken just 20 years apart are remarkable.

From Skyscrapercity.com (via Rolfe Winkler):

1990:

2010:

 

Now don't miss: 15 facts about China that will blow your mind >

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French fries are pretty versatile, but as far as the thin, crispy variety goes, it's hard to get them better than your local fast food joint. Food blog Serious Eats shows us how to duplicate McDonald's french fries at home.

This isn't some half-baked recreation of an existing commercial product, either—blogger and serious fry enthusiast J. Kenji Lopez-Alt went to great lengths to duplicate McDonalds' fries, from doing deep research to actually tricking a McDonald's into giving him frozen fries to reverse engineer. While the main article is long (albeit quite entertaining), in the end the recipe boils down to just a few choice ingredients: potatoes, distilled white vinegar, and peanut oil.

The real key to these fries, besides cutting them super thinly, is to fry them twice—once for about 50 seconds, and then again a half hour later for a few minutes. It may seem like a lot of trouble, but you can't beat the freshness of making them right at home, nor the convenience of being able to freeze the cut potatoes and cook them whenever you want. Hit the link for the full article and recipe.

Finally, a Barack Obama conspiracy theory for the rest of us! Everyone from Tea Partiers to hip hop message boards thinks Obama was an extra in the music video for Tag Team's single "Whoomp (There It Is)". More »