The parachute physics of hungry whales
How did whales get so big eating such tiny creatures? And why aren't they bigger? Carl Zimmer explains. According to the scientists, this pattern occurs when the whales lunge into a cloud of krill and drop open their jaws. Pleats under the lower jaw open up, engulfing huge amounts of water. The whale slows down because of the drag. It behaves, in other words, a lot like a parachute. [...] It's a lot of water, the scientists have found: in one lunge, a fin whale can momentarily double its weight. The scaling stuff later on in the article is especially interensting. S

How geeks measure things
1 Warhol equals 15 minutes of fame, So if you've been famous for three years, that's just over 105 kilowarhols. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there's a critical point -- varying from celebrity to celebrity -- where that person has outstayed their welcome, and uh ... becomes synonymous with a feminine hygiene product (and the bag it came in). In keeping with nuclear physics, I'm happy for this to remain as k=1 (where 'k' is for 'Kanye'). The full list is at Wired. Tags: Andy Warhol  

Back to the land
Maira Kalman wonders about the patterns of food consumption in the United States, whether it is democratic or not, and how we might want to change. Every one of her essays is outstanding; I can't stop linking to them. Tags: food   Maira Kalman   USA

The Matrix in Lego
This is amazing: a stop-motion recreation of the Neo-dodges-bullets-on-the-roof scene from The Matrix done entirely in Lego. Tags: Legos   remix   thematrix   video

Updates on previous entries for Nov 25, 2009*
Dogfighting vs. football in moral calculus orig. from Oct 12, 2009 Media packaging mashups orig. from Apr 22, 2009 Warhol illustrates kids book orig. from Nov 23, 2009 How the H1N1 vaccine is made orig. from Nov 24, 2009 * Q: Wha? A: These previously published entries have been updated with new information in the last 24 hours.