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“Why doesn’t she age?” Howard Greenberg, 52, asked of his daughter. “Is she the fountain of youth?” Such questions are why scientists are fascinated by Brooke. Among the many documented instances of children who fail to grow or develop in some way, Brooke’s case may be unique, according to her doctor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine pediatrician Lawrence Pakula, in Baltimore. “Many of the best-known names in medicine, in their experience … had not seen anyone who matched up to Brooke,” Pakula said. “She is always a surprise.” Brooke hasn’t aged in the conventional sense. Dr. Richard Walker of the University of South Florida College of Medicine, in Tampa, says Brooke’s body is not developing as a coordinated unit, but as independent parts that are out of sync. She has never been diagnosed with any known genetic syndrome or chromosomal abnormality that would help explain why.

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Forget buckets of blood. Nothing says horror like one of those tubs of artificially buttered, nonorganic popcorn at the concession stand. That, at least, is one of the unappetizing lessons to draw from one of the scariest movies of the year, Food, Inc., an informative, often infuriating activist documentary about the big business of feeding or, more to the political point, force-feeding, Americans all the junk that multinational corporate money can buy. You’ll shudder, shake and just possibly lose your genetically modified lunch.

Divided into chapters dedicated to points along the commercial food chain — from farm to fork, to borrow a loaded agribusiness phrase — the movie is nothing if not ambitious. “There are no seasons in the American supermarket,” the unidentified voice intones in the opening scene, as the camera sweeps the aisles of one such brightly lighted, heavily stocked if nutritionally impoverished emporium. From there the director Robert Kenner jumps all over the food map, from industrial feedlots where millions of cruelly crammed cattle mill about in their own waste until slaughter, to the chains where millions of consumers gobble down industrially produced meat and an occasional serving of E. coli bacteria.

More.

More here.

Anthony Franz says an undercooked salmon salad gave him a 9-foot-tapeworm, and in August he sued the Chicago restaurant that served it to him.

If Franz’s tapeworm tale holds water – and the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the restaurant disputes his account – then it’s just one more data point to add to a growing urban tapeworm problem.

Once the bane of rural Japanese villagers, a paper in the June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases reports on the spread of the the salmon tapeworm Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense. The parasite, which can reach lengths of 39 feet (12 meters), has been steadily increasing its global distribution and prevalence – mostly among yuppies with a hankering for sashimi and ceviche.

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Scientists set out to test the well-known saying that just one drink can quickly go to your head.

Only six minutes after consuming an amount of alcohol equivalent to three glasses of beer or two glasses of wine, leading to a blood alcohol level of 0.05 to 0.06 percent, changes had already taken place in brain cells.

The researchers from Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany said it is known the brain reacts quickly to alcohol, but wanted to find out how rapid the effect was.

Eight male and seven female volunteers took part in an experiment where they drank a specified amount of alcohol through a 90cm-long straw while lying in a MRI brain scanner.

The goal was to reach a blood alcohol content of 0.05 to 0.06 percent - a level that impairs ability to drive, but does not induce severe intoxication.

The scanner allowed the scientists to examine the tiny changes in brain cell tissue structure caused by the alcohol.

Dr Armin Biller, a neurologist at the hospital, said chemical substances which normally protect brain cells are reduced as the concentration of alcohol increases.

Other components of brain cells were also cut as more alcohol was consumed.

Perhaps surprisingly, the study found that men’s and women’s brains reacted to alcohol consumption the same way.

The team found the harmful effects of alcohol on the brain may be shortlived, but over time cells took longer to repair themselves.

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{Image: the wonderful effects of beer on one’s sex life}

AN erotic dance craze is thought to be the cause of a recent spate of broken penises in Jamaica, and now faces a government crackdown.

“Daggering“, a lewd dance style where couples simulate dry sex in various positions to the beat of the music, is characterised by over-the-top gyrating, heavy pelvis-thrusting and daredevil leaps.

Many couples have taken the “rough” daggering dance from the club to the bedroom, with disastrous consequences.

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…DARPA have now expanded somewhat on their intention to initiate a programme called Self-Explanation Learning Framework (SELF), which they explain thus:

DARPA seeks to construct systems that can participate in their own construction… The system might know the requirements for various tasks in its repertoire, and it may try to perform those tasks to verify functionality.

We particularly liked that last bit. One should bear in mind that Dr Mike Cox of DARPA has already said that SELF could be placed in charge “in the near term” of heavily armoured, hideously beweaponed main battle tanks or strike planes laden with blockbuster bombs.

“Tasks in its repertoire”, then, might include “destroy all moving objects within 100 miles not designated as ‘friendly’” or “mount an immediate armoured assault on Beijing, regardless of nuclear response”.

Goddamit. Robots that can participate in its own construction. Sounds fun!

But for more humanity-is-fucking-itself goodness, check out SELF’s details (PDF).

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As you can see from his faxes, Billy had a clear overall vision for the package from the start. One of his notes reads, “As you know I am looking for that very sentimental, Victorian style look…” It is not well known, but originally I had suggested a photographer to execute the various images Billy had in mind for the package. Billy was into it, but things didn’t work out. I then suggested the illustrator John Craig, and the rest is history.

– Frank Olinsky, the art director behind the extravagant and intricate packaging that accompanied all of the Smashing Pumpkins’ official releases between 1995 and 1999. From Mellon Collie and the Infinite SadnessAdore to the singles that supported .

The complete interview here.