Sitting in the study hall he opened the lid of his desk and changed the number pasted up inside from seventy-seven to seventy-six. But the Christmas vacation was very far away: but one time it would come because the earth moved round always.

There was a picture of the earth on the first page of his geography: a big ball in the middle of clouds. (…)

He opened the geography to study the lesson; but he could not learn the names of places in America. Still they were all different places that had different names. They were all in different countries and the countries were in continents and the continents were in the world and the world was in the universe.

He turned to the flyleaf of the geography and read what he had written there: himself, his name and where he was.

Stephen Dedalus
Class of Elements
Clongowes Wood College
Sallins
County Kildare
Ireland
Europe
The World
The Universe

{ James Joyce, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, 1916 | Continue reading }

artwork { Jean-Michel Basquiat, Formless, 1982-1983 | acrylic, oil paintstick, crayon, graphite, colored pencil, and charcoal on paper }

How much a mother eats at the time of conception may influence whether she gives birth to a boy or a girl, a new report shows.

The report, from researchers at Oxford and the University of Exeter in England, is said to be the first evidence that a child’s sex is associated with a mother’s diet. Although sex is genetically determined by whether sperm from the father supplies an X or Y chromosome, it appears that a mother’s body can favor the successful development of a male or female embryo.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, shows a link between higher energy intake around the time of conception and the birth of sons. The difference is not huge, but it may be enough to help explain the falling birthrate of boys in industrialized countries, including the United States and Britain.

The reason food intake may influence the development of one sex of infant rather than another isn’t fully understood. However, in vitro fertilization studies show that high levels of glucose encourage the growth of male embryos while inhibiting female embryos.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

For every occupation, there is a catalog of secrets only its employees are aware of…

When you’re twisting balloons for children, never tell them what you’re making. The majority of the finished products—despite your best attempts—almost always look like a dog, a blastula, or something vaguely phallic. If you identify what you’re actually attempting to make, the children will respond to your finished product with, “That doesn’t look like a [insert animal name]…”

But if you make the animals and then ask, “What does it look like to you?” the child’s imagination will take over, turning the blue, four-legged balloon into Blue from Blue’s Clues, the blastula into a Pokemon, and the phallic object into an elephant. You’ll also get bonus points because you were so cool for making exactly what they wanted.

{ Morning News | Continue reading }

photo { Rikki Kasso }

{ “All I want for my birthday is a boob job like Mummy,” says Alicia Douvall’s 12-year-old daughter. | Daily Mail }

related { Nude cell phone pictures now part of teen dating }

A scientific technique that could allow same-sex couples to create their own biological child in a laboratory should be allowed under law, a group of influential scientists said on Monday.

The experts, all international leaders in embryology research, called on ministers not to restrict such “important” research.

The laboratory creation of eggs and sperm from other cells could offer hope to thousands of people unable to have children of their own.

Although the creation of both sperm and eggs in a laboratory is still at an early stage, the Hinxton group, made up of 40 world-renowned experts, estimates that the procedure could be used to create human foetuses within 15 years.

Creating sperm from female instead of male cells could take longer but was still “possible”, they said.

{ Telegraph | Continue reading }

A friend at Harvard Business School recapped a talk given last night by Warren Buffet at the venerable institution. When asked how he would vote, Buffet gave this thought experiment: It is 24-hours before you’re to be born as a baby and a genie appears. He tells you that he thinks you’re a winner and has great confidence in you.

So great is his confidence in you - that he is going to let you set the rules of the very world that you’ll be born into. You can set the social rules, the political rules, the economic rules-whatever you like. And whatever rules you set will apply for your lifetime and your kid’s lifetimes too.

You think: This sounds great! What’s the catch? And the genie then tells you that you don’t know if you’ll be born, rich or poor; black or white; male or female; sick or healthy; intelligent or slow. The only thing you know is that there’s a lottery with 6 billion different lotto balls and what you start life as is represented by one of them.

Buffet called this the “ovarian lottery” and said it’s the most important thing that’ll happen in your life-more so than your grades in school or anything else that happens to you–and you’ve got absolutely no control over it. What kind of rules would you make? It’s interesting to think about when voting.

{ Josh Wolfe, Nanotech Weekly Insider Newsletter, Oct. 29 2004 }

image { Legend Condoms ad | Adverbox }

Lexi James, 11, a sixth grader in Hope Mills, N.C., had been asking for a hair treatment, any hair treatment, ever since her older sister, now 13, first had her hair chemically straightened by her mother three years ago.

“Lexi’s hair wasn’t the right type for that treatment because it was too curly,” said her mother, Lisa Stasser, a cosmetologist. “It just drove Lexi crazy. Lexi found her own hair so boring so I gave her a few highlights and for a while, that was fine,” she said.

But, last fall, Lexi begged for more. “I wanted highlights, you know, and the salon thing,” Lexi said. In her case, “the salon thing” meant a couple of hours at Toadly Kool Me, a children’s hair salon in nearby Fayetteville. For $45, Lexi would receive six caramel streaks of permanent color along her part, for a look she described as “a little punky,” followed by a blow dry and flat ironing.

“Lexi works hard, gets good grades,” her mother said. “I feel like she deserves a treat.”

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

photo { Sasha Pivovarova, Vogue Paris April 2008 }

{ A young girl scavenges for recyclable parts at a car yard on the outskirts of Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir | AP }

Ilona Staller, a former European porn star and politician, has sued her ex-husband, artist Jeffrey Koons, for millions of dollars in child support.

In papers filed in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, Staller says Koons owes about 1.5 million euros, or about $2.4 million on Wednesday, for support of their 15-year-old son, Ludwig Maximilian Koons.

Staller’s papers, filed late Tuesday, say the child support payments of 15,000 euros a month were ordered by an Italian court in June 2007. Koons was represented in that court, which ultimately gave custody of Ludwig to his mother, court papers say.

The amount Koons owes covers October 1998 through December 2007, court papers say. They say the artist has paid 191,426 euros for child support, leaving a balance owed of about 1.5 million euros.

The Hungarian-born Staller made X-rated films in Italy under the name La Cicciolina before becoming a member of Italy’s parliament for five years. She and Koons, 53, met in the early 1990s, when he hired her to pose for sexually explicit photos, paintings and sculptures. They married in Budapest, Hungary, in June 1991.

Following their divorce in New York in 1994, Koons was given custody of the then-infant Ludwig. A judge ordered that the child stay in New York, but in June 1994 Staller evaded Koons’ security guards and fled to Italy with the boy.

{ AP/1010 WINS | Bloomberg }

photo { Jeff Koons, Made in Heaven, 1989 | Lithograph billboard }

Kern County Sheriff’s deputies rescued four teenagers who had been stranded for days in the Mojave Desert after they fled from a rave party that was busted on Saturday.

The group of teens were found Monday after deputies said they broke into a travel trailer and took Gatorade, soda and water.

{ KERO 23 | Continue reading }

related { Unknown forces cause large groups of people to dance hysterically until dropping from exhaustion in multiple incidents in Europe from the 13th to 17th centuries. }

photo { Klaus Thymann | S Magazine, 3 }

[Jan. 2007] Six girls at a rural high school were charged with homicide conspiracy after their principal found a list of 300 names and officials discovered online postings suggesting they kill people.

School officials said the list, discovered in a classroom trash can, mostly named students and faculty members but also included Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and the Energizer bunny.

Sequatchie County High School Principal Tommy Layne said that he initially considered it a joke, but that authorities then found the ninth-graders’ online MySpace pages and postings that included the word “kill.” The girls, ages 14 and 15, were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal homicide and taken to a juvenile facility.

Layne said he learned about the list when a “young man came in with his grandmother and said his name was on the list.” No club or group was involved, said Layne, who described the girls as friends.

{ AP/USA Today }

{ Kid’s Pimp Suit Costume }