• The sexed robots are autonomous wheeled platforms fitted with nylon genital organs. They’re in heat and looking for mates so watch your back. Via.

• A cluster of galaxies acting as a gravitational lens may reveal the complex distribution of matter within the lens itself. Say that three times fast.

• The shiny happy world of Utopian Pharmacology. Via.

• Michael Wolf’s follow up to the fantastic Architecture of Density is 100 x 100.

• On beauty as separate from function: Windfarms. (Thanks Bill)

• Great piece on Tim Hawkinson: Taking the Measure of the World. Via.

• First pictures from the jaxa “map of the universe mission.” Via.

• This man has invented more than 80% of the world’s known hallucinogenic drugs.

• On the cover: gallery of Kerouac’s On The Road editions. This was mine. Via.

• The Nation Magazine Cover Archive. Enjoy Emigre and Mad among others. Via.

• The sheep market. 10,000 sheep drawings. via.

• Sam Harris is not your grandfather’s atheist: Why Religion must end.

• The space elevator: going down? Study shows that proposed carbon nanotube cables won’t hold up.

• Cultural Renaissance or Cultural Divide? Technology and economic change are conspiring to create a new cultural elite and a new cultural underclass.

• Plans to clean-up space junk orbiting Earth could result in the loss of irreplaceable historical artifacts?

• Lichtman/Zogby poll: U.S. Public Widely Distrusts Its Leaders.

• If:Book launched gam3r 7h30ry today. Interesting project. Read about it here.

• Jonathan Safran Foer on Joseph Cornell: Flights of fancy.

• Modern Mechanix offers a 1964 Popular Science article: Build your own laser.

• Under the buckskins: Indian Women as Sex Objects.

• George P. Dvorsky of Sentient Developments mulls over Death and the brain.

• The History of the Knights Templar by Charles G. Addison, 1842.

A history of the pen. A brief history of writing instruments. The history of the ballpoint pen. How ballpoint pens work. The early history of the fountain pen. The pen trade. The Paul E. Wirt fountain pen. The story of the invention of steel pens. The four treasures of the study: brush pens. Quills. Cutting a quill pen. Fox with quill. Cat with quill. The writing [implement] of Jane Austen - the quill pen.

Mark Twain’s pens. Presidential pens. More presidential pens. The instruments of presidents, peace and international politics. The “billion-dollar” space pen. More on the space pen. Vintage pens. Pen profiles. Pen collection. Pen lovers. A collection of pre–1850 writing implements. Waterman’s writing implements. Vintage pen ads, blotters, and ephemera. Lion & pen. Nibs. Nibs. More nibs.