Rambles Blog at Star Chamber

Feed Magazine has a good special edition on drugs. Psychoactive chemicals are at the intersection of psychology, chemistry, pop culture, and religion. It’s a fascinating place to be, and it’s only going to get more so.

Jibjab presents the rapping forefathers of our country.

At the Florence museum of science, you can pay your respects to Galileo’s finger. Read about it on this week’s Star Chamber.

The EDGE sounds pretentious, but it’s got some good stuff. Who’s behind this thing?

Beautiful piece by Clay Shirky about looking at proteins: Seven Ways of Looking at a Protein

Interesting looking blog: An Entirely Other Day.

The robots finally are coming. Computers and sensors are cheap, and motors are cheap enough. I.D. Magazine did a nice article about the genuine arrival of robots in pop culture (as opposed to their faux arrival in the 1950s). But I.D. is too lame to back up their magazine with a web site, so here are some other interesting links: an article in the Washington Post, and a nifty kit to turn your Palm Pilot into a robot.

Recommended by my brother: movies and Flash cartoons at Icebox. I did enjoy “The Adventures of Jesus and His Brothers.”

Here’s an interview in Feed with Sims creator Will Wright. He’s working on an even more addictive online version of the runaway hit game. It must be fun to be in his position: a creator of worlds that other people get absolutely lost in.