It turns out Gwyneth Paltrow is not Pepper Potts: 

I am fascinated by the growing science behind the energy of consciousness and its effects on matter. I have long had Dr Emoto’s coffee table book on how negativity changes the structure of water, how the molecules behave differently depending on the words or music being expressed around it. 

Regarding these misbehaving molecules, Ms Paltrow’s Goop website informs us,

Emoto poured pure water into vials labelled with negative phrases like ‘I hate you’ or ‘fear’. After 24 hours the water was frozen and no longer crystallised under the microscope: it yielded grey, misshapen clumps instead of beautiful lace-like crystals. In contrast, Emoto placed labels that said things like ‘I love you’ or ‘peace’ on vials of polluted water, and after 24 hours they produced gleaming, perfectly hexagonal crystals. Emoto’s experiments proved that energy generated by positive or negative words can actually change the physical structure of an object.

Because water can read, people.

The inspirations for Star Wars, a 2-hour annotation. // The dialogue from Star Wars, sorted alphabetically. // Robot hand relays softness of virtual breasts. // Cold-brewed cannabis beverages. // Seamless ice balls. // Your personalised balaclava freak mask. // Frolicking octopuses. // “Soylent provides maximum nutrition with minimum effort.” // As sculptures go, it’s quite large. // Oldest known trousers found in China. // A well-travelled hedgehog. // Algae batteries. // Breweries of the United States. // Internet sarcasm detector. // Data teleportation. And so it begins. // Audrey and her friend. // Fondue slippers. // A simple interface. // When winter ends, they fly kites. // And finally, I suspect this is an excuse for being tight. 

A message from the young thinkers of the University College London Union: 

This Union resolves to… struggle against fascism and the far-right… with the perspective of fighting the root cause of fascism – capitalism.

Apparently fascism is “far-right” – a claim that Mussolini and Hitler, avowed socialists, might have found puzzling – and is caused by capitalism. And not caused by, say, dogmatic collectivism and its endless justifications for authoritarian urges. Urges not unlike those of the Union itself, with its intent to ban student groups that it deems both “sexist” and “anti-Marxist,” and which therefore must be met with “unconditional resistance.” To say nothing of the Union’s somewhat ambitious plan to bring about “a socialist transformation of society.”  

Via BenSix. 

“Peggy Lee singing into tape recorder, accompanied by Sonny Burke.” Filmed for Disney’s Cavalcade of Song, February 16, 1955. 

Speaking, as we were, of farmyard erotica, here’s a thing to ponder:

The court heard that he initially removed cow pats from the farm but his behaviour escalated, with Truscott regularly entering the farm to perform a sex act in slurry.

I’m not easily scandalised but the term “cow slurry fetishist” did raise an eyebrow.