The emergency bra. A bra for emergencies. // How memory cards are tested. // Python digesting rat (interior view). // Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. // There’s a vortex on Venus. // Victorian submarines. // Bollywood + robots. // Puny human musicians, make way for GuitarBot. // Diamond-studded hoods, custom made for your falcon. // And girls should have costumes too. // The Foyn Johanson house. // Private jet interiors. // Chocolate artisans. // Maintaining high standards in Italian sculpture. // Logan’s Run in Lego. // “Yes, we call it the death ray.” (h/t, Stephen Keating) // And a little project for the family: Space Balloon.

“Sensitivity” is letting other people’s reactions to you decide your behaviour. So instead of choosing to do what you think is right and then defending it, you say something or try out something or listen to other people demand something… and try to adapt to that.

Peter Robinson talks with Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield about grade inflation, illiberal “liberals” and the state of academia. In five parts:

1. Leaning left.

2. A culture of self-criticism.

3. Everyone is excellent.

4. Diversity in all things (except of course in thought).

5. “Sensitivity,” indignation and the right to be agreed with.

At last, the bacon-scented tuxedo. (h/t, Mr Eugenides) // It’s probably best not to dunk your hand into liquid nitrogen. // Or into the beam of the Large Hadron Collider. // Beer crate architecture. // Sculpture by Alma Allen. // Rocks and fog. // For hardcore vinyl lovers. // Wine vending machines. // Things organised neatly. // Spray-on clothing. // The iPad Orchestra. // Projection mapping in Russia. // Persian portraits. // The price of weed. // Astroturfing malfunction. // A short history of asteroid discovery. // Hungover owls. // Happy owl. // H.G. Wells meets Orson Welles. (1940) // The grilled cheese underground.

I’m back, just about. While I get my bearings, here’s a handsome piece of time-lapse by Samuel Cockedey.

The music is by Woob, of whom more here.

The Guild of Evil™ will soon be relocating to a new and more fabulous lair. There are, therefore, umpteen boxes to pack and then unpack, incriminating documents to shred and phone lines to connect. For the next couple of weeks posting will be at best intermittent, most likely non-existent. So you may wish to subscribe to the feed, which will alert you to anything that materialises.

By all means rummage through the archives, the blogroll and the greatest hits. If you’re really stuck for something to do, you could always count the number of items in the index of ephemera, where you’ll find music and memories and strange obsessions, and things like this, and this, and this. And failing that, why not do something clever with a toilet roll tube?