2D printing makes things that are flat. 3D printing makes things that have volume. Add in the fourth D, time, and you make things that move. We're not talking about things that can be be moved, but rather, objects that come printed with the capacity to move all by themselves. ... The process is actually not that complicated, and the smart materials aren't even all that smart: all it takes is a material that acts like a sponge that can be layered inside of a joint during the 3D printing process. When the joint is submerged in water, the sponge material expands and the joint bends. Put a bunch of joints together, and you can get a fairly complex self-assembling object, like this cube:
Okay, so I know what you're thinking. Not so impressive. But considering the way DARPA spends your hard-earned tax dollars, I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually find out that they're working on "Four D" micro-bio-mechanical devices that "react" in certain ways when coming into contact with people with certain blood types, or "epidermal melanin levels", if you get where I'm going with this. Get ready for blood-borne microscopic racist death-bots, is basically what I'm saying. I mean, what the Hell else did you think they were going to do with the map of the human genome? They've been working on it since the Swingin' Sixties, so you'd better believe they've made impressive strides.
2. What with hugely popular file-sharing site Pirate Bay being shuttered by Scandinavian authorities last week, you might think The Powers That Be have copyright infringement perpetrators on the run. How then, to explain China's new, massive - and massively illegal - World of Warcraft theme park, which kicked off without a hitch - and without any input from, or payment to, the game's creators -early this year in Changzhou? I mean, just look at this monstrosity! And do you think they paid anyone involved with the Kung Fu Panda series before they chose to make Jack Black their on-site noodle hut's mascot? Seeing as we're talking about a country that "recreated" an entire Swiss mountain village from scratch - copying every building, every street and even giving their copy-village the same name, all without asking first - I fuckin' doubt it.
3. And finally, if you ever wanted to read about how a tantric "sex expert" managed to yoga-fuck her way into a "Tantric Kundalini Awakening" that was so incredibly, terrifyingly intense that it managed to turn her off sex, like, forever, then today is your lucky day! Former BDSM Janet Hardy's essay about stumbling into the horror of ecstasy begins:
My frequent co-author Dossie Easton and I were working on a book called “Radical Ecstasy,” charting what is known in S/M-land as “spirituality”: the transcendent, ecstatic, deeply connected state that may occur during and after a good scene. We were enacting intense S/M scenes with one another and our other partners, and the scenes were often chosen to illuminate some aspect of the manuscript: edgy role-plays designed to tap into both personal and cultural histories of trauma and abuse, as well as intense, prolonged experiences of bondage and pain. They were risky scenes both emotionally and physically, challenging every skill we’d acquired during our combined half-century-plus of experience. In the spirit of research, we added tantra and other quasi-religious practices into the mix and took classes in those, too.
And if that doesn't capture your interest and get you to read further, then why am I even doing these silly lists?!
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