I like, kind of have a massive crush on architecture robots.  In my spare time I doodle the names of various smoking hot robots in a three-hole punched college-ruled notebook that I store in my TrapperKeeper.  And like, every time I see one (a robot, not a TrapperKeeper) I completely freak out and start hysterically screaming, hyperventilating, and crying.  Picture the reaction of a typical teenage girl as The Beatles were getting off the airplane in 1964.   But to be perfectly clear – I don’t care about robots that are not architecture robots.  For instance, I don’t give a semi-ripe fig about the Transformers or …

Does anyone else remember the Muppet Show skit called “PIGS IN SPACE“?  Actually, it was called “PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGSSSS IIIIINNNNNNN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE,” mainly because in outer space distances are vast and despite the fact that sound doesn’t travel through a vacuum, all announcements about astronaut pigs really should be made with excessive reverb.  I don’t really have any more time to go on about the pigs but I bring them up because they are hilarious and because they were the first thing I thought of when I heard about Cellulose Aerogel, which is the material I’m about to describe in excruciating detail over the course …

Context changes how we perceive materials.  For example, if you were to examine a carpet from a distance of 1.5″ (as you might do if you’d tripped on up the stairs and upon landing found yourself face to face with the ground) the experience would be completely different than if you were to view it from 5′-6″ feet away (as you might do if you were walking around in a competent manner).  Close up, you’d see the loops and fibers that make up the carpet, and you might be able …

 
When I first heard the term “fly ash” in architecture school, I remember thinking that it sounded pretty sick.  I mean, flies are annoying and it’s gross when they buzz over and land first on some unidentified, dog-generated substance on the ground and then, without a single shred of consideration, approach and settle on the rim of your drinking cup or slice of pecan pie.  But it boggles the mind to think about the enormous number of flies you’d have to crisp in order to produce so many metric tons of fly ash that there’d even …

Never have I felt even the slightest desire to slurp down an oyster.  Not once have I looked said bivalve in the eye*, so to speak, and been able to overcome my not inconsiderable revulsion long enough to taste one.  It seems however, that I’m in the minority; many of my dearest friends are completely mad for oysters and eat them in copious quantities whenever they can get their hands on them. 
I bring this up because tasting good (to other people, at least) is a positive characteristic of oysters.  Another positive …