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18 months without soap or shampoo: success!

18 months without soap or shampoo: success!: “This week Sean Bonner reported on his success in staying clean and odorless by showering with water and not using soap or shampoo. Sean was inspired by a blog post I linked to on a site called freetheanimal.com. It’s run by a fellow named Richard Nikoley, who self-experiments with various types of diet, nutrition, exercise, fitness, and health regimens, based on his research in evolutionary biology.

Here’s a little of what Richard has to say about his soap and shampoo free experiment 18 months after starting it:

120940358_4d0204e1c5_o.jpgWhat I’ve found over these 18 months is that I never even thought of the money I was saving. Hell, a decent sized bottle of shampoo and body wash would last me months anyway. Oh, and then there’s the travel size versions. No, what has made this experience oh so satisfying is that I don’t have to worry about any of that anymore — ever. Don’t have to buy it. Don’t have to carry it. Don’t ever run out of it. Don’t have to get it tossed in the dumpster by TSA goons.

So what it boils down to is that this has been such a tremendous experience on the pure grounds of liberation. Now, I can wash up anywhere, anytime there’s a shower, lake, river or stream at hand and feel completely normal about it, not as though it’s the best I can do because I don’t have a big bag of ‘personal hygiene’ products immediately at hand.

A Most Successful Self-Experiment: Over 18 Months Soap and Shampoo Free

Photo by Madaise. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.


Spokeo may know more about you than you realize

[WTF. This site knows WAY too much about you. -egg]

Spokeo may know more about you than you realize: “spokeo.jpg

is a new site that claims to not be your ‘grandma’s phonebook.‘ This is because it pulls a ton of info about you from all over the web into one place. And I mean a ton. More than you might be comfortable with in fact. But luckily you can remove yourself from their database by following these simple instructions. Thanks for the heads up on that one Chris.


The safety of saccharine

The safety of saccharine: “In the LA Times, Elena Conis has a really interesting story about food safety and saccharine—the artificial sweetener that’s long been suspected of toxicity, despite multiple studies suggesting that it’s safe in the low doses humans actually consume. The piece does a really good job of explaining why it’s so hard to gauge the long-term health impacts of something like saccharine. If you’ve ever wondered how people can have wildly different positions on the safety of a given chemical, this will help make sense of the confusion.


The underwater sculpture of Jason de Caires Taylor

The underwater sculpture of Jason de Caires Taylor: “RTXVODX.jpg

“The Silent Evolution,” by British artist Jason de Caires Taylor, lies between Cancun and Isla Mujeres off the coast of Mexico. Taylor used ‘life casts’ made from materials that encourage coral growth to build the installation on the sea bed, forming a new home for aquatic creatures. — REUTERS/Jorge Silva


HOWTO grow your own snowflakes

HOWTO grow your own snowflakes: “ Data Galleries Dn16170-Snowflakes Hollow-Columns

 Data Galleries Dn16170-Snowflakes Triangular1

Caltech physicist Ken Libbrecht wrote the book on snowflakes. Actually, several of them. The author of the Field Guide to Snwoflakes and The Secret Life of a Snowflake posted a HOWTO guide for growing your own snow crystals. (No, they probably won’t look like the ‘hollow column snowflake’ or ‘triangular crystal snowflake’ above that Libbrecht photographed with a custom snowflake photomicroscope. For more of those incredible natural flakes, see this gallery at New Scientist.) From Libbrecht’s Web site:

 Product Image 88735184 Field-Guide-To-Snowflakes

The parts list for this experiment is as follows:

>One used 20-oz plastic Coke bottle

>Three large-diameter styrofoam cups (or something similar; see below)

>A small kitchen sponge (1/2 inch thick)

>A short length of nylon fishing line (thinner is better; 1-pound test is good)

>A strong sewing needle

>Four straight pins

>One paper clip

>Some paper towels

Grow Your Own Snowflakes(via Science Friday)


Hunter Stabler, exquisite papercutting artist

Hunter Stabler, exquisite papercutting artist: “ Images Babayaga

 Images Majick Downsize

 Images Majick Detail 01 Downsize
Papercutting artist Hunter Stabler is an absolute X-Acto master. Above left, ‘Baba Yaga Misquotes the Face to Steeleye Span,’ W24′ x H36,’ Hand Cut Paper. Above right (and detail at left), ‘Magick Kruller Alefbet Lamen of the Golden Dawn,’ W27′ x H35,’ ink and graphite on hand-cut paper and Color-aid mounted on Plexiglass. Hunter Stabler (via Phantasmaphile)