and the threadless warning flags waved as though the wind was mad

Oh, my. We now have artificial mouse babies in the world. Well. Not artificial; let me not start off the ensuing controversy by taking a stand on the distinction between "real" and "synthesised" life--because, frankly, life being life, I don't see that there is one. But this definitely goes beyond cloning.

In more genetic news, lab researchers have synthesized a functioning sphincter. Yes, you heard me. Again using mouse cells--mice seem to be the new pigs on the block--they've created functional and adaptive natural constrictors that should have no rejection effects for those who...er...need replacements?

And from there, to...mysterious orange goo. That scientists can't identify yet. Which worries me. How can scientists get a great quantity of something they can identify as eggs, without knowing what kind of eggs?

Ware thee, the invasion starts in Alaska!

More on Google+ and the death of anonymity. Which contains a brief (and since deleted) use case of Google itself violating its own internal policies. How'ver, that led to this, which I believe answers many questions, including my main one:

MYTH: Not abiding by the Google+ common name policy can lead to wholesale suspension of one's entire Google account.

When an account is suspended for violating the Google+ common name standards, access to Gmail or other products that don’t require a Google+ profile are not removed. Please help get the word out: if your Google+ Profile is suspended for not using a common name, you won't be able to use Google services that require a Google+ Profile, but you'll still be able to use Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Blogger, and so on. (Of course there are other Google-wide policies (e.g. egregious spamming, illegal activity, etc) that do apply to all Google products, and violations of these policies could in fact lead to a Google-wide suspension.)

I am feeling much less unnerved and paranoid now.

Herbert F. Austin, Jr., has tracked down a great many archival photos, and has put them together into a draggable 360-degree presentation. The topic? Hiroshima, after the blast.

I also want to send your way a list of the thirty harshest filmmaker-on-filmmaker insults in history, which contains a link to the thirty harshest author-on-author insults in history.

I'm also happy to offer up another infographic--this one on typography, and what it means. I desperately want that as a poster.

I used to have a link for Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School on the sidebar (who knows, I may still), but now I'm happy to have Molly Crabapple, the founder of the Anti-Art School, releasing a set of 44 prints of reprobates (with a few virtuous souls thrown in for color, I suppose). They are all available for purchase.

Finally, there is financial drama over at the Escapist, which is sad, because they were becoming quite the polished production house for the smart and the funny. Still, signs were showing that the company was ailing when the folks behind the Escapist News Network, one of the online mag's flagship productions, moved to Penny Arcade's site and became Checkpoint.

There's more information here, but it's a tangle; I'm still working through it myself. But regardless, it's certainly sad to see.