Om Nom Nom Nom: Amazing Spider-Man Cake [Pic]

This totally awesome-looking Spider-Man cake was made for an unknown occasion by Cake Central member Arielatl. Here are a few additional details on what she did to create this masterpiece:

For those who would like to know :) I started with a dummy head, and used fondant to build it out to look like his face, then covered it with fondant, cut the eyes out of fondant, covered it in webbing, and let it dry for a few days. Then, I filled and stacked two 10″ cakes for the middle, and split an 8″ cake into quarters for the shoulders. Then, I carved the sharp edges and the slope and indent for the chest. Next, I crumb-coated the whole bottom, and covered in fondant. I cut a shallow circle the size of the head base in the top of the cake, and set it in with 2 dowels. I then finished the rest of the webbing on the body, and cut the spider out of fondant. I hope this helps! :)

[Source: Cake Central | Via Buzzfeed]



Newlyweds Dance To Malukah’s The Dragonborn Comes [Video]

This is awesome. Check out these newlyweds as they perform their first dance to Malukah’s very awesome The Dragonborn Comes cover. Now let’s all hope that one of their offspring becomes the real Dragonborn, because you know, the world would totally need one right now.

[Via Geekologie]

Alan Turing Pardon Rejected

British officials have ruled that Alan Turing cannot be posthumously pardoned for his convictions for homosexual acts. The government had already issued an official apology for the treatment.

Turing was a leading pioneer in computer science, helping develop one of the first computers that users could reprogram using stored memory, rather than the device being hard-wired. In effect, his work created what we understand as a computer today (as opposed to a single-purpose device.) He also helped crack the German Enigma encryption system during the second world war.

As we have previously covered, Turing was convicted in 1952 of gross indecency, which at the time covered his actions in having a sexual relationship with a man. He was forced to choose between imprisonment and chemical castration, opting for the latter. The conviction meant Turing lost security clearance to work on government encryption projects. Two years later he committed suicide.

In September 2009, after an online campaign and petition, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a formal apology, noting that “The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely.”

A later campaign called for Turing to receive an official pardon for his convictions. However, Justice Minister Lord McNally has said that such a move is not possible as under the British legal system and government policy, pardons are only given in specific circumstances. They are not given in cases where it later becomes clear the person did not commit the offense, but neither are they given in cases such as this where the offense itself has later been abolished.

Pardons are instead generally only given where the person concerned has committed the act but is “morally innocent”, the most famous example being the posthumous pardon of soldiers shot for cowardice during the first world war. McNally explained that, however repulsive the law may seem in hindsight, Turing used rational judgment in knowingly breaking the law and being aware of the potential consequences.

John Graham-Cumming, who led the original campaign for an apology, has previously said he agrees a pardon is inappropriate. As well as noting the legal barrier, he argues it would be unfair to pardon Turing without doing the same for everyone else convicted in similar circumstances. He also pointed out that then-pending legislation (which has now become law) means that although there are no pardons, the criminal records of anyone still living who was convicted of homosexual acts have been officially deleted.

Psycho Siri Says: It is futile for you to run and hide [Video]

iPhone users, beware: You better all switch to an android-based phone soon else something like this could very well happen to you in the near future. You’ve been warned.

[Andrewmfilms]

3D Printing Breaks into the Medical Field

Photo Credit: organprinter

So we’ve all definitely heard the hype surrounding the 3D printing technology. Yes, it’s been around for a while, but it’s now taking off like a whirlwind – with everything from 3D remote control aeroplanes to opening a whole new range of sculptural artistry – and it seems like the Star Trek replicators are not so far fetched after all.

Last year, orthopaedic specialists were already delving into the world of 3D printing to see how it might benefit the medical community. Tests on animals showed that 3D printed bone scaffolds could be attached to assist in bone growth repairs – a technology they hope to make viable for humans within the next two decades.

However, what they didn’t realize was that doctors in the Netherlands were way ahead of them; they just hadn’t talked about it yet.

The patient was an elderly woman of 83 years who had developed a chronic bone infection in her lower jaw. Reconstructive surgery would be risky (and expensive) at her age so they decided to try something new – an operation that is literally the first of its kind.

They crafted a brand new jaw for her, made from titanium powder fused in a 3D printer. The complex body part comes complete with articulated joints, cavities to promote muscle attachment, and grooves to direct regrowth of nerves and veins. It will also be equipped with a specially made dental bridge into which false teeth can be screwed into holes. That will happen later this month during a follow-up surgery.

The operation was done in June last year, but has only recently been publicized – probably because they decided to make sure it actually worked first!

And work it did: our lovely old granny got to walk away from the hospital only four days after a surgery that only took four hours – a fifth of the time it would have taken to do a traditional reconstructive surgery. The day after the surgery the woman was already able to swallow with her new mouth!

The future for 3D printing in medicine looks bright. The slashing of operation and subsequent hospitalisation time reduces medical costs so dramatically that it’s bound to make hospitals around the world perk up and drive forward the research.

The company that produced the machinery, LayerWise, believes that this application is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s perfectly plausible to imagine that patient-specific organs can be printed, ready for transplant in the matter of hours.

Of course, the world where hearts will no longer need to be stored in boxes and flown across the country to be received by the next patient on the waiting list is still some way off. I’m not sure a tin-man’s (or titanium-man’s) heart would really work so well in an actual human body.

Working out all the biological and chemical issues – namely how to use organic material as the ‘ink’ in the 3D printer – is something that’s definitely going to take some time. Most likely it will only be a reality outside of our lifetimes, but who knows – I’m pretty sure a few decades ago they would have thought the idea of whipping up a fully functioning jaw bone out of titanium powder would have seemed ridiculously far off as well.

You never know what those orthopaedists will pull out of their bony brains next!

[Via BBC]

Science off the Sphere: The Knitting Needle Experiment [Video]

Expedition 30 astronaut Don Pettit uses knitting needles and water droplets to demonstrate physics in space through ‘Science off the Sphere.’ This is part of the first video in a series for a partnership between NASA and the American Physical Society to share unique videos from the International Space Station with students, educators and science fans from around the world.

[ReelNASA]