Boobquake going viral! A celebration of cleavage that recently happened on April 26th. Jennifer McCreight, a scientist and feminist blogger, and owner of blag hag, asked women everywhere to show their blessed assets. In protest against Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, who said,“Many women who do not dress modestly...lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,". Boobquake has stirred mixed emotions on gender, sexuality, and humor. It spanned more than 100,000 likes on Facebook, CNN news coverage, The Colbert Report stint, official shirts, and comic strips. This demonstration is a take on reverse pyschology, shedding clothes instead of covering up. That day will surely be remembered, now women have an excuse to dress in skimpy outfits other than Halloween. Eat that, Thanksgiving Day!

It's almost like a well trained seal of the future.

Developed by Masaaki Kumagai and Takaya Ochiai at the Robot Development Engineering Laboratory,
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Tohoku Gakuin University, Japan. - via. www.spectrum.ieee.org

Lately I've been fiending for a new bacteria related bio medical miracle, so I'm happy that this popped up on my radar. "Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University, Evanston, have discovered that common bacteria can turn microgears when suspended in a solution, providing insights for design of bio-inspired dynamically adaptive materials for energy."

via Science Daily

Well, I guess it's more like "The Google Timeline, Animated", but it's still quite impressive to see just how fast Google became the most powerful force on the internet. If I had to make a complaint I'd say that at times it moves faster than I can read, but considering the subject matter I'd say the speed is appropriate.

Happy (belated) 11th Google, thanks for everything.

Esquire's latest issue introduces the type of "Augmented Reality" technology which we have covered before, allowing the physical magazine to interact with a computer to unlock additional interactive content. I'm glad these magazines are trying new things to breath some life into their troubled format, I'm looking forward to checking this one out.

Here is a quick little run down of just how massive the and all encompassing this whole computer thing is going to get. In a nutshell, you can't even imagine, so just enjoy the nice motion graphics and know that one day you'll be able to do your taxes with your sneakers.

"This is a short film (a fast paced preview of a larger effort) by MAYA Design created to put some perspective on the invisible but fast approaching challenges and opportunities in the pervasive computing age. For more information please visit: maya.com/practices/research"

While taping my documentary in Tehran I was surprised to discover that thousands of mosques across Iran operate their own small-scale ‘savings and loans’.

The mosques offer interest-free micro-loans to members of their parish or to people from the larger community – so long as they can provide a personal reference from a parishioner.

The custom is based on various Islamic traditions such as giving away a percentage of one’s wealth to the poor and disdain for usury (interest on loans).

I was told there are some 5,000 such ‘mosque banks’ across Iran with close to 2,000 in the capitol, Tehran. The loans can range from the equivalent of $50 to $500. Many of the loans are taken out to help buy dowries or to make other arrangements for weddings. Sometimes the loans are to help pay off high-interest commercial loans that the applicant has taken out elsewhere.

I was amazed at how informal the application process can be. The loans are mostly done verbally and through personal contacts. The personal reference is in effect the guarantee or ‘collateral’ for the loan.

In this video, an elderly man makes a personal reference for a young man who needs the loan for his brother in the provinces. The bank doesn’t even know – and will probably never know – the actual recipient of the money it’s loaning in this case. It would be almost impossible to conduct such a financial transaction the traditional way through either a private or public commercial bank

But I was disappointed at the end of my taping to see the bank deny a loan request from a young and somewhat anxious-looking man – a traditional Persian musical instrument strapped across his shoulder. He leaves the mosque visibly distressed, saying into the camera that the Islam promoted by this mosque doesn’t care about his generation.