Is it irresponsible to speculate on the similarity of Figure 3 to 1970s SF cover art?

It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

Here at the Riddled School of Alternative Ethics we are familiar with the concept of human photosynthesis, but Elisabeth Bik has encountered a version of that concept which reaches new levels of I-can't-even. The Human Photosynthesis Study Center is the source of at least 56 papers addressing the implications for well-being, cancer and Alzheimer's Disease of "the amazing ability of the human body to transform the visible and invisible light energy into chemical free energy through dissociation and re-formed from the water molecule".

Evidently “Human being begin to lose the capacity to split the water molecule at 26 years old, ca. 10 % each decade, and after fifties goes into free fall” My own capacity reached terminal velocity a long time ago.

Go read the whole thing, as they say. I shall stay here and admire Figure 4, from which we learn that "The mesencephalon is entirely imbued by the energy that coming from melanin, night and day; all the life; and can be schematized as hereby above. Note that energy coming from both sides".



Either that, or it's Saruman clutching his Palantír while made up as the worst clown EVAH.

Keep the Giraffe Burning

It is time again to announce the results of last week's competition, and to thank all those busy little Riddled readers who sent in their entries.

The competition was (as any fule kno) to suggest a new flag for the People's Sovereign and Surrealist Republic of Cæsura, for when we declare the independence of stately Riddled Manor. This will happen Real Soon Now, as soon as we finish the paperwork -- or consume too many pints of Gleamhound's Sobriety Draught in the course of Pycnogonid Racing Night at the Old Entomologist -- whichever comes first.

As always, the judges were impressed by the creativity of the submissions... if not by their originality. Another Kiwi was sure that he had seen two of the entries previously, and had to retire to the Chaise Longue with a tall glass of gin to steady his nerves.

Shame on you, Mr V. N. Throgmorton! There is no place in the People's Republic for plagiarised flag designs, except when we are stealing Myles na gCopaleen jokes perhaps in the rubbish bin along with that sternly-worded legal missive from the Musée Magritte.

Then Greenish Hugh transcended the quaint tradition for flags to be assembled out of fabric, instead carving one from a piece of pavement that he had torn up from the back alley while searching for the beach. HA HA it is a flagstone.

Novel media and stone-based artistic practice are all very well but the entry is not easy to hoist, and the flagpole bends alarmingly when you do, so I think we will not be adopting Hugh's design.

"A flag-ship works perfectly," said Space-Time Eddy; "You just need a thicker flagpole."
But does it flutter in the breeze? DOES IT BOG-ROLL.

At this point the attention of the judging committee began to flag (as it were) and we turned to more interesting concerns, like choosing a form of motorised armour to equip the People's Republic Defensive Forces. We settled on fish-tanks.