http://kottke.org/10/03/fat-is-now-a-taste

In addition to sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, Australian scientists have found evidence that humans can also taste fat.

"We found that the people who were sensitive to fat, who could taste very low concentrations, actually consumed less fat than the people who were insensitive," Keast told AFP. "We also found that they had lower BMIs (Body Mass Indexes)."

Tags: food   science

http://kottke.org/10/03/fat-is-now-a-taste

In addition to sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, Australian scientists have found evidence that humans can also taste fat.

"We found that the people who were sensitive to fat, who could taste very low concentrations, actually consumed less fat than the people who were insensitive," Keast told AFP. "We also found that they had lower BMIs (Body Mass Indexes)."

Tags: food   science

What's it about?: (From barnesandnoble.com)
Sixteen-year-old Katniss is smart, athletic, and fast. She can take down a rabbit with a bow and arrow, hitting it straight through the eye. Will these skills be enough to survive the Hunger Games?

Suzanne Collins, the author of the middle-grade fantasy series The Underland Chronicles begins anew, exploring a future landscape that will be familiar to devotees of science fiction's dystopic strain. In a nation called Panem, which occupies the landmass that is the present United States, a parasitical fascist Capitol dominates 12 conquered districts. There was a thirteenth district but it was obliterated during a rebellion. The totalitarian government keeps the subjected populations in line by threatened devastation, starvation, and brutality.

My thoughts:
First of all, this isn't going to be a regular review since this book has been talked about and reviewed alot already. Mainly this is just to share my thoughts of this book :)

The Hunger Games (Book 1) by Suzanne Collins is easily the best book I have read so far in the year 2010. All the amazing raves and talk of this book were 100% true in my honest opinion. I had high high high hopes for this book and I have not let down in the least. It was even better then I thought it would be. I honestly can't say enough good things about this book and I highly recommend it to anyone. If you are thinking about reading it, please do.

This is one of my favorite books of all times. I will be picking up "Catching Fire" (book 2) tomorrow :)

Number of pages: 374
10 5/5 stars

xposting to bookwins  and readinbooks 

#21: The Wycherly Woman by Ross MacDonald:

She was sitting at a desk by the window, with the heavy drapes closed and the reading-lamp on. A small rabbit-shaped girl in a bulky Orlon sweater and blue slacks. Her eyes were blurred with what was probably thought, and her legs were twisted round the legs of her chair. She didn't bother to disentangle them.

Synopsis: When hard-boiled gumshoe Lew Archer takes on the case of a missing girl, the more he finds out, the less happy his client gets. Not to mention the neat little pile of bodies that turn up.

( Could someone hold onto my disbelief for one moment? Thanks. )

http://kottke.org/10/03/tournament-of-books-begins

The Morning News Tournament of Books is underway with a first round matchup between Nami Mun's Miles From Nowhere and Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. As a semifinal judge, I know at least one of the final two books and for your betting purposes, I'll open the bidding on that knowledge at, say, $50K.

Tags: books

http://kottke.org/10/03/tournament-of-books-begins

The Morning News Tournament of Books is underway with a first round matchup between Nami Mun's Miles From Nowhere and Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. As a semifinal judge, I know at least one of the final two books and for your betting purposes, I'll open the bidding on that knowledge at, say, $50K.

Tags: books

Title: The Windup Girl Author: Paolo Bacigalupi Format: TC Available Formats: TC, Audio Download Page Count: 359 Genre: Science Fiction Publisher: Night Shade Books Pub. Date: September 15, 2009 ISBN-13: 9781597801577 Series: Stand Alone

( Read the review at Book Love Affair?

I just started reading a book today that I found would be an excellent addition to those users who are looking for YA books about Greek Mythology. I haven't' finished it yet so I can't say anything as to its worth or quality yet.

Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman

http://kottke.org/10/03/rediscovering-the-cure-for-scurvy

Maciej Ceglowski tells the story of how the cure for scurvy was discovered, lost, and finally redsicovered, but not before it disrupted Robert Falcon Scott's 1911 expedition to reach the South Pole.

This is a good example of how the very ubiquity of vitamin C made it hard to identify. Though scurvy was always associated with a lack of greens, fresh meat contains adequate amounts of vitamin C, with particularly high concentrations in the organ meats that explorers considered a delicacy. Eat a bear liver every few weeks and scurvy will be the least of your problems.

But unless you already understand and believe in the vitamin model of nutrition, the notion of a trace substance that exists both in fresh limes and bear kidneys, but is absent from a cask of lime juice because you happened to prepare it in a copper vessel, begins to sound pretty contrived.

Tags: Antarctica   Maciej Ceglowski   medicine   Robert Falcon Scott   science

http://kottke.org/10/03/tron-legacy-trailer-1

Fuck. Yes.

Tags: movies   trailers   Tron Legacy

http://kottke.org/10/03/rediscovering-the-cure-for-scurvy

Maciej Ceglowski tells the story of how the cure for scurvy was discovered, lost, and finally redsicovered, but not before it disrupted Robert Falcon Scott's 1911 expedition to reach the South Pole.

This is a good example of how the very ubiquity of vitamin C made it hard to identify. Though scurvy was always associated with a lack of greens, fresh meat contains adequate amounts of vitamin C, with particularly high concentrations in the organ meats that explorers considered a delicacy. Eat a bear liver every few weeks and scurvy will be the least of your problems.

But unless you already understand and believe in the vitamin model of nutrition, the notion of a trace substance that exists both in fresh limes and bear kidneys, but is absent from a cask of lime juice because you happened to prepare it in a copper vessel, begins to sound pretty contrived.

Tags: Antarctica   Maciej Ceglowski   medicine   Robert Falcon Scott   science

http://kottke.org/10/03/tron-legacy-trailer-1

Fuck. Yes.

Tags: movies   trailers   Tron Legacy

http://kottke.org/10/03/david-foster-wallaces-archive-acquired

The Ransom Center at the University of Texas has acquired the archives of David Foster Wallace, joining those of Don DeLillio and Norman Mailer.

The archive contains manuscript materials for Wallace's books, stories and essays; research materials; Wallace's college and graduate school writings; juvenilia, including poems, stories and letters; teaching materials and books.

Highlights include handwritten notes and drafts of his critically acclaimed "Infinite Jest," the earliest appearance of his signature "David Foster Wallace" on "Viking Poem," written when he was six or seven years old, a copy of his dictionary with words circled throughout and his heavily annotated books by Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike and more than 40 other authors.

Materials for Wallace's posthumous novel "The Pale King" are included in the archive but will remain with Little, Brown and Company until the book's publication, scheduled for April 2011.

The web site currently contains some tantalizing examples of what the archive will eventually hold, including the first page of a handwritten draft of Infinite Jest, his annotated dictionary -- circled words included benthos, exergue, hypocorism, mendacious, rebus, and witenagemot -- and some heavily annotated books he owned, including his copy of Players by DeLillo.

This is really exciting and sad all at once. (thx, matt)

Tags: David Foster Wallace   Don DeLillo   Infinite Jest   The Pale King

http://kottke.org/10/03/david-foster-wallaces-archive-acquired

The Ransom Center at the University of Texas has acquired the archives of David Foster Wallace, joining those of Don DeLillio and Norman Mailer.

The archive contains manuscript materials for Wallace's books, stories and essays; research materials; Wallace's college and graduate school writings; juvenilia, including poems, stories and letters; teaching materials and books.

Highlights include handwritten notes and drafts of his critically acclaimed "Infinite Jest," the earliest appearance of his signature "David Foster Wallace" on "Viking Poem," written when he was six or seven years old, a copy of his dictionary with words circled throughout and his heavily annotated books by Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike and more than 40 other authors.

Materials for Wallace's posthumous novel "The Pale King" are included in the archive but will remain with Little, Brown and Company until the book's publication, scheduled for April 2011.

The web site currently contains some tantalizing examples of what the archive will eventually hold, including the first page of a handwritten draft of Infinite Jest, his annotated dictionary -- circled words included benthos, exergue, hypocorism, mendacious, rebus, and witenagemot -- and some heavily annotated books he owned, including his copy of Players by DeLillo.

This is really exciting and sad all at once. (thx, matt)

Tags: David Foster Wallace   Don DeLillo   Infinite Jest   The Pale King

Fancy Brickwork...

Among the Cannibals: Adventures on the Trail of Man's Darkest Ritual By Paul Raffaele


This is a book that pleases even the least morbid people (after all Andrew Jackson Jihad acutely remarked that everyone has something dark inside of them.) Raffaele goes hunting down cannibals. He meets the Korowai tribe who have no qualms about eating people; however, it is not in the 'I want a snack!' sense.
He goes to Uganda and discovers that a few of the ex-child soldiers were forced to eat their companions if said companions had complained 'too much.'
He visits an island that just stopped the practice a hundred years or so ago (I am probably off on the number.)

His ability to turn what would have been a disturbing non-fiction travel book into an epic journey is amazing. It is ridiculous fun. I got yelled at in a coffee shop for laughing, and by yelling I mean every person glared at me. I slunk outside to read.
Watch out for irritating the townies and hipsters.