Gun geeks critique the design of the phasers on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Tasteless-but-geeky practical joke of the day: Robodump. (Via Memepool.)

New approaches to artificial gravity.

Invention of the day: BananaGuard.

Are you fed up with bringing bananas to work or school only to find them bruised and squashed? Our unique, patented device allows for the safe transport and storage of individual bananas letting you enjoy perfect bananas anytime, anywhere.

(Via Boing Boing.)

Functional MRI brain scanning is becoming increasingly reliable as a lie detector. Here's a related story.

The Jerry Seinfeld Dictionary of Terms and Phrases.

Wikipedia will be offering news stories as well. Here's the Wikinews demo.

Transparent transistors.

Obesity Tourism: This is the most unusual weight loss plan I've ever heard of.

Robert Mugabe, dictator of Zimbabwe, "has come up with a bizarre proposal to solve the food crisis threatening half its population with starvation. [He] wants to bring in obese tourists from overseas so that they can shed pounds doing manual labour on land seized from white farmers."

No, seriously. (Via Rand Simberg.)

Electronic wallpaper.

Chocolate may be the next cough medicine.

"Darkness, Tunnels, and Light": The scientific basis of near-death experiences.

This is the geekiest tatoo I've ever seen.

Thanksgiving meals are good for you. Happy T-day! (Regular posting will resume Monday, November 29.)

As you prepare for holiday travel, be aware that "Transportation Safety Administration officials say increased concerns about bombs being hidden on a person's body require more intensive torso searches, and women's breasts and the genital and buttocks regions of both sexes are not off-limits." All in the name of national security, of course. (Via Fark.)

Test your space IQ.

Negative Thermal Expansion: A few unusual materials shrink when they're heated, rather than expanding.

World's smallest test tube: Scientists have created a controlled chemical reaction within a carbon nanotubule, causing "the molecules inside the tubes to polymerise in long line just one molecule thick".

"Seeing is believing (in the free market)": Alex Tabarrok has some very interesting observations about health care economics.

Everywhere we look it seems that health care is more expensive: prescription drug prices are increasing, costs to visit the doctor are up, the price of health insurance is rising. But look closer, even closer, closer still. Don't see it yet? Perhaps you should have your eyes corrected at a Lasik vision center.

Laser eye surgery has the highest patient satisfaction ratings of any surgery, it has been performed more than 3 million times in the past decade, it is new, it is high-tech, it has gotten better over time and... laser eye surgery has fallen in price. In 1998 the average price of laser eye surgery was about $2200 per eye. Today the average price is $1350, that's a decline of 38 percent in nominal terms and slightly more than that after taking into account inflation.

Why the price decline in this market and not others? Could it have something to do with the fact that laser eye surgery is not covered by insurance, not covered by Medicaid or Medicare, and not heavily regulated? Laser eye surgery is one of the few health procedures sold in a free market with price advertising, competition and consumer driven purchases. I'm seeing things more clearly already.

"A new digital technique has been developed that can identify whether two works of art are by the same artist. It can help to reveal fakes, and even discern if an artist used talented students to help with the painting process." Here's a related story.