Cocktail Party Physics looks at scientific art, or artistic science, even if it wasn't meant to be. Would the picture above be any less interesting if I told you it was "a drop of ferrofluid on a glass slide atop a slip of yellow paper, under which are seven small circular magnets that affect the form of the drop." I didn't think so. tjc

USA Wrestling Gold Medal hopeful Daniel Cormier was forced to bow out of this morning's freestyle wrestling competition in the 96 kg weight class due to kidney failure. This is a devastating blow to the USA Wrestling team, who in 17 weight classes, only brought home 3 medals (one Gold, two Bronze). The men's USA Greco-Roman wrestling team won the the FILA World Championships in 2007. jmj

Another anachronistic gem from WWDDD. If you haven't been watching Mad Men, I have no real hook as to why you should. But you should. You definitely should. tjc

Of all the NFL rules changes for the upcoming season, I feel that the elimination of the forceout rule is the most significant. From this point forward, a player who receives or intercepts a ball must land with both feet inbounds. jmj

The newest art: poetic texting. (via Fraktastic) tjc

Gentlemen.
We are here today
in order to witness
the single most amazing
phenomenon of the
twentieth century.

May I present to you
the one,
the only

-- Gentleman, by Mike Hession

Using my favorite punctuation mark, the semicolon, apparently makes me a girlie-man. [via Fark] jmj

I think the Olympics have inspired Jason's curation. Here's a Kottke three-pack: The skinny on Olympic photography in a Chinese Democracy, The New Yorker humor section goes all McSweeney's with middle-management meeting reiterations as an Olympic sport, and finally (a non-Olympiad link) tips on solving crossword puzzles from the four-letter word for "royalty" of crossword creators. tjc

More from the Olympics. Possibly the most amazing story of this years games. Natalie du Toit became the first female amputee to compete in an able-bodied Olympics. As mentioned on Monday, she competes in the marathon of swimming, a grueling 10K. That's 6.2 miles! She came in 16th out of 25 racers completing the course in 2:00:49. Only 1 minute and 22 seconds behind the winner. glc

Bloomberg wants wind powering skyscrapers, but upstate it's powering the political machine. This wind rush brought There Will Be Blood to my mind. Without the blood. tjc

The visually-stunning John Adams is up for 23 Emmys. This includes Best Miniseries, Direction, Cinematography, Actor, Actress, and three Supporting Actors in Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.

The aforementioned Mad Men also raked it in with 16 nominations, among them Best Drama and Best Actor (Jon Hamm). Apparently, The Wire got "diss"-ed. If "diss" is short for dis-respect, wouldn't it be dis? tjc

My wife passes along this new Olympic event: slapface. (In case you missed it.) tjc