Slime mould solves a maze

Watch Slime Mould Solve a Maze to Find Food

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Video of a slime mould finding the food in the center of the maze on the first try.

I recently stumbled upon this video of a slime mould solving a maze in one pass, and it’s either amazing or utterly horrifying nightmare fuel. The jury is still out.

According to the video description, this is a Plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum computing a path into the central chamber of the maze where the food is. It was filmed in time lapse at one frame every five minutes, and played back at 25-30 frames per second.

From the study:

Plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a large cell, visible by unaided eye, which exhibits sophisticated patterns of foraging behaviour. The plasmodium’s behaviour is well interpreted in terms of computation, where data are spatially extended configurations of nutrients and obstacles, and results of computation are networks of protoplasmic tubes formed by the plasmodium. In laboratory experiments and numerical simulation we show that if plasmodium of Physarum is inoculated in a maze’s peripheral channel and an oat flake (source of attractants) in a the maze’s central chamber then the plasmodium grows toward target oat flake and connects the flake with the site of original inoculation with a pronounced protoplasmic tube. The protoplasmic tube represents a path in the maze. The plasmodium solves maze in one pass because it is assisted by a gradient of chemo-attractants propagating from the target oat flake.

The Unipiper keeps Portland weird

Keep Beer Weird: The Unipiper Teams up with Portland Brewing Co. to Support Local Weird

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Portland Brewing and the Unipiper join forces to celebrate Portland’s weird with a collaborative beer, the Unipiper Hazy IPA.
The Unipiper Hazy IPA beer keeps Portland weird
The Unipiper with his Hazy IPA from Portland Brewing Co.

Just about everything I know about Portland I learned from Chuck Palahniuk’s travel guide Fugitives and Refugees. I’ve never been there, but I know when I finally have a chance to visit, I may not be strong enough to leave it behind. The city has a vibrant culture of weird, and now the Portland Brewing Co. has joined forces with one of the city’s most beloved street performers to celebrate it.

Portland is home to the world’s smallest park (just two feet in diameter and dedicated on St. Patrick’s Day, 1976, as “the only leprechaun colony west of Ireland,”), the shanghai tunnels, the Pecularium museum of the “freakybuttrue,” a vegan strip club, the internet’s premier “cat rapper” Moshow, and countless other artists, performers, and landmarks.

One of the most well known is the Unipiper, a man who rides around Portland on his unicycle playing flame-throwing bagpipes while dressed as Darth Vader, Bigfoot, and other famous characters.

From the Unipiper’s website:

The origin of The Unipiper is shrouded in mystery, but reportedly stems from an incident with local-resident Brian Kidd involving a bite from a radioactive unicycle incurred while playing the bagpipes, granting him the power to make people smile. Ever since, he has roamed the streets of Portland, protecting its citizens from all that is normal and standing up to those that would seek to silence the weird.

Kidd, the mild-mannered alter ego behind the Unipiper’s many masks, has teamed up with Portland Brewing Co. to create the first in a series of “Keep Portland Weird” collaborative brews intended to highlight each collaborator’s contribution to the city’s weird culture.

The result is the Unipiper Hazy IPA, a “smooth and juicy” 6.2% ABV beer with a tangerine citrus and fruit “pop” that, according to Portland Brewing, is “perfect for a couple pints while light enough to not weigh you down on your unicycle ride to goat-yoga class.”

But there’s more to this beer than drunken unicycling. Proceeds will help launch the Unipiper’s new nonprofit that is dedicated to finding and supporting the weird people and places of Portland.

Weird Portland United

“The Unipiper Hazy IPA is not just another beer though! That would be too normal!” Kidd says. “It also signals the beginning of a new era in Portland’s ever evolving weirdness – the founding of Weird Portland United, a charitable effort that has been a dream of mine for years. Thanks to the seed donation from Portland Brewing, Weird Portland United will help create a weirder tomorrow where everyone is inspired to contribute to the city’s now famous culture of weird.”

Portland Unipiper beer
And this is why the events of last night are a little hazy.

Unipiper Hazy IPA is now available throughout the Portland region in limited edition 22oz bottles silk screened with an illustration by local artist Beth Kerschen as well as 6-packs of 12oz cans.

Find it here.

A blood stain at the scene of the Heaven's Gate suicide

‘Appraiser of Doom’ Helps Sell the Most Famous Crime Scenes

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Meet the man who helped sell the Heaven’s Gate mansion, Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment building, the Sharon Tate property, and other notorious real estate.

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