Don't let the man (pictured above) keep you from these startling truths

A group of parents and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis are upset that Go Ask Alice has been listed under the recommended resources in a new NYC sex-ed curriculum for fifth and sixth graders. Original, guys. (WashingtonPost, Gothamist)

On the other end of the modesty spectrum, a Brooklyn-based performance artist Marni Kotak performed her latest piece yesterday morning: giving birth to her son, Baby Ajax, in front of a live audience in a Bushwick gallery. (VillageVoice)

Johnny Depp graced our campus yesterday to sit on a panel honoring the late GS alum and intoxicated father of writing what they don’t want you to know, Hunter S. Thompson. (EntertainmentWeekly)

Perhaps what a loan-shark doesn’t want you to know, Obama announced that he will be instituting a measures to lower student debt in 2012, two years earlier than originally planned. (Reuters)

A group of geographers compiled information about Marijuana prices across the country, resulting in a graphic illustrating where to get the cheapest bud and the mystifying discovery that the price of weed is negatively correlated with the share of voters who identify as Republicans. (Atlantic)

Symbol of power via wikimedia.

headbanging or falling for our anecdote baiting, Columbia faculty enjoy getting dirty in the lab. ”>

Hey check out the science I found in this tube!

When they’re not headbanging or falling for our anecdote baiting, Columbia faculty enjoy getting dirty in the lab. Bwog takes a moment to look back on this week in science. Headlines were compiled by test-tube enthusiast Zach Kagan.

CSI is real—Columbia’s nanoscience brainboxes have created a device that can sequence DNA at the speed of a primetime crime drama. By dragging DNA through a nanopore, the individual nucleic acids create an electric potential that is analyzed by a computer. And at under $1000 dollars, it makes finding the father all that more affordable. Now if only the labs can find a way to enhance it.

What’s your poison? Chances are you didn’t say arsenic, but if you are drinking from a shallow well you might be swigging the unpopular chemical. A new Columbia study says that minerals in wells dug below 500 feet purify water from deadly arsenic, so remember to dig deep before you get your sip on.

Women of Columbia and Barnard: do you want to make $8000? That’s what Columbia researchers are offering for the donation of human eggs to create patient-specific stem cells (research that got a shout out on last week’s BunsenBwog). This has caused a bit of a controversy as some have described the incentive system as a slippery slope that leads to selling organs. But while the bioethicists wrestle with the issue there’s time for you to put your student debt in a headlock.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure-trove of alternative energy. Columbia’s Earth Engineering Center claims that, if recycled using current technology, all the plastics thrown away annually could fuel 6 million cars or power 5.2 million homes for a whole year. Bwog has one word for you: plastics.

Don’t listen to what that guy down the hall with the Bob Marley poster says: a new study at the Mailman School claims that marijuana use doubles the chance of getting into a car accident.

Tubetouchers via wikimedia commons.

John Law (and Order)

Floridita (you know, that Cuban restaurant that was relocated due to Manhattanville expansion) is suing Columbia University for moving it to a building contaminated with asbestos. This isn’t the first of Columbia’s asbestos-related issues. (Village Voice)

Starbucks’ new 31-ounce Trenta cup can hold an entire bottle of wine. Oh, the possibilities! (Eater)

A Connecticut pot grower inadvertently turns himself in the the police when he calls 911 to ask “how much trouble you can get in for [growing] one plant.” This is, like, totally not fair. He was just wondering… (Daily Intel)

Sarah and Bristol Palin are looking to trademark their names. Apparently, a successful trademark “could also prevent the misuse of the women’s image on things like bobblehead dolls and sex toys.” Aw, shucks. (ABC)

Yesterday afternoon, hundreds convened in Times Square in a protest to promote Egyptian democracy. Here are some photos. (Gothamist)

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

On this last crisp autumn Monday, a CC class was proceeding lazily in a Carman classroom situated directly across from Frat Row. Somebody else was presumably having a less than studious morning, because unexpectedly and suddenly the room reeked of weed.

As students snickered, rolled eyes and envied the bold toker, the instructor quick on his feet said: “I’m sorry, excuse me, but someone is smoking some major weed right now… We’re going to try and not get stoned back here.”

Then to a student in AEPi, “If that’s your frat house, maybe you want to have a word with them or something…”

Rejoice that intrepid men and women fight the War on Fun every day of the week, including midterms!

Image via Wikimedia

We’re a week behind on this one, but we hope that the hippies among our readers will appreciate the news nonetheless (and that everyone else will be amused). Last Tuesday, the Daily News reported that a “aging hippie with tenuous ties to Columbia University” was arrested on drug selling charges the day before.

49-year-old William Delp “is accused of selling undercover narcotics detectives LSD, Ecstasy and pot, sources said. He was charged with drug sale and possession….Delp is listed as a casual employee at Columbia University’s Visual Arts Division, where he was an artists’ model, but never an instructor, sources said.” Columbia is refusing to comment, citing the “ongoing” investigation.

Of course, no tale of a neighborhood dealer would be complete without the disbelieving neighbor.”I’m totally shocked,” his neighbor Jonathan Perez, 27, told the Daily News. Then again, it’s also true that “he was always a pretty cool guy. He’d always give the peace sign.” Mr. Perez, we’re not children of the 60s either, but…c’mon.

YouTube can be a goldmine when you’re bored enough.