Geeky High-Schoolers Make Better Adults than In-Crowders

Most of us who are, ahem, long out of high school already know this, but author of The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, Alexandra Robbins, is here to confirm: former geeks make more successful adults than popular kids. Robbins’s focus is on perceived popularity (that is, those noted as being “most popular”) rather than actual popularity (people who are actually liked by their peers). The distinction is crucial: well-liked students tend to be well-liked adults, whereas those who gain popularity by superficial means (dress, money, extra-curricular activity) typically experience a drop-off in influence after graduation.

The reasoning behind Robbins’s theory is two-fold and perhaps unsurprising. For one, students who are considered outsiders in school because they resist conformity and herd mentality are more likely to take career risks and be unconventional thinkers than their more popular peers. A shift toward less-traditional management in large companies (Google, for instance) means that those with the ability to think beyond current standards are valuable assets. Secondly, those who strive for perceived popularity learn behaviors and adopt attitudes–such as social visibility and conformity–that make for mediocre and safe-playing grown-ups.

The research is fascinating and the idea, while obvious to some (ahem, [GAS] readers) is one that is gaining sure footing in a world that is finally shedding the cookie-cutter idea of success and role models. Robbins’s book, fully titled The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School, was released in the US on May 3, 2011. You can purchase the book on Amazon.com right here for $12.99 (50% off.)

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The Most Cringe-Worthy Death-by-Zombie Scenes

Did you guys know May is Zombie Awareness Month? I had no idea, and I live across the street from a cemetery. Yikes. To help us avoid a terrible and gruesome death by zombie when the zombie apocalypse happens, Flavorwire put together a list of the top five most horrifying zombie death scenes ever. WARNING: This is definitely not for the squeamish.

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Car Manufacturer Has a Dandy of an Idea

Ford is working with Ohio State University to attempt to make car tyres out of dandelions from the land of Borat.

It’s not quite as crazy as it might seem. The work involves a specific species named Taraxacum kok-saghyz, better known as TKS or Russian Dandelion. (It’s native to the land that now makes up Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.)

The idea of using the dandelions in this way is nothing new. Since the 1930s its been known that the roots contain a milky white substance similar to the sap from a rubber tree. During the second world war, several countries used it as a replacement for rubber from Southeast Asia which, for obvious reasons, became less accessible.

Ford believes that not only could the dandelions be used for tyres, but that the substance could also act as a plastic modifier, making materials used in parts such as cupholders more sturdy.

The company is also looking into using guayle, a shrub grown in the Southwestern US, as a source of natural rubber. The company already uses a range of natural materials such as wheat-straw fillings for plastic parts and seat cushions made from soy foam.

Even if the dandelion strategy doesn’t pay off, Ford does at least deserve credit for a superb headline on its news release: Weed ‘Em And Reap.

Miniature Strandbeest Coming to a 3D Printer Near You [Videos]

Not so very long ago, artist Theo Jansen made Internet waves with his massive self-propelled strandbeests, kinetic sculptures built from plastic pipe, water bottles and other found materials. If you haven’t witnessed the awesome weirdness of the strandbeest, here’s a video of Jansen’s TED Talk.

Now, with the increasing availability* of 3D printing, your very own mini-beest can be replicated at home. (*I use the term “increasing availability” loosely here, as I still have yet to meet someone who has used a 3D printer. YMMV.)

Jansen considers the strandbeest a “new lifeform” and in the same line of thinking, has offered a method of strandbeest reproduction, “almost in the same way that nature multiplies.” Here is Jansen discussing the download of strandbeest “genetic code” and worldwide reproduction of his beloved pets in miniature, which he has dubbed the Animaris Geneticus Parvus.

And here is a completed (mature?) Animaris Geneticus Parvus running. (Disclaimer: this strandbeest is being pulled by a string. Also, it is vaguely creepy in a giant, running spider-alien sort of way.)

You can purchase the printable design for the seventh-generation Animaris Geneticus Parvus from shapeways for $105.88 (€ 71.36).

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