Opposite of the "loud ads" problem, Mark's (totally awesome) segment is a bit louder than the rest of the show. Great episode, though! I love the "How-to"s and the interviews. I've always wanted to build one of those motors, but never got around to it. Time for me to search for wire.

I dream of Xeni.

Who saw the battery motor first on "Mr. Wizards World"?

/hmmmm hmmmm hmmmmmmmm ah ha!

Are you kidding me? This designer woman is absolutely insane!!! Chemical sensitivities? Well, how many people have that? its so labor intensive to collect the discarded silk from the silkworms. Jeez, boiling them is absolutely fine. Will this eco-crap trend ever end? I am all for saving the planet, but this is just insanity...

I made a motor like that for science class when I was in junior high. They didn't sell neodymium magnets back then though so it didn't work very well...

ah nostalgia

Actually, this motor comes from the wonderful Beakman's World. What a wonderful show. Mr. Wizard on Acid. RIP Don Herbert...

I, for one, am glad that someone is FINALLY trying to raise awareness of the unspoken silk worm genocide. The silent killing has gone on long enough, and doesn't even get coverage in the mainstream media!

How many worms have to die before we stop pulling the silky smooth covers over our eyes and wake up?

Xeni, an interesting video today... but YOUR clips are still interlaced and it makes them really difficult to appreciate...

http://scitoys.com/ has great stuff like that. Have a nicer version of that motor on my desk at work.

@mr.skeleton, thank you for respecting the plight of larvaepersons who, without us, have no voice. enough! let the murders end. stopsilkwormgenocide.com.

Hey! How about clickable links? If you can't put them in the player at least put them in the caption to the episode!

These are getting better and better with each one!

Who knew Mark and Xeni were so incredibly photogenic?
Should have done the video idea years ago!

It's just me or the first dress looked kinda super Mario Bros?

She should have mentioned that organic cotton products aren't all that more expensive then regular cotton only you probably won't find it in the sale pile of your local fabric store. I think most people would be surprised as to how chemically sensitive they are only they ingest so many chemicals everyday they don't realize how it affects them anymore. Good show.

I also heard the the new Prius is going to be powered by a C cell battery some paper clips and a strong magnet.

GREAT interview. Xeni did a great job getting answers to questions that the average consumer would have about sustainability and fashion. But I think some are missing an important point that Shahpar herself made - organic, cruelty-free clothing is an option. Some people (like myself) love this option! Others do not. And so it goes.

I miss Xeni's red dress. It was kind of Bjork-ish.

Damn you, Xeni! I was hoping that stopsilkwormgenocide.com was going to be a real website. I am now very disappointed.

Processing of cocoons for silk: http://www.wormspit.com/newreeling.htm
Most of the time, they're killed with hot dry air - by the time they hit the boiling water, they've been dead for a while.

The Ahimsa silk idea *sounds* great - but it just doesn't work out when you do the numbers. Sustaining the breed requires just a few moths per thousand to hatch - one moth will lay hundreds of eggs. For every extra moth that is allowed to hatch out and breed, there will be 200 - 500 larvae that will die, usually of starvation. You can't raise all of them.

Using the breeding cocoons from traditional silk operations (i.e., where the majority of the cocoons are killed for the silk) is laudable - but it's something that's been done all along, making a variety of different spun silks. I think that calling it "Peace Silk" and going on about how the cocoons weren't boiled, is just an exercise in making yourself feel good.