So... my girlfriend studies categories and concepts and her adviser wanted her to show a video for her first year project. Of course I went out to youtube and tried to find something sensible since I'm procrastinating right now on my psych 100 syllabus - and of course I found something absolutely ridiculous (hey... it IS youtube). Here is how to categorize all the Alien Species that have been wandering around the earth since our first contact with our galactic overlords at Roswell:
ScienceBlogs wants your help... and is willing to pay. Well sorta... they're giving away some ipod type goodies to some people who complete a short survey. Here's the schtick: Dear Reader, We launched Seed and ScienceBlogs because we believe that science can change the world and science literacy is how we get there. In the pages of our magazine we've tried to capture the ideas and issues fueling this cultural shift. Online we've aimed to foster a lively and spirited conversation about where it's all heading. Now, we invite you to share with us directly your perspective on the state of…
Oh you crazy non-English speaking people... please please please take the extra effort and get someone like me with a dirty mind to proofread your papers. And Editors... get your mind INTO the gutter and things like this won't happen. It all starts innocently with this perfectly normal sounding setup: Chem. Commun., 2007, 1733 - 1735, DOI: 10.1039/b614147a Electrochemical synthesis of metal and semimetal nanotube-nanowire heterojunctions and their electronic transport properties Dachi Yang, Guowen Meng, Shuyuan Zhang, Yufeng Hao, Xiaohong An, Qing Wei, Min Ye and Lide Zhang Metal and…
Sizzle follows Randy Olson as he tries to make a movie about global warming. The main characters are an outrageously stereotypical new age gay couple and the thug life camera crew who are there to supply a comic foil to both Olson and the pretty boring scientists who get interviewed about global warming. It's a very strange contrast between the fake characters (who are REALLY fake) and the scientists trying to sound professional and only talk about global warming. The movie is billed as a mockumentary but it doesn't quite fit the bill of a mockumentary since it's about a serious topic…
According to CNN: President Bush on Sunday defended his decision to attend next month's Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, saying that to boycott "would be an affront to the Chinese people." Uhh yeah, wouldn't that be the point of a boycott?
It seems that vegetarians are screwed on multiple levels, they get called hippies by me AND they might be at an increased risk of dementia in old age. The study recently published in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders focused on a number of elderly Indonesians who live across a wide range of areas in Java. They discovered that people who ate tofu at least once a day (which is classified as high consumption) had a statistically higher chance of showing dementia. So what could be causing this higher rate? According to BBC News: Soy products are rich in micronutrients…
Hitachi recently announced that they would be producing a 5 TB drive in the near future (2010?). This is totally unexciting to me but what Hitchachi's Yoshiro Shiroishi said was. According to Techradar: As for what can be stored on such disks, Hitachi's Yoshihiro Shiroishi explains, "By 2010, just two disks will suffice to provide the same storage capacity as the human brain." In other words, a next-generation hard drive will be able to recall that trip to the seaside in 1976, but never where it left the car keys last night. Ignoring the faulty memory comment for a moment - Where in the…
According to a new survey the USA has highest level of illegal cocaine and cannabis use in the world. Thank goodness the War for Drugs is working so well! Ohh... wait... that's the war ON drugs and it's supposed to protect us from ourselves and our nasty drug habits. Well anyway.. here's the details on the study: A survey of 17 countries has found that despite its punitive drug policies the United States has the highest levels of illegal cocaine and cannabis use. The study, by Louisa Degenhardt (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) and colleagues, is based on the World Health…
This is seriously the worst press release I've ever read. It doesn't say how the research was done, it doesn't have the results from the research, it is poorly written (run on sentences?!), and it is pointless. Why was this even released? Does EurekAlerts even have any criteria for releasing press releases? I do know they have criteria for who counts as a journalist - and it certainly isn't bloggers (we can't get embargoed articles from them - but we can from PLOS) Anyway... here's the release.
I thought our wonderful readers would like to know exactly who Shelley is marrying... He's a hot one eh?!
Grad students do all sorts of funny things on the side to make money. There are the mandatory grad school bands, the bartenders, the tutors, proctor exams, house sit, and a few of us blog ... but this guy really takes the cake: In the 90s, a typical night for Craig Seymour included G-strings, elbow grease, and dollar bills in his socks. waiiiiiiit a minute... who shoves dollar bills in socks?! was this a foot fetish club? Dollar bills go in the G-String! ok ok... back to the quote: Between sets at Washington, D.C.'s gay strip clubs - unique institutions while they lasted, where hands-on…
I haven't been blogging much lately... here's why: There are some dirty pictures in this set (safe for work...don't worry) - can you spot the theme? If you don't want to futz with this little widget feel free to check out the park pictures on my flickr site or some of the other great ones like Big Bend National Park, Russia, or Nepal.
Check out Mother Brain from the Metroid series. What other brains are featured in video games?
Seriously.... wow.....I'd totally forgotten about the brain from the cartoons. and.... Ohh... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. How I used to love thee. I actually watched the most recent movie a few weeks ago. Do they really suck that much? I remember them being pretty kick ass. This is why growing up sucks - all your favorite cartoons from childhood blow now. Did you hear they are coming out with a Smurfs movie?
This is seriously the biggest most obnoxious cross I've ever seen. It is on (If I remember correctly) route 70 in Illinois about halfway between St. Louis and Champaign. Praiiiiiiiizzzzze Jeeeezus!!!!
IMG_0340 Originally uploaded by jshiggins They carve bears with chainsaws! That's disgusting!!
IMG_0341 Originally uploaded by jshiggins
According to the Mayo Clinic website, Three out of four people with Alzheimer's will wander at some point during the course of the disease. Wanderers who get lost outdoors may become injured or even die of exposure. This risk increases dramatically if the weather is very cold or very hot. There's a number of ways that you can protect your beloved family member from trying to walk to Disney World or their house in the old country. Some of the ways the Mayo Clinic suggests for preventing wandering are: Alarms and locks A variety of devices can alert you that your loved one is on the move.…
This is actually pretty much the most useful and accurate infographic I've ever seen in my entire life. Thank goodness this appears on an article highlighting the brain region responsible for decoding sarcasm. Now that you've seen this amazing infographic you know exactly how sarcasm happens in the brain and what area is responsible.... AND!!! that area is lighting up right now as you read this very deep and meaningful post. As a matter of fact after reading this post you might have an aneurysm originating in your right ventromedial prefrontal gyrus. I apologize for the brain deadness I…
I never quite understood the whole NCAA pool thing, or fantasy leagues for that matter. In a non-professional gambling environment the chances of you winning are pretty much chance. You've all heard about the girl picking her teams based on what colors she likes and winning. In any case... there is an interesting study from Naomi Mandel and Stephen M. Nowlis or Arizona State University demonstrating that Office pools make people pretty unhappy. Well except the winner - but there's only one of them (except in my department where there is one for the worst bracket - which I can't even win…