Archive for March 14th, 2008

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Just When I Thought I Had Enough Distractions in My Life…

Friday, March 14th, 2008
Twitter

I’ve started twittering.

I’m not ready to have this thing start texting my phone just yet, despite the fact that I can set it up so that my houseplants can text me when they need water. I’m sure my cats would love this service too, “Ryan! Come home and let us (in/out) of the house! Bring treats!”

Anyways. I tried texting my daily activities, but it felt kinda big-brother. So I’m just gonna use it to post interesting quotes I hear/read and interesting ideas I and other people have that can be condensed into 140 characters, and haikus. I’ve subscribed to all my friends’ feeds that I’m aware of, so please shoot me a line if I’ve missed someone. : )

The RSS Feed can be found here, but you can also see it in the sidebar. I replaced the Geeking Out rss feed since it was mostly redundant.

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Science Etcetera Venusday, 20080314

Friday, March 14th, 2008
  • Have an Enlightening Pi day (3.14 (Always a great day to listen to the Pi Song))! Also Happy Birthday Albert Einstein, who turns 128 today.

    • eye of a hurricane on Venus

    ‘eye of a hurricane’ on Venus

  • This eye of a hurricane at the south pole of Venus puzzles astronomers, as the vortex, first observed in 1974, changes shape with each pass of the Venus Express.
  • Hugs and parenting feel good because our bodies reward our brains with Oxytocin. A recent study has shown that subjects given doses of the hormone became more altruistic (with the exception of those fitting the profile of a sociopath (insight!)).
  • Meteorites GRA 06128 and GRA 06129 are chunks of a planet that was smashed to pieces in our early solar system and might still have bits floating in the asteroid belt.
  • The Democratic party has no intention of dropping it’s hardline stance on environmental issues, and is refusing compromise today in order to get what we all want in 2009, when Obama, Clinton, or McCain will work with them.
  • A mathematical model was backed up with real-world experimentation to prove that straight-hair tangles more often than curly.
  • 95% of all Native Americans (North, South, and in-between) can trace their ancestry through DNA to six women who lived about 20,000 years ago.
  • This is not progress people!!! The rate of escalator injuries to older adults has doubled. I’m gonna start a foundation for escalator awareness and start looking for grants to put a halt to this growing epidemic!
  • We’re addicted to the interwebbies the way cats are addicted to chasing laser-pointers because, “new and richly interpretable information triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good.”

    Mastondon on Ebay

    Mastondon on Ebay

  • One of the finest examples of a fossilized mastodon in North America has gone from a family garage to e-bay, but it’s not selling because, at $115k, it’s overpriced.
  • Remember how Japan’s been claiming they need to kill all those whales for science? Turns out the mere 43 research papers produced by Japan over 18 years were mostly useless or genuine “mad scientist” work, like attempts to cross-breed whales with cows and other animals. I’m sure there’s a context to this story being left out, but Japan’s actions make me feel it’s okay to throw objectivity out the window.
  • Time to start rewriting the textbooks: Identical twins are not genetically identical, but I’m still trying to understand the explanation for why not (I still don’t get it and this is the fourth article I’ve read on the subject).
  • Spectacular! Break for five minutes (or more) and let these photos of Glacier National Park take you away from your worries.
  • It’s totally in the early stages, but this is a cool demonstration of a neckband that allows you to speak on the phone without speaking outloud:



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