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May. 7th, 2009 09:25 amOMG. How did I never know about this? Seriously. And it has Neil Patrick Awesomesauce!
May. 7th, 2009
Since I've been traumatizing you all with the constant end-times in the news, I thought I'd go for something a little different today with some science and tech news.
Are crows the smartest animals in the world? Well, yes. I mean, aside from humans, and even that's a near thing. Crows are fucking awesome, you guys. I don't need SCIENCE to tell me that. I can ask my GUT.
Here's a really cool video of an ocean wave from underneath, and while we're talking ocean, an awesome invention to generate energy from the movement of the ocean. I know there are other technologies to do that, but this one sounds tremendously simple and pretty promising.
I don't remember whether I linked this story when I read it before or not, but I'm pretty much in love with the story of a man and his solar oven. Solar ovens have been around for a long time and are seeing a bit of a revival now as people are getting more and more interested in sustainable living, but I really like this guy's concept just because it's so incredibly simple and cheap. The coolest thing about it, from my perspective, is that it could make drinking water safer for so many people who otherwise would have to waste their firewood or pay an exorbitant privatized-water rate to get clean drinking water. (But the water crisis is a whole other blog, I reckon. ;))
Of all the things we could build with nanotechnology, water-repelling swimsuits would not have been at the top of my list. How about bandages that magically heal the wound underneath with nanotechnology? How about THAT? Or how about Replicators that can assemble themselves in any shape they want and then try to overrun the earth, thus allowing us to be saved again by Richard Dean Anderson? How about THAT? But no. You give me swimsuits. I'm disappointed in you, technology.
If you watch Lie To Me (or The Mentalist or any of the other shows founded on a basic principle of White Guys Being Much More Clever Than Everyone Else Around Them -- and let's not even get into how absolutely abysmal that last episode of The Mentalist was), you probably have some idea about the ineffectiveness of the lie detector. Most people could probably produce off the top of their heads at least one method for beating the basic lie-detector, just from watching television, and most of us have some idea that the things aren't exactly foolproof. Now a study by linguistic and phonetic scientists concludes that there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that lie detectors actually work. The punchline is, of course, that an Israeli company which produces lie-detector machines is threatening legal action if these scientists ever publish on this idea again.
Birds Can Dance, Expert (and Zany Videos) Reveal This particular news item has proved the old saying about assuming: I kind of always assumed everyone knew that animals can have rhythm and can "dance." I mean, there are how many species of birds that do mating dances? But I think the point here is that these birds are dancing to music and adjusting to changing tempos. Personally, I'm a little more impressed when they're just dancing to the music in their heads. Also, "[experts] reviewed thousands of YouTube videos" isn't really something I ever want to see written for methodology in a scientific report. For srs.
Also, one of these things is not like the others, but I'd just like to point out that Lt. Choi, who is a Arabic linguist, officer in the Army Reserve and West Point graduate, is being discharged because he admitted to being a homosexual, which counts as "homosexual conduct" under the deeply and profoundly ridiculous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Oh, Obama. You have so many things to change. I hope that this is one of them.
Are crows the smartest animals in the world? Well, yes. I mean, aside from humans, and even that's a near thing. Crows are fucking awesome, you guys. I don't need SCIENCE to tell me that. I can ask my GUT.
Here's a really cool video of an ocean wave from underneath, and while we're talking ocean, an awesome invention to generate energy from the movement of the ocean. I know there are other technologies to do that, but this one sounds tremendously simple and pretty promising.
I don't remember whether I linked this story when I read it before or not, but I'm pretty much in love with the story of a man and his solar oven. Solar ovens have been around for a long time and are seeing a bit of a revival now as people are getting more and more interested in sustainable living, but I really like this guy's concept just because it's so incredibly simple and cheap. The coolest thing about it, from my perspective, is that it could make drinking water safer for so many people who otherwise would have to waste their firewood or pay an exorbitant privatized-water rate to get clean drinking water. (But the water crisis is a whole other blog, I reckon. ;))
Of all the things we could build with nanotechnology, water-repelling swimsuits would not have been at the top of my list. How about bandages that magically heal the wound underneath with nanotechnology? How about THAT? Or how about Replicators that can assemble themselves in any shape they want and then try to overrun the earth, thus allowing us to be saved again by Richard Dean Anderson? How about THAT? But no. You give me swimsuits. I'm disappointed in you, technology.
If you watch Lie To Me (or The Mentalist or any of the other shows founded on a basic principle of White Guys Being Much More Clever Than Everyone Else Around Them -- and let's not even get into how absolutely abysmal that last episode of The Mentalist was), you probably have some idea about the ineffectiveness of the lie detector. Most people could probably produce off the top of their heads at least one method for beating the basic lie-detector, just from watching television, and most of us have some idea that the things aren't exactly foolproof. Now a study by linguistic and phonetic scientists concludes that there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that lie detectors actually work. The punchline is, of course, that an Israeli company which produces lie-detector machines is threatening legal action if these scientists ever publish on this idea again.
Birds Can Dance, Expert (and Zany Videos) Reveal This particular news item has proved the old saying about assuming: I kind of always assumed everyone knew that animals can have rhythm and can "dance." I mean, there are how many species of birds that do mating dances? But I think the point here is that these birds are dancing to music and adjusting to changing tempos. Personally, I'm a little more impressed when they're just dancing to the music in their heads. Also, "[experts] reviewed thousands of YouTube videos" isn't really something I ever want to see written for methodology in a scientific report. For srs.
Also, one of these things is not like the others, but I'd just like to point out that Lt. Choi, who is a Arabic linguist, officer in the Army Reserve and West Point graduate, is being discharged because he admitted to being a homosexual, which counts as "homosexual conduct" under the deeply and profoundly ridiculous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Oh, Obama. You have so many things to change. I hope that this is one of them.
J-SQUARED FOR ALLLLLLLL!
May. 7th, 2009 03:53 pmAnd a few more items from the depths of the interwebz...
The reddit link reads, "Douchebag lady kills elephant with a bow for a bet." Yep, that about sums it up. I'll see your "douchebag" and raise you a "WTF?!?!?"
In other news, I'm not sure why "douchebag" has become an accepted insult again. I picked it up from reading J-Squared fiction -- apparently Jensen and Jared like to say "douchebag," or writers just imagine that they would -- but I don't know how the rest of the world got on the bandwagon. Unless... *gasp* THE REST OF THE WORLD IS READING J-SQUARED FICTION TOO. I KNEW IT.
Discover magazine has the best NASA satellite photos from the last 50 years. Zounds! The solar storms nearly blew my mind. I sort of expected John Crichton to come rocketing out of the middle.
Apparently graphene is like... really awesome? I don't understand chemistry, you guys. Or micro-anything. If it's smaller than an actual multi-cellular organism, I just tend to not be interested. Or in any way comprehend. I'm sorry. I'm leaving all interpretation/commentary on this news item to you. Suffice it to say that this is probably another important step to flying cars, which at this point are LONG OVERDUE. (Are you listening, science? WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR?)
This sign should read, "Watch for Signs."
On a much less light-hearted note, there's a new documentary coming out about Japanese dolphin slaughter, and dolphin captivity in general. It's also a story about Richard O'Barry, who trained the dolphins for the TV show Flipper and later became an "abolitionist for dolphins." Very interesting stuff. I recommend not reading the comments, though. No, seriously. Don't read the comments. You won't know what that one guy was talking about and you will absolutely not want to know.
And okay, whoever said that thing about the 16-year-old and the Patriot Act smelled fishy, the law enforcement types are saying he's not being held under the Patriot Act. Damn it! How am I supposed to formulate my conspiracy theories when the authorities don't play along?! Foiled again.
But surely this one is a joke: Canada considering the inclusion of seal skin on Olympic uniforms "to promote seal products." Oh, Canada. I love you, but that is f'ed up and stupid. The reason you need to promote seal products is because nobody wants them, and the seal hut is ridiculous. What you need to do instead is create jobs for all those out of work fishermen -- you know, the ones who were out of work after your cod fishery collapsed and so you gave them clubs and told them go kill seals instead? Them. Give them like... real jobs. Or just put them on the dole and tell them to stay home. I don't care. I just don't see why it's the fault of seals. They really don't need to be bludgeoned to death, honest. Please write your MPs and tell them to stop being such jack-offs. See above re: dolphin slaughter. Just. Being. Stupid.
Okay, that's all. For sure.
The reddit link reads, "Douchebag lady kills elephant with a bow for a bet." Yep, that about sums it up. I'll see your "douchebag" and raise you a "WTF?!?!?"
In other news, I'm not sure why "douchebag" has become an accepted insult again. I picked it up from reading J-Squared fiction -- apparently Jensen and Jared like to say "douchebag," or writers just imagine that they would -- but I don't know how the rest of the world got on the bandwagon. Unless... *gasp* THE REST OF THE WORLD IS READING J-SQUARED FICTION TOO. I KNEW IT.
Discover magazine has the best NASA satellite photos from the last 50 years. Zounds! The solar storms nearly blew my mind. I sort of expected John Crichton to come rocketing out of the middle.
Apparently graphene is like... really awesome? I don't understand chemistry, you guys. Or micro-anything. If it's smaller than an actual multi-cellular organism, I just tend to not be interested. Or in any way comprehend. I'm sorry. I'm leaving all interpretation/commentary on this news item to you. Suffice it to say that this is probably another important step to flying cars, which at this point are LONG OVERDUE. (Are you listening, science? WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR?)
This sign should read, "Watch for Signs."
On a much less light-hearted note, there's a new documentary coming out about Japanese dolphin slaughter, and dolphin captivity in general. It's also a story about Richard O'Barry, who trained the dolphins for the TV show Flipper and later became an "abolitionist for dolphins." Very interesting stuff. I recommend not reading the comments, though. No, seriously. Don't read the comments. You won't know what that one guy was talking about and you will absolutely not want to know.
And okay, whoever said that thing about the 16-year-old and the Patriot Act smelled fishy, the law enforcement types are saying he's not being held under the Patriot Act. Damn it! How am I supposed to formulate my conspiracy theories when the authorities don't play along?! Foiled again.
But surely this one is a joke: Canada considering the inclusion of seal skin on Olympic uniforms "to promote seal products." Oh, Canada. I love you, but that is f'ed up and stupid. The reason you need to promote seal products is because nobody wants them, and the seal hut is ridiculous. What you need to do instead is create jobs for all those out of work fishermen -- you know, the ones who were out of work after your cod fishery collapsed and so you gave them clubs and told them go kill seals instead? Them. Give them like... real jobs. Or just put them on the dole and tell them to stay home. I don't care. I just don't see why it's the fault of seals. They really don't need to be bludgeoned to death, honest. Please write your MPs and tell them to stop being such jack-offs. See above re: dolphin slaughter. Just. Being. Stupid.
Okay, that's all. For sure.