google map-y, fall colors, inbreeding and eye makeup

Illustrations in the style of Google maps originally done by this guy. Yes.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reboot? i've apparently been living under a rock.

A fall colors (autumnal leaves) report for Wisconsin kept current by the WI travel board.

From Dr. Hawks' blog, one of the most entertaining quotes i read last week, and it regarded inbreeding. (i'm not particularly worried about marrying any of my relations, but it just happened to be an entertaining quote.)

Interesting eye makeup here, for those who might be into such things.

non-context observations, heels, biker ID

Intermittent agitation. Try to say it 5 times fast.

Curious snippets of conversation lately, with the outside observer who resides in my head snickering along: With a labmate, upon being thanked for wearing a (particular) shirt (His comment was  something like, 'i appreciate that you're wearing your shirt today', and my immediate response was, 'Well, it's a bit chilly without it'), "Thank you and you're welcome." To LZ, regarding acquisition of a swimsuit, "And it's a long story ending in triathlon."

Saw some wandering bands of students playing Humans v/s Zombies on Sunday night. Guess it's that time of year. i was a tiny bit surprised to see an article regarding it appear in the campus news email, though.

Other things; random links about high heels: t-rex heels (via BOTH LZ and Holly), and pixletated heels.

And finally, a curious arc from fb this morning regarding an astoundingly awesome bike (cyclist) blog, which almost immediately yielded this pretty hilarious article(fave part? okay: "In fact, there's a traditional rivalry between Roadies and Mountain Bikers, which leads Mountain Bikers to do extremely irritating things like try to race Roadies who are simply out for a ride, which, if you're a Roadie, is sort of like being goaded by a hillbilly while you're browsing an art gallery."). Additionally, i'm glad i'm not the only one who thinks bikers resemble flocks of birds - bright plumage, fast, lightboned, in aerodynamic-ish formations, etc.

Furthermore, anyone heard the new Mumford and Sons album? i've been youtubing bits and pieces for a while now, but not the whole thing, together and polished.




(i frequently break my own heart.)

common nicknames, fitness studies, bombs-n-beer

While we're on the subject of language....Peg or Peggy is frequently a nickname of people named Margaret, as Bill is for William and Bob for Robert (Dick used instead of Richard is less common these days, but anyway,) and i've always been curious as to the logic behind that. Googling away, my personal theory includes Cockney rhyming slang, but the internets seems to like consonant mutation better.

Kelly AT shared a rather interesting link arc of her own today, culminating in the super interesting and prolly-never-able-to-be-repeated study of the effects of starvation diets, done in the '50s in Minnesota (even more interesting, participant involvment apparently an alternative to the draft). She came upon it through links in an article on the ridiculous (fitness-related) stuff that comes out of Paul Ryan's mouth, including the claim of having between 6-8% body fat. His debunked claim of a sub-3 hour marathon has incited the wrath of the running community something fierce, and there's been a ton of recent articles regarding people lying about their now-easily-checked race times pop up in various places; an article today in the Times here, the original Runner's World Ryan thread here, and a semi-related one a few weeks ago in the New Yorker about a man who even went so far as to make up an entire race (with other "people" and their times). Sheesh.

Also fitness related/along the same lines as the starvation study, only with exercise, a recent article in the Times reporting a study indicating that moderate amounts of exercise will decrease weight more (teehee) than large amounts.

From NPR via LZ, a study of beer safety following nearby nuclear explosion. "As for radiation, they checked, and found that bottles closest to ground zero were indeed radioactive, but only mildly so. Exposure, the authors say, "did not carry over to the contents." The sodas and beer were "well within the permissible limits for emergency use," which means, says Alex, "It won't hurt you in the short term."

meteorite ID, burning man, Mordor and modeling

Tripped over this highly entertaining how-to-ID-a-meteorite-you-found-lying-around site the other day. Oh, goodness. i particularly like the "NOT A METEORITE" tags on some of the pictures.

For Jack, a mostly-serious Atlantic article regarding Burning Man, and a less-ducumentary-though-more-amusing-one.


Annnd, losing ever more nerd cred, i had to google the Mordor meme, as Tolkien has never been my thing. Apparently, the Shire is in Wisconsin, and Mordor in Chicago? Ya know, i'm really not terribly that surprised.
Late note, at the request of Bryan S: So, Van Hise Hall on the UW-Madison campus is called "the birthplace of (Tolkien's )Elven language" on the UW wikipedia page as well as on the official tours, with no real explanation. Backtracking the story lead to this article regarding a grad student who is expert enough on the language to help elaborate/teach it out for the LOTR movies. In actuality, the languages are an invention of Tolkien's, based on Finnish and Welsh.


A NYTimes writer-turned-model documenting his experiences here. My fave part?Concerning a proper modeling attitude:

"I needed to eradicate this crippling mind-set. I knew it would help me if I created a character. I started with the name Hank but then bumped it up to Hanque. I decided Hanque is a former Lufthansa flight attendant who is possibly Nordic — his unplaceable accent swerves wildly from a remote farm outside Oslo to a dimly lighted bar in Akron.

Whenever Hanque says “fabulous,” it comes out “fahvolous.” Hanque likes vegan baked goods, vintage motorcycles and Sofia Coppola when she wears aqua in airports. Hanque dreams of one day seeing bumper stickers encouraging drivers to “Hanque if you love Hanque.”"

Lab meeting in the morning, and of course i'm posting on my blog...

From this morning, having read through a ridiculous list of famous bits of wartime trash-talk, the wikipedia definition of the Spartans' laconic phrase. i was pleased to note that "Molon labe" ('Come and take them', in reference to having to surrender weapons to the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae) was on the list. One of the early battles during the Texas Revolution was kicked off by the similar phrase "Come and Take It", regarding a canon given to the Texans for their protection against raids being recalled by the Spanish Government.

Also, check out this really cool invisible bike helmet!