Soul Train/Daft Punk, Superman, billionaires, brainworms and Tycho Brahe

As linked by LZ, this clip entitled "How To Dance Properly To Daft Punk's Get Lucky". And then we both mourned the lack of 70s fashion in our daily lives (though i do wear pretty hefty flares in the winter). Watching this, of course, kicked off a spate of Soul Train youtube viewing. Those folks were seriously impressive.

It's sort of been all over the internet that Ben Affleck has been confirmed to play Batman in the upcoming Batman v/s Superman movie. i had a discussion with my labmate Ryan about this; he linked a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal online comic about Batman. i immediately insisted that he look up whether or not anyone's photo-shopped Affleck's jaw under the Batman mask (nope), and what he turned up, instead, was a collection of various reactions (including speculation of Matt Damon as Robin. i happen to have an appreciation for the fine Mr. Damon, and this was met with a pretty loud, high-pitched 'squee'; i apologize to those within earshot, as it was).

Holly linked this excellent folk story map on gchat which immediately had me yelling "Pecos Bill!!", and then having to explain to the native-WI-born labmates that Pecos Bill is sort of like a cowboy version of Paul Bunyan. Kinda.

Something i learned today is that the US has 442 billionaires, as of 2012. That is an astonishing number; the countries with the next most are Russia (110) and China (122). Bryan linked an article concerning whether or not mammals can choose the progeny of their gender (it is suggested that mammals, including humans, seem to be able to do this based on statistics, but the mechanism isn't known), and i saw the comment, " And a study of 400 U.S. billionaires, published in 2013, found that they were more likely to have sons than daughters — presumably, the scientists hypothesized, because sons tend to retain the family's wealth. ", which made me do a bit of a mental double-take. This was following a comment on Toxoplasmosis, " In 2006, a Czech research team discovered women with high levels of toxoplasmosis antibodies were significantly more likely to have baby boys than baby girls. In most populations, the birth rate is around 51% boys, but women infected with T. gondii had up to a 72% chance of a boy", which is a very striking statistic. How did we get to Toxo in the first place? Brainworms, of course. 

 me:  i was asked today if i'd heard of Tycho Brahe before (he's on my scientists shirt), and while i have, it was because of Penny Arcade

which isn't very scientific

 Bryan:  astronomer?

 me:  dude's an astronomer, yeah

 Bryan:  that's about all i know about him

i believe he also had some wicked facial hair

me:  he's got a pretty cool story; his uncle kidnapped him when he was two (he was childless and Tycho's parents agreed to hand him over then didn't), Tycho had a prosthetic nose bridge resulting from a dueling incident

and also a pet elk.

and yeah, memorable facial hair

 Bryan:  we should get us an elk

as soon as i find a place to put him

 me:  (laughs)

the penthouse; we can let it wander around on the deck part during the day

we might be able to keep it for part of the year in the area near picnic point

 Bryan:  they like it cold

i think all year

 me:  elk can't be too much more trouble than cattle

doesn't the cold keep the brain parasites at bay?

(okay, that might be the oddest thing i've typed all day)

 me:  oh, eww http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10370_12150_12220-26502--,00.html

 Bryan:  very gross

 me:  i apologize for bringing up meningeal worms and linking something with a picture

 Bryan:  it's very interesting though

it is microbiology

 me:  yes. happily, " The worm is of no public health significance since it is not infective to humans, and meat of infected animals is safe for human consumption. "

 Bryan:  so it does need a suitable climate

http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/specialstock/deer/Ptenuis.html

but it doesn't say (they don't know?) what that is.

Myers-Briggs animal characteristics, burrnesha, wobbly biking in NY, camouflage, etc

Regarding personality tests, the folks over at buzzfeed matched some animal 'characteristics' up with Myers-Briggs test. i am apparently an octopus. This is ridiculous, people, but at least you're all using your imaginations.

So i came upon this tumblr entitled 'Awkward Years Project'. A few of them are truly awkward. The arc was from this petapixel article, initiated by a link from LZ to an article regarding portraits of Albanian women who chose to live as men (and within that is a link to the wikipedia page for burrnesha, which is what they're officially called; the juxtaposition to this might be the hijra, or males who live as females. Also interesting is the wikipedia page for third genders.). 

In honor of a forever-bearded, recently defended friend, this stop-action youtube video entitled "magic beard", and that dude's blog is pretty cool, too.

From Holly, links about animals jumping on trampolines (the foxes ARE adorable, and why are there so many clips of goats? Buffalo?!) and another to hamsters stuffing large foods into their mouths.

A NYTimes article about wobbly biking on rental bikes in New York. Jack and i have wobbly biked in the past around Madison; this is a particularly excellent city in which to do so, given the profusion of both bars an bike lanes. Sidenote; the article refers to wobbly biking as 'joy rides'; Jack, myself, and Urban Dictionary define that as some sort of reckless behavior.

i can honestly see this Bloggess post happen, which makes it particularly hilarious to me. Best? " That’s like, $200 worth of chicken for free."

Ryan, here's this Lego version of Dante's 9 circles of Hell just for you.

i've had this Regina Spektor song in my head for the past two weeks; the part beginning at 2:18 is just tremendous. i would attempt to sing it to Holly in lab, across the bench as i'm inclined to do, but i can't sustain the highest notes in a reliable fashion. (Yes, i know, it hasn't ever really stopped me before, Holly, so... there's hope/threat?)

Let's reflect a moment on camouflage. The word itself is French, from the slang meaning to disguise/ blow smoke in one's face (which, before that, the British called it dazzle-painting?! Apparently, one can use this in a modern context to avoid identification by face detection technology.) i was talking about camouflage with Rup and Patricia this weekend, as Pat's people and my mom's family hunt, and i've got (female) cousins who sport pink camouflage.  i have a problem with this, namely in that in what scenario could pink camo possibly provide any sort of concealment? Seriously.This was brought to mind while reading an article online today about the Duck Dynasty family, of whom those same family members are huge fans. (i've not seen any episode of that television show, and as such cannot comment outside of curiosity.) Best quote in the article? " Last week, he was at the corporate headquarters of Walmart and was surprised to see his face on a garden gnome. “I knew I had a Chia Pet and a bobblehead and an action figure,” Mr. Robertson said by phone. “I didn’t know I had a garden gnome. That’s awesome. I guess Pez dispenser is the last weird thing I have to see myself on.”  ".

Overwhelming pie recipe, GoT dating tips, blooming chilies!, ver(r)uca(s), and hug machines

Since my blog is apparently on a pie kick... LZ and i were at the farmers' market this weekend, of course, and she was considering making a pie to take to her ultimate (frisbee) team's end-of-season party. (Team name? Hot Pie.) The question was, is apple bourbon pecan pie a.) actually a thing, and b.) too much? i was inclined toward too much, mostly because she wanted a top crust to write 'Hot Pie' into, but she looked around on the internet and came across this rather overwhelming recipe for Maple Apple Bourbon Pie with a Bacon Crust (and, optionally, a cheese crusting, recommended serving with pecan or walnut ice cream). We agreed there was a lot of fairly intense flavors happening in that pie, and a single slice might be calorically an entire meal by itself. Amazing.

Speaking of Hot Pie, dating advice from Game of Thrones. #9, yeah.

My Thai chilies are blooming have tiny chilies on them! Technically, they're either bird's eye chilies  or siling labuyo cultivars. My jalapenos are actually flowering (last year it was December before they got going), and my bell peppers seem to be considering it. Fantastic. In their honor, i took a look at the Wikipedia List of Capsicum cultivars. It's neat that not only the scoville units are listed, but also any notes regarding location, lineage, and how various chilies are named.

Jack and i were wandering around Target last night (the reasons why aren't really too important). i tried on a pair of shoes that had the style name of Veruca. This lead off a discussion that Veruca was a terrible thing to call a shoe (a verruca is another name for planar warts, caused by one of the pampilloma viruses), but it's also the name of a snotty children's book character, a band named after that character, and a character from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The latter Jack regarded as pretty attractive, so maaaybe there could be worse names for a pair of high heels, but i think the warts thing discounts it.

In our wanderings, we also came across a book regarding how/what dogs see/perceive. i mentioned that there is a famous animal scientist who is known for this (particularly with cattle). It's Dr. Temple Grandin. She's a hero, and a person with autism who's been among the first to openly discuss what it's like to live as such; she's well known for her autism rights activities. What i didn't know, reading her wikipedia page, was that she also invented something called a hug box; " a deep-pressure device designed to calm hyper-sensitive persons".  This is really cool; she needed it/knew that it would help, and built one for herself. Just phenomenal.

Finally, this article entitled, "Dressing Your Baby In A Watermelon Is Actually A Thing".

celebrity elephants, American Gothic Pie, vaccinations, diva impressions

Regarding music videos about elephants, i came across this article in the NYTimes today, in reference to this music video (and much more expansive article on celebrity elephants in general here).

i was reading about Iowa, as two friends are going to the "internationally acclaimed" Iowa State Fair this week. Iowa is notable in my mind  from the welcome sign slogan: "Iowa - where exciting things happen". (Side track; i attempted to crosscheck this, but only came up with 'Fields of Opportunities'. However, the wikipedia compilation of US state slogans is pretty entertaining.) It turns out, there's a pie stand in what is/was the living room of the house which inspired the famous painting American Gothic. i am super taken with this, actually, particularly that they even keep props on hand at the house for picturing purposes. The linking arc also turned up an article documenting the painting's history and current state in American culture.

And then there's this wiki-how article entitled, "Stop Being Mean To People", yielded as an instant search hit upon googling 'how to stop' and letting google fill in the rest. It's pretty solid advice, i'm just amused that it's a how-to article.

You might be a scientist if you check the CDC schedule more than once a month? My labmate Ryan linked a BBC article today regarding an outbreak of polio in Somalia. This lead to the, "Is our generation immunized against polio?" query, then the CDC website's immunization schedule. Short answer, yes. i read an article last week about reasons why Americans choose not to get their kids vaccinated (Arrrgh. " Today, however, vaccines are becoming a victim of their success--many individuals have never witnessed the debilitating diseases that vaccines protect against, allowing complacency toward immunization requirements to build.Antivaccination sentiment is growing fast in the United States, in large part due to the controversial and hotly disputed link between immunizations and autism. The internet worsens fears regarding vaccination safety, as at least a dozen websites publish alarming information about the risks of vaccines.  "), and here are charts tracking this. Vaccines save lives, and herd immunity (immunity of the majority of the population) protects people who can't get the vaccine themselves, like cancer patients and the already fragile immuno-compromised. Please get your shots, folks.

This video (and backstory) about a singer performing impressions of various divas to the 80s tune Total Eclipse Of The Heart is remarkable.

prosopagnosia, music of Pogo, various artsy art, nasal cycles, handmade temporary tattoos, human gestation chart.

Jack, i'm sure you knew this, but the term for not being able to recognize faces ('face blindness') is officially called prosopagnosia, and apparently affects up to 2.5% of humans, including Jane Goodall and perhaps Brad Pitt.

Also, props to Jack for sending this fascinating music video (of a skinny human dancing in a Darth Vader mask on a beach somewhere) by the excellent Australian DJ Pogo (official site here; previously mentioned as he did a remix or several based on Mary Poppins). This lead to my listening watching to an extensive youtube playlist dedicated to the oeuvre of Pogo; all of it is super fascinating, as this guy just takes snippets of a single movie (both the audio and visual parts) and weaves them together. The most famous of these might be one commissioned by the Pixar folks for Up or a lip-synch of the Wizard of Oz, but my favorite might be one from Monsters Inc., and the one based on the tv show/book series Dexter is... memorable, too.

Anyhow. While we're on props, thanks to Allison for linking these gorgeous pictures of ink-in-water by artist Alberto Seveso. i've tried capturing something like this in lab when mixing up protein stains, but blue's kinda the only color we use, and juggling my camera and a dye-filled weigh boat sort of hampers the process (also, lack of skill and equipment, but whatever). i'm astonished how saturated and nearly creamy those dyes look. Amazing.  Along those same lines are these photographs of dancers by artist Nir Arieli (semi-NSFW).

Nasal cycles are a thing whereby your body subconsciously uses one nostril while the other's clogged. This is linked to ultradian cycles, which are those cycles your body takes over a 24-hour period (circulation, etc).

Public service announcement:  August is National Velociraptor Awareness Month. Being prepared is half the battle?

i somehow came across this compendium of nature tattoos on buzzfeed earlier this week. It turns out, some of them are actually temporary tattoos. i hadn't previously considered purchasing temporary tattoos from Etsy, but there are several sites that had amazing selection, as well as the online store Tattly, whom i've stumbled across before. Roommate, there are temp. tattoos as eye make-up, wow/yikes.

i'm just going to set this link regarding photoshop here for ease of access. Also for ease of access, as 40% of my friends are expecting, a somewhat-hokey-but-still-informative chart on human gestation and fetus development.

football, etc;, clerihews, freeze and frozen.

In brief, Johnny Football, last year's Heisman winner and current student at my alma mater, is a typical male sophomore undergrad who happens to have the national spotlight. Unfortunately, this is a ton of pressure (sad and understandable), and it's finally come to this absolutely shocking report. Best line? " This incident will prove rocky for Manziel to traverse, as he is already in hot water for going to bed without brushing his teeth last Wednesday night ". That blog is a pretty funny Onion-esque commentary on sports. Speaking of football, i thought this clip (regarding the differences in coaching American football and soccer) was perfectly hilarious.

This is an interesting discussion regarding the benefits of prayer/mediation for even atheists, backtracked from this article about being addicted to prayer.

i was looking up mountain bikes yesterday (it's a long story, i'm looking to rent one for tomorrow and was curious what i'm getting myself into), and came upon this article regarding a journalist/friend of Lance Armstrong, and that journalist's reflection on how hard Lance's confession impacted him. Somewhere within the body of the article is a reference to the poetry term 'clerihew', a 4-line, AABB rhyme about a famous person, popularly written by children. A few are posted on the wiki page, including one for James Dewar (who invented thermos flasks, one of which is commonly used in labs to hold liquid nitrogen), attributed to Richard Rhodes:

Sir James Dewar
Is smarter than you are
None of you asses
can liquify gasses.


In brief, i saw that Disney has an upcoming movie called 'Frozen', and was curious about the content. Not remembering the exact title and googling 'Freeze' yielded search topics regarding Walt Disney being cryogenically frozen (and possibly stored under the Pirates of the Caribbean ride). Snopes reports that there's evidence that Disney specified that he did not want a funeral, and that there is evidence that he was cremated. Anyhow, the upcoming movie is purportedly loosely based on Hans Christan Andersen's The Snow Queen, and main character looks startlingly like the main charcter from Tangled in certain screenshots. Tangled is a favorite of my sis-in-law, and i mention all of this to my labmate Ryan. He sends me this comic a few days later.

me: (raises an eyebrow)

And how'd she get her hair that long, anyway? Ryan: I could ask YOU the same question! me: mine gets to mid-back and starts falling out Ryan: L’Oreal is my guess, because she’s worth it me: is she? is someone who traps knights in their isolated tower worth it?        i guess, means to an end

german words, methods of consuming canned beverages, ties of all stripes

A comparison of various languages as assayed on an individual word basis. Apparently, the German for ambulance is 'krankenwagen', from the root word 'kranksein', or 'illness'. i initially heard it as kraken, which was tons confusing (Part two and part three; granted that all of the accents are exaggerated, it's still hilarious.)

As i told Jack earlier today, i'm taking this oldie-but-goodie as my personal anthem for the month of August. It's surprisingly easy to learn on a ukulele, being only three chords.

Yesterday at a baby shower featuring burritos (a baby burrito shower? ostensibly for working on swaddling skills), various methods of drinking a beverage were discussed. It started out when someone asked what 'beasting' means, which lead to a jaunt into urban dictionary (either shotgunning a Milwaukee Best brand beer, commonly called a 'Beast', or  to "to become real good at something i.e. video games, the guitar, football game /to become ferocious and belligerent and to engage in actions of violence or disrespect. ), which then lead to a discussion of icing (where someone formally surprises someone with a smirnof, which that person then is duty bound to consume. Beer wolfing (NOT the urban dictionary version) is a thing in my cohort, perpetuated by Rob and Bryan, whereby someone uses their canine teeth to puncture the side of full, unopened beer can, subsequently gulping whatever comes out and howling at the end in a wolf-like fashion. This is usually done after dark (probably to hide the fact that you've spilled a lot of beer down your front). This afternoon, an article appeared on my fb feed (hella synchronicity, batman) describing how to 'sharkfin' your beer; apparently, puncturing the can with the tab, for either pouring into a glass or shotgunning it. And thus my education continues?

i read a fantastic article regarding parenting entitled 'I Do Not Want My Daughter To Be Nice' today. It comes with strong recommendations; i like this mom's style.

While perusing that woman's blog, i saw this protocol for craftily sewing a necktie to a shirt in a charming-for-youth fashion. My brain immediately went 'I WANT', which is a poor idea, as i've forsworn wearing little boys' clothing henceforth in a bid to be a somewhat respectable adult. (Honestly, though, you never have to worry about modesty issues when you wear mens' clothing, and one of the benefits of being built like a young teenage male is that boys' clothing fits). Anyhow, it brought to mind upcycled necktie necklaces that i saw on a fashion school website sometime last year, earmarked in my brain, and promptly forgot to actually bookmark on my comp. After googling for about 20 minutes, the closest i found were these pieces by an independent company called Lilian Asterfield. Gorgeous. i also pulled up a tutorial for making a very simple version with a single tie, which reads like you'd expect. So i ask you, dear-friends-who-happen-to-be-readers, who wants one of the more simple ones if i make them for Christmas? Too preppy?

i spent a good 15 minutes last night dancing around my apartment in my boxers last night to this bit of Jimmy Gold on repeat, as embarrassing as that might be. Also, nice that it's a little cleaner than the original.