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