Roald Dahl and vaccination, calavera(s), salt,London Bridge, down indicator

As a recent photograph of a Columbian womens' cycling team demonstrates, gold lycra does not photograph well. However, as the article outlines, resultant commentary is a little harsh.

i was poking around the other day with the hashtag #provax and found this article featuring Roald Dahl's pro-vaccination stance, given that his daughter died from (now-preventable) measles. He's been in the news lately, too, owning to the 50th anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book publication, and the issuing of a 'missing chapter'.

Jack and i have noted that it's officially Halloween season, and prime shopping season for folks who appreciate black and have a minor affinity for skeletons. We were reviewing World Market's stock online when i chanced upon these teatowels, and declared that from henceforth, all of my linens should be embroidered with calaveras. Jack googles 'calavera' and comes across with this swimsuit company based in California (their designs are appropriately funky, and i'm linking them here for future reference). Sidenote; 'calavera' is Spanish for 'skull', and also the name of the lake/water reservoir and a creek closest to the high school i attended; we would run around it during cross country practice. My weird affinity is partially nostalgic and cultural? Sure.

Had a conversation with my labmate yesterday regarding the origin of common use table salt. Hitting the Morton's website, it looks like they source their salt both from saltwater as well as mining it. Because i was cruising around the website anyway, here's a link to the history of the Morton salt girl design. And, turns out, the addition of salt to water only raises it's boiling point by two degrees Celsius.
As we're on the topic of 'recent things we've googled in lab', Nate B. stopped by the lab office yesterday. We were discussing the site of next year's (inter)national virology conference as being in London... Ontario, Canada.  Ryan alluded to the London bridge being sold to a city in Arizona, and that required immediate research. Turns out, the city of London sold the 1831-1967 iteration of the London Bridge to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, as that version of the bridge couldn't support the increased London traffic. The bridge was dismantled, and " the original stonework was used to clad a concrete structure, so that the bridge is no longer the original after which it is modeled. ", spurring conversation as to the amount of original bridge necessary before it could be considered the bridge or a separate construction. We decided on separate construction.

Apparently we missed National Roasted Marshmallow day, on August 30th. i learned this after stumbling upon a National Forest service blog entry entitled, " US Forest Service Asks How Does Your Marshmallow Roast? ", and aimed at people to make healthier s'mores by replacing some of the components with grilled fruit.

While watching the Chicago Bears/ SF 49ers game this Sunday, a few of us noticed that the referees wear black bands looped around their hands. We couldn't tell if it was every ref or just one making a weird fashion statement, but the placement of the bands seemed to alter. Upon researching it, it looks like refs commonly use these bands to keep track of the downs, and is listed on the wikipedia page as a Down indicator, " A specially designed wristband that is used to remind officials of the current down. It has an elastic loop attached to it that is wrapped around the fingers. Usually, officials put the loop around their index finger when it is first down, the middle finger when it is second down, and so on. Instead of the custom-designed indicator, some officials use two thick rubber bands tied together as a down indicator: one rubber band is used as the wristband and the other is looped over the fingers. Some officials, especially umpires, may also use a second indicator to keep track of where the ball was placed between the hash marks before the play (i.e., the right hash marks, the left ones, or at the midpoint between the two) ". Interesting.

Lauren recently linked this scientific paper(?) entitled "The sound of mitosis (to the tune of “Do, Re, Mi” from the sound of music movie soundtrack) ". We've both agreed that while singing it to ourselves, we'd like to alter the words slightly, and acknowledge accents for changing pronunciation.