Category Archives: science and technology

Envirofiction

NASA
battles buzz from disaster movie

April 28, 2004
By Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times News Service
Published April 28, 2004

“‘Urgent: HQ Direction,’ began a message e-mailed on April 1 to dozens
of scientists and officials at the Goddard Space Flight Center of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration in Greenbelt, Md.

Great…now all the environuts will be foaming at the mouth. I’m all about protecting
the environment, but I don’t think things are nearly as bad as they have been made
out to be (check out The
Skeptical Environmentalist
)

My Bad

Your
Mistake, My Mistake-All the Same to the Brain

Mon Apr 26, 9:28 AM ET

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Why is it so annoying to watch someone else make a
mistake? Maybe because it affects the same areas of the brain as when a person makes
his or her own mistake, Dutch researchers said on Monday.”

I definitely get embarrassed on behalf of bad orators or performers.

I Don’t Know That!…Aaaaaaaaaaaah….

“Too much time on my hands” – Styx

Estimating the Airspeed
Velocity of an Unladen Swallow

Hashing out the classic question with Strouhal numbers and simplified flight waveforms.
by Jonathan Corum

“After spending some time last month trying to develop alternate graphic presentations
for kinematic ratios in winged flight, I decided to try to answer one of the timeless
questions of science: just what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”

Pill Pushers

Judging by Western attitudes toward abortion and contraception, it’s obvious where priorities lie. Instead of developing drugs to fight diseases, we’re working on frivolities like male contraceptives.

Drugmakers Step Up Work Toward ‘Male Pill’
By Sitaraman Shankar

"FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German drugmaker Schering AG said Wednesday it and Dutch firm Organon had started mid-stage trials on a contraceptive injection for men that could be the next step toward the elusive ‘male pill.’"

Addicted to Cartoons

If I stopped watching cartoons, would I get nasty withdrawal symptoms? 😉

Cartoons
act like cocaine

By Roger Highfield

“A search for the mind’s ‘funny bone’ has shed new light on the mysteries
of merriment, revealing that the reason humour is addictive is that it activates
‘reward centres’ in the brain.”