posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eftychia at 01:40pm on 2004-11-13
eftychia at 01:40pm on 2004-11-13- A bunch of "scienticians" run an important experiment involving a Brita filter and cheap vodka, after equipping themselves with such important items as control vodka, science crackers to cleanse the palate between tastes, a science funnel, and a sober note-taker. Includes notes on future experiments needed (for example, their tasting samples were too small to test their hypothesis regarding the effects on hangover likelihood).
- The Christian Hanky Code, so that you can tell whether you're about to start a conversation with a heretic or someone who agrees with you, and a less bloody solution than Arnaud came up with in 1208. Red hanky on the left for creationism as metaphor, red hanky on the right for creationism taken literally, etc.
- Platypuses Have More Sex [Chromosomes] ... for the platypus, it turns out to be not, XX vs XY as it is for most mammals, but XXXXXXXX vs XYXYXYXY. Tangents include tidbits about sex chromosomes in birds and in howler monkeys.
- A lot of the musical folks on my friends list sing, and most
pop music has words, but
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ohiblather asked
who plays (and listens to) instrumental music for fun,
with a separate comment thread
here on LJ, and that led to
another thread, with musings about holding an audience's
attention in cellio's journal. I mention this
in case any of my instrumentalist friends who don't already
read those two journals want to take a peek... (And no, not
just because cellio said nice things about The
Homespun Ceilidh Band.) - Trek-Classic Communicator Bluetooth cell phone interface. (eBay auction; ends 2004-11-14, so unless the page gets archived someplace, the link will eventually go stale.) Prototype. "It works within a 10 meter radius of your phone so you can leave your mobile in your pocket or a bag and recieve calls by opening the flap and pressing the button." Pretty.
- A device that automatically moves electrodes through the brain to seek out the strongest signals is taking the idea of neural implants to a new level. (from New Scientist) Scary-sounding (the article even concedes that) and vaguely squickful, it could be important: "Implanted electrodes are usually unable to sense consistent neuronal signals for more than a few months, [...] at the Huntington Hospital, also in Pasadena. This loss of sensitivity has a number of causes: the electrodes may shift following a slight knock or because of small changes in blood pressure; tissue building up on the electrodes may mask the signal; or the neurons emitting the signals can die." This device adapts to changing conditions by sensing the direction of the strongest signal and moving in one micron increments toward it. "If the signal voltage starts rising very rapidly we know we are in danger of puncturing a neuron, so it backs off,"
- Rules for Radicals: "The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have- Nots on how to take it away." Link is to a short blog entry quoting/summarizing from a 1971 book by Saul Alinsky.
- Fred sent this URL under the heading "Products we don't need". An unusual set of refrigerator magnets.
- Fred also wrote up a
detailed account of his day as an Election Judge on the 2nd
and emailed it to various people. A few of us asked permission
to post it on the web, and blueeowyn got to it first.
It's worth reading for a look at what security and authentication
measures are in place, and on which points the process could stand
some improvement.
- And one more that I first got from Fred but have seen others link to as well: Saturn's rings are ... well, ringing. They emit radio bursts that only need to be slowed down by a factor of five to put them into the range of human hearing (of course they also need to be converted from radio to acoustical vibration, but hey, if they propogated as sound waves in a vacuum that'd be magic, so this is sufficiently musical and nifty in my book). "The tones are short, typically lasting between one and three seconds, and unlike the ethereal sliding tones associated with other cosmic processes, every one is quite distinct. The evidence suggests that each tone is produced by the impact of a meteoroid on the icy chunks that make up the rings." They're also described as "melodic".
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
And one of these days maybe I'll learn to spell "ceilidh". :-)
Vodka taste
that James Bond had picked up the habit of putting pepper on his vodka from Russian
friends who would do so to absorb the foul-tasting fusel oil that floated on cheap
nasty vodka. Okay, not the literal truth, as this is a fictional character, but the bit
about fusel oil being a key component of vodka foulness, and also if the pepper
trick would work.
Of course, I was under the impression that vodka is so stringently regulated in this
country that all (legal) vodka tastes about the same here.