What's with the SPOILERS.jpg?
Some sort of tenuous link with the story I suppose (the monkeys were getting spoilers in the form of info about the future during the tests?). Still odd though.
I wonder what types of information/knowledge this applies to? Only information about the future? Or about something that will be experienced personally? Interesting stuff.
Heh.. I bought a bunch of these fellas a couple of years ago and left them around the house for my wife to find (she's a bit of a "microbe nerd" - coming home from work all excited about some "cute" parasite or infectious agent she happens to encounter). Still, they seem to have some new ones since I last looked, so maybe I can give her the clap
Another sustainable fish eating guide with a UK/Euro focus can be found here.
In the larger scheme of things, I don't think choosing your species wisely is going to make much of a difference. Humans are extracting 100 million metric tons of fish from the oceans each year [1] (not to mention ~20 million tons of by-catch discarded at sea [2]). No matter which way you slice it, that's unsustainable - at this rate, the ocean and just about everything in it is fscked. Enjoy your fish-eating ways while you still can people!
If there's a long enough gap between the isolation of a human-human mutation and widespread pandemic, then flu shots can be developed and we can all get one.
That's one helluva big "if" - there's an interesting graphic here that gives some indication of how fast the 1918 outbreak spread. How quickly could the vaccine be developed and produced in large quantities? This Economist article isn't overly optimistic.
150 million birds is awful
Yeah, but that's only(!) about the same as the number of chickens currently slaughtered worldwide every single day for food production (based on the most recent figures I've seen of ~55 billion per year) . The greed and depravity of intensive poultry farming may well backfire on the humans that tolerate and/or support it (i.e. all of us).
I dunno, are paella dishes really that big?
As I recall, last time I saw her she was a bit grumpy - apparently she'd been biting the other tortoises in a bid to secure more aubergines, courgettes and parsley, and as a result was moved to a private enclosure.
There are thought to be barely a dozen of her sub-species left. This is partly her fault. She still ovulates, but has not had a mate for 100 years.
You can't blame her for that, since according to this... Harriet's Brisbane caretakers mistook her for a male, dubbing her "Harry." For the next 100 years, they tried in vain to mate her with other female Galapagos land tortoises.
Anyway, happy birthday old girl!
Worldwide, sharks kill about 30 humans annually, while we kill 30-100 million of them. [link] If there is any revenge killin' to be done, I think we oughta be on the receiving end. So uh, let’s just call it square.
Premium Gas: Fewer than 10 per cent of cars actually require premium gas. Premium gas does not boost fuel economy or power.
I always thought this too, until my wife performed a pseudo-scientific demonstration of how far a tank of 98 octane would take us versus the regular stuff - there was no contest. So I guess YMMV, literally.
Until it starts making more economic sense to push for change, most people won't.
Which is why they should tax the bejezzus out of petrol (or "gas" as the Yanks would have it). Once the public outrage dies down, it'd encourage people to seek out/demand alternatives and use less. In addition, the revenue could be used for clean energy technologies and improved public transport etc. An extra 100-200% or so on the price at the pump outta do it. Of course, when I espouse this view to people complaining about the current "high prices" I usually get a pretty chilly reception to say the least.
A pretty interesting read apart from a few dubious assertions and some strange logic.
On the moral issues, vegetarians claim their habits are kinder to animals, though it is difficult to see how wiping out 99 percent of wildlife’s habitat, as farming has done in Iowa, is a kindness.
More than 80% of Iowa farmland is used for cropping and ~80% of grain crops are fed to the livestock (which he even mentions a few paragraphs later) - and he's pointing the blame for habitat destruction at vegetarians??
then it's not depleted uranium. Depleted means non-radioactive.
As already stated, that's inaccurate - it's "minimally radioactive" having only about two-thirds the radioactivity of natural uranium so yeah, it's fairly safe if it's just external exposure I guess. Inhalation is an entirely different matter though - DU particle dust can accumulate in the lungs and causes localized radiation damage and lung cancer. In addition to radiation poisoning, it can also chemically poison the body as well (more here).
(There was a good doco about this recently "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children" that showed birth defects attributed to DU that mk1gti was referring to - it was very difficult to watch).
The possibilities of meeting someone new on the train everyday is endless.
Isn’t this just a pretty regular online matchmaking service with an odd twist that doesn’t amount to much? Has anyone, anywhere, ever become partners/friends with someone they met on the subway/train?
Is this the monsoon season in Australia, or just a freak storm?
IANAM, but for Melbourne, the average monthly rainfall graph is pretty flat with a slight peak in the spring – there isn’t a monsoon season to speak of down here, so getting a quarter of the annual rainfall in a single day at any time of year is pretty strange to say the least. A thousand miles to the north, Brisbane and beyond say, it is the monsoon season so they’d be more accustomed to these kinds of storms.
There was one hell of strange thunderclap over Melbourne yesterday morning. That was followed by the coldest February day, and the largest downpour in a 24 hour period on record. Just another quirk in Melbourne’s diabolical weather, or a prelude to abrupt climate change that will soon lead to the decimation of humanity, I ask myself.
Also, wrt the salmonella laden kebab fiasco – my SO has been inundated with peoples shit (literally!) at work since then. This happens every time there's a food poisoning outbreak, since for every person who actually is sick, there are 150 other hypochondriacs that insist on sending in their samples for testing. No wonder she’s not so cheery some nights…
Like Fes said, having a cat doesn’t necessarily rule out motion detection - many models are pet immune these days, and they seem to work well in my experience. The size and layout of your apartment would dictate how many you’d need (I think they have about a 10m range) – if you only need 1 or 2 it might be cheaper/easier than contact sensors on your doors and windows.
The ones on bagels don't grow into opium poppies
I think they would if they hadn't been cooked in an oven, yes? McCormick poppy seeds are Papaver somniferum, so I don’t see why the ones on bagels would be different.
And why aren't they being cultivated for narcotics?
They are being cultivated for narcotics:
A Victorian judge was shocked yesterday at how a drug addict was able to grow 230 opium poppies at home from seeds bought from the herbs section of a supermarket
I've heard that some brands of poppy seeds that you might find in your local grocery store may be bred to be low in codeine and morphine, but I'm skeptical of that. FWIW, I've foundbeen told that supermarket poppy seeds are both extremely inexpensive and have an excellent germination rate.
More info here: Denial of Water to Iraqi Cities [PDF].
I guess we'll never know if this is a deliberate tactic or just something that results from the chaos of an (unjust) war.
My partner suffers from something like a cross between night terrors and hypnogogic hallucinations. She appears to wake up moments after falling asleep, starts seeing something horrific in our room and completely freaks out - screaming, trying to get away, warn me of our imminent fate etc. She usually ends up in a corner of the room with me trying to gently convince her that it's "just a dream" or whatever. What's strange to me is that she appears to be completely awake, eyes open, moving, responsive to my comments etc. but still suffering intense hallucinations. Naturally, this used to scare the bejezzus out of me, but I'm kind of used to it now. Of course, if it ever turns out that there actually is a menacing demon or a car-sized spider in our bedroom as my wife claims, I'll no doubt react in a completely inappropriate way.
A thread with cricket AND porn? - nicely done MoFites! There is some more discussion on the "porn is good for you" study here. From that article:
CLIVE HAMILTON: Well, I think this is dodgy research.
It goes without saying that his discussion papers are based on research of the non-dodgy variety that conclusively demonstrates that "porn is bad for you".
All I want is an Alan Donald, a Carl Rackerman, or a Richard Hadlee. Is that too much to ask?
Carl Rackemann?! Jeez rodgerd, you can aim a little higher than that surely? Maybe another Ewen Chatfield?
What's with the SPOILERS.jpg? Some sort of tenuous link with the story I suppose (the monkeys were getting spoilers in the form of info about the future during the tests?). Still odd though. I wonder what types of information/knowledge this applies to? Only information about the future? Or about something that will be experienced personally? Interesting stuff.
posted by gooddoggy 14 years ago
In "My First Dictionary"
Disturbing, but not to a degree that stops them being funny. The artwork conveys a certain old-fashioned innocence/creepiness too. Thanks!
posted by gooddoggy 14 years ago
In "Giant Microbes."
Heh.. I bought a bunch of these fellas a couple of years ago and left them around the house for my wife to find (she's a bit of a "microbe nerd" - coming home from work all excited about some "cute" parasite or infectious agent she happens to encounter). Still, they seem to have some new ones since I last looked, so maybe I can give her the clap
posted by gooddoggy 17 years ago
In "Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch."
Another sustainable fish eating guide with a UK/Euro focus can be found here. In the larger scheme of things, I don't think choosing your species wisely is going to make much of a difference. Humans are extracting 100 million metric tons of fish from the oceans each year [1] (not to mention ~20 million tons of by-catch discarded at sea [2]). No matter which way you slice it, that's unsustainable - at this rate, the ocean and just about everything in it is fscked. Enjoy your fish-eating ways while you still can people!
posted by gooddoggy 18 years ago
In "Flu Wiki"
If there's a long enough gap between the isolation of a human-human mutation and widespread pandemic, then flu shots can be developed and we can all get one. That's one helluva big "if" - there's an interesting graphic here that gives some indication of how fast the 1918 outbreak spread. How quickly could the vaccine be developed and produced in large quantities? This Economist article isn't overly optimistic. 150 million birds is awful Yeah, but that's only(!) about the same as the number of chickens currently slaughtered worldwide every single day for food production (based on the most recent figures I've seen of ~55 billion per year) . The greed and depravity of intensive poultry farming may well backfire on the humans that tolerate and/or support it (i.e. all of us).
posted by gooddoggy 18 years ago
In "Darwin's tortiose?"
posted by gooddoggy 18 years ago
There are thought to be barely a dozen of her sub-species left. This is partly her fault. She still ovulates, but has not had a mate for 100 years. You can't blame her for that, since according to this... Harriet's Brisbane caretakers mistook her for a male, dubbing her "Harry." For the next 100 years, they tried in vain to mate her with other female Galapagos land tortoises. Anyway, happy birthday old girl!
posted by gooddoggy 18 years ago
In "Batter 'em"
Worldwide, sharks kill about 30 humans annually, while we kill 30-100 million of them. [link] If there is any revenge killin' to be done, I think we oughta be on the receiving end. So uh, let’s just call it square.
posted by gooddoggy 18 years ago
In "Tips for getting better gas mileage."
Premium Gas: Fewer than 10 per cent of cars actually require premium gas. Premium gas does not boost fuel economy or power. I always thought this too, until my wife performed a pseudo-scientific demonstration of how far a tank of 98 octane would take us versus the regular stuff - there was no contest. So I guess YMMV, literally. Until it starts making more economic sense to push for change, most people won't. Which is why they should tax the bejezzus out of petrol (or "gas" as the Yanks would have it). Once the public outrage dies down, it'd encourage people to seek out/demand alternatives and use less. In addition, the revenue could be used for clean energy technologies and improved public transport etc. An extra 100-200% or so on the price at the pump outta do it. Of course, when I espouse this view to people complaining about the current "high prices" I usually get a pretty chilly reception to say the least.
posted by gooddoggy 18 years ago
In "'Vintage' Mechanical Art"
Some of these are really nice, and remind me a little of an Aussie artist who creates sculptures from old car parts.
posted by gooddoggy 18 years ago
In "The Oil We Eat"
A pretty interesting read apart from a few dubious assertions and some strange logic. On the moral issues, vegetarians claim their habits are kinder to animals, though it is difficult to see how wiping out 99 percent of wildlife’s habitat, as farming has done in Iowa, is a kindness. More than 80% of Iowa farmland is used for cropping and ~80% of grain crops are fed to the livestock (which he even mentions a few paragraphs later) - and he's pointing the blame for habitat destruction at vegetarians??
posted by gooddoggy 18 years ago
In "The Financial Cost of the Iraq War"
then it's not depleted uranium. Depleted means non-radioactive. As already stated, that's inaccurate - it's "minimally radioactive" having only about two-thirds the radioactivity of natural uranium so yeah, it's fairly safe if it's just external exposure I guess. Inhalation is an entirely different matter though - DU particle dust can accumulate in the lungs and causes localized radiation damage and lung cancer. In addition to radiation poisoning, it can also chemically poison the body as well (more here). (There was a good doco about this recently "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children" that showed birth defects attributed to DU that mk1gti was referring to - it was very difficult to watch).
posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
In "Subway Match"
The possibilities of meeting someone new on the train everyday is endless. Isn’t this just a pretty regular online matchmaking service with an odd twist that doesn’t amount to much? Has anyone, anywhere, ever become partners/friends with someone they met on the subway/train?
posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
In "Record rainfall creates chaos in Melbourne"
Is this the monsoon season in Australia, or just a freak storm? IANAM, but for Melbourne, the average monthly rainfall graph is pretty flat with a slight peak in the spring – there isn’t a monsoon season to speak of down here, so getting a quarter of the annual rainfall in a single day at any time of year is pretty strange to say the least. A thousand miles to the north, Brisbane and beyond say, it is the monsoon season so they’d be more accustomed to these kinds of storms.
posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
There was one hell of strange thunderclap over Melbourne yesterday morning. That was followed by the coldest February day, and the largest downpour in a 24 hour period on record. Just another quirk in Melbourne’s diabolical weather, or a prelude to abrupt climate change that will soon lead to the decimation of humanity, I ask myself. Also, wrt the salmonella laden kebab fiasco – my SO has been inundated with peoples shit (literally!) at work since then. This happens every time there's a food poisoning outbreak, since for every person who actually is sick, there are 150 other hypochondriacs that insist on sending in their samples for testing. No wonder she’s not so cheery some nights…
posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
In "Serious George - Reccomendations on a home alarm system?"
Like Fes said, having a cat doesn’t necessarily rule out motion detection - many models are pet immune these days, and they seem to work well in my experience. The size and layout of your apartment would dictate how many you’d need (I think they have about a 10m range) – if you only need 1 or 2 it might be cheaper/easier than contact sensors on your doors and windows.
posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
In "Curious George: Supermarket poppies."
The ones on bagels don't grow into opium poppies I think they would if they hadn't been cooked in an oven, yes? McCormick poppy seeds are Papaver somniferum, so I don’t see why the ones on bagels would be different. And why aren't they being cultivated for narcotics? They are being cultivated for narcotics: A Victorian judge was shocked yesterday at how a drug addict was able to grow 230 opium poppies at home from seeds bought from the herbs section of a supermarket I've heard that some brands of poppy seeds that you might find in your local grocery store may be bred to be low in codeine and morphine, but I'm skeptical of that. FWIW, I've
foundbeen told that supermarket poppy seeds are both extremely inexpensive and have an excellent germination rate.posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
In "Acceptable US military policy?"
More info here: Denial of Water to Iraqi Cities [PDF]. I guess we'll never know if this is a deliberate tactic or just something that results from the chaos of an (unjust) war.
posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
In "Curious George: Sleep disorders."
My partner suffers from something like a cross between night terrors and hypnogogic hallucinations. She appears to wake up moments after falling asleep, starts seeing something horrific in our room and completely freaks out - screaming, trying to get away, warn me of our imminent fate etc. She usually ends up in a corner of the room with me trying to gently convince her that it's "just a dream" or whatever. What's strange to me is that she appears to be completely awake, eyes open, moving, responsive to my comments etc. but still suffering intense hallucinations. Naturally, this used to scare the bejezzus out of me, but I'm kind of used to it now. Of course, if it ever turns out that there actually is a menacing demon or a car-sized spider in our bedroom as my wife claims, I'll no doubt react in a completely inappropriate way.
posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
In "Porn good. Australia Bad."
A thread with cricket AND porn? - nicely done MoFites! There is some more discussion on the "porn is good for you" study here. From that article: CLIVE HAMILTON: Well, I think this is dodgy research. It goes without saying that his discussion papers are based on research of the non-dodgy variety that conclusively demonstrates that "porn is bad for you". All I want is an Alan Donald, a Carl Rackerman, or a Richard Hadlee. Is that too much to ask? Carl Rackemann?! Jeez rodgerd, you can aim a little higher than that surely? Maybe another Ewen Chatfield?
posted by gooddoggy 19 years ago
(limited to the most recent 20 comments)