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what the ladies like (by principle of revealed paternity), or, why I will never have 75 children (sigh)

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

His performance style earned him a loyal following — the use of a skull, a moving arm and, in his early days, a coffin —added to his charisma.

Hawkins died on February 12, 2000 after surgery to treat an aneurysm. He left behind many children by many women; about 55 were known (or suspected) upon his death, and upon investigation, that number “soon became perhaps 75 offspring”, according to this website. Sadly, news of Hawkins’ death was largely overshadowed by the deaths of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, Dallas Cowboys football coach Tom Landry, and pop singer Oliver on that same day.

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latest musical infatuation

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Letting you know, because that’s what we do here, with self-deprecation but unmoderated enthusiasm, that Portastatic is THE BEST BAND EVAH. Particularly and to the quick, “Clay Cakes” and “Come Down” from “Summer of the Shark”. Check it out. You won’t be sorry.

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more on the possible genetic origins of schizophrenia

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Human brains pay a price for being big
General Science / Biology
Metabolic changes responsible for the evolution of our unique cognitive abilities indicate that the brain may have been pushed to the limit of its capabilities. Research published today in BioMed Central’s open access journal Genome Biology adds weight to the theory that schizophrenia is a costly by-product of human brain evolution.

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the occasional eccentric

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

In what appears to be a habit, here is todays installment of The Occasional Eccentric, a series of blog posts:

William James Sidis, with a brain the size of a planet, only wanted to park cars.

He was a child prodigy and part of a group that included Norbert Wiener, so it wasn’t a total wash.

ObSpecialExcellentPoint: read down to where the “group of Harvard students threatened to beat him up.”

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the universe is made of math

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A ‘New Dimension’ at the LHC

“For all we know, extra dimensions may be nature’s way of computing the masses of particles,” says the study’s corresponding scientist, Yale University physicist Johannes Hirn.

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Learn something every day if not careful

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Palace of Depression
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Palace of Depression was located in Vineland, New Jersey. Built by the eccentric and mustached George Daynor, a former Alaska gold miner who lost his fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, this amusement was known as “The Strangest House in the World” or the “Home of Junk.” and was built as a testament of willpower against the effects of The Great Depression.[1]

George Daynor claims that he was guided to New Jersey by an angel, who provided the design for the palace. Completed on Christmas Day 1932, the palace was built on four acres which cost him four dollars. Daynor quotes that his palace was “the greatest piece of originality ever brought about in the history of Man.”. He would charge 25 cents for a tour.[1]

Daynor was a publicity hog and claimed to be “the most photographed man in the world.” After a baby was kidnapped in the 1950s, Daynor called the FBI and falsely reported that the kidnappers had visited the palace. The FBI followed the false claim and Daynor was imprisoned for a year.[1]

Daynor died a pauper in 1964 at a reported 104 years old. After Daynor’s death, a fire destroyed the Palace of Depression and Vineland razed it in 1969.

A city restoration project to rebuild the Palace of Depression is in progress. Local companies and individuals are encouraged to volunteer materials and labor. Kevin Kirchner has been leading the restoration effort.[1]

In 1938 George Daynor made a film about his park entitled The Fantastic Palace

The 1984 movie, Eddie and the Cruisers, references the Palace of Depression.

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DNP (thing I did not know this morning)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Dieting aid

DNP was used extensively in the 1930s in diet pills after Cutting and Tainter at Stanford University made their first report on the drug’s ability to greatly increase metabolic rate. DNP acts as a protonophore in the mitochondrial membrane, uncoupling oxidative phosphorylation and making ATP energy production less efficient. In effect, part of the energy that is normally produced from cellular respiration is wasted as heat. This inefficiency is proportional to the dose of DNP that is taken. Thus, as the dose increases and energy production is made less efficient, the metabolic rate is increased (and more fat is burned) in order to compensate for the inefficiency and meet energy demands. Interestingly, the factor that limits ever increasing doses of DNP is not a lack of ATP energy production, but rather an excessive rise in body temperature due to the heat produced during uncoupling. Accordingly, DNP overdose will cause a fatal fever. Studies have shown that an acute administration of 20-50 mg/kg in humans is lethal[1]. Concerns about dangerous side-effects and rapidly developing cataracts resulted in DNP being discontinued in the United States by the end of 1938. DNP, however, continues to be sold on the internet illegally, targeting bodybuilders and athletes who want to rapidly lose body fat. Fatal overdoses are reported on occasion.[2][3][4]

link

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On a planet this big, you can find fifty examples of anything.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Ruby Ridge in the south pacific:

Keith Robinson has openly expressed concerns about his family’s ability to continue to maintain private ownership of Niihau due to government and environmental groups. There are environmental lawsuits against the family by groups such as Earthjustice,[5] and paying taxes on the island casts an extremely heavy burden on the profits of the Robinsons’ interests in agricultural companies on Kauai. Keith Robinson has compared his plight on Niihau to Ruby Ridge and the Waco Siege, threatening to defend his island with force if necessary.[6]

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visualization of magnetic field behavior with VLF audio soundtrack

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Magnetic Movie

via

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interesting stuff “ghost images” via quantum entanglement

Sunday, July 13, 2008

University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus, professor (Dr.) Yanhua Shih initiated ghost-imaging research in 1995, by using entangled photons. In the experiment, one photon passed through stenciled patterns in a mask to trigger a detector, and another photon was captured by a second detector. Surprisingly, an image of the pattern between the two detectors appeared, which the physics community called ghost-imaging.

from via

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