Hey You! Got 36 Minutes To Spare?

Who knew? Some people have time.

U R Not Going To Stop Me From Giggling

Cats, Science, Friendships

Here are two things that happened.

Tylden emailed me this, he clearly has an alert for "Cats" and "Science" and knows to think of me.



I don't know where I found this one, but I'm glad I did.


The End.

"Could Be A Piano, Could Be A Fruit"

Genius. Pure, underwater, Genius.

I Could Write A (Million) Book(s)

Have you played around with Google's Ngram yet? It's heaps of fun. You can search the 22 billion books that they have lovingly scanned, and learn lots of information about the occurrence of words throughout written history. Social Science!

For example, I was curious about who showed up in books more: Pearl Bailey, Shelley Winters, or Della Reese. Click on the images to embiggen them.

Go Shelley!

Also, which of the Golden Girls showed up the most in books? I think Betty White might be picking up a few extra points for her commonly-written last name, which is also a colour.


Here's a nice one I liked:
This one was interesting. I wonder if there's any causal relationship between the increase in occurrence of the first two words and that slight dip in the third? I may have to watch Rope again.

God Bless America and all its science!

These Are The Things I Like Right Now

Here's a fun version of what is my, Amber, and Nick's favorite song:



Click here to check out this fun NYT story Tylden emailed me, which combines my favorite topics of SCIENCE and CAT.

And for good luck? Remember Sexy Mona Bower? To quote Elton John, rock me hard, Tony Danza.

My Personal Venn Diagram Exploded: or, There Goes Another Stritchy Clone

On her new album Laurie Anderson just swiped a joke from Stritchy. (you can stream the album at NPR right here)
It reminds me of the time I saw Stritchy at the Cafe Carlyle, and in the middle of "Send in the Clowns" she sang "We should put some mountains over there. Otherwise what will the characters fall off of?" Or not.

Isn't it? Isn't it just like a performance artist?

Light + Loo = Cancer? Pshaw

This isn't REAL science, is it? British people are so weird.

Simply turning on a light at night for a few seconds to go to the toilet can cause changes that might lead to cancer, scientists claim.

Researchers in the UK and Israel found that when a light is turned on at night, it triggers an 'over-expression' of cells linked to the formation of cancer.

The tests were carried out on mice at Leicester University by geneticist Professor Charalambos Kyriacou.

During the trial, a group of mice were exposed to a light for one hour. When compared with mice who had been kept in the dark, changes were found in cells in the brain responsible for the circadian clock which controls body function.

Dr Rachel Ben-Shlomo, of the University of Haifa, said in the journal Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics that people waking at night would be best advised not to turn on the light.

She said: 'We believe that any turning on of artificial light in the night has an impact on the body clock. It's a very sensitive mechanism.

'If you want to get up to go to the toilet, you should avoid reaching for the light switch. There are some plug-in lights that just glow, that are safe and you could use them as an alternative.'

She added: 'These latest findings are preliminary research and we are now looking into this area in more detail.'

Here's the article.

I think girls who live with boys might prefer they guys get a little cancer to sitting on a seat with pee on it, but whatever. I like science about tickling better.

Red Hot Chili Friendship!

Cookery!

So, on Saturday, I had plans with my friend Brian. We decided we were going to make dinner, and I took this photo of the ingredients I had on hand and sent it to him via Technology.

As you can see, these ingredients include Eggplant, Garlic, Onions, Green Tomatoes, and Chilis (HOT Chilis!). Brian put those items into his smart phone and out popped this recipe from a Turkish website:

I like Turkish things, and I certainly liked that all the ingredients from this recipe were things I had on hand.

Anyway, later that day he arrived, and we got to work.

Brian washed the tomatoes

Then chopped them up.

Then he chopped the chilis. Three of them, all different colors (green, yellow, and orange). The chilis were VERY HOT. Much hotter than we had expected. HOT.

In unrelated news, a friend of mine discovered very recently that if you cut chilis, and use your hands to pick out the seeds, then go to the men's room, you will have a 100% chance - even if you wash your hands first - that your man parts will be on FIRE, lasting about 40 minutes. I'm just saying.
Anyway, here's Brian again and all the things he chopped. Green Tomatoes, Eggplant, Chilis. And then he visited the men's room.
Meanwhile, I put the onions and the garlic in the pot. I don't mind telling you I had the WEEPIES from all the onions. People tell you to do stupid things like put a match (unlit! unlit!) in your mouth, or whatever, but it doesn't help. Tears.

Anyway, I very carefully - using the knife not hands! - put the chilis in the mix.

Mmmm! Safety first.
Brian added the seasonings - SALT and PEPPER.

Here it is, cooking up. So in there we have all the aforementioned ingredients, and then a few minutes later we added three spoonfuls of rice. The juice that the vegetables gave up is what puffed up the rice. Science!
Then, about an hour later, it's ready to eat! Lesson Learned: stir it every now and then, or else the bottom of your pan will get blackened. Oh well, that's why God made Brillo Pads.
We served it up with some of that Greek Yogurt and a dusting of mint.
And then we ate it.
Mmmm.
The outcome was pretty good. Next time we wouldn't use all the chilis, because this ended up so spicy there were some more tears. But still, it was tasty, and all the friendship was good too.

Just, you know, next time use gloves.

Really?

Brings new meaning to the term "Hammer Head." Ba dum dum!

Here's the whole story on National Geographic, if you're interested.

Rats! Science! Giggles!

Now, some folks might recall that I went to Charleston on vacation a few weeks back. As always with a visit to David, SCIENCE was involved.

Normally I wouldn't find his Rat Science so interesting. Here's an example of what it often looks like:

BUT in this case, it involved RATS and GIGGLING.

David learned through Science that rats giggle when you tickle them. How do you confirm this?

First you, take a Bat Sonar Detector. This is a little device with headphones and an amplifier - when used properly you can hear the high-pitched screeching these little pajaros del noche use to communicate with each other.

When used improperly you can hear rat giggles!

If you start tickling the little buddy (I did it with Subject #5, who was my favorite) while you have the Sonar Device on, you can actually hear screechy giggles.

David pointed out that all the other rats hear the giggling too, and they get more and more excited to come out of their cages for all the fun times.

I had no idea that so much fun could be had with a lab rat.
Thanks David, and Subject #5, for teaching me that Science is Fun!

Charleston! The Fun Is Just Beginning!

Amazing. GRACE.

So I've seen some pretty great concerts in my thirty plus years. The highlights are all the times I saw Blossom Dearie, when Sarah and I saw Dolly Parton at Irving Plaza in Summer 2002, the Blind Boys of Alabama that same year, and the half-dozen times I've seen my chum Carolyn Mark.

Lemme tell you, last night's Grace Jones show at Hammerstein Ballroom is up there, and worth all nine thousand pennies or whatever I paid. I've seen all those lazy-a$$ new kids out there who have their dirty hair and just slouch over their guitars and play their records without even looking up. Not our gal.

Not all the pictures I took were so exciting, but I did a web-trawl this morning over coffee and found some goodies. I think we now have all seven or eight costume changes documented.

For starters, she did the opening song completely under a silk cloak.

Then she popped out wearing what was a cross between her Andy Warhol graffiti outfit of yore, a skeleton suit, and My Little Pony...


A few songs later she put on this glitter outfit for a few numbers - which threw off some pretty fun sparkles when the strobes hit it.

Then what else would you wear for La Vie En Rose, but this fun one? Eat your coeur out, Edith Piaf.

And really, what else would you wear for "My Jamaican Guy," but a Jamaican Flag Costume? I think this was right after she called out her friend "Miss M," aka Bette Midler, who was in the audience. I looked around but she wasn't up at stage right in front of the speaker with me.

"Corporate Cannibals?" This of course:

I was excited to see Grace show her pun side when she danced with a mannequin of herself for "I've Seen That Face Before."

My personal favorite was this costume for "Hurricane" - she sang it while walking into a wind machine with this satin parachute trailing behind.

There were a few more songs and costume changes, then it was time for the encore.

You know when Grace busts out the symbols and the confetti you're dancing to "Pull Up to the Bumper" and "Slave To The Rhythm."

My ears are still ringing, but they do that anyway. And it was worth it.