Seahorses, I Love 'Em (& other Links of Interest)

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

Medical myths get busted here : http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/dec17_2/a2769

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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Derelicte! Just in time for Christmas!

[Aurora Rossa]

So you also watched Zoolander? That was actually one of my favorite movies awhile back, though I haven't seen it much lately.

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So you also watched Zoolander?

There are people who haven't?

Some fun with Google StreetView. (Porsche testing out secret new car models, apparently.)

I want to play this game.

A mug shot of Igor Stravinsky. He was booked for rearranging the Star-Spangled Banner. (Wow, Hendrix would've loved publicity like that...)

Fortune magazine's 21 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2008.

[Aurora Rossa]

Is it just me or does he look a bit like Frankenstein's monster?

[Airship Hobbit]

Is it just me or does he look a bit like Frankenstein's monster?

For a guy who caused a riot because of his music, I'm not surprised that he looks like a serial killer.

[Radius Solis]

Medical myths get busted here : http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/dec17_2/a2769

At the risk of some possible thread derailment... most of the discussions on those give the impression that we are talking about flat-out myths with no basis in truth. For at least two of them this is not the case.

1. Sugary foods - but not them alone, anything with a lot of refined carbohydrates, like e.g. white rice - cause an energy peak within an hour of consumption, unless there are a lot of fats or proteins in the stomach to slow absorption. This is simple medical fact and just about everyone has experienced it personally. Many people experience it daily! And such an energy peak cannot rationally be claimed not to, at minimum, promote an increased activity level while it lasts.

2. Hangover cures don't exist? No simple outright cures certainly, but their "systematic review of randomised trials evaluating medical interventions for preventing or treating hangovers found no effective interventions in either traditional or complementary medicine" cannot have been systematic enough, because it misses the point that there are indeed things you can do to mitigate hangovers to at least some extent. First is painkillers - a major part of a hangover is pain, especially headache, and there is no reason to believe tylenol/aspirin/etc are less effective for this type of headache than for others (though obviously individual mileage will vary, and there are good reasons to avoid tylenol if you drink a lot). I've found codeine to work quite well. For another thing, dehydration is a contributing factor to hangover (alcohol makes you pee), and drinking water - especially *while* you're drinking instead of later or in the morning - can help.

[Shm Jay]

Houseplants of Gor, the new Gor short story, if you need more after the 28 books in the series — including the newest one out in 2008.

[Åge Kruger]

Credit Crunch, the board-game!

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

A mug shot of Igor Stravinsky. He was booked for rearranging the Star-Spangled Banner. (Wow, Hendrix would've loved publicity like that...)

Good music, though

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Good music, though

Yes, indeedy!

Oliver Twist's thin gruel wasn't so thin after all! That little con artist didn't need "more"!

What does the latest fake memoir scandal say about contemporary culture? (Or, hey, I've got a question: apparently this one fooled Oprah, too. How does "Oprah's Book Club" still have any credibility?)

Maybe it's mean-spirited, but so be it: I'm having a good laugh at this series of Onion stories about The Shrub being horrifically injured in various ways. Both subtle -- delivered in detached, anodyne news briefs -- and hilariously over-the-top.

Turkish authors issue apology for Armenian genocide. It's a courageously subversive act in a country where ultra-nationalist denialism on the issue has prevailed for so long.

German lovers, aged six and five, try to elope to Africa. I'm sure, eventually, their parents will look back on this episode with humour. Eventually.

What's been happening to the bees? The sordid truth is out: crazy scientists have been getting them hooked on cocaine to see what would happen.

[Ketumak]

So, if you give bees cocaine, they get high? Cutting edge research Good to know Australian tax dollars are being well spent.

I've been thinking recently about green webhosting. I didn't even know if there was such a thing, but its surprising to see how widespread it is. If, like me, you're wondering about the ethics of having part of a server run in your name using energy 24/7 and want to have less environmental impact, here's a good place to start - a green webhosts comparison site:

http://www.thewebhostinghero.com/compan ... sting.html

I'd be interested to hear if anyone's actually used one of these hosts.

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

So, if you give bees cocaine, they get high? Cutting edge research Good to know Australian tax dollars are being well spent.

I've been thinking recently about green webhosting. I didn't even know if there was such a thing, but its surprising to see how widespread it is. If, like me, you're wondering about the ethics of having part of a server run in your name using energy 24/7 and want to have less environmental impact, here's a good place to start - a green webhosts comparison site:

http://www.thewebhostinghero.com/compan ... sting.html

I'd be interested to hear if anyone's actually used one of these hosts.

I wonder if it would have any use in Quebec. We already have hydroelectricity (over like 90% of our electricity). Creates pollution for the first years, but generally pollution free for decades. Green enough for me.

[Raphael]

So, if you give bees cocaine, they get high? Cutting edge research

Not as dumb as it might sound for people who don't know much about biochemistry- different substances can have very different effects on different species. Think of humans, dogs, and chocolate.

[Åge Kruger]

So, if you give bees cocaine, they get high? Cutting edge research

Not as dumb as it might sound for people who don't know much about biochemistry- different substances can have very different effects on different species. Think of humans, dogs, and chocolate.

But chocolate has the same effect on humans as on dogs, just in different doses.

[Xephyr]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the effect of chocolate on dogs?

[Aurora Rossa]

I believe it kills them, or at least makes them really sick due to its theobromine content.

[Delthayre]

Dogs Who Ate Chocolate could be a good name for an emo band, if such groups are permitted by their ethos to have anything good.

[Pthagnar]

So, if you give bees cocaine, they get high? Cutting edge research

Not as dumb as it might sound for people who don't know much about biochemistry- different substances can have very different effects on different species. Think of humans, dogs, and chocolate.

But chocolate has the same effect on humans as on dogs, just in different doses.

Catnip is a better example. It makes cats (well, some of them are immune to it because of Genetics) spack out and go all MAN THIS IS CATNIP FUKEN CATNIP IM GONNA ROLL AROUND IN IT OH MAN YEAH YEAH. Then it stops working, and the cat returns to being a normal cat again. Until a while passes and the cat is all like OH MAN CATNIP AGAIN WHEE WHEE FUKEN SO HIGH...

In humans, at best it is a mild sedative.

[Ketumak]

I wonder if it would have any use in Quebec. We already have hydroelectricity (over like 90% of our electricity). Creates pollution for the first years, but generally pollution free for decades. Green enough for me.

Yes, its value will vary from place to place. 90% would be green enough for me, too.

Catnip

Good point, I'd forgotten about that one. I noticed that the research took five months to get approval, so even people who do know their biochemistry were sceptical, at first, though clearly, they agreed eventually.

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

I wonder if it would have any use in Quebec. We already have hydroelectricity (over like 90% of our electricity). Creates pollution for the first years, but generally pollution free for decades. Green enough for me.

Yes, its value will vary from place to place. 90% would be green enough for me, too.

Checked, and it's actually 97%. What is left is produced by a small nuclear plant, maintained mostly for educational purposes. (And some coal centrals produces electricity for the northern communities and Îles de la Madeleines).

I live in a (relatively) green country.

[Radius Solis]

Drowning vast swaths of natural habitat is your idea of green?

[Xephyr]

Drowning vast swaths of natural habitat is your idea of green?

But there weren't any cute animals living there, just the ugly ones like leeches and pudu and gharials and elephant seals and sunfish and condors and dung beetles.

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

Drowning vast swaths of natural habitat is your idea of green?

I am not a nature-conservatist. If you don't want anything to be touched anywhere, cease to exist and leave the world on its own.

But I am not that kind of guy, and I know that whatever I want to do, it will have effects on Nature. 'Cause I'm Part ot I. My vision of green is "sustainability" : not stoping doing things, but doing things in a way that you, and your children, will be able to do things for a long long time. Food means crops, crops means fields. But we can be efficient, and we can make things so that it does not destroy more of what else can be saved.

But this might be pretty meaningless to argue.

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Truly glorious classic comedy by "Hyacinthe Phippe" and Edward Gorey: ladies, gentlemen, rabbits and Melvillians, I give you The Recently Deflowered Girl.

Obama is already turning up in comics. No pressure, Barack. No pressure.