Fun with Print Screen

Gave it a few decades, so it can't be politically incorrect to disparage Martin Luther King, Jr anymore. So they made tapes and found lots of evidence of adultery. This angered J. Edgar Hoover, who thought he was a hypocrite and communist, and he kept right on it. Started reading Bob Woodward's "Secret Man" about Deep Throat (aka Mark Felt, FBI guy), and that led me to this.

Ignore this, not you Google

Harry Shearer is not funny.

I googled this phrase, and it did not exist. So there you go, I just legitimated my opinion once google picks this up. (He's a self-infatuated NPR comedian who publicly reviles Car Talk). If somebody else could legitimize my opinion about the demographic trends behind North Face (something I've also googled unsuccessfully), I'd be much obliged.

Just a little FYI

"In a case-controlled study of eunuchs (Hamilton and Mestler, 1969), the longevity of institutionalized, mentally retarded, castrated men was significantly greater (69.3 years versus 55.7 years) than intact men from the same institution and matched for age and intelligence."

Waldo?

The McCain family adopted a Bangladeshi girl right out of Mother Theresa's mission in 1991. The resulting family portrait (complete with double take) has graced front pages everywhere:

This is old news beyond not being news at all. I was reminded of it because this photo was on the front page of the NYT today, and I only recently learned that the Bush/Rove team used polling to spread a rumor that Bridget McCain was an illegitimate half-black child of McCain's in the 2000 primary. "South Carolina voters were asked "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?"." (from the Globe) I don't think I was following politics back then, so, though it's hardly worth blogging about, it's news to me!

Cell Walls

Bacteria like E. coli have 2 membranes and a cell wall. Eukaryotes have one and no cell wall. Trying to figure out why? Here's a theory:
"Some competing prokaryote invented an antibiotic that interfered with peptidoglycan [cell wall ingredient] synthesis, as penicillin does today" (source)

Ok, that's a big leap. But then why lose the outer membrane?
After some searching: no idea or random mutation (source).

Conclusions from this exercise:
1. Google books is pretty awesome. I've actually gone to the library more because of its picks.
2. You can write a lifetime of novels about proposed evolutionary pathways and mechanisms and sound incredibly academic while doing it.

way meta

In the spirit of truthiness and creating occasions to christen new words, NYT had an article today about hip and happening new words that characterize 2007. Some highlights: "wide stance, to have a," "colony collapse disorder," "astronaut diaper," and the up and coming wall street job "chief sustainability officer."

Why do I bring this up? Because another word on the list of words that will make you part of the diction avant garde caught my eye:

tumblelog n. :A Web site or blog that is a collection of brief links to, quotes from, or comments about things a person has encountered while Web browsing. It is a sort of digital commonplace book.

Earth Berm

I thought this was cool. Only in Canadia...


The earthiness over the overpass is called an "earth berm" which, after some googling, turned out to a term used to describe a mound of dirt piled next to a house to better insulate heat and resemble a hobbit cottage: