Archive for December, 2008
December 31, 2008 at 9:45 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
While war most certainly isn’t “neat,” those following the Israel/Hamas conflict in Gaza at the moment might appreciate the United Nation’s UNOSAT division’s excellent marked and annotated satellite image that illustrates current information about the conflict.
If you find the Gaza image useful, you can sign up for notifications or an RSS feed from the site. They provide similar timely annotated imagery of many natural disasters, conflicts and other newsworthy geographically relevant events throughout the year.
[UNOSAT]
Original post by Adam Stanhope
December 31, 2008 at 9:27 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Thailand, nicknamed "The Land of Smiles" by countless tourist books, are living up to its name: the highway policemen in Thailand will be wearing smiley masks to "lift the mood of motorists":
The new cloth masks, which hook behind the ears and cover the mouth and nose, will help "reduce the stress from drivers when they see the police," said Somyos, the Highway Police commander.
To that end, he said, some 200 police booths would also distribute holy water, chewing gum and mints.
He defended his force when asked why drivers needed smiley masks and gum and holy water to calm down when approached by a patrolman.
"The police are not that scary," he said. "When I was in the United States, their highway police seemed to be more fierce than Thai police. I was scared of them."
Link
Photo: Sarot Meksophawannakul/Bangkok Post
Original post by Alex
December 31, 2008 at 9:16 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Despite costing hundreds of millions of dollars to make, Hollywood movies are filled with "mistakes" (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero even parodied these mistakes by purposely incorporating them in the film).
But one man’s mistake is another man’s bread. To wit, here’s MovieMistakes, a website dedicated to documenting the glaring, silly, and obscure mistakes that occur in some of Hollywood’s greatest hits. Here are their list of 2008 Movies with the Most Mistakes:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 67 mistakes
The Dark Knight - 46 mistakes
Mamma Mia! - 45 mistakes
Twilight - 42 mistakes
High School Musical 3: Senior Year - 40 mistakes
… and the list for the Best Movie Mistakes of 2008:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal SkullAt the beginning when Indy is talking to Spalko, his hands keep alternating from being in his pockets to just resting at his sides between shots.
Iron ManWhen Iron [...]
Original post by Alex
December 31, 2008 at 9:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Image: J Fowler and N Christakis/New England Journal of Medicine/BMJ
Research by medical sociologist Nicholas Christakis and colleague at the Harvard Medical School in Boston revealed how oher people’s happiness, depression, and obesity can affect you:
Recent research shows that our moods are far more strongly influenced by those around us than we tend to think. Not only that, we are also beholden to the moods of friends of friends, and of friends of friends of friends - people three degrees of separation away from us who we have never met, but whose disposition can pass through our social network like a virus.
Indeed, it is becoming clear that a whole range of phenomena are transmitted through networks of friends in ways that are not entirely understood: happiness and depression, obesity, drinking and smoking habits, ill-health, the inclination to turn out and vote in elections, a taste for certain music or food, a [...]
Original post by Alex
December 31, 2008 at 8:25 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Children of the ’70s might remember this Saturday morning show on ABC; apparently Nickelodeon also aired reruns of it in the ’80s. That’s my demographic, but I don’t remember it. Anyway, it’s a bunch of chimps (with dubbed human voices) running around solving mysteries and fighting crime. It’s strangely riveting. Lance Link sounds like Humphrey Bogart and his partner, Mata Hairi, sounds sort of like Fran Drescher mixed with Ruth Gordon.
Original post by Stacy
December 31, 2008 at 8:21 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
PhRMA — the association of pharmaceutical companies — has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on drug paraphernalia given to doctors:
Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies — Viagra pens, Zoloft soap dispensers, Lipitor mugs — that were meant to foster good will and, some would say, encourage doctors to prescribe more of the drugs.
No longer will Merck furnish doctors with purplish adhesive bandages advertising Gardasil, a vaccine against the human papillomavirus. Banished, too, are black T-shirts from Allergan adorned with rhinestones that spell out B-O-T-O-X. So are pens advertising the Sepracor sleep drug Lunesta, in whose barrel floats the brand’s mascot, a somnolent moth.
…
In 1999, Dr. Goodman started No Free Lunch, a nonprofit group that encourages doctors to reject drug company giveaways. “Practically anything you can put a name on is branded in a doctor’s office, short of branding, [...]
Original post by Jake Young none@example.com
December 31, 2008 at 8:02 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I just sent out an e-mail to a bunch of friends asking what they were doing this New Year’s Eve.
We’ll be at home in the City of Medicine drinking a bottle of 1997 Grongnet “Special Club” Champagne. Then I’ll try to do a 8K trail run being held tomorrow at Duke Forest. Feel free to join me - I’ll be the 151-year-old dead guy wearing these shoes.
But in Brasstown, NC, (right at the NC-TN-GA tri-state border) they will be dropping the opossum - yes, the famed New Year’s Possum Drop. It’s a non-alcoholic family event that begins with a blessing and singing of church songs followed by the lowering of a caged opossum (Didelphis virginiana, I believe). An event so memorable that The Carringer Chronicle called it, “more exciting that when the hogs ate Granny!”
“Note: The opossum is not actually “dropped”, it is lowered with great [...]
Original post by Abel Pharmboy none@example.com
December 31, 2008 at 7:22 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Each year since 1976, Lake Superior State University has released a list in late December of words that should never be used again based on their overuse in the 12 months prior. This year’s list largely revolves around the election and the economic crisis:
Maverick
From Wall Street to Main Street
Desperate search
monkey, when used as a suffix
game-changing
carbon footprint or carbon offsetting
green
bailout
“winner of five nominations.”
Original post by Stacy
December 31, 2008 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Yesterday, I commented on the tragic death of HIV/AIDS denialist Christine Maggiore, who was HIV-positive herself and whose refusal to use antiretroviral drugs during her pregnancy to prevent maternal-fetal transmission of the virus and insistence on breast feeding even though the virus can be transmitted to the baby through breast milk. Her cultish clinging to the belief, against all scientific evidence, that HIV does not cause AIDS cost her daughter her life in 2005 and, very likely, cost her her own life a few days ago. I concede that it is quite possible that Maggiore did not die of AIDS, but the circumstances surrounding her death, from what I can glean from news reports, is damned suspicious for it.
Leave it to HIV/AIDS denialist crank Celia Farber, writing on that HIV/AIDS denialist blogger Dean Esmay (who, by the way, really, really doesn’t like me). Naturally, her claim is that Christina Maggiore [...]
Original post by Orac none@example.com
December 31, 2008 at 6:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The final Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss for 2008 challenges you to cheat death -retroactively. Match the famous dead person with the object that might have prevented his or her death. Some are easy; other I had to guess, and I ended up with a score of 70%. Link
Original post by Miss Cellania
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