Sound 101 is on a hunt for the worst sound in the world. The site also looks into musical dissonance, the science behind the aural horror of fingernails scraping down a blackboard, and provides an audio mixer to create your own horrible sounds. Great fun!
Category: Science
Contemporary gizmos
Whereas the Clock of the Long Now will run with perfect accuracy for 10,000 years, the Industorious clock (sic) will probably get cramps on fingers much sooner than that. From the same author, the amaztype: an atractive interface that search and shows books, cd’s and dvd’s from any particular author (try searching for Zappa!). Here’s to see a ranking on the most popular words searched – look who’s first on the “Artist in Music” row (!!)
Scrupulosity
This sounds like a Police album but in fact scrupulosity is “a debilitating form of obsessive-compulsive disorder which takes the form of excessively fastidious religious observance, often in completely arbitrary ways, and fear of not being sufficiently devout or virtuous.”
Fortunately, drugs such as Zoloft and Paxil can be used to treat scrupulosity. I wonder how many potential saints the world loses every year to modern psychopharmacology.
Pass That Joint
Potheads around the world rejoice:
A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety and depression. The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain.
Doom Mongering
Fear as a political marketing ploy.
Amen
Here’s something for the Intelligent Design followers to chew on: “We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,†says the Catholic Church. Little do they know there is a third way…
Man Boobs
Gentlemen be warned: excessive alcohol consumption can trigger glandular breast growth in men. Yikes!
The Moon is made of cheese
“What happens if I try to zoom too close?” – Well, you’ll have to go and find out, won’t you?
Intelligent Design
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.
Comprehending Sarcasm
Googly Moogly Maps
Everybody and their mother is linking to Google maps these days, so who am I not to. If you’ve played around with its “satellite option”, you’ll agree that it’s an incredibly cool toy to mess around with. Then there’s those who take it one step further, and, inevitably, those who see the arrival of the new Big Brother.
Me, I figured I’d have a stab at Joe’s Garage…
13 Things
New Scientist: 13 things that do not make sense. Surprisingly, this is not one of them.
Pre-Madonna
Eggcorns are elusively misspelt words or expressions. The Eggcorn Database has a whole bunch of them. Some goodun’s: pre-madonna, comma, black male and of course: internally grateful.
Online Vermin
Even though KUR is blessed with a readership whose bright intellect is rivalled only by its eloquence *cough*, I’m still bookmarking this just in case.
A 100 Years of Relativity
One hundred years ago, a man by the name of Albert Einstein introduced his Special Theory of Relativity, forever changing the way science looks upon reality. To explain that theory in simple terms is not the easiest of tasks — which is why, to this day, you can win a grand prize of 25,000 euros by making it understandable to the rest of us ignorant mortals. Anyone?