Random Thoughts

Unicorn Tentacles!

So my friend's setting up her wireless network and asks me about names, and I randomly spout off the phrase "unicorn tentacles". Cause that's a great name for a wireless network. Then I started wondering if it might be a googlewhack. Of ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 1 2009 - 11:53pm

Eclectic To-Do Lists

As a freelance scientist, I find my Friday to-do lists are particularly eclectic.  A little backstory: I work as a freelance a) science writer and b) programmer in order to support A) my family and B) my hobbies. As long as, from a cash perspective,      $ ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Dec 4 2009 - 3:04pm

Propagandizing Ourselves

Propaganda is normally associated with governments that are attempting to persuade or influence people for a particular political objective.  More formally it is defined as "the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognition ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Dec 4 2009 - 4:21pm

Synchronicity

Having myself thought I was going insane at one point, I should be very careful in using the word "kook" about anybody. But have no fear; I'm libeling an entire state: California, of course. ...

Blog Post - Keith Adams - Dec 5 2009 - 6:20pm

A Plea For More Sex And Violence On TV

Dear TV and Movie Producer Person, I realize that you receive letters all the time complaining about the gratuitous sex and violence on television and in movies. This is not one of those letters. In a sense, I want more sex and violence. Let me explain. It ...

Article - Mark Changizi - Dec 7 2009 - 10:47pm

Thomas And Friends Turns Children Into Cranky, Backwards Conservatives

A political scientist from the University of Alberta has uncovered a dastardly ploy by the producers of Thomas and Friends, a popular children's TV show, to turn their innocent audience of youngsters into  socially intolerant conservatives.  After ana ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 8 2009 - 5:59pm

Late Morning Science Quotes

The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Dec 9 2009 - 12:21pm

"Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus"- The Story Behind The Famous Quote

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” That sentence from American journalism’s best-known Santa Claus editorial (the New York Sun’s “Is There A Santa Claus?”) is still so popular that 112 years after it first ran, Macy’s is basing its holiday advertisin ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 9 2009 - 10:21pm

Why Do People Believe So Many Odd Things?

A recent LiveScience article " Americans Believe in God, Astrology, and Ghosts " indicates that the beliefs people hold may actually be contradictory and a mix of a variety of themes. This tends to confirm the view that people will believe almost ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Dec 10 2009 - 2:47pm

The Say Of The Week

People who like sausage and people who trust 3-sigma peaks should not ask how these are made. T.D. ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - Dec 11 2009 - 12:17pm