Entertainment stuff from the week 18-24/8/2014

Hi Whovians,


Firstly, my vicarious apologies for not having posted anything last week.

You didn't miss it. I didn't write it.

Why a vicarious apology? Because it is my router that should be apologising -- i had no internet connection for a week. Ah well.


So, secondly... i imagine i get Doctor Who fans reading this blog.

Well i'm not one... because fanaticism implies irrationality :-P

But there does exist a new series, and a new broom.

Doctor. I mean Doctor.

And, well... it all starts quite funkily. In fact it gets off to a roaring start :o)

I'm sorry, i'll just go and destroy myself with acid...

...there, done.

I know i gave a little spoileryness to Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes recently, but i shan't say much about this.

Except:

- Don't expect any of the first five minutes to make any sense at all
- Do expect a confused metaphor about brooms and people and are they really the same, well they're not, but they are, but not really, well only when their first name is 'The', dot dot dot...

Oh, but i think they wangle the oldness thing pretty damn well.

And no, this Doctor is nothing like Malcolm Tucker :-D

It's a very 'up and down' episode, in my opinion. Like a metaphorical game of two halves.

Except those two halves are played simultaneously.

Maybe that's why it made such little sense :-D



This is what it looks like when a British comedian takes on an American megalomaniac on twitter... :-D

https://twitter.com/GraemeGarden1/status/498780445996511232

https://twitter.com/GraemeGarden1/status/498009876829065216

Graeme, or 'the double-g' as i don't call him, often takes pot shots at people like Trump :-D


'Police claim Cliff Richard search unearthed horrific ‘new material’'
http://newsthump.com/2014/08/18/police-claim-cliff-richard-search-unearthed-horrific-new-material/

'Daily Mail criticised for continuing to pass itself off as a ‘newspaper’'
http://newsthump.com/2014/08/21/daily-mail-criticised-for-continuing-to-pass-itself-off-as-a-newspaper/

'New Law Requires Welfare Recipients To Submit Sweat To Prove How Hard They’re Looking For Job'
http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-law-requires-welfare-recipients-to-submit-swea,36626/


In-and-on-or-around-this-date-or-time-of-year:

Around this time, last year, Narendra Dhabolkar was murdered by superstitionists, while taking his morning constitutional. Supporters and fellow activists against black magic and other superstitious practices have regathered at the spot, to renew pressure on Authorities to actually come to a conclusion and get something done. Big powers in India, like governments and Religious organisations, are immune from criticism in cases like this, where investigations that might effect them are expected to just peter out.
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/08/remembering-narendra-dabholkar-a-year-later/

On the 21st of August, 1914, mid-war, an event that has been heralded by superstitionists for millennia occurred - a solar eclipse passed over eastern Europe. There are no known and surviving images of the eclipse, however, as it is believed all viewing sites were clouded over at the time, so clearly the gods weren't all that willing to inspire feelings of forlorn foreboding!
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-world-war-eclipse.html


In other news:

Anti-GM superstitionists are pushing for Science to be banned from the EU, because the reality-based position on GM crops is not to ban them through hysterical fear that has absolutely failed to justify itself through any evidence available to mankind! Recently, nine different organisations, including Greenpeace and Friends Of The Earth - putting the 'mental' into 'environmental' - have signed a letter to the new president of the EC - Jean-Claude Juncker to not just fire the current Chief Scientific Advisor (Professor Anne Glover - yes they want a woman out of work) but to completely erase the job from existence! And all for the sake of the quack 'organics' industry. I hope they resist this industry lobbying, the way the Fisheries Committee didn't. Unfortunately, this is the kind of move that can be seen as a good thing, even if done for the wrong reasons. Corruption by power is a facile argument for the Science Officer - why don't they make it against the European bank? Inconsistency makes me suspicious.
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-activists-urge-eu-scrap-science.html

Did you hear about that earthquake that caused a big ravine to open up, severing Highway 26, near Hermosillo, in Mexico? Well, it wasn't, so it couldn't, and it didn't, and not there. What actually happened was that an underground stream eroded the ground away, which eventually collapsed in on the resultant subterranean mini-canyon. The site might be in Mexico, but as you can see from the pictures, it was not anywhere near Highway 26, and in fact not close to Hermosillo either. But you can rely on the Media to churnalise the story, as if my first sentence's answer were "yes" :-D
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-the-earth-splitting-open-giant-crack-in-mexico-subsidence-fissure-erosion.4283/

Here's a poetic one. Can you really die of a broken heart? Obviously, if your heart stops working, then you will die. But can a metaphorical broken heart (often felt as tension in the muscles of the chest - not the heart itself) cause a literal broken heart? According to a study published in JAMA, there is a mechanism by which severe stress weakens the function of muscles in the heart, causing a collapse of the left ventricle which, of course, can lead to death. This can explain why there is an increased mortality in people who have just lost someone they were highly emotionally bonded to, for about 6 months after they died.
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/08/death-from-a-broken-heart-a-potential-explanation/

A herbalist quack in Sierra Leone might be responsible for hundreds of deaths to Ebola. She was claiming she could cure the disease (there is no known cure) causing infected people from Guinea to travel to Sierra Leone, thereby spreading it to hundreds more people. Ignorance, religion, and non-religious superstition have all played their part in maximising the number of people who have died from this year's Ebola outbreak. The number to have been killed by it now totals more than 1000. Many of the populations hit do not understand Germ Theory, and so are highly susceptible to ideas mongered by religionists, herbalists, etc.
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/08/healers-belief-may-have-killed-hundreds-in-sierra-leone/
The impact of the outbreak could actually cause harm to billions of people all around the world, indirectly, as avaricious companies have taken the opportunity to lobby for further repeal of medical drugs standards ('advanced approval' as it's called), so that they can get any old shit on the market as soon as possible, in order to exploit people's desperation for something to protect them against Ebola. The same was done with HIV, back in the 1980s. Standards for getting products registered collapsed, and are still that way, because pharma companies took the opportunity to lower standards for all diseases - not just AIDS. What should have happened was a compartmentalised case for those with little hope of survival, but instead, everyone else has to suffer the lack of regulations that should exist to ensure people know what drug 'X' actually does!
https://twitter.com/bengoldacre/status/497065530285912065

Magpies don't collect shiny things. Did you think they did? Many people have. "We did not find evidence of an unconditional attraction to shiny objects in magpies. Instead, all objects prompted responses indicating neophobia – fear of new things – in the birds." said Dr Toni Shephard, researcher at the Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour (CRAB) at the University of Exeter. So that's that superstition done for.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-08/uoe-nst081314.php

Superstitionists in the Media are still desparately trying to see aliens on the Moon, or Mars, or wherever they can. Here's Phil Plait, admonishing some pareidolic claims. Both digital and analogue photographic artifacts are tools for superstitionists to 'see' aliens, ghosts, orbs, etc etc etc. But i still insist that Mohammed has presented themselves on Mars :-D
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/08/15/google_moon_images_don_t_show_an_alien_there.html

------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff#

'Robin Williams - "Seize the Day" - by Melodysheep'
http://youtu.be/G2e_M06YDyY

'#RosettaAreWeThereYet – Fabulous fables and tales of tails [HD]'
http://youtu.be/k1HphlcBML4

'"Optimist Or Idiot?" Tales Of Mere Existence'
http://youtu.be/Xxo2kKp8LuQ

'malfunction'
Never watch cyriak videos just before going to bed :-D
http://youtu.be/tnWP2Emps1M

'Drinking water extracted from duck poo pond'
http://youtu.be/PJwAfnoj_1Q

'Trevor Noah - Hip Hop/Rap Music Censorship'
http://youtu.be/NCE9-0H5HRQ

'Plastic from the Air, Global Warming Solution or SCAM?'
Hmmm... my opinion of Dell just made a nosedive for the floor!
http://youtu.be/dzq9yPE5Cbo

'John and Kevin's Sunday Papers - August 2014'
http://youtu.be/DlsZU2eIy-Q

'Victorian Secret Fan Language'
What do you mean, 19th century Britain isn't contemporary?? :-P
http://youtu.be/KHX1mULtoKw

'NUTELLA MARSHMELLOW BANANA TOASTED SANDWICH - Greg's Kitchen'
Bloody hell - there are more calories in that than there are colouries in the rainbow!
http://youtu.be/Yvy57RcjVtE

'You Can Now Play Video Games With Your Vagina! Ft. David So'
http://youtu.be/waPVSqGkwzE

'L'Ecole des Commentaires (Yacine & Dédo)'
http://youtu.be/VqMJZzHQ7GI

------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks

Word Of The Week: sillage -- the degree to which someone's perfume lingers in the air, when they've passed

Genuine No-Joke Not-Kidding Science-Website Headline Of The Week: 'Tropical Storm Karina looks like a giant 'number 9' from space'

Tennissing Colemanball Of The Week: "It's Soares again, with reflexes that are right out of the top drawer"

Quote Of The Week: “It is surprising that people do not believe that there is imagination in science. It is a very interesting kind of imagination, unlike that of the artist. The great difficulty is in trying to imagine something that you have never seen, that is consistent in every detail with what has already been seen, and that is different from what has been thought of; furthermore, it must be definite and not a vague proposition. That is indeed difficult.” - Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff

'BBC news reporting that a kid fought off an alligator with his bear hands. Surely the bigger story is how he got hands like that'
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/95630840510/bbc-news-reporting-that-a-kid-fought-off-an


'Useless machine advanced edition'
http://youtu.be/Djc8FPHs45o
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Entertainment stuff from the week 4-10/8/14

Hi Apes,


Firstly, did anyone notice the non-sequitur in last week's Entertainment post?

The spermy bit jumps from a definition of 'species' to explaining 'this'... whatever this might be. [shrugs] :-D

I must have accidentally deleted a sentence, but then couldn't remember what it was, LOL.

So great is my commitment to honesty and transparency, that i left it in. As i usually do with my mistakes. Including the other two in that article.

That asterisk in the Redefinitioning Of The Week was not supposed to be there, misleading you to think that there might be a caveat somewhere else on the page. Oops. Sorry.

And the 'John Oliver: Right To Be Forgotten' link was not supposed to be written twice.

...then again, accidentally writing a right to be forgotten, as if the first one had been forgotten... that is quite funny :-D

All of these mistakes are examples of what happen when you hurriedly write up your blog on the morning that you post it.

Plus, my assistant is inept. Always blame the equipment, LOL

{Assistant? Why yes. These keyboards are not ergonomically attuned to reptile wings :-P }


That's something Andy Serkis never had to do in 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' which i went to see, last week.

Andy Serkis' CGI face never inadvertently fell off, mid-scene. So that's good going then. Although to be honest, they didn't add a bloopers reel to the end of the film, so we can't really be sure ;-)

Caveat: I did not see 'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes' but 'Dawn' does feature a round-up of what happened post-Rise, in the pre-opening scenes.

So basically, the film opens with Rise's anti-vivisectionist Big Pharma conspiracy theorist bent, and i wonder whether that's going to pose much of a problem as the film progresses. It doesn't.

But the first goofs have not yet begun! In the opening scene, these supposedly immensely brainy apes Apes (throughout the film, the false dichotomy of Humans (human apes) and Apes (non-human apes) is repeated ad nauseam, but then i suppose that's quite realistic for humans to do) exhibit some fundamentally flawed hunting techniques.

Notably, standing in the way of the prey, and waiting to be run into. Hmmm.... but don't worry. It does get better.

I presume fans can excuse the human script, written onto the wall of Caesar's tribe's home, despite the Apes' will to segregate themselves from the Humans as much as possible... but that excuse evades me so far.

We have the ugly = evil trope trotted out, again, in the form of Koba, who suffered vivisection at the hands of the Humans, and consequently has physical scars. Psychological ones aren't enough, apparently.

Later on in the film, a tablet comes on, despite not having been plugged in for what i presume is years, but certainly enough for the atmosphere to drain a battery.
Our Human lead man jumps onto the Metro tracks despite the electricity being turned on. I presume no concerted effort was made to separate these two systems, in preparation for humanity's civilisatory demise, so why would they be off?
And here are the mind-numbingly petty goofs that make no difference to what we actually see on-screen: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103281/trivia?tab=gf&ref_=tt_trv_gf

Here's where it gets better:

Concerted efforts are made, throughout the film, to present the parallels in experience, between the Humans (human apes) and the Apes (non-human apes).

We have parallel lead families, lead men, lead women, lead heirs to Humanity and Apiaty (?!?) and parallel lead warmongerers who throw all the shit at the fan... and who turned the fan on in the first place.

By doing this, the writers create a very egalitarian structure, in the plot of the movie, which i find highly ideologically pleasing. No prizes for predicting that :-P

Ultimately, however, the film is defeatist. The lead mans acknowledge their commonalities, and depart without feelings of personal menace, but resigned to the fact that there's going to be a 'part 3' to the 'Planet Of The Apes' series.

And i can't see that being anything other than a factionalised WWIII kind of thing. It can't be as personal as this movie; but then it can't back down from the looming conflict heralded by 'Dawn'. Savour it, Tap. Savour the moment.

All in all, a good movie. Not a classic, really. And not my favourite. But one people won't hide at the bottoms of their DVD collections. My star-rating? I give it a... Gamma Virginis. It's on the main sequence, but it's clearly above the median.

Is this the point where i tell people there might be spoilers?

Umm... oh yeah :-P


Here's a film that was advertised pre-'Dawn' - The Inbetweeners 2:

'When adult actors play teenagers'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28687403

Surely there can't be a '3' can there? They're much too old.

Then again, Moore Marriott played an old man right down to his 30s.

...OK, that's a backwards example. Maybe it doesn't quite work :-P


In other news:

Gluten. It's a combination of proteins, common to various grains, that gives texture and riseyness to baked foods, and can be used to supplement protein content in deficient meals. Until recently, its presence was thought only to be a problem for people with Celiac disease, and people with NCGS (nonceliac gluten sensitivity). But the same researchers who thought they'd found evidence of NCGS, now think there is no case for it being a thing. Replicability, of course, is a touchstone in science - if you can't replicate your result, you're wrong. And they couldn't replicate their earlier findings. It seems like observed differences are purely down to psychology, which makes a lot of sense in the context of various pseudoscience-hungry companies' gluten-free marketing frenzies!
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/08/its-probably-not-the-evil-gluten/

From the genuinely-mistaken to made-up technobabble: we have Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma. Yeah - sounds great doesn't it - exept no real Physicists, who are actually doing Physics at the time, will recognise this term to have an actual meaning! Maybe if they're larping, they'll go along with it, but not while they're sciencing. Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma is purported as an explanation for how an 'alternative' electromagnetism could permit breaching the law of conservation of momentum. A group of guys have ebulliently adorned the 'NASA' banner to sell the idea that they've managed 'impossible' propellant-less propulsion. Is that an oxymoron or what? There's no real research weight behind the claim, because uncertainty inherent to the experiment outweighs their claimed observed effect. Anyone remember the systematic error that produced the faster-than-light neutrinos story? Yup, we're probably looking at the same again, here.
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/08/nasa-propellant-less-propulsion-story-gains-more-momentum-than-it-should/

Paleontologists have breathed a sigh of relief, at the auction of a pseudo-coprolite for $10,370. It was being sold as a 6 million-year-old turd, and would have been highly valued for its contents, if real - revealing the dietary content of prehistoric organisms - a treasure trove of information. But it's thought that this poo is actually 'fake' i.e. actually a length of siderite, extruded through the knot-hole of a tree, like toothpaste from a tube, consequent to volcanic activity.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140729-dinosaur-coprolite-paleontology-dung-fossil-auction/

A year on, why is the Discovery Channel still trying to convince people that a shark that's been extinct for 1.5 million years - Megalodon - featured in their non-documentary that they broadcast in August 2013? A bizarre story, from a channel with a very dodgy record on Science broadcasting. If you want to see a real megalodon in action, then your best opportunity's going to be in the videogame Battlefield 4 :-D
http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=17392

The holotype for the supposed Homo floresiensis species, discovered in Liang Bua cave in the island of Flores in Indonesia, has been studied extensively, by evolutionary biologists, and anthropologists. Detailed reanalysis by an international team of researchers has come to the conclusion that there is no good case for the Homo floresiensis species' existence. The skeleton had already been recognised as a composite - it consists of bones from different individuals. Reanalysis of the skull, in particular, has revealed that it is within human ranges of morphology, for someone with Down's Syndrome. Down's could also explain the short thigh bones found at the site. Taking these factors into consideration, the individual would not have been majorly disproportionate to modern humans, living at the site, today. This means the researchers have concluded there is no evidence of the existence of a non homo sapiens species provided by the bones.
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-flores-bones-features-syndrome-hobbit.html

Evolution can be rapid at times, though. No doubt about it - this research shows real difference. In six generations, some Bicyclus anynana butterflies have evolved, under human evolutionary pressure, to become purple-winged forms of themselves. This genetic modification involved no engineering - it was all done using the old-fashioned slap-dash method of synthetic selection - the method that's been used to create Frankenfood atrocities such as bread and carrots. Aaargh - fear the butterflies!!!! <s> You can, of course, see pictures of them, at the link.
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-scientists-purple-winged-butterflies.html

Not to be outdone, physicists have discovered a seam of atomic hydrogen gas 2.6 million light years long, stretching between galaxies 500 million light years away. It's a million light years longer than a gas tail found in the Virgo Cluster, a few years ago, and yes, there is a picture of it, at the link. The seam is so large that contains 15 billion (note the 'b') times as much hydrogen as the Sun - more than the Milky Way and Andromeda combined!
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-astronomers-stream-gas26-million-years.html

Crashing back to Earth, for some engineering news: students at UNSW (University of New South Wales) have broken a 26-year-old speed record for covering 500 kilometres in an electric car, with one battery charge. That's pretty immense. The first ever Formula E motor racing season starts next month, in Beijing, by the way. So if you're into that kind of thing... well, now you've been notified. I suggest following it on YouTube :-)http://phys.org/news/2014-08-km-battery-students-successful-electric.html

------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff

'Lose 1kg/ 2lbs per Day! Diet Tips!'
This video is not about what you think, LOL. I can barely wait to see the universe, hehe :o)
http://youtu.be/NVPykiuTx6w

'Invisible vibrations reveal hidden soundtrack'
Wowzers! This is thoroughly amazing.
http://youtu.be/Ch2Cwi_fNqQ

'NASA | The Rosetta Mission Asks: What is a Comet? [HD]'
http://youtu.be/gAkK3PEiM3Y

'Rosetta arrives at a comet - Sixty Symbols'
http://youtu.be/XEfKq-pQBcc

'Why do Beer Bottles Foam Over?'
http://youtu.be/XHkwLeNOt10

'What Causes Traffic Jams? - A Week in Science'
http://youtu.be/8ivycTcNvJQ

'Look-and-Say Numbers (feat John Conway)'
http://youtu.be/ea7lJkEhytA

'Paper plane program makes crazy designs fly'
http://youtu.be/xCr3xeluf90

'10 Amazing Paper Tricks!'
http://youtu.be/MZxtgUoGzMQ

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: New York's Port Authority (HBO)'
The Streissand Effect hits another home run. Now even this abject foreigner knows about the Port Authority :-D
http://youtu.be/44fCfJQV7yQ
{Note that i've only posted this one once :-P }

'ReUse Your Toilet Paper - Seventh Generation {The Kloons}'
http://youtu.be/4vXS-vd0v4w

'Double Dutch'
http://youtu.be/PoBfBJdH1N0

'Phone Crack'
http://youtu.be/vGFDn0Ve5kk

'PRINCESS PROJECT: Cinderella'
Cinderella is the second issue in Sess's analysis series - the Princess Project. Try saying that ten times, and quickly! Don't worry, though - she's no Anita Sarkeesian :-D
http://youtu.be/4fp7Y3S8jxE

------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks

Word Of The Week: sprunt -- formally, as a verb, germination or jumping forwards, as a noun, a leap, steep ascent, or something short and stiff, as an adjective, lively or vigorous; historically, a term in scottish english, for chasing girls around haystacks after dark; contemporarily, as a fictional genital perfume for women, apparenly invented by George Carlin.

Quote Of The Week: “If you can see the mountains, it’s going to rain; if you can’t see them, it’s raining” - Irish 'proverb' (actually Dave Allen)

Fact Of The Week: After the first clinical cases of AIDS were reported, it took just 2 years until a variety of drugs became known as treatments, under the title of Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART). It took little over a decade to turn a death sentence into a chronic-but-manageable condition unaffecting of life expectancy. This is a triumph of Science. On the other hand, AIDS-denial and the I-SCAM industry, through opposing real medicine, have been responsible for 171,000 new AIDS cases and 343,000 surplus deaths between 1999 and 2007 alone! Superstition denied these people the success of Science.

------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff


'Queen + Adam Lambert These Are The Days Of Our Lives Merriweather 20 July 2014'
http://youtu.be/-31EO7UgMhM


'Marple Matrix Style - Dead Ringers - BBC'
http://youtu.be/6fULNtyEcWk


'Fevrier'
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/94330651440/fevrier-what-the-people-of-france-like-to-do-in

'Venn Pieagram'
http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1gxp6e/my_surname_is_venn_so_a_friend_baked_me_a/

'Victorian Strangeness: Seven singular sports from the Victorian era'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28546844
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Entertainment stuff from the week 28/7 - 3/8/14

Hi Ringers,


Biggest news of the week... Dead Ringers is back!!!!!!!

'Series 12 - Episode 1'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04brr99

They did seven TV series too. I wonder whether there's another video series coming up...


http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/radio/dead_ringers/episodes/12/

Oh, btw. It helps if you know who they're doing impressions of ;-)


Sciencey bits of the week:

Dinosaurs and feathers.

'Most Dinosaurs May Have Had Feathers'
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/most-dinosaurs-may-have-had-feathers

'Shrinking dinosaurs evolved into flying birds (w/ Video)'
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-dinosaurs-evolved-birds-video.html

Basically, there are two things to remember about this whole subject:

1) Fur, feathers, and scales, are all made of overlapping threads of keratin - the same substance that nails and horns are made out of.
2) It is now accepted that there are two kinds of dinosaurs - non-avian dinosaurs that go "rawr" and avian dinosaurs whose descendant forms are not extinct.

When archaeopteryx was discovered, it became clear that keratin fibres had been grown into feathers for millions of years, and that the fundamental commonality with modern birds went further than hip-shape.

In fact, when Jurassic Park III was made, the reply "no feathers" left dinosaur fans disappointed, because evidence shows the raptors to have been feathery animals.

It is perfectly plausible that, like modern birds' chicks, juvenile non-avian dinosaurs living tens of millions of years ago, could have had furry/downy feathers - something younglings of avian and mammalian species still have in common today.

Essentially, because fur, feathers, and scales are made of the substance, with only their structure distinguishing them, there is every reason to think that dinosaurs - scaly reptiles - could also have had feathers. Or the much-simpler fur. Dinosaurs and mammals, after all, have common ancestors in the synapsids. Although that part of the evolutionary tree's still very fuzzy. No pun intended.

It is the species of dinosaurs that developed feathers, that also demonstrated greater ability to adapt to circumstance. That is the nature of evolution. Even just within the paradigm of featheriness, feathers are much more easily adapted to insulation than scales are, meaning avian dinosaur ancestors would have adapted more easily to temperature-related climatic fluctuations.

When the K-Pg extinction event happened (there's an explanation of that in the 'of the weeks' section) 67 million years ago, it was the larger, hungrier animals that went the way of... well, the dinosaurs, really. While smaller species survived.

Ancient avian dinosaurs, with their superior thermodynamic properties, lower dependance on huge abundance of food (due to being smaller) and superior ability to adapt to changing circumstances, were the superior species that won out in the evolutionary race.

All of this research, as well as filling in the history of past changes, also supports the contemporary observation that birds are here, and that the big roary things are not.

Want to know what it would be like to live with dinosaurs? Well, evolutionarily speaking, you can go one better - you can live with their evolutionary superiors - any of 10,000 species of them.

P.S. I am a Tapejara. Not a dinosaur :-P


Sperm!

''Killer sperm' prevents mating between worm species'
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-killer-sperm-worm-species.html

It's been found, in Caenorhabditis worms, that when C. briggsae and C. nigoni are brought together to do the dance of the two worms, the C. nigoni sperm are so powerful, that they invade the rest of the host's body, destroying its organs like a bacterial infection would.

I say "host's" because Caenorhabditis species are all hermaphroditic - they have males, and hermaphrodites, but no females.

Species are rule-of-thumbly defined by ability to 'breed inside its populationary group, but not outside it'.

Overpowered killer sperm are not the only way to achieve this, however. Wrong numbers of chromosomes can cause infertility, for the reasons outlined by Alex Dainis in this recent video:

'Seedless Watermelon Genetics! - Bite Sci-zed'
http://youtu.be/yvy1xA2RwxM


Satire!

'Maybelline Introduces New Ideal-Woman Rubber Mask To Use In Place Of Makeup'
"now women can simply roll out of bed, grab their stunning latex polymer beauty mask that has been molded to accepted standards of female beauty, and stretch it snugly over their face and hair,” Maybelline spokeswoman Jessica Healy said
http://www.theonion.com/articles/maybelline-introduces-new-idealwoman-rubber-mask-t,36588/

This is classic satire. The whole point of the 'personal care' industry; or as i call it, the 'aesthetic insecurity industry' is to erase all idiosyncrasies that might facilitate the deepening of emotional bonds in relationships. By telling people (men and woman alike, nowadays) that they must erase these idiosyncrasies, they keep emotional bonds weak, people shallow, relationships short, and thereby sales high, as those same people desparately try to attract a mate. Or 'partner' as you humans say; because your hubris means you always have to have a different word for own species!
The 'Ideal-Woman Rubber Mask' fulfils all of the criteria of aesthetic insecurity industry products, while still managing to make it look ludicrous. ...although i don't expect they discuss the relational motive in boardrooms :-P

'Men Think Women Who Listen To Them Are Sexier'
http://www.theonion.com/articles/men-think-women-who-listen-to-them-are-sexier,36583/

This is also good satire... not that sexists will appreciate it, LOL. By turning the stereotype around, you can see that, actually, it still applies. WTF?!? Men do care whether they're being listened to, and women do care about sex; but we usually only hear about men who want sex, and women who want to be listened to. Incidentally: i wonder whether sexist people find this one funnier than i do?? Good satire can be taken multiple ways. Just like... Stop that sniggering, at the back! :-P

'UK DNA research to focus on getting you drunk more easily'
“Look, we have to go where the interest is – and right now most British people would take a cheap night out ahead of a cure for cancer. Sorry.”
http://newsthump.com/2014/08/01/uk-dna-research-to-focus-on-getting-you-drunk-more-easily/

Ah, Newsthump. So topical, and yet also so forward-looking. I adore you :-D

'UK road users demand driverless cars learn appropriate ‘wanker sign’'
“This abuse is a road-based interaction as much a part of driving on British roads as passing a test, and unless these driverless cars understand rudimentary swearing and hand gestures, I can’t see how this is workable?”
http://newsthump.com/2014/07/30/uk-road-users-demand-driverless-cars-learn-appropriate-wanker-sign/

Here's the UK driverless car reference, by the way:

'Britain to trial driverless cars from 2015'
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-britain-trial-driverless-cars.html


In other news:

Bad stuff first...

Mike Adams - the 'Health Deranger' who runs the Natural News website that advises people to avoid real medicine and instead take quack bullshit - has made a public call to murder anyone who is either pro-GMOs or is just not-anti-GMOs. This is his requote: “it is the moral right — and even the obligation — of human beings everywhere to actively plan and carry out the killing of those engaged in heinous crimes against humanity.” He claims, profusely, that the development of more-nutritious vegetables, is one of those crimes against humanity, which would justify the execution of anyone who is slightly sane about the matter! It is people like Adams who are responsible for perpetrating fad diets of myriad kinds, to sell their useless/dangerous products; and it should therefore be no wonder that Rationalists immediately consider anyone involved in such an industry to be disreputable!
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/07/mike-adams-insinuates-some-scientists-should-be-killed-then-looks-like-a-bigger-idiot/

He also referenced and linked to someone's compiled a list of 'Monsanto collaborators' (note the conflation of capitalism with genetic science) who should be executed by anti-GMO activists. It turns out that he wrote that site. He said non-anti-GM people should be killed; and then he compiled a list of people whom he wanted dead. No wonder the FBI's investigating him for inciting violence! Remember: this guy is one of the ring-leaders in the anti-GM movement - he's not just a sideline nutbag - his Natural News website is cited by a wide range of superstitionists, from Dr. Oz, to Food Babe, to plenty i've never heard of. If this isn't a cause to doubt anti-GM propaganda... well, i just don't know what else to say.
http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/07/28/fbi-turns-up-heat-on-mike-adams-as-health-ranger-fiasco-widens-plus-adams-archive/

Here's a recently-published video about GMOs... or more precisely, dodgy anti-GMO propaganda:

'Bad Science in Australian Pig Feed Study'
http://youtu.be/lGLWDGXgs88

While deliberate deaths are not the mainstay of superstition-determined fatalities, the accidental ones will continue to pile up. A 16-year-old girl has had the good-fortune to survive 'treatment' from a New Zealand 'alternative' practitioner. They believed in auras, and that drowning can be used to identify those auras, in order to fix auric problems. But of course, there's no such thing.
All the girl had was migraines, muscle pain and period problems, and she nearly left without her life! She described the experience as "traumatic" and i'm not surprised, especially as the charlatan, like usual, had a negligible understanding of how consent works - the girl hadn't been told what would be done to them! You would have thought, with all the feminism about nowadays, and the rape-based rhetoric, that this (female) quack would be more assertive about it... especially with a teenage girl. Unfortunately, pseudomedical fraudsters are commonly incompetent when it comes to consent. Chiropractors, for example, will rarely tell someone that neck manipulation causes strokes and death, when they're just about to make some money out of it.
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/07/16-year-old-subjected-to-traumatic-watery-treatment-to-cleanse-her-aura/

Here's a recently-published article about the dangers of Chiropractic neck manipulation:

'Upper Neck Manipulation: Caveats for Patients and Providers'
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/upper-neck-manipulation-caveats-for-patients-and-providers/

Ukippers in Glastonbury find themselves divided, over such woo-woo nonsense, however. Two of them have resigned the Wells constituency, ahead of the coming General Election, claiming that the Party has been 'infiltrated by the Glastonbury occult’. Hmm... now in which world do fuzzy-headed, gullible, superstitious people buy up bullshit claims all over the place, just because they sound nice and easy to understand? Oh - that would be this one! I'm not surprised that the Christian Nationalists of UKIP have commonality with Reikiological charlatans. Not one bit. Now, if we expel all the racio-nationally impure people, this problem might go away... <s>
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/07/is-it-occultists-or-plain-old-political-infighting-that-is-making-a-mess-of-wells/

Here's a recently-published article about the dangers of Ukipping:

'Comment #25: How Farcical Can Ukippers Really Be?'
http://tapejarascience.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/comment-25-how-farcical-can-ukippers.html

Predatory superstitionists in West Africa have been warned that they might be arrested, if they make claims to treat/cure people of Ebola. "A government official in Lagos state has issued a stern warning: Pastors claiming to have cured Ebola could face jail time". We're talking Jesusianismists who are touching cloth, here - not itinerant preachers. It is because of religious superstition that these people think they can 'treat' without medicine, and that people think they can be treated without it. It is religion, after all, that is the brand of supersition to put most effort into persuading people to think that faithing something - believing it on the grounds of nothing-at-all - is a good, respectable, worthwhile thing to do. Pastor Ighodalo has stated "[the] living words of Jesus [are] all that are needed to cure the deadly disease" adding that the mere laying of hands on those afflicted with the incurable Ebola virus is all that is required to liberate them. This activity, of course, can only displace real medicine,  and increase the death count.
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/08/ebola-outbreak-out-of-control-and-misinformation-helps-it-spread/

And now to better news...

Due to human error, and computation based on that error, a family in Lancashire, UK, has been served with an electricity bill of £53,480,062.00 In fact, they were owed £1,362.69 for being in credit on their account. But don't worry - they didn't have to pay it - the company immediately recognised that it was an error. Makes a change! Shame they don't do that with smaller amounts :-/
http://arbroath.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/couple-shocked-by-500m-electricity-bill.html

Due to human idiosyncrasy, a man has decided that a valid way to coax people into giving money to charity, is to push a sprout up Mount Snowden, with his nose. The summit is 1085m above sea level, and he can do about 180m per hour (sideways). Cameraman Richard Crump, who is filming Mr Kettell's challenge, said: "The first day has been gruelling for Stuart. He has no skin on his knees, his back is hurting and his neck is really tired. But he is still going." No skin on his knees? I think that might be an exaggeration. He wouldn't have any knees, at that rate, by the time he got to the top! Oh, btw, he replaces the sprout every time it crumbles apart. Let's hope he doesn't run out :-D
http://arbroath.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/man-has-started-pushing-brussel-sprout.html

The European Space Agency (ESA)'s Rosetta spacecraft has used its visible, infrared and thermal imaging spectrometer - VIRTIS - to measure the temperature of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, revealing a surface temperature (they can't probe internal temperatures without being physically in it) of –70ºC! Actually, that's 20–30ºC warmer than predicted, for a comet 555 million kilometres from the Sun at the time, so the physicists have concluded that the comet must have a dusty surface. The reasoning is that ice is highly reflective of warming sunlight, which keeps the surface cool. Dust, however, is darker, and absorbs more heat, so a warmer surface will be dustier. This article outlines the vast difficulty in getting Rosetta to the comet in the first place, and also the funky path involved in getting into orbit.
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-rosetta-comet-temperature.html

Andreas Fath, Professor of Physical and Analytical Chemistry at Furtwangen University and a specialist in ecological engineering, has commenced a four-week 1,231-kilometre swim down the Rhine river, to raise money (€100,000) for a high-tech water analysis tool, in order to... check the Rhine for pollutants. Now that's commitment!
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-german-scientist-four-week-rhine-river.html


Probably the funkiest, but least reliable story of this week, is of the ice-cream that changes colour as you lick it. Named Xamaleón, and apparently tasting like tutti-frutti, a 'secret ingredient' changes from blue, to pink, to purple, as it interacts with chemicals in your own saliva, and the heat that warms it up. What makes this story unreliable, is that the guy apparently also claims this 'secret ingredient' to be a potent aphrodisiac... [coughs] bullshit! There are no chemical aphrodisiacs that work in humans. The only aphrodisiac is of feeling wanted. Maybe unfortunate, but true. Here's a video of the ice-cream in action, by the way. I would be a fool to be convinced by what i've seen so far, but i'm sure interesting things can happen.
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-physicist-ice-cream.html

------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff

'Soused Sarah Ssshpeaks to Conssshervativesssssh'
http://youtu.be/ghCYNqz70Lk

'Ohh La La'
http://youtu.be/RrwAfGtjxnk

'What Causes Autism?'
Very entertaining... if you really love science ;-)
http://youtu.be/AatBPbgNFak

'A Scientist Pans for Gold!'
http://youtu.be/J6cU9A5jhyc

'Mass and Weight are (sort of) the SAME'
http://youtu.be/QSIuTxnBuJk

'First video of living giant deep-sea 'shrimp''
If you read the article, you'll see that this one's about 25cm long, but that the biggest seen on the dive was 34cm!
http://youtu.be/ywginZAs3cc

'The Amazing Human Body - A Week in Science'
http://youtu.be/lEEfKgyIS8Q

'Testing Heaven(s) - Musings on an Afterlife'
For people who 'couldn't' get through their real life without a belief in an afterlife: how would you get through that afterlife, if it were real? Belief in an afterafterlife? ...and then an afterafterafterlife? ............
http://youtu.be/s3AdXaefJ3M

'How to fold your shirt in under 2 seconds!'
https://twitter.com/RichardWiseman/status/494261022098997248

'Do You Know God?'
You have a personal relationship with... what? It can't be the same thing, because you all disagree.
http://youtu.be/P0A_iF1B3k0

'EXPRESS CHECKOUT: SHAMPOO | The Checkout | ABC1'
[knowing look] :-P
http://youtu.be/k4c0R2TLqAM

'More Awkward Moments'
http://youtu.be/43zBua_V6F4

------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks

Word Of The Week: cromulent -- one of the many neologisms (newly made words or phrases) of the Simpsons TV show. Within the show, it means 'valid' or 'acceptable'; outside the show, it's used in an ironic sense e.g. "Your argument for god's existence sounds cromulent, to me"

Article Title Misreading-By-Me Of The Week: 'Beer At Budapest Zoo Saves Drowning Cow'

Article Title Definitely-Not-A-Misreading-By-Me Of The Week: 'Researchers find sperm benefit from grouping together in mice' (so presumably, someone's going to open a mouse bank, where men can leave their sperm, for safety's sake)

Etymology Of The Week: retort -- a sharp angry or witty reply, from latin 'torquere' meaning 'to twist'; common etymologies include the word 'torque' which literally means a circular, twisting force, and the word 'torture' which comes through the latin 'tortura' meaning 'a twisting, writhing' of the torture victim. Note, pedants, that the word 'retort' is now a noun, derived from the verb form :-P

Redefinitioning Of The Week: the Tertiary period of Earth's history has not happened, anymore. Instead, it's been replaced with the Paleogene and Neogene periods. So instead of the famous 'K-T boundary' being the one across which the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct, it's now having had been done retrospectively, now but back then presently, the 'K-Pg boundary'. It's not as catchy, but you can see the reasoning at the Wiki page. At least 'Sporty' will find it more difficult to confuse with a mountain now, LOL. Oh, btw, BBC et al, the meteorite did* wipe out the dinosaurs, you scientifically illiterate oafs! [tuts vigorously] :-D

Number Of The Week: 10,000 -- the number of reptile species on the Reptile Database, a web-based catalogue of all living reptile species and classification, that was surpassed recently. "Previously, 10,000 was considered the landmark number because there are approximately 10,000 bird species. However, we can predict that reptiles will be more speciose, at least on paper, than birds very soon. Finally, reptiles will be the most speciose vertebrate group after fish," said Peter Uetz, founder editor and curator of the Reptile Database, which he operates together with Jiří Hošek, a programmer in the Czech Republic.

------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff

'Queen + Adam Lambert: Somebody To Love Merriweather 20 July 2014'
http://youtu.be/iKNhFX3ja2s


'Secrets Of The Body'
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/93672611835/secrets-of-the-body-image-and-text-credits-new


'Optical Illusion paintings by Oleg Shuplyak'
Beautiful pareidolia :-D
http://gaksdesigns.tumblr.com/post/12488715026/optical-illusion-paintings-by-oleg-shuplyak

'How To Recognize The Artists Of Paintings'
http://professorfangirl.tumblr.com/post/88929573399/thestraggletag-thestraggletag-submariet

'Gorgeous Vintage Advertisements for Heroin, Cannabis and Cocaine'
http://io9.com/how-todays-illegal-drugs-were-marketed-as-medicines-510258499

'Probably not the best place to put the author's name'
http://goldspandexleggings.tumblr.com/post/93011154096

'The Joy Formidable'
At time of posting, this was still real!
http://goldspandexleggings.tumblr.com/post/93208320871

'"Eye of the tiger" on dot matrix printer'
Go to the channel itself, and you'll see that that printer's sung a lot more than just 'Eye Of The Tiger' :-D
http://vimeo.com/58200103



'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Tony Abbott, President of the USA of Australia (HBO)'
http://youtu.be/c3IaKVmkXuk

More about Abbott's awful governance, here:
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/07/in-australia-money-for-science-is-cut-money-for-religious-programs-increased/

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Letter of the Week -- POM Wonderful (Web Exclusive) (HBO)'
http://youtu.be/Bml8KwCmob8

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Death Penalty (HBO)'
http://youtu.be/Kye2oX-b39E

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Right To Be Forgotten (HBO)'
http://youtu.be/r-ERajkMXw0

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Right To Be Forgotten (HBO)'
http://youtu.be/r-ERajkMXw0

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Net Neutrality (HBO)'
http://youtu.be/fpbOEoRrHyU

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Don't Visit Antarctica (HBO)'
http://youtu.be/dH573B1bkHI

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: iTunes, Assad, and Right Said Fred (HBO)'
http://youtu.be/3lKYPp2Kp6s
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Entertainment stuff from the week 21-27/7/14

Hi Yankers,


Warning: this article starts sexily, gets less and less sexy it goes through, and then makes a kind of upturn towards the end, in non-contemporary stuff. Jasper, you hunk :-D


A fascinating article about a man in India who has been working to fight conservative anti-sexuality in the country:

'Ask the Sexpert: The 90-year-old sex guru'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28353027

Q: In the last semester, I failed one subject. My parents got worried and took me to an astrologer... He asked me to remove my pants… He said the ejaculate after masturbation is equal to 100ml of blood, hence my weakness. Is all of this true? Should I stop masturbating and avoid my girlfriend? I am regretting showing him my penis. Please help.
A: The astrologer is a hoax and completely ignorant of sexual matters. Masturbation is completely normal. I suggest you tell your parents you will not visit such frauds again. Not being able to hit bull's eye at academics each time, is normal. Visit your college counsellor.

There's more about astrologers in the In-other-news section...

I think it's pretty clear that Northeners' impression of Vedic culture as a never-ending sexual reverie is completely wrong.

They get the idea from having heard of the Kama Sutra - a book that is mostly not about sex, and was written by a shrivelled-up prude who'd made an oath never to do any of it himself - which misleads them into a false impression of Vedicism.

"When [Dr Suchitra Dalvie] presented her findings at a conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights in Beijing, the audience was fascinated by India's contradictions. They all knew about India as the "mystical land of the Kama Sutra" - the ancient Sanskrit text about the art of love and sensual pleasure - and were astonished to learn about rudimentary level of sex education or even frank discussion about sex in the country."

Around the world, weird cults have cropped up, exhibiting a generic will to control people's sexualities, commonly through denying them pleasure.

The closest you can get to a truly sexually-liberated religion, is Raëlianism; and even that comes with strings attached, and batshit baubles attached to their other ends.

'Who Are the Raelians, and Why Are They Naked?'
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4059


'Women aroused by 50 Shades of Grey trailer urged to try adult websites'
"The first teaser trailer for the film was released yesterday, to find itself shared by any woman who has ever read the book, along with comments such as ‘phwoar’ and ‘i cant wait!!!!’."
http://newsthump.com/2014/07/25/women-aroused-by-50-shades-of-grey-trailer-urged-to-try-adult-websites/



In other news:

The Honourable Member for Holland & Barrett's got himself in the News, again. He's one of those people who think they can take on reality, in a fight, and win: "I am absolutely convinced that those who look at the map of the sky for the day that they were born and receive some professional guidance will find out a lot about themselves and it will make their lives easier" Yes, he is talking about the geocentric bullshit of astrology. The constellations are arbitrary pictures, in a universe of stars that don't care how you see them from Earth; planets are never temporarily/periodically retrograde; the Sun spends more time over some arbitrary pictures than others, making equimensary horoscopes even more bullshit; and due to precession of axial tilt, all horoscopes are about a month out of whack, anyway! ...and this guy's an elected MP, in the Conservative Party of the UK.
http://arbroath.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/mp-wants-astrology-incorporated-into.html
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/07/member-of-parliament-tredinnick-is-saying-silly-stuff-again/

Last week, the BBC pledged to eradicate false balance from its reporting. That means reporting science as science and superstition as superstition, and not pretending that superstitious nonsense is as valid as scientific fact. Well, guess how they've covered Tredinnick's superstitious beliefs? Yup - all the sympathy is with him. Gah.... #majorleaguefailBBC
https://twitter.com/RichardWiseman/status/492962535512219648
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28464009

Workers with the Insect Museum of West China have verified the largest aquatic insect in the world today, pipping the previous largest known, by 2 centimetres. The dobsonfly is common in India, China, Africa, South America, and some other parts of Asia, but is sensitive to pollution, so is used by ecologists as a metric for water cleanliness. The adults make little use of either their huge jaws or wings; the former being used only during sex, in the week when they come out into the open.
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-museum-workers-pronounce-dobsonfly-china.html

Oh, and here's that blackness story. It's so black that i didn't spot it, when i came to compile items for the blog. In the words of Nigel Tufnel, from 'This Is Spinal Tap': "It’s like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black." Blackness is defined as an opposite of whiteness - emitting little light; or reflecting a low proportion of incident light, and therefore absorbing the rest. That's how black objects of the same material warm up faster, in sunshine, than white ones. But they also lose heat faster, in the dark. This black coating of carbon nanotubes absorbs 99.96% of incidental light - now that's black! Incidentally, the Sun's quite white, in that it emits light at most of the spectrum, but black, in that it doesn't reflect light - it's a black body. The colour of the Sun, of course, is a different question... it's every colour.
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-surrey-nanosystems-super-black-material.html

Hacks have recenly churnalised a two-year-old story about caffeine in Glasgow's coffee. "Research published in the journal Food and Function found the amount of caffeine per serving of an espresso in the Scottish city ranged from 72mg to 212mg. In Parma it was 73-135mg and 97-127mg in Pamplona. It found coffee in Scotland usually used more heavily roasted beans and the serving sizes were larger." Notice the coffee-based pseudoscience in the 'Related Stories' section: "Coffee 'may prevent depression' 27 SEPTEMBER 2011, HEALTH", "Coffee 'cuts risk of male cancer' 17 MAY 2011, HEALTH", "Coffee addiction 'in your genes'  08 APRIL 2011, HEALTH" ..still waiting for the anti-false-balance spirit to kick in....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-15968515

A 17-year-old Indian boy has had, what the surgeons claim to be, 232 teeth removed from a sort of benign tumour in his jaw. The hospital's dental department has forwarded the evidence to the Guinness Book of World Records for judging. The parents expressed happiness at the resolution, and also that they didn't have to pay out 40,000 Rupees for private treatment, which is the same as about 100 bags of sugar - enough to require another trip to the dentist.
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/Chew-on-that-232-teeth-removed-from-boys-mouth/articleshow/38880251.cms
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-28437829

Wikipedia has imposed a 10-day ban on an IP address, affecting some (but definitely not all) computers at the US House of Representatives, for "persistent disruptive editing". A notice posted on one of the anonymous entries from Congress said: "Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia... Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been reverted or removed." One of the changes, which was later undone, involved editing John F. Kennedy's file, to say assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted "on behalf of Fidel Castro". 'Conspiracy theorists' in the currently-Republican-Party-dominated House of Representatives? No... we need SCROTUS to sort this out, LOL
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-wikipedia-blocks-disruptive-congress.html

------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff

'10 Amazing Bets You Will Always Win - NEW (Ep 11)'
http://youtu.be/7kh9p3yi91A

'"Weird Al" Yankovic - Lame Claim to Fame'
http://youtu.be/yazr8JkazmE

'‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, ‘First World Problems’ [VIDEO PREMIERE]'
http://popcrush.com/weird-al-yankovic-first-world-problems-video/

'"Weird Al" Yankovic – Sports Song'
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ba6f6b020a/weird-al-yankovic-sports-song

'Foraging seals hunt around wind farms'
http://youtu.be/KGE5yBNj-QQ

'Crazy Circle Illusion!'
http://youtu.be/pNe6fsaCVtI

'FLOBER - Je t'aime'
No-one does romance like the French :-D
http://youtu.be/nQUQ_E1EAHA

'Grand Theft Love: Real Craigslist Missed Connections Reenacted - {The Kloons + Taryn Southern}'
http://youtu.be/EwD0eCsFQ-M

'1-800-Adopt-A-Dude'
http://youtu.be/6IqK9o-AFSc

'Sex Education in India'
If you didn't read the sexpert article, you will have missed this. In fact, even if you did, you might have missed it :-P [chuckles... "double dowry"]
http://youtu.be/EiIxkOah09E

'Vacuum Bottle Cavitation'
http://youtu.be/MJl8VMoWA4k

'Full Bottle Bottom Blowout'
http://youtu.be/Sq1-JFga-Dw

'How the 'dead water' effect can stop a ship'
http://youtu.be/2Y0k-pWaeTM

'Unfinished London - Episode 3 (Part 2)'
http://youtu.be/KXmpdJO9UOc

------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks

Word Of The Week: deliquescence -- the process by which a substance has absorbed so much moisture from the atmosphere that it is dissolving into the absorbed water and forming a solution

Book Of The Week: Charlie Chaplin's Uncle - 'Victorian railway caper in snowstorm, dirty doings on the royal train - the humorous side of murdering royalty. Book or Ebook'

Number Of The Week: 33000 -- the altitude, in feet, of flight MH17 when it was shot down by Russian Imperialists; and the number of research papers on GMOs, demonstrating them to be safe

Etymology And Expression Of The Week: peely-wally -- Scottish expression meaning 'pale, wan, insipid, colourless' (pronounced to rhyme with meal-e-rally) and deriving from the English word 'pale' which comes through latin 'pallere' (bearing the same meaning) from Proto-Indo-European 'pel-' meaning 'grey'. Where the 'wally' bit comes from, i currently have no idea!

------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff


'Funnies #1'
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/92919019255/funnies-1-a-small-collection-of-funny-things


'David Quantick - An Intro To Game Of Thrones (The Now Show 16th May 2014)' (my upload)
http://youtu.be/LYCPds2_Lo8

'Queen - Stone Cold Crazy (Live at the Rainbow)'
http://youtu.be/T8Rfb1Jtmic

'20th Century Fox Flute (ORIGINAL)'
http://youtu.be/XCPj4JPbKtA

'Bloody cow by Phil Pope'
http://youtu.be/h5FvG410XZc

'Status Quid : Boring Song'
http://youtu.be/31RN5_GXJ1c

'Hee Bee Gee Bees - Meaningless Songs In Very High Voices (Live in Swedish TV)'
"The world is very very large, and butter is better than marge" :-D
http://youtu.be/zlWqNl4Yips

''Next Time' - The World Cup Squad - S2E3 - Radio Active' (my upload)
http://youtu.be/tyPY_jjnnMg

'The HeeBeeGeeBees Story - BBC2 broadcast 19th December 1981'
Spinal Tap was done in 1984, by the way - yes, these guys came first! Actually, Spinal Tap didn't even come second, because Bad News happened in 1983 :-D
http://youtu.be/E3gYfYKqltc


'Carrotts Commercial Breakdown'

'Carrott's Commercial Breakdown - 29/12/1989'
http://youtu.be/WZjDt0jmoHk

'Carrott's Commercial Breakdown 2 - 27/12/1991'
http://youtu.be/FCjV4kC_xsE

'Carrott's Commercial Breakdown 3 - 28/12/1993'
http://youtu.be/rCWjlpVIfrQ

'Carrotts Commercial Breakdown 4 - 05/03/1996'
http://youtu.be/bHFenetsuuE
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Entertainment stuff from the week 14-20/7/14

Hi ghost cabinets,


In UK-centric news:

Hague, Gove, and more, are out of the UK Government. Yay!

Well, sort of -- Gove's no longer going to torture school children. He's been given the job of Party Whip - to torture blasphemous Party members!

But i expect they've been replaced with similar air-headed buffoons [mwa mwa mwa mwaaa]

Nah - that's not possible - Michael Gove got himself stuck in a toilet, on his first day!

"Labour's Angela Eagle told the House that Gove "managed to get stuck in the toilet in the wrong lobby and he nearly broke his own whip". Leader of the Commons William Hague defended his colleague, saying knowledge of Parliament's toilets was a "very important piece of information for any chief whip"."

LMAO

Noteably, some lady buffoons have found their way in -- the total number of women in the Con-Dem cabinet has sky-rocketed from 3 of 22, to 5 of 22. Wowzers!!!

Further information on the changes, in the Grauniad:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/15/conservative-backlash-begins-cameron-cabinet-reshuffle


Even more-less-bad news -- women can now be bishops in the Cult of England!

That means we (residents of Engla Land) can now have the joy of putting up with lady Anglican bigots, as well as male ones.

Well, i am an egalitarian, so of course i see this as good news...

But there are going to be a whole load more female religionists around.

Why?

Well, one thing feminism's taught me as that when girls don't have female role models in something they're interested in, they won't bother to go into it.

That's why female religionists don't exist in the UK.

I know so. It's a fact. It says so right ^ there.

6% of CEOs --> 50% of CEOs

5% of prisoners --> 50% of prisoners

7% of rapists --> 50% of rapists

And now there are going to be lady bishops, there're going to be loads of religious women too. Following them into all the superstitious nonsensical bigotry.

I mean really...

Is nothing sacred any more?!?!?

:-P

'Female church representatives to finally push for equal right to abuse kids'
http://newsthump.com/2014/07/15/female-church-representatives-to-finally-push-for-equal-right-to-abuse-kids/


But it's not all Anglocentric, this week. There's been some stirring news in Oz, too:

While Camoron desperately shuffles his hands ahead of the coming General Election, in a bid to be more popular, Tony Abbott is continuing his venture to lose the next Federal Election in Australia.

'Australia carbon tax repeal a 'perfect storm of stupidity''
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-australia-carbon-tax-repeal-storm.html
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-australia-abolishes-divisive-carbon-tax.html

In order to increase the burden on Aussie taxpapers, he's abolished the Carbon Tax, which means as well as undermining Australia's sustainability, as a country (it will be hard hit by climatic change) its economy will become tougher for all of its residents.

Carbon/Green taxes, whatever you call them, are rare taxes, in that they actually tax entities that have the most money - in the contemporary world, that's the biggest businesses.

Repeal of the carbon tax in Oz has been committed to ease their tax bills, thereby shifting the burden of funding tax revenue to its people... its electorate.

Australians can expect:

- Greater ecological harm
- Greater economic harm
- Greater personal harm, in having to pay for it all
- Personal and national unpopularity for voting for the people who did it, in the first place

Well done, Tone :-D


'The roundup of bizarre conspiracies of MH17'
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/07/the-roundup-of-bizarre-conspiracies-of-mh17/

These stories are taken seriously because the world's Media are populated by rational, competent people, with a thorough understanding of how the scientific method applies to life <s>

- Was the missile meant for Putin? Sent by Obama? (No.)
- Numerology (around the number 7) means the Illuminati was involved. This is an attempt to start WW3 and the New World Order. (No.)
- This was actually the missing MH370 plane? (Ummm… NO.)
- CNN concocted it for ratings. (Well…)
- Israel wants to deflect attention from Gaza. (Desperate.)
- And to top it off, there is some weird connection made to Snowden that makes no sense whatsoever (Not that any of the above ideas did either.)

Have a few more demonstrations of their excessive excellence <s>

'Coventry hospital ghost photo is laughable'
http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/07/coventry-hospital-ghost-photo-is-laughable/

"He who can, does; he who can not, teaches it; he who can not teach, becomes a journalist" - a corruption of George Bernard'Shaw's writings


In-and-on-or-around-this-date-or-time-of-year:

Another anniversary for NASA - the 10th anniversary of the Aura atmospheric chemistry satellite, that has been watching the changes in our atmosphere - noteably, the concentrations of various pollutants, and of ozone, that protects us from skin cancers. Watch the video to find out more:
http://youtu.be/0VmbuNXpiIA
'NASA | Nitrogen Dioxide from Aura/OMI, 2009-2010 [HD]'
http://youtu.be/muOI1AKudoE

And also the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11's moon landing. Here's a video, developed by stitching together pictures from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which enable us to revisit the original site, and see the Eagle Lunar Module still sitting in place:
http://youtu.be/gxZPdHal1Z4

This week, a ham in the USA celebrated the 112th anniversary of its... 'birth'. Well, obviously it didn't, but somebody did. Cured hams are typically eaten by two years old (not by two-year-olds), but some are eaten at up to 8 years. Staggeringly, the Virginia Museum ham might not be the oldest. A 122-year-old ham apparently still hangs in the window of an Oxford butcher's shop!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28299440


In other news:

Has the Beeb ditched the 'false balance' problem? Apparently, the BBC is going to train its staff not to invite cranks on to its Science programmes. I don't see how this is going to solve the problem of journalists confusing evidential substantiation with the authoritarian 'he said, she said' slagging matches that they are so habituated to! Furthermore, how are the management of the BBC expected to effectively distinguish cranks from real scientists, when they've credulously replicated propaganda from anti-vaccine superstitionists, hysterical technophobes, and climate-change deniers, in the past? To think that a systemically sensationalist industry can overcome this with a letter in the Torygraph is highly optimistic!
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/bbc-ditches-false-balance

This can be taken as an example of the BBC's scientific illiteracy, that will be very difficult to eradicate. In 2006, the BBC did a 'documentary' about the Turkish family with Uner-Tan Syndrome, which makes it infeasible for them to walk 'upright' (bipedally) and so instead, they walk on feet and hands. The conjecture, through the 'documentary' was that this was an example of "backward evolution" despite the idea being preposterous. Evolution is simply adaptation to circumstance - it is a scalar phenomenon, and so could not be said to be going either backwards or forwards (or up a ladder or down it). Recent research has shown that their gait is simply a pragmatic adaptation to their physical disability.
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-fours-evolution.html

WWF (the World Wildlife Fund) has told the two Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) covering the Pacific that they must halve their catches of Pacific bluefin tuna, or cause the demise of their own careers, and the species they rest on, according to reports from the International Scientific Committee (ISC). The fishing industry itself has been problematic in ensuring that this can happen, and not just in the Pacific. As i wrote this time, two years ago, short-sighted capitalism has led to industry lobbying for quota redundancy, facilitating the very overfishing that will doom their own careers!
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-halve-pacific-bluefin-tuna-wwf.html

Last week, i churnalised the story on the biggest avian dinosaur ever known - Pelagornis. This week, i bring you the feathered dinosaur with the biggest known feathers! Changyuraptor yangi, found in the Liaoning Province of northeastern China, lived 125 million years ago, measured 120cm from tip to tail, and 30cm of that was tail feather! Changyuraptor is the largest known four-winged feathered dinosaur, so-called because it had feathers on all four of its limbs.
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-feathered-predatory-fossil-dinosaur-flight.html


For the first time, researchers have developed a boron equivalent of 'bucky balls' (Buckminsterfullerene - named after Richard Buckminster Fuller) that instead of forming an enclosed structure of 60 carbon atoms, forms an enclosed structure of 40 boron atoms. The molecule has been dubbed borospherene. Rather than a series of five and six-membered rings, as in 'bucky balls', borospherene consists of 48 triangles, four seven-sided rings and two six-membered rings. Several atoms stick out a bit from the others, making the surface of borospherene somewhat less smooth than a buckyball. The same researchers had previously developed a boron analogue to graphene, called borophene, giving confidence that boron and carbon's properties are similar enough to achieve this feat.
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-boron-buckyball.html

------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff

'LE REGNE DES ENFANTS - Raphaël Descraques'
The rule of children. 13.5 glorious years!!!
http://youtu.be/ZHLIYViubGc

'John and Kevin's Sunday Papers - July 2014'
http://youtu.be/L4qkX73L7RA

'"Weird Al" Yankovic's TACKY (Parody of Pharrell's "Happy") Official Music Video'
From the new album that came out on the 16th of July.
http://youtu.be/XsWo8apgLys

'Exclusive "Weird Al" Yankovic Music Video: FOIL (Parody of "Royals" by Lorde)'
http://youtu.be/w-0TEJMJOhk

'Weird Al Yankovic Sports Song'
http://youtu.be/WAfU6vbsm3k

'Weird Al Yankovic Inactive'
http://youtu.be/HOBIXxR5q3w

'Weird Al Yankovic Now That's What I Call Polka!'
THIS. IS. FANTASTIC :-D
http://youtu.be/wpe-FU6gpN0

'Sex organ art reveals body diversity'
http://youtu.be/B91PXyYk0MQ

'The Science of Circumcision'
http://youtu.be/71ToUO1knhE

Is it Genital Week, this week, or something? :-D

'"SCROTUS" by Roy Zimmerman'
http://youtu.be/IDMdSJJCKzk

'Promise me woman to woman love scenes' (my upload)
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/92323210535/promise-me-woman-to-woman-love-scenes

'Crazyrussianhacker Tries for a Darwin Award (RE Dry ice air conditioner)'
Incidentally, carbon dioxide in the body also triggers an innate panic response. People with damage to their amygdalae, maybe as a result of Urbach Wiethe disease, are unable to feel fear, but have been found still able to panic when inhaling 35% CO2 air mixtures!
http://youtu.be/YIgV2Q8Leh0

'POOPING IN THE BATH TUB Pt 1'
For anyone who likes disgust humour, this is the bilogy for you :-D
http://youtu.be/4Bdw28e5vJI

'In Search of Fossil Fish'
Do you dig fish? Here's how to dig fossil fish :-P
http://youtu.be/6EMRujEbhQQ

------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks

Word Of The Week: olfactorithmetic -- an intuitive number sense, as defined in New Scientist Issue 2948 "We define it as the ability to glance at a document and announce "This number smells wrong". It is not necessarily correlated with the ability to show workings as to why it's wrong. Those who have cultivated olfactorithmetic abilities may need to ask a colleague to calculate, but often the numbers their noses identify turn out to stink."

Etymology Of The Week: awkward -- from 14th C Norse, meaning 'in the wrong direction'; with 'awk' meaning 'back-handed'; and 'ward' implying a direction, as in 'forward' and 'backward'. The meaning of 'clumsy' developed around the 1520s

Quote Of The Week: "I was the only person who liked Germany 20 years ago" - Philip Hensher, in The Independent

Fact Of The Week: 6mm -- the distance pitch has fallen in the last 100 years, in the Aberystwyth pitch-drop experiment. In a similar experiment in Queensland, Australia, pitch has broken off just nine times since 1930

------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff

'Food to Scale 1:12'
http://micro.cibermitanios.com.ar/post/91686142769/comida-a-escala


'Television Adverts from April 1994'
How much have adverts changed in the last 20 years?
Well the coffee one's almost exactly the same; the fast food ones too; 'women's' things still use fake anecdotes, and pads ads haven't changed at all; cat food's exactly the same; car ads don't employ women as much; cereals still don't make any sense; Sainsbury's ads are unrecognisable; Post Office ads have gone corporate; charity ads are far more melodramatic and staged; Heineken's advertised by someone who can actually speak - Stephen Fry!; Hotpoint don't/can't bother; petrol companies advertise fuel efficiency instead of wear-and-tear prevention; British Gas greenwashes rather than advertises empowerment. So now you know :-P
http://youtu.be/6TlJkRXxDB4

'Outtake TV - Weakest Link Special - Part 2'
http://youtu.be/ZHln9Y6IxGc

'Outtake TV - Weakest Link Special - Part 3'
http://youtu.be/BrOEEnOzTno
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