Entertainment stuff from the week 6-12/1/14

Hi stargazers,


It's been Stargazing week, on the Beeb, this week:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019h4g8

In it, Dara O'Briain got put in NASA's G-machine. If it's any suggestion of what people will look like, in decades to come, then it's good signs for Dara.

Not such good signs for the great Professor Brian Cox, however, who experienced it for his series 'Wonders Of The Universe'.

'Brain Cox endures extreme G's'
http://youtu.be/mOyfrwbOFJ8

It looks like he's been in the Rolling Stones! D:Ream must have got up to a lot more than we thought :-D


'Radar reveals extraordinary ladybird flight paths'
http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1587

What extraordinary flight patterns would they be? Well...

"Scientists examining radar data have spotted the tiny creatures travelling at heights of up to 1100 metres, and at speeds of up to 60 kilometres per hour."
Wow! Presuming the data is accurate, of course.

They might just be anomalous data points. But that performance would explain, as the article says, how the Harlequin Ladybird has managed to migrate so far, so quickly.


'The combover: A hairstyle that refuses to lie down'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25622093

Personally, i think the mohican's a pretty good hairstyle...

A big... orange... mohican. That looks good ;-)


Asinine bullshit propaganda from international terrorist organisation PETA:

'Another Cuban Missile Crisis'
http://www.illegaladvertising.com/post/72441097098/cuban-missile-crisis

Are they seriously claiming that going vegan will make men last longer, in the sack?

Maybe it should be pointed out to those nutbags that the only way diet could do that, is by quelling excitation - so lasting longer means taking longer to get it up, and having more difficulty in keeping it there.

So yeah - go vegan; gain erectile dysfunction - let's buy into that bullshit! <s>

No more hard-ons, no more wide-ons, if you only eat greens. That's if you reach adolescence at all.


Grumble grumble grumble... lovely weather we're having... etc.


Good news, everyone! This...


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

'SURICATE - Saison 2'
Finally - a trailer that makes sense - how can they show us anything, if it hasn't happened yet? Duh :D
http://youtu.be/UtXj4PqRrDw

World-leading psychologist Richard Wiseman has a new channel :o)

'In59seconds - Think a little. Change a lot'
http://www.youtube.com/user/In59seconds/about

'10 Amazing Ways To Stop Overeating'
http://youtu.be/2IQiK2pYNWQ

'Never lose your wallet or purse again'
http://youtu.be/33SwGGm9eQc

He has, quite deservedly, made his way into a tumblr GIF:
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/73082859746/goldspandexleggings-jonathaniusarsenius

'Reconstruction gives Stonehenge man a face'
And... he looks like a regular bloke... who's confused to have a face, again :D
http://youtu.be/0s0LPxBvP7g

'Researchers use sound waves to levitate objects in three dimensions'
I posted a video of this, last week. Here's the wordy version. 3D acoustic tweezers. Oh yeah :D
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-levitate-dimensions.html
The video:
'Levitación de objetos mediante intersección de ondas sonoras'
http://micro.cibermitanios.com.ar/post/72263428747/levitacion-acustica

'The Covert World of Fish Biofluorescence'
http://youtu.be/aZ3EaLXh3O4

These next two videos are not the same!

'National Gallery Faces of Chemistry 11-14 Microscopy'
http://youtu.be/FpXHSu7ql6s

'National Gallery Faces of Chemistry 16-18 Chromatography'
http://youtu.be/zoCHJ6eqQ4U

'Charlie's Zombie Noises'
Charlie's zombie needs some opal fruits :-D
http://youtu.be/PUpU9bRYLy8

'ASTOUNDING: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = -1/12'
This is like a joke, played on mortals by the gods... "Haha - they'll never get their puny heads around this [rumble rumble]"
The joke is in the premise - in the first equation, the answer is not 1/2  - it's undefined. That makes the rest of the equating facetious :-D
http://youtu.be/w-I6XTVZXww
BTW, the Physics it's involved in is String Theory which is, as yet, an obsolete hypothesis. I hope that, someday, all those brilliant minds' works don't prove to be wasted, however.
In Professor Ed's video, you can see him use other mathematical shortcuts that don't necessarily hold all the time but that give the same result. It's wonderfully preposterous maths :-D

'Carl Sagan's Cosmic Calendar'
Made with updated footage. We now know more details of this cosmic calendar - flowers appeared much earlier than thought, for example - but Carl Sagan does this so wonderfully.
http://youtu.be/6soIwzwth6k

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

Word Of The Week: brachiation -- diverging into branches / swinging from branch to branch, as a form of locomotion

Etymology Of The Week: bourse -- Stock Market; through the meaning of 'meeting place', from latin 'bursa' meaning 'hide'; in modern french, 'bourse' means 'pocket'/'purse'

Fact Of The Week: In 1965, George and Charlotte Blonsky invented a centrifugal birthing machine (to help extract babies from women, by swinging them around in a circle). In 1999, they received a posthumous Ig Nobel Prize for their efforts

Quote Of The Week: "If you gave [Jerry] Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox." - Christopher 'Hitch' Hitchens

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

'Sneezes of the world'
http://micro.cibermitanios.com.ar/post/72569842840/la-forma-que-la-gente-estornuda-alrededor-del

'Hey, mother foca'
Foca: the earless seal
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/73083127186/hey-mother-foca

'Who Were the Amazing Ross Sisters?'
Ripley's' lowdown on the amazing Ross Sisters, as well as other extraordinary contortionists.
http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/incredible-feats/who-were-the-amazing-ross-sisters/

'Truck Made From 11,000 Pounds of Ice'
http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/amazing-science/truck-made-from-11000-pounds-of-ice/

Conservative hysteria, LOL
http://goldspandexleggings.tumblr.com/post/72777697768

John Cage's 4'33" has been silenced due to third-party content :-D
http://goldspandexleggings.tumblr.com/post/72562913555

"Son, if you can't say something nice, say something clever but devastating"
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/73083167137/chequeralley-new-yorker-14-jan-2013-image

'Amazon Kleenex Review'
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/73083208201/amazon-kleenex-review

'The after-effects of a flood near Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Sherbrooke, Quebec'
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/73083263232/chequeralley-redditor-willyyz-the


P.S. If you're living in the Far Northisphere, and feeling the effects of the cold, wintry winds, take a peek at my tumblr for December, where there are lots of pictures of the Sun to make you feel warmer :o)

http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/archive/2013/12

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