RelentlesslyOptimistic

Daniel Kish — The blind man who taught himself to see

Short version: blind people can be taught to echolocate well enough to ride bicycles, hike in the wilderness, and more!

via www.bookofjoe.com

Recycling: Pervert!

I love the smile on the Anthrax guy's face.

via www.smbc-comics.com

Close Up Of A Maggot

via joannecasey.blogspot.com

Did anyone else think "hurr durr"? Looking goofy doesn't make it less disgusting, though.

Cute Picture Break: Sex Ed

Fifth-graders react to in utero photos showing the development stages of a fetus.

via thedailywh.at

Another awesome and fun tool from Google: Ngram Viewer

Enter a word, or multiple words, into the Ngram viewer, and it will chart their use in a language-specific sample from Google Books.

Warning: There goes the day!

via ngrams.googlelabs.com

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ..." Isaac Asimov

"All of this started with a simple observation. Chaffer was looking at a flask full of human breast cells and noticed that a small [number] of them were floating, rather than stuck to the bottom. She says, “Normally when we see floating cells in tissue culture, they are dead or dying. However, in this case, I noticed that they maintained a healthy appearance.”

The article goes on to explain the discovery and some implications, but I just love that her recognition of something odd that's probably happened many times in many places turned into what could be a major advance.

via blogs.discovermagazine.com

Radiation Dose Chart from XKCD

Note the caveat that this is "for general education only. If you're basing radiation safety procedures on an internet PNG image and things go wrong, you have no one but yourself to blame."

Thanks, Genesis!

via xkcd.com

You laughed because I like a little Good & Plenty now and then

In "Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex," Mary Roach quotes:

"from a press release from the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago: "Men's colognes actually reduced vaginal blood flow." Foundation director Al Hirsch hooked women up to a vaginal photoplethysmograph and had them wear surgical masks scented with ten different aromas or com­binations of aromas. (To be sure the women weren't just getting aroused by dressing up in surgical masks, Hirsch put unscented masks onto a control group.) In addition to the smell of cologne, the women were turned off by the scent of cherry and of "charcoal barbeque meat." At the top of the women's turn-on list was, mysteriously, a mix­ture of cucumber and Good 'n' Plenty candy. It was said to increase vaginal blood flow by 13 percent.*

I love science!

 

Fun with creationism

via www.smbc-comics.com

60 Wild Coyotes Patrol Chicago

 

"Chicago's Cook County now has over 60 coyotes fitted with radio collars (plus a good many uncollared ones) roaming parks, alleys, yards and thoroughfares in one of the biggest cities in America. The animals earn their keep eating small rodents, especially rats and voles. The Cook County, Illinois, Coyote Project calls itself "the largest urban study of coyotes in the world.""

From www.npr.org via Woosk

The universe always collapses for the same reason

via www.smbc-comics.com

Beer after sport 'is good for the body' (reblog 2007)

Spanish researchers say  "Beer after sport is good for the body." According to a recent study, beer can help someone who is dehydrated retain liquid better than water and its carbohydrate content can help to replace lost calories.

Via Spluch. Image from Arbroath.

You can swim as fast in snot as in water. If you want to. (1996 post reblogged)

Isaac Newton argued with other scientists in the 17th century about whether a person swimming in syrup would be slower than a swimmer in water. University of Minnesota scientists have finally answered the question.

They filled a swimming pool with guar gum, which the lead scientist Edward Cussler said "looked like snot," and then timed 19 swimmers using a variety of strokes in both water and the snot syrup. The result: "you experience more 'viscous drag'...as the water gets thicker, [but] generate more forward force from every stroke." They won an IgNobel Prize in 2005 for their efforts. More photos (big page).

via Digg

What's The Difference Between Regular and Decaf Coffee?

via fakescience.tumblr.com

Why there is suffering in the world:

via www.smbc-comics.com