Archive for October, 2007
Sex: A Monotreme’s Four-Headed Monster
Posted by docbushwell in Bio-bizarre, Doc Bushwell on October 29, 2007
This latest news item courtesy of New Scientist a.k.a. the London tabloid of science journalism (1), is worthy of Bora’s (Blog Around the Clock) Friday Weird Sex Blogging but what the heck – there’s nothing more uplifting that a four-headed phallus on a Monday afternoon.
“Smell You Later!” The DoCoMo Smellular Phone
Posted by in Ninnytechnology on October 24, 2007
Gakked from Technovelgy:
Here is a new cell phone that sports a replaceable scented strip on its body. Although it doesn’t transmit odors to the recipient of a phone call, it’s not a far cry from Fred Pohl’s joymaker, a fictional form of PDA described in The Age of the Pussyfoot:
The remote-access computer transponder called the “joymaker” is your most valuable single possession in your new life. If you can imagine a combination of telephone, credit card, alarm clock, pocket bar, reference library, and full-time secretary, you will have sketched some of the functions provided by your joymaker.
Hmmmm, that sounds like a near future relative of the iPhone.
Now do I want it in vertiver or vanilla-mint?
Holothuria-matic
Posted by in Nostalgic Reverie on October 23, 2007
I’ll hop on the sea cucumbers bandwagon along with Sheril of The Intersection, Coturnix on Blog Around the Clock, and Benny of Zooillogix (be sure to check out the boffo cartoon in Benny’s article).
George Clooney, You, and Chantix
Posted by in The View from Pharma-dur on October 23, 2007
One of the more recent offerings in the pernicious practice of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising from Big Pharma is a tortoise and a hare hawking a smoking cessation med: Chantix. The drug, varenicline tartrate, has a dual action in that it acts as both a partial agonist (enhancing activity but not by too much) and antagonist (blocker) of the alpha2beta4 nicotinic acid acetylcholine receptors. These are ligand-gated ion channel receptors, a major class of receptors in the CNS which comprises the targets for many drugs. Here’s an illustration of a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, ripped off from the Wikipedia entry.
Also, take a look at Corpus Callosum’s (pre-Science Blogs) article on Chantix.
As with any med, Chantix has side effects: some adverse, some not-sot-adverse, and some, well, kind of provocative. The superlative John Mack of the Pharma Marketing Blog(1) discusses his investigation of one of the odd side effects of varenicline tartrate in Chantix Californication Dreamin’: Viagra II. Because Chantix acts as a partial agonist (see Big Papa Pfizer’s notes on Chantix’s mechanism of action), the upregulation of dopamine results in – how should we say – pleasurable dreams. The intrepid Mr. Mack went so far as to investigate what consumers were saying about Chantix on Health Boards.
From his perhaps not comprehensive study (but entertaining all the same). Mr Mack reports
that a good portion of dreams involve Hollywood movie stars like George Clooney. And there’s a decidedly sexual overtone to these dreams.
.
USATF Stretch Study
Posted by jim in The Running Ape on October 20, 2007
USA Track and Field, the governing body of the sport in the USA, is launching a study to determine the effectiveness of pre-run stretching on injury prevention. You can participate. From the USATF web site:
USATF is conducting a study to determine the effect of pre-run stretching on running injuries. The purpose of the study is to determine specifically if pre-run stretching of the three major leg muscle groups is beneficial for overall injury prevention or reduction. The study is not examining in-run or post-run stretching.
The stretches under study involve quadriceps, hamstrings, and achilles/calf. There has been considerable discussion in recent years in the running community regarding the efficacy of stretching. There are those who swear by it and those who swear at it. Personally, I don’t like to stretch right before a run and certainly not immediately before a race. Instead, I have found light calisthenics and easy jogging to be preferable. I do a bit (maybe 20 to 30 minutes) of yoga-based stretching every morning to maintain range of motion, but that’s outside of my running. I also find some light post-run stretching to be effective. The worst advice I have ever received is to stretch an injured muscle/joint. My experience is that this only does further damage and that stretching an injured area should only begin once the area has begun to heal, and the stretching should be very modest initially.
The results of the USATF will be interesting, and no doubt start some lively debate on the running boards.
DIY Lab Gear: Vibrating String Apparatus
Posted by jim in Audio Island, Techies & Technology, What The Heck Is That Thing? on October 18, 2007
Sometimes I can’t seem to find just the right lab equipment I want for a particular experiment so I design it myself. Such was the case recently for a course I developed and teach entitled Science of Sound. This course is a natural science elective and deals with the physics of audio and acoustics. We start with a few very basic concepts such as harmonic motion. One of the laboratory experiments involves vibrating strings. I like this experiment because students can relate to it as most are at least familiar with guitars and other stringed instruments (the guitar players really like this one). I had some difficulty in designing a good experiment though. The basic idea is to verify the equation for the fundamental vibratory frequency:
where f is the fundamental frequency, l is the string length, T is the tension, and m-sub-l is the mass per unit length of the string.
Telco Power! An alternative energy source…from your phone!
Posted by in Doc Bushwell, Hootworthy on October 16, 2007
In the same spirit as OBJECTIVE: Ministries, I give you Telco Powered™ Products.
New Patented Technology allows you to use Power from the Phone Company to operate everyday items that you have to use -even if the power is out.
The product line is truly amazing. I’m torn: should I order the Telco Powered™ Fan Cooler (When the Air Conditioning is out, it gets HOT in the desert. Fill the bottle with cold water, and spray as needed!) or the Telco Powered™ Vibrator:
There’s a lot of stress when the power is out!
Use our soothing Vibrator to relax your muscles after dealing with this serious problem.
Use it as long as you need to… it’s powered by the phone company!
“Last time I was in LA, I had to walk down eight flights of stairs with two big bags to check out of the hotel that had been without power twice during my stay. The vibrator would have really helped my muscles after that stressful hotel stay!”
Late breaking news from the Telco Powered™ Innovations Group: Dr. Drizzlenick (Telco Power’s Chief Scientist from the renowned Chernobyl Electrical Institute in Russia) and Vitaliy Tolstonogov (Director General of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant) have developed alternate versions of all of the items you see on this web page, which run on common depleted uranium!
Hagee on Beck
Posted by jim in We're Doomed on October 13, 2007
What happens when an end-of-times pastor meets a CNN bobble-head? One thing is for certain both science and rationality will be chucked out the window. John Hagee, head of a Texas mega-church had some truly crazy things to say on Glenn Beck’s Friday evening show (October 12, 2007). You can get the complete transcript here. A few select outtakes can be found below the fold.
Friday Flippancy: Son-o-God Comics (NatLamPoo Aug. ’73)
Posted by in Doc Bushwell, Hootworthy on October 12, 2007
I have a hodge-podge of old National Lampoons stored away in the basement. Periodically, I scan a few selected items (articles by P.J. O’Rourke and Chris Miller, various cartoons) for digital posterity. All are highly irreverent and culturally insensitive, and yes, I hoot raucously at them. Among my favorite bits of the NatLampPoo are Son-o-God Comics. Here’s the cover of the August 1973 edition and its inner leaf.
Email Hoaxes and a Little Math
Posted by jim in Off the Beaten Math on October 11, 2007
Recently I received emails from two associates regarding a “get rich quick” scheme. It’s made the rounds before and quite frankly I was surprised to see it poke its ugly head up again. While these hoaxes are mildly irritating, it only takes a moment of thought to determine that they absolutely must be false. Why don’t people think?
The premise of this particular scheme is that Bill Gates has teamed up with AOL to create a new email tracking system. It must be true, the message says, because the author heard it on Good Morning America. In essence, you forward the message to a bunch of people. For every person you forward the message, you receive $24,000. For every person that this group forwards to, you net $23,000, and so on. The author of the message states in closing that there are only two weeks left in the trial period and that he has just received a check in excess of $800,000. In other words, get in on the action now while you still have time.
OK, let’s assume you don’t know anything about urban legends, never heard of Google, Snopes and the like, and are in general, a credulous person. Hopefully, you know a little math. A very simple calculation shows that the scheme is impossible. I don’t know how many people watch Good Morning America, but I’d guess maybe a million or more. Let’s assume only 10,000 actually respond to this. Further, let’s assume that each responder forwards to only 10 other people (in the emails I received, I was one of at least 20 recipients). The second tier will contain 100,000 recipients, and if they do likewise, the third tier will have a million. Even if the fourth tier only forwards the message to one or two persons each, the payout will be an order of magnitude greater than the entirety of Mr. Gates’ fortune.
Duh.
Taking Notes: Lab Notebooks in the Private Sector
Posted by in The View from Pharma-dur on October 11, 2007
One of my to-do tasks includes making some revisions to a standard operating procedure draft document for lab notebook policies for our division. I’m a member of an “executive lab notebook committee” or as I fondly like to call my assignment, the stinking albatross that hangs around my neck. The confluence of discovery scientists and attorneys is an uneasy one, and acting as an intermediary between the two factions can get pretty stinky in that dead-avian pendant way.
Esoteric Audio Cables
Posted by jim in Audio Island, Techies & Technology, What The Heck Is That Thing? on October 8, 2007
A previous post featured a short film about members of the Audiophile Club of Athens and the rather extreme sound systems their members have created. Some members spent in excess of $300,000 to build their systems. You may be wondering just what manner of gear that sort of money would buy, and would it really sound that much better than a more modest (yet still comparatively “high end”) system of say, several thousand dollars. Before we go any further, let me state that in no way am I making fun of the way people spend their money. Heck, I’ve been known to drop some coinage on musical instruments and Kevlar kayaks, things some people find frivolous. No, I’m just interested in whether this gear is sonically superior or simply audio woo.
Chicago Marathon Mind-Bending Finishes
Posted by jim in The Running Ape on October 8, 2007
The Chicago Marathon has been the site of phenomenal performances, but Sunday’s run produced perhaps the tightest men’s finish ever. Video here.
Not to be outdone, the women’s finish was equally eye-opening and presents a valuable lesson to anyone involved in competitive sport. Video here.
In spite of the flat, fast course, the times were comparatively slow due to the brutally warm and humid weather. Unfortunately, one runner died during the event.
Marion Jones: Steroid User
Posted by jim in The Running Ape on October 5, 2007
The latest from the Washington Post is that Olympic track star Marion Jones has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs.
Track star Marion Jones has acknowledged using steroids as she prepared for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and is scheduled to plead guilty today in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her drug use and an unrelated financial matter, according to a letter Jones sent to close family and friends.
This article makes for an interesting continuation to the recent entry regarding Geb’s new marathon record. What kind of drugs could increase performance? Well, if you’re a sprinter, steroids for starters.
MJ was one of those people who was “easy to root for”. When allegations of drug use began swirling a few years back, it was something I hoped was untrue, but as in the case of distance runner Regina Jacobs, it appears my fears were justified. Only time will tell if that abuse will have any long term health consequences.
Pudendolls in Bronze
Posted by in Doc Bushwell, More Art, Then Science on October 4, 2007
Last Saturday (09/29) found me ambling around the DeCordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln MA. When I lived in Cambridge and indulged in hobbyjogging with a few other women, the sculpture park was a frequent pit (bathroom) stop during our long weekend runs on the Lincoln Conservation Trust trail system. In the summer, these runs were often followed by a cooling plunge into Walden Pond. Sorry about the brief nostalgic reverie, but hey, I’m old. It happens.
The DeCordova highlights contemporary sculpture with some pieces on permanent display and others as temporary installations. Sculptures in all media that refer to natural organic forms are the most appealing to me. Quite a few artists are influenced by the morphology of nature and incorporate such into their pieces to good – and sometimes disconcerting – effect. This is true of a number of pieces at the DeCordova.
One Effect of Low Rainfall
Posted by jim in Habitats and Humanity on October 2, 2007
Here in the upper Mohawk Valley of central NY, we are accustomed to an abundance of water. Heck, the city of Utica typically receives around 100 inches of snow per year and that’s nothing compared to the Tug Hill Plateau just north. The summer of 2007 has been notable for a lack of rainfall, though, with some areas seeing only 10 percent of their normal rainfall during September. In fact, some areas are now on water restriction (no washing your car, watering the lawn, or stuff like that).
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- Doc Bushwell is a biochemist and a medical writer who serves as a slavering minion of the dark lords of Big and Little Pharma; Jim is an engineering professor with a fondness for running shoes and drumsticks; and Kevin Beck is a self-exiled member of the clan who refuses to stay gone.
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