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May 2009

Defiling the Temple

My body is my temple, and my vehicle as I go through this life. I think about this as I am running along a dirt road out in the country by myself. I give thanks to whatever made this all possible – the big blue sky over green fields, the little yellow and purple flowers along the roadside, and my legs moving me forward.… Read the rest

Bilingual Advantages

Science Daily reports that bilingual people have a strong advantage over monolingual speakers in learning new languages. According to the article:

“People who can speak two languages are more adept at learning a new foreign language than their monolingual counterparts, according to research conducted at Northwestern University.… Read the rest

True Urban Legends

While we have all heard about Urban Legends that have been proven to be false, there are a surprising number that are also true. And of course, truth is often stranger than fiction.

Here are just a few that I discovered today that I found interesting:

The child’s song “Sing a Song of Sixpence” was actually a coded message to recruit pirates.… Read the rest

Contemporary Musician: Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson is a singer/songwriter in the soft rock genre, as well as a filmmaker, activist, and surfer. He’s well known among the under-40 crowd, particularly for his work on the Curious George film soundtrack and his 2008 CD Sleep Through the Static.… Read the rest

Visit Your Own Country!

I have not traveled the world as much as I would wish (who has?), but I have been lucky enough to see parts of Canada, Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, and Spain. I have also been lucky enough to grow up with a mother who thought that traveling my own country, the United States, could be equally edifying.… Read the rest

Cell Phone Virus

Most of us are aware of the dire threat of a computer virus, but did you know that you can get a virus on your cell phone? Daily Science, via a study from a team at the Center for Complex Network Research, tells us that this is a possibility as well:

“The researchers used calling and mobility data from over six million anonymous mobile phone users to create a comprehensive picture of the threat mobile phone viruses pose to users.… Read the rest

Wily Whales

Science Daily reports on interesting developments in the field of whale studies. Scientists have wondered how and why sperm whales feed from deep sea fishermen’s “longlines.” Researchers from Scripps and the Southeast Alaska Sperm Whale Avoidance Project deployed acoustic and video recorders near Sitka, Alaska, and recorded some surprising results:

“The resulting video, recorded using ambient light at 100 meters (328 feet) depth, not only successfully gave the fishermen a clear idea of how the thieving whales were stealing the fish—they pluck the line at one end to jar the black cod free at the other end, somewhat like shaking apples from a tree—but it gave scientists a chance to match the animal’s acoustics with video depictions of its physical features.”… Read the rest

Finding Cheesus

While people have been seeing visions of Jesus Christ all around the world for probably thousands of years, only recently have people started finding images of Jesus in Cheetos. Two different little Jesus-shaped cheetos, called “Cheesus” have been found, one in Texas and one in Missouri.… Read the rest

Daydreaming

LiveScience.com reports that daydreaming is a healthy and normal use of the brain. According to the study:

Until now, scientists had thought that the brain’s “default network,” which is linked to easy, routine mental activity, was the only part of the brain that remains active when the mind wanders.… Read the rest

World’s Best Beaches

The Guardian recently published an article about the world’s best beaches from various experts and locals. Their choices range around the world from Hawaii to Australia to the Caribbean, Cornwall, and Scotland.

beach

I have been to countless beautiful beaches in my life.… Read the rest

Climate Science

In a fusion of Tech Talk Tuesday and Mother Earth Monday, Science Daily reports on mathematical modeling of climate change odds.

palm

The news is not good. Comprehensive modeling shows that:

“…without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago – and could be even worse than that….… Read the rest

Who’s Your Mama?

Scientists have been studying the incredibly well-preserved remains of a 47 million-year-old fossil of a lemur-like creature that may be part of the primate family that eventually led to Homo sapiens.

lemur

The fossil, known as Ida, was discovered in the Messel Pit near Darmstadt, Germany, in the 1980s.… Read the rest

What Would Buddha Do?

If the Buddha were to reincarnate into the world that we live in today, what would he do? Would he take to the jungle and meditate for years without eating or drinking? Or would he be surfing the internet and have profiles on MySpace and Facebook?… Read the rest