Jul 17 2008
How Many Countries Can You Name in 5 Minutes?
A cool app that challenges you not only with your knowledge of geography, but also your spelling ability.
Jul 14 2008
Washington Post’s Style Invitational
This year’s best words, in which people are asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an ah.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation a bout yourself for the purpose of getting lucky
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee! intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
12. Karmageddon: It’s when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes, and it’s a serious bummer.
13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you
14. Glibido: All talk and no action.
15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosqui t o, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
18. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.
May 12 2008
Facial Hair
The word of the day today at AWAD is “sideburns”. In her intro, Anu mentions that “for some, beards are a serious business. There’s even a biannual championship event for the bearded.”
As a woman, it is baffling to me that men don’t see their facial hair only as an annoyance that must be dealt with. Most people consider facial hair on women unsightly, so why is it acceptable, even celebrated, on men? Some men will go so far as being willing to lose their job rather than shave. Yet some men prefer removing it altogether. I suppose going beardless also makes a statement.
And then, how much is too much? Is the type of beard — or the type of face– important? What does it say about a man if his beard is unkempt, or über-styled? Are you a different personality if you wear a full beard or a thin line of hair around the jaw? A chinstrap or a goatee? Does your beard style selection (or absence thereof) reflect who you are? With or without a moustache?
Heavy questions indeed.
May 09 2008
Vee haf vays to make you… sing
I’ve been doing research on parasites for a new story I’m planning and some of it is pretty gruesome. In some cases, parasites change their host’s behaviour, either by affecting its hormones or its brain, to make them more attractive to their natural predator, in which they will burrow as well. Sometimes that predator is their final destination, sometimes they will also affect that prey’s behaviour to lead them to the final host, by affecting that prey’s behaviour.
In a study on European starlings, researchers found that pollutants caused the birds to change their songs. World Science reports that the scientists found the birds developed more complex songs that were very appealing to females. Birdsong is one way for females to decide which of the males are prime and worth reproducing with. Problem is, it turns out those charming birds had a weakened immune system.
Although the article does not mention the consequences of this, it stands to reason that a weaker bird would also produce weaker babies, or babies genetically changed.
What is interesting in this story is that pollutants are acting in a similar way as parasites, weakening the host to make it more attractive, but that it serves no purpose. Pollutants do not have a lifecycle, they are not using a host to jump from one species to the other in order to grow and develop. Pollutants, in insidious but somehow dramatic ways (such as raising suicide and child abuse levels), change behaviours and the body’s chemical composition for the worst.
Another strong argument for the green movement.
Apr 28 2008
Signs of the times
My friend Stephe over at Dynastic Queen, pointed to this Newsweek article about a Kids’ Book on Plastic Surgery, designed to answer children’s question about their mother’s plastic surgery.
Naturally, it has a happy ending: mommy winds up “even more” beautiful than before, and her daughter is thrilled.
My reaction is as strong as Stephe’s, especially after having gone through some of the picture book: a slack-jawed amazement at how far we’ve come to prize the shell we live with and our willingness to pass on that message to children.
My next reaction was: give me a break. You need a book to tell your child you’ve had you nose done? How about a little one-on-one talk? Is spending time talking to your child gone out the window as well?