Humans can follow scent trails across a field in the same way that dogs can ? and they improve with practice ? a intriguing new field study has revealed. Jess Porter and Noam Sobel at the University of California in Berkeley, US, and colleagues tested whether 32 people were able to follow a 10-metre-long scent […]
Month: December 2006
Dickens and disease
But the hallmark of Lewy body disease is the real clincher in this diagnosis: vivid and detailed hallucinations featuring friends and relatives are common. And like Scrooge?s visions, these phantasms are distressing, often terrifying. Finally, in Lewy body dementia, hallucinations occur early in the disease, frequently before the cognitive deficits are apparent. I went back […]
Helsinki Complaints
The Helsinki Complaints Choir (video link) is, in the view of those who do not believe otherwise, the finest of the world’s several complaints choirs. Helsinki is a good place to study complaints and choirs, and the relation between them. Laura Lehto and three colleagues at Helsinki University Central Hospital recently published the possibly pertinent […]
The philosopher who loved Buffy
James B. South, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Marquette University, loves philosophizing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has edited a book called Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Other books in the “Popular Culture and Philosophy” series, of which South’s book is number 4, include Harry Potter and […]
Cui Bono (circumcisions)
Who, individually, (other than Dr. De Cock, and other than the patients) is likely to benefit from the news in this December 13, 2006 Associated Press report? Circumcising adult men may cut in half their risk of getting the AIDS virus through heterosexual intercourse…. The National Institutes of Health said Wednesday it closed the studies […]
Where do people go?
Where do people go? Though it’s a simple question, scholars disagree about where people choose to go to the toilet. What specifically concerns these scholars is a small aspect of the larger puzzle. When you give someone a choice of several, say four, toilet stalls arranged all in a row, which stall do people choose […]
Knowledge acknowledged
A frequent air traveler, who requests to go unnamed, writes: In an age of increasing surveillance of travelers and erosion of civil liberties, is not this slogan somewhat disquieting? American Airlines “We Know Why You Fly”
Ig Nobel Winner Skilling begins 24-year vacation
Today, December 13, 2006, Ig Nobel Prize winner Jeffrey Skilling began a 24-year vacation at the Federal Correctional Institution in Waseca, Minnesota, according to an Associated Press report: Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling reported to federal prison on Wednesday to begin serving his 24-year sentence for fraud and other crimes in the collapse of the […]
Learning about soybeans
They say you learn something every day. Here’s what we learned today. Here’s Part 1. We learned it from Jim Rutz: A devil food is turning our kids into homosexuals…. Soy sauce is fine. Unlike soy milk, it’s perfectly safe because it’s fermented, which changes its molecular structure. Miso, natto and tempeh are also OK, […]
Larry Gibilaro joins the LFHCfS
Larry Gibilaro has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Jake Gibilaro, who nominated him, says: I would like to nominate my father Larry Gibilaro. Much of his work involves the study of the flow of particles in fluidized beds, no doubt inspired by the flowing nature of his hair. Larry Gibilaro, LFHCfS Professor […]