iamnotdenny

Mar 10

Lazy Sunday Live with The Roots!

Scott and Scurvy

tl;dr: scurvy bad, science hard.

Great read about how the cure for scurvy was lost because the scientific understanding of the day “improved” and how a fluke (well, a hamster) got it back on track.

Mar 3

Math for All

A wonderful set of posts that make math accessible to people who would have never thought such a thing possible. The RSS feed for the entries is here.

Mar 1

Last Friday Night

Sabrina (13): What sport is this?
Me: Curling.
Josh (9): What teams are these?
Me: The yellow team is from Sweden and the red team is the Canadians.
Jacob (6): Uhm, are those the people --that, uh, eat people?
Me: No (trying my best not to laugh), those are cannibals.
<later that night>
Jacob: They made me give 5 dollars from my piggy bank to Haiti. I didn't want to!
Josh: Jake!
Sabrina: You're not supposed to say things like that.
Jacob: I could have bought a toy with that money!!

Pray for Chile

Psalm 46:1-3

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

The Big Picture: Earthquake in Chile

BBC News - The volunteer mappers who helped Haiti

Nice to see technology benefiting humanity, instead of creating more awkward time wasters like Chat Roulette.

Feb 28

The Muppets: Beaker’s Ballad

Feb 27

Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.

Feb 26

What can I say? I’m a sucker for videos that play on the human desire to dance - this one adds in commentary on our desire to fit in, leadership, and how the two relate.

Feb 25

Why is flying hard?

Since people don’t understand the physics of driving, we’re better off skipping over flying cars to teleporters. Got that scientists?