Posts tagged: #reference (back to all)
A slightly frightening infographic definitely worth checking out. The human body wasn’t made for sitting 8hrs + per day!
Thanks @fromthestreet
15 different ways to tie your laces. Checkerboard looks cool!
I always wondered what the numbers meant on recyclables!
Let’s talk about polymers, or more specifically plastics. The Clear Science staff think plastics are interesting because there is a chemistry lesson on lots of the products you use. (No extra charge for the lesson!)
This is in the form of those recycling symbols that tell what kind of plastic something is. They are:
- Poly Ethylene Terephthalate Ester
- High Density Poly Ethylene
- poly Vinyl chloride
- Low Density Poly Ethylene
- Poly Propylene
- Poly Styrene
- other (like ABS which is what Legos are made of)
Okay, so that’s a bunch of sciency words. What do they mean?
Words That Don’t Exist in the English Language
L’esprit de escalier: (French) The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means “the spirit of the staircase.”
Waldeinsamkeit: (German) The feeling of being alone in the woods.
Meraki: (Greek) Doing something with soul, creativity, or love.
Forelsket: (Norwegian) The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.
Gheegle: (Filipino) The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.
Pochemuchka: (Russian) A person who asks a lot of questions.
Pena ajena: (Mexican Spanish) The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation.
Cualacino: (Italian) The mark left on a table by a cold glass.
Ilunga: (Tshiluba, Congo) A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.
Can we eat to starve cancer?
I’m getting more and more interested in the way our diet relates to cancer.
This is a touchy subject as people don’t like to be preached to. I think it’s good to be exposed to the theories so you can decide for yourself; the huge effect diet can have on cancer certainly struck me as something plausible.
Do you ever wonder why Japanese in Japan have the lowest cancer rate in the developed world, and yet by the time they have lived in America for 2 generations their cancer rates catch up to the national average?
The China Study (A study on diet in relation to health)
(737 reviews, 4.5 star average rating)
Anti-cancer (on tailoring your diet to fight and prevent cancer)
(177 reviews, 5 star average rating)
The books above talk about how the Western diet could be linked to our rising cancer rates. Some big factors are the over-prevalence of animal protein and hormones in our diets, which appear to:
a) feed cancer cells that might otherwise sit harmlessly in our bodies. Cancer cells appear to multiply at a much higher rate in the presence of animal proteins.
b) raise our own hormone levels to be alarmingly high so that as we age we have ‘further to fall’. (As we age our hormones take a dive - particularly at menopause, but men’s hormones also fall naturally). A large change in hormone levels seems to be related to the development of cancer in hormonal hot spots (breast, prostate etc)
Furthermore, scientists are discovering ‘super-foods’ which can strengthen the body’s immune system, such as shiitake mushrooms, ginger, and garlic. Infact people undergoing chemotherapy in Japan are prescribed a shiitake mushroom extract as par-for-the-course.
The human body is equipped with NK cells (Natural Killer cells - a type of white blood cell) which seem to recognise cancer cells and destroy them. If this is true, then chemotherapy does just as much harm as good - along with cancer cells it also obliterates the immune system. No wonder there is only a 5% increased survival rate over people who don’t undergo the treatment.
Apart from strengthening the immune system, there are also foods that prevent the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumour. This is called “anti-angiogenesis”, explained superbly by William Li in this TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/william_li.html
People are slower to respond to tactile words (e.g., “itchy”) than words from the others senses:
Psychologists think the answer may have to with attention. Perhaps we’re not so good at keeping our attention focused on the tactile modality compared with the others. Now [researchers] have added to the picture by showing that the tactile disadvantage extends to the conceptual domain. That is, we seem to be slower at recognising when a word is tactile in nature than we are at recognising whether words are visual, to do with taste, sound, or smell.Why are we touch-word disadvantaged?
They think this is because there’s little evolutionary advantage to sustaining attention to the tactile modality whereas there are obvious survival advantages with the other senses, for example: ‘…in hunting, where efficacious looking, listening and even smelling for traces of prey could afford an advantage.’Something for certain content strategists, perhaps, to keep in mind.
Balloon Hovercraft
Via Cheaper Than a Cup of Joe
Make a balloon hovercraft using the following household items:
- A balloon
- Super glue
- CD
- A sports cap from a water bottle
Directions: Place the tip of the balloon over the sports cap. Glue the bottom of the cap onto the middle of the CD. Now twist open the sports cap and blow into the balloon from the bottom of the CD. Once the balloon is inflated, twist shut the sports cap. Now place the CD on a flat surface and release the sports cap. The CD will glide across the surface on a cushion of air, much like a puck would in air hockey.
Most suitable for the middle child…
Zeitgeist
I never realised what a cool word this is! I think of it as meaning ’collective consciousness’. This definition from wikipedia:
(from German Zeit- time and Geist- spirit) is “the spirit of the times” and/or “the spirit of the age.”
Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambience, morals, and sociocultural direction or mood of an era (similar to the English word mainstream or trend).
Do it Yourself: McDonald’s Sweet and Sour Sauce
Via Cheaper Than a Cup of Joe
Ingredients:
1/4 cup peach preserves
1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
5 teaspoons white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons waterDirections:
Combine all ingredients except the water in a blender and puree until the mixture is smooth.
Pour mixture into a small saucepan over medium heat. Add water, stir, and bring to a boil. Allow it to boil for five minutes, stirring often. When the sauce has thickened, remove it from the heat and let it cool.
Store sauce in a covered container in the refrigerator.
Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
– Ralph Waldo EmersonBelle Barber = Rebel Rabble
I'm a 3D Graphic Artist by day, and by night I have my cake and eat it too.
This is a Visual Blog for my g33k side to share cool things I find and post some of my own creations and verbal flow.
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Email: runbellerun [at] gmail [dot] com
