"Times sure have changed since the days when gay people referred to themselves as 'friends of Dorothy,' signaling their icon Judy Garland's role in 'The Wizard of Oz.' It was a code phrase, a necessary thing for gays, who had to live an underground existence, meeting in shady clubs in the nastier parts of town, braving police raids and gangs of gay bashers."
"In order to ward off the hangover, Rohsenow suggested to HealthDay to drink lots of water and take a painkiller with aspirin or ibuprofen, but not acetaminophen (Tylenol), because it can cause liver damage when combined with alcohol. Drinking more to keep the hangover at bay, however, hasn't been studied, and seems counterintuitive, she pointed out." —Yes, Science Lady, it seems counterintuitive unless you've actually ever done it, in which case it is sometimes the difference between life and death (or, at least, moaning on the couch or doing somewhat more ambulatory moaning). In any event, this article is about how college students (and, presumably, those of us who [...]
There is a difference between "pixilated" and "pixelated." Apparently fairies are involved.
It's been a while since we checked in with the folks at Taiwan's Next Media Animation, but here they are explaining the current situation regarding oil prices in an easy-to-follow (if difficult-to-listen-to) rap! Stick with it, you'll learn something. For more information on economist Arthur Cecil Pigou's concept of negative externalities, head here.
"'The beer belly is a complete myth. The main source of calories in any alcoholic beverage is alcohol. …There's nothing magical about the alcohol in beer, it's just alcohol,' says Charles Bamforth, a professor of food science and technology at the University of California Davis…. All alcohols contain the same caloric ingredients. There is nothing special about beer calories that cause them to head straight to the belly." —There's a pro forma warning that drinking too much alcohol is bad for your liver—No shit! Next you're going to tell me that the NSA spies on people!—but other than that it is all good news. I mean, depending what [...]
"Bag-in-box wines are more likely than their bottled counterparts to develop unpleasant flavors, aromas and colors when stored at warm temperatures, a new study has found. Published in ACSʼ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, it emphasizes the importance of storing these popular, economical vintages at cool temperatures."
There is a difference between "trawling" and "trolling." Apparently one of them involves a net.
In case you were wondering about what a whammy is: "Ian Mortenson writes that he still possesses an old record called 'The Whammy' on which Screamin' Jay Hawkins tells the tragic tale of meeting a 'big woman' with a 'mojo bone' which she uses to "put the whammy" on him. Screaming Jay ends up 'walking sideways, my mind in neutral'. This makes the whammy sound like some kind of Caribbean voodoo spell. Mr Mortenson concludes: 'I presume a double whammy is a lot worse.'"
"An article on Thursday about efforts to help students improve reading and math skills omitted some skills that students in a math class needed to correctly add three fractions. They needed to find the least common multiple of the denominators, rewrite each number as an equivalent fraction, add the numerators, find the greatest common factor, then reduce the final answer — not just find the greatest common factor and reduce. The article also misstated, in some editions, the percentages of children who scored at a proficient or advanced level in math and reading after attending a school in the Uncommon Schools network for two years. Eighty-six percent, not 90 [...]
"If the mere thought of fingernails scraping along a blackboard makes you cringe, blame your amygdala. Scientists have discovered that this primitive almond-shaped brain region is behind our aversion to high-pitched sounds."
A local gay writes to say: "I need to read a blog post that teaches one how to break up with someone." Ask and you shall receive. On Fridays, at least.
The majority of gay-on-gay breakups are done through either sudden shunning or slow fade. Gays are equally good at both. That is the Level Three breakup, and it's really common, and I mean that in both senses. It's easy, frequent and kind of terrible! Everyone hates to get faded on but everyone loves to always be fading.
The Level Two breakup is a sort of horrible, confusing, awkward conversation (often over phone or IM!) about how "things [...]
