Daily Archives: October 21, 2011

Friday Science Roundup, October 21, 2011

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Hi there all you wonderful people! You are all looking especially dominant and sexually desirable this week. Have you been participating in activities intended to move you towards your ideal mass? No? I lightheartedly question the veracity of that statement in order to exaggerate the sincerity of my previous observation!

Got some really interesting stuff to share this week, unlike other weeks, in which, frankly, just between you and I, I was really phoning it in.

Please at least pretend you are surprised and shocked by this revelation. My ego responds to compliments just like yours does, only more so.

First off… well, I guess I better get this over with right away. No sense in beating around the bush, even though honestly I am ashamed to even bring it up, because it might seem like I am bragging or putting myself forward, and if that was the impression I gave, well, I would just blush so hard… but here goes anyhow.

Turns out, according to a recent study, people consider easily embarrassed people more trustworthy.

The funky folks at University of California Berkeley proved this, and to me, it makes perfect sense. Someone who is easily embarrassed is someone who demonstrates a capacity to feel shame, and we naturally consider such a person to be trustworthy because we figure, deep in our animal brains, that said shame will keep them from doing bad things. This goes more than double for someone who blushes. That goes right to our primate minds, from back when our emotions were expressed more by blushing and flushing than by facial expression.

The cynical part of my mind wonders if this means that being able to fake being embarrassed easily or even blush on cue would be a golden treasure for professional liars like con men, actors, or bankers.

Turning to the world of medicine, we have the mildly surprising news that apparently, pig to human tissue transfers are “imminent”.

Well, to be more specific, human trials might well be imminent. And by imminent, we mean they could start as soon as only two to three years from now!

Not exactly piping hot news right off the transom. Stupid sensationalistic science journalism. But still, pretty interesting nevertheless.

I confess, I have not thought about animal to human tissue transplants in at least a decade, probably two. I mean, how long has it been since that baboon to human heart transplant? 27 years? It really feels like news from the past.

And to be honest, I have been paying so much attention to things like tissue engineering and stem cell research that seem like they are the wave of the future that thinking about animal tissue transplants seems positively bizarre.

But our love of pork produces an awful lot of dead pig parts that right now just get thrown away. If we could turn waste into human life, that would be a truly amazing piece of modern medical alchemy.

Obviously, though, Muslims and Jews are not going to go for it. What could be more traif than having a piece of pig inside you forever?

Finally, from one of my favorite scientific frontiers, namely brain science, rejoice, cynics and pessimists : optimism is a brain defect.

Or at least, that is one interpretation of the data from a recent fMRI study by a team of English and German scientists. The story is sadly poor on the exact details, instead choosing to waste column inches on explaining why excessive optimism might be a bad thing.

Well duh. Excessive anything is, by definition, bad. And we all know how irrational exuberance lead to the 2008 financial meltdown.

Well, that, and evil old white men stealing from everybody.

And being a depressive, I can tell you all about how the opposite can be just as bad if not even worse. Excessive pessimism leads to depression, lack of motivation, inability to make decisions, passing up genuinely good opportunities, isolation, social incapacity, and in general, a human being who is not functional at all.

From my admittedly biased point of view, it is obvious that a certain degree of irrational optimism is actually beneficial, as it provides a buffer that makes it tougher for life to get you down and keeps you filled with hope for better so you can keep going until it actually does get better.

Sounds a lot better than crippling depression to me. Maybe you take foolish risks, but you take smart ones too.

Maybe it all evens out somehow.

The wool I have gathered in

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Today’s batch, that is.

I thought that, for today at least, I would try to blend the shared content with the shared consciousness and offer you some cool links along with the belly button lint.

I guess that would be one advantage of being an “outie”…. no place for lint to hide.

Whereas if you are a big fat innie like me, you could lose a fingertip in there. I have probably gathered enough lint in there during my life to knit an entire sheep.

Oh, and speaking of which, I love this piece from Seth MacFarlane :

The poster’s description says “it’s either from Family Guy or American Dad”. Yeah, they could totally get away with a kinky gay ram swearing like a sailor and demanding something be shoved up his asshole on network TV.

Then again, they do get away with a lot…. OK, admittedly, it’s a fine distinction.

But still, it’s clearly from Seth Macfarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, his web series where he can do more or less whatever the fuck he wants, including having a submissive gay ram who sounds a lot like Brian the dog from Family Guy begging to be shorn.

Needless to say, I love it. It combines sexual perversion, cartoon animals, and comedy, and that is a pretty good way to win my heart.

What can I say, I know what I like.

Another thing I like (what a deft segue!) is people who take the time out of their busy day to have fun with public signs and the English language as well.

Like whoever did this :

Done. Now what?

I love you, anonymous person who took the time to print out a bunch of pieces of paper with the word “No.” on them in huge capital letters and put them all up around the original sign, purely out of the urge to express their own surreal sense of humor and maybe, just maybe, make some other people laugh too.

I love this kind of thing because it harms nothing, hurts nobody, and makes everybody’s day a little brighter and a little less like every other day.

Boredom is a real problem in the modern pampered age, and anything someone can do to liven things up without hurting anyone is thumbs up from me.

Besides, I have never understood what people have against it in the first place.

Well, then he has nothing to fear, does he?

Poor Bill Posters. He will never get a fair trial.

Oh well, at least we know he will never have to roll over for these guys.

I absolutely love this song, even though, strictly speaking, it isn’t actually good.

I mean, it’s amateurish, the video obviously had no budget (although apparently they somehow managed to get Daniel Frishman, Dan’s boss from a few episodes of Night Court, to appear in their video), they obviously have no idea what they are doing, and most of the song is musically terrible.

But then there’s that chorus… that completely unexpectedly and one might even say inappropriately awesome chorus.

Plus, honestly, it has so much joyously uninhabited goofiness that I cannot help but feel a strong affection for it. These guys are not holding back, and I love them for it.

And the chorus is prophetic, because they truly are the Dog Police (it’s the same dudes in the dog masks and the band, if you hadn’t figured that out) and truly, nobody knows who they are. I can find no information on them on the Internet. This video is the only evidence of their existence. And yet, they have given us so very much.

I’m telling ya, there ain’t no justice.

As for me, I am having another stupid sleepy day. I don’t feel like talking about it, not because it bothers me, but because I hate repeating myself.

Sleeping a lot, many dreams, barely enough time to eat and poop, etc.

Room for one more sign. This one goes in both the They Had To Be Told and There Is A Story Here files, I think.

Great, now what do I do with this guy?

One can imagine that sign writer’s inner monologue.

“Should I put the ‘or anybody’ in? I mean, technically, I guess it’s implied. But what if, by omitting it, I am implicitly condoning throwing people in? Could I live with myself if I am called into court to face the person who got thrown into the pond because of my rank negligence and brutishly cavalier attitude towards human life? No, I better put it in… boy, I hope this doesn’t end up on the Internet. ”

Woops. Sorry pal!

Saludo, muchachos. Peace y’all!