March 2007

AUTODIDACT

Once, in second or third grade, I was drawing a guy in a basketball jersey, and I made the number 69 (naturally, right?). Well when I took it home in my bright yellow "Drawings" folder and my mom found it, she sat me down and said that I shouldn't have made the number 69 because it was a sexual term. I was well aware of this, but played dumb and told her I'd change it. That's it.

In the late 1970's David Berkowitz, the self-proclaimed "Son of Sam" serial killer shot 6 people in less than a year. Almost all of his victims had long brown hair which led to a surge in women dying their hair blond, or buying a wig.

I'm wondering if this would apply to other things. If there was a sniper targeting morbidly obese people, would we see a rise in gym memberships?

Someone should make a command line Flash compiler.

Update I was pointed to mtasc by Kevin Sweeney. I'll post more once I get a chance to try it.

When I was in high school I used to do a lot of research on random topics. I'm home in Nashville this weekend, and found this page of notes on (I assume) animal communication:

Tigers
They will force their ears to go down when they are in fear. This will reveal a white spot on the back of the ear. When they are threatened or wish to threaten others they draw their lips back.

Lizards
Most of the legless lizards have feeble voices. On the whole we know very little of how lizards communicate with each other.

Dolphins
The dolphins have been the most rewarding animals used so far in these studies. They show all the emotions of excitement: fear, pleasure, inquisitiveness, welcome, teasing, concern, and distress. When they hear this distress signal, all dolphins within hearing range become silent and search for the animal sending it.

Now there is wikipedia.

I've been working and listening to this song by Dntel on repeat, and I thought I'd share it.

Bonus points for it repeating almost seamlessly.

Cool ceramic monsters by Eva Funderburgh.

Can't wait.