Friends don't let friends drive undead

There's a story on MSNBC about - get ready for this - a car full of zombies getting into an accident.  Apparently, these people's zombie costumes were so good that police initially thought their injuries were more serious than they actually were.


Can you imagine driving by that crash scene in the middle of the night?  Would you stop to help, or would you be afraid they'd try to eat your flesh and turn you into one of them?  EXACTLY.

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Unsolicited Opinions of the Week: 11 July

Here we go, some thoughts on things I saw/read/did this week.

WTF, Katy Perry?
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how inane the video for "California Gurls" is?  Seriously, people, the song has some pretty freaking clear imagery about bikinis and booze and beaches, basically giving you everything you need for a cute, campy, happy little summer movie.  No no, said Katy Perry.  The video is set in a super-sketchy, sexed-up version of Candyland in which Katy Perry wanders around in this bizarre, infantile little outfit acting like an overgrown version of Alice in Wonderland.  Oh wait, Alice was actually capable of stringing together rational thoughts and acting like she had a higher IQ than a 5 week old puppy.  And her story made more sense.  That's right, Katy Perry, Alice in Wonderland made more sense than your video.  The only thing - and I mean the only thing - saving this from total fail is the fact that the other (equally stupid, apparently) girls aren't white.  Still, I could have made a better video in my dorm room.

"California Gays" is infinitely better.

(More after the jump)

New Lady Gaga song

With the glasses, the piano, and the song, I'm reminded of Elton John.  I wonder what the studio version is going to sound like.

The rest of the concert is kinda meh, in my mind, but it was a performance for The Today Show in the middle of day during a ridiculously hot summer in NYC.  I refuse to believe it's indicative of her "regular" concerts.

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Creeping on kids is not okay

(Image credit: NYT via Jezebel article)

In a Jezebel post yesterday I learned that the archives at NYU have paid for videos by Larry Rivers that include home movies he made of his daughters.  That sounds adorable - who doesn't love videos of Christmas morning, right? - but he had his adolescent girls naked on the camera discussing the "very special changes" their bodies were going through.  The artist - he did other, more artistic things that weren't this creepy - is dead now, and one of his daughters wants the videos back since she's had to go to years of therapy after all this nonsense.  The NYU archives have said no, but apparently they won't let the videos be shown while she's alive.

You can read all the details in the Jezebel post and the NYT stories.  Needless to say, the creeping is super, super sketch.

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A video game even I like

 (image credit: http://continuitygame.com/about.html)

I am a bad nerd for a variety of reasons: I like the sun, Lady Gaga is on my iPod, I don't love Star Wars, etc.  I think my worst crime of nerdery, though, is that I just don't like video games.  I get really bored really fast, and the only console game I've ever truly loved is Harvest Moon.  (I'm still working on getting all the notes in Magical Melodies: I don't have it here with me at school.)

So, when I say that I like a video game, it's basically the equivalent of finding a unicorn.  No, Continuity doesn't fart rainbows and shit sprinkles like a real unicorn, but it's a pretty sick strategy game.  For spatially challenged folks like me, it's pretty tricky, but it's fun.

My biggest suggestion: listen to the soundtrack for a while, and then cut over to Robot Unicorn Attack and listen to that song for a while.

Credit for finding the game goes to my fellow Focus Monkey, aka Evan.

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Wait, you mean kids get distracted by computers? WHAT?

I'm sure I know nothing of that.  At all.

The NYT ran a story on bringing computers to middle schoolers in low income homes.  Apparently, it lowers test scores (I was too lazy to read the actual paper, but the NYT didn't say by how much) because the kids are playing games instead of doing homework.

First of all, I still don't believe test scores are the end-all be-all of education.  Quantifiable, yes, but not necessarily the best measure of anything.  Secondly, how much "homework" do middle school kids have to do on a computer?  I remember writing papers in MS word (or Open Office, in my case) and occasionally doing online research for said papers, but it's not like I was writing code or searching academic journals or anything else that I needed a computer for.  Finally, the NYT at least didn't blame the computers for it: it is all about supervision and usage, etc. etc.

Interestingly, the end of the article points out that the kids did learn better computer skills (duh), but also that apparently a bunch of them managed to find work arounds or hacks to get beyond the restrictions put in place by the schools.  That, my friends, is infinitely more valuable than test scores.

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Eductaional MMORPG from NASA (I know, right?)

(Photo credit: Quoted Article)

According to The Christian Science Monitor, a precursor to NASA's own MMORPG went live earlier this week.  "Moonbase Alpha" is a free to play game that you download and then play online with other people to do...whatever it is astronauts do.  It's apparently based more about fixing a lunar base after a meteor partially trashes that about collecting rock to bring back to Earth, so I'm not really sure if this is indicative of what astronauts really do.  

This is, after all, a big ploy by NASA to get more people - specifically children - specifically children who like video games - more interested in space.  I guess it worked for the army.

Lemme know if you played it and liked it: I'm curious to see if it's popular.

Also, I have to say that I love the quote from the dude at Goddard.  When asked about whether or not it was wise to leave the game set on the moon even as NASA canned its next plan to go to the moon, the project manager replies, "The moon's not going anywhere."  Is this a commentary on the fact that man doesn't need to get to the moon NOW in order for space science to get forward?  Does this dude just not give a shit about what other people think?  Or is trying to shut up the reporter so he can get back to work?  Scientists and engineers give some great quotes.

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There's a relation to Icarus somewhere with this solar plane, right?

The world has seen its first entirely solar-powered, piloted aircraft complete a 26-hour journey successfully, according to Computer World.  Its wings have a larger surface area than any commercial plane now, but the point its 12000 solar cells collected enough sunlight during the day to power the thing at night.  Not the world's cheapest technology, but it's an excellent proof of concept, right?

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Magnetic silly putty? Yes, please

You know what's cool?  Silly putty.  I have an egg of it next to my bed, on my bedside table (which is, incidentally, my minifridge since I don't plug it in over the summer), and let me tell you, that stuff is still good for hours of entertainment.

This stuff looks even better.  I found it on another site for $12 instead of $13.50, but dude, this is awesome.  It's silly putty and a magnet: two great tastes that taste great together.

Geekologie

Product Website

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The Man your man could win an Emmy like

The man your man could smell like has been nominated for an Emmy for best commercial.  Isaiah Mustafa has also been signed to a talent deal for NBC, so we'll probably be seeing more of him.

In case you were curious, here's a video about the making of.





Education: just one more service I offer.

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Controlling worms with magnets

According to a post at Wired Science, scientists can use magnets to control worms, which is pretty sick.  Apparently, magnetic nanoparticles attach themselves to cell membranes and heat up in the presence of an applied magnetic field.  The heat causes calcium ion channels to open, which activates neurons, I guess.

Kinda cool, right?

The technology isn't directly applicable to humans right now.

Also, I'd like to take a moment to point out that I've spent the last three weeks wading through articles from peer-reviewed journals to put together research for a project.  As an undergrad, this is a new and riveting experience, so going back to popular science articles - like this one - is delightful.

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Being Don Draper

I don't even know what this show is about, but I do love making fun of Don Draper's charm.

Isn't it funny, though, to know that dudes like him, the ones who know exactly which buttons to press, are so much less charming than the awkward ones who are sincere but the opposite of suave?  Funny old world.

New Mad Men on 25 July.  I'm stoked!

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Political Humor Time!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I'd like to point out that the Gulf of Mexico isn't the ocean.

Mostly, though, I love listening to people getting upset that he's not angry.  That always gets me.  Stay calm, kids.

I originally found this at a friend's blog, so I guess I should mention that, huh?

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Vuvuzelas that don't make you want to cry

Three German musicians makes actual music on vuvuzelas.

I'm hardly a World Cup fanatic: I learned just last week that each team should have 11 people on the field during the game.  However, I've watched enough of the World Cup to wonder why we can't just filter out those stupid vuvuzelas. They're mostly at one pitch - a pitch that's apparently not even a real note - so why filter out everything at that frequency and be done with it?  Yuck.

Anyway, these professional musician types managed to make real, live, honest-to-God tunes come out of those horns.  I know - I was amazed, too.

So was everyone else in the library.  I know, I know - I'm an asshole.

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Good copy at Woot! today

Seriously, Woot has some excellent copy today.

For those of you who don't know, Woot! sells one thing - usually at a fairly good price - for 24 hours.  Then it sells the next thing.  The 24 hours end at midnight for US Central Time, so I check it at 2200 when I'm awake.

Personal story: My only purchase from Woot was from their sister site that sells t-shirts, and let me tell you, I love Ceiling Cthulhu and have gotten many compliments on that shirt.

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The universe at different wavelengths

This is what the universe would look like if our eyes could see X-ray radiation.  SICK, right?

You can see a better image and more frequencies at Chromoscope.

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Who is this Wendy and why is she blogging?

Like all unique and wonderful snowflakes, I have something unique and wonderful to share with the world.  More unique and wonderful than anything currently online, obviously.

Seriously, though, I've spent the last 3+ years on Facebook (don't worry, I have real life friends, too) and recently realized that maybe it isn't the best platform for me to share links with my commentary.  Granted, I'm sure all of my 500+ friends want nothing more than to read about the latest development in physics or about genital mutilation in Africa or about a new interpretation of Shakespeare, and I'm sure they especially want to see that in their feed.  I'm sure the onslaught of nerdy-feminist-newsy topics really excites everyone, but I want to contain and build that excitement somewhere other than between photos of someone's ultrasound and tales of drunken revelry.

So I'm starting this blog.

For the record, the name refers to a 100+ (I'm really into the "+" sign today, go figure) e-mail chain that lasted about a month last December in which two of my friends and I shared cool shit we found online.  That e-mail, of course, started as a talk about Monkeybread, one of the most delicious and easiest to make desserts known to man, and devolved into ThinkGeek products and random webcomics.  And no, my name isn't Wendy.  A kid, after knowing me for 6 months, couldn't remember my name, and ever since then, it's just more fun to sign my e-mails as Wendy.

Besides, someone has to feed the Lost Boys.  Even if it is with monkeybread.

Hello, world.

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