Nellie Mckay Work Song

A visit to the coldest town on Earth – Boing Boing

The village has a population of around 800 and is located 690 meters above sea level and lies in a valley between two mountain ranges (the reason for the low temperatures). The name Oymyakon means “non-freezing water” because of the natural hot spring close to the village.

The temperature this week is pretty low and the temperature tomorrow is a chilly -63C which based on the stats at Wikipedia equals the record low for December.

D

Large Hadron Collider Begins Testing | Wired Science from Wired.com

CERN will fire the first test beam through one of the particle accelerator’s sectors.

“It’s, ‘Let’s see what happens,’ ” Judy Jackson, head of the Office Communications at Fermilab, told Popular Mechanics. “It’s a very complex machine. This is a step towards getting ready.”

Then, on September 10th, a full-power beam will travel through the accelerator’s entire 17 miles of tunnels, reaching up to 99.99 percent of the speed of light. And finally, assuming all goes well, the first real science experiments will begin some time in October.

Nothing I can find says that ribbon snakes would do this, although I did find information that garter snakes will sometimes do this when hungry. We have a pool of fish for them, so it shouldn’t be this. I think perhaps one of them is simply a schizophrenic and the voices are telling him to eat the other….eat him….

At one tier, I retain enough self control to search out a can of gasoline, pour the entire content onto the point of discontent, light it/them on fire and simply smile at a job well done.

At another tier, I want to simply pick up a large sharp object, and proceed to stab and smash my target until it starts to break down into smaller pieces, then smash those pieces to yet even smaller pieces, until at some point I can no longer see them in reality. Then I smile at a job well done.

This particular episode I haven’t placed in a category yet. While shopping at a grociery store, and checking out, I saw the magazine “OK” or something, with Jamie Lynn on the cover saying how great motherhood was. How…great…motherhood…was….at 16!

As the father of a teenage, but a few years from this elated motherhood age, I have a small problem with a teen idol who has her own television series (with a teenage target audience) getting knocked up to begin with. Sure its her choice, and yes my own kids know better, but there are too many sheepish kids out there who see this as a good thing. Hell in the news there are clubs of teenage girls trying to get pregnant the fastest. NOW, she goes on record about how great it is?! Of course its great when your family is rich, you have your own tv show and you don’t have to worry about life in general. You don’t have to go get a job at 16 to make ends meet, you make more in one episode then most do in a year. You don’t have to worry about daycare, or children’s supplies. You don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck like most 16 moms would.

So yes, its motherhood is great for her. But do you think its going to all that great for the others, and should this be the message this teen idol is sending out?

Alright fine, I’ve decided now, definately the fire.

I honestly hope he wins some award for his performance.

So far, I have not come across another song that seems to embody pain and sadness better. I have not always felt this way about this, or even other, music. As a younger man, I had heard this song and others, but never felt them. I think there is a rationale behind this. I believe that some music can only be felt once you have experienced the innate emotion attached to the notes. As a teen, I had experienced tragedy, but mostly blocked its lessons away, trapped the pain so as not to experience it fully. But as I grew older, I started to understand the necessity and inevitability of life’s pleasures and pains. I feel that it is only from accepting this, learning from it, that I can now listen and appreciate the works of those geniuses who could translate life’s experiences into words or music. And their work is so very necessary, as it shows us that no matter what happens, we are not alone.

You Are Where You Eat: Obesity Maps of North America

Nanorods are being researched as a way to increase the efficiency of solar panels, but now they have discovered other uses.

Copper Nanorods Reduce Energy Needed by an Order of Magnitude
After super-efficient solar panels
that are “hairy” on the nanoscale, here come “hairy” pots & pans,
as well as computer chip heatsinks and other heat-transferring devices.
Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute made the
“unexpected” discovery: “by adding an invisible layer of the
nanomaterials to the bottom of a metal vessel, an order of magnitude
increase in efficiency is achieved in bringing water to boil. [...] The
potential applications for this discovery are vast and exciting, and
we’re eager to continue our investigations into this phenomenon.”