Cartoonist Mark Anderson has been working with LEGO bricks to make cartoon art! This rendering of Charlie Brown ended up very large, as the lines were drawn using LEGO tiles and hinges. See how he did it at Andertoons. Link

by Mary Abraham and Jochen Rink
Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge

We investigated the effect of using music to enhance the sub-optimal system of undergraduate laboratory research assistants (Researcheria virginium). Many aspects of the interaction between the undergraduate and the laboratory bench leave much to be desired. We focused on the simplest -- yet easily quantifiable -- laboratory skill, the noble art of accurate pipetting.

Background

Many publications have documented the beneficial effects of music on mind and body, a phenomenon known as the Mozart effect.[1] Intelligence improves whilst one listens to music. It is also known that classical music causes significant increases in the milk yield of Holstein cows (Bovus holsticus). We merely attempted to see if music could be successfully applied in a similar way on a different problem.

Theoretical Pretext for this Research

Our premise was that pipetting errors must originate somewhere within the sensory motor axis of the undergraduate. Thus our investigation plumbs the depths of the undergraduate central nervous system (CNS), such as it is.

Our Findings

First we discovered that when a student pipetted to musical accompaniment, his or her speed, accuracy and final experimental success rates were transformed. We witnessed dazzling refinements in all aspects of pipetting that came under our scrutiny (data not shown). The authors’ personal recommendation for a piece of music ideally suited for this purpose is Strauss’ "The Blue Danube."

Suggestive as these preliminary findings were, our most significant discovery was unexpected, and momentous. There is a synergistic effect when music is used to synchronise the pipetting of all the workers on a bench.

This Twaggie was illustrated from a Tweet by @ohNoSheTwitnt. You can see a new Twaggie every day at GoComics! Link

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

(Image: Anne Baxter wins in 1948)

Okay, maybe it's pure sexism, but the surest way an actress can grab a Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress Academy Award is by playing a prostitute. Whether a "hooker with a heart of gold," a high-class call girl, or a destitute woman who turned to the streets, any actress knows well that if she takes on a role dealing with this occupation, she had a better shot at an Oscar win.

Sexism? Hmmm... well, I may be wrong on this count, but I don't think any guy has ever won an Oscar for playing a male prostitute. Jon Voight was nominated for his male hooker role in 1969's Midnight Cowboy, and I think that's as close as it ever got. Well, let's not digress into social discourse about "why women become hookers" right now. Suffice to say that the social structure through the ages has definitely made it harder for women than for men to go out and earn an honest living. And of course, there is the obvious (to any fair-minded observer) difference in the sexual makeup of men and women.

By the way, it's not just Oscar "wins" -many of movie's well-known "women as hookers" performances, i.e. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990), Shirley MacLaine in Irma la Douce (1963), and Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas (1995) did not win Oscars (I mistakenly thought both Julia and Elisabeth had won for their roles), but they did get nominations.

So far, 13 known actresses have taken home an Oscar statuette for playing "a woman of questionable repute" (okay, I think I've about exhausted the list of hooker metaphors). Let's take a look at these 13 actresses. Eleven of the 13 definitely played prostitutes; two are a bit nebulous.  

1. Janet Gaynor in Street Angel (1928)

 

At the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, Janet received the first-ever Oscar, but for three different movies, not just Street Angel. Interestingly, for the only time in Oscar history, an actress got an Oscar for three different films. So, although Street Angel was only a partial contribution, Janet still was technically the first.

2. Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) A very melodramatic old movie where Hayes' main character suffers nine misfortunes, one of which was becoming a prostitute.

3. Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge (1947) Anne plays tragic alcoholic Sophie Nelson. She was a "thrown-away woman who turns to prostitution." Pretty overwrought, huh?

4. Clare Trevor in Key Largo (1948) This is one of two nebulous prostitution labels on the list. Clare plays a boozy, broken-down torch singer in this, one of my favorite Humphrey Bogart films. Although Clare may or may not have been a hooker in this film, she did specialize in playing the "hooker with a heart of gold." In the classic Western Stagecoach (1939) she played a frontier prostitute "reformed" by John Wayne. Also, in the wonderful 1937 film Dead End, Clare played Bogie's ex who was forced into prostitution by unforeseen circumstances. Clare received Oscar nominations for both roles.

5. Donna Reed in From Here to Eternity (1953) It's a long way from playing Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) to playing an Oscar-worthy hooker seven years later. (Maybe it took more money than George thought to pay back the Building & Loan!) Now, to be fair, this designation is nebulous, too. Donna pays a "dance hall girl" in the film. She is obviously very "friendly" and "entertains" her guy customers who "visit" her, but she is not a definite hooker. Remember, too, this was the Fifties, a very conservative era in movies. It wasn't like most scripts could openly say a woman character was a prostitute. They relied, usually, more on intimation. So I can't honestly say Donna was a hooker here, but her character acted in that direction.

Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is a classic for Presidents Day. Can you name all the United States presidents? There are 43 different men who have served in the office. And you have eight minutes to name as many as you can. I will try this myself as soon as I have eight minutes to spare! Link

You've probably never heard the name Basil Zaharoff, so how did he earn a biographical post subtitled "The Wickedest Man in the World"?

Few men have acquired so scandalous a reputation as did Basil Zaharoff, alias Count Zacharoff, alias Prince Zacharias Basileus Zacharoff, known to his intimates as “Zedzed.” Born in Anatolia, then part of the Ottoman Empire, perhaps in 1849, Zaharoff was a brothel tout, bigamist and arsonist, a benefactor of great universities and an intimate of royalty who reached his peak of infamy as an international arms dealer—a “merchant of death,” as his many enemies preferred it.

In his prime, Zaharoff was more than a match for the notorious Aleister Crowley in any contest to be dubbed the Wickedest Man in the World.  Still remembered as the inventor of the Systeme Zaharoff—a morally bankrupt sales technique that involved a single unscrupulous arms dealer selling to both parties in a conflict he has helped to provoke—he made a fortune working as a super-salesman for Vickers, the greatest of all British private arms firms, whom he served for 30 years as “our General Representative abroad.” He expressed no objection to, and indeed seemed rather to enjoy, being referred to as “the Armaments King.”

Sources on Zaharoff's life and exploits are varied, incomplete, and sometimes suspicious. Mike Dash of Smithsonian's Past Imperfect blog puts together what we know -and don't know- about the strange life of the mysterious Mr. Zedzed. Link

Sometime before Christmas, 44-year-old Peter Skyllberg's car became stuck in deep snow near Umea, Sweden, just south of the Arctic Circle. A passer-by found him last Friday -meaning he spent about two months stuck in his car! While temperatures plunged to as low as -22F (-30C) outside, Skyllberg stayed in the car, where he had a sleeping bag, and the protection of both the car and a layer of snow over it. The man was taken to Norrland's University Hospital to recover. Dr. Dr Ulf Segerberg spoke about Skyllberg's survival.

"Starvation for one month, anyone can tolerate that if they have water to drink," said Dr Segerberg. "If you have body fat, you will survive even longer, although you end up looking like someone coming from a concentration camp."

He estimated that Mr Skyllberg could have lost more than three stone of his body weight over the period. Earlier police reports suggested Mr Skyllberg was in "really bad shape" when he was found.

He conceded that it was incredibly rare for someone to survive for so long outside in the cold Swedish winter.

Skyllberg is expected to recover, and may be released in a few days. Link -via Arbroath

Emil Johansson is busy working on a degree in chemical engineering in Sweden, but has managed to find the time to plot over 800 characters from The Lord of the Rings onto one massive family tree! The chart is interactive, so you can look up individual characters, or you can sort the tree by the type (species?) of characters. There are also some really nerdy statistics available for die-hard fans. This screenshot, just a tiny corner of the tree, may lead you to believe that families are sorted in alphabetical order, but that's not necessarily so. Still, this family must have had a time calling the children to dinner! Link -Thanks, Emil!

Today is the U.S. federal holiday officially called Washington's Birthday, but most Americans now call it Presidents Day. Schools often take the day to learn more about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln (whose birthday is February 12), and other presidents from history. If you want to do the same, there's a lot of great articles in the Neatorama archives that make presidential history more interesting than you thought!

43 Facts about 44 Presidents

Presidential Superstitions

5 Nastiest U.S. Presidential Elections in History

Three Presidential Tragedies (Other Than Assassinations)

Great Moments in Presidential Debt

A Sitting President's Memorial

Grover Cleveland's Deadly Secret

Happy Birthday, Teddy Roosevelt!

And if you happen to have the holiday off work, you'll find a lot more interesting things to read at The Best of Neatorama!

Fart jokes have been with us since we've had the ability to laugh. Fart art appears to go back quite some time as well! The Japanese scroll entitled He-Gassen (Fart Battle) dates from the Edo period, making it somewhere between 200 and 400 years old. There are more panels from the scroll at Tofugu. My personal favorite is the one with the cat, but I selected this one to show you because it's probably the tamest of the bunch. The rest contain partial nudity, meaning lots of butts. Don't laugh too loud, you'll attract attention! Link -via Metafilter

A few years ago we linked to the sad story of Little Albert, an infant who was a psychological test subject in John B. Watson's experiment on fear. He conditioned the child to be afraid of rats, a fear which generalized to all furry animals. At the time, we said no one knew what happened to Little Albert, only that the fear conditioning was never reversed. The entire project was an ethicist's nightmare. But further investigation hints it may have been much worse than we thought.

One of the longstanding mysteries about the experiment, the identity of Little Albert, was apparently solved in 2010 by Hall P. Beck, a psychologist at Appalachian State University. He and his co-authors argued that Little Albert was Douglas Merritte, the son of a wet-nurse who worked at the Johns Hopkins University, where the experiment was carried out. Merritte died in 1925 at age six from convulsions brought on by hydrocephalus (also known as “water on the brain”).

There is some evidence that the baby was neurologically impaired. Experts who have seen the films Watson kept of his experiment tend to think so -even those who are not aware of what the film was. If Watson tried to generalize his theories about fear based on data from one test subject who was ill and most likely suffering from a mental disability, then his conclusions are useless. If he knew the child was disabled, then they are a scientific fraud. And the cruelty of the process was for nothing at all.

The authors write about the baby’s mother, Arvilla, who was a wet nurse at the hospital. Because wet nurses were of low social status, and because she worked for the institution itself, she may have felt unable to turn down a request for her baby to be used in Watson’s experiment. “Voluntary consent, as we understand the term today, was not possible to give or to withhold,” they write. Presumably, most parents, if given a choice, would not allow their babies to participate in an experiment in which researchers terrify them. But Arvilla found herself in a bind. She was dependent on her employer both for her job and for the medical care of her sick baby.

Read the rest of the story (oh yes, there's more besides what we've told you) at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Link -via Metafilter

This Presidents Day article is from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Presidency.

What weighs 40,000 tons, towers 555 feet 5 1/8 inches high over the nation's capital, has 897 steps to the top, is made of 36,491 stones, and can boast with certainty that George Washington never slept there? The Washington Monument!

Today surrounded by 50 flags at the base, symbolizing each of the 50 states, the white marble obelisk is the jewel in the crown of the National Mall -but it took a surprisingly long time for the nation to get around to building it.

DESIGN DEBATES

Immediately after the War for Independence, the Continental Congress made plans to honor General George Washington. As far back as 1783, there was a plan for an equestrian statue of Washington to be placed near the Capitol building -once they figured out where the capital city was going to be. But the new nation was busy, and the capital moved several times, making it difficult to find a good spot for a tribute.

After Washington died in 1799, Congress again made noises about erecting a monument in his honor, and they settled on creating a tomb in the Capitol building. But they forgot to ask his family's opinion. Washington's heirs did not want to move his remains, which stayed firmly planted in his tomb on the grounds of his home, Mount Vernon, in Alexandria, Virginia.



As the 100th anniversary of Washington's birth approached, there was again a push to memorialize the first president. Congress coughed up $5,000 in 1832 for a marble statue intended for the Capitol Rotunda. However artist Horatio Greenhough's creation -a 20-ton seated seminude figure- was not exactly what most folks had in mind. This statue ended up at the Smithsonian Institution in 1908.

(YouTube link)

Billed as the "new sport of 1949," this newsreel shows us what seems to be an experiment in comedy. At least it's safer than regular boxing! And it reminds me of the Japanese TV show that staged a soccer game in which all the players wore binoculars. -via Nag on the Lake

(YouTube link)

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was doomed to roll a boulder up a hill and watch it roll back down, so he could start his task all over again. The YouTube description (in Polish) says this guy with a snowblower kept it up for an hour and a half. You have to wonder if anyone ever explained to him that you could aim the snow out to the side. -via TYWKIWDBI

Memories are not exact recordings of our experiences. Science finds that the act of remembering something changes that memory. This finding has led to the development of drugs that, when administered in conjunction with the act of recalling a specific memory, can modify or even erase that memory! The applications of this research could mean a cure for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PKMzeta is an enzyme that is produced around brain synapses when memories are recalled. An enzyme inhibitor called zeta-interacting protein, or ZIP, reduces the production of PKMzeta. Neuroscientists Karim Nader and Joseph LeDoux explain how this inhibitor can erase memories.

Nader, LeDoux, and a neuroscientist named Jacek Debiec taught rats elaborate sequences of association, so that a series of sounds predicted the arrival of a painful shock to the foot. Nader calls this a “chain of memories”—the sounds lead to fear, and the animals freeze up. “We wanted to know if making you remember that painful event would also lead to the disruption of related memories,” Nader says. “Or could we alter just that one association?” The answer was clear. By injecting a protein synthesis inhibitor before the rats were exposed to only one of the sounds—and therefore before they underwent memory reconsolidation—the rats could be “trained” to forget the fear associated with that particular tone. “Only the first link was gone,” Nader says. The other associations remained perfectly intact. This is a profound result. While scientists have long wondered how to target specific memories in the brain, it turns out to be remarkably easy: All you have to do is ask people to remember them.

In addition to PTSD, erasing certain memories could aid therapies for chronic pain, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and drug addiction. But is it right to erase memories? Medical ethicists are divided. Some say that the memory of pain is educational, and it's wrong to mess with what makes us who we are. Others are excited about the possibility of helping those who suffer. And the rest of us wonder what happens when this technology falls into the wrong hands. Read the rest on this fascinating subject at Wired. Link -via Metafilter