Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
How long can you wear the same pair of jeans without washing them? The most common answer you hear is "one semester." An Australian researcher (and college student) put the question to the test by asking volunteers to wear a pair of jeans five days a week for three months straight.
Thirty people of all ages took part in the experiment. Several of them decided to stop washing their shirts as well. Half the participants ended the three months saying they still didn't plan to wash the jeans. http://www.news.com.au/weird-true-freaky/thirty-melbournians-wore-the-same-paid-of-jeans-five-days-a-week-for-three-months/story-e6frflri-1226234633404 -via Fark
(Image credit: Mike Keating)
Melbourne researcher Tullia Jack recruited 30 volunteers to do just that - and will soon exhibit the grimy garments at the National Gallery of Victoria so the public can put them to the pong test.
She hopes the unusual experiment for her Master of Philosophy thesis will challenge our culture of "extreme clean".
Despite stains and spills ranging from tuna and avocado to motor oil and chocolate, Ms Jack says the expectation dirty denim will be whiffy is much worse than the reality.
"Not washing your jeans isn't nearly as bad as it sounds," the Melbourne University student and RMIT fashion lecturer says.
"You really don't need to wash clothes as often as you think. Stains come and go, they just wear off."
Thirty people of all ages took part in the experiment. Several of them decided to stop washing their shirts as well. Half the participants ended the three months saying they still didn't plan to wash the jeans. http://www.news.com.au/weird-true-freaky/thirty-melbournians-wore-the-same-paid-of-jeans-five-days-a-week-for-three-months/story-e6frflri-1226234633404 -via Fark
(Image credit: Mike Keating)
Following in the Broadway tradition using the most unlikely subjects for musicals, Ana Serrano, Romeo Candido, and Carmen De Jesus are turning the story of the dancing inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines into a web-only musical production. It will debut on the prisondancer YouTube channel in 12 episodes beginning in March. -via Buzzfeed
It happens all the time in the movies: someone sinks into a pool of lava and burns to death. Would a real-life incident turn out like that? Only sort of ...because it would certainly burn. Erik Klemetti explains what the movies get wrong.
Then there's the math and an experiment that explains why one doesn't sink in lava. Still, you don't want to try it at home. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science
However, the death of Gollum at the end of Return of the King got me thinking. Gollum, if you remember, dove into the lava of Mount Doom after his precious ring was thrown in — he proceeds to sink into the lava (see below) and leaves the ring floating on the lava until it melts away. Guess what? Sinking into lava just will not happen if you’re a human (or remotely human). You’d need to be a Terminator to sink into molten rock/metal … and here’s why.
Molten lava is nothing like water. Sure, everyone thinks that liquid rock (magma) is going to behave like any other liquid (e.g., water), but there are some key physical properties that tell us it just isn’t the case.
Then there's the math and an experiment that explains why one doesn't sink in lava. Still, you don't want to try it at home. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science
To get into this story, you first have to understand that octopuses tend to text their cephalopod friends while drunk. In a series of messages and photos, we follow the adventures of an octopus that steals a diver's camera (which you may recall actually happened) and then relates his activities to other octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish. You might recognize other true stories of cephalopods that are also referenced. Link -via Metafilter
E. Robert Schulman and C. Virginia Cox
Charlottesville, Virginia
Abstract
In this paper we demonstrate that writing a Ph.D. dissertation can have many benefits. Not only do you obtain extensive typesetting experience, but afterwards you can have your frequent-flyer literature addressed to "Dr. Your Name."
Chapter I: Introduction
Ph.D. dissertations (e.g., Schulman 1995a; Cox 1995) are commonly believed to be comprehensive compendiums of the original research done by a graduate student in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.² In reality, the Ph.D. thesis is usually a number of disparate chapters whose most important feature is not the thoroughness of the experimental description but rather the width of the margins. In this paper, the second article in a series on scientific writing that began with Schulman (1996a), we will discuss the phenomenon of the Ph.D. thesis.
Chapter II: Preparing to Write
There comes a time in the life of every graduate student when she or he realizes that another two years of graduate school cannot be endured. Even though a year spent writing your thesis will be filled with frustration and angst, it will end up being worth it in order to escape school forever.
Remember the following phrase: "No one will ever read your thesis.'' You'll hear this phrase a number of times as you finish up, and it's vitally important that you believe it to be true. The phrase is important because without it you would be tempted to work on your thesis until everything is perfect, and you would never finish.
Chapter III: Your Thesis Committee
Your thesis committee should consist of between four and nine researchers in and outside of your field. Each committee member has a specific duty.
Your thesis advisor has the most important job: to reassure you that you don't have to do many of the things you're positive you should do. She or he will likely say, "It's good enough for the thesis'' fairly often.
You also need one committee member who will insist on more mathematical rigor, one who will demand that the thesis be made more concise by getting rid of all that irrelevant math, and two or three to say that you should do all the things your thesis advisor told you didn't need to be done.
Continue reading
Charlottesville, Virginia
Abstract
In this paper we demonstrate that writing a Ph.D. dissertation can have many benefits. Not only do you obtain extensive typesetting experience, but afterwards you can have your frequent-flyer literature addressed to "Dr. Your Name."
Chapter I: Introduction
Ph.D. dissertations (e.g., Schulman 1995a; Cox 1995) are commonly believed to be comprehensive compendiums of the original research done by a graduate student in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.² In reality, the Ph.D. thesis is usually a number of disparate chapters whose most important feature is not the thoroughness of the experimental description but rather the width of the margins. In this paper, the second article in a series on scientific writing that began with Schulman (1996a), we will discuss the phenomenon of the Ph.D. thesis.
Chapter II: Preparing to Write
There comes a time in the life of every graduate student when she or he realizes that another two years of graduate school cannot be endured. Even though a year spent writing your thesis will be filled with frustration and angst, it will end up being worth it in order to escape school forever.
Remember the following phrase: "No one will ever read your thesis.'' You'll hear this phrase a number of times as you finish up, and it's vitally important that you believe it to be true. The phrase is important because without it you would be tempted to work on your thesis until everything is perfect, and you would never finish.
(Image credit: Flickr user lunita lu)
Say "It's good enough for the thesis" to yourself several times a day. Tell yourself that you'll correct all the mistakes when you turn the various chapters into independent scientific papers, even though this won't happen (see Schulman 1996aand references therein).Chapter III: Your Thesis Committee
Your thesis committee should consist of between four and nine researchers in and outside of your field. Each committee member has a specific duty.
Your thesis advisor has the most important job: to reassure you that you don't have to do many of the things you're positive you should do. She or he will likely say, "It's good enough for the thesis'' fairly often.
You also need one committee member who will insist on more mathematical rigor, one who will demand that the thesis be made more concise by getting rid of all that irrelevant math, and two or three to say that you should do all the things your thesis advisor told you didn't need to be done.
Atlas Obscura took many readers on trips around the world without leaving their computers in 2011. They've compiled a list of their most popular places -to read about, if not to travel to- over the past year. Some you read about here; others may be new to you, but all are fascinating. Shown is Cactus Dome in the Marshall Islands, a concrete cover over a nuclear crater left after US weapons tests, just one of the ten places you can visit online. Link
Photoshop Disasters is always good for a laugh -or a nightmare. I may be seeing this model and her "elbow that won't quit" in my dreams for some time to come. She is one of the Top 10 Photoshop Disasters of 2011, but she's not #1. Link
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Music.
People around the world have been trying to regulate music for centuries, but in the 1980s, Tipper Gore launched the first campaign to rate albums. Here's the story of how a vice-president's wife took on graphic lyrics in music and won ...sort of.
DARLING TIPPER
In 1984, Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore, bought Prince's Purple Rain album for her 11-year-old daughter Karenna. They put on the VD and Gore liked it ...until she got to "Darling Nikki," a very sexually explicit song, and one Gore thought was inappropriate for an 11-year-old. Had she known, she never would have bought the album.
Gore did some more "research" on the level of vulgarity in popular music -she watched MTV for a few hours and found more songs that troubled her, including Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher," and Mötley Crüe's "Looks That Kill." "The images frightened my children, they frightened me," she said. "The graphic sex and the violence were too much for us to handle."
She started talking to some friends -wives of prominent Washington businessmen and politicians- and decided to use her influence to do something about it. With Susan Baker (wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker) , Pam Howar (wife of powerful realtor Raymond Howar), and Sally Nevius (wife of Washington City Council chairman John Nevius), Gore formed the Parents Music Resource Center, or PMRC, in 1985.
PMRC's stated goal: to raise parental awareness of "the growing trend in music towards lyrics that are sexually explicit, excessively violent, or glorify the use of drugs and alcohol." The group even suggested that the increase in some crimes in the previous 30 years directly correlated with the popularity of rock music -rape was up 7% since 1955 and teenage suicide was up 300%.
PMRC TO RIAA: X, V, D/A, O!
Continue reading
People around the world have been trying to regulate music for centuries, but in the 1980s, Tipper Gore launched the first campaign to rate albums. Here's the story of how a vice-president's wife took on graphic lyrics in music and won ...sort of.
DARLING TIPPER
In 1984, Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore, bought Prince's Purple Rain album for her 11-year-old daughter Karenna. They put on the VD and Gore liked it ...until she got to "Darling Nikki," a very sexually explicit song, and one Gore thought was inappropriate for an 11-year-old. Had she known, she never would have bought the album.
Gore did some more "research" on the level of vulgarity in popular music -she watched MTV for a few hours and found more songs that troubled her, including Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher," and Mötley Crüe's "Looks That Kill." "The images frightened my children, they frightened me," she said. "The graphic sex and the violence were too much for us to handle."
She started talking to some friends -wives of prominent Washington businessmen and politicians- and decided to use her influence to do something about it. With Susan Baker (wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker) , Pam Howar (wife of powerful realtor Raymond Howar), and Sally Nevius (wife of Washington City Council chairman John Nevius), Gore formed the Parents Music Resource Center, or PMRC, in 1985.
PMRC's stated goal: to raise parental awareness of "the growing trend in music towards lyrics that are sexually explicit, excessively violent, or glorify the use of drugs and alcohol." The group even suggested that the increase in some crimes in the previous 30 years directly correlated with the popularity of rock music -rape was up 7% since 1955 and teenage suicide was up 300%.
PMRC TO RIAA: X, V, D/A, O!
National Geographic selected ten amazing people for their Adventurers of the Year. You can read about each one and then vote for your favorite to win the People's Choice Award (through January 18th). One of those finalists is rider Danny MacAskill, whose stunt videos have gone viral over the past couple of years. Read more about him at NatGeo's Intelligent Travel blog. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
You know how young boys spend class time doodling fantastic cars and spaceships? Cornelis Bos did the same thing in the 1550s, except at the time the fanciest mode of transportation was the chariot. He really souped them up in his fantasies! The picture here is described thusly:
Chariot of grotesques and scrollwork drawn by two fantasy animals and pushed by a satyr, whose head is trapped in a large shell. A satyr is in the car with a lighted lamp. [I]n print series of eight chariots of grotesques and scrollwork with satyrs, animals and various other creatures; decorated with trophies, garlands and vines. [1550]
You can see a collection of 13 of Cornelis Bos' fantasy chariots at BibliOdyssey. Link
If you adjust the years accordingly, this comic will work for almost anyone! However, no matter what time I go to bed on New Year's Eve, I wake up at midnight because of the fireworks going off all over town. This year... my kids have fireworks ready. Comic by A. Stiffler at Chaos Life. http://chaoslife.findchaos.com/?p=214 -via reddit
(YouTube link)
A lonely cosmonaut has a very strange New Year celebration in this holiday animation by Anton Korolyuk and Artem Bizyaev. -via the Presurfer
I went to the blog Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons to check out the Star Wars gingerbread cookies. Then I was completely distracted by the post of Star Wars Party Food. There's no end to the tie-ins, from Yoda Soda to Chewie Wookiee Cookies to the Garbage Masher Cake! Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
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