ONE PARAGRAPH THAT EXPLAINS LIFE!

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.

From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed:

“Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease”?
To this Arthur Ashe replied:
“The world over — 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis,
500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam,
50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals,
when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD ‘Why me?’.
And today in pain I should not be asking GOD ‘Why me?’ “

“Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrow keeps you Human,
Failure keeps you humble and Success keeps you glowing,

but only Faith & Attitude Keeps you going…”

Craziest Scientific research projects/names

Extract from a this website

Not many grad students see the funny side of science. Meredith Carpenter and Lillian Fritz-Laylin, from the Molecular and Biology Department at UC Berkeley, not only see it but blog it. Their site, ncbirofl.com (National Center for Biotechnology Information, Rolling On the Floor Laughing), is a repository for absurd published scientific papers. Here is their top ten…

Optimising the sensory characteristics and acceptance of canned cat food: use of a human taste panel. (Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition)

Effects of cocaine on honeybee dance behaviour. (Journal of Experimental Biology)

Swearing as a response to pain. (NeuroReport)

Pigeons can discriminate “good” and “bad” paintings by children. (Animal Cognition)

The “booty call”: a compromise between men’s and women’s ideal mating strategies. (The Journal of Sex Research)

Intermittent access to beer promotes binge-like drinking in adolescent but not adult Wistar rats. (Alcohol)

Fellatio by fruit bats prolongs copulation time. (PLoS One)

More information than you ever wanted: does Facebook bring out the green-eyed monster of jealousy? (Cyberpsychology and Behavior)

Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull? (Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine)

The nature of navel fluff. (Medical Hypotheses)

Gembrook to nowhere

Today we decided to go to Gembrook to do some 4wd with the family.  We drove from Maryknoll towards the forest and the first signs of trouble came up when the road the GPS said took us into a private property.  The GPS insisted that there was a road leading right through the house that was in front of me.

So after ignoring the GPS and wondering through 2 more such roads that should have been there but wasn’t we ended up in the state forest.  Driving a long Camp road we got to the first track only to find that it was closed due to the fires.  As we went further in we realised pretty soon that we were not going to have any luck today.  All the tracks were closed allowing only hikers and horses to go on them.

We roamed around for a little bit longer and decided to head back home.  Next time I should remember to call up Parks Vic before heading off…  Yeah I know, I’ve been told that I shuold ring them before I go, but hey, sometimes I’m lazy.

SL Birth registration

http://www.slhcaust.org/ocs_02.htm

Brain food

Braniac’s dietery requirements:

Omega-3: Omega-3s are known to be particularly crucial constituents of the outer membrane of brain cells.  As learning and memory forge new connections between nerve cells, new membranes must be formed to sheathe them. All brain cell membranes continuously need to refresh themselves with a new supply of fatty acids.
Found in: Cold water fish contain beneficial omega-3 fatty acids: halibut, mackerel, salmon, trout and tuna.

Choline : Studies show that choline supplementation enhances memory and reaction time in animals, especially aging animals. It also enhances memory in people. Choline supplementation also minimizes fatigue.
Found in: Eggs

Carbohydrates: To maintain adequate levels of the brain fuel glucose, it’s important to eat often enough.

Protien: It is needed to manufacture brain tissue, enzymes, neurotransmitters, and myriad other brain chemicals.

References:

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20031028-000010.html

http://www.fi.edu/brain/diet.htm

The Strangest Sights in Google Earth

People seem to have quite a lot of spare time these days to go searching through every inch of this world to find various strange sights… Google maps certainly makes this easier, but still it would take a lot of time and patience to find these.

Here is some amazing sights found on google.

Getting Rid of Ants

Suggested ways to get rid of an ant problem. This eHow link has a lot of comments of people.

Bay leaves:  Lot of talk about ants hating these and disapearing pretty quick.  I could only find the dried variety at the vegi shop I go to.  Tried it but ants didn’t seem to mind it.  Maybe the fresh ones work better?  OR they maybe different varieties of Bay leaves used in the US & Aust.

Baby powder:  Next to bay leaves people talk about having success with Baby powder.

Cinnamon: Say to sprinkle cinnamon around where ants come.

Chilli, paparika & black/white peper:  Ants are said to hate these.  I tried chilli and they just blinked and went back about their business as usual.

Eucaliptus oil:  This might be a good one.  I know its strong stuff and lots of animals hate it.

Tea tree oil:  Must be similar to Eucaliptus oil.

Chalk:  People seem to say that ants don’t cross chalk.

Cucumber: Cut slices and leave.  People say ants disappear for this.

Cornflour:

VoIP info from John Mann

Lots of good info on VoIP, VoIP providers etc. from John Mann here

Ambigrams

A pretty cool list of eye twisters known as Ambigrams.

Web 2.0 and “The Machine is Us/ing Us”

A very interesting piece of work on Web 2.0