Moderate Drinking May Boost Memory

"Researchers found that moderate amounts of alcohol - amounts equivalent to a couple of drinks a day for a human - improved the memories of laboratory rats."

The following headline was also being considered: Moderate Drinking May Not Boost Memory

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Snape is good!

Read no further if you haven't read Harry Potter book 6 yet and do not want to find out that Snape killed Dumbledore... d'oh! Sorry, oh well, now you can read on. Here's my Harry Potter book 7 theory in regards to Snape. This is really nothing that bold, and I'm sure I'm not the only one to come to this conclusion, because once you do it really makes more sense than anything else. I am 100% sure I am right on this, so I just wanted to state it somewhere on my website for the record.

Basically, Snape is good despite having killed Dumbledore. You see, Dumbledore knew this was going to happend because he actually asked Snape to kill him. Now, why exactly this is I am not quite sure (perhaps to save Malfoy?), but it makes perfect sense. When Dumbledore says "please" to Snape, seemingly begging him for something, we immediately assume that he is begging Snape to save him. But this is totally out of character for Dumbledore, and as Francisco from Atlas Shrugged says: "Contradictions do not exist... something something... check your premises." Dumbledore is not begging for his life, he is encouraging Snape to fulfill his request... the request that he kill him. Why do you think afterwards Snape is so upset at Harry for calling him a coward? Because killing Dumbledore was the hardest thing Snape ever had to do. Dumbledore was the only one who was willing to see Snape for what he really was: good. Dumbledore was the only one who trusted him. When I first read the chapter, I thought "wow, so, Dumbledore was betrayed by Snape afterall, too bad, so sad" but it makes much more sense if this is not the case. Snape being good also will have a very strong message for book 7: no matter how much evil someone has done, now matter how dirty someone's past has been, people can make decisions, people still have the power to choose good instead of evil, even in the shadow of Vol... Vo... oh, I dare not utter his name! Let's just hope Harry discovers the true nature of Snape before Snape has to sacrafice himself for Harry... as Snape is sure to die in book 7.

So... who will be the other character to die? Well, it obviously won't be Harry, that would be stupid. Now, this part I'm not sure about at all, but if I had to guess I'd say Longbottom since he just seems like a great character to die.

Since Rowling likes to add in useless subplots of relationships and teen romance in her novels, it is obvious Hermione and Ron are meant for each other, and Harry might find that Ginny (is that her name?), Ron's little sister, is the one for him, even though that creeps me out.

Lastly, that mirror that Black gave Harry at the end of the Order of the Bird or whatever will surely come in handy in book 7, I know it. Rowling has a plan.

Feel free to comment!

Fraggle Rock - The Movie

"The 1980s cult hit TV show is being developed by Ahmet Zappa -- younger son of Frank Zappa -- into a full-length live-action musical fantasy starring the classic characters."

Dance your cares away... worries for another day... let the music play... when the movie comes out...

The Gorgs better be in the movie... as well as the Doozers, of course. I wouldn't mind seeing the Trash Heap again, and of course Gobo's travelling uncle. I'm not sure if that old guy who played Doc is still around, but the dog Sprocket should be in the movie too.

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Secrets of Greatness - What it takes to be great

"Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work."

Only non-great people read this kind of stuff... *yawn*

However, much also depends on what "greatness" is defined as... for example, I define it as me. Others define it by wealth and fame. What is "talent"? What is "success"? Shut up, you wannabe losers who aren't happy with your life because you won't do anything and want to achieve somebody else's idea of success! Don't be such Peter Keatings!

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Charles Darwin's works go online

"The complete works of one of history's greatest scientists, Charles Darwin, are being published online."

Because it's too hard to go to the library...

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NASA approves construction of satellite to scan galaxies

"After eight years of study, NASA has approved the construction of an unmanned satellite that will scan the entire sky in infrared light to reveal nearby cool stars, planetary "construction zones" and the brightest galaxies in the universe."

This might help us find some aliens that are smart enough to be slaves but dumb enough to only have animal rights.

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Electrons Have Free Will?

"As Conway and Kochen write, "No theory can predict exactly what these particles will do in the future for the very good reason that they may not yet have decided what this will be!" "

Um... no. God does not play dice. I do not believe that just because we are clueless as to the laws of physics on the atomic level implies that there are no rules. Also, you cannot have true "choice" without consciousness, and "choice" does not itself imply any lack of determination.

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Blockdude - Flash Remake of Classic TI-83 Game!

I gave up on level 7...

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St. Louis Youth Plays Videogame With Brain Signals

"A team of ECoG (ElectroCorticography) researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have successfully wired a young man's brain up to a computer and began reading the neurological firings in his brain. After reading and analyzing these signals, he was successfully able to play videogames using only his thoughts."

Urgh... I wanna play.

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Carnivorous Plant Eats Mouse At French Garden

"The carnivorous plant, native to the Philippines, is the first to actually prove that plants can indeed eat small mammals."

And everyone thought it was such a nice little shop...

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How Sleep Works

"Why Sleep? No one really knows why we sleep. But, there are all kinds of theories, including these: Sleep gives the body a chance to repair muscles and other tissues, replace aging or dead cells, etc. Sleep gives the brain a chance to organize and archive memories. Dreams are thought by some to be part of this process."

This is the sort of stuff you hate reading when you have to pull an all-nighter... luckily I'm not! Ha!

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Cook an egg without water

"A British inventor insisted Wednesday that boiling an egg was not all it's cracked up to be as he trumpeted his gadget that cooks them without water."

Ew... who wants to eat eggs? Yuck.

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Dropout Makes Big Bucks Playing Games

Is this article purposefully trying to make hard working college students depressed? Ha ha ha... witty.

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Will Wright & The Long Zoom

Whew! I did not have time to read all of this, but it's yet another fascinating article about good old Spore and Will Wright... I hate articles like these because they make me daydream too much... you don't get anything done by daydreaming.

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What Does A Candle Flame Look Like In Zero Gravity?

Pretty boring actually...

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Nick Lets Youngsters Make Own Cartoons

"The Nickelodeon network is giving its young viewers the chance to create cartoons, instead of just watch them. Nick has just made available on its Web site technology that allows young fans to make cartoon mashups of different scenes from favorites like "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Avatar" and distribute them to their friends."

Naturally I couldn't resist trying this out for myself, and I was very unimpressed... lame lame lame! However, when I discovered I could watch some full length episodes of Spongebob, I felt much better.

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Why say no to free money? It's neuro-economics, stupid

"Studies show how the brain lets the emotions override common sense when reaching some tough decisions. Our correspondent reports on the 'ultimatum game' "

Interesting article... I have played the ultimatum game before.

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Making Water From Thin Air

It's called getting a Coke out of the fridge. Duh.

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NASA Performs Headcount of Local Black Holes

Have you ever looked up in the sky and said, "wow, just look at all the black holes!" No, you haven't.

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IGN posts a scathing editorial concerning next-gen costs

Ok... um... no. Doug Perry's idea that gaming will take this direction is wrapped in many layers of stupid. People are simply not going to buy digital elements for their games, and those that are dumb enough to don't deserve their money anyway, because chances are they never were really smart enough to earn it in the first place. Things that are dumb don't stick around for long except high schools. Have no fear, the idea of digitally purchasing game elements will not radically change anything because the majority of gamers won't stand for it...

And if they do, smart gamers wouldn't care much anyway, just as smart people generally don't become high school teachers... (no offense, of course)

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U.S. Population: 300,000,000 | The Nation Grows By 1 Every 11 Seconds

Oh, no! Too many people! It's too crowded! Some people should go back to Ireland, England, Germany, etc!

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Astronomers see inside a quasar for the first time

"For the first time, astronomers have looked inside quasars -- the brightest objects in the universe -- and have seen evidence of black holes. The study lends further confirmation to what scientists have long suspected -- that quasars are made up of super-massive black holes and the super-heated disks of material that are spiraling into them."

Wow, that's so amazing.

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Highly addictive squares game

My high score was 6019... I did not try many times though. Stay near the center.

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Close-up of a wasp (1298 x 1320)

UGH!! I generally find insects fascinating, especially ants, but I want to smoosh this thing...

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Ultrafast star escapes black hole

"Galactic nuclei are the cores of galaxies, groups of thousands to millions of stars that are held together by gravity. As stars in the nucleus are so close together, interactions readily occur. If ultraheavy black holes (black holes several million times heavier than the sun) are also involved, stars can be slung out of the galaxy (for example the Milky Way) at speeds of more than one thousand kilometres per second."

I'm not sure how many times this has actually been observed... I wouldn't mind having some of those super computers though, I have a lot of research I'd like to do myself...

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Largest 3D Map of Galaxies

"A team of American, Australian and British astronomers has released maps from the largest full-sky, three-dimensional survey of galaxies ever conducted."

I couldn't find anything else to blog...

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Weirdest looking car in the world ready for production

This car is disgusting...

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Wind generators - Fun Physics Game

Another fun little physics toy...

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Scientists find 40 new species in Amazon

"An international team of scientists risked their lives to discover 40 new species of plants and animals in a recent exploration of the Amapa region of Brazil."

Scientists were planning on destroying the area to use the natural resources to make paper. However, after the discovery of so many new species, scientists decided they would first have to use the resources to make new zoos.

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Red Game

Yet another fun flash game...

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Tap a tune with the space bar...

This is fun to play around with...

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Attractors Physics Game

Useless but fun.

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The I am a Mac commercial

Great wit...

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Intact Soft Tissue Recovered From Tyrannosaurus Rex Fossil

Welcome to Jurassic Park...

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Have you ever wondered how small we really are?

We are so teensy...

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Einstein's magnetic effect is measured on microscale

"A gyromagnetic effect discovered by Albert Einstein and Dutch physicist Wander Johannes de Haas--the rotation of an object caused by a change in magnetization--has been measured at micrometer-scale dimensions for the first time at the National Institute of Standards and Technology."

Do you realize what this means?!

... not much.

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Close-Up Look at the Wii Hardware

The beautiful Wii in all it's wonderful glory...

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Free Video Computer Science Courses...

Ogglevansplatterclog!

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