The Telltale Womb

Today, NPR aired a fascinating story concerning what a few small towns in New England reveal about the problems with the American medical system. I encourage you to listen to it.

Public Radio Tuner

I've found another new app for my iPhone;  the Public Radio Tuner was brought to my attention---houw else---by public radio today.

Umami Mo Arimasu Yo

Think sweet, salty, sour, and bitter are the only flavors you can taste? Think again. There's also umami. "Umami" is the name given to the flavor of glutamate, the sodium salt of which is the flavor-enhancing seasoning monosodium glutamate or MSG.

Return of the Sequel

Today, NPR's Morning Edition had an interesting story about the economics of big-budget movie sequels. You might be interested in listening to it yourself.

Colonial Public Radio

Shuaib pointed out this NPR story about how Battlestar Galactica has attracted critical praise and an audience outside the conventional boundaries of science fiction. Maybe this story will persuade whatever part of the NPR demographic isn't at least watching the show to check it out.

Running + T'ai Chi = ?

Runners in the audience may be interested in this NPR article on a running technique intended to reduce injuries.

Obscure Material

Speaking of proof, NPR recently alerted me to the recently published evidence that dark matter, the mysterious stuff that seems to make up the majority of the matter in the universe (but not the majority of the universe), does indeed exist.

Itsy-Bitsy, Teeny-Tiny Houses

Almost a year ago, I heard a cool NPR story about the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, which sells---you guessed it---tiny houses. And I mean, really tiny; most of the models range from 70 to 160 square feet, through Tumbleweed does offer a couple of monsters with 500 square feet. The smaller ones are designed to fit on trailers, which somehow seems less cool to me. The minimalism of these little houses fascinated me at the time, and it still does. I don't think I could live in one, but I would like to put one in my back yard to serve as a bike shop, tinkering lab, study, and general retreat-from-the-outside-world. Today NPR broadcast another story on the tiny-house movement, including one Katrina survivor's plans to sell her own "Gulf Coast" model to other hurricane survivors waiting to rebuild. You should check out the article(s), and be sure to visit Tumbleweed's site to see how cute the little houses are.

New Urbanism

On the way back from my self-inflicted torture session, I heard a neat NPR piece on a new-urbanist housing development in Atlanta. New urbanism is a movement in urban/city/community planning to return communities to the way they were in the pre-automotive era; it mixes residential, commercial, and recreational areas together and emphasizes walkability. I think it's an interesting idea, though I'm not sure how well it works in practice. Give the NPR article a listen and let me know what you think. I'm particularly interested to hear what those of you in who both (a) live in an experimental community and (b) are studying city planning---you know who you are---have to say about this.

Nast!

Today, NPR's Morning Edition had an interesting and revolting segment about disease being transmitted by insects in the American Civil War. The most disturbing part concerned the soldiers' meals. I urge you to listen to the piece, but not while eating, like I did.

Feudalism?

The other day, I heard a fun story on NPR about the tiny island of Sark in the English Channel. Sark is technically the private property of the Queen of England but not part of the United Kingdom. Sark has long been regarded as the last bastion of European feudalism. That's right: I said "feudalism." You see, many of the laws governing land ownership, rights, and representation are little changed since they were enacted in 1565. The inhabitants of Sark (Sarkans? Sarkians? Sarkites?) have seemed to be quite happy with the setup. Last Wednesday, however, Sark finally bowed to pressure from the European Convention on Human Rights and embraced a wee bit of democracy. You should listen to the NPR piece. It's very interesting.

Edwin Frazier is on a Roll

Frazz is perhaps my favorite comic strip, though Penny Arcade can be pretty hilarious, too. The strip has really been on a roll lately.

It started last Sunday with this poem. The best parts, in my opinion, are (a) the somewhat obscure reference to Fresh Air's Terry Gross and (b) the drawing of Socrates post-pitch.

Since Monday, Frazz himself has been on a bit of a diatribe about how the Winter Olympics are not as cool as they used to be. Today's strip is a particularly amusing entry in the series. Apparently Frazz and I are of one mind on this subject. It seems like all the coverage is of figure skating, half-pipe snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and other subjective events where what's most important is how cool you look. I mean, I quickly lose interest in any sport where you can improve your chances by adding sequins to your costume, you can have points deducted for not keeping you knees together, or you are required to smile. I'm a functionalist, and I much prefer objective sports where the sole measure of success is how fast you skate, how many bull’s-eyes you get, or, or how many goals you score. Have you ever heard of a judging scandal in cross-country skiing?

Kanji Smatter

I'm sure you've noticed that Chinese characters (hanzi in at least one Chinese dialect, kanji in Japanese) are very popular as graphic art among Westerners. Whities, African Americans, and Latinos paint them on cars, hang them on walls, and tattooed them into skin. I've often wondered, given that most of these people most likely don't speak (or, more to the point, read) a word of Japanese or any Chinese dialect, how often the message is flubbed or intentionally mistranslated. I've long speculated that some huge number of Americans are walking around with nonsense permanently implanted into their skin. Shoot, I'm sure more than a few are carrying messages that insult the bearer's intelligence or parentage. Well, know I know I was right to wonder. An NPR story pointed me to Hanzi Smatter, a blog written by a Chinese American and dedicated to "outing" misuses of kanji by Westerners. So, you might want to investigate the site. And enjoy, gentle reader.

And You Thought Trekkies Were Bad

A few days ago, NPR ran a story on Sherlockians in general and a Boston group of them in particular. Sherlockians, not surprisingly, are fans of the Sherlock Holmes stories. What is surprising is just how fanatical some Sherlockians are. For example, they like to play a game---"The Great Game"---in which they treat Holmes and Watson as real, historical people (Conan Doyle was just their "literary agent".) and try to determine exactly what town, train station, street, or what have you the duo visited in a particular story. One Sherlockian boldly claimed "at least we're not Trekkies" (or something to that effect.) Sure, Trekkies can be pretty bad, as the movie of the same name shows. But, I submit, Sherlockians would hold their own in a geek-on-geek cage match with the Trek fans.

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You may be familiar with NPR's This I Believe series of audio essays by people both famous and ordinary. Penn Jillette, the larger, more vocal (and funnier-looking, if you ask me) half of Penn and Teller, recently made his own contribution, entitled "There is No God". In his essay, Jillette rightly points out that the statement "I believe there is no God" is much stronger than "I don't believe in God". More importantly, though, Jillette explains also why he feels that believing in the nonexistence of a supernatural creator being allows him to be a better person. His argument is very well reasoned and well written. Check it out.

Warning: This Post is a Downer

Last night, NPR broadcast an amazing story on Walter Freeman, the inventor and promoter of the neurosurgical procedure known as the transorbital lobotomy. The story is told by Howard Dully, whom Freeman lobotomized at the age of 12. Dully's step-mother requested the procedure because Dully was unruly and behaved, as far as I can tell, much like the typical 12-year-old boy.

In a transorbital lobotomy, an ice-pick-like instrument (The original instrument was actually an ice pick that Freeman had in the back of a drawer in his kitchen.) is inserted under the eye lid, over the eyeball, through the eye socket (or orbital) and into the frontal lobe of the brain. The instrument is then swished around, more-or-less at random, severing connections in the frontal lobe. This process is usually done through both eye sockets. Freeman sometimes performed the procedure through both eyes simultaneously. Since I can't imagine there being a good medical reason for the simultaneity, I can only believe Freeman was adding a bit of showmanship to the surgery. The NPR story's description of the procedure repeatedly made me say, aloud, things like "'uwah-lah" and "blwah-ah"---and not in a funny, Jerry Lewis kind of way. Here is a rather discomforting photo of Dully's lobotomy.

Some people experienced good outcomes from the procedure, but many suffered significant brain damage. How did anyone ever think this surgery was a good treatment for everything from delusions to chronic headaches?

Anyway, you should check out the NPR story.