Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Friday, October 20, 2006

Chimps Are 20 Years Behind Us In Video Game Prowess

If this video is to believed, chimpanzees have learned to play Ms. Pac-man. Color me unimpressed; I've finished GTA: San Andreas (without cheating), after all.

Alright, a chimp playing a video game is pretty cool. Too bad they didn't go with a more obvious choice, though. I'd pay money to watch a chimp play this classic -- double for an ape.


Saturday, September 09, 2006

Look On My Works, Ye Mighty, And Despair

The U.S. government -- my government, baby -- is putting a new spin on that old Shelley saw, according to a report in Wired:

A half-mile below the surface of the New Mexico desert, the federal government is interring thousands of tons of monstrously dangerous leftovers from its nuclear weapons program -- plutonium-infested clothing, tools and chemical sludge that will remain potentially lethal for thousands of years to come.

It may be safely secured now, but how to keep our descendants centuries in the future from accidentally unearthing it?

That's the question posed by the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation’s only underground repository for military-generated radioactive waste.

To address it, the Department of Energy convened a conclave of scientists, linguists, anthropologists and sci-fi thinkers to develop an elaborate system intended to shout "Danger!" to any human being for the next 10,000 years -- regardless of what language they speak or technology they use.
Storing nuclear leftovers underground? That's awesome that New Mexico doesn't have any groundwater or anything. Otherwise, di-a-bolical. As for the plan itself, I recommend putting The Robot from Lost in Space on the job. No one expresses "Danger!" better than that dude. Not once his arms start flapping.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Roll Over Beethoven, Tell Tchaikovsky The News

Ha! Remember that long-standing wisdom that classical music helps people do better in school, a.k.a. The Mozart Effect? Well, my new main men Drs. Rilby & Caldwell are all like, "Guess what, hombres? So does the sweet, sweet sound of rock 'n' roll!"


Thanks to Scotland's Glasgow Caledonian University, The Mozart Effect shall henceforth be known as The Hendrix Effect.

I'm not sure how valid this study was, though; they used Steve Vai as rock's representative. Don't get me wrong. He was cool in Ralph Macchio's Crossroads and all, but I wouldn't be able to concentrate on shit if someone was forcing me to listen to Surfing with the Alien. And considering they had motherf'ing Beethoven repping for Team Classical, it's kind of like a boxing match between Mike Tyson and a retarded 10-year-old. I'm amazed rock did as well as it did!