The Flip Side of Sunrise

I used to think I was really tough. I had a high pain threshhold (and I still do for the most part. Quiet, Nina.). I could push myself through a lot of pain. But my ability to handle the cold this year has been rather suspect. First, I passed out in the cold water. Lately, my hands and feet have been saying cold. This cold snap right now, well, I didn’t think anyone could run.

So when my coworker came in today and told me he ran 13 miles over the weekend, I thought, dammit, I suck.

During ABC’s broadcast of the WGC Accenture Match Play today, some of the announcers were questioning why the first group teed off so close to the final pairing. Mike Tirico, who will be in the MNF booth, said that it was partly the fault of ABC because spreading the two groups out would have made for a weird dynamic on television. So at least there’s a chance he’ll bring a touch of honesty to the MNF booth.

The Real World meets The O.C.

The object of America’s affection, Iraq, is Marissa Cooper. For a while, Iraq was stable, at least on the surface. But once she was penetrated by America, everything exploded. Now Iraq is a complete whack job, making everyone and everything around her unstable. She feels that her mom, France, didn’t do enough to protect her. The only person who has been by her side this whole time is America, although he is fed up with her antics.

The whole thing is pretty funny.

via Sid.

Apostropher, God of the Weird, points out a new technology

This is oh so cool.

Company researchers have come up with a way to process a common polymer so that it repels fluid, even drops of honey roll right off. The resulting property is called “superhydrophobicity” — or extreme repelling of water-based fluids — beyond even that of a freshly waxed car. While several existing engineered materials behave this way, the GE accomplishment is noteworthy because it was done with an inexpensive plastic, GE’s Lexan, that’s normally “hydrophilic,” meaning water spreads out on contact, not something that’s “hydrophobic” to start with, such as Teflon or silicone-based materials. These latter materials are far more expensive compared with Lexan, a ubiquitous thermoplastic used in products ranging from CDs and DVDs to automotive headlamps, food storage containers, and common household appliances.

I can see some really cool applications. Anything that is made of laminate or plastic? It’s could be a lot easier to clean (and a lot more slippery). Hell, maybe this is what ice is made out of.

It’s not you, it’s you.

Research indicates that prolactin increases following orgasm are involved in a feedback loop that serves to decrease arousal through inhibitory central dopaminergic and probably peripheral processes. The magnitude of post-orgasmic prolactin increase is thus a neurohormonal index of sexual satiety. Using data from three studies of men and women engaging in masturbation or penile–vaginal intercourse to orgasm in the laboratory, we report that for both sexes (adjusted for prolactin changes in a non-sexual control condition), the magnitude of prolactin increase following intercourse is 400% greater than that following masturbation. The results are interpreted as an indication of intercourse being more physiologically satisfying than masturbation, and discussed in light of prior research reporting greater physiological and psychological benefits associated with coitus than with any other sexual activities.

And the Register has my new favorite euhpemism. Also note The Reg’s headline, which makes it seem as though both are bad things. I would change “worse than” to “not as great as.” But that’s just me.

We know that drunk people are less likely to injure themselves because they don’t tense their bodies before they hit something (like a floor). Now The Register points us to this study.

Admissions to the emergency department at Laussanne University Hospital over an 18-month period from pool cue related mishaps and the like were much more frequent amongst less committed schnapps bingers. The pattern was the same for both men and women.

I knew I said I would do luge, skeleton or downhill. You’d have to do a lot of convincing to get me to do Freestlye Arials. Holy shit…

So here’s an interesting idea. Let’s say BellSouth implements some priority networking for their network, and charges websites to use that priority network. If I’m a web giant, I’m charging them right back: if you want to be able to provide my website to your customers, you have to pay me a fee. Sounds a lot like cableTV, right? Well, yes: the cable company charges the customer for cable, and the cable channels (e.g. ESPN, Discovery) charge the cable company per subscriber.

But there’s a snag. Premium cable stations are paid for by the subscriber. I don’t know if the cable companies take a little piece off the top (I’m sure they do), but this doesn’t really have a 1-to-1 mapping on the internet. Sure, there are premium sites (that the customer pays for), but it’d be difficult to regulate this. Imagine you pay a subscription to the WSJ. Now, that’s network neutral. Your password goes wherever you go. Your cable box stays in your domicile. So how does the cable company charge the website? Per hit? Per subscriber? On whose network do they count the subscriber?

I think competition, in the end, is what will save net neutrality. Competition, after all, will drive down the prices. Net priority only works if one network has a monopoly on speedy pipes.

1. I don’t know what it says about me, but I’d really like to have all my tax forms so I could do my taxes. I’m kind of excited about it. Weird, huh?
2. I hate it when the little notifier in the Google Talk taskbar icon shows I have mail, and I look in my GMail to find it’s not an email from someone or something that I want to hear from.
3. Despite the fact that it’s a real feel of 34 outside, I have my window open. Fresh air cancels out nubmfa finbgets. The downside? Coffee gets cold really quickly. I hate hate hate cold coffee.

Funny that, Harvard doesn’t have a Summers either.

University President Lawrence H. Summers announced today he would step down from his post at the end of June, bringing to an end the shortest tenure by a Harvard president since the Civil War.

Not only that, but the second rate institution then trots out a retread!

Former University President Derek C. Bok, who led Harvard from 1971 to 1991, will serve as interim president effective July 1, according to a University press release.