The Daily Sabbatical
Music, Books, and Assorted Maunderings

Women In Bikinis Make Men Spend Stupidly - On Everything Submitted by News Account on 30 May 2008 - 12:21pm. Science & Society It's no surprise that a woman in a bikini can increase a man's sexual appetite but research in the Journal of Consumer Research says that men who watched sexy videos or even handled lingerie had more appetite for everything - and it impacted their decisions about soda, candy and even money. Authors Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried DeWitte, and Luk Warlop (KULeuven, Belgium) found that the desire for immediate rewards increased in men who touched bras, looked at pictures of beautiful women, or watched… Read More

Can you imagine the confusion and fear? I mean, it's interesting from our perspective that these dudes are out there, but occupy their perspective for a moment! Link to Guardian article here.
Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil
One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru. The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove… Read More

That's all I said, and lo! I get complaints about it in my student evaluations! Who could be offended at that? Apparently many students at Southern Methodist University. Seriously, though, there was an argument, modeled after the article by David Lewis and Philip Kitcher (see selection from Harper's here.) I think the offhand version of the argument I rather flippantly posed in class was "At least the Nazi's only thought the Jews should burn for a few minutes. Christians think they should burn for eternity." Ok, neither subtle nor particularly smooth. But I've always believed that those who… Read More

After agreeing to play Dracula for the sixth birthday of Doug Ehring's daughter Sophia, I thought I'd go back and read the original. I'm pretty sure I read some abridged version or other when I was a lad, but I'd never slain the whole monster. I'm now most of the way through doing so, however, so I can offer the following report: Bram Stoker is a truly terrible writer. I'm willing to ignore the overwrought and repetitive descriptions (furious beasts of awe-inspiring terror and whatnot), and I think I might even forgive the fact that the various… Read More

Monkey uses brainwaves to control prosthetic arm * James Randerson, science correspondent * guardian.co.uk, * Wednesday May 28 2008 Scientists have trained monkeys to control a robotic arm using the power of their thoughts. The research, which involved wiring electrodes into the animals' brains, is aimed at producing controllable prosthetic limbs for patients with stroke, spinal cord injuries or neurodegenerative conditions. The monkeys learned to feed themselves using the robotic arm and performed subtle movements such as approaching… Read More

I'm pretty excited about this just from the trailer. I think I read the short story a long time ago, but this thing looks beautiful. I'm a believer, once again, in Brad Pitt after seeing The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, so I think he can pull this off. Plus, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.  Read More

Every reviewer that talks about this Seattle band begins by admitting that they first listened because they were intrigued by the band's name. Add me to that list. Every reviewer then says they were drawn in, however, because the band (surprisingly) doesn't suck and is in fact fun as hell. Add me to that list too. NPSH's new album "Glistening Pleasure" (which I gotta think amounts to an admission that they are themselves a guilty listening pleasure) won't make many year end lists, admittedly, but it's better than a lot of similar albums out there… Read More

The jumpers were leaping over five or six infants at a time

Grown men have been leaping over rows of… Read More