laying odds

While at Sabbat with Aaron, Laura, Brandon, Edgar and Carly last night, Aaron and Laura dispensed love advice. I'm not sure if a friendly wager was actually made on the probability of me using the advice, but it was a fun discussion nonetheless.

word.

I had dinner at Laura and Aaron's new place tonight. Afterwards, we watched a documentary and I was introduced to the whole weird, wacky, and sometimes pathetic Scrabble tournament subculture while watching "Word Wars" with Aaron, Becky, and Laura.

I also learned several new words, including the verb and noun, tup.

And that "mas tequila" is an anagram of "que lastima."

happybday

happybday
Originally uploaded by happya.

They may look sweet and innocent, but they really are a wild bunch.

Thanks for helping me celebrate two big things: Turning 30 and buying my first condo.

is that even a box?

Susan: "How old is he?"
Happy: "I don't know. I'm not good with people's ages. If I had to guess, I'd say he's somewhere between 18 and 35."

Susan: "Is that even a box? It goes 18-24, 25-35 ..."

always carry your camera

You never know when you're going to get lucky, like Betina did with this one.
Via flickrblog

the man who wasn't there

After screwing up the courage to ask the lanky, artsy, indie-rock-but-I-bathe-looking guy with the cool glasses in Wickline's photo 100 class out for coffee on the last night of class, he wasn't there tonight. I don't want to get all Desperately Seeking Susan/ craigslisty (exhibit a , exhibit b) about this or anything, but I'd like to know his name. And what sort of photographs he takes.

It's only fair, given that he must already know something about me after seeing my pictures.

Instead, I'm left with the one exchange we had last Monday:
Me: "Umm, your backpack is open."
You: "Umm, thanks."

Sigh.

halfway there

I stepped off the scale this morning and saw that I've lost half of the weight I vowed (last Christmas) to lose.

The weight's just one indicator of my well-being. But judging from the weight loss, my muscle strength, energy levels and whatnot, I'd say that life is good right about now.

Next month, I head to the doctor for a full post-cancer workup and to see how my lifestyle change (diet and exercise) is affecting my bloodwork, etc.

final(ly)

Nothing motivates me like a deadline.

The fact that I have a portfolio due in my photography class tomorrow means that I have actually — stop the presses — put some images online from my two trips to France last year.

See the aforementioned twelve black and white photos for my final project.

The rest are coming eventually. I swear.

Update: 05/31/2005 There are now more of my photos online.

steve mccurry at mopa

Steve McCurry: Photographs of Asia will be at the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts from May 29 - September 25, 2005. I'm planning to hit MOPA on the *free* second Tuesday of the month on June 14 (before 5 p.m.) Feel free to join me.

Documentary photographer Steve McCurry roams the world from Cambodia to Kashmir to Iraq, capturing legendary images that have won him the highest international awards. He is famous for his mesmerizing "Afghan Girl" (1984 ), portrait of a young refugee that appeared on National Geographic's cover in 1985. This exhibition of more than 60 elegant McCurry images provides a window into the lives of people and places many in the West know little about. MoPA is proud to present the work of this Robert Capa Gold Medal Winner for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad.

Update: 05/27/2005 Several of you have mentioned the story about how they tracked down the Afghan girl. Here it is, for those of you who don't know it.

la pareja perfecta

Chad and Denisse came back from Ixtapa with a big fish story. They also got engaged. And that's no fish tale.
Congratulations!!

the other bush should be president

I like Laura Bush. She's no Hillary Clinton (who happens to be one of my heroes), but she does make an effort to do the right thing. During her latest visit to the Middle East, she spoke out strongly in favor of women's rights: "Freedom, especially freedom for women, is more than the absence of oppression," she said. "It's the right to speak and vote and worship freely. Human rights requires the rights of women."

I was also impressed to learn what she did and said at the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem, where she laid a wreath to the dead and wrote in the visitors book: "Each life is precious," adding: "We commit ourselves to reject hatred and to teach tolerance and live in peace."

She really would be a much better President than her husband.

smart computing

It's kinda creepy when life imitates an Alias plotline.

Death could become a thing of the past by the mid-21st century as computer technology becomes sophisticated enough for the contents of a brain to be "downloaded" on to a supercomputer, according to a leading British futurologist.

But I do like the thought of airplanes being more afraid of crashing than the people on them.

Among other eyebrow-raising predictions by Ian Pearson, head of the futurology unit at British telecommunications giant BT, is the prospect of computer systems being able to feel emotions.

This could eventually involve such things as aeroplanes being programmed to be even more terrified of crashing than their passengers, meaning they would do whatever possible to stay airborne.

church money used to buy porn online

I've been the victim of identity theft and it's no picnic. But I couldn't help but laugh at this case: Man Accused Of Buying Porn With Church Money

DALTON, Ga. (AP) A Chatsworth man has been charged with using a church's banking information to buy Internet porn.

Robbie Lee Ritchie was indicted Thursday by a Murray County grand jury on 12 counts of financial identity fraud.

Authorities say Ritchie used a bank account number belonging to Central Church of Christ in Dalton to access pornography Web sites numerous times last summer.

Ritchie was in the Murray County Jail yesterday on a 25-thousand-dollar bond. The church did NOT respond to questions from The Daily Citizen newspaper in Dalton.

It was unclear whether Ritchie is a member of the church.

If convicted, Ritchie could face one to ten years in prison on each count and a fine up to 100-thousand-dollars.

still photographable

W00t!
Plan to Ban Photography in Subways Abandoned

A proposal to ban photography on the city's subways to deter surveillance by terrorists has been nixed by police and transit officials.

A year after plans were introduced to forbid photography, videotaping and filming in subway stations, police and transit officials said a ban is not needed to secure the nation's largest mass transit system.

don't get dooced

Blogging rule #101: Don't write about your job on your Web site. You could get dooced.

After sharing this advice with someone else, I finally got around to sanitizing my own blog and removing specific references to my employer.

Dooce, as defined by urbandictionary.com.

special delivery

It turns out that mon amie moriseylvr has been so wronged by the man, er, woman, that she's opted to start blogging.

*Sniff* They grow up so fast.

paging darth Wader

While surfing PlanetDan, I came upon this post, about a new Washington Post article that claims Revenge of the Sith is actually just a disguised metaphor for the Bush Vader Administration and the Iraqi quagmire.

Wookies don't belong in Iraqi quagmires. Some people are even saying that this movie is what will finally make the movie-going masses second-guess their beloved Bush by comparing him with a certain black-helmeted evil. I'll be embarrassed if the wake-up call that America finally responds to comes from a Star Wars movie. But whatever works, I guess. Someone else said it better on another site when they said: I've pretty much always heard the Imperial March in my head whenever I saw Bush walking [anyway]. Which is pretty funny if you can hear that song in your head so clearly like I can.

Lucas acknowledges that he wrote the film more than 30 years ago, in response to another tyrannical GOP leader waging an unwinnable war:

[Lucas] said he first wrote the framework of Star Wars in 1971 when reacting to then U.S. President Richard Nixon and the on-going events of the Vietnam War. But the story still has relevance today, he said, and is part of a pattern he has noticed in his readings of history.

Via PlanetDan

must. stay. focused.

I participated in a focus group for a market researcher tonight. It paid well and was on a fun topic: bodywash. It took an interesting turn when all eight 28-32 year-old women pulled a sociological smackdown on the facilitator. When reacting to images for the ad campaign, the woman two seats down from me even went so far as to say "those images are too blatant and offensive. They are about men wanting a (sexual) woman who looks like a (young) girl."

Here are a few other things I learned in the group:
A major player in the bodywash industry (I'd rather not post the name online, but I'll tell you who it is if you ask) is looking to overhaul its image and move into selling a product that speaks to my generation. (In many ways, I'm their target demographic.) The message: bodywash isn't about getting clean. It's about sensuality, seduction, and romance.

While in the group brainstorm, I came to a clearer understanding of how each concept plays into feeling sexy:

• Sensuality is about feelings and, essentially, about oneself
• Seduction is about sex and power/ control
• Romance is about love and sharing

the evolutionary function of women's orgasms

A friend of mine celebrated a birthday recently. When I asked her how her day was going that morning, she replied: "Great. My husband sent me a story about the evolutionary function of women's orgasms this morning."

Here it is, because inquiring minds want to know.

A Critic Takes On the Logic of Female Orgasm
By DINITIA SMITH
Evolutionary scientists have never had difficulty explaining the male orgasm, closely tied as it is to reproduction.

But the Darwinian logic behind the female orgasm has remained elusive. Women can have sexual intercourse and even become pregnant - doing their part for the perpetuation of the species - without experiencing orgasm. So what is its evolutionary purpose?

Over the last four decades, scientists have come up with a variety of theories, arguing, for example, that orgasm encourages women to have sex and, therefore, reproduce or that it leads women to favor stronger and healthier men, maximizing their offspring's chances of survival.

But in a new book, Dr. Elisabeth A. Lloyd, a philosopher of science and professor of biology at Indiana University, takes on 20 leading theories and finds them wanting. The female orgasm, she argues in the book, "The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution," has no evolutionary function at all.

Rather, Dr. Lloyd says the most convincing theory is one put forward in 1979 by Dr. Donald Symons, an anthropologist.

That theory holds that female orgasms are simply artifacts - a byproduct of the parallel development of male and female embryos in the first eight or nine weeks of life.

In that early period, the nerve and tissue pathways are laid down for various reflexes, including the orgasm, Dr. Lloyd said. As development progresses, male hormones saturate the embryo, and sexuality is defined.

In boys, the penis develops, along with the potential to have orgasms and ejaculate, while "females get the nerve pathways for orgasm by initially having the same body plan."

Nipples in men are similarly vestigial, Dr. Lloyd pointed out.

While nipples in woman serve a purpose, male nipples appear to be simply left over from the initial stage of embryonic development.

The female orgasm, she said, "is for fun."

Dr. Lloyd said scientists had insisted on finding an evolutionary function for female orgasm in humans either because they were invested in believing that women's sexuality must exactly parallel that of men or because they were convinced that all traits had to be "adaptations," that is, serve an evolutionary function.

Theories of female orgasm are significant, she added, because "men's expectations about women's normal sexuality, about how women should perform, are built around these notions."

"And men are the ones who reflect back immediately to the woman whether or not she is adequate sexually," Dr. Lloyd continued.

Central to her thesis is the fact that women do not routinely have orgasms during sexual intercourse.

She analyzed 32 studies, conducted over 74 years, of the frequency of female orgasm during intercourse.

When intercourse was "unassisted," that is not accompanied by stimulation of the clitoris, just a quarter of the women studied experienced orgasms often or very often during intercourse, she found.

Five to 10 percent never had orgasms. Yet many of the women became pregnant.

Dr. Lloyd's figures are lower than those of Dr. Alfred A. Kinsey, who in his 1953 book "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" found that 39 to 47 percent of women reported that they always, or almost always, had orgasm during intercourse.

But Kinsey, Dr. Lloyd said, included orgasms assisted by clitoral stimulation.

Dr. Lloyd said there was no doubt in her mind that the clitoris was an evolutionary adaptation, selected to create excitement, leading to sexual intercourse and then reproduction.

But, "without a link to fertility or reproduction," Dr. Lloyd said, "orgasm cannot be an adaptation."

Not everyone agrees. For example, Dr. John Alcock, a professor of biology at Arizona State University, criticized an earlier version of Dr. Lloyd's thesis, discussed in in a 1987 article by Stephen Jay Gould in the magazine Natural History.

In a phone interview, Dr. Alcock said that he had not read her new book, but that he still maintained the hypothesis that the fact that "orgasm doesn't occur every time a woman has intercourse is not evidence that it's not adaptive."

"I'm flabbergasted by the notion that orgasm has to happen every time to be adaptive," he added.

Dr. Alcock theorized that a woman might use orgasm "as an unconscious way to evaluate the quality of the male," his genetic fitness and, thus, how suitable he would be as a father for her offspring.

"Under those circumstances, you wouldn't expect her to have it every time," Dr. Alcock said.

Among the theories that Dr. Lloyd addresses in her book is one proposed in 1993, by Dr. R. Robin Baker and Dr. Mark A. Bellis, at Manchester University in England. In two papers published in the journal Animal Behaviour, they argued that female orgasm was a way of manipulating the retention of sperm by creating suction in the uterus. When a woman has an orgasm from one minute before the man ejaculates to 45 minutes after, she retains more sperm, they said.

Furthermore, they asserted, when a woman has intercourse with a man other than her regular sexual partner, she is more likely to have an orgasm in that prime time span and thus retain more sperm, presumably making conception more likely. They postulated that women seek other partners in an effort to obtain better genes for their offspring.

Dr. Lloyd said the Baker-Bellis argument was "fatally flawed because their sample size is too small."

"In one table," she said, "73 percent of the data is based on the experience of one person."

In an e-mail message recently, Dr. Baker wrote that his and Dr. Bellis's manuscript had "received intense peer review appraisal" before publication. Statisticians were among the reviewers, he said, and they noted that some sample sizes were small, "but considered that none of these were fatal to our paper."

Dr. Lloyd said that studies called into question the logic of such theories. Research by Dr. Ludwig Wildt and his colleagues at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany in 1998, for example, found that in a healthy woman the uterus undergoes peristaltic contractions throughout the day in the absence of sexual intercourse or orgasm. This casts doubt, Dr. Lloyd argues, on the idea that the contractions of orgasm somehow affect sperm retention.

Another hypothesis, proposed in 1995 by Dr. Randy Thornhill, a professor of biology at the University of New Mexico and two colleagues, held that women were more likely to have orgasms during intercourse with men with symmetrical physical features. On the basis of earlier studies of physical attraction, Dr. Thornhill argued that symmetry might be an indicator of genetic fitness.

Dr. Lloyd, however, said those conclusions were not viable because "they only cover a minority of women, 45 percent, who say they sometimes do, and sometimes don't, have orgasm during intercourse."

"It excludes women on either end of the spectrum," she said. "The 25 percent who say they almost always have orgasm in intercourse and the 30 percent who say they rarely or never do. And that last 30 percent includes the 10 percent who say they never have orgasm under any circumstances."

In a phone interview, Dr. Thornhill said that he had not read Dr. Lloyd's book but the fact that not all women have orgasms during intercourse supports his theory.

"There will be patterns in orgasm with preferred and not preferred men," he said.

Dr. Lloyd also criticized work by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, who studies primate behavior and female reproductive strategies.

Scientists have documented that orgasm occurs in some female primates; for other mammals, whether orgasm occurs remains an open question.

In the 1981 book "The Woman That Never Evolved" and in her other work, Dr. Hrdy argues that orgasm evolved in nonhuman primates as a way for the female to protect her offspring from the depredation of males.

She points out that langur monkeys have a high infant mortality rate, with 30 percent of deaths a result of babies' being killed by males who are not the fathers. Male langurs, she says, will not kill the babies of females they have mated with.

In macaques and chimpanzees, she said, females are conditioned by the pleasurable sensations of clitoral stimulation to keep copulating with multiple partners until they have an orgasm. Thus, males do not know which infants are theirs and which are not and do not attack them.

Dr. Hrdy also argues against the idea that female orgasm is an artifact of the early parallel development of male and female embryos.

"I'm convinced," she said, "that the selection of the clitoris is quite separate from that of the penis in males."

In critiquing Dr. Hrdy's view, Dr. Lloyd disputes the idea that longer periods of sexual intercourse lead to a higher incidence of orgasm, something that if it is true, may provide an evolutionary rationale for female orgasm.

But Dr. Hrdy said her work did not speak one way or another to the issue of female orgasm in humans. "My hypothesis is silent," she said.

One possibility, Dr. Hrdy said, is that orgasm in women may have been an adaptive trait in our prehuman ancestors.

"But we separated from our common primate ancestors about seven million years ago," she said.

"Perhaps the reason orgasm is so erratic is that it's phasing out," Dr. Hrdy said. "Our descendants on the starships may well wonder what all the fuss was about."

Western culture is suffused with images of women's sexuality, of women in the throes of orgasm during intercourse and seeming to reach heights of pleasure that are rare, if not impossible, for most women in everyday life.

"Accounts of our evolutionary past tell us how the various parts of our body should function," Dr. Lloyd said.

If women, she said, are told that it is "natural" to have orgasms every time they have intercourse and that orgasms will help make them pregnant, then they feel inadequate or inferior or abnormal when they do not achieve it.

"Getting the evolutionary story straight has potentially very large social and personal consequences for all women," Dr. Lloyd said. "And indirectly for men, as well."

Via nytimes.com

revenge of the frith

Save the Republic!

This week, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith opens in theaters nation-wide. And weirdly enough, the plot of what will undoubtedly be one of the biggest films in movie history revolves around a scheming senator who, seduced by visions of absolute power, transforms a democratic republic into an empire.

The movie’s opening buzz and its parallel theme to our current judicial fight present a great opportunity to educate the public — and have some fun. So we’ve put together a flyer that draws on themes from the Revenge of the Sith story to explain the very real threat to democracy posed by the nuclear option. Any chance you can take half an hour tonight or tomorrow to pass out some of these flyers to folks in line at your local theater? Just follow the simple directions below.

Via MoveOn.Org

taking a sith day?

If you took the day off work or school for, ahem, Revenge of the Sith today, the Geek Squad has excuse letters for you:

May 19, 2005

Dear Employer,

Please excuse from work on Thursday, May 19. heshe is not feeling well. [FIRST NAME] is at home in bed for the entire day, nursing what appears to be a serious stomach bugflufeverdismembermentloss of mitochondriahamster attack [FIRST NAME]'s illness is in no way, shape or form related to the premiere of a long awaited prequelthe final installment of the greatest story everthe #$%%!! BEST THING EVER , which, coincidentally, premieres on the same date.

While I cannot confirm nor deny that [FIRST NAME] has called my company, Geek Squad, asking to be set up with wireless access - in case of a space opera-related sick daymassive multiplayer online gaming bingeday spent watching the final prequel over and over - know that if you do receive an e-mail from your prized employee today, it is most likely because [HE/SHE] was wise enough to plan ahead in the event of illness.

But as I mentioned before, [FIRST NAME] is at home, safely in bed, but reachable (in dire emergencies) by e-mail or cell.

One more thing. Beginning at , [NAME] will be unreachable for about two hours, thirteen minutes and eleven seconds. [HE/SHE] will be feeling really bad at this time.

YoursSincerelyMove alongThis wasn't the excuse note you were looking for ,
Robert Stephens
Geek Squad - Chief Inspector
Via DDTB

what's your sign?

Popstrology

n. (2004) A revolutionary method for gaining self-knowledge by examining the
alignment of the pop music charts at the moment of your birth.

I was born in the year of Elton John and my birth song is B. J. Thomas' (Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.

And I have to admit that although I was skeptical at first, this popstrology thing appears to be legit, at least in my case.

• Exhibit A: I was born in the year of Elton John and most of my friends are gay. I am, in fact, the Chief Diva at HAGA (Happy A____'s Gay Army).
  
• Exhibit B: I'm obsessed with social justice, or the documenting and fixing of cases where 'somebody done somebody wrong.'

Make of that what you will.
Via Susan G.

touching things up

Toastmasters speech (Your body speaks) originally given on May 19, 2005
Award: Best speaker

---

Don't touch me.
Keep in touch.
You're so touchy!
Real out and touch someone.
Put the finishing touches on something.
I found your story very touching.
Touch base with me before you leave.
You didn't touch your food.
The flowers had white petals touched with pink.

Our culture has its own vocabulary about touching. It's not what the words actually mean, it's their connotation that has so much power. The American Heritage(r) Dictionary lists 16 different meanings for the word "touch."

Language is a reflection of our interaction and our values and these sayings evoke very specific feelings precisely because they are about connection with one another. In this sense, I think the word "touch" means so many things because touch is critical to who we are as human beings. In the next few minutes, I'll explain how touch impacts us and how it means different things across cultures.


Touch symbolizes a great deal. It can be a loving gesture, a sign of affection. A lover's touch is electrifying. For some, the sense of touch is a primary way of interacting with the world. But touch can also be a very bad thing if it's done with too much force.

The Touch Research Institutes at the University of Miami in Florida study the effects of touch therapy. They are researching how massage affects everyone from newborns to senior citizens. They have found that massage

1. Helps premature babies gain weight faster
2. Reduces stress hormones
3. Alleviates depressive symptoms
4. Reduces pain
5. Improves immune function
6. Alters EEG in the direction of heightened awareness

I confess, I love a good massage. But I also know that I love being touched. Perhaps it's because I grew up in a very touchy-feely family. When I greet a friend, I usually touch that person, either with a hug, kiss, or handshake. I kiss my French friends hello and goodbye on the cheek three times. And just this week, a Mexican friend said goodbye by gently squeezing my forearm and saying "buenas noches." That got me thinking about how touch means different things across cultures.

Touch means different things across cultures
Bedouins touch noses together three times when greeting one another, as a sign of friendship and respect.

In India, you can apologize to someone by tapping their shoulder to get her attention and then tapping your forehead twice.

But in Thailand, you never want to tap someone on the shoulder, because it's rude to pat someone else's back.

And then there's the whole concept of personal space. In Europe and North America, it's generally considered rude if you stand closer than 8 inches to the person to whom you're speaking. There's a whole Seinfeld episode about "close talkers" and we get uncomfortable around close talkers, even if they are friends. The closer we get to touching, the more intimate we are with the person.

But in the Middle East and Asia, the concept of personal space is very different. Friends not only stand close together, they often touch while talking. It's not uncommon to see Arab men, even government officials and military officers, holding hands as they walk together or otherwise converse with one another.

And in China, there is often pushing and shoving in stores or on public transportation, but no apologies are offered or expected. It may be odd to us, but it's just how things are done there.

While doing research on touching across cultures, I found an odd news story. I know that this week's theme is "tall tales," but this is a bonafide news story that I came across a few days ago on wired.com.

Stroke a chicken
Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a system that allows physical interaction over the internet. Right now, the technology is being used to stroke chickens. That's right. You can pet a chicken halfway around the world using this technology.

Here's how it works: You pet a hollow, chicken-shaped doll that has sensors inside. Those sensors use radio signals to send the information to a computer, which then sends the information to another computer on the internet. The second computer receives the data and triggers tiny motors in a lightweight jacket on the chicken. The chicken then feels your touch in the exact places the replica did.

"This is the first human-poultry interaction system ever developed," said professor Adrian David Cheok, the leader of the team, who has been developing the technology for nearly two years.

"We understand the perceived eccentricity of developing a system for humans to interact with poultry remotely, but this work has a much wider significance," he added.

At first I thought that what the scientists were doing was bizarre: What in the world would compel them to spend years of their lives working on a way for humans to pet a chicken remotely? But when I stop and think about it, these scientists aren't completely mad. Today, they are putting a vest on a chicken as a proof of concept. Two years from now, they hope to make it possible to hug someone thousands of miles away. And in the end, they are using technology to replicate the most basic form of human interaction -- the connection that happens when we touch someone else.

google local

who knew?
Happy San Diego

talking with my hands

Hand Gestures Linked To Better Speaking

Can't find the right word? You might want to start moving your hands. New research at the University of Alberta suggests that gesturing while you talk may improve your access to language.


Mind & Brain

Dr. Elena Nicoladis and her research colleagues observed the hand gestures of bilingual children as they told the same story twice, first in one language and then the other. The researchers were surprised by what they saw.

"The children used gestures a lot more when telling the story in what they considered to be their stronger language," said Nicoladis, a psychologist at the U of A. "These results seemed counter-intuitive to us. We thought the children would be more inclined to use gestures to help them communicate in their weaker language."

Based on these results and the results of earlier studies, Nicoladis believes there is a connection between language and memory access and gesturing.

"What we think is going on here," Nicoladis said, "is that the very fact of moving your hands around helps you recall parts of the story--the gestures help you access memory and language so that you can tell more of the story."

"Initially, we thought gestures were related to meaning--that they meant something on their own. But now we believe they are more related to language," she added.

Nicoladis also pointed to another study she and her colleagues conducted that showed Chinese women who spoke English at a higher level than Chinese men also exhibited more hand gestures when talking English than the men did.

The researchers also have preliminary results to show that 8 to 10 year-old girls use more hand gestures and were able to retell more of the story of a cartoon they had just watched than their male coevals were able to. Nicoladis added that it is well-documented that girls develop language skills faster than boys.

She speculates that all of this knowledge may come in handy for people who have difficulty speaking, such as ESL students and some elderly people.

"If you're in a situation where it's important to get the language out and you're having difficulty, it may help to start making gestures," said Nicoladis, who conducts most of her research on hand gestures with Dr. Paula Marentette of the University of Alberta Augustana College.

"There's certainly a lot more work that needs to be done before we can understand everything about gestures and why we make them," Nicoladis added. "But the results so far have given us a lot to think about."

may the farm be with you

I rather enjoyed this parody.
Via Hilstah

my latest guilty pleasure

I watch about two hours of television a week. Which is only relevant because I'm about to catch up on at least one hour of taped tv.

I still watch Alias, despite the fact that it has gone way, way downhill this season. What can I say? Michael Vartan is one lovely guy and Kevin Weisman's character, chic geek Marshall Flinkman, is brilliantly written.

I've also gotten into Grey's Anatomy of late. It's not lost on me that my favorite sexpot doctor bears a striking physical resemblance to my ex when he was at the top of his game. Imagine my WTF?! when I thought the Patrick Dempsey character's name was Eric (my ex's name). For the record, his character is actually named Derek.

reggie is such a trendsetter

Reggie recently confessed that he ate sushi from a 7/11 last month. What's next: Sushi from a gas station?

But seriously — mad props to Reggie for getting his sweat on with Susan G. and me this morning. He's meeting me tomorrow morning, too. I guess that means I'm firmly back on the fitness wagon. Yee-effing-haw.

profanity, special sauce, lettuce, cheese

I caught myself humming the "two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese" song today and realized that I never posted on the April McDonald's rap fiasco.

It turns out the marketing geniuses at McDonald's have opted to pay rap musicians who mention their products in songs, with the lyrics (of course) being subject to approval by McDo.

But the plan has backfired.

Well, McDonald’s was asking for it, and they got it: A group called Gatbustaz has released a hip-hop song laden with Big Mac references—and laden also with sex, violence and profanity. Some of the tamer lyrics to “McGangsta” include: “Kinda feel like a sesame seed bun/Don’t we all/Wait, let me get my gun/Let’s make a McDonald’s run.” Though Gatbustaz appears to be a kind of Weird Al Yankovic of hip-hop (and the song sounds like it’s from about 1985), the song, currently circulating around the Internet, is still infectiously catchy. We doubt they’ll be getting any checks in the mail from McDonald’s anytime soon.

Via Jeff W

trevor's other life as a hasher

Trevor told me he was a hasher Friday night. The San Diego crew describes itself as "a drinking club with a running problem."

The Hash House Harriers is an informal running club with a tradition of hare and hound races dating back to 1938. The club was formed by a group of British soldiers on Kuala Lumpur. After jungle runs the soldiers gathered at a nearby restaurant to eat corn beef hash and drink beer - hence the name Hash House Harriers. Corn beef is no longer part of the Hashing tradition, but beer drinking still is. If you are interested in finding out more about hashing, and about how much fun it can be, visit the San Diego Hash House Harriers.

If I liked running and beer, I would be all over this. Given that I don't care for either, I'm surprised that (two days later) I'm intrigued enough that I'm thinking seriously about taking up running and registering for the Red Dress Run. But I doubt I'll get my act together in time for this year's run.

Update: 05/27/2005 It turns out that JaFo is a red dress alum. Pictures to come...