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B-List Archive

October 2001

Postings to the B-List.

Subject: B-List: Just for Laughs
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 09:56:40 +0930

1. "Girls Giggle and Guys Grunt"
   < http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991348 >
Looks at a study into the noises American men and women make when
they laugh.

2. Laugh Sounds
   < http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/bachorowski/laugh.htm >
Expand your repertoire of laughs.

Subject: B-List: 2001 Ig Nobel Prizes
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 09:55:08 +0930

The 2001 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
   < http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-2001-winners.html >

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor people whose achievements "cannot or should not
be reproduced."  Back in May I told you about "The Annals of Improbable
Research" web site, who organise the Ig Nobel Prizes.

The 2001 Prizes were announced last weekend, and the winners include:
  + PHYSICS
David Schmidt of the University of Massachusetts for his partial
solution to the question of why shower curtains billow inwards.
  + ASTROPHYSICS
Dr. Jack and Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries, Rochester
Hills, Michigan, for their discovery that black holes fulfill all the
technical requirements to be the location of Hell.
  + PEACE
Viliumas Malinauskus of Grutas, Lithuania, for creating the amusement
park known as "Stalin World."
  + TECHNOLOGY
Awarded jointly to John Keogh of Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, for
patenting the wheel in the year 2001, and to the Australian Patent
Office for granting him Innovation Patent #2001100012.

My pick:
  + PUBLIC HEALTH
"A Preliminary Survey of Rhinotillexomania in an Adolescent"
   < http://www.psychiatrist.com/abstracts/200106/ab060104.htm >
Definitely the word of the day.  Click the link to find out what it
means.

* For another overview of this year's awards:
   < http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991387 >

* Past year winners:
   < http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html >

Subject: B-List: Stuck Tune Syndrome
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 09:20:34 +0930

"The Science Behind the Song Stuck in Your Head"
   < http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-000080020oct07.story >
Looks into the "Stuck Tune Syndrome" - music you can't get out of your head.

-- Related --
* BBC News Forum: What is the most annoying song of all time?
   < http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_848000/848941.stm >

* Robot Lounge Forum: What Song's In Your Head Right Now?
   < http://www.giantrobot.com/forums/showthread.php3?threadid=1537& >

* Steve's List O' Bad Songs
   < http://www.svandermeulen.com/badsongs.htm >
Allows people to submit songs.

-- B-List Flashback --
A couple of sites which are dedicated to commonly misheard song lyrics.

* Am I Right?
   < http://www.amiright.com/ >

* "Kiss This Guy"
   < http://www.kissthisguy.com/ >

Subject: B-List: Pet Humor
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 08:51:28 +0930

Pet Humor
   < http://www.pethumor.com/ >

A site dedicated to, surprise surprise, pet humo(u)r.

* Funny Photos
   < http://www.pethumor.com/funny-photos.html >
   eg
     < http://www.pethumor.com/images/cats/pages/03.html >
     < http://www.pethumor.com/images/dogs/pages/24.html >

* True Stories
   < http://www.pethumor.com/true-stories.html >

* Pet Jokes
   < http://www.pethumor.com/pet-jokes.html >

* Cartoons
   < http://www.pethumor.com/cartoons.html >

If you like the web site you can buy the book:
   < http://www.pethumor.com/book.html >

----

"Fish Bites Dog" -- From http://www.wired.com/ ...

It was not so much puppy love as fatal attraction for an old woman's
dog playing by a lake in a German park.  The puppy was frolicking a
few feet in the water when a giant catfish emerged, grabbed the dog
and ate it.  "It was like that scene in Jaws -- all frothing water and
just a pathetic yelp from the dog," the park keeper said.  A mother
walking nearby said, "I heard the old woman screaming....  Then she
started to run away with the dog lead still in her hand.  She was
completely beside herself."  According to the park gardener nobody
knows how the catfish ended up in the lake, but it's been there a
long time without causing problems.  "I saw him a while ago." he said.
"A huge water fountain suddenly came out of the water and then the
fish appeared.  I could even see the beard hairs on its head.  It was
about one and a half meters long and must weigh about 40 kilos."

Subject: B-List: Psychic Chicken Network
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 09:16:20 +0930

Psychic Chicken Network
   < http://www.ruprecht.com/ >

"Complete psychic center brought to you by a chicken with attitude".

* Ruprecht's Psychic Test
   < http://www.ruprecht.com/psychictest.html >
Are you psychic or psycho?

* Yes or No?
   < http://www.ruprecht.com/yesno.html >
Ask a yes/no question and the chicken will tell you the answer.

* Why the chicken crossed the road
   < http://www.ruprecht.com/why.html >
More answers to the age-old question.

* Ruprecht's Haunted House
   < http://www.ruprecht.com/*HauntedHouse/HauntedIntro.html >
I haven't looked into this, so I can't comment.

Subject: B-List: Emotional Car, Pet Robot Cat
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 09:40:56 +0930

1. Toyota, Sony Develop Mood-Sharing Tail-Wagging Car
   < http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011017/tc/autos_pod_dc_2.html >
"A new vehicle developed by Japan's Toyota Motor Corp and electronics giant
 Sony Corp will smile, frown and cry, not to mention take your pulse and
 measure your sweat."

More snippets from the news report:
"The face of the four seater, 1.5 liter engine pod has U-shaped grooves that
 light up to express emotion, the headlights positioned mid-way to look like
 eyes and side-mirrors positioned to look like ears."

"When its owner approaches, it lights up a happy orange-yellow.  Puncture a
 tire or run out of fuel, it lights up blue, complete with a display of tear-
 drops.  Swerve sharply or brake too hard and the color is an angry red."

"The back of the car, similar in design to the front, has a tail-like
 wagging antenna."


2. NeCoRo
   < http://www.omron.com/news/n_161001.html >
A pet robot cat.

"Envisioning a society embodying a wide diversity of values, where
 everyone can live comfortably at peace (what Omron calls the
 Optimization Society), Omron sees the importance in the realization
 of a machine that can communicate with humans and understand them.
 A machine that is gentle to humans and responds appropriately to an
 individual's needs.  Natural communication between humans and machines
 is made possible with the cat type communication robot NeCoRo."

Features:
* Responds to human movement/emotions
* Has feelings and desires, and its personality will adjust to its owner
* Remembers its name and acknowledges its name when called
* Synthetic fur gives it a feline appearance, so it feels natural to
  treat it like a cat, stroking and hugging it

At least it has a soft fur-like coat, unlike Sony's AIBO robot dog:
   < http://www.aibo.com/ers_210/ >

Subject: B-List: Shakespearean Insulter + Wisdom + Bad Poetry
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 09:20:11 +0930

1. Shakespearean Insulter
   < http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/ >

Add some sophistication to your repertoire of insults with quotes from the
works of the Old Bard himself.
Examples:
  "Sell your face for five pence and 'tis dear."  Taken from: King John
  "Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee."
   Taken from: All's Well That Ends Well
  "Thou impertinent brazen-faced apple-john!"


2. Pangloss Wisdom
   < http://www.pangloss.com/index.html >

Some random pearls of wisdom.
Examples:
  "Expert: Avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the grand fallacy."
  "Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving
   cabs and cutting hair."  - George Burns


3. Bad Poetry

You supply the first line and these poetry generators will do the rest:

* Heretical Rhyme Generator
  < http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Poem/ >

* Beatnik Ramble
  < http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Ramble/ >

Subject: B-List: Coolsig.com + iPod
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 09:43:48 +0930

Coolsig.com
   < http://www.coolsig.com/ >

A collection of over 3700 interesting and amusing email signatures.
Main categories:  People and Society, Life's Little Lessons, Oddballs,
Humour, Geeky Sigs and Miscellaneous

There's also a pretty handy search facility:
  < http://www.coolsig.com/search.htm >

Some selections from "The Proverbial Sig"
* Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defence.
* Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
* Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he
  will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

-----

Apple's iPod
   < http://www.apple.com/ipod/ >

A tiny portable MP3 player, capable of storing 1000+ songs.  A bit pricey,
but has lots of cool features.  Can also be used as a portable hard disk
for ordinary files - I wonder if I could claim it as a tax deduction ...

Subject: B-List: Wired's Rave Awards 2001
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 08:54:53 +0930

The 2001 Wired Rave Awards
   < http://www.raveawards.com/ >

"Celebrate the best in tech"

Categories include Most Wired Design, Most Wired Gadget, Best Read (on the web),
Most Wired Musician, Cultural Innovator and Tech Renegade.

The nominees are ...
   < http://www.raveawards.com/raves_form/nomineelist.html >

And the winners are ...
   < http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011018/182007_1.html >

Subject: B-List: The Last Word + RipGO + Balloony
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 09:26:49 +1030

1. New Scientist: The Last Word Science Questions and Answers
   < http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/ >

Questions & answers on everyday scientific phenomena.

Examples:
  * Do hiccups serve any useful purpose?
    < http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/answers/290body.jsp >
  * When lightning strikes the water, does it kill the fish?
    < http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/answers/291animals.jsp >
  * Why people um and er
    < http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/answers/125body.jsp >


2. Imation RipGO Portable MP3/CD Player and Burner
   < http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2001/ripgo.html >

Uses the mini-CD format, so it's quite compact.  But 185 MB is still no match
for the 5 GB iPod.


3. "Loony Balloonist Sets Record"
   < http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47965,00.html >

Not quite the way Branson would do it.

B!?

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