Interesting Science Studies 3

US fast foods get supersized fat

I’m not sure why I attack fast food chains so much, but I found this article interesting. Apparently different McDonald’s restaurants have different trans fat contents.

Quoting the article “A study of two leading restaurants found wide variations in trans fat content from country to country, from city to city within the same nation, and from restaurant to restaurant in the same city.”

Should you care? Of course you should! Trans fat is so bad that it “raises bad cholesterol and lowers good cholesterol. Eating just 5g of it per day increases the risk of heart disease by 25%” which apparently led to “prematurely killing 30,000 to 75,000 Americans a year.”

When you're in orbit, which way is Mecca?

The Malaysians are having troubles trying to locate Mecca from outer space. A space shuttle takes 90 minutes to orbit earth once, making Mecca much harder to locate. There’s a big conference coming up including religion men and scientists to help solve this “issue.” Space scientists realize that religion can be very comforting for astronauts, especially when they’re hanging hundreds of KM suspended in the middle of nowhere. My solution is put them on a rotating platform, rotating in the opposite direction of their orbit, and at the same rate of rotation.

Faces in a crowd offer alternative to passwords

This is also pretty cool. Instead of using alphanumeric passwords, now we can use familiar faces as our passwords. The idea can be extended to verficiation tests. Instead of having to type in random letters this website let’s you select kittens to prove that you’re not a spambot. Interesting.

Lastly check this out! This can be a really cool graduation gift for me, any takers?

Send something into space, for $99

A Californian company is offering to send an object of your choice into space as early as 2008, and at "bake sale" prices, as long as it fits in a soda can..

Technorati Tags: science, technology, fat, health, trans fat, passwords, kittens, space, mecca, religion

My little weekend adventure

Last weekend I decided to take a closer look at a little pond that I always passed by on the way to downtown. So I snapped a pic..

and another one..


But then I noticed a nearby trail, so decided to walk through the trees


and I walked..
and walked...when it suddenly opened up!

I turned my head to discover this small little lake, I never knew about...

so I snapped another picture,

enjoyed a few relaxing minutes near the water, and decided to come back in the summer, when the trees are green and the weather is hot, maybe for a relaxing evening with a book in hand

Google is hungry for your files

Just read an article in New Scientist reporting that the "search engine plans for an infinite storage system to hold all its users' files, emails, and photos"

This info was apparently leaked from a corporate presentation, which was then leaked onto Google's website, later to be removed.

This move doesn't suprise me at all. Google always appeared to be "data hungry" which I never really understood. But seriously, would you put all of your files onto a Google server? I don't even trust their desktop search tool. Plus, in today's world our lives are becoming more transparent than ever. Someone could easily track my purchases, internet history, and even my library record without me knowing. Why would I make it easier for anyone to invade my privacy?

Technorati Tags: google, internet, privacy, news, technology, storage, data

Art on the Apratheid Wall

This one of my favourite photo finds online [via Coffee Beans]
I have a feeling Roba is gonna like these

Technorati Tags: occupation, apartheid, seperation wall, palestine, israel, art, palestinian, creativity, activism

قلب يعود للعمل بعد 10 سنوات من الراحة

This is amazing, a girl's heart comes back to life after 10 years. Initially she had problems with her heart, she then got a transplant. Ten years after the trasnplant doctors noticed her old heart was fine. They connected the old heart, and now everything is prefect. All this thanks to an egyptian doctor, Sir Majdi Ya3koub

وقال متحدث باسم مستشفى جريت اورموند ستريت للاطفال "اكتشفنا ان قلبها الاصلي يعمل الان بصورة جيدة جدا." واضاف "بالتالي نزعنا القلب المزروع وتمكنا من وقف الادوية المضادة لرفض القلب المزروع وأعدنا توصيل قلبها الاصلي فبدأ العمل. وهي بحال طيب جدا."وقدم سير مجدي يعقوب جراح القلب المصري الاصل الذي اجرى عملية زراعة القلب لكلارك المشورة للجراحين خلال العملية التي اجريت يوم 20 فبراير شباط. وقال انه سعيد لتعافي قلب الفتاة بصورة طيبة.

read the full article here

Have you ever wondered?

I’ll start off with vans. Have you noticed how some vans have a “Sport” edition? There’s the Grand Caravan Sport, the Freestar Sport and the list goes on. What’s sporty about a van? Are car makers hoping that subliminally people will think the van is sporty and thus cool?

Why do people clap in cooking shows, when the chef adds an ingredient? Every now and then I watch Emeril Live, and whenever he adds white whine, pepper, blue cheese, or any other ingredient for that matter, the audience goes nuts!! You hear the “Woo” and the “YEAH” among clapping hands. How hungry are these people?!

Here’s a typical Emril Live episode

Emeril: To give this dish a punch, weh goin to add some peppah.. BAM!!
Audience: yeah!! Wooooo!
Emeril: oh what the hell, let’s give it some textcha with some beautiful blue cheese.. oh yeah look at that
Audience” (now going nuts clapping) wooo.

This goes on for the rest of the show…

Why can members of parliament vote for their own raise? This is perhaps the most counterintuitive thing about governments. Who would say no to a pay increase?

Why do interior designer call curtains “window treatments”? It’s either curtains or blinds, don’t use funky lingo please. Also, why do designer as “Do you like to entertain?” that sounds so much goofier than “Do you like to have people over?”

First trip of the year... How does London sound?

As I mentioned earlier I’m almost done my work term and I’ll be returning back to school for the summer. Usually the university allows at least one week between work and school, but since the winter term is short, this time we only get a weekend separating school from work. I managed to get one week off, but the rest of my friends are stuck working until the end. Usually when we have a week off, we plan a road trip somewhere, but this time a road trip was not an option.

So… I was complaining to my parents on how the one week “vacation” will be extremely boring, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, then suddenly my dad said “why don’t you go to England?” And that was it! I was sold on the idea right away. Today I got my plane tickets, and two weeks from now I will be on a plane heading towards London. The closest I’ve been to London was Heathrow airport. Every time we landed there, I admired the city from the sky, but never got the opportunity to actually see it up-close. This will be an experience to remember.

The Ultimate Gadget

In case you're wondering, these are not mine! :(

I’m still waiting for the ultimate gadget. A gadget that will combine the features and functionality of all of an mp3/video player (40 GB), storage device, voice recorder, FM radio, digital camera (at least 3 MP), software running capability, and of course a cell phone. It’s pretty much the marriage of an iPod and a PDA, on drugs. That’s not all. I expect the gadget to be lightweight, with a long battery life, and memory expandability. Oh yeah, and all this without exceeding 8 cm X 4 cm X 2 cm.

Given today’s technology, such a gadget is perfectly feasible. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it coming out in the near future, mark my words on this.

I expect to pay $600 for a gadget like this, without thinking twice about it. Just think of the versatility! So let’s do some market research right now, would you be interested in such a gadget?

Technorati Tags: gadget, technology, ipod, mp3, camera, cell phone

I want to be Ronalidnho

In three weeks I will be finishing my work term and returning to school. Yes, returning to school for the summer. This will be my last summer term, and as you can imagine there are the benefits and the drawbacks. Main benefit is that I will be able to enjoy the weather outside more, since I won’t be trapped in an office for 9 hours a day. Main drawback is that I will be feeling guilty while enjoying the weather, since not much studying is going to get done.

I will talk more about my upcoming term in more detail later, but from what I’ve been hearing, the term is project intensive. The cool thing about projects is that they let you apply your knowledge to real life problems. The bad thing about projects is that lots of work goes into them. I’ll have to wait and see how much motivation I can build up with the gorgeous weather outside calling my name.

I’m also excited about starting the soccer season in the summer. Nothing beats summer outdoor soccer. Speaking of soccer, I’m determined to sit there in the summer and practice all those crazy moves Ronaldinho pulls off. If I can replicate 25% of them.. wait let's make that 5%, I will have achieved my goal. I’ll keep you posted.

Lastly, I have some crazy plans for the end of the summer. Plans which will be revealed when the time comes? Suspenseful? It better be ;)

For now enjoy this artistic performance..

and

Interesting Science Studies

The latest collection of interesting research happening around the globe..

Device warns you if you're boring or irritating

The device can recognise facial expressions and alerts its autistic user if the person they are talking to starts showing signs of boredom or irritation

Smart glasses switch focus in an instant

"Dynamic" spectacles use liquid crystals to snap from "distance" to "reading" mode at the flick of a switch, doing away with strain-inducing bifocal lenses

Your secrets are safe with quasar encryption

Governments, embassies or financial institutions could use random radio signals from across the universe to encrypt messages that require a high level of security

Nano-welding could join molecular devices

The technique - based on the blazing reaction that powers fireworks - could also lend itself to nanoscopic chemistry experiments

Groggy mornings fuel desire to smoke

People whose body clocks are permanently out of synch may take up smoking simply to give themselves a boost

Jerusalem Keychain

I had been looking for this keychain for the longest time, and I finally found it. Behold, my favourite keychain of all time.

Update: This keychain has been hanging around for over 30 years. My aunt gave
it to my dad upon graduation from university. Here's a picture of the back of it..