Why Are Termites So Rich in Protein?

If you are familiar with body-builders or just meat-heads in general, then you know that they are obsessed with protein (and probably human growth hormone and anabolic steroids and a bunch of other supplements). But if these folks are really serious about efficiency, then maybe they ought to consider what might be perhaps the best source of protein anywhere: termites :)But why are they so rich in protein if their diet consists of woody material that...

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If Fifty Shades of Grey Is Not Dirty Enough for Your Taste, Try The Bible, But Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

When I was a little boy, the Bible was one of my favorite books. No, it's not because I was a goodie-two-shoes... it was because I loved the story of Sampson and how he would kick major ass and cause havoc wherever he went. I also liked the apocalyptic stuff... now I'm starting to wonder how I ended up so well-adjusted :)And now that psychopathic and experienced men taking advantage of, abusing and humiliating inexperienced young girls are all the...

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Earth Time Lapse from the International Space Station

Over the past few years, we have featured some incredible time lapse photography on this blog, and it truly has been phenomenal. Technology continues to get ever more awesome, and people find more and new creative ways to fill us with awe and inspiration.But regular individuals don't have access to certain viewpoints from where to shoot their incredible videos, like out space, for instance... but the International Space Station does:And if you thought...

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According to conservatives, the aftermath of a massive shooting spree is NOT the time to talk about guns?

I get that we in America have a constitutional right to bear arms and own weapons, but since we also love our Declaration of Independence, we also believe that we have a right to life. Now, these don't have to be mutually exclusive, so you'd think that adult conservatives would be willing to try to enter the discussion regarding how to adequately balance individual rights with a collective interest in societal peace and safety.Gun fundamentalists,...

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Long-lost Moon landing tape: We are on the fucking moon!

If your life has consisted of anything other than just being a vegetable since 1969, then you know that, notwithstanding what conspiracy theorists might say, and regardless of the plausibility of their denials (this one almost convinces me, for instance), we have made it to the moon!Countless future generations will be familiar with Neil Armstrong's famous first words upon touching down on the moon and being the first human being ever to set foot...

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Three Minute Philosophy - Empedocles

The pre-Socratic philosophers are a strange bunch. On the one hand, their ideas about the nature of reality must strike most of us as just plain weird. Everything is made of air or water? The fundamental constituents of the universe are love and strife? No, it's number? What?On the other hand, what else can you expect from really smart people who didn't have the benefit of the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of almost three millennia that they were...

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Philosophy of Time

Sorry about the sparse entries lately. My mind has been busy with a bunch of personal stuff.So today is the release of the last installment of The Dark Knight series, so I figured you're probably looking for some sort of light-minded stimulation to deal with the inevitable boredom, and I thought to myself, why not have a little introduction to the philosophy of time? It's precisely the kind of subject that makes a summer Friday go by all the more...

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The Word - On the Straight & Narrow-Minded

Despite the horrible traffic, the humidity, the bad smells, the crowded subways, and so on, sometimes I'm actually glad I live in NYC and not in, say, Texas. Why, you ask?For one thing, because Texas is ruled by Republicans, conservative culture, religion, racism, homophobia and narrow-minded gun-toting hillbillies. Case in point, the folks from the Texas GOP believe that the impressionable minds of young people are being poisoned by knowledge and...

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Electric Vocabulary

Why do we call electricity "electricity"? Why do we talk about its "charge"? Or talk about whether that charge is "positive" or "negative"? And why do we refer to a device to store electricity as a "battery"?One great way to find out about the fascinating history of this strange phenomenon, and the one I would recommend, is to watch the excellent documentary series Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity, narrated by Jim Al-Khalili.But if you don't...

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Mitt Romney's Bain Damage

Questions about Mitt Romney's time as CEO of Bain Capital have people concerned. On the one hand, he is running for president on the platform of his business experience. Of course, that business experience includes buying American companies, driving them to the ground, forcing all their employees to lose their jobs (either through the company's bankrupcy or through outsourcing those jobs to foreign nations), all while making obscene profits for Romney...

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Sean Carroll - The Case for Naturalism

If you follow current events in the world of public intellectualism, you probably know that over the past few decades, and increasingly over the past couple of years, some prominent physicists (Richard Feynman, Steven Weinberg, Stephen Hawking, and Lawrence Krauss, for instance) have been taking jabs at philosophy. The usual charge is that philosophy doesn't help us make scientific progress, which, for the most part, is kind of true. But, of course,...

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Search Crews Continue To Look For Obviously Dead Hikers

Because of all their awkwardness and social ineptitude, and due to their literalist interpretation of things, autistic people may often seem to be blind to a reality that's obvious to the rest of us. But sometimes that's a two-way street because they can often see as obvious what the rest of us may be blissfully unaware of or willfully blind to...And almost no one can strike that perfect balance between making you feel uncomfortable about your own...

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Marco Tempest - The Electric Rise and Fall of Nikola Tesla

Today is the birthday of one of history's greatest genius: Nikola Tesla. It probably wouldn't be much of an overstatement to claim that the modern world wouldn't exist without him. He did invent, after all, things like the remote control, wireless communication, alternating current transmission, a death ray and a few other hundreds of things.To learn about the man and his work, you should watch the documentary Nikola Tesla: Master of Lightning, but...

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Drunk History - Oney Judge

If you like to have fun, to learn and to laugh, next time you have a dinner party, may I suggest you get the smartest or most educated person in the room wasted and then ask him/her to explain something related to their field of expertise?If you're kind of skeptical, the following video shows the hilarity of what happened when comedian Jen Kirkman drank a bottle and a half of wine and tried to talk about a historical event related to the founding...

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The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence

Last week in America we got to celebrate the 4th of July. To many people, this is a nice excuse to have a day off, spend it with family or friends, eat some hot dogs, drink some beer and watch some awesome fireworks. Nothing wrong with that.It is important to remember, however (and hence why I've delayed this entry), why we celebrate that day, and what the Declaration of Independence, that document penned by the inimitable style and genius of Thomas...

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The Two Towers of Dubai Time Lapse

I am by no means a fan of the materialistic extravagance of places like Dubai, or the fact that its wealth comes from the exploitation of people all over the world and from the depletion and pollution of natural ecosystems everywhere... and when I think Two Towers, my mind immediately tends to go to The Lord of the Rings and the evil associated with Sauron, which is fitting, but damn it if the following time lapse video isn't totally awesome...Check...

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Test Your Awareness : Whodunnit? And Look Out for Bikers!

Summer is here, and those of us who are sick of driving and public transportation, or just environmentally or health conscious, are ditching conventional means of commuting and resorting to biking instead.And as the number of bikers is increasing, tension between drivers, pedestrians and bikers seems to be on the rise, so the first thing I would recommend is that we all chill down a little and become more considerate of all our fellow commuters,...

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Pearls Before Swine on Natural Selection

Well, naturally... it's survival of the fittest :)Via Pearls Before Sw...

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Olber's Paradox - Why Is the Sky Dark at Night?

I know that may seem like a silly question at first glance, but there is a long history of seemingly silly questions that end up producing some mind-blowing and really counter-intuitive results that really get us to question our most basic presuppositions about the nature of reality, and in many cases redefine our understanding of the universe. This case is no exception.So back to the question, sure, the sun is hiding on the other side of the planet,...

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The Birth of Calculus - Newton and Leibniz

Before you run away in fear of having seen the word calculus, let me preface this entry by saying that you don't have to understand how it works, or even be able to do it, to understand and appreciate why it's important and why calculus represents one of the greatest intellectual achievements of human history: the modern world would not exist without it. You may choose to turn a blind eye to it, but that doesn't make it go away, so why not embrace...

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