Category Archives: Frivolity

Procrastination is important to a well-balanced mind.

I am the Atom!

Posted on February 21, 2008 by cicada

My friend mdvlst just reminded me that there is actually an obscure DC superhero with my name, and moreover, she’s a scientist superhero: Jessica Palmer is the costumed super-hero known as the Atom and hails from a parallel reality known … Continue reading →

Posted in Department of the Drama, Frivolity | Comments Off

Sneeze In Your Sleeve!

Posted on January 29, 2008 by cicada

I’ve had the sniffles now for a few days, and as always, I feel self-conscious about where my germs are landing. This little tutorial combats wayward nasally-propelled microbes with the Sneeze-In-Your-Sleeve strategy. Very amusing – and it suggests another possible use for the tentacle arm.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Education, Frivolity | 3 Comments

The Making of a LEGO

Posted on January 29, 2008 by cicada

Businessweek has this little slideshow of a LEGO factory. Neat. Apparently the system is so precise, only 18 in a million LEGO bricks are defective. Which sounds about right; I’ve never found an irregular LEGO, and I’ve handled thousands. Still, … Continue reading →

Posted in Frivolity | 2 Comments

Tentacle Arm

Posted on January 19, 2008 by cicada

  What more is there to say, really? It’s a tentacle arm. A friend of mine told me I need “at least two” of these. . . . . . at LEAST two???? What?? And once the first one’s on, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cephalopodmania, Conspicuous consumption, Frivolity | 1 Comment

Who’s your daddy? Ask PCR

Posted on January 17, 2008 by cicada

Ah, I have the warm fuzzies now for my eppendorfs and thermal cycler. . . but I’m sure it will pass.

Posted in Biology, Film, Video & Music, Frivolity, Science | Comments Off

3-D Textual Spirographs!

Posted on January 17, 2008 by cicada

. . . or something like that. Courtesy of JK Keller, these Volumetric Redundancies represent the number of times a word appears in a given text. Red cubes represent non-unique words, with size depending on number of occurrences; blue cubes … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Frivolity, Words | 3 Comments

This would be my third-favorite show

Posted on January 17, 2008 by cicada

Geoffrey Chaucer is back on his blog after a hiatus almost as long as Lost‘s, with a comment on the television writers’ strike. He proposes some shows of his own which sound a tad familiar, perhaps – but in literature, … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogs and Blogging, Frivolity, Littademia | 2 Comments

Virginia battles indecent trucks

Posted on January 16, 2008 by cicada

Tragically, the epidemic of hanging artificial genitalia from truck hitches has spread, prompting still more state legislation, this time in Virginia (as I posted in 2007, Maryland already tried to ban them). We are a really bizarre species to find … Continue reading →

Posted in Frivolity | 5 Comments

Awwwww

Posted on December 20, 2007 by cicada

National Geographic  I used to have a pet hooded rat, which is why I think the giant rat recently discovered in Indonesia is actually kinda cute. Plus, it’s almost as large as my cat! It would be hilarious to get … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Frivolity | 2 Comments

London signage

Posted on December 18, 2007 by cicada

Is there some sort of typological standard for disembodied medical hands? I took this picture in London, and thought nothing of it at the time – but it does strongly resemble the hands in Nicole Natri’s collage, and the descriptions of … Continue reading →

Posted in Destinations, Frivolity | 2 Comments