Category Archives: Life

Chuck Season 3

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So I began watching Chuck I guess in September sometime, and it’s now become my favorite TV show ever because of its uncanny degree of awesomeness.

So, okay, they finally resolved the tension between Chuck and Sarah over the course of Episodes #48-50 (Chuck vs. the Other Guy, vs. the Honeymooners, and vs. the Role Models). Good for them. Very well done, and what’s not to like?

But I just watched Episode # 51 (16 of Season 3), “Chuck Vs. the Tooth.” I guess there’s some kind of rule that says you have to have tension, because that’s what they’ve got now. The only thing they could have done to ratchet it up any worse would be to put Joss Whedon in charge of an episode to kill off a couple of the main characters.

Indian Cooking in Crock-Pot

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About once a quarter, Mrs. Accretion Disc is able to devote half a day to making some kind of Indian-food dish, and those days are awesome. Sadly, they only come once a quarter. But maybe that will change, now that someone has published a book on making Indian food in a crock-pot! The cover illustration is making me drool. (Read the author’s blog here; via Insty.)

A Better Diet Plan

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My doctor’s been on my back to lose a few pounds. That’s good, because it’s kept me from gaining any more. Otherwise, it hasn’t been very effective. But now I think I’ve figured out the secret:

After two weeks, the people who slept more lost more fat than the group who slept less. More than half of the weight loss during the 8.5 hours of sleep was fat versus only one quarter of the weight loss during the 5.5 hours of sleep. People literally burned fat while they slept.

I found this on the internet so it must be true. See the whole piece at Psychology Today.

Milky Way is Square?

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Researchers create a new map of our galaxy, with the following features:

One conclusion is that the Milky Way has an additional spiral arm, not seen in previous surveys of the galaxy. The new arm is about 30,000 light years from the galactic core at a longitude of between 80 and 140 degrees.

But a bigger surprise is their conclusion that some of the arms in the Milky Way are not curved in the traditional way, but are straight instead. This gives the Milky Way a distinctly squarish look.

Kudus: Technology Review.

Happy Birthday to Me

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In an hour and a half it will be 10/10/10. Could a birthday be any more auspicious than that?

Plus, I will be 49 years old. In the Bible, that would be 7×7 or perfection squared.

So, good for me. Many happy returns of the day, etc. But I’d better enjoy it, because soon enough I’ll be a grumpy old man. Which brings me to today’s science fact: old men really are grumpier. From the Telegraph of the U.K.:

“We laugh twice as much in our teens as we do in our fifties. And our findings suggest that it’s all downhill from 52.”

The study found that while an infant can laugh aloud as many as 300 times every day, life rapidly becomes far less fun.

No Serenity 2, I Guess

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I really liked Firefly. The movie Serenity wasn’t — couldn’t be — as good, but it had its moments:

A year from now, ten? They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin’. I aim to misbehave.

Now from Joss Whedon comes this tidbit downplaying any possibility of a Serenity 2:

It’s nice to know that people still care about Firefly but it’s actual grief that I feel. It’s not something you get over, it’s just something you learn to live with.

Via @AdamSBaldwin who adds “amen.”

How to write thin science journalism

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Ever wondered how to crank out shallow science journalism? In the Guardian‘s “Lay Scientist” column, Martin Robbins shows how it’s done:

In this paragraph I will state the main claim that the research makes, making appropriate use of “scare quotes” to ensure that it’s clear that I have no opinion about this research whatsoever.

Chuck

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I’ve been looking for some TV-on-DVD to watch while I exercise, and a couple of weeks ago I hit on the series “Chuck.” Initially, I only watched it to see what Adam Baldwin (a/k/a Jayne “I’ll be in my bunk” Cobb) was doing these days. But as of a couple of episodes into season 2, I’m liking the whole show. Of course, I have to root for the nerd to get the girl.