The Venn Diagram of My Heart

For those of you in the know, Deepusaurus and I are in agreement on many things. Especially musical things. If one were to draw a Venn Diagram of our musical tastes the overlapping middle part would be far larger than the two non-overlapping parts. Oh, wait. One has. One is me. I have.



Please note the number one band in the middle, whimsical Glaswegian indie-poppers, Belle & Sebastian. B&S are on a hiatus at the moment but that hasn't stopped their main songwriter, Stuart Murdoch, from putting out a new album- God Help the Girl. He's assisted in his "musical narrative" by nine different vocalists, with Catherine Ireton taking lead vocals on most the tracks. A '60s Girl Group sound + lilting vocals + B&S + summer sunshine= I am charmed! Oh, and it might end up being a movie? Fine!

You can hear a bunch of the songs here. Enjoy! Album out June 23rd in the US.

Forever Young

Hi Z-Don, 

Today i took a quiz on which 90210 character I was most like and also heard Forever Young by Alphaville.  And it got me thinking of a group of people that get to stay forever young.  Adults who play high-schoolers on TV.  I thought I would compile a short list of my favorites, and would hope that you might have contributions I may have forgotten. 

(1) Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea Zuckerman): If math serves me right she was 30 years old when she played a high school junior.  

 

She looks like she hasn't aged a bit since the 90's.  Too bad she looked 50 when she played Andrea. 

(2) Benjamin McKenzie (Ryan Atwood): Although he is no Andrea he played a high school freshman while being 25. 

(3) Jason Earles (Jackson Stewart): It has been reported that he was 29 in 2007, the year of the premier of Hannah Montana where he plays a high school student.  Soon he can get the best of both worlds with student and senior citizen discounts at the movies. 

(4) Robin Williams (Jack): In that stupid movie Jack, Robin Williams who is well over 75 plays a middle school student.  That is crazy!

That's all I have for now, 

D.Rex

Wonders of Sand!

Oh my God, it's like in Aladdin when that giant Cave of Wonders comes out of the sand except instead of a tiger face it's a DINOSAUR.



You're welcome.

Better watch your back, tiger.



More sand-dinos here.

Cool Science article

Hey Z-don, 

Check out this cool research paper that was written up in the NYT:

Murty, V.P. & Hakimi, S (2010) Posthumous predictive markers of zombie conversion as revealed by fMRI. Science, 10(4):54-56

 

Researchers at Duke University and California Institute of Technology have revealed regions in post-mortem brains that predict 2-year conversion into zombies.  in their recent Science paper, long time collaborators Murty & Hakimi revealed a network between the anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala, the brain's fear center, that dictates participant's "Zombie Potential".  This is the first step to obtaining preventative measures of limiting the number of active zombies in society without the use of torches, bullets, or axes.  

Hope you enjoyed it, 

D. Rex

D. Rex the Self Hater

Hi Z-Don, 

I am afraid that I have to join the ranks of self-hating racist (or in our case speciesist).  After two-four lectures on birds in my neurobiology class, I have decided that our future ancestors are disgusting and make me uncomfortable. Here are the four reasons why I think they are morally and physically foul. 

1.  Birds have labia's in their necks.  That is gross!  My professor kept on talking about their labias in there necks.  What type of slutty animal puts a labia in their neck?

2. Speaking of birds being sluts.  These trampy tramps put out at first call.  To the left is a picture of a female bird getting ready to "do it".  Your probably thinking "oh she must be in a committed relationship, or perhaps she got tricked into doing it by a male player bird (i.e. a suave crane) or who is this creep that took a picture of this bird in the privacy of its own home".  Nope this is what happens in response to one male bird call in the public setting of a laboratory.  The worst part is they will even make these responses to songs by juvenile birds that just learned how to sing (a.k.a. probably under 18 in bird years).  Again, gross.

3. Birds are very deceptive and i believe they may not show signs of remorse (like cats). UK researcher Nikki Clayton recently demonstrated that not only will birds hide there food from other birds, but they will actually pretend that they are hiding there food in another place to DECEIVE the other birds.  I am not sure but I think these other birds had sons at home crying on the bedroom floor because they were hungry (they probably should try to slut it up like that bird in post 2).  For more information regarding this please click here. 

4.  Some birds have gross necks, that are gross (see below).  And on the insides are an even grosser gizzard.  Way to ruin thanksgiving Birdface!

.

I am sorry if I disappointed you Z-don.  I don't want to hate myself, but what can you when birds are so gross.  I know people say think about your children's children, but i say no way if they are going to be slutty, deceptive birds with gross necks.  

D. Rex