Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• Sleep seems to be key in allowing the brain to infer big-picture relationships from scattered facts--and by implication, memories. I've never been a strong sleeper, and I wonder if some of the "fails" in my older memories stem from inadequate deep sleep.
• Also from Wired Science: People who don't get enough sleep are touchy and angry. (Not like that's news to anyone who's prone to sleepless nights.) Could this explain the peculiar unpleasantness of the political blogosphere? I'll vouch for the fact that peace, love, and tolerance of people who disagree with you is much easier on nine hours' sleep than five.
• If you'll forgive the expression, here's a long, beefy article on why everybody thinks animal fat is a bad thing (hint: it's because a Right Man cherry-picked his data to confirm his hypothesis) and why, to the contrary, animal fat may be very, very good for us.
• Maybe this will bring the issue of bad patents to the top of the queue. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht and numerous others for the link.)
• From Jim Strickland comes a link suggesting that your family dog may be smarter than the average toddler. (Your dog, maybe. Mine, probably not.)
• I was wrong about it coming from a Kum & Go store; while sorting my charge card receipts I discovered that Fat Dogs (see my entry for August 7, 2009) is a small chain of Conoco-franchised gas station/convenience stores limited to Western Nebraska. They had some water private-labeled by Sandhills Water, and put their wry corporate motto on the top of the label.
• Lileks takes on the Sears Catalog for 1973. I remember that catalog. Fortunately, my clothes came from Goldblatts. And did real, human, breathing girls wear these things? Maybe the girls in Hoffman Estates did. In my neighborhood, well...no.
• From the Words I Didn't Know Until Yesterday Department: juiceboxer, a young, arrogant, high-status preppie-type. Their parents got their juice from bottles. And their grandparents mostly got it while it was still inside the fruit. Juice as a product is a relatively new thing; keeping juice from fermenting is difficult and one of the unappreciated miracles of our modern age.