(no subject)
I just read an article about brain scans on people looking at pictures of folks they lusted after and ones they claimed to love. Apparently love and lust activate distinct areas of the brain. More proof that love and lust at first sight are different and people can stop saying "LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT DOESN'T EXIST IT'S JUST LUST YOU DIRTY MONKEY PEOPLE."
http://news.dressking.com/health/Diseases_and_Conditions/Brain/105299.html
http://foreigndispatches.typepad.com/dispatches/2005/06/love_is_not_lus.html
If anyone besides me keeps houseplants, the most effective fungicide/pesticide I've used so far is neem oil. It was more effective and less damaging than dish soap, hand soap, alcohol and chemical sprays. It's also completely organic for those of you who care about that. It comes from the seeds of the neem tree, or Chinese Pagoda tree. According to 'Herbs,' a book about (surprise!) herbs;
"The seed oil shows carcinogen-reducing properties, and is antifungal and antiviral. The bark, leaves, and roots are tonic and reduce fever. The leaves are antiseptic and expel worms. As a nontoxic pesticide the seed oil compounds destroy bacteria and over 200 insect species, including locusts and mites."
Pretty impressive. It can be diluted and used to water plants to kill shit in the soil (like fungus gnat larva) or sprayed on the leaves with some dishsoap as an emulsifier to suffocate insects and mites. Don't spray in full sun or the oil could heat up and cook the plant. And it smells like ass.
This Week in Biochemistry: Menstruation! After a particularly painful period, I was looking up ways to stop menstruation that didn't involve surgery or people shoving metal in my hoohah. Or spending money in any way, because I'm cheap. I came across one page on the Deer Exercise, a strange erotic practice in Taoist China that includes a lot of breast rubbing. It claims to stop menstruation, prevent pregnancy, and slow aging. Thinking there might be some truth in it, I looked up breast massage and found a ton of shit on wikipedia. The basic gist was, rubbing your boobs releases prolactin, which prevents you from ovulating (and menstruating) by inhibiting FSH, which stimulates the growth of ovarian follicles, and GnRH, which controls the release of FSH. High prolactin is also 90% effective as a contraceptive, and is upregulated by estrogen and downregulated by dopamine. So far it seems to work. Since I started rubbing my boobs more two or three months ago(a common practice anyway in the realm of Sconeborough) I haven't menstruated. Science triumphs again. Nature can go screw herself.
In unrelated news, Chesh shares a birthday with Isaac Asimov. That's pretty sweet. Isaac's thoughts on his journal, started the day before his eighteenth birthday and continued throughout the rest of his life:
"The diary began as the sort of thing a teenager would write, but it quickly degenerated to a simple kind of literary record. It is, to anyone but myself, utterly boring --so boring, in fact, that I leave it around for anyone who wishes, to read. No one ever reads more than two pages. Occasionally someone asks me if I have never felt that my diary ought to record my innermost feelings and emotions, and my answer is always, "No. Never!" After all, what's the point of being a writer if I have to waste my innermost feelings and emotions on a mere diary?"
I'm glad someone else had a boring diary.
http://news.dressking.com/health/Diseases_and_Conditions/Brain/105299.html
http://foreigndispatches.typepad.com/dispatches/2005/06/love_is_not_lus.html
If anyone besides me keeps houseplants, the most effective fungicide/pesticide I've used so far is neem oil. It was more effective and less damaging than dish soap, hand soap, alcohol and chemical sprays. It's also completely organic for those of you who care about that. It comes from the seeds of the neem tree, or Chinese Pagoda tree. According to 'Herbs,' a book about (surprise!) herbs;
"The seed oil shows carcinogen-reducing properties, and is antifungal and antiviral. The bark, leaves, and roots are tonic and reduce fever. The leaves are antiseptic and expel worms. As a nontoxic pesticide the seed oil compounds destroy bacteria and over 200 insect species, including locusts and mites."
Pretty impressive. It can be diluted and used to water plants to kill shit in the soil (like fungus gnat larva) or sprayed on the leaves with some dishsoap as an emulsifier to suffocate insects and mites. Don't spray in full sun or the oil could heat up and cook the plant. And it smells like ass.
This Week in Biochemistry: Menstruation! After a particularly painful period, I was looking up ways to stop menstruation that didn't involve surgery or people shoving metal in my hoohah. Or spending money in any way, because I'm cheap. I came across one page on the Deer Exercise, a strange erotic practice in Taoist China that includes a lot of breast rubbing. It claims to stop menstruation, prevent pregnancy, and slow aging. Thinking there might be some truth in it, I looked up breast massage and found a ton of shit on wikipedia. The basic gist was, rubbing your boobs releases prolactin, which prevents you from ovulating (and menstruating) by inhibiting FSH, which stimulates the growth of ovarian follicles, and GnRH, which controls the release of FSH. High prolactin is also 90% effective as a contraceptive, and is upregulated by estrogen and downregulated by dopamine. So far it seems to work. Since I started rubbing my boobs more two or three months ago(a common practice anyway in the realm of Sconeborough) I haven't menstruated. Science triumphs again. Nature can go screw herself.
In unrelated news, Chesh shares a birthday with Isaac Asimov. That's pretty sweet. Isaac's thoughts on his journal, started the day before his eighteenth birthday and continued throughout the rest of his life:
"The diary began as the sort of thing a teenager would write, but it quickly degenerated to a simple kind of literary record. It is, to anyone but myself, utterly boring --so boring, in fact, that I leave it around for anyone who wishes, to read. No one ever reads more than two pages. Occasionally someone asks me if I have never felt that my diary ought to record my innermost feelings and emotions, and my answer is always, "No. Never!" After all, what's the point of being a writer if I have to waste my innermost feelings and emotions on a mere diary?"
I'm glad someone else had a boring diary.