http://weeklyrob.com Stuff I’m thinking. On a more or less weekly basis. Don’t expect much. Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:52:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This study showed that people who were physically unable to frown (due to botox injections) took longer to understand sad or angry statements than they did when they were frownable. Apparently, it's not a new idea that body and facial movement helps cognition, but this is more pinpointed than other studies. The ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=628 This is amazing, and I'm just going to assume it's true because it's on the Discover blog. The short story: * A 15 year-old girl performs oral sex on her boyfriend. * She and her boyfriend almost immediately get into a knife fight (yes) against her previous boyfriend. She suffers a serious stab ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=627 A beautifully seething letter from Mark Twain to a patent medicine salesman. It's just the kind of thing I'd want to say to the parasites today who try to make money off the ignorant, weak, and desperate. In this case, the salesman was dealing with someone who knew better, and who'd ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=626 I posted already that the iPad will end up being cool because of the apps that aren't out yet, mainly taking advantage of its larger-than-iPhone size. Omni group is planning 5 apps for the iPad: OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, OmniFocus, and OmniGraphSketcher. I use one of those on a daily basis, one on ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=625 I was chatting with a friend about ice. In short, we talked about how interesting it is that pressure, even without heat, can melt ice. I remember an experiment where you loop a string around a block of ice, then put a weight on the bottom part of the loop, so that ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=624 I'm not planning to get one. I mean, even if I was planning to spend some money and get something cool, I wouldn't get the iPad. Not yet. At the moment, I use a laptop for laptop things and a phone when I want mobility and a Reader for eBooks. But ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=623 -- The Britannica blog calls a spade a spade. Robertson and Limbaugh are: "...two men who have made a very good thing in this life of saying very stupid things that excite an audience of equally stupid people." [LINK] -- Freakonomics wonders: Do Bike-Helmet Laws Discourage Bicycling? -- The Why Files: Fish cheat ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=621 Google finally wakes up. Mind you, mere censorship and repression really didn't bother them. It wasn't until China literally attacked Google's service that they decided to change the relationship. Still, better late than never. [Thanks, Baron, for the link] http://weeklyrob.com/?p=620 I'm suddenly responsible for a bi-monthly newsletter that shall go nameless in these pages (at least until I'm no longer responsible for it). I wasn't responsible for it when it mentioned that 2010 was the beginning of a new decade, but I do have to suffer the slings and arrows ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=619 My most recent post reminded me of reading old books that are hostile to Jews. Though I'm Jewish, I never for a second thought that the book should be banned or sanitized the way that SOME people want to ban or sanitize the books I mentioned. (I could see a ... http://weeklyrob.com/?p=618