01 July 2008

Scientific, Bent

I used to be much better at fabricating things to write about in this space, based on something I saw or read or did. I had that "blogger mentality" where every little thing went into the hidden vault in the back of my cerebral cortex, ready to be withdrawn at a moment's notice as fodder for the blog. After quitting for a year, I seem to have lost that reflex, and so, it is with great disappointment (and lack of anything better to write about) that I bring you some news from the world of science.

Joint Decisions

Natural marijuanalike chemicals may direct key brain cells to make proper connections while in the womb, according to a new study. Researchers report that the molecules, called cannabinoids, serve as guideposts for young cells in the attention and decision-making parts of fetal mouse brains.

So if I understand this correctly, they are saying that cannabis helps to make up your mind, like, when you have to choose between Cheetos and Funyuns.

Flaming Flamingos?

Carlos and Fernando, male flamingos at the Slimbridge wildfowl reserve in Gloucestershire, are inseparable. They have been together for more than five years and have even reared foster chicks. Twice a year they perform the elaborate courtship dance usual to males and females, before building a nest.
The pair have reared three generations of adopted flamingos, by making off with the freshly laid eggs of their heterosexual neighbours. Nigel Jarrett said: "They have been known to fight the heterosexual birds and steal their eggs. There is usually a 'handbags-at-10 yards' moment where they scrap with the couple before stealing the egg. They are very good parents though and behave just as the heterosexual birds do when rearing their young."
"They are not picked on by the other birds. If anything they are afforded more respect because two males together can be a pretty fearsome prospect for the other flamingos."

If any bird were to turn gay all of a sudden, I guess it would be the flamingo. Especially an English one, the poncy bastard. And just like gay humans, they are out to steal your children.

No, wait... it's not the gays who steal your children. It's the celebrities!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

A study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research reports that researchers at Harvard and Montreal's McGill University are getting good results from propranolol, a drug used in the treatment of amnesia, that appears to block, if not completely remove, bad memories on a selective basis.

(Doesn't cannabis do pretty much the same thing?)

Anyway, it sounds like a good idea, but if all my bad memories were erased I wouldn't remember how to get to work in the morning.