Lots of good stuff today.

–I’d like to start with a cross-breed of science and this:

…no I wouldn’t.

Yes I would.

No I wouldn’t.

It’s one of my favorite comedy sketches of all time, and I thought of it immediately after reading some lines in this story about robots talking to themselves.

Man: “I am not a robot. I am a unicorn.”

Woman: “But you said earlier that you were a robot.”

Man: “I did not.”

Woman: “I thought you did.”

–No mention of the twin peaks of Kilimanjaro, sadly.

–More science here, as the Ruskies are, apparently, getting into the space hotel business.

Russian firm Orbital Technologies plans to open the first space hotel in history in five year’s time. The space hotel, or “Commercial Space Station,” as it’s officially called, will float 250 miles above Earth.

The hotel can accommodate a maximum of seven people at a time. To check in, tourists will have to undergo special training that can take up to three months, depending on the type of spacecraft they fly to the hotel. The firm says that stays can range from three days to six months.

–The bill for incidentals will be outrageous.

 

–Going along with a link I posted the other day about rare animal pics taken by some camera traps, “Scientists capture rare video of elusive African cat”

 

–A hat tip to Podcast guest and expert-level blogger Craig Calcaterra for the following link, which is completely great.  It seems DARPA is putting some money into interstellar space travel research.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is planning on disbursing a $500,000 grant in November for interstellar starship research.

Though the agency’s plan sounds more like subject matter for a prequel episode of Battlestar Galactica, the agency is hoping starship research will lead to very real advances in science and industry.

The $500,000 award on November 11, 2011 will be the culmination of a year-long project that was designed to make researchers think big about issues with long time horizons in space travel.

DARPA hopes that its brainstorming exercise will ultimately inspire research that will lead to new discoveries in areas such as propulsion, energy storage and life support.

–Somebody get Bill Adama on the horn.

Craig and I actually spent more than 10 minutes on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ in the podcast hit (ep. 1.2), so if you’re of the space-faring / science-fiction inclination, have a go.

–Staying with science, but branching from space into more of a medical place…Mayo Clinic:  Measles outbreaks are on the rise, as more and more parents are foolishly eschewing vaccines via (unfounded) fears of an autism connection.

–Further proof that portion size and overall caloric intake is massively important to good health and longer life:  Man loses 27 pounds on Twinkies diet.

Last fall, Haub shed 13% of his weight over two months restricting his diet to 1,600 calories while eating “junk food.” Surprisingly, his cholesterol readings improved and his level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, decreased. This could have been explained by the decreased consumption of calories.

–I’m thinking of adopting that all-ravioli diet I’ve fantasized about. That is all.

–Very interesting here, as there appear to be markers in the blood that can predict…well…death.  The most important blood test of your life may be coming.

Reporting in an early online publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association and at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, Johan Arnlov and his colleagues say that a certain enzyme that is measured in the blood may be linked to both heart disease and cancer, and therefore could serve as an early predictor of who is mostly likely to die from these diseases.

In the study, which involved nearly 2,000 people enrolled in two separate long-term trials, Arnlov’s team measured the levels of cathepsin S, an enzyme involved in breaking up proteins. They then tracked these volunteers for up to 12.5 years, and found that those with the highest levels of cathepsin S were more likely to die than those with lower, or about half those levels.

–Science + 5

–Rounding off today’s post is this horrifyingly poor decision from George Lucas, who continues to nip and tuck at his original Star Wars trilogy like so many cosmetic surgery addicts.

I’m not saying adding “Nooooooo” to Palpatine’s death scene is akin to this woman’s obsession…

Oh dear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…but it’s close.  The list of changes Lucas has made to his brilliant original trilogy are documented here, and while some are innocuous, and even pleasant (the touched up CGI visuals on explosions and the like), some, like Vader’s new “Noooooo” border on sacrilege.

Put the knife down, George.  Step away from the mirror.  And leave our childhood alone.