Ok this is going to be a little different. No research. No cute pictures. No reviewing. Just straight rant.
When I started this Arcade blog I did not really know what I was getting myself into. I just wanted to write the first thoughts that came to my head and have people talk about them. I thought it would be easy. And I thought it would be extremely easy with my friends on board. But the reality of the matter is that blogging sucks!
First off there's the biggest issue of getting a decent entry out at least every two days. You can't afford to slack off, otherwise, the blog will die and you would have failed your faithful readers. Well there are four authors on this team so two entries a week should be easy to manage.
Wrong. It is hard writing good reads. I admit I put up some crappy entries but I hope the ones I spent time working on really shine through.
Second of all, you have no idea how much Java and CSS and code I had to sift through to get the blog looking the way it does. I would not have been able to do any of this without the help of other blogs out there dedicated to helping out people like me. A plug in for hackosphere, tips for bloggers, and beta blogger for dummies (that's me). Thank you so much for having these sites, they are essential to the blogging community.
Well these are two of many reasons why blogging is hard work, but... blogging really doesn't suck. I've learned and absorbed an incredible amount in these last two weeks. I've learned about writing, about science and violence, about commenting effectively, about women (hehe), about feedburning and about how the internet works in general. I can do so much more now than ever before! I urge you to start your own blogs, or at the very least to become an active voice in a blog you find interesting. Don't just read the writing. Talk about it. Be heard.
Final verdict? Blogging is tough... but way more than worth it. 
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Why Blogging Sucks
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Women Who Stay Together, Bleed Together
It has been discovered that when female mice are housed together and isolated from males their oestrous cycles seem to synchronize. This doesn't happen when female mice are housed alone. Synchrony has also been found in female mice isolated with bedding from a cage full of female mice. The phenomenon has been named the Lee-Boot effect and is caused by a specific pheromone found in mouse urine.
More than three decades ago, Martha McClintock - Harvard University - observed that the menstrual cycles of women who lived together in dormitories tended to synchronize and lengthen. Her findings have been some of the strongest indicators for the existence of pheromones in humans. Since then, she has started a wave of studies on menstrual synchrony.
Michael Russell exposed female subjects to a mixture of alcohol and a female colleague's underarm scent. The result was that half of the women were in exact menstrual synchrony with Russell's colleague.
So why does this happen? Menstrual synchrony makes sense in pack animals like chimps because typically, if the females become pregnant together they will most likely give birth at around the same time, allowing for the "village to raise the children". But in humans this hardly seems practical. Another interpretation could be that there are dominant women with regards to menstrual synchrony, again something found in the animal kingdom but doesn't seem to make much sense in humans today.
This has been by far one of the strangest things I have ever encountered and being a guy I have even less knowledge of individual menstruation let alone group synchrony.
The world is your oyster.
PS: I hope no one takes the title of this entry out of context and becomes offended...
Monday, January 14, 2008
"The Fastest Thing on No Legs"
I was once again reading through International News when I found another article that peaked my interest. The media calls him the fastest thing on no legs or blade runner, some officials call him trouble, but to the rest of the world, he is Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee from South Africa who is making headlines and causing everyone to question their views on the integration of science and sports.
Oscar Pistorius had to have his legs amputated when he was eleven months old due to a congenital condition. As he grew older, he was introduced to sports and learned to play with prosthetics. In the 2004 paralympics, he won his first major competition in the 200m by not only beating single amputee runners, but also setting a world record time. This was the start for the legendary "Blade Runner." Pistorius went on to be very successful in other paralympic championship races, and was able to take part in his first able bodied race in 2007 at Rome's Golden Gala, where he finished second. Most recently, Pistorius has tried to make a bid for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was rejected.
Criticism of Pistorius has been around for almost his whole career. Though he has yet to set a record that challenges the records of "able-bodied" runners, critics have claimed that his prosthetic limbs give him an unfair advantage in races. The International Assoc. of Athletics Federation recently performed tests that concluded that Pistorius uses 25% less energy than other athletes running at the same speed. They also concluded that there was less vertical motion and 30% less mechanical work required to lift the body. Because of this, the IAAF has declared the prosthetics technical aids, so Pistorius will not be able to participate in any IAAF event, including the Olympics. These claims are combated by other researchers and supporters who claim that the prosthetics are a disadvantage to Pistorius under adverse weather conditions (rain, wind, etc) and Pistorius needs to use more energy at the start of every race to get the legs moving. As for Pistorius, he plans to appeal any ban that is placed on him.
The question is just how far can we let science influence sports? On the one hand, Pistorius' story is almost unheard of. He beat the odds and attained something that no one ever thought he could have. On the other, if this is allowed, why are performance enhancing drugs banned and where does it end? More importantly, are Pistorius and others like him who have beaten the odds forced into a subclass of athletes where they will never be acknowledged for not only their athletic abilities, but their determination in overcoming an obstacle that would prove too daunting for most other people?
Personally, it is hard not to have sympathy for Pistorius' case. However maybe it is all a question of the true spirit of the game, as subjective as that sounds. Pistorius loves to run and he loves sports. When it seemed that he could not have either, he did not give up, but strived to not only be able to play sports, but to play them well and competitively. But even Pistorius has said that if their is conclusive proof that the legs only offer advantages to him, he wouldn't want to compete anyway.
Despite the controversy and criticism, Pistorius will stand firm and fight the ban, not only for himself, but for all disabled athletes. As he said, "You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have."
Saturday, January 12, 2008
No Numbers
Good friend and roommate Ronny Gallegos, aka bboy ironik, started a clothing line called No Numbers with two of his friends, Mike and Ryan. Their first drop was fresher than I don't know what. I'm getting a puppeteer shirt in a couple of days from him once he comes back from California but until then I wanted everyone to know about this. Show your support! Join their facebook group and add them on myspace.
If you wanna buy a shirt contact Ronik. Rumor has it that their online store will open soon.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Enta the Cypha Philly
Being a bboy you'd think I'd write more about breaking (BREAKDANCING for all those not into the bboy scene). This event - Enta the Cypha Philly - will be a special one...
Tomorrow (Saturday) from 5-10pm at MarBar (40th and walnut, Philly, 19104). $10 cover.
Ok so now that I've told you the logistics, I'll explain why I'm looking forward to this event. First some vocab. A "cypher" is an open circle where dancers jump in and just dance to the music. There is no competition, just raw dancing. And Philly is the BEST at this. Hands Down. Philly has a long history of loving music and dancing to it. The DJ always keeps the record spinning so no feeling is lost. A week or two ago I went to House Dance Conference in NYC and the DJ kept turning the music off every 2 minutes. It was the most annoying thing ever. Here in Philly, turntable masters like Skeme and Illvibe Collective will keep the breakers in the circles nonstop.
I love the Philly dance scene! Watch out for me tomorrow at MarBar.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Fruit Flies like a Banana
That's like Frasier and Ali going at it for 9 hours straight! Who would have guessed that male flies fight each other? In fact, fruit flies have a lot of weird little tidbits about them that we never get to see...
Flies get drunk! In fact it's been shown that male flies actually try to mate with other males when intoxicated. Maybe the flies get super horny and can care less who or what they mate with. Can they even tell a difference between males and females at this point?
Aside from fighting and drinking, flies (like peeps) love sex! I heard about a researcher who put six flies of both sexes in a petri dish to see what happens. You'll never guess. A male and female would start mating and the rest, instead of "doin' dey own thang", would instead make a circle and watch. Yes watch. Just watch. And some would come up and lick the mating pairs' genitalia. That's right. A fly orgy.
I hope some of this has surprised you as much as it's surprised me the first time I heard about it. I actually work in a fly lab so you'll probably hear more interesting stories. Hope you enjoyed this. Man it's getting late. Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit Flies like a banana.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Cooliris Previews and PicLens
I've been trying to find ways to give my Mozilla Firefox a new look and feel. Lo and behold, I stumbled across these two innovative add-ons.
The first one I found was Cooliris Previews which introduced me to an enchanting world where clicking is obsolete! I now have picture-in-picture browsing capabilities. There's not much to say about this but to give it a try and see for yourself. I'm still getting the hang of it but I'm sure sooner than later I'll be using it nonstop.
I was so impressed by Previews that I added PicLens (both offered by the same company - Cooliris). Again, you just have to try this to see if you like it or not. I guess if you use Google Images this would be heaven for you. It pretty much allows you to scroll through images by placing them all in a full screen slideshow. End result: no more clicking back and forth to browse through images. I haven't tried it to see if it will get me through loading page after page looking at facebook albums but wouldn't that be a treat?
I definitely recommend downloading both of these. It takes 1 minute to download each since they're both extensions and nothing that needs pesky installation. And the better part is, if you don't like it, it takes even less time to uninstall.
You'll notice blog entries like this every once in a while from me. It's just that, whenever I find something cool (and free!), I like to spread the word.
