advertising tricks: dilated pupils

It’s a sexual signal. It can do a lot to make someone look more attractive. Time was, girls used belladonna (a toxic plant whose name means “beautiful lady”) to dilate their pupils.

I saw it in a commercial, a moment ago. The marvel of modern color cameras that let you film under low lighting conditions.

Be careful out there. Examine what you see. Analyze it.

Speaking of lamps…

There has been much to-do, recently, over various Government plans to make incandescent bulbs illegal. If you check out their Constitutions, or reasons for being… frankly, the laws themselves are outright illegal, but that never stopped a government before.

What’s the difference between the Government and the Mafia? …heh, heh. No, I don’t know, either. Except I’m pretty sure we’re in less danger from the Mafia.

There are many useful questions to ask, aside from the natural “wtf is wrong with you people?”. One of them might be, is there actually any point in such a law?

An update on DNA

It used to be thought, at least popularly, that DNA was an exact blueprint of what someone looked like. Clone someone, and you’d get a result as exact as a carbon copy.

More accurately, the result would be similar to a twin. Not exactly, because DNA doesn’t carry all the available information… and, importantly, because DNA is not quite a blueprint. It’s more like a set of building orders, tailored to the location.

What’s the difference? Well, even with a blueprint, no two houses are going to be identical. You’ll have different weather and different workers, doing different things at different times. In that, you might say DNA is a blueprint.

DNA isn’t a map that says, “in this man, this set of veins will divide here”. DNA is a design for building that says, “if we encounter this obstruction while building, we’ll divert in this way”. The results will vary according to environment and timing. Even identical twins are not identical, they’re just built according to the same rules… in somewhat different environments.

S’pose you didn’t necessarily need to know that. Occasionally, when I see too much mistaken information, I feel the urge to infoblurt.

Robinson Caruso

Enrico’s island neighbor, I believe. Taste-test this:

http://www.janesoceania.com/suvarov_tom_neale/index.htm

I’m not a doctor, I’m a dildo, damn it

I’m not going to post any pictures, right now. Later, maybe. Not action photography, y’old perv, just the… umm… tools.

If you’re squeamish, you’ve probably already left. If you are squeamish and haven’t left, take a hint, already.

Weird scenes inside the gold mine: the allergy riff

Seen some truly weird scenes, tonight, talking about allergies that they say don’t exist. Neurotic symptoms, pure hypochondria. Yeeeaaahhhh… and the problem is, there are real allergies. People can fake any dumb thing, and they do, but allergies aren’t funny.

Word to the wise, kids: don’t you ever test it out for yourself. Hitting an allergic person with something that they’re allergic to will kill them. Fairly quickly, but not very, and it will be messy and painful.

An introduction to Japanese cuisine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b75cl4-qRE

Don’t take it too seriously, folks. Some of it’s just goofy– and who knew the Japanese had a sense of humor? Much of it is true but, it’s a wee bit subversive. An odd thing I ran across on my travels through the tubes.

The lattice of knowledge

Answers to the searches that find us. Why not? Mom was a librarian, amongst other things. She’d get a kick out of it.

“Shaved crotch designs.” No, really, can’t help you there. How did you match on this site? My best advice is, don’t shave that– it itches and breaks out in spots. You’ll regret it.