We’re on a voyage of self-discovery! It appears that doing intense edits etc. is not conducive to writing blogs for me. I know a lot of authors feel differently about this and that blogging their thoughts about editing is a part of the process. It seems this is very much not the case for me. I am more introspective about process when I’m preparing to do it, rather than in the midst.

I randomly ran across a description this week which described some people as reserved and holding back great energy so they can act as dams who run the hydro-electric systems for the networks around them. This was extremely illuminating for myself and has helped me realize that I can’t always spill water over the dam at all times if I want to keep the flow of electricity constant. It’s OK to hold it all back sometimes because there’s a greater system in place I need to maintain.

Some people may look like they have it all figured out, but really we’re all figuring out as we go. Sometimes we know a lot, sometimes nothing, but we’ve all got to keep going. So I’m going to keep on keeping on and try to reason stuff out loud as I go. As always I can be contacted at minervazimmerman at gmail dot com even in the midst of edits

TOO MANY LINKS:

Indiana Fairs Won’t Have Birds Exhibited This Year – This is a good way to try and slow the avian flu in this and other area right now. I would imagine we’ll see more bans like this for the summer.

Gene linked to pain identified – It drives me nuts that people assume everyone feels pain the same way they do. There are people who feel none, those who are insensitive to various levels, and those who feel all pain extremely strongly. Hopefully this will allow better pain treatments and therapies in the future.

Receding Glaciers uncover mummified bodies and artifacts worldwide

HIV anti-virals should be started at diagnosis – I think I speak for a lot of people when I say “WHY THE HELL WASN’T THIS ALREADY THE PROCEDURE?!” Ugh, it’s probably because insurance companies didn’t want to pay for the drugs for long-term care isn’t it? I HATE EVERYTHING! It seriously pisses me off that our medical system isn’t set up to actually take care of people and improve lives. Treating symptoms and diseases is good, but there is a lot more to taking care of people and improving lives than that. Assuring preventative care and treatment as a RULE across the board would be a good start. *much gnashing of teeth*

War Boy Reviews of Wilton Silver Cool Mist – 😀

The future of talking toys and cognitive science – A lot of you will want the talking dino toy. Just sayin’

12 Things Your Cat Can Do Better Than You – gifs

Adaptive Robot will keep chasing you even with injured legs – NEAT! TERRIFYING! USEFUL!

ROBOTIC BUTT! – Yes there is a very good reason for this and it is totally serious and useful. But I’m just going to be over here making up songs about Robotic Butts. Butt butt robotic butt *robot dance*

Robot performs surgery on fruit fly – O_O Whoa. These aren’t your grandmother’s experiments on Drosophila.

“Every day is April Fool’s in nutrition.” – How a group did bad nutritional science and went viral with it to highlight problems in the field. IMPORTANT READ. Especially important for those doing research or journalism. TLDR for journalists: Always ask the sample size.

Astronaut out geeks everyone by reading HHGTG on the space station while upside down on Towel Day. HER GEEK CRED IS over 9000!

Prehistoric gaming pieces found in Utah – This is neat but really this is just here for all my Utah peeps to make RPG jokes based on archaeology at some point at a party this year. YOU’RE WELCOME!

NASA re-configuring Space Station to allow for docking of commercial ships. – This is good but it still makes me sad cause I wish NASA was doing all of its own ships.

Coffin remains tell story of young woman’s Bronze Age travels – Ok so I don’t see why they are calling her a priestess other than male archaeologists ALWAYS seem to label well-preserved female remains with grave goods as priestess or princess, however… the chemical analysis is solid science and tells quite an interesting story of a life lived outside of what we generally assume Bronze Age life was like.

“Mom Brain” is a real change in cognition caused by hormones – Duh. It’s stuff like this is why we need more female scientists. We need MORE people studying hormonal science. Seriously. Anyone who has ever had estrogen fluctuation due to nature or therapy knows how real this stuff is and how much we have yet to learn.

Neurosurgeon Reflects on the ‘Awe and Mystery’ of the brain 

Natural History Museum in London finds 17th century box of tea thought to be oldest tea in Britain. 

Aboriginal language researches ask for Wikipedia accommodations for cultural differences. – THIS sort of consideration is so important. The last thing any culture needs is a bunch of academics to show up and save something only for academics (and seriously they don’t have the best track record of even managing that) more people need to be asking “How can we help you?” rather than “How can we help ourselves?”

Bill Nye tries to explain the universe as it relates to white women in their 20s – Always nice to see him doing sketch comedy again.