Archive for the 'Scientific Studies' Category

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The Red Oak - An Overview

Published
by
Smoother
on August 1, 2008
in Scientific Studies
. 0 Comments

The red oak is also called the northern red oak and although has been widely cultivated in Germany and Australia, it is native to North America. If you are considering using this tree, here is an overview.

The northern red oak is a variety of oak that is native to North America. The tree grows very rapidly and favors acidic soil. Its native range is from Northeastern United States and Southeastern Canada although it is found as far south as Georgia in the United States. In the forests, the tree grows to heights of from 115 feet to 141 feet. Trees grown in the open tend to be a bit shorter, but often have thicker trunks.

The main characteristic of the red oak is its bark which has ridges topped with what appear to be almost shiny strips. Other varieties of oak have similar bark ridges and strips, but they normally occur only on the upper portion of the trees. The ridges on the red oak go all the way to the bottom and are one of the quickest ways to identify the tree. The branches tend to grow at right angles from the stems which produce a rounded narrow head.

oak and fruit

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I’m The Best - My Momma Told Me So

Published
by
Steel
on April 6, 2007
in Not so Scientific..., Observations and Scientific Studies
. 0 Comments

So, apparently, MS gave itself an A+ in security for Vista. Yeah, I’m the smartest person in the world, according to my own research. Big company studies are fun, aren’t they?

1,068 views

Antiperspirants and Cancer (aluminum chloride)

Published
by
Smoother
on March 27, 2006
in Product Reviews and Scientific Studies
. 0 Comments

certain driIf you sweat a lot, or have some body odor when sweating, or suffer from a form of excessive perspiration (hyperhidrosis), the antiperspirant/deodorant has been a great answer to your problem. I used to sweat constantly. I would sweat when nervous, I’d sweat when it’s hot or even cold, and I’d sweat by just doing nothing. That’s when somebody recommended Certain Dri. It’s worked great so far. I use it off and on… maybe once every 3 days for about 2 weeks then I don’t use it again for about a month. If you’re interested in this product you can buy it at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and even read user reviews over at Amazon.com. It’s highly effective. Certain Dri contains aluminum chloride.

Anyway, let’s talk about antiperspirants and cancer.

A friend of mine told me that antiperspirants cause breast cancer. This is the 3rd time I’ve heard this so I did some research. 2 times from women, 1 time from a man. I did some searching on the internet using Google can came upon the US Gov website explaining this issue.

You can read the full report here. Here’s an excerpt from the article.

breast examThe Cancer Myth
The rise of the Internet has made it easy for false health claims, scary stories, and rumors to reach millions of people in a matter of minutes. One such myth says that antiperspirants may cause breast cancer.

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the breast cancer-antiperspirant myth first appeared in the form of an e-mail in the 1990s, and continues to resurface and recirculate about every year or so. The false information suggests that antiperspirants contain harmful substances, which can be absorbed through the skin or can enter the body near the breasts through nicks in the skin caused by shaving. The e-mails also suggested that antiperspirants keep a person from “sweating out toxins,” resulting in the spread of cancer-causing toxins via the lymph nodes.

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10 Ways to get Drunk for Five Dollars or Less

Published
by
Smoother
on January 16, 2006
in Scientific Studies and Solutions to Problems
. 2 Comments

Top 10 Ways to get Drunk for Five Dollars or Less

Number 10. Be a frosh (freshman).

It’s not true that every frosh can be knocked into unconsciousness by waving a tom Collins under their nose, but as those of us who go hunting for frosh on “New Kids night” at the local dance holes know, the phenomena is not rare. Frosh are usually young, inexperienced, and sometimes even illegal to entice into your boudoir. If anyone can get drunk on five bucks, it’s them.

Number 9. Be female.

Chivalry is not dead! While you ladies can’t expect guys to risk their life, or miss an episode of star trek for you, you may still be able to get some alcohol out of them. Try standing around the bar, sipping water with a grimace on your face. Dress smutty. Smile at guys as they walk by, the drunker geekier the better. If you want to get more than one drink out of a guy start talking about how hot it is. Act intoxicated. Become even more friendly. At an appropriate time have a friend come by and “save you”, then move on to the next guy.

Number 8. Try Medication.

Sleeping pills. Allergy pills. If it says “do not take alcohol with this drug” or “do not operate a motorized vehicle while under the influence of this drug”, it must be good! Intelligent students such as ourselves, while not having a shred of pharmaceutical knowledge, can see that these statements are a plot by alcohol producers to keep us buying large quantities of booze.

Number 7. If it ends in ‘ol, drink it!

Alcohol isn’t the only intoxicant ending in ‘ol’. Methanol, Butanol and Propanol are all fine safe intoxicants, often available at bargain prices. Stay away from aerosol, cholesterol, and drool.

Everclear Alcohol

Number 6. Sleep Deprivation and Sickness.

For some reason, your body doesn’t want you to have any fun, and actively fights alcohol -enhancement. When you’re sick, and tired, your body’s defenses are at their lowest. This means its often one of the most cost effective times to get plastered! Best of all, if you puke, you can blame it on the flu.

Number 5. Try Antifreeze

Hey, ten thousand deranged alcoholic street people can’t be wrong!

Drink Antifreeze

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Why Wendy’s will take me to anywhere in the continental US

Published
by
Steel
on January 7, 2006
in Scientific Studies
. 0 Comments

So, if you didn’t know this, Wendy’s has this little thing going on that if you collect coupons off the cups (medium or Biggie sizes only), you can get free Airtran tickets. So, most times like this, you’d think that you’d have to collect 150 for one ticket, but not at Wendy’s. All you need is 64 for a round trip ticket. That’s it.

Now, I have been collecting these the right way. Almost everyone I have spoken to said I should give $50 to some 16 year old to steal me some cups. But I didn’t. I have eaten at Wendy’s almost every day since the beginning of November. Ugh. Not that it’s bad. Just like if I had drank that many Diet Mt. Dews it would have killed me, eating at Wendy’s that much may kill me. But at least I don’t eat the fries. Did you ever check out “The Smoking Fry” special feature on the movie Super Size Me? The moral of the story… don’t eat fries. Ever. If only I had a camera to document my Wendy’s quest…

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Repairing scratched DVDs that have problems playing.

Published
by
Smoother
on September 26, 2005
in Scientific Studies
. 0 Comments

I did this experiment and it works.

1. First I use an optical cloth (purchased for $3-5 at a glasses store like Pearle Vision) and the optical cleaning spray. I spray the DVD with a light mist, and then use the soft optical cloth to clean off the DVD surface. You should pull it away from the center toward the outer edge of the DVD. This will reduce any further damage. Pull in a straight line, never go around in a circle to clean the DVD. Once dry, try to see if the DVD works now. If it doesn’t, move onto step 2.

2. Once clean I take some regular toothpaste (YES! Toothpaste!). You’re using this as a polish. I put some toothpaste on my finger and rub it on the scratched surface area. I usually end up covering about 1/5 of the DVD surface. Then I let it dry.

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How to: tar a file, gzip a file, untar a file

Published
by
Smoother
on September 17, 2005
in Scientific Studies
. 3 Comments

I thought I’d share incase anybody else runs into the problem and needs to tar or gzip a file on their server.

How to tar and then how to gzip (compress) a file in SSH
When you are logged into SSH this command line should tar and then gzip your folder into a .tar.gz file. This will gzip your file into the current directory:
tar -czf whatever.tar.gz foldername
If you’d like to tar your file and have it put in another location use this:
tar -czf /directory/directory/whatever.tar.gz foldername

How to untar and how to ungzip (or unzip) a file in SSH:
This will untar and uncompress your file, then it will place that folder in the directory you are currently in restoring your old folder and file structure:
gunzip -dc whatever.tar.gz | tar xvf -

Thank you, and good night.

563 views

Will this make me puke?

Published
by
Smoother
on September 14, 2005
in Not so Scientific... and Scientific Studies
. 0 Comments

The study: Will eating two 1-day old Krispy Kremes + drinking a redbull + 1L of diet Dr. Pepper for supper make me puke?


OMG KRISPY KREMES FRIGGIN RULE
OMG PLUS SIGN FRIGGIN RULES
OMG REDBULL FRIGGIN RULE

Result: NO! NO! OMG NO! NOPE! STILL NO! BUT I’M ALL JAZZED UP! I AM A MACHINE! BOOYAH!

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The $2 Lunch

Published
by
Steel
on September 11, 2005
in Not so Scientific... and Scientific Studies
. 0 Comments

Okay. So I decided to save some money on lunch today, and decided that a $2 budget should suffice. I hear you yelling “DOLLAR MENU!”, but if you include tax, this pushes you over the budget. And water is free, but screw water. So I decided to go to the local Handimart. A 32 oz drink was 89 cents. Then I found the DOLLAR SANDWICH section. The only two worth trying were the ham sandwich, which ended up being empty, and the pizza burger because the other ones looked like someone had already eaten them and put them back.

I heated up the sandwich and brought it up to the counter to pay my $1.98 including tax.

Cashier: $2.52
Me: I thought this was a dollar sandwich.
Cashier: It rings up as $1.51, and doesn’t say “dollar” on it. You total is $2.52.
Me: I need more pennies. I’ll be right back.

So I payed the rest of my bill and ate my lunch. Therefore, I submit that a $2 meal is virtually impossible unless you trick a friend into buying you food. Or if you like dirt. Cause dirt is free. And tastes like pizza burgers.