Funny News Interview

Woman accurately describes hail storm:

In case you missed something, here's a transcript of the interview:

"Man, them jokers was big--size of a quarter, dog gone! [It sounded like] Kapooya! Kapooya! And boy, that hail just came in. I looked at my, opened my door, and I looked out my door, and it started hitting me in my head! I took off running, ran to my restroom, and then I called my mama to see what she alright!"


Sure enough, someone made a remix video of the interview. Here it is:




















I wonder what the local newspaper had to say about this incident. I don't feel like looking for an article on Google, so I'll write my own:

                                                                                                                                                         

Resident Frightened by Recent Hail Storm, Takes Cover in Restroom and Calls Mother

Ralphsville, TEXAS--Local resident, Michelle Clark, became startled after hearing noises which she describes as, "Kapooya, Kapooya!" Unbeknownst to her, a severe hail storm was passing over the Brookshire apartment complex. Clark, unfamiliar with weather phenomena such as hail, was reportedly stricken in the head by frozen ice pellets as she opened her front door. She then instinctively fled from the doorway, and took shelter in her restroom. Once secure, she called her mother. Clark commented, "It is at perilous times like these when we must be cognizant of our elders. I telephoned my mother to ensure her well-being." Her mother, 87-year-old Wilma Carlisle, was the sole casualty of the storm. When asked to explain why she chose the restroom as her place of refuge, Clark denied any response.

                                                                                                                                                          

How to Draw an Icosagon

An icosagon in a 20-sided polygon. If you've ever wondered how to draw one, then just pay attention to this animation I found on Wikipedia. This shows you how to draw a regular one (with all equal sides and all congruent angles). It pretty much just looks like a circle. To me, that flowery thing is much more impressive than drawing a regular icosagon. When I tried this at home, it pained me to erase that part. But, it wouldn't be a proper icosagon if it had a huge flower in the middle.   

Classical Conditioning on 'The Office'

While I'm on the topic of psychology (see previous post), I might as well mention this video. This is something I used for a class assignment like three years ago:

This episode of 'The Office' demonstrates a specific type of learning called classical conditioning. This type of learning involves pairing a neutral stimulus with a unconditioned stimulus (UCS) known to evoke a specific emotion or behavior. If the conditioning is successful, exposure to the neutral stimulus will bring about the behavior caused by the UCS even when the UCS is absent. This behavior is called the conditioned response.

Extremely Weird Sigmund Freud Video

You might not find this very funny if you haven't taken an intro to psych class yet. If you have, then enjoy it! It's really weird and disturbing!

No wonder why there are so many psychology majors. Who wouldn't want to go to class if all you do is watch this stuff? 

Good Books to Read

1. The Pathological Protein by Philip Yam (2003)

This is an excellent read if you're interested in diseases and whatnot. The author gives a general overview of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and their causative agent, the prion. I wouldn't recommend citing this work if you're writing a scientific paper, but it's definitely worth reading. There's a huge amount of background information in the introduction chapters. You can probably skip this if you've taken a few college-level biology classes. I also didn't bother reading the chapters about TSEs affecting deer and elk. I really couldn't care less about some decrepit, senile deer running around aimlessly in a forest preserve. Anyways, this book is great because it explains how Mad Cow Disease started and how it was transmitted to humans. And it mentions how brain-eating cannibals from Papua New Guinea contracted kuru. Who wouldn't be interested in that? These kuru victims are the closest thing to zombies that have ever and will ever exist. Enjoy learning about prions! (They're by far my favorite pathogens!)

2. Packrat: A Tale of Compulsive Hoarding by Tom Hixson (2010)

This book is not for the faint of heart. The author spares no detail when describing the living conditions of an individual suffering from an extreme case of obsessive compulsive hoarding syndrome. The hoarder, Robert, literally kept everything--even things that are meant to be flushed down the toilet. Additionally, the book explains the possible causes and cures of this mental illness. By far, the best chapters are the ones that explain the disorder from a neuroscientific perspective. The brain scans are the best part!

This book is really obscure, and it's haphazardly thrown together. Also, it looks like it was probably printed in some middle-aged guy's mom's basement. Nevertheless, it's a great read. Get a copy if you ever have a chance.  

Someone should probably replace those light bulbs.

List of Foods that Still Have trans-Fats

Everyone already knows that trans-fats are evil, but there are still a few things out there that have them. Here's some that I can think of:

1. Cake Frosting and Glazes  

Most of these products have 1.5g of trans-fats per serving. 

2. Milk
I should point out that milk contains a negligible amount of trans-fats. That's why you won't see it listed on the nutritional label.


I can't think of any other foods that have trans-fats, so I guess I'll just write about their chemistry. In the simplest sense, a trans-fat is the trans isomer of a fatty acid. If you don't know about cis-trans isomerism, I'll briefly explain. First of all, this only applies to double bonds. A molecule exhibits cis isomerism when its hydrogens are both on the same side of the double bond. Trans isomerism is the opposite; the hydrogens are across from each other. Here's an example:

Both of these structures represent the chemical called 1,2-dichloroethene. However, they differ slightly. The structure on the left has both hydrogens on the same side of the double bond, and the one of the right has hydrogens across from each other. Therefore, the one on the left is the cis isomer, and the one on the right is the trans isomer. 

The same concept applies to trans-fats. Here are two more chemical structures: 

    

Both of these chemicals have a formula of C₁₈H₃₄O_2. They only differ in stereochemistry (the spatial arrangement of the atoms within a molecule). The top structure is the trans isomer because the hydrogens are on opposite sides of the double bond, and bottom structure is the cis isomer. You may recognize the top and bottom structures as elaidic acid and oleic acid, respectively. These are the fatty acids that you typically encounter in food items. Elaidic acid is most likely the trans-fat found in the cake frosting above. Its cis isomer, oleic acid, is usually found in plant products like olive oil, for instance. 

No one knows why the trans isomers of fatty acids are so bad for people. According to Wikipedia, humans don't have an enzyme capable of metabolizing the trans isomer, so it builds up in arteries and kills people. I have no idea if that's true or not. There weren't and citations in the article that supported this claim. 

By the way, I gave up italicizing the words cis and trans. I have better things to do with my life than to go back and fix it.     

Cooking Lessons from a Schizophrenic

If you've ever wondered how to make tacos and/or fruit salad, these two videos won't really help. But, if you've ever wondered what someone with schizophrenia does in the kitchen, this might answer your question:

I hope this guy washed his hands before working with food. If not, then this is really disgusting.

Here's a video about making fruit salad:

Visit the HowToBasic channel on YouTube if you want to further your culinary expertise. 

Tracking Down Your Old Car

It's been almost two years since I traded in my old car, and I frequently wonder where it is. I can't imagine what kind of person would ever want to buy that thing. I tried typing the VIN into Google, but I never get any search results. Anyways, one day I stumbled across this website that's completely focused on finding your old cars. As it turns out, this site isn't very useful. I look up my old car, and it said it was "last sighted" in my hometown. I'm assuming no one ever bought my car, and it ended up in a junk yard or something.

The whole point of posting this has nothing to do with my old car. At this point, I really couldn't care less about it. To further prove how useless this website is, I entered the VIN of my new car. This is the picture it gave me:

According to this, the previous owner of my car lived a few hundred miles of the coast of Nigeria. However, when I moused over the green dot, it said, "somewhere in Florida." I suppose this is a little more logical. Actually, I vaguely recall reading that the car was previously registered in Florida on the CarFax sheet I got from the dealer. I just thought I would share this. Please take a moment to admire the geographic accuracy of this map. 

If you want to find out where your old car is or where your current car was, you can try this website. It's called checkmyride.com. By the way, I blocked out my VIN and the name of the town where my car is currently registered because I don't want the internet to know where I live and what kind of car I have.