According to this article, researchers at the World Health Organization have claimed that the last natural blonde will be born in Finland in 2202. And the BBC version tells us German scientists have claimed this is due to decreasing frequency of the recessive gene for blonde hair.

The SkyNet article states that when the last Ice Age ended 11,000 years ago blonde hair and blue eyes were developed as a competitive advantage in getting a caveman. That’s right, with men in short supply some girls had to use manipulation in order to get one of us - and even then blondes were known to be more fun.

The Germans say the problem is racial mixing - yes, Germans speaking out against racial mixing. Whoda thunk it?

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Science Determines The Media Is Just Too Darn Suggestive These Days

With all this business about girls dressing like tramps and articles stating that 140 incidents of sexual behavior occur on prime-time network television each week I am starting to worry that the media might be a tad over the top.

Sure, you will automatically dismiss that kind of talk as an aging guy romancing the days of his youth. I usually think that also. I know we had suggestive TV when I was a kid. And R-rated movies. We didn’t have the Halloween costumes some of these girls wear but I can’t say that is going to tank our culture. We had Porky’s and civilization didn’t end.

So I sit down next to Lady Scientist to discuss it with her. You know, get the female perspective. She’s watching Veronica Mars on the handy Replay DVR. It’s a rerun but I haven’t seen any of them since the first season so it’s new to me even if it’s from last spring. We are chatting along and suddenly I hear them make reference to a Clint Eastwood movie and then a Mexican comic book character. I guess because the guy she is talking to is a latino cop.

I grab my laptop.

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Need To Learn Fractals? Get Cornrows!

There’s some modern school of thought that says you have to be ‘culturally relevant’ to teach students, like students in New York City won’t get it if you use a mathematical example that involves counting trees. So if you want your students to learn fractal geometry you have to use corn row hair braids to make your point. Take this, for example:

“Each braid is represented as multiple copies of a “Y” shaped plait. In each iteration, the plait is copied, and a transformation is applied. The series of transformed copies creates the braid.”

Now, honestly, does any kid who can understand that sentence need to be talked down to and given culturally relevant examples about corn rows? I bet not.

But, hey, I don’t mind occasionally taking the easy road so I have already ordered my motorized ice cream cone. Yes, I am that lazy. Months ago I even outsourced my video gaming to Asia. And pretty much my whole life.

But not the sex part of it - well, not completely. To get excited, I just watch this Japanese woman breast feed her cat. But don’t tell the little woman. It can be our dirty secret.

Michael Witig and his wife were out barbecuing when they saw something streaking through the sky. They turned on their camera and filmed it as fire and smoke billowed behind the mystery object.

Not to worry, said the FAA. It was a just a jet that was leaving a contrail behind it and the sun was at just the right angle to reflect off the jet and create the illusion of smoke and fire.

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Know what I love most about science? We have been using magnets for years in all kinds of applications, even multi-billion dollar industries like semiconductor and microprocessing, but no one knows what a magnetic field is.

If you ask a physicist (ahem - a different physicist ) you’ll get answers like “a magnetic field is a region in space where a magnetic force can be detected.” I would say that’s a logical fallacy, namely begging the question, except every journalist in modern America has transmorgified the petitio principii fallacy into something meaning ‘demanding that the question be asked.’ But kicking around journalists can be a topic for tomorrow. Or, if you simply must see me kick around journalists, try here and here and here. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

So while we can’t define what a magnetic field is, we can certainly define what it does, namely by the effect it has on its surroundings. Which is good enough because that’s all we have for freak magnets too.

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