Theo Twist

This artist is adorable and great for a nice, bubbly, feel-good mood! This song is also highly addictive if it happens to be your style ...

A Fine Frenzy - Electric Twist

This is a video I found on TED a while back. Theo Jansen is a dutch artist who makes quite the interesting kinetic sculptures. I love art and science, so I think his work is just fantastic.
TED - Featuring Theo Jansen

You can find other interesting talks on TED HERE  It has an eclectic grouping of materials so you can basically find anything that suits your interests.

Ibuprofen

So, I learned about this quite a while ago and I feel like it's worth sharing.
If you're ever in a situation where you need to pick Ibuprofen or Aspirin. Always go with the Ibuprofen.

Why? Well. Both of these pills work as inhibitors against the enzyme cyclooxegenase (COX). COX converts arachidonic acid to prostaglandin H2 (PGH2) and this is responsible for a whole SLEW of reactions that happen in your body which include:

•inhibiting blood clotting
•promoting blood clotting (yes, it does both --> yin-yang balance effect)
•uterus contraction
•mediating pain perception
•bronchoconstriction

The difference between these two drugs, however, is that Ibuprofen is a Reversible  Inhibitor and Aspirin is an Irreversible inhibitor.  So long after you are done needing aspirin for it's pain-killing properties, it is still working on the COX enzyme in your body, rendering this regulatory enzyme useless until it dies, whereas ibuprofen will eventually just release it and let your body carry on in its natural course.

Piers

So, I need to share a little bit of beauty this morning. 



This is Holly Conlan's "You are Goodbye."



I'm on break from school right now with very few people around, so I've been trying to get some reading in. Currently I'm starting Piers Anthony's  With a Tangled Skein. 


The series is a cool blend of science fiction and fantasy so I'm pretty excited to get into this third book. I was reading the author's note today before and there was just something that Piers said that really struck a chord with me....

Just something to think about it. :-)

Origins

Greetings,

I am a lover of science and art and am rather notorious for my array of random information. I have a lot of jumbled thought and reflection throughout my days and so decided it would be a fun adventure to try out blogging. Mostly I will probably be posting little fact snippets or cool art or music that I find. But for my first act, however, I would like to shed light on the blog's name.  For years and years I took latin language classes and I became quite enamored with a few select writers in latin literature. When I took latin poetry, my class largely focused on Gaius Valerius Catullus (Catullus), who lived somewhere between 84 and 54BC. He was often very lewd, but always very passionate with his writings - whether they be insult, letter of remorse, or longings for a lover present or lost. In any event, one of his most famous - Catullus 5 - has stuck with me ever since I first read it almost five years ago. Here it is, along with my clumsy translation.

Vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus, ...............Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,

rumoresque senum severiorum..........................and value at one farthing 

omnes unius aestimemus assis!..........................all the rumors of crabbed old men!

soles occidere et redire possunt:........................Suns may fall and rise again:

nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,...................but for us, when the brief light has once set

nox est perpetua una dormienda........................One perpetual night must be slept.

da mi basia mille, deinde centum,.....................So give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,.............then another thousand, then a second hundred.

deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum..........Then yet another thousand, then a hundred

dein, cum milia multa fecerimus,.......................Then, when many thousands of kisses have been made

conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,.........................we shall mix them up, that we may not know the amount

aut ne quis malus inuidere possit,.......................in order that no malicious person is able to blight the evil eye

cum tantum sciat esse basiorum..........................when he knows our kisses to be so many.

Catullus is a hopeless romantic for his secret lover, Clodia, whom he calls Lesbia to conceal her identity, and he writes about her several times after this. This poem is written during the height of their romance. The whole point of this poem is to stop worrying so much  and to live in the moment, live in rapture, live in passion. 

VIVAMUS ATQUE AMEMUS - he declares - LET US LIVE AND LET US LOVE