I've been dog sick all week, apparently from iron toxicity. Why is this awesome? Because I was so anemic my entire life that I didn't get regular (monthly) periods until age 40. I took iron supplements for years and only stopped needing them a few months ago. As best I can figure, all this crazy alternative health stuff I do has fundamentally changed something in a big way. My best guess: All those years I took iron, I was absorbing it but not utilizing it efficiently. So I ended up high iron, probably while still anemic for a time. Now my body functions better and suddenly is wigging out over the iron overload. It's been kicking my ass. And I think it's the most amazing thing.<p>That's my awesome find this week.<p>(Prepares to regret this post. I should know better than to hang out online after a week like this week. :-/ Now onto the next thread. ;-) )
Duck penises: <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurotopia/2010/01/friday_weird_science_duck_duck.php" rel="nofollow">http://scienceblogs.com/neurotopia/2010/01/friday_weird_scie...</a><p>I'm not kidding, either. Read the article -- it's pretty amazing how both male and female ducks have evolved to accommodate/discourage each other.
The Asahi beer vending machines in Japan (which you put a glass into, and it tilts then pours then adds extra foam).<p>Also, interesting hacker types at the Quora party. Especially amusing watching Yishan (a former director of engineering at FB) riding a mechanical bull, then talking with someone about ksplice and kernel security.
I wrote my first 'proper' module for Immunity CANVAS this week. There's no real decent documentation so I had to pretty much reverse engineer it from scratch, and learnt heaps of python tricks (and faux pas) in the process.<p>Also I found out that what felt like I was having a heart attack was actually pericarditis. That doesn't sound awesome, but it's treatable and way better than the alternative.
72/80 is a good score if you're using a T-scale: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Normal_Distribution.svg" rel="nofollow">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Normal_Distributi...</a>