Zombie attack would be collapse of civilisation...

According to a BBC article Canadian scientists carrying out a "mathematical exercise" concluded that if zombies really existed and attacked we'd be damn near toast if we didn't kill 'em all real quick.

Money quotes:

If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively.

In their scientific paper, the authors conclude that humanity's only hope is to "hit them [the undead] hard and hit them often".

"It's imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else... we are all in a great deal of trouble."

"My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it's dead forever...."

The professor running the study sounds like a hoot. It would be interesting to take one of his classes....

85% of CDN banknotes have traces of cocaine...

From the August 17th, 2009 Toronto Star....

Cocaine on 85% of Canadian banknotes in study

Aug 17, 2009 07:31 PM
TREVOR PRITCHARD
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Nearly nine out of 10 Canadian banknotes examined by a team of U.S. researchers contained trace amounts of cocaine.

In a study presented Sunday at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, researchers looked at banknotes from more than 30 cities in Canada, the U.S., Brazil, China, and Japan.

Twenty-seven Canadian bills, taken mostly from Toronto and the Sarnia, Ont., area, were analyzed, said lead researcher Yuegang Zuo, a chemistry and biochemistry professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Of the Canadian bills, 85 per cent were laced with cocaine. The amount of coke found on the banknotes ranged from 2.4 micrograms to upwards of 2,530 micrograms – approximately 100 grains of sand.

The results in the U.S. were similar. The researchers examined 234 bills from 17 U.S. cities and found that nearly 90 per cent of the notes contained trace amounts of cocaine.

Scientists have long known that money can become contaminated with cocaine during drug deals or by snorting the drug through rolled bills.

Bills that are not involved in drug deals can also be contaminated as they are processed by banks.

Such studies can be useful for police, said Zuo, because they can help identify drug traffic patterns in a particular community.

But he also said an analysis of 27 Canadian banknotes is not enough to make sweeping generalizations about cocaine use in the country.

"It doesn't really represent the whole of Canadian currency," said Zuo.

"The number is too small. More substantive research is needed."

Law enforcement agencies might look to research like Zuo's to help boost the number of drug-related arrests, but that alone won't lower addiction rates, said University of Ottawa criminology professor Irvin Waller.

"The real issue is how much money you're putting into prevention," said Waller.

"Even if you know where (the cocaine) is flowing, this isn't a lot of help unless you're going to be putting money into reducing demand for it in that area."

The rates of North American bills laced with cocaine was significantly higher in Zuo's research than banknotes from China and Japan.

Of the 112 Chinese banknotes researchers analyzed, only one in five contained any sign of the drug. Only two of the 16 Japanese banknotes were contaminated with cocaine.

Despite the study's findings, Zuo said people shouldn't have any health or legal concerns about handling drug-tainted paper money.

In most of the notes examined, the amount of cocaine found was too small to interfere with drug tests or cause any health problems, he said.

I can just picture all the cokeheads out there licking every $ bill they get their hands on now.

Junkie saliva on the bills is way worse than coke....

Back from the dead...

Interesting article from Mother Jones about an extinct seabird from the late 18th century being found alive and well on islands off New Zealand.

Photos at JPG mag...

Blatant self promotion warning....

I've joined this online photography site called JPG where I display some of my photographs. JPG also has a print version - JPG magazine - that gets its content from submissions to the website under various themes that users & visitors to the site vote on. I currently have one photo up for votes in the "Color Theory" theme.

So if you want to go and see my photos and vote for me please feel free to do so.

End of blatant self promotion warning...

Tailfins of 1959...

Great NY Times interactive photo spread of car designs of the '50s when tailfins ruled....

There is also a full article available entitled The Punctuation at the End of the '50s that is a great read on by-gone days of car design. Even includes a snippit of poetry from Robert Lowell's "For The Union Dead":

““....Everywhere,

giant finned cars nose forward like fish;

a savage servility

slides by on grease.”

Happy Birthday Sash...

My youngest turns 13 today. I now officially have 3 teenagers in the house. Though attitude wise I've had 3 teenagers for a long, long time :)

Hope you have a great day Sasha!

Love ya...