Peace out.

^{IEEE Automaton via GizmodoÂ} 

Seriously, this robot steps clearly from the realm of amusing and awkward to amazingly adept and creepy. Watch as it is kicked and regains the ability to stand upright! Watch as it slips on patch of ice, and manages to find its footing! Watch as it hops about and clears an obstacle in a single bound! Watch as its back-mounted guns cut down a throng of protesters!

(Ok, so that last one didn't happen. yet.)

Zotero sits at the bottom of your webpage and allows you to pull in web pages and references with the click of the button. It fills in all the necessary referencing information and is compatible with JSTOR, EBSCO Host and Proquest databases. It also has the benefit of working like a reference manager and links into Word or OpenOffice (bonus!) to create bibliographies. This brings me one step closer to cutting through the MicroSoft shackles and migrating to Linux. Now if only Linux could get some descent game support. Then I might get absolutely nothing done.

More later when I get a better feel for it. It's always discombobulating trying out new software. Off into Mirkwood I travel, wish me luck.

A new study has discovered that so-called educational DVDs for babies (Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby) may actually hinder their verbal acquisition:

During telephone interviews – which each lasted around 45 minutes – parents heard a list of about 90 words, such as "truck" and "cookie", and indicated which their 8- to 16-month-old children understood. They also gave other details, including how much they read to their children, and the amount and type of television their youngsters watched.

After controlling for other factors, such as parents' educational status and the number of children per household, the analysis revealed that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs, toddlers understood an average of six to eight words fewer than those who did not view them. On average the children recognised about 25 words, although the number varied according to age.

What, are you saying that TV isn't a good substitute for actual parenting?

New Scientist

There are some of us in society that have faulty internal thermostats. Those of us with this problem can be sitting around in a room-temperature environment, not exerting ourselves in anyway, and yet manage to sweat profusely from the armpits. Those of us with this problem often return home after a day at work or school and need to change our shirts because they are disgustingly wet.  Antiperspirant has no effect. (Did you know that extra-strength antiperspirant is regulated to reduce perspiration by 30% Helpful if you don't sweat that much.)

The answer, if you haven't figured already, is Dry-sol (or perspirex, perhaps - although I haven't tried that brand). It is an behind-the-counter remedy (you have to ask the pharmacist) that you dab on your underarms and leave overnight. If it works for you, it essentially prevents you from sweating from the armpits completely. It is really something. Sometimes you imagine that you're still sweating, but when you check you find that you're not - this is phantom sweating.

I really cannot recommend this product any more highly if you suffer from hyperhidrosis.

Drysol at Drugs.com

In a new book, "Creation and Evolution," published Wednesday in German, the pope praised progress gained by science, but cautioned that evolution raises philosophical questions science alone cannot answer.

"The question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science," the pope said.

He stopped short of endorsing intelligent design, but said scientific and philosophical reason must work together in a way that does not exclude faith.

But wait a sec, didn't the last pope, JPII, suggest that maybe Darwin was on to something?

"The pope (John Paul) had his reasons for saying this," Benedict said. "But it is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory."

Actually, Benny, the evidence is practically overwhelming.

So, wait, does that mean that the last pope was fallible? Doesn't that make this pope fallible too? (Update: Yes and No, according to Sam of 'Dire and Dear'.  The pope is only considered infallible when it comes to Catholic doctrine; on matters outside of that realm the popes can err to their hearts content.)

Thank you, Pope Benedict XVI, for continuing to show the irrelevance of organized religion in the modern age. And we hoped that Roman Catholicism might be able to distance itself from fundamentalist American Christianity. I guess not.

Thanks for the news tip, Marty!