For Your Enjoyment #31
A group of researches (two psychologists and a composer) with truly lovely research interests recently embarked on a mission to create music that was designed specifically for domestic cats; enjoyment.
- I think I found Gatsby's next present (image above)
"In an effort to help working individuals improve their fitness and well-being, experts at the Mayo Clinic issued a new set of health guidelines Thursday recommending that Americans stand up at their desk, leave their office, and never return."
- The Onion offers some helpful suggestions for bettering your physical and mental health
Kai has now moved into his [new, adoptive] forever home.
- A happy ending for Kai, the shar-pei mix who was found abandoned at a train station along with a suitcase of his belongings
The institutions are concerned that selfie sticks could damage works of art and create a safety hazard for patrons.
- Going to a museum? Best leave your selfie stick at home,
Science shows that when it comes to maintaining your metabolism it doesn't make a whit of difference whether you eat breakfast or not...[a]nd breakfast isn't the only metabolically unimportant meal. In fact, it doesn't seem to matter much at all how and when you get your calories ... The one thing that might actually improve your metabolism is periodic fasting.
- Mother Jones reports on why you should maybe just stop eating
Philz is gearing up to take its experience far beyond the Bay Area, and has raised a healthy amount of money to help do it.
- Need your daily (hourly?) caffeine fix? Philz Coffee has raised $15 million to expand nationwide
Researcher Jianzhi Zhang, a molecular and genomic evolution professor at the University of Michigan, recently examined the emperor penguin's genome. But he says he couldn't find the bird's genes to taste umami, the savory flavor of fish or meat.
- Penguins can't taste their dinner?! This doesn't seem to be stopping this guy.
[The Hello Kitty Cafe Truck] will be parked at Japantown’s Cherry Blossom Festival on April 11, April 12 and April 18, each day from 10am to 5pm.
- Looks like my Asian self will be camped out in Japantown for a few days
Happy Birthday, Yellowstone!
Then, with fresh heart, go down to your work, and whatever your fate, under whatever ignorance or knowledge you may afterward chance to suffer, you will remember these fine, wild views, and look back with joy to your wanderings in the blessed old Yellowstone Wonderland.
February 26, 1919: The Grand Canyon is designated a National Park
In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.
... Speaking of the Grand Canyon: the lottery for 2016 private river trips was held this week, and it looks like we'll be rafting down the Colorado River through the Canyon for approximately 21 days in December of next year!