serene’s posterous

Via the Observer.

Women know how to read properly, while men have a desultory and, at best, casual approach to books

via PhD comics

via telegraph.co.uk

It is actually an albino dolphin living in an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts said doodling stopped people from daydreaming, which was a more taxing diversion, and so was good at helping people focus on mundane tasks.

I think it is funny that Americans call their toilet paper "bathroom tissue".  I was also unaware that:

In the United States, which is the largest market worldwide for toilet paper, tissue from 100 percent recycled fibers makes up less than 2 percent of sales for at-home use among conventional and premium brands.

Via telegraph.co.uk

A long run leaves you hungry for fruit but a swim makes you crave biscuits, according to new research into how our bodies react to different types of exercise.

I am not sure how true this study is, but I have to admit that I usually crave fatty foods after swimming, and sugary drinks after running.  But is also nice to know that the author of the study also claims that:

What is fascinating is the apparently paradoxical fact that people don't seem to overcompensate for missed meals when their body returns to its rest state

Best way to lose weight is to exercise perhaps?

Came across this NYTimes article.
 
One quote:
"Buy it when you need it. Portion control studies have shown that when
we buy more, we use more."
 
Also, it is hard to do cost-benefit analysis of our needs and wants.
For instance, how do you quantify the extra comfort of say 3-ply
toilet paper over regular toilet paper? (We chose regular!) Does the
convenience of buying everything from one store trump over getting
better prices by buying groceries from several places?

There is an amazing amount of physics and technology advancements that
go into making logic and memory chips. I read this recent IEEE
Spectrum article about double patterning lithography.

Intel is already shipping mass production 45nm technology node chips,
and is planning to ship 32nm chips by end 2009. The definition of
technology node is the half pitch of metal lines of usually a memory
product, but it essentially gives an indication of the smallest
feature size in a chip. It is quite amazing to think that with the
various lithography tricks, manufacturers are able to obtain feature
sizes of under 45nm using 193nm wavelength light.

Lithography is probably not the most difficult problem faced by
integrated circuit manufacturers. Once they figure out EUV,
lithography probably won't be a problem until the end of scaling. At
these tiny dimensions, the transistors are extremely leaky. Electrons
simply tunnel through the gate dielectric. Quantum mechanical effects
are becoming dominant. Short channel effects. Parasitics are
degrading device performance, etc. It will be curious to see what
engineering tricks Intel, IBM etc. would come up with in the coming
years to ensure performance and density improvements in integrated
circuits.

A little old but still hilarious satirical interview about investment
bankers, starring John Bird and John Fortune (The Long Johns).