Minwoo’s Right Brain Archive

Is it better for the environment to dispose of toilet paper in the garbage or in the toilet?

Answer at: Sewage or Trash? [nytimes.com free reg. req. or click below for full text]
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Planet PDF has 27 free e-books in PDF formats; A Tale of Two Cities, Crime and Punishment, and The Metamorphosis to list a few.

UPDATE (6/25): UPenn Online Library offers more than 19,000 e-books :o
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“A scientist claims that he can turn on a person’s inner Rain Man, and then turn it off again, with the flick of a switch”

Read the full article here: Savant for a Day [nytimes: free registration required] It’s quite fascinating.

The article mentions the book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat : And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sack (who also wrote Awakening which was made to a movie), where he describes two autistic twins who can just call out sequences of prime numbers that are hundreds (thousands?) of digits long, from their heads.

Oh, TMS = transcranial magnetic stimulation
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Sistine Chapel was the most memorable thing from my visit to Italy. After the first sight of the fresco on the ceiling and on the wall, I was awestruck and immediately fell in love. So when I heard about the new book “Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling
” (Ross King) on TechNation, I had to check it out from the library right away :)

I must say the book did not disappoint - it’s much better than his previous book “Brunelleschi’s Dome” which I did not finish. The author takes us through the four grueling years Michelangelo spent painting the masterpiece, his agony and struggles with pope Julius II and his rivals (Raphael, Leonardo, Bramante, …). The book is filled with detailed history, behind-the-stories, side-stories, and many interesing factoids - for instance, contrary to popular beliefs, Michelangelo did not work on the fresco by himself, and he did not paint lying on his back. My only complaint about the book is that it does not have enough images. I often times had to refer to a separate book “Michelangelo and the Creation of the Sistine Chapel” (Robin Richmond) for detailed images of the ceiling. But overall, it was one of the most enjoyable book I’ve read recently. I highly recommend it!
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Did you know that the optimum sleeping time should be multiples of 90 minutes? (My brother-in-law mentioned this to me over the weekend, and so I decided to do some research since his claims are legit most of the times). The research has shown that the average “sleep cycle” lasts 90 minutes, ending with REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage when people are most alert and feel refreshed. Also, naps should be short (20-30 minutes, if not 90 minutes), to prevent “the temporary grogginess and disorientation people often experience when they wake up from deep sleep.” [Napping 101] (I actually tried this last night.. sleeping 6 hrs instead of the usual 7, and I must admit I feel just as alert, if not more — although that doesn’t really say much ;)

Speaking of sleep, there’s a well-known sleeping disorder among Koreans called 가위눌림 (”pressed by scissors”? literally translated, or “Mara Experience”) It’s characterized by some form of paralysis and hallucinations (some dark figure standing in the corner or floating above and staring down at you, or even strangling you) — you know what I’m talking about if you’ve experienced it (I, fortunately, have not.. knock on wood). This, probably, is a type of narcolepsy (see narcolepsy under Sleep Disorder). So why is it so well known among Koreans? That’s probably because Koreans (especially the teens) are so sleep deprived from too much studying and stress. :P

Read more about sleep and sleep-paralysis at The Physiology of Sleep
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Do you ever wonder how chickens are caught? Read about it at WSJ.com - Poultry in Motion: With Invention, Chicken Catching Goes High-Tech. Here’re some funny (some not so funny) quotes from the article:

“We support using machines that reduce the panic, fear and horror of chickens,” says Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns, a Machipongo, Va., group that opposes eating chickens and also runs a sanctuary for a few lucky birds that manage to escape the farms (usually by falling off a truck). [LOL]

… these birds are in fact deeply reluctant to move at all. Because they are bred to reach their slaughter weight of six pounds in less than eight weeks — a fraction of the normal time — they are basically babies in giant bodies. [yuck!]

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