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You Asked: How do you cool an inboard/outboard engine for test running out of the water? — Mike, Montgomery, Ala Marshall Brain Answers: A small outboard engine could be air-cooled, but most larger outboards use water from the lake/ocean for cooling. The lake acts like a giant radiator to keep the engine cool. There is [...]
You’ve probably had countless fortune cookies after Chinese meals, but have you ever wondered how they’re made? Discover the “food technology” behind those prescient little cookies in this episode of BrainStuff.
In popular culture, witchcraft is commonly associated with women, but in fact, men can be witches, too. In this special Halloween episode, Molly and Cristen discuss the history, practices and many different definitions and conceptions of witches.
Shazam and Midomi are both types of music recognition software. Tune in as the TechStuff guys compare and contrast Shazam and Midomi and explain how they both work.
Over the course of her life, Marie Laveau wielded enormous influence as the notorious Voodoo Queen of New Orleans — but how much of her story is true? Join Sarah and Katie as they unravel the fact and fiction surrounding the legendary Marie Levaeu.
You Asked: What are those balls that hang on the power lines? — Peggy, Bethel, Ohio Marshall Brain Answers: The balls are called marker balls, and the goal is to try to make the power lines more visible to low-flying planes and helicopters. Wire strikes cause many accidents because a thin power line is very [...]
Depressed in the West: Cultural Neuroscience Chimes In
by Robert Lamb | October 27, 2009
Grasping: Buddhism has decried it as the source of all human suffering for millennia while the West built an entire culture around it. We want more money. We want more life. We live our self-centered lives with the demon of impermanence breathing down our neck. The idea that we might feel better if we forgot about ourselves for a little bit should seem like a no-brainer.
If you throw a marble in an empty penitentiary cell and it’s thrown back at you, does that mean the place is haunted?
I don’t know. I suspect either the marble bounced off a cell wall or was chucked by a Travel Channel intern (watch this “Most Haunted” video and tell me what you think).
Unlike Angel and Edward Cullen, the whining, self-loathing days of Bill Compton are mercifully behind him. While the “True Blood” vamp certainly — spoiler spoiler spoiler — wallowed in guilt over being a monster, even to the point of threatening to stake himself, he got over it. His era of brooding martyrdom ended well before the synthetic vampire food known as Tru Blood hit the market.
Quakers Executed in Massachusetts Colony
by Katie Lambert | October 27, 2009
Today, I am blogging about something gloomy: martyrs. Specifically, the Boston martyrs.
In 1657, 11 members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) set sail for the American colonies to spread George Fox’s teachings. They traveled in a ship called the Woodhouse, which a man named Robert Fowler had felt called by a divine power to build, although he’d had no purpose in mind at the time. The ship wasn’t made for the rough ocean voyage, but the Friends felt that a divine hand would guide them, and they made it safely to the New World.
The American colonies were far from being a haven from religious persecution, contrary to the teachings of my elementary school textbook. The Puritans, especially in the Massachusetts colony, wanted nothing to do with the Friends and their message of personal revelation. And the Friends were provocative, bold and vocal in how they chose to bring Fox’s light to the people.
Recent Postings by Category
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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
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Stuff You Missed in History Class
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