stimuli

one evening of champagne and scones later, the following observations have been made:

1. a kentucky derby field trip is to be scheduled for may.

2. new research project, Brandon's idea: find a way to model how long it takes for X quantity of liquid to generate bathroom-seeking urges. This could then allow people who have difficulties waking to alarms to time their liquid consumption, or invest in IVs, so they wake up out of the need to pee. (wouldn't this potentially lead to a whole lot of bed-wetting?)

3. funny story on ipods and WaPo lameness:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/media/2005/media1202.html

excellent words -- bathetic ( = maudlin, another good one). and vulcanologist, it's so star trek.

also, to note: Austrian fMRI study linked caffeine consumption to increased activity in short-term memory sections of the brain - frontal lobe (working memory) and anterior cingulum (attention).

find that NYT article from around Thanksgiving on college kids trading prescription stimulants to improve work performance. nothing new there, but maybe some inspiration.

yesterday's NYT story on the northern atlantic oscillation slowing/cooling via climate change (is it the same as the conveyor belt shutdown fear?) and making europe colder as a result.