Most glues are only so good. But even the best glues we have right now probably can’t compete with this ancient one. You see, a glue used by Roman warriors has been found to still be effective.

The glue found dates back to 1 BC. There’s just not much around that is likely to work for one century, never mind two millenia. That’s pretty impressive.

So far the glue appears to be made of bitumen, bark pitch and animal grease. So if you have any sitting around the house, get to it. But do note that they think there’s still something more to it, as they have not been able to recreate the glue.

Technorati Tags: super glue, roman glue, history

The BBC is reporting on a study that shows that women with curvier figures are more likely to be intelligent than women with fewer curves.

Amazing how much silliness there is in the world.

The study claims that the larger the difference between the hips and the waist, the higher the average intelligence. A part of the idea is that the fat includes more omega-3s, which are believed to good for the brain.

This study doesn’t delight me, nor does it delight many others. But it also wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some serious misinterpretation of the data coming from the BBC, as the article is very short and simple.

Quite simply, I don’t like using physical appearance and trying to correlate it with intelligence. It’s a risky game, and too often the results of one study flat out contradict another. There are a lot of highly intelligent people of all weights and figures. Even when you consider that this kind of thing is talking about averages, I find it improbable.

BBC News had a poll recently to find what people thought was the most riduculous law. This covered laws in multiple countries, not just the UK.

I have to admit they came up with some doozies.

It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament

That was the winner, with 27% of the vote. Definitely pretty silly, but my personal favorite was:

It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store

just because I have to wonder how the exemption came about.

There are plenty of absurd laws in many countries, but this was a really good list. It’s a good thing that most of these aren’t enforced.

Technorati Tags: laws, strange laws

No, sorry, they aren’t having an excess of fun with it. Instead, many schools have banned it because it “includes religious elements, the cult of death, the mockery of death.”

I can’t decide if it’s funny or sad that they take it so seriously. I mean I know some people in the United States would also love to see Halloween banned, due to various historical meanings, but I’ve never understood the arguements completely.

After all, if you don’t celebrate Halloween due to its Pagan origens, shouldn’t you do the same to Christmas? Lots of Pagan symbolism used there too.

I’ve had people get mad at me for asking that question.

The concerns in Russia also relate to moral and spiritual issues. I don’t know many people who are interested in the spiritual or moral side of Halloween. Most people want to dress up in ways they won’t the rest of the year and get candy. That goes double for kids. And since they’re talking about school parties, that’s relevant.
Even the more adult parties aren’t about the spiritual side. One might argue about moral issues, but that is more likely relevant to individual behaviors that may or may not be present the rest of the year.

I hope my kids have lots of Halloween fun tonight.

Technorati Tags: Russia, halloween

When I saw the headline on Discovery News talking about teen pregnancy in dinosaurs, I just had to read the story. Had to.

It really doesn’t surprise me that dinosaurs could get pregnant before they reached their full growth. That’s true of a lot of animals. Interesting that they could figure out that it happened, though.

Technorati Tags: dinsaur teen pregnancy, dinosaurs, science, paleontology

In the spirit of the musical wine post I made the other day, I thought I would mention the combination of wine and mathematics.

Yes, that’s right. Someone has come up with a mathematical formula to determine the quality of wine. Leo McCloskey has a huge database of details on all kinds of wine and can use it to determine what quality a wine will be considered.

Yes, the chemical profiles. He’s not precisely popular with purists.

However, he can tell what price a wine is likely to fetch or estimate the score it would get when rated. It’s all pretty interesting, at least if you enjoy math as much as wine.

His results also change when vineyards harvest. It’s a gamble for his early clients, but it will pay off nicely if he helps them create higher value wines.