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I wonder which was chicken, and which was egg… does “4” sound like “death”, or does “death” sound like “4”?

Tetraphobia, fear of the number 4 — (phonetically similar to ‘death’) in Korea, China, and Japan, as well as in many East-Asian and some Southeast-Asian countries, it’s not uncommon for buildings (including offices, apartments, hotels) to lack floors with the number 4, and Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia’s 1xxx-9xxx series of mobile phones does not include any model numbers beginning with a 4. In Taiwan, tetraphobia is so common that there are no 4’s or x4’s for hospitals. [Source: Wikipedia]

Then there’s Italy’s unlucky “17”, which through a butterfly’s wingflap is the sum of “deadly 4” and good ol’ “unlucky 13.”

“17 is Italy’s unlucky number, because in Roman digits 17 is written XVII, that could be rearranged to "VIXI", which in Latin means literally "I have lived" but can be a euphemism for "I am dead".” [Source: Wikipedia]

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Vulcans, want to attract a mate other than the one you’ve been betrothed to since childhood?

Your options are:

• Have a lot of land, money, and get your competition to fight to the death with someone who’s not a Vulcan, and probably likes Vulcan girls as well as any, but can’t stick around.
• Smell really, really good.

Genki Wear knows the second is more logical, which is why they’re producing “Star Trek Fragrances”, cologne (and perfume!) just for you.

Discussion lives long and prospers on the Trek Movie site.

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You might not be able to get to sleep with the http://www.neave.com/television/ turned on.

“My spoon’s too big… my spoon’s TOO BIG!”

BoingBoing.com, rebloging NewScientist.com, which is abstracting something from Annals of Internal Medicine, describing something some university folks said, says:

New research suggests that heavy coffee drinkers are less likely to die of heart disease, such as heart attacks, strokes, and arrhythmia. Edidemiologists from the Autonomous University of Madrid analyzed data from more than 120,000 men and women. According to their study, women who drank four or five cups of brew a day were 34 percent less likely to die form heart disease. Men who drank more than five cups a day were 44 percent less likely to succumb to heart disease…

(I cut it BoingBoing off here just for fun.)

That’s cool. So I’ll just keep on doing what I’m doing.

Now, I heard the same this morning on the radio, although the radio folks said decaf coffee has the same effect. Lies.

If we keep playing the telephone game long enough, we’ll be drinking coffee from the Annals of Monkey. Oh wait, some people actually do that one.

In summary, coffee is great, reblogging is annoying, and people on the radio just talk about whatever in the morning and I wish they would shut their yappers and play some music.

One my favorite SNL skits ever… Jim Carrey as the lifeguard of a hot tub.

(Video inside, 5 minutes)

Proof that humans should be entertaining the dolphins in amusement parks, instead of the other way around:

(CNN) — If presidential elections were held today, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would likely have a comfortable edge over Sen. John McCain, but take away her maiden name and McCain has a better shot of landing in the Oval Office.

So say the results of a CNN poll released Friday by Opinion Research Corp., which asked 506 adult Americans whom they preferred among potential 2008 presidential candidates. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 4.5 percent.

Asked if they preferred Hillary Rodham Clinton to McCain, respondents gave the Democratic New York senator and former first lady a 51 percent to 44 percent advantage over the Republican Senator from Arizona. [Clinton had a 7 point advantage]. [When asked if they prefered Hillary Clinton to McCain,] McCain had a 1 percentage point advantage, 48 percent to 47 percent. [-Edits mine, this writer has some difficulty making data intelligible.]

“Why not dig a trench! Then the ball would be as low as you seem to wish it to be!”

(Video, 7 minutes, inside)

Millionth blog repost of the same story, with a fair-and-balanced twist on the truth:

Rocketboom is OVER! OVER!

From the site:

Amanda Congdon has decided to move to L.A. to pursue opportunities that have arisen for her in Hollywood.

We wanted to meet her demands to move production out to L.A., however, we are a small company and have not been able to figure out a way to make it work, financially and in many other ways at this time. While we continue to remain with open arms, Amanda has in fact quit and left Rocketboom. So sadly, we bid Amanda adieu and wish her all the best.

: Evidentially she was fired because she and the other owner of Rocketboom weren’t getting along. And now Rocketboom already has an Amanda doing the ‘cast. That was fast… did they have her in a biostatis vat waiting for the real Amanda to die/disagree?

Logs show people get to my site by googling for “is jello made from ground horses.”

I know the answer to this, but I’m not telling. A hint: scientists have been working on cherry-flavored horses for decades.

I have pretty bizarre dreams. Recently they’ve been non-stop and feature a new dream invention… “foot scootering.” I slide along the ground at highway-speeds on one foot.

Here’s one I had this morning that involves foot scootering. Enjoy…

(Fade In)

I’m in the “Bookmobile” (a real library bus in North Idaho.) I want to rent a movie about trees, but all I can remember is it starts with “T”, so when the librarian asks if she can help I accept. She tries to convince me I needed to rent a movie “for myself” and I appease her because it seems she’s hitting on me. All I want to do is find the “T” movie. We look through the entire shelf and I look again while she’s talking, but we can’t find it. Then I realize it’s a kids’ movie so it’s not on the shelf we’re looking at.

I remember a National Geographic dinosaur book I had when I was younger. I’m remembering it being very small, with text that’s unreadably tiny.

(Teleport)

I’m in my parents house looking at two white cats running around on the floor. My mom tells me to “tell him about them.” I can’t see/identify the person she wants me to “tell.” I assume she means dinosaurs, but all I can think of to say is “jawbone.” Then I realize she wants me to tell him about the cats…

(Teleport)

There’s a horse barn. The horses are acting like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park… biting at people through the gaps in the barn sides.

A farmhand dressed in green & purple places a cup of jello right in front of the horses, and the horses snarl. He places a trail of cups (alernating green & purple) leading away from the barn, then back to the barn, up onto a fence, and then up onto the top of the barn. I think, “that’s dumb, the horse-dinosaurs are going to break out and follow the jello cups to him.”

The farmhand stands on top of the barn and starts break dancing. I notice that his socks are changing from green, to purple, and back as he does flips. His moves rewind and reply in slow motion so I can be sure his socks really are changing.

I realize in-dream this is a commercial for socks.

(Teleport)

I’m standing at the University/Capitol light heading north, pushing a shopping cart. So are 3 other people. We’re each in a lane, and I’m in the right lane. I know I need to get to the left so I can turn left on River to get to ProClarity. So, it’s a race.

I have in-dream deja vu about shopping cart races.

The light turns green, and by the time we get to the bridge I’m in the left lane.

(Teleport)

I’m foot scootering down a highway in the central Washington. I’m getting thirsty so I stop at a convenience store. Because I’m going inside I take off my scootering shoe (which is a sandal) and latch it onto my cargo shorts.

I remember there’s a flyer inside that lists different sodas made by Wil Wheaton. Unfortunately the flyer’s gone so I assume he gave up on the soda business.

I see several people carrying water with floating fruit, which I assume are “smoothies”… I decide that I want something watery like that since I’m going to have to carry it while I’m “driving.”

There’s a smoothy counter in the corner. I read through the menu. I don’t see anything listed that the people are drinking. I see something made from ground-up Butterfingers, and then “Peach Pie”, which in the picture appears to be peach pie thrown into a clear plastic cup.

I tell the guy behind the counter I want “Peach Pie” and then, as if it makes some difference, I look over the counter to make sure he’s getting a cup and not a pie in a plate.

While the drink is mixing (I wonder if it is, though, because I don’t hear the blender) the guy goes over to check the door of the store, and a grumpy lady complains he is trying to lock everyone in.

He says “I can’t be over at the door all the time so I’m checking it now while I’m over here,” or something cryptic.

(Fade Out)