It's Sunday. It's Pi Day. It's Daylight Savings Weekend. And it's still Spring Break, the beginning of week two. I've been able to keep myself occupied, for the most part. Thank God for Google Reader, which has kept me both organized and entertained when I was not running around doing this or that. And, in the process of relieving my occasional boredom, I've discovered a few things that are worth passing on. So, as the second installment of my Another Lazy Sunday series, I present:
Seeing as how we're all feeling the effects of losing one hour's sleep, I thought this would be an appropriate place to start. A recent report from journal
Sleep Medicine suggests that there is a correlation between the loss of an hour due to Daylight Savings Time and the number of auto accidents that occur the following Monday. On the flip side, it seems there is also a spike in auto accidents in the fall, when DST ends. The study concludes:
"The sleep deprivation on the Monday following shift to DST in the spring results in a small increase in fatal accidents. The behavioral adaptation anticipating the longer day on Sunday of the shift from DST in the fall leads to an increased number of accidents suggesting an increase in late night (early Sunday morning) driving when traffic related fatalities are high possibly related to alcohol consumption and driving while sleepy. Public health educators should probably consider issuing warnings both about the effects of sleep loss in the spring shift and possible behaviors such as staying out later, particularly when consuming alcohol in the fall shift. Sleep clinicians should be aware that health consequences from forced changes in the circadian patterns resulting from DST come not only from physiological adjustments but also from behavioral responses to forced circadian changes."
2) Seven Celebrities Who Had Careers You Didn't Know About
If you're not familiar with Cracked.com, here's the premise: Once a day, they post an article or two that lists people, events, etc. on a particular theme. There are articles on Pop Culture (
6 Insane Fan Theories That Actually Make Great Movies Better), Science & Technology (
6 Things Your Body Does Everyday (That Can Destroy You)), History (
9 Inventions that Prove Leonardo da Vinci was a Supervillain), et cetera. Granted, they're all pretty ridiculous, but they are always grounded in fact.
In any case, one of their most recent - and interesting articles - looks at seven celebrities that were, perhaps, known for the wrong accomplishments. For instance: Chevy Chase was the drummer for what would become Steely Dan, Dr. Seuss was an Academy Award winner for a war film, Sir Isaac Newton invented the doggy door, and the man who voiced Tigger invented the artificial heart. Check it out...you might learn something.
3) The Devil, Zombies, and The Devil
Stephen Riddle is the blogger/film critic responsible for
You'd Be Surprised What An Old Man Remembers - and he happens to be a friend of mine. On his blog, Riddle offers critique of recently released films, gives his take on the classics, and recommends many films which (at least, in my case) one might not have heard about otherwise. The last of these recently gave me some viewing homework for the past weekend.
In the article linked above, Riddle looks at the horror movies 2009 had to offer, most of which were complete garbage. He suggested, instead, three independent horror films worth a few hours of one's time. Over the course of three days, I watched each of the three films:
The House of the Devil,
Pontypool, and
Triangle. All were great films, but I most enjoyed
Pontypool - it's set in a radio station, and would make a great straight play - and
Triangle - the movie left me reeling, but I sure enjoyed getting the headache that resulted; so much, in fact, that I watched it again right away...which, if you watch the movie, you will realize is made even more creepy by the subject matter.
4) Tell us how the Republicans really feel, won't you?
Normally I would only offer three items on a Lazy Sunday - otherwise, I would just be working too much, right? But how on Earth could I pass this up? Besides, this one pretty much speaks for itself:
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