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I had a traumatic morning, but not as traumatic as it was for the bird who hit my window. After a loud thump, I knew what had happened. We’ve had a few birds tap the window before but this one didn’t sound good. Sure enough when I looked outside the bird was alive but on … Continue reading
I don’t really like running with other people very much. I am improving but I think my preference for being on my own stems from two things. First, I have difficulty running at my pace when I run with others because I want to make sure they are getting the workout they need (not too … Continue reading
Most of us are becoming accustomed to seeing both emoticons and emoji’s in our online and text messages. Emoji’s are picture characters, emoticons are faces that show a specific emotion created with just text-based symbols :). But I started thinking about why I use them; which made me wonder if they have any impact on … Continue reading
I am not a raw egg eater (drinker?). I don’t plan to become one, regardless of the outcome of my research for this post. However, I heard a discussion about eating raw versus cooked eggs. The advocate of raw eggs used the argument that the proteins are more available to humans in the raw egg, which … Continue reading
Recently I was learning about attribution theory, and how it relates to sports. Attribution theory relates to how and why people explain events in the way they do. This becomes self-serving attribution theory when we look at people’s success and failure. You are responsible for your own success – for example, athletes (particularly male athletes) … Continue reading
My dragon boat team had an awesome festival this weekend. Our placement was good, but more than that we performed some amazing starts and showed really good focus through most of the races. But I got to thinking about focus and what improves or reduces our ability to focus on the specific task we are … Continue reading
Watching the Olympics it is interesting to see the pre- and post-performance rituals that many athletes perform and think about all the ones we don’t know of. Canadian diver Jennifer Abel talked about her ritual with her chamois before she dives, and the fact that she keeps the same chamois for an entire Olympic cycle. Other athletes … Continue reading
Drafting is something that you hear about in a number of different sports. Basically, when you draft, you sit very close behind someone else (and by sit I mean paddle, swim, bike, run, etc). The idea is that you spend less energy than the person at the front. But how does this work? A … Continue reading
So, I have heard that swearing increases pain tolerance. The MythBusters even did an episode on this. It’s an interesting effect. Basically, the original study tested how long people could keep their hand in ice water while reciting non-swear words vs swear words. Swearing increased pain tolerance, decreased pain perception, and increased heart rate. Another study … Continue reading
I saw this interesting article about installing floating photovoltaics on Lake Mead and Lake Powell in the U.S. as a means of generating power using renewables and reducing some of the significant evaporation from the two lakes. It makes sense that the solar panels will generate electricity, but I’m curious about two of the claims: 1) how much … Continue reading
Connecting with Science 