Author: Ashley Bischoff

Clowns Ease Anxiety in Patients

Ashley Bischoff5 Comments

Reuters is reporting on a study which concludes that clowns ease anxiety in young patients:

A clown in the operating room may relax anxious children who are about to undergo surgery, but the entertainer has to learn to keep out of the way, Italian researchers said on Monday. […]

I mean, sure, I can understand that clowns would need to stay out of the way, but I can only imagine the extent to which the study covered that issue if the reporter thought it relevant enough to mention it in the opening paragraph.

“You damn clowns!” exclaimed Dr Frederick Petronko as he shoved Honkers out of the way. […]

Well, all right, that’s not actually a real quote. But that’s what I was hoping I’d come across as I read through the article.

Morning Edition Stuck in My Head

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

Does it make me totally lame if I've got NPR’s Morning Edition theme song stuck in my head?

(I have a daily scheduled task which rips it to mp3 for me and I listen to it while I'm at the gym and while I walk from the parking garage to the office.)

Update, 2005-09-29: Just as a warning, don’t even think about reading that linked BBC News article if you’re especially susceptible to getting songs stuck in your head. Damn you, Henry Mancini!

Brondell’s Advanced Toilet Seat

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments

DealNews is reporting a sale on Brondell’s advanced toilet seat for only $474 shipped.

Replacing your old toilet set, the Swash 600 includes a built-in bidet, gentle closing seat, warm air dryer, heated seat, and more, all managed via a remote control. The Swash 400 has most of the 600’s features (no warm air dryer) with push-button controls for $379 after coupon. […]

I don’t know what’s weirder, that someone’s selling a remote-control toilet seat or that it’s made its way up to #2 on DealNews’ Top Reader Picks page :-/.

LED Light Bulbs

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

This MSNBC article on LED light bulbs starts off with charming snarkiness:

Next time you screw in a cheap incandescent light bulb, ask yourself this: Do you ride a horse to work? Still churning your own butter? […]

I’m well aware of LEDs as a light source and I still enjoy my Inova X5 LED Flashlight, but it hadn’t occurred to me that they could be put to use in home fixtures. (As you might have guessed, it’s not a single LED that screws into a light socket, but rather a cluster of them which form a single unit.)

The article writes about LEDs’ long life, saying that they’d last 10 times longer than compact-fluorescent bulbs and 100 times longer than an incandescent bulb. The downside, though, is cost — even the low-end ones are about $25 per bulb. Ouch. I mean, the energy savings would be nice, but I would think it could take a while to recoup that kind of initial investment :-/.