Japanese Learning English

Because aerobics is the best way to teach someone what to say when they're being mugged. Thanks, Daiv!

Doctor Who to get extra companion

Doctor Who is to have a new companion when the drama returns - but there will still be room for his current co-star.

Actress Freema Agyeman is to play Martha Jones in three episodes of spin-off show Torchwood. She said it was a chance to 'expand' her character.

She will miss the first half of the fourth series of Doctor Who, but will then return to the BBC One programme.

The new companion will be revealed soon and will appear in the entire 13-week run, which begins filming this month.

Scientists find drug to banish bad memories

It failed to bring Jim Carrey happiness in the award-winning film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but scientists have now developed a way to block and even delete unwanted memories from people's brains.

Researchers have found they can use drugs to wipe away single, specific memories while leaving other memories intact. By injecting an amnesia drug at the right time, when a subject was recalling a particular thought, neuro-scientists discovered they could disrupt the way the memory is stored and even make it disappear.

The research has, however, sparked concern among parliamentary advisers who insist that new regulations are now needed to control the use of the drugs to prevent them becoming used by healthy people as a 'quick fix'.

Doctorin' The TARDIS

Man pummels 'vampire' peacock

I don't think that I can really add anything to this story.

A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a Burger King in New York City was beaten by a man who insisted it was a vampire.

Animal control officials in Staten Island say the bird was beaten so fiercely that most of its tail feathers fell out and it had to be euthanized.

The seven-year-old male peacock wandered into the restaurant parking lot and perched on a car hood last week. Charmed employees had been feeding it bread when the man appeared.

A restaurant worker says the man grabbed the bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started stomping it. She says when he was asked what he was doing, he responded, ''I'm killing a vampire!''

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them.

Origins

Next weekend is Origins. I'll be there from Friday to Sunday, meeting people and gaming. Stop and say hello if you're around. I will be posting pictures and (hopefully) blogging from the convention.

Movie Score Meme

Use your music player to create the score to a movie. Yes, I got this from someone's journal. That's the point to it being a meme. I will admit that some of these themes contribute to a strange overall movie, unless you're going for a Joycean type of film. Pass it along.

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, MusicMatch, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every scene, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new scene, press the shuffle button again
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool

Opening Credits: Are "Friends" Electric? - The Tubeway Army
Falling in Love: Information - De-Phazz
Breaking Up: The Vampire Club - Voltaire
Prom: Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa
Life's OK: What Is It About Men? - Amy Winehouse
Mental Breakdown: Sign of the Times - Brian Ferry
Driving: Stranger - Clan of Xymox
Getting Back Together: Jump - Aztec Camera
Birth of Child: Playground Love (Vibraphone Mix) - Air
Wedding Scene: Stand and Deliver - Adam and the Ants
Final Battle: This Is Not America - The Pat Metheney Band with David Bowie
Death Scene: Eventide - Claire Voyant
Funeral Scene: A Whiter Shade of Pale - Annie Lennox
End Credits: Add It Up - Violent Femmes

The Myth of Baby Cakes

Contains strong language and a few funny bits that you probably won't want co-workers staring at you about. NSFW.

Don Herbert, 89; TV's 'Mr. Wizard' taught science to young baby boomers

Don Herbert, who explained the wonderful world of science to millions of young baby boomers on television in the 1950s and '60s as 'Mr. Wizard' and did the same for another generation of youngsters on the Nickelodeon cable TV channel in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Herbert died at his home in Bell Canyon after a long battle with multiple myeloma, said Tom Nikosey, Herbert's son-in-law.

A low-key, avuncular presence who wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a tie, Herbert launched his weekly half-hour science show for children on NBC in 1951.

Broadcast live from Chicago on Saturdays the first few years and then from New York City, 'Watch Mr. Wizard' ran for 14 years.

Herbert used basic experiments to teach scientific principles to his TV audience via an in-studio guest boy or girl who assisted in the experiments.

'I was a grade school kid in the '50s and watched 'Mr. Wizard' Saturday mornings and was just glued to the television,' said Nikosey, president of Mr. Wizard Studios, which sells Herbert's science books and TV shows on DVD.

How To Be A Goth'

'Cause nothing is as dorky as a Goth.