Interesting scraps of info over the weekend

The highlight of this weekend was of course the severe beat down LSU issued to VT this past Saturday. It has many people (albeit many of them are probably LSU fans) saying that we may take over the #1 spot in the AP polls. Mostly this is rabid fan, saber rattling but, they did look good out there, VT was not allowed to score their one and only touchdown until 100 minutes into the game.

Aside from this, I tried to study a bit and covered ground in pharm, but path is certainly going to get some attention this week. The main bulk of Sunday morning was spent on searches on Wiki. Some interesting topics covered: medieval plague doctors, French polynesia (Bora Bora and Tahiti) in the South Pacific, the popular (in Sweden) electronica group "the knife," and the soon to be worlds tallest building in Dubai- Burg Dubai.

I also included a picture of a huge cypress tree I found near Bayou Plaquemine by my house, this thing I would assume is probably 12 -15 feet around or so, I took the moose for a walk in the woods by my house over break and snapped a shot, keep in mind that at the angle the picture is oblique and isn't even taken at its widest part.

Yes, Northerners and Californians, I live within walking distance to a swamp. I also have been ticketed for capturing an alligator. I did not however take a riding lawnmower or canoe to school growing up.

Soon to be the worlds tallest building (by 2009) Burg Dubai, in...well, Dubai; will surpass Taipei 101 and the Sears tower by a wide margin. On the right is a size comparison comparing it to the former WTC and the planned Freedom Tower in NYC.

"Medico Pesta," Latin for 'Creepiest doctor outfit in history.' These guys went around during the plague in Europe, most weren't even real doctors, the real doctors knew that they couldn't fight the disease and often got out of town. The mask's beak was stuffed with herbs that were thought to purify the air (of course we know now that the plaque was transmitted by fleas), on the mask also were crystal eyes, and a stick to poke at plague patients. I think I've found my Halloween costume. (Steal it and you well be smacked on the head with a stick, by a guy in a bird mask.)

On a side note the reason I found this is I was reading about a band I like "the knife," who rarely appear in public, when they do they wear mask, they have no musical training, they are rumored to be siblings, and in 2003 they won every category (yes, that is 6 Grammy's in one year) of the Grammy's in their home country of Sweden... but told them to just blow off. There has been some GREAT music coming out of Sweden the past 5 years: Jens Lekman, Jose' Gonzalez, and The Knife just to name a few.

"The Knife," also pretty creepy.