Charleston W.K. Chiang

Various interesting things that...

those snobby Yankee... (though the point should be the danger of global warming)

Source: Google image!

Flapper style, from United States Postal Service's Celebrate the Century series. From artwork by John Held

Mathematician: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, and by induction - every odd integer higher than 2 is a prime.
Physicist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is an experimental error, 11 is a prime,...
Engineer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is a prime, 11 is a prime,...
Programmer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 7 is a prime,...
Salesperson: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 -- we'll do for you the best we can,...
Computer Software Salesperson: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 will be prime in the next release,...
Biologist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 -- results have not arrived yet,...
Advertiser: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 11 is a prime,...
Lawyer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 -- there is not enough evidence to prove that it is not a prime,...
Accountant: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is prime, deducing 10% tax and 5% other obligations.
Statistician: Let's try several randomly chosen numbers: 17 is a prime, 23 is a prime, 11 is a prime...
Professor: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, and the rest are left as an exercise for the student.
Computational linguist: 3 is an odd prime, 5 is an odd prime, 7 is an odd prime, 9 is a very odd prime,...
Psychologist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is a prime but tries to suppress it,...

Source: Profession Jokes, http://www.workjoke.com/projoke.htm

A utosomal dominant C ompelling H elioO phthalmic O utburst Syndrome, AKA photic sneeze reflex, is a 'disorder' characterized by nearly uncontrollable sneezing in a reflex fashion by the suddent exposure to intensely bright light, usually sunlight. It is a fairly common, but poorly understood, disorder.

A possibly cause is a congenital malfunction in nerve signals in the trigeminal nerve nuclei (the fifth cranial nerve, responsible for sneezes). Apparently some people have an association between this nerve and the nerve that transmits visual impulses to the brain. Thus overstimulation of the optic nerve triggers this nerve.

Apparently this is also an ancient syndrome, as it was mentioned by Aristotle. In Book XXXIII, in a section entitled 'Problems concerning the nose,' Aristotle stated: 'Why is it that one sneezes more after one has looked at the sun? Is it because the sun engenders heat and so causes movement, just as does tickling the nose with a feather? For both have the same effect; by setting up movement they cause heat and create breath more quickly from the moisture; and it is the escape of this breath which causes sneezing.'

Sources: OMIM (100820), wikipedia (photic sneeze reflex).

I spent 2007 Halloween at Hawaii, and we decided to carve a potter pumpking

Source: Google image!