Remember the movie Memento? Where the protagonist wakes up each morning with his memory wiped clean? Apparently such things can actually happen — a woman has not formed a new long-term memory since 1994.

The article itself is a bit … poor in quality. It claims the woman has no functioning short term memory, when her problem is clearly adding things to her long term memory. And it compares her condition to the movie Groundhog Day, which has nothing to do with memory loss at all.

But, hey. Neat story.

(Paper Art by Elod Beregszaszi.)

Stanford Magazine offers up an interesting look at the study of how language can influence the way we think.

CSI: Nintendo.

Earlier this week we learned that you can learn German by being a coma patient. In what we can only assume is related news, you can also deveop a Chinese accent by getting a migraine.

(Monkeys in Mini Cars, found via Agent Silent in Vintage Photographs.)

Scientists are working very hard to figure out how to mimic a parasitic worm infestation. Science leads us down strange paths, sometimes.

On Saturday, we mentioned that there was a Foursquare race to the North Pole. It’s over. We at the Big Bad Blog find that we don’t care, and wonder why we blogged about it twice.

Seaweed — sorry, French seaweed — is getting angry, killing horses, and going after people too. Luckily, it gives warning with its evil eggy smell.

(Warning, clicking on the above photo will bring you to a page which contains photographs of artistic boobies.)

Anti-instructions: How (not) to be a ghost.

British dental care is infamous; British teeth just ain’t pretty. One American ex-pat blames the NHS.

Yesterday began with news of Farrah Fawcett’s death and ended with news of Michael Jackson’s. Sandwiched in between was news that people paid $60.6 million to watch Transformers 2 on a Wednesday night.

Ms. Fawcett had cancer.
Nobody should be too surprised to learn that Mr. Jackson was not entirely healthy.
Which brings us to Transformers. Really, people? The first movie was the worst movie I have ever seen in a movie theatre. There’s nothing else that really comes close. It was a horrible piece of crap. And you spent $60 million, in the middle of a recession, to watch the same people essentially re-imagine the same crap? Wouldn’t you rather gouge out your eyes or something?

Roger Ebert has essentially confirmed all my fears about this movie. Here are some quotes, though I fear that removing them from the surrounding context might give you a better impression of the movie than he intended:
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length

They also make speeches like this one by John Turturro: “Oh, no! The machine is buried in the pyramid! If they turn it on, it will destroy the sun! Not on my watch!”

Other reviews:
“Like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan!” (Bradshaw, Guardian)
“Sums up everything that is most tedious, crass and despicable about modern Hollywood!” (Tookey, Daily Mail)
“A giant, lumbering idiot of a movie!” (Edwards, Daily Mirror)

Anyways, goodbye Farrah.

And Michael? I will try to remember you like this, before you were replaced by a creepy child-molesting alien.

Elsewhere in America, people are being searched because they had (or were suspected of having) things that are perfectly legal. Naturally, they are complaining about it.

First we have a man who was detained and harassed for boarding a plane with $4700 in cash, which is not illegal and does not require disclosure. The ACLU is now suing the Transportation Security Agency for treating him like a criminal when his actions are expressly permitted.

In the second instance, the US Supreme Court has ruled that the strip searching of a teenager in an attempt to find out if she was hiding ibuprofin on her person was illegal. While the verdict makes sense, one has to wonder what is happening to freedom and privacy in the United States when such an issue actually has to go to the Supreme Court.