the blue brain

The Blue Brain project has been going on for years but I just heard about it. The purpose of this mind-boggling, but now feasible experiment is to use a supercomputer to simulate the brain of a mammal.
The project is in Switzerland, and is a joint venture with IBM. They have already succeeded in replicating a [...]

it’s a slime festival!

The Are We Alone podcast outdid itself recently with an episode all about slime. There are three things I learned that I want to share with you, but you ought to listen to the whole thing.

See an amazing video of how a bit of hagfish slime can quickly turn water into goo. Don’t miss this! [...]

sing your sign

Astrology–can it really divine something about your personality or future? I think all four of my readers know that the evidence in favor of astrology is just about…wait a minute, let me double check this…yup, the evidence supporting astrology is…zilch! None. Zippo. It’s right up there with homeopathy in the pantheon of pseudoscience.
However, thanks to [...]

nameless

I was more afraid than I could explain. but not enough to dull my thirst for wonder…
I ducked into a bookstore to find something to read because I had a long wait before the Neil deGrasse Tyson lecture (a few weeks ago). I came across a paperback of H.P. Lovecraft stories and grabbed it because [...]

jury duty – day 2

1. Check in.
2. Continue reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross.
4. 90-minute lunch break.
5. Continue reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. (Almost finished.)
6. Six hours after arrival, we are sent home. “Thank you. You have completed your jury duty service.”

jury duty – day 1

1. Sign-in and orientation.
2. Sit in a chair waiting, close eyes and fall into a sleep-like stupor for 30 minutes because daylight savings time is brutal for a sensitive guy like me.
3. Begin reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross.
4. 90-minute lunch break.
5. Continue reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross.
6. Seven hours after arrival, most of [...]

watchpersons

I had just recently read the “Watchmen” book, so it was easy to recognize comic panels exactly replicated in the movie and splashed across the giant IMAX screen. On the big screen, Dr. Manhattan really is six stories tall when you first meet him. I liked the movie overall. There were times when I was [...]

beer cheese soup

Last night these mysterious white orbs fell on Scot and me outside the Cafe Racer. I think the orbs were trying to talk to us, but it was a foreign language. The cafe, by the way, has a great collection of bad art, include a large religious icon made from Peeps stuck to a canvas. [...]