tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-176142672011-10-31T04:02:11.155+08:00BlogShlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.comBlogger3001100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-21009699544099219912009-08-16T19:38:00.003+08:002009-08-16T20:07:51.875+08:00

Richard Dawkins' great book- "The Ancestor's Tale" tells the story of evolution backwards- from man to microbe- so as not to give the incorrect impression that we are the pinnacle of the evolutionary tree. This is frankly annoying. Who would write a history book starting in the present day, then heading backwards? Hopefully, some future edition will be re-written backwards.Regardless, it is a

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-32323121689438910272009-08-04T23:26:00.003+08:002009-08-04T23:28:54.073+08:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-46447088246766253952009-08-03T23:16:00.004+08:002009-08-03T23:32:09.412+08:00

Amazing isn't it? You sort of think that 'fruit' has been around forever- but no- there wasn't any such thing as a grapefruit before 1750. This, and other amazing facts in the latest great lecture on "SALT" - Seminars About Long-term Thinking: a balanced, rational view of "Organic" vs "GM" food.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-85397393423315872182009-08-03T23:08:00.003+08:002009-08-03T23:14:23.520+08:00

Artist/chitect Adam Kalkin built his amazing house around another house - and now uses the front porch as a dining room. Tremendously cool.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-44197952668547658852009-08-02T17:40:00.003+08:002009-08-02T17:56:07.168+08:00

When you look up at the beautiful stars on a clear night- you're looking at an image that's different from anything you'll see on earth. That's because each point of light is from a different time. Adjacent stars may be separated by billions of miles. You're seeing the stars as they were, and WHERE THEY WERE billions of years ago. Before there were humans, before there was Earth. Who knows

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-50012589438867792112009-07-29T15:28:00.012+08:002009-07-29T19:21:38.208+08:00

After much struggling- i've finally got the home theater/hi-fi thing all sorted. It did take quite a bit of trawling thru anti-Bose internet fora and an email to Bose HQ but it's all worked out in the end. And yes- before anyone gets stuck into me- i KNOW Bose stuff is overpriced!What i wanted was:a) a system that was integrated using ONE REMOTE ONLY- preferably without having to buy a

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-20929116918356354152009-07-28T09:44:00.002+08:002009-07-28T09:45:02.728+08:00

Can't explain why somebody set this to this movie.. but great music.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-54039169650900459942009-07-28T09:35:00.001+08:002009-07-28T09:35:32.514+08:00

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Great music machine from tony-b: great fun - great sound. Don't forget to check out the 'specials'. You need to enter a name and password to get started.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-25378744904426320762009-07-27T17:10:00.003+08:002009-07-27T17:18:30.821+08:00

Google Earth is much more than Google Earth- it's now also Google Moon, Google Mars, Google Sky and Google Flight Simulator! (although you can't fly around the moon or mars yet). You can even dive underneath the water and zoom along undersea mountains etc. It also now has simulated day/night and 'atmosphere' on Earth. Amazing!

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-24337465552331284842009-07-22T19:55:00.005+08:002009-07-22T20:51:28.162+08:00

I first heard about the 'Butterfly Effect' reading Douglas Hofstaedter's amazing book 'Metamagical Themas', and subsequently James Gleick's book on Chaos when they came out decades ago.Essentially, systems (like the weather) where the output is fed back into the input (i.e. 'iterated') demonstrate 'sensitive dependence on initial conditions'. In other words, a teeny tiny difference in the

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-51837848598476762512009-07-16T21:12:00.002+08:002009-07-16T21:13:37.433+08:00

Lots great free stuff from Australian ABC- quality looks excellent even on my 24" iMAC with fullscreen view.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-32893402435376429512009-07-15T23:28:00.004+08:002009-07-16T00:01:33.682+08:00

Just bought Cynthia Brown's "Big History" today and started reading... history from the big bang to the present day. Looks like it going to be very interesting (and better than Bill Bryson's effort). There is however a mistake in the 2nd paragraph of the 1st page!Cynthia assumes that because the universe is 13.7 billion years old, it must be 13.7 billion light years across. In fact, logic

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-9451410868365975402009-07-15T23:05:00.003+08:002009-07-15T23:13:29.570+08:00

Saw a copy of "Pride andPrejudice and Zombies" at the local bookstore- and i was very tempted to buy it but unfortunately i do not belong either to the part of the subculture that is into Zombies- or that part that is into Jane Austen. In fact, i can imagine the Venn Diagram of the intersection of these two sets to be an exceedingly small area that includes the author and a handful of others.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-12375665011236056702009-07-15T00:37:00.002+08:002009-07-15T00:44:57.210+08:00

We can all live forever! There's a fascinating bit on the wiki entry on the worlds oldest living (currently dead) person: Jeanne Calment-"In 1965, aged 90, with no living heirs, Jeanne Calment signed a deal to sell her former apartment to lawyer André-François Raffray, on a contingency contract. Raffray, then aged 47, agreed to pay her a monthly sum of 2,500 francs until she died, an agreement

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-77145399902669504932009-07-14T00:55:00.000+08:002009-07-14T00:57:22.749+08:00

Good article from the Guardian:

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-3452155942240267542009-07-14T00:35:00.004+08:002009-07-14T00:51:50.460+08:00

Two must-listen-to podcasts from 'Rear Vision' on the history of foreign intervention in Iran:Oil, Democracy and a CIA CoupThe Iranian Revolution"Kermit Roosevelt was a fascinating character. He really was a true-life James Bond, and when it was decided that the United States would overthrow Mossadeq, he was the guy that the CIA turned to. They gave him the job. They told him, 'You've got to go

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-44336835812165787132009-07-14T00:18:00.004+08:002009-07-14T00:33:18.119+08:00

1. Why are there no black rock bands?2. Why don't people brush their teeth with hot water?3. Why/How did the French+Russian Revolutions wind up with Napoleon+Stalin?4. Why does Rapamycin make you live longer?5. Is it really always darkest before the dawn?6. Was Earth's sky blue before photosynthetic plants made all that oxygen? ( this depends on the relative importance of oxygen vs nitrogen in

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-71977596609993601722009-06-25T00:04:00.002+08:002009-06-25T00:13:41.019+08:00

Ingredients:Neodymium atom x 2Iron tom x 14Boron x 1Method A:Prepare by pulverizing an ingot precursor and liquid phase, sintering the magnetically aligned powder into dense blocksthen heat treat, cut to shape, surface treat and magnetize.Method B:Melt spin a thin ribbon of the Nd-Fe-B alloy. pulverize ribbon into particles mixed with polymer either compression or injection mold into bonded

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-30219593044962454822009-06-24T23:34:00.002+08:002009-06-25T00:01:10.034+08:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-31779426234774805022009-06-24T22:36:00.006+08:002009-06-24T23:26:08.462+08:00

Now this is entirely news to me! Despite 6 years of undergraduate med school study, and two postgraduate degrees- including one in which i spent quite a bit of time learning about neurology- i have NEVER heard about Cranial Nerve Zero. I wish i was in a band because that's what i'd call it.It apparently usually gets ripped off when the brain is removed from the skull so anatomists often miss it

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-70288857120725726312009-06-24T22:35:00.001+08:002009-06-24T23:34:00.332+08:00

What i want to know is: was there anyone who sounded like Elliot Smith before Elliot Smith? He stabbed himself thru the heart don't you know. Crazy.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-50430096974317772412009-06-19T23:13:00.003+08:002009-06-19T23:18:27.324+08:00

What a terrible, terrible flop of a film- redeemed only marginally by the repeated appearance of Dr Manhattan's giant glowing uncircumcised flip-flopping blue penis.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-14969348751698579922009-06-12T23:28:00.002+08:002009-06-12T23:31:06.340+08:00

This is the 1st Charlie Chaplin film i've ever seen- and i expected to be bored after 5 minutes. Really this is (i know you probably don't believe me) extremely funny. Laughed? I nearly cried. How did he train those monkeys to bite his nose? I think the kids will love it. You can watch it all on youtube in segments.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-68154724000580961062009-06-12T22:44:00.005+08:002009-06-12T23:18:09.694+08:00

Step:1. Listen to NPR's "All Songs Considered".2. Read/Listen to AURGASM for amazing stuff- download (legal/free) any tracks you like... or better yet - subscribe to the podcast. They are a little 'top heavy' on quirky jazzy french/german chanteuses- but i like that stuff.Rachel GoodrichMélissa LaveauxPrincetonTheresa AnderssonBen SolleeLily FrostKate SchuttLucy SchwartzKitty Hoff &

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-63874588245248961872009-06-12T22:06:00.004+08:002009-06-12T22:32:47.745+08:00

Nice (Green) Mandelbrot browser- tho not particularly fast (although it's still a lot faster than the program i wrote about 20 years ago on my Atari!). What's amazing about these fractal structures is that they are 'chaotic': deterministic, yet not entirely predictable (you do keep seeing electrified turtles). In other words, the iterated equation that describes them would very easily fit on a

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-34355387445117962942009-06-12T22:02:00.002+08:002009-06-12T22:05:34.083+08:00

What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can’t we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making,

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-70781492995827953572009-06-12T21:51:00.002+08:002009-06-12T22:02:07.677+08:00

For the uninitiated, the "Jake and Amir" series on youtube is a spin-off from two of the writers of "college humor". Essentially Amir is a strange exasperating young man, obsessed with his taller, cooler colleague. "Jake and Amir" is twelve kinds of funny all at once. Pure genius.favourite lines: "snake eyes bitches!", and "no, that's the plot of the 1st Star Wars Movie..!"

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-38382475215407707712009-05-15T23:18:00.003+08:002009-05-15T23:21:25.469+08:00

MOVITS! Fel del av gården from Axel Söderlund on Vimeo.No idea what these guys are saying but i think there's a bit that goes something like "Jorgen Jorgensen's a kool kat.".. or something. Those Swedish guttural utterances sound great in rapswing!

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-57903654996369544342009-05-15T22:33:00.002+08:002009-05-15T22:37:25.938+08:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-70398989984934016742009-05-15T22:26:00.002+08:002009-05-15T22:30:23.331+08:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-37144376481157653592009-05-14T23:19:00.003+08:002009-05-14T23:41:02.694+08:00

As the radiologist plunged a needle back and forth into my neck to sample a thyroid cyst near my right carotid artery i thought i would try to relax by using some 'creative visualization' techniques that i vaguely and probably incorrectly recalled from med student level psychiatry lectures. I imagined myself in "The New Forest" in England- a forest like you see in those wall murals of forests.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-81479260579843759752009-05-12T23:22:00.003+08:002009-05-12T23:37:33.651+08:00

Part (A):Mark Fidel Kools (aka Hasan Karim Akbar) - an aeronautical and mechanical engineer joined the United States Army and was posted to Kuwait. On March 23, 2003 he threw a couple of hand grenades into a tent where his fellow soldiers were sleeping, then shot his rifle at them (for good measure). In his diary from a month before he wrote:I suppose they want to punk me or just humiliate me.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-39928437173372334052009-05-05T23:09:00.004+08:002009-05-05T23:35:14.367+08:00

I've been listening to a lecture series on cognitive science- regarding 'qualia': for example- the ineffable, inexplicable, instantaneous experience of "redness".We (most of us) have 3 functioning color receptors in our retinas... one that responds maximally to violet-blue light at 420nm, one that responds best to green light at 534nm and one that responds most to yellow-green light at 564nm (

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-35917766196098417262009-05-05T21:27:00.001+08:002009-05-05T21:28:31.252+08:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-83346113196258221282009-05-05T20:46:00.003+08:002009-05-05T21:12:42.450+08:00

Eddie Izzard is hysterically funny- but watching him do his standup - i can't keep from thinking about his transvestitism. Maybe it's because his mother died when he was very young?It's interesting that he doesn't really 'use' this as part of the routine- it seems coincidental. After watching him for a bit- you almost forget he's wearing stilletos! According to the always reliable wikipedia,

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Great stuff- from Israeli musician Kutiman.. mashed up bits of amateur YouTube music.. this is what i love about the interweb! 2nd video is his explanation of the project:

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-22452140955380970752009-05-01T23:55:00.002+08:002009-05-02T00:02:38.354+08:00

The idea behind Playing for Change: the world as your recording studio. Despite my cynicism - i thought this was really wonderful .... and that Israeli girl is cute! My favourite performer is "junior" Kissangwa Mbouta playing his drums on a tiny balcony in Kinshasa.

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"Penises are species specific- so i can't be screwed by a bear." IR. Watch them all here at Green Porno.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-3366200705348930692009-04-26T22:17:00.003+08:002009-04-26T22:24:00.958+08:00

This is so incredibly cool. It's like we're living in the future. The Catholic church has a 'position' on cloning, we've got robots on mars and now you can sing (or whistle) a tune into your computer's microphone and http://www.midomi.com/ will tell you what the tune is!Try it. It worked for me- i didn't know i knew the tune of "Seven Nation Army"- nor did i know that i knew anything by "The

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-26348482833126932622009-04-24T23:44:00.003+08:002009-04-24T23:54:29.423+08:00

I'm not sure. From what i can work out she's actually Tessa- 19 year old part-time model from New York. I know she's thinking about switching from PC to Mac, that she's been to Thailand on holiday and that she pops the lenses out of her thick-rimmed spectacles before vlogging. I don't know why i care but somehow i do. She's sexy in a very GEEKY way- and somebody should put her in a Woody

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-718608669254290782009-04-24T23:21:00.001+08:002009-04-24T23:24:34.850+08:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-4843900729235874652009-04-22T22:34:00.000+08:002009-04-22T22:35:16.898+08:00

>:-( -----> [:-)

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-31327454125893390332009-04-22T22:21:00.000+08:002009-04-22T22:22:54.028+08:00

"a punch up the bracket"

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-24808641328571538712009-04-22T20:37:00.003+08:002009-04-22T20:43:10.613+08:00

... you go around the back of McDonalds, you see a guy named Angelo- he's missing a couple of fingers and one eye- you say "Angelo- is your name Domenic? He'll say yeah and you go "Where's Uncle Nick?" and he'll point you in my direction....Sexy Abe Lincoln!!!

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Incredible non-fiction from the "annals of crime" at The New Yorker. A child goes 'missing' - presumed murdered- only to reappear many years later. How cruel is the act of the imposter? The poor family, consumed with grief for all these years - now to have and hold their cherished lost child once again. Despite the glaring fact that his eyes are now brown- not blue- the family accept him as

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This drove me crazy for 2 days. I is be an idiot- and you can too!

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-34690611702097476962009-04-20T19:44:00.003+08:002009-04-20T19:52:49.986+08:00

"Drink while urinatingFor hundreds of thousands of years the vast majority of humans have lived and died without trying the following experiment. It is, however, both extremely straightforward and extremely interesting.Like everyone else, you urinate. And at other moments you drink. What you do not know is what it feels like to do both at the same time. This experiment will show you.So, just

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-86083427460810994932009-04-20T19:30:00.001+08:002009-04-20T19:42:46.148+08:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-60424794456680635132009-04-19T21:39:00.002+08:002009-04-19T21:42:44.147+08:00

These guys are great! Indie rockers Tits Are Made of Skin's debut self-titled album "Tits Are Made Of Skin"- featuring the smash hit single "Tits Are Made of Skin". Listen to what Rolling Stone calls "... it's OK....". But it's better than OK- it's quite good.stereolab + rene magritte + italo calvino + richard dawkins = Tits Are Made of Skin.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-18435765802627704592009-04-18T23:16:00.000+08:002009-04-18T23:18:19.180+08:00

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Arvo Pärt refers to his current style as "tintinnabuli." This can be defined as the application of various inversions of a certain chord. Also, it is a word "which evokes the pealing of bells, the bells' complex but rich sonorous mass of overtones, the gradual unfolding of patterns implicit in the sound itself, and the idea of a sound that is simultaneously static and in flux." Pärt

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click me

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-69321148553664037462009-04-14T23:03:00.003+08:002009-04-14T23:19:44.437+08:00

"The Fabric of the Cosmos" by physicist Brian Greene* spends quite a bit of time in it's 1st 100 pages discussing a rotating bucket however on page 50 there is a gem. to paraphrase:EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW (you, me,the cat etc) is travelling through spacetime AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT. The faster your motion through space, the slower your motion through time.So, if you are completely at rest (i.e. not

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-7821308855465913322009-04-08T22:26:00.005+08:002009-04-14T23:23:57.434+08:00

Driving past the local Vet clinic today and saw a new sign : "Animal Naturopathy". I think this should be illegal- but i'm sure PETA doesn't care.If you're sentient to know better but actually choose to be stupid- then good for you for believing in astrology, naturopathy, god etc... but these poor dumb animals don't know any better.Naturopathy relies on the placebo effect - but i'm pretty sure

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-28181048657406236392009-04-07T22:19:00.002+08:002009-04-07T22:29:19.831+08:00

I have just finished watching (Hitchcock's) "The Birds"... what a stinker! If that was his 1st film, it would have been his last. Fascinating though to watch a terrible wooden actress (Tippi Hedren) who would in later years give birth to another terrible actress (Melanie Griffith). Tippi's current wikipedia entry is a little strange:"To the right is a picture of Hendren strung out on

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-17236543945113189602009-04-05T00:07:00.002+08:002009-04-05T19:20:28.723+08:00

We have often have to tell grieving parents, "No one can bring your child back, except maybe the pterodactyl, but that's beside the point..."

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-13178612425587861982009-03-31T21:16:00.000+08:002009-03-31T21:17:15.876+08:00

Great for kids learning musical notation. Otherwise completely boring.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-6972721536343298002009-03-30T20:51:00.001+08:002009-03-30T20:53:25.237+08:00

"Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon - it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory." ~ Anonymous reviewer of Eugenie Scott's Evolution vs. Creationism : An Introduction.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-44368163280409516292009-03-30T20:17:00.003+08:002009-03-30T21:26:41.081+08:00

Moving House... so no posts recently.. not that anybody cares... !sob!.New things:Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio: ultracool mumblings of an old-time beatnikBall Droppings: fun for the kiddiesMonoface: fun for the kiddiesTechreview: from MITAcademicEarth: Youtube for the intellectualDan Dennett on "Cute, Sexy, Sweet and Funny" from TED. Great talk. Obvious when you think about it. At the deepest

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-74798960087847346372009-02-17T21:41:00.003+09:002009-02-17T21:47:40.667+09:00

Within the last week, a Russian communications satellite collided with an American communications satellite AND a French nuclear submarine collided with a British nuclear submarine. Are people just not paying attention? Ipod-fiddling is probably to blame.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-19769238647647350092009-02-17T21:35:00.002+09:002009-02-17T21:40:26.998+09:00

hmmm....from CNN:"Muzzammil Hassan was charged with second-degree murder after police found the decapitated body of his wife, Aasiya Hassan, at the Bridges TV station in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park...He launched Bridges TV, billed as the first English-language cable channel targeting Muslims inside the United States, in 2004. At the time, Hassan said he hoped the network would balance

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-73040093809385379532009-02-10T23:20:00.001+09:002009-02-10T23:24:53.019+09:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-90780450788326289212009-02-10T23:15:00.001+09:002009-02-10T23:18:32.720+09:00

.... i have a sinking feeling that maybe he was right about the Cylons... we shall see.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-2849926569514388052009-02-08T20:54:00.002+09:002009-02-11T07:07:58.578+09:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-55395416876923550992009-02-08T00:11:00.002+09:002009-02-08T00:15:27.343+09:00

Very interesting post on the always erudite Neurophilosophy Blog about the genetics of synaesthesia with research from Ali-G's 1st cousin. Notice the family resemblance?

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-87830387423693388272009-02-07T23:49:00.004+09:002009-02-08T00:01:39.841+09:00

Neil Diamond: Cherry CherryThe Romantics: What i Like About youJohn Cougar Mellencamp

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-72592534741724503472009-02-06T23:49:00.003+09:002009-02-07T23:44:01.391+09:00

"In a study on Olympic uniforms, anthropologists at Durham University in England found that evenly matched athletes in the 2004 Games who wore red in boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling defeated those wearing blue 60 percent of the time. The researchers suggested that red, for athletes as for animals, subconsciously symbolizes dominance."also i think if you're a

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-24994862088152320842009-02-04T22:35:00.002+09:002009-02-04T22:44:41.498+09:00

"I see only one move ahead," Capablanca is said to have answered, "but it is always the correct one."Great article from Scientific American on studies of the mental processes of chess players. Reminds me of Ford Prefect's advice to Arthur Dent on how to fly: just forget to hit the ground. With chess- just forget the bad moves!p.s. great bauhaus chess board here.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-1114904480526059682009-02-03T22:32:00.003+09:002009-02-03T22:46:14.905+09:00

Is there a word for this sort of word? A word- like "NEWFANGLED" that seems to imply an ironic "OLD-FANGLEDNESS". (Seems the sort of word only uttered by 90 year edentulous old-timers between other phrases like : "Dagnabbit!"*, and "Darn Tootin'!"). *Urban Dictionary defines "Dagnabbit" as: An expression of sheepishness, with a tinge of frustration. e.g. "Dagnabbit, I knew I shouldn't have put

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-87715901799639724212009-02-02T20:01:00.000+09:002009-02-02T20:02:28.307+09:00

Maira Kalman in the New York Times

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-19780213458263875222009-02-01T21:48:00.004+09:002009-02-01T22:05:50.166+09:00

Here's my updated list of great interweb things for 5 year olds:1. Interactica: astounding, massive, mind-expanding, beautiful.2. Starfall: beautifully done- learn the alphabet, then learn to read.3. Bembo's Zoo: cute animated alphabet. 4. Phun : not a website- you'll need to download it- 2-D "physics engine".. hours of phun.5. Flowers : great little app from zefrank- let your kids scream at the

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-21661145866918043672009-01-17T23:56:00.004+09:002009-01-18T00:19:02.350+09:00

“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.” Love in the Time of Cholera: Gabriel Garcia MarquezDid you know that almonds are just the 'stone' of a stone-fruit very closely related to apricots etc. Amazing. It's like finding out that eggs come from chickens! The original almond was lethal: it contained a large amounts of amygdalin- broken

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-59982986382395032832009-01-17T23:20:00.005+09:002009-01-17T23:44:42.166+09:00

fig 1: fish scales magnified a zillion timesLove that "Flaming Lips" song- depressing and uplifting at the same time. Was pop music made for such deep thoughts?I keep thinking about our place in the universe- how insignificant we seem. One little blue planet orbiting a smallish star- one of 20 billion stars in our galaxy- one of 20 billion galaxies in the universe. Just hanging out here-

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-38811341998035363872009-01-17T23:09:00.003+09:002009-01-17T23:19:02.776+09:00

Do You Realize? Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face Do You Realize - we're floating in space - Do You Realize - that happiness makes you cry Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know You realize that life goes fast It's hard to make the good things last You realize

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-89799309564567540362008-12-31T13:01:00.007+09:002008-12-31T14:37:23.859+09:00

Just finished reading a bio of Genghis Khan- interesting- especially the recipe for Marmot (ground squirrel) cooked in a bag of it's own skin. (see also: In Our Time podcast on Genghis)An illiterate orphan on the Mongolian Steppe becomes a genocidal megalomaniac and takes over the world- from the Pacific Ocean to Hungary. He fights hard, he plays hard, and he f%cks hard- thus explaining the 16

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-35975882568623255382008-12-24T21:22:00.002+09:002008-12-24T21:46:26.062+09:00

There are a few things that really piss me off. One is companies that chose their name in the 90's, thinking that the year 2000 would sound futuristic: "M2000 Car Rentals" comes to mind. How dumb that sounds now- particularly when combined with fucking POOR FONT CHOICE! Would you trust a neurosurgeon with a Comic Sans* door-plate? Sure, he'd probably be a friendly fat sweaty guy- but that

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-51938557134921175322008-12-16T23:07:00.006+09:002008-12-17T08:08:57.245+09:00

Recently in the news, a tragic mountain-climbing death*1. TV reporters interview the deceased's boss who states something to the effect that "well, you either loved him or you hated him".Now, in my mind, that's not a very sporting thing to say- even when the guy was alive. What that's really saying is "everyone i know hated him, but i can't absolutely exclude the possibility of some person not

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-56080498668220918282008-12-16T22:49:00.003+09:002008-12-16T23:06:02.608+09:00

I spend very little time watching the "idiot-box" , and too too much time in front of the "clever-box" (i.e. the interweb) that i got a shock the other night when i switched on the TV and saw how bad it had become. Reality show after reality show- but what do they have in common? Self-degradation for cash prizes. In a few years it'll hit "rock-bottom"- but why wait?So here's my pitch- lets

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-18584254024732667782008-12-16T22:08:00.005+09:002008-12-16T22:46:42.714+09:00

"X Minus One" is a great old science fiction radio series from the 50's- now available for you ipod. What's always fascinating to me is the past's view of the future. (Here's a great website i've spent hours looking through: "Tales of Future Past")Listening with a 2008 sensibility must be completely unlike listening back in 1955. In 2008, you notice that certain things 'jar'- like moon-base

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-87110977886747351052008-12-15T20:23:00.006+09:002008-12-16T22:08:35.878+09:00

You probably think you don't know this 'tune' but you probably do. Years ago i was amazed when my girlfriend-at-the-time used the same knock (as in knock on the front door knock) as i did. Wow! How did you know the family knock? I just assumed it was a local phenomenon. I went around asking people at work- "If you went to a friend's house and knocked on the door- what knock would you use?".

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-34977672173653725452008-12-11T21:27:00.004+09:002008-12-11T21:50:38.311+09:00

Swedish spunk Theresa Andersson is amazing .. heard this song on npr's "song of the day" and loved it- but had no idea that she was a one woman show! Is that an Ikea shoe rack she's using to hold her guitar pedals? Oh well- i guess she is Swedish! And i think that stool is also from Ikea. Two other things- one is (although i have a 'foot aversion') i think she also has very sexy dextrous feet-

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-68903298996969639362008-12-09T23:41:00.001+09:002008-12-17T20:13:18.528+09:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-20408390784929271252008-12-09T23:04:00.004+09:002008-12-17T20:12:10.038+09:00

Just some generic Chinese guy? Yep but - he's cool. Who is he? No idea- his "youtube" ID is "Blinktwice4y".. the 1st song is about a Mario Videogame- yet it sounds like a Sufjan Steven's ode to a girlfriend dying of metastatic cancer.

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-4556697867217469552008-12-09T22:58:00.003+09:002008-12-17T20:10:50.661+09:00

Great short story : "The Dinner Party" from Joshua Ferris from the August 08 New Yorker... that poor sap- he had no idea what was coming!

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-28442473441348385482008-12-06T21:33:00.003+09:002008-12-06T21:44:50.185+09:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-37820943960858936342008-12-05T22:50:00.004+09:002008-12-06T21:48:13.236+09:00

This is the official explanation of the September malfunction of the "Large Hadron Collider" at CERN in Geneva. It is obviously a phenomenally complicated bit of equipment- but this 'explanation' reminds me of the typical Star-Trek babble used to explain away flimsy plot resolutions: "Captain i managed to reprogram the fusion generators by re-routing the di-lithium crystal manifold .. blah blah"

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-28262552069038082502008-12-03T22:04:00.002+09:002008-12-03T22:05:54.054+09:00

Did you know that Ryan Seacrest contains many of the elements necessary to facilitate a chemical reaction!?

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-62479659020763494102008-12-03T21:08:00.007+09:002008-12-03T21:50:31.790+09:00

Listening to his music, it's almost as if- could it really be true- there were TWO Stevie Wonders? Has anyone seen the movie "The Prestige"? It's like that.Don't let all the BAD BAD Stevie Wonder songs like these:1. Jungle Fever: "I've got jungle fever. She's got jungle fever. We've got jungle fever" Ebola Epidemic?2. Knocks Me Off My Feet: "I see us in the park, strolling...." for goodness sake

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-73243885134635366812008-12-03T19:41:00.004+09:002008-12-17T20:14:35.622+09:00

My 3 year old can count backwards from 10 - although he thinks that the correct mathematical term for -1 is "blast-off". I'm sure high-level math would benefit from renaming -1 in this fashion. What is the square root of "blast off"? That's irrational!I have been trying to teach my 5 year old daughter basic addition and subtraction- best done using food. I gave her 6 chocolates, and she '

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-80813230014782850742008-12-02T12:44:00.006+09:002008-12-17T20:15:53.694+09:00

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed a weird convergence between Nick Cave and Tom Waits (all Nick cave songs would sound better if sung by Tom Waits) , and between Ron-Hellboy-Perlman and Tom Waits (Ron Perlman looks more like Tom Waits than Tom Waits does). please compare:

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-77064828391260673632008-12-02T12:25:00.003+09:002008-12-02T12:43:47.853+09:00

The New York Times has an interesting article about a giant 1.5 inch diameter amoeba (Gromia sphaerica) that can roll itself along the ocean floor. That's pretty big for a single celled organism! I wonder what the biggest 'single cell' is? I guess for length you'd have to go for a blue whale neuron ... For size? An Ostrich egg perhaps (if you can include gametes). Interesting that whale ova are

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-85850522359886588292008-11-13T09:26:00.005+09:002008-11-13T19:48:07.663+09:00

How many great-great grandparents did you have? If the answer is less than 16 then there must have been some inbreeding. Don't worry- an Icelandic study has found that 3rd cousin marriages are the most fecund! (although the actual reasons behind this are hotly disputed).In any case, we are all inbred- if we weren't we'd all have more ancestors than have ever lived on the planet. I got to

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Another great article by the always-brilliant Carl Zimmer on migrating exons, HERV's, epigenetics - and 'non-coding DNA'.Fascinating that somebody just made up the word 'gene' ... just as somebody else made up (co-opted) the work "quark". I guess it makes sense - these two concepts are so revolutionary that they needed new words created for them. What will be the neologism that will define our

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-83127431752282767502008-11-10T22:07:00.003+09:002008-12-17T20:11:23.047+09:00

Probability waves- interacting and becoming particles, held together by nuclear glue, orbiting electrons, atoms and molecules, DNA unwinding, transcribing, proteins made on a ribosomal anvil, pushing out into the cytoplasm, nerves transmitting, thoughts, moving fingers made of bone, typing sentences made of language. Love, children, happiness, music. All this from a single cell- divided again and

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-70781586814292893742008-10-26T08:34:00.001+09:002008-12-17T20:14:52.162+09:00

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-61292422642399935002008-10-26T08:02:00.006+09:002008-12-17T20:14:01.464+09:00

"Late at night, when deciding not to bother setting up the coffee machine for the next morning, I sometimes think of the man who will wake up as a different person, and wonder, What did he ever do for me? When I get up and there’s no coffee ready, I curse the lazy bastard who shirked his duties the night before."This is a wondefully written, funny and idea-dense article from The Atlantic about "

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-68322212871114649862008-10-23T23:19:00.004+08:002008-12-17T20:16:16.390+09:00

Cutting out the heart of a little fish, and snipping off the leg of a newt! GASP! But don't WORRY kids- thanks to the magic of stem cells it'll all be OK!

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I loved embryology in med school - although it was excruciatingly difficult to get my head around all that folding and stretching. These GREAT animations (1+2) seem even more mysterious now that i have two kids.I've always been fascinated by how (between 2 and 3 weeks after conception) we are but an insignificant sandwich of cells , how the pharyngeal arches of vertebrate fish went into

Shlog Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09638453568902227581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17614267.post-1604166332842895882008-10-23T15:19:00.003+08:002008-12-17T20:16:36.219+09:00

If "The Strokes" were stuck in a time machine, and popped out in 1954 - in Hawaii - this would be the music they'd make. I've only heard snippets but can't get any of these tunes out of my head: true "earworms". The band consists of the Strokes' drummer, his girlfriend, and some other guy.Album is out in a few weeks.

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