Imaginary Karma

The Thai are Harsh...

2007-08-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! News

We knew that, after that whole incident with caning the American, and I think they may apply the death penalty a little loosely, but this...? Beyond the pale!

Really Lapped

2007-07-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070711/od_afp/entertainmentbritain_070711230038

So the guitarist from Queen has managed to finish his PhD in physics before I did. I feel vaguely shamed...and vaguely like I'm in cool company.

Amazon Unbox

2007-06-29T17:46:00.001-07:00

I tried out Amazon Unbox for the first time tonight/yesterday--the ambiguity will be explained later. For those who haven't noticed it before, Amazon Unbox gives you video downloads with three choices--download to a computer, a portable media player, or a TiVo. The TiVo thing is what caught my attention. It allows me to easily watch from my TV which I just prefer.

Yesterday I paid 4 bucks for a rental of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Downloading takes forever. I can certainly see myself emailing Gwen in the morning and say "hey, do you want to watch suchandsuch tonight", but I doubt it'd be useful for spur-of-the-moment things. Still, the video quality was excellent and the entire process was seamless.

The selection wasn't up to Netflix' quality, most likely because I don't think every studio is unboard. For TV series, the selection isn't stellar, but it has Voltron, which is a pleasant surprise. I've managed to find enough that I keep busy through a long weekend. Woe to anime fans--you get three choices of Gundam and a lot stuff I haven't heard of.

Overall? It's a nice option, and one I've used and will probably use again.

Defending a Big Tall Athlete

2007-06-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Allow me to speak up for Yao Ming. Even though a headline on Yahoo! said he's marrying his "teenage sweetheart", it's not what it sounds.

They met when they were teenagers.

Looking for My Muse

2007-06-17T21:16:00.001-07:00

Honest, I've just had a case of writer's block.

So, what's new around here.

Aw, very nice. So...hmmm....awkward silence...hmmm...

Best Article Ever

2007-04-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html

So it might not be the best article ever. However, it does have the phrase "you get a nice curve with a big hump in the middle! And we all know what humps mean! Humps mean local maxima! Or camels. But here they mean local maxima!"

And that is good.

Three Goats

2007-04-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you who didn't know, the Wikipedia article on The Three Billy Goats Gruff has a spoiler warning about the battle between the third goat and the troll...

300

2007-03-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

Tonight Gwen and I went to see 300.

Honestly, all of the reviews I read of it were pretty irrelevant. Think Braveheart with Greek guys. Don't wonder that why it doesn't dwell on the horror of war, we have other movies for that. Don't think it's homophobic, that's just one insult (about a guy with a fricken' harem of women, no less). Just go if you want to see a stylized action movie. If you don't like violence and talk of honor, don't go.

Best Case Mod Ever

2007-03-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070308/ap_on_fe_st/beer_tossing_fridge

But can it handle bottles?

Great Moments for a Grad Student

2007-02-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

My advisor realized the other day that I had a faster desktop in my office than he did...

Infinity on 30 Credits a Day

2007-02-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.infinityon30credits.net/

From the author of Irregular Webcomic, comes something new!

Signs You've Been Programming Too Much

2007-02-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

If you're editing some Matlab code in notepad and your brain does syntax highlighting for you...

Refscan

2007-02-05T21:52:00.000-08:00

For the curious, I am now a contributor at an MRI blog, Reference Scan.

QotF, January 31st, 2007

2007-02-01T13:02:00.000-08:00

"So, who thought having a grad student guard the food was a good idea?"

Signs of the Times

2007-01-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

On tonight's new episode of Veronica Mars, our heroine investigates the theft of lab rats. Among other qualities, they are genetically altered to "allow us to investigate the breakdown of cholesterol at the cellular level".

My thought: "but molecular imaging is the big thing now..."

If you understand, my pity to you.

But what if they used genetically engineered dodos?

2007-01-22T07:22:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

Everything old is new again.

Pop Quiz

2007-01-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

If you are LaTourneau University, do you really think that your teacher certification program is the best one to advertise?

New Spam!

2007-01-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

I just got a new spam offering me an iPhone. Really, I should be surprised it took this long for the spammers to start those...

Quote of the Day

2007-01-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

"It's not never day I get a death threat from a Mexican lawyer..."

More Wikipedia Fun

2007-01-11T07:19:00.000-08:00

Here are some real articles in Wikipedia:

"Hallucinogenic effects of banana peels"

The Wikipedia article on banana features a video of someone polishing a shoe with a banana.

Fun with the FDA

2007-01-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

Due to a mishap, my Christmas stocking was left behind this year. My mom mailed its contents to me--filled with chocolate.

And some gum, which is clearly labeled as "Not a low-calorie food."

It has 5 calories per piece. Someone at the FDA is just plain weird...

Comic Irony

2006-12-30T21:21:00.000-08:00

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2005/06/23/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-history/

So, amusingly enough, it seems like the majority of these urban legends about comic books are *true*...

A Christmas Miracle

2006-12-21T21:33:00.000-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061220/sc_nm/britain_dragons_dc

I feel obliged to call attention to virgin births around Christmas :-)

Perhaps there will soon be salvation for the reptiles as well?

All I want for Christmas...

2006-12-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

...is to hear Meatloaf singing a rock opera version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".

Just please, keep him away from "Little Drummer Boy".

Great Lines from Office Newsletters

2006-11-28T07:06:00.000-08:00

In announcing the reorganization of the providers of counseling services, the letter goes on to say that "We know that changes can bring on stress...We are extending our hours..."

Talk about self-referrals...

Scary Phrases

2006-11-25T21:55:00.000-08:00

From mom: "No, we like Gwen. It's you we'll make fun of."

Later, that evening, on the phone with Gwen: "Why do you think we'd ever gang up on you?"

-----------------------------

On the bright side, if they gang up on me, at least they'll be bonding...

Lend a Hand

2006-11-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

www.texasdear.org

Texas has started a (poorly publicized) organ donor registry. Go there, sign up, and save a life.

The Newest Fantasy Sport

2006-11-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061111/bs_nm/column_pluggedin_fantasysoap_dc

People gain points based which soap opera cliches their chosen cast members participate in.

This has led me to believe that there is a 1-1 mapping between fantasy sports games and drinking games.

I want a spin-off!

2006-11-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

Am I the only person who thinks that the cop on the last couple of episodes of House should get his own show?

For Discussion

2006-10-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061026/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_muslims

Short version: a Muslim cleric declared that women who don't wear veils invite rape. I seem to recall similar comments being made in the US during my childhood about women who wear short skirts.

Abuse of Power

2006-10-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

So, as a the guy charged with running the student meeting today, I got to pick the pizza toppings.

Naturally, I abused my power by ordering my personal favorite, sausage/onion/jalepeno.

Does it count as an abuse if people like the choice you made?

I dunno.

A Science Article I Won't Mock

2006-10-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061009/ap_on_he_me/healthbeat_mris___pacemakers

As the article points out, the inability to give MR scans to patients with pacemakers is a non-trivial problem--MR provides a lot of information that is not easily obtained otherwise.

This is cool.

The article does describe a few different approaches. One is covering the patient with a blanket that shields the pacemaker from rf interference. Presumably, given both the technology and the company, this is similar in nature to the building of a stealth airplane. Again, making some assumptions, it's likely that the device will not be suitable for scanning near the pacemaker--if you block out the rf, you can't get an image in that area.

The Medtronics approach relies on making a better pacemaker. This is probably the best long term solution--although we have to keep in mind that with MR scanners reaching higher and higher fields, and with gradient technology improving, there will always be limits to what you can do. But this could be a breakthrough.

The third method is not well described. It repeatedly uses words like "dose" that don't make a lot of sense in an MR context. My best interpretation is that, roughly speaking, the researchers looked at which pacemakers could be scanned by using low flip-angle scans.

Flip angle is a parameter in MR that's not talked about much in popular news, on the basis that it's not easily explained. Roughly speaking, one aspect of this is that you can reduce the flip angle to reduce the heat deposited in the body (this is actually a big deal, but that's another post). Naturally, this comes at a cost, the most obvious of which is that the images have lower signal--that is, they look grainer.

That said, if in even a few cases it's possible to image someone with a pacemaker without special equipment, that's cool. Risky, but with a huge payoff...

Coming Soon: Posts

2006-10-03T17:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know I've been slacking off lately.

More precisely, I've been slacking off when it comes to blogging.

The rest of my life has been a bit more exciting.

State Employee Appreciation Week

2006-09-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

The tech support guys have decided that imaging physics employees can't read anything from blogger, blogspot, or whatever at work.

This does kill my theory that they only block sites they don't go to.

I'd like to express my support for the Dartmouth physics blog right now, on the basis that being based off of the Dartmouth.edu domain, they're clearly kosher. Guys, you have to keep me intertained all day. Well, you and Eugene Volokh.

Speaking too soon

2006-09-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, I remarked that I was glad to actually have gotten sick in the middle of the week.

Given the title of this post, one might surmise that I spent much of the weekend unconscious. This is true. However, this was also the weekend my parents were visiting.

I have survived.

Only to come to class today and have the professor declare that he finally figured out what to do for our test while watching Kill Bill. Both parts.

Again, I spoke too soon.

This leaves me in an awkward situation. I can't just give up on things in hopes that the cosmic forces of irony will rescue me from having spoken too soon, because that would be tempting Murphy, and I am not that crazy.

Hmmm...

Stereotypes

2006-09-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

I just saw that ad for the reissue of the Star Wars DVD.

These ads emphasize the cultural resonance that the movies have and feature a variety of individuals talking about parts of the movie they liked.

Naturally, the generic adolescent male has nothing more to say than "Darth Vader's cool".

Really, does every teenage male have to be enamored with antiheroes?

Wow...

2006-09-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight's House actually mentioned chimeras, one of the more bizarre, yet cool, areas of human biology:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_%28genetics%29

In the real world they don't cause you to see aliens, but they can make you a hermaphrodite, which is about as interesting.

Grandmother Doesn't Care

2006-09-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

I turned in my written thesis today; I ordered some extra copies for various ancestors.

It's not like grandmother will understand it, but, oddly enough, that's the absolute least important thing about this anyway.

A Great Loss

2006-09-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Steve Irwin is dead.

The man who didn't fear crocs or sharks or snakes was done in by a gentle creature of the sea.

A gentle creature of the sea with a sword on its rear, but still gentle.

A moment of silence, I think.

Great Moments in Professorial Honesty

2006-08-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Student: "So I can buy the 5th edition for $25, or the 6th for $115..."
Teacher: "How much do you think statistics have changed in 5 years?"

Paying More Attention to Narcissists

2006-08-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to checking out the "Fictional Narcissists" category.

Narcissus is not in the category.

More Things Unheard Of

2006-08-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

So, for reasons unknown, I have received an issue of an Egyptian imaging journal.

Whether or not this is stranger than the fact that the amount I pay for parking has decreased, I know not.

More Things Unheard Of

2006-08-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

So, for reasons unknown, I have received an issue of an Egyptian imaging journal.

Whether or not this is stranger than the fact that the amount I pay for parking has decreased, I know not.

Lame Spam

2006-08-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

Surely the spammers have better things to do with their time than send out offers of free Taco Bell food?

Who precisely will be tempted by that one?

Eh?

2006-08-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

Again, if you're making a prank phone call, why do you let it go to voicemail?

I don't get it.

Back to Work

2006-08-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

I have had a wonderful weekend, during which I did nothing productive. It was enjoyable.

I had, for example, forgotten that I enjoyed playing video games. I spent a few hours in front of the TV defeating bad guys and enjoying the perverse pleasure of summoning Bambi to help me blow up evil wizards (yes, in Kingdom Hearts you get summon Bambi to help you in combat--and he rewards you for killing monsters with items!)

I also made an excursion to a distant Half-Price Books, during which I added a couple of kilopages to my reading list (and picked up a couple of movies, too).

And I engaged in social activities almost every day for the past week.

And tomorrow is Monday. Darn.

More from Wikipedia

2006-08-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia has a "Fictional Narcissists" category.

Why?

Snakes on a Plane

2006-08-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

I saw this movie tonight.

It was, to put it succintly, everything you had hoped a movie titled "Snakes on a Plane" could be.

I can describe the movie in no less terms than "evolution in action". For, you see, the movie takes every B-movie cliche, and uses them. It takes everything that directors have learned from years of creating low-budget movies, and distills them into a more perfect form. This "Essence of Cheese" is then grown with big budget flash and style.

I believe that here and now, we have witnessed the apex of silly movies. I doubt that I will not see another movie like this in all of my days.

Accession

2006-08-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

Dustin Ragan, Master of Science

Enough is said

Quotes from Wikipedia

2006-08-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

There are no known instances of someone dropping a gorilla into a body of water to prove or disprove the swimming gorilla hypothesis.

The VAB's interior volume is so vast that it has its own weather system—"NASA employees report that rain clouds form below the ceiling on very humid days"

Files of the Weird

2006-08-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

I'm trying a new brand of noodle box today for lunch.

Included: a spork, which requires assembly.

It Hurts, It Hurts...

2006-08-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

So I spent the weekend in less than peak condition (i.e., unable to eat or drink) for reasons uknown.

I decided that, having gone through two days of caffeine withdrawal already, I would abstain for a little longer, in order to make optimal usage of java on Friday.

I'm REALLY, REALLY glad that I don't have lot to do today, because I'm not fully functional...

Canadian Terrorists

2006-08-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

So apparently our neighbors to the north have their own terrorists now.

Not much is known about them, however they refer to themselves as "Al-Berta", which is Arabic for "The Moose". They are ultimately more doomed than other terrorist groups, because they don't seem to grasp what terrorism is all about.

You see, being from Canada, they are too polite. They ask the security officers "May I carry this weapon of mass destruction on the plane?".

This is not as bad as the fact that they consider weapons of mass destruction to be DVD box sets of American TV shows.

9 Days

2006-08-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

I defend in 9 days.

I have turned in a revised thesis. I have a few minor corrections to my presentation, mostly consisting of adding an outline.

Yeah...this is gonna be thrilling...

Any suggestions on how to spend this week of freedom?

Guided Tour of the Blogroll

2006-08-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

My blogroll, which exists in more or less the order I found out about the blogs in:

Gibbie's Bioscience World
My friend Rob's blog, a mixture of political comments, biology, and cycling.

City of Brass
Haibane.info
These are Aziz's two blogs. One deals with Islamic issues, the other deals with the ars geeky.

Dartmouth Physics Blog
This is the blog my friend Tim from undergrad posts to. It has one of the most random selections of topics around.

The Palmer Perspective
This is the blog of one of the ministers at my church. As you may guess, he talks about religion every once in a while.

Sydney's Soccerball
This blog does not strictly have the right to be in the "friends" section of the blogroll, given that it's actually the blog of my friend's dog, and I haven't met the dog yet. But I'm giving it a dispensation.

The Volokh Conspiracy
Orin Kerr.com
The only two political blogs that I read these days.

Lifehacker
This makes your life just a little easier...

The Wandering Heretic
The Internet Monk
Two blogs on religion that don't make me want to throw objects. It's a high complement, honest. That may be a sign I'm falling into a bubble, though...

Photon Torpedoes
Comic book news and gossip. Because sometimes you have to be geeky vicariously.

Pun Intended

2006-08-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

Irony is when you clumsily induce wrinkles by knocking your suit onto the floor when you are putting the your new ironing board in the closet.

Tax-Free Weekend

2006-08-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend, residents of the state of Texas did not have to pay sales taxes on their purchases.

I decided that I wanted to save a few bucks. I spent an additional 25 minutes in line to save $10. I suppose that, when you consider my effective hourly wage, I came out ahead compared to working. It just doesn't feel that way.

In any event, I have further increased the amount of gray and black in my wardrobe, progressing further along the path to fuddy-duddy-dum.

Rain

2006-08-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/rain_music.html

This is one of my favorite poems from high school; the last stanza is one of my favorite images of all time.

I just got back from reading over my thesis--after so many revisions, I needed to restore an awareness of what was in it--and I could only find empty space on the top floor, near the auditoriums. I sat by a window and somewhere in the middle of the second chapter, it started to rain.

I quit paying attention to my thesis, for a few minutes. I haven't sat and watched and listened to the rain in far too long: another joy offered up to the demons of the laboratory.

For that matter, I need to spend more of my life dancing with a beautiful woman in the rain, drinking a glass of wine...

Guilt lasts a moment; regret, forever

2006-08-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060801_work_regret.html

Again, science has shown something that many people seem to notice on their own...eventually.

Thus says the grad student, who is on the wrong side of the guilt/work equation...

For the benefit of one reader

2006-07-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

I saw a movie tonight.

There is a new set of Fantanas. Given a certain person's recently found happiness, and given that improved perkiness of the spokeswomen, I think a certain deal regarding how we'd split up the Fantanas when we took over the world needs to be renegotiated...

Science Against the Public Interest

2006-07-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060726/us_nm/watermelon_dc

I don't care if it is more nutritious, watermelon shouldn't be served warm.

Yankees. Harumph. What do they know.

Stupid Visual Physics Puns

2006-07-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2006/07/bra-cat.html

Warning: following this link will be either painful or confusing, depending on how much quantum mechanics you've taken.

Shades of Eden

2006-07-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060721_snake_primate.html

According to a biologist, early human development was shaped by our struggles against snakes.

This is a cool idea. It makes sense, and it lets you put an interesting spin on a famous story from Genesis 3 (in accord with my noted habit for interpreting the Bible in a way most guaranteed to drive the religious right bonkers).

The Pre-Coffee Haze

2006-07-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

I'm here, at work, sitting at my computer. In every thesis, there is one faculty member who makes substantial demands that will be a pain in the rear to handle.

I have mine. Lsat night, I had a plan for handling all of his demands, only some of which involved telling him to go jump in a lake. But that's gone. All I have are some scattered notes that involve "finite sampling" and "smoothly varying"--words that apply to my entire thesis.

It's gonna be a long day...

Do NOT Say This

2006-07-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

All I'm going to say is that the last thing a secretary should EVER, EVER say to a grad student who has spent two weeks trying to schedule his defense is "I don't know if he wants to stay until 5 on a Friday."

He won't care. He really, really, won't care.

Um, yeah, that's odd...Again

2006-07-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

I just paid cash for a slice of pizza at the cafeteria. Why, oh why, would the cashier pre-wrinkle the virgin $5 bills?

I just don't get it...

Products with No Audience

2006-07-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6091872.html?part6091872subj=news

I find it hard to believe that anyone who knows enough about computers to use Linux wouldn't refuse to install that awful horrible Lotus Notes...

Some Cool Science

2006-07-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/ap_060705_coma.html

A man recovered from a coma after his brain rewired itself. From the description in the article, it sounds like they tracked the neuronal connections with DTI--Diffusion Tensor Imaging. It's one of the hot research areas in MR right now; it acquires multiple images and causes them to have contrast that depends on the rate of diffusion in a specific direction. By doing some trickery, it can tell that direction of diffusion in the image.

Annals of Boring Science

2006-07-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060706/hl_nm/bullied_kids_dc

A study has shown that children who were bullied showed more psychological problems than those who weren't. This same study showed that bullies were less considerate of other children's feelings.

Wow.

Annals of Bad Science, Again

2006-06-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060629_money_happiness.html

A study found that men with incomes about $100,000/year spend less time watching TV than men with incomes below $20,000. They conclude that money does not cause happiness.

While it is an old saw that correlation is not causation, it's more interesting to catch cases where your independent and dependent variables are reversed. Isn't it far more reasonable to conclude that a higher incomes requires that you give up some of your leisure time? Given that this is an obvious fact?

A Wonderous Lightness of Being

2006-06-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

I have given drafts of the thesis to my committee members.

I feel pretty durn good, I gotta say.

Thank You, Bad Science

2006-06-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060626/ap_on_he_me/sexual_orientation

So, assuming that the article is accurate (which may not be the case), a study found that men with multiple older biological brothers were more likely to be homosexual. They also found that this did not apply to men with multiple older stepbrothers.

They then conclude that the effect must be biological, because the environment was the same.

Did they really just assume that families that have undergone divorce and remarriage are the same environment as families that stayed intact? (Yes, there are some divorces and remarriages that give multiple biological brothers, but that's going to be a minority.)

Samurai Physics

2006-06-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2006/6/15/4336

This is just geeky cool fun.

I Feel Special and Happy!

2006-06-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

My advisor just walked from his office (admittedly, it's no ownly about 5 feet from mine) and said that I did a good job on something.

I'm dancing for joy here folks.

2 Wrong 4 Words

2006-06-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/18/usb-teddy-bear-holds-data-scares-children/

Just click the link. Unless you have kids in the room.

Examples of Great Timing

2006-06-20T07:59:00.000-07:00

This week I am giving my thesis to my committee. What do you think I'm going to be doing today?

If you guessed moving into an office with less storage space and a smaller desk, you're right.

Except that I'm not, because someone's in the office.

I can only hope that I can bribe the informatics people into dropping my computer when they are moving it.

Huh? Revisited

2006-06-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

I just turned it on Cartoon Network.

They had Rudolph and Goku teamed up in a claymation Christmas special. Rudolph was shooting lasers out of his nose. I'm scared for life.

Did I Need to Know This?

2006-06-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number

This article actually mentions incest among bees as ruining a mathematical proof.

No fair asking me if you needed to know this.

Set Your iPods

2006-06-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

If you have that song from The Matrix: Revolutions that plays when Neo fights Agent Smith at the end, turn it on.

It's time to go meet with the committee member has told me that he won't be at my defense :-)

This Site Rocks!

2006-06-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

www.cookingforengineers.com

It has, bar none, the absolute best format for recipies I have ever seen. In addition, today the featured gadget article is about the accuracy and precision of measuring cups and scales. It discusses linearity of springs.

What more could a geek want, except for a beautiful woman with an Italian accent to cook for?

(Found off of Lifehacker)

Huh?

2006-06-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

So Steve Colbert just informed me that the Mavericks are in the finals.

This contradicts everything I've learned watching the sports scores as a kid. The Mavs...whoa.

Rebel Son

2006-06-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

Right now, I'm going up against everything that my mom taught me.

I just threw away packing boxes. My entire childhood, I was taught to save my boxes.

And I broke free. I threw away the pyramid of packages that was taking up half of my living room. I have SPAAAACEEE!!!

Thus Is Life

2006-06-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the ballet. Previously I would have taken off my suit and let Spartacus out to play. That won't happen again.

Somewhere midway through the second act it hit me why he had refused to leave his hammock the last couple of days--he couldn't. He might have been like that, unable to get to food or water, for days before I found him collapsed. I fed him treats, but that's not enough. It explains why he had lost so much weight. I should have noticed, not that that would have changed the ending.

I know I did the right thing, but I don't like it. I still feel like I've betrayed my friend.

I have a bottle of wine in my fridge. Years of country music have taught me that there is nothing I need at the bottom of it, but there is most certainly something useful.

Gotterratarung

2006-06-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

I came home this morning to a very still, very quiet rat. I think he hurt is leg and couldn't get to food all day. I could do some for him, but I'm worried.

I very much think I will have an empty apartment soon. It's going to suck. Every aftertoon for the last few years he's been there, playing at my feet, chewing up my stuff, and being my pet. I don't know how, but somehow I think he knew when I was having a bad day. I remember him curling up by my face when I was crying after Anne left me, and I remember him just sitting on my lap when dad went to Iraq. Today he spent a long time sitting on my lap, trying to get the strength to eat a raisin. He finally did. He got water too. I've rearranged his cage, so that he can get to everything. Maybe he'll recover.

But I think that Spartacus will be in a better place soon.

Happy Grad Student

2006-05-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

So there are few moments happier in a grad student's term of sorrow than when he can ask the question "is .0132 equal, statistically speaking, to .0132"?

Doncha wish your data was hot like mine, doncha?

Practical, Real Life Questions

2006-05-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

If a black and a white cat cross your path, going in opposite directions, what does that mean for your luck life?

Moments of Drama

2006-05-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

So this is one of the most nerve-wracking times of the years for me.

The new TV schedules are coming out.

So far:

How I Met Your Mother has been renewed. It's my current favorite show, and far ahead of that other show about a love-lorn twentysomething (What About Brian), on the basis of the fact that you actually like Ted. Brian, and the rest of his castmates, are a bunch of self-obsessed whiners.

Scrubs is yet again relegated to mis-season replacement. On the bright side, NBC's lineup isn't stellar, so one of those lesser shows will bite it soon enough...mwahahaha...

Reportedly, Veronica Mars is going to be coming back. Hopefully next season will have a lower bodycount. The first season began with Veronica a social outcast mourning the murder of her best friend and pondering the mystery of who raped her. And the show got darker the next year. Give me a break, fellas.

--------------------------------------

Oh, and the award for lamest "24" ripoff goes to:

*drumroll*

"The Big Day", which chronicles the 24 hours before a wedding.

Sad, Lonely Work

2006-05-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

I'm packing my bookshelves today.

It's not a pleasant task, nor a fun one. But the thing is...if I put all of my books in one...er...three boxes, someone's getting a hernia (and probably before the futon is moved). So I have to drag it out by spreading the on the bottoms of all of the boxes.

At least DVD boxes make good filler.

We don't serve your kind here

2006-05-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

"We don't serve your kind here."
"Blimey! Why? Is it me peg leg?"
"No. We are ninjas. We don't serve pirates."

http://www.ninjanewyork.com/

Manifesto

2006-05-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

To Everyone:

Just because I don't bring a date to an event, that does not mean I am gay.

To the ladies:

Please, do not introduce me as your friend who is "funny, but shy". Don't be surprised if I can make you laugh, or can hold up a conversation.

To the guys:

Please, do not get upset with your girlfriend because she spends a few minutes noticing I'm alive before she starts making out with you in a public venue, especially if she's trying to introduce me to someone who's not her. You don't look like a nice person.

To everyone:

I'm okay with who I am. I'm not broken. I'm okay with waking up without a hungover stranger in my bed. I'm just me. I don't know exactly where I fit in, but I fit in somewhere, and I'll find that place, someday.

You can do magic...

2006-05-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

Why is David Blain called a "magician"?

I mean, escaping from a sphere of water is magic trick. Not escaping is...well...not.

Cultural Losses

2006-04-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

Driving to visit the folks in Corpus this morning, I listened to a song from the early 80s.

The omnipresence of cell phones as resulted in certain losses. For example, this great lyrics from the song "You Win Again" no longer have the same significance:

"I'm standing here freezing at a phone booth baby,
In the middle of God knows where
I got one quarter left, your machine picks up
But baby, I know you're there.
And I just start crying cause it makes no sense
To waste these words and twenty-five cents."

It just doesn't have the same meaning. I suppose you could rewrite in terms of wasting these "anytime minutes", but it lacks something. That song couldn't be written today, not as it is. The opening line is all about struggling and searching for some desperate means to contact the one you love. We don't have an analogue to standing in a gas station in the freezing cold--cell phones work in many forms of shelter.

Oh well.

Women and Computers

2006-04-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

From our ever-interesting office conversations:

*Word is your woman. You don't understand her, she doesn't do what you want, but you know how to make it work.

*LaTeX is like an S&M relationship: it's painful, but if you're with her, that must be what you want.

*WordPerfect is the girl you let get away: you have fond memories of her that you don't want to let go, and everyone once in a while you start to realize that she wasn't as perfect as she seemed, but you don't care.

*Notepad is just a quick fling--all physical, no style.

-------------------------------

And now, I'm going to go wash my head out.

Strange Attractors

2006-04-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

I've recently noticed that I tend to be drawn to women who are interested in infectious disease.

On the bright side, at ISMRM this year we have several sessions on the role of MR in infectious disease. Hmmm...

Prepacking

2006-04-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

So I'm sorting through the boxes of stuff in my apartment that need to be emptied so that I can put stuff in them.

So far, I've found:
*$10.25
*A sandwich maker
*A sign saying "Welcome to the home of Bobo and the Cameraman"
*A six year old math test
*The manual to a telephone that was lost in an explosion.

One Last Easter Post

2006-04-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

In the parable of the midow's mite, Jesus observes that the two pennies that she gives is a greater offering that ostentatious alms of the wealthy.

Part of the gift is the sacrifice you make to give it. For men, money, time, and the familiar suffice.

But, if as we believe, God has limits, what gift may he give?

His dignity. The gospel story is that he, who is magnified, lauded, and praised every Sunday morning, decided to be born as a bastard, live as a wanderer, be forsaken by his family, and die in the most humiliating way possible.

It was God's mite.

The Theology of Harry S. Truman

2006-04-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

Today is Good Friday, the day when we observe the crucifixion. Everyone who has ever shown up to Sunday School knows that it has something to do with Jesus dying to attone for the sins of men, but really, it doesn't make a lot of metaphysical sense.

We believe that everyone is responsible for his own sins, how then can someone die for us? Poetry aside, justice isn't blind.

I have, in years of struggle, found one answer that I can grasp. I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying it makes sense. Reformed churches emphasis that "Jesus is Lord". I don't agree with everything they claim follows from that, but I agree with that. It's not Lord in some wishy-washy "Lord of your heart" sense, it's Lord. The Big Kahuna. Boss. King. The Really Big Lebowski. El Jefe. The Man. It's his show.

And, as has been said many times, "The Buck Stops Here". The crucifixion is God claiming responsability for and paying the price for our mistakes. This also helps me to understand natural catastrophes. If you can ask me how a just God can create such a vicious world, with earthquakes and hurricanes and wildfares, I can only respond that he has taken responsability. If you ask me how he can permit all manner of evil from man unto man, he has taken responsability.

Not that the evil acts are in alignment with the will of God, that he might be morally culpable, but that this is his world, under his authority. And as it is under his authority, he may take responability for its errors, and pay the price we cannot afford.

We Never Got It

2006-04-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

I'm Church of Christ, a denomination that began with a few people trying to get back to Christianity like it was in the first century. It was a noble goal, I suppose, trying to return to paradise and correct every misstep we've made as a community in 2000 years. It was doomed, though, because they didn't know what they were doing back then either.

When you look back at the entire history of Judeochristianity, we never have really "gotten it". Let's not get into that whole Eden thing. Abraham didn't know what was going on. Moses was in denial half the time. The prophets spent all of their time trying to correct Israel's mistakes. Paul's letters are by and large admonishments. Heck, Jesus doesn't have a lot of praise for his apostles most of the time (even the golden boys, Peter and John).

We've never gotten it. We keep on erring, over and over, as individuals and as groups. All we were ever asked to do was to "love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with God" (Micah 6:8), and it is an interesting question which of those we've failed most at. We don't act right. We don't believe right. And that doesn't matter.

It's not about law, that was only the Cliff Notes. (Galations. I might as well just cite the entire book.)Sins of action, sins of omission, and sins of doubt are forgiven. We are free of our pasts. It is the Easter season. For God has shown mercy. Because he has dealt with us with an honest voice. He came and walked humbly with us.

Babyshower, Dustin-style

2006-04-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

So I arranged the office babyshower for Blake today.

The problem is, it was a party thrown by a bunch of nerds.

At one point I proposed that someone invite wormhole diapers. Instead of an absorbant layer, there's a wormhole layer that takes refuse and deposits it into an alternate dimension.

Imaginary Karma

The Thai are Harsh...

Really Lapped

Amazon Unbox

Defending a Big Tall Athlete

Looking for My Muse

Best Article Ever

Three Goats

300

Best Case Mod Ever

Great Moments for a Grad Student

Infinity on 30 Credits a Day

Signs You've Been Programming Too Much

Refscan

QotF, January 31st, 2007

Signs of the Times

But what if they used genetically engineered dodos?

Pop Quiz

New Spam!

Quote of the Day

More Wikipedia Fun

Fun with the FDA

Comic Irony

A Christmas Miracle

All I want for Christmas...

Great Lines from Office Newsletters

Scary Phrases

Lend a Hand

The Newest Fantasy Sport

I want a spin-off!

For Discussion

Abuse of Power

A Science Article I Won't Mock

Coming Soon: Posts

More Wikipedia Articles

State Employee Appreciation Week

Speaking too soon

Stereotypes

Wow...

Grandmother Doesn't Care

A Great Loss

Great Moments in Professorial Honesty

Paying More Attention to Narcissists

More Things Unheard Of

More Things Unheard Of

Lame Spam

Eh?

Back to Work

More from Wikipedia

Snakes on a Plane

Accession

Quotes from Wikipedia

Files of the Weird

It Hurts, It Hurts...

Canadian Terrorists

9 Days

Guided Tour of the Blogroll

Pun Intended

Tax-Free Weekend

Rain

Guilt lasts a moment; regret, forever

For the benefit of one reader

Science Against the Public Interest

Stupid Visual Physics Puns

Shades of Eden

The Pre-Coffee Haze

Do NOT Say This

Um, yeah, that's odd...Again

Products with No Audience

Some Cool Science

Annals of Boring Science

Annals of Bad Science, Again

A Wonderous Lightness of Being

Thank You, Bad Science

Samurai Physics

I Feel Special and Happy!

2 Wrong 4 Words

Examples of Great Timing

Huh? Revisited

Did I Need to Know This?