Random Thoughts

"Can neuroscience provide evidence for a liberal and conservative thinking style? It may seem like a stretch to say that one could predict whether you lean left or right by looking at a brain scan—no questions asked, no opinions voiced—purely based on your neuroanatomy. However, this might not be too far from reality—at least insofar as predicting thinking style, which has been shown to be somewhat distinct based on party association. Does brain structure determine your beliefs, or do your beliefs change your brain structure? What about those who switch parties at some point?…

It slips from my fingers Cliched grains of sand. I fill my days with work Because it slips, more each Passing day...the slips Growing faster, exponentially, Until I feel that I am more Bound than Sisyphus ever was. Or more, that I am as Nataraja At the destruction of the cosmos. Untethered, barely holding on, Balancing the worlds in hands No longer large enough to contain them And yet like Whitman, containing multitudes. But are they multitudes bursting forth, The form and content of creation Or are they the beginning of an end I only…

A short entry for today.  Blog material has cycles.  For this blog, I write 4 types of items:   1) Framing pieces (info about satellite work in general)   2) What I have learned (in the process of building this specific satellite)   3) Progress reports (photos and details)   4) Fluff (neat stuff that partially relates to this work). In my other column, I have a wider net and tend to write about a variety of topics.  That work still falls into the top two categories.  Often, the writing is based on something I either learned that day…

Dan Olmsted is pissed at Autism Speaks and wants them to shut up and go away, all because of Dr. Dawson's coverage of the IOM report this past week. Olmsted writes, proving there is no evidence he will consider that will allow him to reconsider his position: "vaccines do cause autism. Yes, the MMR causes autism. Yes, vaccine mercury causes autism. Yes, multiple vaccines too soon and too close together cause autism. They are the main driver of the autism epidemic." And your evidence, sir, that counters yet another IOM report showing they do not? Anecdotes are not evidence. His second…

I've seen cephalopods pop up in a few video games here and there, but The Game Bakers' Squids is the first one that looks both adorable and fun enough that I want to play it. (Which is a big deal, for me--I don't make time to play video/computer games the way I used to. Though, there was that time a few months ago when we had some friends over and played through the original 16-color version of Monkey Island . . . ) Anatomically, I'm impressed. Although the Squids only have four appendages, two of these are extremely stretchable (game play involves snapping your squids…

If you're one of those cultural mullahs who thinks smoking causes lung cancer - even a cigar or a pipe - you can stop reading.  This article is not for you.   I have never smoked a cigarette in my life but gradual efforts by the modern temperance movement to ban smoking everywhere(1) should be resisted by anyone claiming they care about independence, tolerance and diversity.(2) Cigars and pipes are the perfect way to clench your fist in indignant rage at yet another progressive inroad into our personal lives(3).   If your significant other is on the fence regarding your new…

This is one time you don't want to be in the fast lane... xkcd

In a sign that media people don't always understand media - especially social media - The Cool Blue Company LLC is proud to announce the world's first print magazine dedicated to social media called The Social Media Monthly. Yes, a print magazine about Facebook. Artist Yiying Lu, famous to Twitter users because they see her drawings of the "Fail Whale" when it crashes, graces the cover.  The cover also has a bonus removable wall graphic, also designed by Lu. Really, this is the shortest blog post I have ever written because I am basically speechless that a venture capitalist funded this…

    My right middle finger clicks the button to wake my mind. Greensboro (NC), 4:30 AM, Sunday morning, Holiday Inn balcony. Complimentary Styrofoam cup of warm coffee and a cigarette disguised as a Canadian cigar.      Aware of the last of the garbage trucks slinking through humid morning fog with heads down, two stories below past the vague strip of sickly pine trees that would otherwise hide this six-story warehouse of sleepers from the reality of dingy urban sprawl ... if I wasn’t looking. The trucks fill up with the leftovers, excesses and…

As of today, I am one year on Science2.0. A year ago, I wrote “Welcome to my first blog entry ever!”; since then, I have written almost 120 articles, which made me about a dollar each – a great way to stay poor. Traffic goes up surprisingly linearly, every month by about 3700 heads – no exponential take-off, no indication of saturation yet either: Kilo Readers per month: The two peaks are due to Japanese dying and people mistaking me for a tree lover and other misunderstandings. I got my cyber stalker already, inundating my email, making her kids read my blog, giving her pets my name, and…