Juno
It’s really great! Go see it! Here’s why:
- Witty dialog
- Michael Cera
- Good soundtrack
- Ellen Page
- Never overreaches
- Fluid story
It’s a smart, warm, funny, cute movie that will have you smiling as you leave the theater.
Blendor
it’s like hitting a piñata filled with exciting blog postsArchive for December, 2007
Humans making human brains
It sounds like a pretty monumental task:
In a laboratory in Switzerland, a group of neuroscientists is developing a mammalian brain – in silicon. The researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in collaboration with IBM, have just completed the first phase of an ambitious project to reproduce a fully functioning brain on a supercomputer. By strange coincidence, their lab happens to lie on the same shores of Lake Geneva where Mary Shelley dreamt up her creation, Dr Frankenstein.
But it has really cool implications:
The model is there to unify the data and test that it works. A neurobiologist who wants to test a certain theory of how a specific brain function, such as memory retention and retrieval, works can use Blue Brain to do so. The model will be open to the entire world’s research community.
Hot cocoa oatmeal
I was making oatmeal just now, and when I went for the sugar I saw the Ghirardelli cocoa powder sitting there, looking strangely alluring. It just seemed natural to add it to the boiling milk / oat mixture. And guess what? It’s delicious! Here’s how you can make your own (makes one serving):
- Add 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 stick of cinnamon, and 1 cup milk to small pot
- Heat to high on stove until almost boiling
- Stir in 1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder
- Continue stirring and add 1 heaping tablespoon raw sugar (possibly less if you have the sweetened cocoa; I was using the unsweetened variety)
- Boil to desired consistency
- Serve with fresh strawberries and raspberries (and banana if you’ve got it – I didn’t)
Enjoy!
Merry Christmas, everybody!
If you don’t see the jolly addition to my header, do a full refresh (Firefox: Ctrl+Shift+R; Internet Explorer: Ctrl+F5)
Juke Box Hero!
Play Hand Bell Hero
Then read this sad story about Sousaphone Hero. Also, enjoy this demonstration of Cow Bell Hero:
[All via]
Childrens Hospital Boston’s interactive learning site
Childrens Hospital Boston has some really cool stuff on its web page:
Experiment with Childrens virtual neuron to see what conditions are needed to make it fire and what happens when you connect it to other neurons. This interactive feature also provides step-through animations illustrating how electrical currents move through the cell and how it passes signals on to other neurons.
The perfect holiday gift
The Prepaid Healthcare Visa® Gift Card, for that special someone without insurance on your holiday list. They’ll thank you later, when they’re laid-up with that pre-paid morphine drip.
It’s odd that this was considered a joke in Terry Gilliam’s dystopian sci-fi movie Brazil:
MOTHER: By the way, I saw a wonderful idea for Christmas presents at the chemists. Gift tokens. Medical gift tokens.
MRS TERRAIN: Oh, that sounds marvelous.
MOTHER: Yes, they’re good at any doctor’s and at many of the major hospitals — and they’re accepted for gynecological complications including Caesarean section.
Yay! The future is now!
Kneel before Zod!
He may be a cruel dictator, but at least he’s a compassionate cruel dictator:
Universal health care. Even a criminal like myself is shocked that millions are not able to get health insurance and cannot pay for basic surgery. Who are these power brokers that allow the pigpen to become wormy and filthy? I demand your very lives, but I am not such an imbecile as to institutionalize suffering and poverty. You have my assurance that this shall change swiftly.
Getting Gmail to work with Google apps for your domain
I’m not going to rehash tutorials already available. I’m going to explain the somewhat convoluted process I just underwent to get email working for my company after we switched from our ISP to Gmail (more specifically, Gmail for Google Apps – they’re slightly different). Read the rest of this entry »