I clearly remember one summer night when I was a kid, sitting on the back porch of a farmhouse near Manchester, Texas, eating the hearts out of the yellow watermelons grown in the fields out back, throwing the remnants to the dogs–and spitting seeds. Lots of ’em. Kids today may never have to spit a …
Category: Blog
Only Imperial Stormtroopers can dance with such precision!
Words fail me. From the CBC account of a tribute held in George Lucas’s honor, at which he received the American Film Institute’s lifetime-achievement award: “Also on hand was William Shatner, who performed a reworked version of the Frank Sinatra song My Way to describe Lucas’ career. The Star Trek actor was accompanied by a …
What he said
I love this quote from Howard Lovy’s Nanobot. If I understand correctly,it’s a paraphrase of a statement by Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT: “This is the assumption I wake up with every day — that there is a crucial need for as many people as possible to understand …
More on the simulated brain
Here’s an interesting Q&A about the effort to simulate the human brain using a supercomputer. An in response to my question, ignored in most of the news items I’ve seen, about the possible emergence of intelligence… “Q: How do you relate your research to the field of artificial intelligence? “HM: We are not trying to …
Hypochondriac heaven
Coming soon: a device that lets you check your own vital signs the the press of a button.
English opera with surtitles
Because singing distorts words–stretching out vowels, and, especially in the case of classical singing, de-emphasizing some consonants–it can sometimes be hard to understand what a singer is saying, even if you speak the same language. My wife and I have often commented that even English-language opera should probably have surtitles (which are like movie subtitles, …
Blogging on the go
My newest toy–um, tool–is an Audiovox PPC-6600 “Harrier” PDA/cellphone. It’s not too painful using the virtual, stylus-operated keyboard (I’m not a big fan of thumb-typing, the other alternative). And soon I’ll have a nice little folding Bluetooth keyboard. So I now have, theoretically, at least, blog-anywhere capability. Hence this post, coming to you from the …
When our recent past was the future
It’s always interesting to see what our ancestors thought their future–our present–would be like. I recently came across a fascinating list of predictions for the 20th century made in the Ladies’ Home Journal in 1900. It’s interesting to see how close they came. Consider: Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today. Tough one to …
CBC comments on Canadian science fiction
CBC’s Arts & Entertainment site takes a look at recent Canadian science fiction by Robert Charles Wilson, Robert J. Sawyer and Karl Schroeder, and aside from calling it “sci-fi” throughout, almost manages to avoid being condescending–almost, but not quite. This is the only paragraph I found rather annoying. After describing the situation of Wilson’s new …
Science fiction headline of the day: Mission to build a simulated brain begins
In what may be a first step along the road to copying consciousness described in last week’s science column, IBM and a Swiss university team have set out to create the first computer simulation of the entire human brain, one complete down to the molecular level. Nary a hint or whisper in this news story …
Controlling bacteria without antibiotics
Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher Adel Jabbour has come up with a possible method: interfering with “quorum sensing,” a recently discovered bacterial communication network. We urgently need new ways to control bacteria. Here’s hoping this (and other approaches) pan out. (Via MedGadget.)
A morphine update
Here’s some new research into morphine that ties in with my recent column on the drug’s 200th anniversary. California researchers report that a drug cocktail containing morphine along with small doses of two versions of methadone can significantly reduce both tolerance (the need for greater and greater doses of morphine to achieve the same effect) …
My latest live walk and vlog
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