Rants, Mumblings and Insane Blather

BYBS: Viral Gene Therapy

2009-10-12T06:37:00.000-07:00

After viral gene therapy, a monkey born without the ability to see red and green can now detect them.Science News, October 10, 2009 Now that we are heading into the flu season I thought it was appropriate to talk about how wonderful viruses are. Maybe they're not, but I thought it would be nice to talk about how wonderful some viruses are. Specifically, using the power of the little

BYBS: Coloring Books for the Soul

2009-10-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

While talking to a friend (a man can hope can't he?) about stories I mentioned how I would make up alternate endings or fill in character motivations. He asked if that was a big part of the story and I remarked in a rare moment of clarity that, for me, that sort of thing is the story. If a song is sad I tell myself why. If I find a character in a movie interesting, I might envision a few

BYBS: Brain Science Podcast

2009-09-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

Brain Science Podcast at http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast So I was, as usual, trying to find a topic to blog about. It being Monday morning at 6am, and therefore just a wee bit past Sunday (though the whole BYBS thing is as much of an excuse to get me to do something as anything else, but that's another story) and I was debating whether to blog about a kick-butt Podcastle episode

BYBS: Oatmeal, Raisins and Black Tea

2009-09-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

Over here at the office for extreme cleverness and ideas for when you have nothing else to blog about, I've been researching a new substance that has the potential to bring about world peace and freedom in our time. Many people have asked me how this works. The answer is simple: it doesn't. So much for the bad news. The good news is that the byproduct, oatmeal with raisins using black tea

BYBS: Microbe World

2009-09-09T04:56:00.000-07:00

Last week (OK, it was actually the week before that, but still), I listened to a fascinating podcast called "Tiny Conspiracies" by Dr. Bonnie Bassler about how some microbes can talk to each other. I found this very cool because a) the little buggers aren't supposed to be able to do that and b) I could understand anything she said at all. As a veteran of listening to people who are not

BYBS: Escape Artists

2009-09-03T04:19:00.000-07:00

Escape Pod and its siblings, Podcastle and Pseudopod are podcast sites that deal in various fiction short stories. A podcast is like a radio show or a book on tape in a form that you can download and play on your computer, an MP3 player or an iPod (hence the name). Much to my surprise, I've never blogged about podcasts before, but that just means that I now have all my BYBS entries

BYBS/W: Solar Power

2009-08-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

Solar energy power generation systems. Image courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories. One of the things that I really enjoy in life is when people come together to solve a problem. It demonstrates humanity's ability to cooperate, and when directed towards what I consider to be an intelligent and noble goal, it makes me feel good to be alive. One problem that we face is the need for clean,

BYBS: Shared Emotion

2009-08-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting that I perceive in all human beings to, in some situations, to experience or feel the same way. People like to go to movies and laugh at the same joke or feel scared at the same scene or sad at the same point. Regardless of what you think of laugh tracks or music that underscores the emotional significance of a particular situation, such things are prevalent on TV

BYBS: Stuck in a Rut

2009-08-02T13:26:00.001-07:00

27-74Sertrack by Kibuyu There are some people who might think that being stuck in a rut is a bad thing. Then again, there are some people who would start measuring the thing to see if their furniture would fit. I, on the other hand, would have already moved in. Some days I have a hard time coming up with something to write for BYBS. I am pretty sure that taking a moment in my week and

BYBS: Chicken Breasts

2009-07-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

Checken Breast by Mrydd In keeping with the rather simplistic nature of my BYBS postings I thought I'd talk about chicken breasts. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm on a diet; and this means I'm miserable. Scratch that. What I was trying to say is that, in addition to being miserable, I try to get the maximum nutrients with the minimum number of calories. This being the case, I have

BYBS: An Uplifting Moment

2009-07-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

Turimetta Sunrise by Christopher Chan I had an uplifting moment last week. As I was walking through a parking lot to get to my car, the sun was shining brightly and it just felt good to be alive. Nearby plants were vibrant with life, the breeze was cool, the sun comforting and it just seemed like everything was right. Even the blazing heat of my car (you know, when the sun is beating

BYBS: Cookouts

2009-07-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

Counselor Cookout and Putt-Putt Party by ASCAA For someone that doesn't get out enough(tm), it's been good to go to a few BBQ/cookout/what have you style events. I get to see a bunch of people in a reasonably positive setting and eat some stuff that tastes good (even if it's not that good for me). I'm not the most social person in the world. I don't even live next to the most social person

BYBS: A Good Read

2009-07-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow is an interesting read for those of us who want something relatively light about internet style futurist societies. The actual plot revolves around (I'm not making this up) a struggle over who gets to control Disney Land. That Doctorow can get me to keep reading a book with that premise is a pretty impressive feat all by itself. The book

BYBS: Spiritual Exercises

2009-06-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

Two girls exercising by mikebaird There are lots of things that I do that do not have an immediate reward. Some of them are recognizable like dieting and exercise. I change my diet, but my waistline does not immediately shrink. If I eat a pint of ice cream, I don't expect to see my weight increase by 5 pounds over night. But over time these things have a very definite effect: though my day to

BYBS: Open Source Software

2009-06-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

Open source software has done a great deal to make the modern internet that I know and love possible. Over the years, I've used quite a few of these packages to do my day to day work. Here's a very quick glimpse of a tiny fraction of the packages out there that have helped me

BYBS: A Walk in the Mountains

2009-06-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Rooiberg Mountain Pass by Martin_Heigan Went for a walk in the beautiful mountains today and chose this for my BYBS entry. Didn't have a camera, so this isn't what it really looked like, but you get the idea.

BYBS: Wikipedia

2009-06-07T12:36:00.001-07:00

I don't know how many times I've turned to Wikipedia for information, but it's a lot. The site consistently has very high quality articles on an unbelievable range of topics. What's more, the whole thing is put together by the very people who browse the web. In short, the site is a showcase for what I wish more of the web was like: people working together to help each other in an "ain't

BYBS: Bananas

2009-05-31T06:50:00.001-07:00

In addition to being tastee, bananas are also good sources of potassium. Like most fruits and vegetables, they have far fewer calories than processed foods of equivalent weight. Modern bananas became popular because the previous popular type of banana, the "Gros Michel," has been largely wiped out due to a fungus.

BYBS: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

2009-05-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

It was hard to find anything good to say today. This quote, however, made me chuckle: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,

A Good Host

2009-05-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

A strange host There is one school of thought that says that we are just hosts to ideas: that the ideas are the species and that we are a way for them to perpetuate themselves. While that casts human beings as mere beasts of burden, I always liked to think that we have more to say about what's going on than that. One way of looking at it is that we are hosts, as in "would you like

BYBS: Oranges

2009-05-10T08:37:00.001-07:00

Simple and yet delicious I find it remarkable that something so simple compared to other things that I enjoy can be so good. On a cold and rainy day, when the sky is overcast and gloomy, its nice to be able to gaze out from my warm hole with a nice orange.Photo by "Rock Paper Image"

BYBS: Help from the Web

2009-05-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

Despite years of working with computers I'm still undecided as to whether they actually solve problems or create new ones. In particular, I find myself confounded over and over again by problems of the form: Me: Move this from here to here. Computer: M: Why didn't you move the file? C: You didn't say "simon says." M: Alright - "Simon says." C: What? M: Move the file! C: You

VYSW: Rest in Peace

2009-04-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that someone will miss you... Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I have created no Vent Your Spleen Wednesday (VYSW) postings in quite a while and it doesn't seem like the internet is exactly overflowing with people who want to join. Despite being #2 on Google for a search for vysw, I think it's time to like the mangey dog rest in peace. The good thing about

BYBS: Reasoned Discussion

2009-04-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

Copyright (c) threestooges.com I enjoy being able to talk seriously every once in a while about stuff like the nature of consciousness, whether honesty and accuracy are the same thing, and other, ultimately pointless topics. I'm grateful that there are other people that I can talk about this stuff with and that they discuss it seriously...at least some of the time. Part of the problem

The Impossible Dream

2009-04-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Is striving towards an impossible but desirable and worthwhile goal a waste of time? For time out of mind there have been people who strove towards perfect meditative state, achieve world peace, or total knowledge. From a practical standpoint, these people know that their goal cannot be attained, or perhaps attained by them, yet they strove all the same; and what's more, people continue to