One Slippery Robot?: According to this article, a robot has been built that is controlled by a live eel brain embedded in it. They wire the brain up to the robot's sensors and wheels, and the robot looks for a light and then moves towards it. Future applications, of course, include not just better robots but electronic supplements for people with brain or nerve damage. I'm not sure how I missed the advent of joint biological/electronic computation; according to the article, this isn't the first success in this arena:
A variety of other similar experiments are unfolding in labs across the country, where rapid advances in electronics and other fields have enabled scientists to integrate animals and microelectronics. These experiments envision a range of applications - using bacteria attached to computer chips to map pollutants; insects as part of sensors to detect land mines, chemical weapons and narcotics; and rodent brains to help identify new medicines.
Without putting real thought into it, I find these projects creepy, particularly if you're having to kill eels and mice to put their brain in machines. I'm sure PETA is getting hysterical. And the idea of electronic and mechanical extensions to our own bodies becoming a reality is troubling to me, depending on the directions that type of work goes. [via Sigma Xi: In The News]
Spring does finally come
E-Books on Every Topic: Want to cook like an authentic Canadian? Check out Gems of fancy cookery: a collection of reliable and useful household recipes. From the late 1800's, it was published by an actual dispensing chemist, so you know it has to be good!
Actually, this is really fun to look at. These are old-style recipes that assume you know how to cook and were written before standardized measurements. Take, for example, their recipe for biscuits:
Into one quart of flour put two teaspoonfuls of JORDAN'S BAKING POWDER and a little salt, mix thoroughly, then rub in a piece of lard about the size of an egg; mix into a soft dough with milk and water. Bake in a quick oven and serve hot.
Other baking temperatures called for in these recipes are "a brisk oven" and "a oven not too hot". They also list ways to adapt your recipes to food limitations we don't often encounter anymore, such as the muffin recipe that ends with the sentence: "If eggs cannot be obtained they are good even without them by using a little more baking powder." Also check out the recipes "Good Way To Cook Chicken" (p. 21) and "Vinegar Pie" (p. 28).
I also just discovered that the local digital library project has created the Cornell University Library Math Book Collection, which includes on-line copies of many classic math books. Pick your favorite mathematician and see if they've got their original works scanned in.
On the opposite end of the on-line book spectrum, we have Free Autographs by Mail: 4,000+ Verified Celebrity Addresses. There are a couple of pages of tips on autograph collecting, and then right on into over 200 pages of contact information. In the internet age, it's unclear this book is useful. Contact information can change, and new people become celebrities every week. Using Google, I found contact information for the half-dozen celebrities I thought up off the top of my head.
"Lawmakers Propose Human Cloning Ban, Alien Order Notwithstanding": I found this headline confusing - after all, what do people from other countries have to do with whether we allow cloning or not. They couldn't possibly be talking about space aliens. Right???? I mean, this is an article at the LA Times, not some freaky webzine. Right???
"A star-shaped pendant around his neck, his hair gathered atop his head in a bun, the white-suited leader of a Canadian religious group told lawmakers Wednesday that they should no more block his plans to clone human beings than they would stop the development of antibiotics, blood transfusions, vaccines and other medical advances.
But shortly after hearing from Rael, who says cloning is a mandate conveyed to him by an extraterrestrial he met in 1973, several leading House members said they intend to pass a law this year to ban cloning as a means of human reproduction."
Yeah, Rael doesn't sound like someone we need to be cloning....
The article goes on to cover the basics of the cloning debate, with no more mention of little green men. [I spotted this a couple of weeks ago, but lost this entry until today, so sadly the link to the entire article takes you to the page where you can purchase the article, not view it for free.] [via Sigma Xi: In The News]
Another bad use of my time: My friends like me so much, they don't want me to graduate and leave. That must be why they keep sending me links like this one to Psychobabble. Put your magnetic poetry skills to the test, forming sentences to match a given theme and competing for points. [Thanks AG!]
But if single player games are more your style, check out Atomica!
My Apologies: I admit it, I have call waiting. And, according to the latest Brunching Shuttlecock's Ratings of telephone features, that's an inexcusable offense:
Flash
This is much less exciting than it sounds. Phones could flash in so many interesting ways that it's a pity they use the word to mean "hang up then stop hanging up real quick-like." I understand this feature is real handy for those with call waiting, but my loathing for call waiting is so great that I consider that a negative, kind of like pointing out that a given dog food can also be used to raise giant infectious death geckos.
I Am the Seamy Underbelly of the Crochet World: A couple of weeks ago, I was swamped with e-mail. As you may recall, I recently revamped my site of crochet pattern links, Chained Links. Unfortunately, the site hosting the very first pattern linked to, in the very first section of patterns, got hacked into and replaced with a pornography site. It turns out that nice ladies looking for a cozy afghan pattern get very upset when they find pictures of naked women instead. And they get very vocal about this displeasure.
To be fair, many of the messages I received were just informing me that the link was wrong, but a certain number seemed to think I was responsible for the content at the other end of the link.
It's a little pathetic that the most controversial thing I've ever done on the web was link to an afghan pattern....
Bedtime reading: I just did my monthly culling of Arts & Letters Daily and enjoyed the following:
- This review of Guidelines for Bias-Free Writing is actually a nice summary of modern viewpoints on unbiased writing. And, they pan the book, which is always fun in a review.
- Are menus getting too verbose and not informative enough? Do you really want your food to be drenched or drizzled?
- An exploration of the model that the universal concept behind all of science is information. I haven't yet run across the argument that the universal concept behind everything, everywhere, is information, but I see no reason why the argument couldn't be stretched that way. It all depends, it seems, on how you chose to define "information".
- This article probably provides more than you've ever wanted to read about courtship, but it's a decent survey of the current thinking on the topic, from perspectives ranging from psychological to biological to economic.
If I didn't tell you, who would?: If you are willing to believe a rumor from a site called "Sci-Fi Matrix.Net", there's a script in progress for Goonies 2. The Goonies is a cute movie that could only have been made in the 80's - they're at least a decade too late for a sequel. [via Pith & Vinegar]
Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"
Birds singing in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me
Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me
While I'm alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me
Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I'm longing to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this
Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me
-- "Dream A Little Dream Of Me", The Mamas and The Papas
Spring comes slowly...
Do you believe you like chocolate?
eggs!
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