So I just looked out my bedroom window to determine if the horrible scratching and high-pitched growling noises outside it were from raccoons, totally berserk birds, or what, and found what I'm pretty sure was a pair of squirrels going at it, about a foot away from my face at eye level. They were at *least* as surprised as I was - so much so, in ( Read more... )

Last weekend, I utterly exhausted myself in the company of one of my favorite gangs of brainy miscreants, which I *could* attempt to describe but would no doubt fail to adequately praise. If it weren't for the ridiculously awesome academic situation I've found myself in here, I probably would've moved to SF by now. This weekend's featured ( Read more... )

I just got a google text ad above my gmail inbox... for a project I work on.

(It's a pretty awesome project; you should check it out, although the game's servers have been having issues with the unexpectedly large number of players.)

The downside of this job is that sometimes I'm still here at 11:15 - and will keep working when I get home. The plus side is that I spent the whole day (after last-minute tax-wrangling of the IRA variety) doing what was science fiction when I was a kid, listening to sterling classics from Big Black and suchlike, and took an hour to go rock ( Read more... )

Oddly enough, it appears that bacterial flagellar protein can allow mice (and, by extension, probably you) to survive extremely high doses of radiation (~10 Gy) with low death rates by binding to a specific receptor protein (Toll-like receptor 5) which starts a signaling cascade that inhibits apoptosis and triggers tissue regeneration. Considering ( Read more... )

Do any of you have any particularly choice advice on eating to gain weight and/or not lose it while exercising a lot? No 'get more sleep/drink less coffee' suggestions, please.

* Saturn's moon Titan is now believed to have subterranean water/ammonia oceans, which with marginal sulfur and phosphorus would give it all the chemicals for life.
* The Hubble telescope detects methane and water in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet.
* Somebody made a robot that can walk on ice, jump over things, and not fall over when you ( Read more... )

Saw Doomsday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Neil Marshall certainly knows how to do action gore well - and those were some of the most satisfying chase scenes I've seen in recent memory. Didn't really give me too many ideas applicable to things I'll actually do, though ( Read more... )

Q: Guess who's going to grad school?
A: I am!

See, I'm in favor of lunar eclipses, but now I just wish I was out on the playa like last time. Guess I'd better go earn more cash for tattoos and art projects.