Help Me Raise Money for Cancer Research

I am participating in the Relay for Life at Brandeis, which is a 24 hour walk-a-thon to raise money for cancer research. Any donations would be greatly appreciated!

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It's Electric!

I was cruising around YouTube and found this awesome video. Apparently someone convinced four of their friends to put electrodes on their faces and allow impulses to cause muscle twitches. The cool part is that the impulses are calculated from a song, so every time a note is played in the music an impulse is sent to the electrode. I think after watching the video that different the frequencies of the music, the different notes, are sent to different electrodes. What you end up with is four faces that are synchronized together, as well as with the music in an eerie, but very cool way.

Face Stimulus Video



I absolutely love when art and science come together. It stimulates (no pun intended) me to figure out ways to combine what I do in lab with my photography (fine, I thought of that line about an hour ago and have been saving it till now). One of these days I am going to come up with a good idea and run with it!
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Sheep Art

I mean, I knew being a shepherd is probably quite boring, but wow, these guys have way to much time on their hands.

After attaching LEDs to their herd of sheep, the shepherds use their dogs to herd the sheep at night in specific patterns on a hill side to make amazing images.

You have to watch this to understand/believe me.



Wow. Too much time.
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Amazing Science Project

It really is amazing what you can do with a little ingenuity.

Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta­ Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort, four high-school students from IES La Bisbal school in Catalonia built a camera rig and altitude sensor from scratch, attached it to a weather balloon, and monitored it using hand-written code to link it to google earth. They did all of this for a mere 56 pounds or about $80.

So what results did they get? Impressive ones to say the least.

Pasted Graphic

The monitored the balloon to 100,000 feet, when it finally popped due to the difference in pressure and it fell back to Earth. They had to go 10km in order to find the sensors and camera, but everything survived and they got some beautiful images.

Here is a link to their flickr page and a link to their website. Both are in Spanish, but google translate works quite well!

Originally found the story on telegraph.co.uk.

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20090314 Portsmouth, NH and Ogunquit, ME

0903141576

New photos from my trip to Portsmouth, NH and Ogunquit, ME. It was an awesome day trip and a much needed day out of the city!

Enjoy

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Moebius Transformations

It always impresses me when someone is able to visually demonstrate something, causing it to click in my mind. This video caused that exact effect. It is a really cool demonstration of how Moebius transformations work. Although you probablly don’t know what a Moebius transformation is, I promise you have used one in the past without knowing it! Enjoy!

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Someone Gets It!

Considering myself a type of nerd, I have to say I was thrilled when I stumbled on this gem on Craigslist. I mean they all make sense to me, but maybe it is because I am a nerd and thus want them all to be true. I mean, I KNOW number seven is true...tehehehe

In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.

1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are... plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.

2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.

3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such... but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.

4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.

5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?

6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.

7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra... all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.

8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen.

Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”Geek Guy: “ooooooo...”Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*Geek Guy: “What?”Me: “Never mind...”

10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.

11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on...” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code... a geek can dream).

12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.

13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce...

14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps...

15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.

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Commenting Now Available

I have finally implemented commenting on my blog so feel free to leave me the hate mail you have been saving up!
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