Jack dressed as a wizard (or, as I said, a Human Warlock because I play too much World of Warcraft) for a fancy dress party this weekend. His minion was under his hat (his frog).
Beach in February
No matter the weather, kids love the beach.
Apple and Cisco share iPhone name
I’m always telling Jack to share nicely with his friends, and now it seems that the big boys can do it too.
BBC article.
Back in the lab
Look at me! I’m back in the lab! I need some images to complete a paper I’m about to submit, so I finally get to go into the lab, cut some sections on the cryostat and do a little immunohistochemistry. It feels good, and brings back some good feelings. Oh, the monotony of the post-doc’s life. It feels like I’m back in the Cardiff labs and that one of the girls from the group is going to come and remind me that it’s time for a coffee break. “Nostalgic cryosectioning”? Google that!
Compare the photo to this entry from 3 and a half years ago.
Oxwich Bay Named Britain’s Best Beach
And they’re probably quite right.
BBC article.
Google Maps satellite view.
Multi Touch Sensing Displays
Take a look at this technology. This is Minority Report style gesture-based touch screen control of your computer. Imagine how great this would be with the full 3D data (rather than the pre-rendered images) of the interactive anatomical models of anatomy.tv. With one or two large, very high definition displays a student or teacher could work their way towards a region of interest, adding or removing layers of tissue, rotating to show shape and relationships. Instead of jumping around and disorienting your audience you could clearly work your way around the body.
Are these the next generation of smartboards?
More information here.
Blue Men
Jack is watching the Blue Man Group and drumming along with cardboard tubes from wrapping paper and two orange spoons. He’s following the rhythm too. I’m just glad he doesn’t want to paint his whole head blue.
Flawed Stem Cell Paper Withdrawn
The New Scientist has recently questioned data presented in a Nature paper that described pluripotent cells present in adult bone marrow (link). Clearly a potentially very promising resource, do these cells really have the originally described abilities?
New Scientist article here.
Afternoon nap is good for the heart
A recently completed study says that having regular naps in the middle of the day helps reduce the risk of heart disease.
Right, that’s enough evidence for me. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
BBC article link.
Snow
We did have some snow on Friday. Friday’s are probably the worst days to have snow if you’re at work and you drive because although it’s a great reason to start the weekend early, everyone else has the same idea. The roads get clogged (we don’t have a huge army of snowplows for once a year snowfall) and you spend the rest of Friday in your car. This was no problem for me as I’d already elected to work from home (smug smug smug).
We were feeling a little left out as the rest of the country had been snowy for a couple of days and we had nothing to moan about. Jack half built a snowman (he’d hurt himself at school and wasn’t happy) but the snow was almost all gone by the next morning. Flash in the pan. Storm in a teacup. Something like that.