Kickin' DIY ass

All the laboratories complaining that they don't have enough money for a scanning electron microscope should watch this.



I salute you, Mr Krasnow.

From here.

Who is afraid of the Internet?

Beautiful, beautiful animated video that makes you smile, and then think. It may be a little long, but definitely worth clicking.



A lot of people are saying that the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt was largely successful because of the Internet. Connectivity helps to fan the fervour amongst those protesting and garner support to their cause. An Egyptian man even named his daughter Facebook as a tribute to the social networking site.  

But are we naive in thinking that the Internet is so powerful?

The Internet is value neutral; but like a sword, the wielder can both cut and also BE cut. It can be used as a tool by the activists; but by the same coin, the authorities working to stamp out dissidence can also use it to track, identify and contravene the efforts of the activists.

But  as Evgeny Morozov pointed out, when the Internet is primarily used to download bootleg entertainment material (all right, porn, dammit) and to tell/troll your friends of your "noteworthy" activities, the likelihood of the "democratic change" extolled by the cyber-utopians are about as real as the Farmville corn you harvest.

Happy International Women's Day!

Eye candy and an emphatic message for women = FTW!




For those who are wondering, the answer is "Yes. I have a thing for Daniel Craig." Silent or otherwise.

Brains and beauty

What do Hedy Lamarr and Werner von Braun

vs

have in common apart from near-Alpian ancestry?

They were both rocket scientists.

Did you know that Natalie Portman, winner of this year's Oscars for Best Actress, was a straight A student who competed in the Intel Science Talent Search and has a degree in neuroscience? There is a long history of women who made it big (or even modestly impressive) in Hollywood who are also brainy thinkers and does work in the fields of mathematics, engineering and science.

Here's to beautiful and intelligent women the world over!

Amazing Diamond

I have always had a thing for Shara Worden's (aka My Brightest Diamond) voice. She is a trained opera singer with an amazing range and depth as well as texture, though I do not know if she's a coloratura soprano. I first fell in love with Gone Away, one of the best songs to slash your wrist by when pining for a former lover. But what she executed in this video is both cute and awesome and I think you will agree with me that it takes amazing lungs to sing this flawlessly while stamping as hard as she did.



*chin-hands in admiration*

Starting your week

Good:

OH. MY. GOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!!!

*swoons*

Bad:

AAAAAARGGGHHHH!!!!

But then again:

Happy Monday!

Love is in the air

These love notes gave me quite the nerdgasm.

Be my Valentine?

Most awesome geek humour, EVER

I have tears, man.

"Those who take a shot whenever a Republican lies ...

... get a designated driver."

This is the kind of politician I could get behind. The guy is articulate, MAKES GREAT SENSE, don't pull punches and is entertaining as all get out.

Go, Rep. Weiner.

Walking down memory lane

I have fond memories of my mother smacking my hands whenever I played around with her typewriter. The keys are hard, definitely not ergonomic and made this amazing clackety sound. I loved it.

And then my Dad got my sister a computer and I ended up being the unpaid home-based secretary for his mosque and political activities. :p

The toy in this video definitely brings back fond memories and ought to be suggested to the luddites who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

A picture > 1k words

Ever feel like the information overload is avalanching you? The Internet has changed the way information is being disseminated and traded. Add something like Wikileaks to the mix and you have a real smorgasbord of information and data to analyse and process; some of them more raw than a mooing steak on a plate.

Those in the scientific field are quite used to this; after all it is their job to generate data and then crunch it to create another piece to the puzzle of the universe (and then bend over backwards trying to fit it into the story). Most of us are the end-users who swallow and accept whatever conclusion that has been generated by someone else; be it political information, or economic and financial tips or even sports statistic.

Data crunching oftentimes lead to dry numbers and incomprehensible graphs.

Displaying information in a way that is attractive, elegant and comprehensible takes a great deal of patience, creativity and hard work. Thus, I doff my hat off to Mr. David McCandless. His ability to condense a great deal of information into concise, attractive graphics that convey the message directly with clarity and objectivity is amazing.



Here are some of his work (ganked from his website) for you to enjoy and admire.

 

Law and the tedium of being a superhero

As much as I enjoy watching movies featuring superhero characters, I do find myself sometimes taken out of the movies by details such as:

1. What happens if the court finds the killing of some supervillain by a superhero unlawful? Would that supe (say Batman) have to go to prison?

2. What if Tony Stark was taken down by the IRS and have his technology seized to pay back taxes?

Apparently, I am not the only who feel that way. There is a blog by two lawyers discussing these very issues.

Go on, have a look.

... this beat it fills my head up ...

Anyone driving along Jalan Dato Abu Bakar this morning and saw a female in a blue cap headbanging dementedly in her car while stuck in the traffic jam?

That was me.

And it was because of this song.



God, it has been ages since a song completely ate my brain like a zombie.

My inner fangirl, let me show you

The first time I saw Inception, I was blown away. The plot, the characters, the banter and dialogue, the special effects, everything. It has been ages since I'd seen a movie that completely swept me off my feet. My brain actually shut down to let me simply enjoy the movie without contemplation of logic or rational thinking of any sort.

My cousin, who went to see it with me, agreed it was a mindfuck of the highest degree. To this day, the soundtrack of the movie could still refresh my enjoyment of the film. Ah, to be in the concert and wallow in this live ... what an experience it would be!

Book rec!

I bought this book on an impulse last Sunday (also driven by the 20% off sticker, hehehe); I usually rent my books. Funds and storage restriction can be such a bitch.

Lisa Kleypas is one of my favourite authors; particularly her historical novels. She has an amazing gift for painting such evocative pictures with words, with well-crafted plots and wonderful characters you would cheer for. However, as much as I enjoy her contemporary novels, they lack a certain something that is redolent in her historicals.


I am happy to note that the je ne sais quois that I adore in her historical novels is in full force in this one. This is the first time she wrote a contemporary novel about real, ordinary people (her Travis series are peopled with millionaires). The banter is deliciously agile; a Kleypas trademark. The only thing I feel sorry for is that it is too short. I finished all 211 pages in a little over an hour (I took a break to shower).

Go on, give this book a shot.

Giant step, whoa

Today, 4 members of my family are making their way to Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage. For those who are unfamiliar, the hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage that every Muslim who can afford it is obligated to undertake between the 8th to the 12th of Zulhijjah (the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar).

Not very many young Muslims think about going for hajj; to them, it is only something to contemplate when they are past forty. Heck, I myself am only thinking of the pilgrimage in abstract, academic terms. I only know that I want to go any season but summer (cos it's hot as heck in Saudi in summer, yo).

From what I've heard from those who had gone for it, it is a physically and mentally challenging journey but most rewarding spiritually. But I really love what this guy have to say about going for the hajj.



Good journey, my dears. May your hajj be mabrukh!

Life is like Lego (TM) ...

... you learn something new every day. One of my youngest uncles bought me a Lego set when I was a wee sprog; it ever got completed to the specs on the box when he opened it and showed me how to do it. I am ever fail at following instruction, much less constructing three dimensional structures. No wonder I never even contemplated architecture school. :p

But this guy? I would award him eleventy billion internet for this. Soooo cool.

Arthropod abuse with trebuchet

Not many of us like the leggy creepy crawlies. If you want to see them get what's coming to them, mediaevel geek-style, take a look at this video.



Ganked from Improbable Research.

Cookies for egg heads

Cute and edible!

All from Ms Humble.Some are her artwork while others are done by other contributors who share their scientific artwork.

Gel electrophoresis cookies. Looks very close to the real thing what with the drum-stick appearance of the bands and the colour! Just like it was being viewed under ultraviolet light! ♥

Petri dish cookies inspired by Escherichia coli streaked on a nutrient agar. No complaining of the streaking technique; icing is a lot harder to work with than broth-and-inoculating loop.

Exploding brain + popped out eyes FTW!

Gingerbread men in aqua containment / clean room suits are so adorable. They look paranoid, though.

Zebrafish makes for an awesome haematopoiesis model because they are practically transparent during the juvenile stage (or so I'm told). Edible glitter simulates the translucence beautifully.

Atomic cookie + nucleus (proton + neutron+ electron represented yo!). Gorgeous and delicious.

Gingerbread scientists are so adorable and edible!

What's a laboratory without beakers, test tubes & Erlenmeyer flasks?

Drosophila melanogaster, the humble household fruit fly, has been the workhorse of genetics for decades.

Who says that scientific people are boring and not creative?

We salute women who kick ass & take names

Step aside Dr Brady Barr. Your chiseled features may make you a darling on the National Geographic Channel, but there's another herpetologist who kicks ass harder than you.

Why do I say that Dr Kate Jackson is more hardcore than Brady Barr?

That's because she's doing near the same thing he does, without the benefit of a television show funding, while half crippled by transverse myelitis.

Hats off to you, Dr Jackson.


Kate Jackson SNAKES from Rose on Vimeo.