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RSS feed error
Urgh. Just noticed the RSS feed URLs for this blog were wrong, and have been for at least 2 years. A copy and paste error when building the current site theme.
Avon Reserve
There was a short opinion piece in the Press the other day about plans for the Avon River as Christchurch rebuilds. Read it here. The plan they’re talking about is broadly that espoused by the Avon-Otakoro Network, and envisions rejuvenating the damaged lands along the river (where much of the heaviest quake damaged land is)… Read More »
Anatomy class
Tomorrow morning, I start the Anatomy and Embryology class that all medical and dental students here at the University of Washington take. I’m neither, but since my PhD dissertation work centers around teaching anatomy, I’m taking it. Anatomy is typically taught using a combination of methods: lectures, living anatomy, and dissection. Of these, dissection is… Read More »
Musical nonsense phrases
Last month saw PSY’s ‘Gangnam Style’ video break big online. If you’ve not seen it, you should. The music’s catchy, and they clearly had far too much fun making the music video. Go on, watch it. After a few days’ trouble keeping it out of my head, I took a look into some of his… Read More »
Augmented Reality films
Recently, via the IEET, I’ve come across two excellent films exploring the possible impact of augmented reality on our lives. There are positives, but also negatives. The first, Sight, is only 8 minutes long, and focuses on a guy using AR apps to help him date. All goes well, until, well, I’ll let you watch… Read More »
Prosthetic Athletics
I’m more than a little impressed by the audacity of Philippe Croizon. Despite having had his arms and legs amputated, he’s successfully swum the English Channel, the Straits of Gibraltar, a chunk of the Red Sea, and is now swimming Bering Strait. To do this, he swims freestyle, with flipper-like leg prosthetics attached to the… Read More »
Markets inside the organization
There’s a double standard in the rhetoric around markets that’s always intrigued me: Free markets are the best way to organize society Central planning and command leadership is the best way to organize large organizations such as corporations and government The first claim is regularly heard in political discourse, while the second is rarely made… Read More »
Critique – Mass Effect
The other night, after 5 years of putting it off, I finally completed Mass Effect. I see now why it’s so well-regarded. Briefly, here’s what I think was awesome: Elegant and succinct core plot. Mass Effect’s core plot was actually rather short; about 8 hours of play by my count. This kept it sharp and elegant.… Read More »
GPSS – Science & Policy Summit 2012
Since arriving at UW almost four years ago, I’ve been involved in student politics. I’ve not talked about it here as most of it is rather prosaic and, for those not at UW, largely irrelevant. Every now and then, though, something comes up which might be of wider interest.. In early May, GPSS, the Graduate… Read More »
Space Orchestra
Spacey fun at the symphony last night, with Legeti’s Atmosphères and Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, both used in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Holst’s Planets. Atmospheres was subtle, relaxing, and almost entirely without melody – a piece for meditating to, if stark and slightly scary. I really needed that, as Thursday was just one of… Read More »