Wednesday, March 18, 2009

NASA goes low budget



This is just weird. And by the way NASA, we have Nicolaus Copernicus to thank for science not Galileo. Just saying.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Random Notes for 3/17

1. Our new scanner and its accompanying equipment are really amazing. The entire neural imaging community here is extremely excited about using it. The only issue we've had so far is that Stony Brook seems to believe that a room containing a million dollar piece of equipment only needs to have a single outlet.

2. Apparently the SciFi channel is going to become SyFy. No, I'm not making that up. Battlestar Galactica is ending just in time.

3. I thought my workload was high before, now that I'm writing a review paper on top of all my normal lab work and homework life is becoming a little hectic. Luckily, spring break is in a few weeks.

4. Apparently being stupid is important. I actually like this article quite a bit, still I don't know how I feel about so many people forwarding it to me.

5. The more I think about Watchmen, the less I like it. I'm hoping the film doesn't drive down sales of the comic version which everyone should read immediatly.

6. The "harder" your science, the less subjects you need to get published. Social psychologists investigate things using 100's of subjects, cognitive psychologists use 10's, fMRI researchers rarely use more than 20, biologists look at individual cells, chemists look at molecules, and physicists look at things so small they might not exist at all.

7. Its weird to have prospective students come in for interviews. I'm pretty sure I haven't been here long enough for that to happen, but the calender says otherwise. At the same time, apparently the climate for applicants is even more hostile than it was last year.

8. Shortsighted religious fervor 9,000,000, Science 1. Maybe now we can actually start funding research in this country too.

9. Neither raw carrots nor canned mushrooms are appropriate pizza toppings. Just saying.

10. The only people I know who buy pizzas without getting at least one plain cheese pizza are my labmates.

11. I learned in my first year lecture yesterday that it is possible to cure nicotine addiction with love.

12. That last statement is the exact reason why I chose biopsychology over social neuroscience.

13. I've decided that Linux is for Mac users who dislike the amount how popular Apple products have become and people who like spending an inordinate amount of time making their computer do simple things.

14. Free Indian food is the best. Indian food you pay for initially and then get reimbursed for is almost as good.