fMRI in 1,000 words

We've been trying to get a course together to discuss this kind of thing in more detail, but I found an article online that describes how that magic box that gives me brain images works.

Matt Groening on Grad School

Iron Man 2

Every good and bad thing about a shared comic book universe all in one movie!

In all honesty, I wasn't expecting that much from this movie.  The first one was enjoyable, but suffered greatly from the emphasis on origin story and lack of villain.  Though there is still no real plot, this time around both Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell step in to play interesting foils for the titular hero.  The film is fast paces and visually very appealing.  Like in the first movie, many of the best scenes are those not featuring robot smashing action, but those involving Robert Downey Junior acting out as Iron Man.  With that said, the action scenes are very well done and exciting.

The film draws on a lot of elements from the larger Marvel Comics universe with Nick Fury, The Black Widow, and S.H.I.E.L.D all making appearances.  The villains are also drawn from the comics, though with some significant changes that seem to have been made mostly in response to the casting of Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke (not that I mind really).  Mostly these elements add some richness to the universe that Iron Man and company inhabit.  We get the idea that there are other interesting things, such as the Incredible Hulk rampaging through a city and Captain America's shield being rebuilt, happening that could lead to cool adventures down the road.  

However, as cool as as all these easter eggs are, I think ultimately they distract from the main plot too much.  There is an entire subplot about a mysterious event in New Mexico that is included seemingly as buildup for the upcoming Thor movie, but is completely orthogonal to the main plot and never adequately resolved.  Comic fans might understand the significance of hinting at Thor and Captain America in an Iron Man movie, but its just confusing to everyone else (and I thought it was all handled pretty sloppily in terms of writing).

Criticisms aside, Iron Man 2 is really an enjoyable summer blockbuster.  The cast is good enough to overcome most of the weaknesses in the writing and the action scenes are almost shockingly exciting.

No one is ever in the lab but me.

So I've been annoying my labmates by listening to a lot of music lately...

I happen to think the new Black Keys is pretty great.  Seems like there is a not insignificant amount of people unhappy with the slow drift away from blues rock over the last couple of albums, but I really appreciate when artists move in different, more unexpected directions.

Meanwhile, the new album by Titus Andronicus sounds almost exactly like their last one, think punk rock by people who really like The Jesus and Mary Chain.  The subject matter this time around is The American Civil War.  An album like this really shouldn't work out as well as it does.  Seriously, this is probably one of my favorite albums of the year so far.

Finally.  Now that the semester is over, I've actually had a few spare minutes to do some reading.  I've been meaning to read more Philip K. Dick.  So far I'm about half way through Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.  Its a bit more approachable than some of some of Dick's later work, though its still incredibly strange.  Anyway, I can't think of anything more appropriate to accompany reading about parallel realities and psychic spies than a concept album about Philip K. Dick's unborn twin sister...

The Semester is Over...

...Finally.

Everyday was beginning to feel a bit like this:

Via PhD Comics.

Now I just have a huge amount of research to do.  But really, compared to classes, research is great fun.