Ultrasounds...

...are really cool. We saw the baby this morning. The quality of the images has improved tremendously from the fuzzy pictures we got with our first child. We even saw a little hand with fingers and thumb. Saw the heart beating. You could count the vertebrae in the spine if you wanted to.

Very cool. I fell in love with the baby. Not that I didn't already love it at some level already. Life is wonderful.





No, we didn't find out the gender. Didn't want to. It's going to be a surprise for everyone.

I'm baaaaaccckkk!

I'm sure my loyal fan base (both of them) are wondering why the silence here for the last week or so. Well, I spent a few days in scenic Salt Lake City at the 50th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting. Five thousand or so of the geekiest science geeks descended like flies upon the city of Mormons. Just think of the possibilities for clashes between these two exceedingly different cultures!

There weren't any. Interculture clashes that is. At least not that I saw. Interesting place though. It's a(n unnaturally) clean, very modern city with wide streets and rather striking architecture. Although the city itself is quite flat, it is surrounded by very beautiful mountains. The people are friendly, in a somewhat plastic way. Despite the common perception, alcohol is readily available (trust me, if it weren't the meeting wouldn't have been held there). Oh, and my room-mate determined that there was plenty of porn available on the hotel TV. No, we didn't watch any - he had a bet with his wife over whether or not Mormons allowed porn. She lost. And they have homeless people just like any other US city. How the homeless survive the cold is beyond me - I'm not sure it really got above freezing while I was there.

The meeting itself? I enjoyed it. The talks were almost uniformly abysmal, with just a couple of exceptions. However, the schmoozing went well. And that, after all, is why we go to these things. I may even have picked up a new collaboration (a good thing). All in all a successful trip.

And now I'm back.

Oh worms!

I guess it was inevitable. So now the Mac OS has a worm of it's very own. Still, you'd have to be pretty stooooopid to fall for this one and, of course, we Mac users generally don't fall into that category. :-)

Now it's time to get my smug self a coffee.

Shadow dance

You know those Apple iPod ads where someone is walking along the street listening to their iPod and their shadow is dancing wildly?

Now my shadow can dance too.

Okay, so not earthshattering news, but I'm a happy fellow.

The really not quite so super Super Bowl

For the first time in quite a while I managed to sit and watch the Super Bowl. It was not impressive...

The Game:
Neither team played all that well really, and the officiating was at times unbelievably bad. The two calls in the second half that moved the SeaHawks from the Steelers 1yd line to almost mid-field were well beyond appalling.

The Commercials:
There's this hype about the commercials every year. Maybe the fact that there wasn't nearly so much hype this year should have been a big hint... This years commercials were at best ho-hum. IMHO the Bud baby horse pulling the Bud cart was the best, and only because of a high cute factor. The "life comes at you fast" series was not only predictable, but also just plain bad. The "Stunt City" ad for whatever deodorant it was was a waste of what was probably a very, very large amount of money. And so on.

The Half-Time Show:
Okay, so I'm probably going to annoy some hard core Stones fans here, but guys, it's time they hung it up. They should get out while people still think they're good.... The Stones just couldn't hold it together last night. Yes, I know it's probably really hard to play in that kind of venue and that they probably couldn't hear what they were playing all that clearly, but frankly, the Stones were not that good. All I could think while they were playing was I really, really hope Keith Richards doesn't have a wardrobe malfunction...

Woo hoo!

After three desolate days, my email is back!

Alas, all that extra nonsense Big State U puts us through to keep the administrative types looking busy and important came back with the email...

Sigh, I guess you can't have it all.

Isn't it ironic...

...that the President who has done his best to isolate this country from the rest of the world, indeed has alienated many our traditional allies, can stand up in front of the country and make statements like:

"In a complex and challenging time, the road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting, yet it ends in danger and decline."

"America rejects the false comfort of isolationism."

"Isolationism would not only tie our hands in fighting enemies; it would keep us from helping our friends in desperate need."




Where's a sick bag when you really need one?