Nick's blog

2012-01-21T22:26:00.001-05:00

Great song. Great composition and restraint.

Plus as someone pointed out in the comments "If you mute it, it looks like he's mentally challenged and the people in the room are singing with him to try and get him through the rest of the sentence. "

Eels Always Look Like They Just Told A Joke And Are Waiting For A Reaction

2012-01-11T22:16:00.002-05:00

Asylum Suitcases, Found And Photographed - From NPR

2011-11-02T21:47:00.002-04:00

"Photographer Jon Crispin has a fascination with things that are left behind. In the '80s he was basically given free rein to document abandoned asylums in New York state. Crispin's latest fascination is with old suitcases — discovered by the New York State Museum in an attic of the Willard Psychiatric Center in Willard, N.Y."

"The cases were put into storage when their owners were admitted to Willard sometime between 1910 and the 1960s," Crispin explains on a Kickstarter page, where he is raising funds to continue photographing. "And since the facility was set up to help people with chronic mental illness, these folks never left."

"I try to make them look as beautiful as they are," he says. "And they're touching too. My goal as a photographer is to have people react." The suitcases contain letters that were never mailed, diaphanous cigarette papers, a glass bottle of glycerin left behind by a craftswoman — tiny parts of a forgotten whole."

See more photos here (Link)

Point of View

2011-09-17T02:58:00.017-04:00

Anyone who has ever been around an infant or toddler knows how they study and take in the smallest things. They are interested in how everything tastes, feels, sounds, and looks. As you get older, I think you get a little jaded to the amount you take in during the course of the day.

Kids have the luxury of investigating every new sight, sound, taste, and texture - they don't have to tune out extraneous sensory input to accomplish a goal - they don't ignore the caffeine jitters, 24 hour news, loud music, or the smells and sounds of dense traffic. The obstacle is the path.

I started taking these photos one Sunday afternoon just to get an appreciation of what things must look like from my son's perspective - what does he see when we sit him on our laps at the table, or when he holds on to the dishwasher rack and tries to pull out all of the spoons, or when he's sitting in his swing looking at the birdhouse? What does he see when we put him in his child seat that faces the back window? I set up a tripod to his height, attached a 50mm lens and got a view of thing he sees or plays with on a daily basis.

The Pen is Mightier

2011-09-01T18:07:00.001-04:00

"I'm the same as I was when I was six years old..."

2011-08-29T10:52:00.004-04:00

Vivian Maier was a nanny who lived in Chicago for most of her life and passed away in 2009 at the age of 83. Little more is known about her, except that she was an avid street photographer. Her work was discovered at an auction in 2007, more than 100,000 negatives and undeveloped rolls of film, sold by a storage facility who were cleaning out her locker for delinquent rent.

Click here for links to more of her work.

"On a plane, I can see all the lights below, and oh my god they they look so alone. I don't really feel anything."

2011-07-10T23:11:00.002-04:00

2010-10-03T17:34:00.000-04:00

"your heart felt good, it was dripping pitch and made of wood."

2010-09-27T17:05:00.002-04:00

"Liz Lemon, I think girls be trying to impress other girls with all them weird ass lip colors."

2010-09-21T10:17:00.001-04:00

2010-09-10T05:54:00.004-04:00

What burns never returns. Except when you're daydreaming.

2010-09-07T20:53:00.002-04:00

2010-09-04T10:55:00.001-04:00

Things that unfortunately, you don't hear at the DMV or the Walgreens passport station:

"I didn't like that one. Lets try it again."

"For $14.99, you can have the 'Laser,' background."

2010-08-26T21:56:00.004-04:00

Had a brief and entertaining Tactical Medicine lecture this morning. There are some significant differences in how you treat trauma victims in civilian life and on the battlefield. Definitely less to remember:

Civilian life:

A-Airway
B-Breathing
C-Circulation
D-Disability
E-Exposure
F-F.A.S.T. exam

Military:

R-Return Fire
T-Tourniquet

All kidding aside, there are actually pretty good statistics backing this methodology up gleaned from studies of the Vietnam war. Focusing on reversible causes of mortality with very limited time and resources - exanguination is far and away the leading treatable cause of mortality in the battlefield, with pneumothorax/hemothorax trailing a distant second.

Comixed

2010-08-23T21:22:00.002-04:00

Assasinations and Bombings in the Pelican State

2010-08-23T10:41:00.012-04:00

The hospital I work at in Baton Rouge is named after the younger brother of famed politician and former governor Huey P. Long - "The Kingfish."

Huey Long was a tyrant, probably manic, a heavy drinker, he ruined the lives of many of his competitors through political subversion, he was adored by the underprivileged and minorities in Louisiana, and he built the beautiful state capitol building here and Baton Rouge. He was shot inside of it, just after getting off of his personal elevator, and bullet holes still scar the marble walls 75 years later.

Long was allegedly shot inside of his new building by physician Carl Weiss, M.D. Dr. Weiss was the son of a judge in Opelousas whom Long despised. Long had been unable to unseat the judge, so he introduced a bill to divide up voting districts in his area to force him out of office.

Statue of the Kingfish, facing the state capitol.

According to some theories, Dr. Weiss a well respected physician, confronted the governor who was with his heavily armed entourage. There is a debate as to whether Weiss had a weapon, or simply punched the governor in the mouth as he exited his elevator. What ever the case - Dr. Weiss was shot 32 times in the hallway of the capitol, and the governor died in a local hospital 2 days later from a gunshot wound that may have been ricochet from his own guards.

Dr. Weiss' body lying in the capitol hallway after the assassination.

I was prompted to write this, and to post pictures from my visit to the capitol by an NPR special for the 75th anniversary of Huey Long's death. At the state capital next weekend, Dr. Weiss' son (now himself a surgeon) will be speaking publicly for the first time on the event. After the assassination, his mother was mistreated by the local community in Baton Rouge, and they were forced to move to France, where he grew up. There will also be a play, based on the assassination, in which members of the audience will be chosen as jurors. The jurors will decide the final scene, whether Dr. Weiss indeed murdered Governor Long, or if the Kingfish was inadvertently killed by his own men.

Another interesting bit of history that is not readily apparent to all visitors of the state capitol is the evidence of a bomb blast that shook the state senate chamber in the 1970's. Luckily the bomb, hidden under the front podium, exploded at the wrong time when the senate was out of session. Shards of wood are still embedded in the plaster and in the ceiling, and the marble columns are fractured behind the speaker's podium.

Wood shard embedded in the column.

Fissure in the marble column behind the speaker's podium.
Small wood shard embedded in the ceiling.

"My walk has become rather sillier lately."

2010-08-20T13:08:00.006-04:00

Everyone has encountered these types of steps at some point in their lives. They are too wide to take just one foot per step, but just too narrow to take two full strides - so inevitably you end up taking a full stride to advance, and a half step just to position yourself to go up to the next level. To bystanders I likely look like a 4 year old, or a retarded cat.

2010-08-17T20:18:00.004-04:00

Yes. Because what says 'Spanish,' more than burritos, margaritas, and a sombrero with a couple of maracas.

Celebrity look-alike day in Ortho clinic, posted on our exam room doors.

Thank God, someone painted arrows on the floor to let me know where the nearest wall is.

The Author's guide to The Hospital's fantastic elevators.

2010-08-08T19:43:00.001-04:00

Time

2010-08-01T22:19:00.020-04:00

The top photo is a picture of the Bristol suspension bridge. Normally when you snap a picture with your camera, the shutter opens for a fraction of a second allowing light to hit the film. In this photo, light was allowed to hit the film for half a year. The streaks you see are the path of the sun as it passed overhead 180 times. The bottom photo is of MoMA as it went up over the course of a year.

More here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside a dead skyscraper.

When the windows were broken, the air turned to poison

So time was frozen, and time was frozen

There were inches of dust on mahogany tables

Where the footprints of rats raced across the asbestos

And the children in the pictures taped up on the cubicle walls

There is sometimes a strange feeling subsequent to a disaster that develops in stages after the initial concussive force. In some rare instances, you can see tragedy coexisting with what once was normal. You get an opportunity to see just how thin the veneer of your comfortable life really is - and with any luck, it makes you thankful.

I noticed this when I had to evacuate for hurricane Rita and left my rent house for six weeks. The night before, the hurricane it was projected to miss us by a very wide margin. We all went out and had a great time as we would any other night. But when the National Weather Service issued it's 5 a.m. update the storm had made a dramatic, unpredicted turn off-shore, and was now heading right for us.

I woke up to a quiet and sunny morning with several voicemails and texts from family and friends, telling me to get out as soon as possible. Every channel on the television was giving stern warnings for everyone to leave. They were showing maps with cones and storm surge probabilities - it was a grim, ominous feeling.

I decided to go to Wal-mart and stock up on batteries and dog food, "just in case." When I got there, I had the store to myself. Within about 2o minutes, the isles were flooded with panicked throngs, blindly dumping bottled water and batteries into their carts. They had apparently received their voicemails and turned on their televisions at about the same time as I had.

I had just enough time to block off my bedroom window with my closet door that I had pulled off the hinges, pack up the dog, and hit the road. We left everything else - the playing cards on the coffee table, the half empty red plastic Solo cups on the kitchen cabinet, the food in the freezer.

The interstate was clogged with SUV's, most with gas cans tied down to their roof racks with bungee cords, there were people desperately driving through the median and on the break-down lanes trying to get ahead. It took me (and my dog Amos sitting on the front seat) nearly 4 hours just to make it 10 miles.

When they finally took away the road blocks entering the area 6 weeks later, they allowed people in only during daylight hours to assess property damage. It was like a ghost town. No businesses were open, traffic lights didn't work, all of the bank signs that normally tell you the time and temperature were either splintered or dead, people were burying and burning garbage in their front yards, windows were taped and broken, trees and bits of peoples' roofs lined every path you took.

When I first went back to our house, entering it after 6 weeks of absence, it was alien. While there was a 70 year old elm tree lying over our house - the normal things were what really shocked me.

I had forgotten about the playing cards, and the red plastic cups, and my closet door bravely defending my desk against an attack from a wayward tree, the now bloated and rotting bag of green beans in the freezer, my unmade bed - still with the impression of where I was laying 45 days ago, reading text messages about a storm.

It was almost voyeuristic, the way I felt looking around my own house through a different pair of eyes, seeing the contrast of normal life juxtaposed with desolation and emptiness. It was like it was some other person's living room. Someone I had met before but only had the vaguest recollection of.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesse Stiles was a musician who had just graduated college when the WTC came down. After the disaster, he and some friends moved to New York to help clean up the nearly collapsed buildings that surrounded the site, and few years later, he put what he saw inside the building into song. That song was then made into concept-art in the form of a 'game,' called Inside a dead skyscraper.

Said one blogger: "it’s creepy, but the mixture of the music and the content makes it oddly compelling and kind of beautiful."

Be sure to fly around a bit...

2010-07-29T21:51:00.012-04:00

We had an advanced trauma life support class a couple of weeks ago at Tulane medical school in New Orleans. It wasn't an easy certification, so our chairman told us that if we all passed, he would have a big dinner and an ice chest full of refreshments waiting for us when we got out.

Mardi Gras beads in the Tulane auditorium. Keeping it classy.

True to his word - after two 9 hour days of trauma simulations, and a vivarium simulation on a live specimen, we all passed - and we were rewarded with a BBQ, fish fry, and a couple of well deserved cold drinks.

I hadn't realized that in addition to being an EM doc, that our chair was also on the SWAT team. He had several pictures up of him finishing the Iditarod, dangling from a helicopter to rescue people from the flood after Katrina, blowing up a wall for no apparent reason, landing a helicopter on a train, and my personal favorite -

Landing a helicopter on the wing of a 747 and blowing the door in with explosives. Not bad...

Medical Algorithms of Reality

2010-07-29T21:40:00.002-04:00

awesome.

2010-07-29T08:11:00.002-04:00

More awkward family pet portraits.

2010-07-28T22:31:00.006-04:00

This song reminds me of one of those days when you are post-call and exhausted, it is cold as hell outside, but the sun is still shining really bright - for some reason you don't run into a single person you know all day, and you feel a little home-sick.

Hyper-realistic paintings. Yes, these are paintings
http://9gag.com/gag/30311/

"Boys are dying on these streets..."

2010-07-27T14:59:00.000-04:00

"we spoke of latent causes, sterile gauzes
and the bedside morale
we traipse around the table talking sentences
so incomplete... please! plea!
boys are dying on these streets..."

Oh, General Anesthesia...

2010-07-26T15:54:00.003-04:00

My mom says I was a lot like this after I had my wisdom teeth pulled - only more embarrassing...

Kool Keith

2010-07-25T18:06:00.002-04:00

The man that raps under a million different names, including Dr. Octogon on his album Dr. Octogonocologist... (a rap album loosely based on gynocology...)
Just in case you were in the mood for something weird/awesome, here's Black Elvis:

Oh. That's how you do it.

2010-07-25T17:50:00.004-04:00

This is even more awesome - lightning slowed down 300X

Long Island car accident by my old apartment. Jesus.

2010-07-16T23:17:00.000-04:00

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/long_island_parkway_crash_claims_T4lmUE9yKHg1b4M6BN1spN

2010-07-14T18:33:00.002-04:00

OB Attending: "OK, so how many of you have actually felt anything during a bi-manual exam?"

Male EM intern: "I've felt 'awkward'..."

We sped the plymouth cross the banks of the mississippi river...

2010-07-12T22:39:00.004-04:00

I don't wanna waste your time...

2010-07-10T15:44:00.010-04:00

I have made a CD titled/themed by season every year for the past 6 years or so. I usually hand them out to close friends. Here's the list for Summer 2010 if you want to download some sweet summer tracks:

The Strokes - "Under Control"
The Sea and Cake - "An Echo In"
Modest Mouse - "The Waydown"
Cold War Kids - "Hang Me Up to Dry"
Built to Spill - "Stab"
The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio"
Frightened Rabbit - "Keep Yourself Warm"
Modest Mouse - "Ocean Breathes Salty"
Yo La Tengo - "Stockholm Syndrome"
Yo La Tengo - "Alyda"
Radiohead - "All I need"
New Order - "Ceremony"
Stephen Malkmus - "The Hook"
Heatmiser - "Plainclothes Man"
Pavement - "Grounded"
The Strokes - "The Modern Age"
Built to Spill - "In your Mind"
Built to Spill - "Reasons"

This guy really loves rainbows.

2010-07-05T14:40:00.001-04:00

You can tell by the way he begins to weep tears of joy towards the end.

If you have ever wondered how good your life is.

2010-07-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

You should watch this.

Live.

Transformers

2010-07-01T16:56:00.002-04:00

This makes Ikea look like they hock clunky antiques you picked up on Craigslist.

Stephen Malkmus

Good Idea (and song of the day)

2010-06-30T10:39:00.005-04:00

Good idea.

"I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees..."

The National - "bloodbuzz ohio"

9 ways to treat a lady - #5 like she has a black hole in her chest

2010-06-26T22:42:00.006-04:00

1938 dating tips for women :

http://pbh3.tumblr.com/post/390543309/1938-dating-guide-for-single-women

Here are some pics from my back yard:

Here's some Yo La Tengo:

Lightning strikes Chicago's three tallest buildings, simultaneously

2010-06-26T15:32:00.002-04:00

I'm a nerd for thinking this is awesome. But that doesn't take away from its awesomeness.

Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time! from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

2010-06-25T23:17:00.003-04:00

Not sure what it is with music nostalgia lately, but this is 1st semester of med school. Dogs jumping in slow motion, lasers - and yes, this is the official video from the artist.

2010-06-25T16:35:00.005-04:00

I heard this song on NPR several years ago (like in 7th grade) and it's been stuck in my head ever since. Unfortunately I didn't know who sang it. Or the title. I just remembered the chorus saying what I thought was "[[something something]] apaloosa."

15 years later it just happens to pop up on Pandora, it's the Pixies - turns out they were actually saying "un chien andalousia." A reference to a short film Salvador Dali had a hand in. That was my second guess.

I hope I can be this kind of dad

2010-06-23T02:29:00.003-04:00

Richard Feynman - renowned physicist, talks about his dad.
http://www.wimp.com/richardfeynman/

Great song by Frightened Rabbit

Andrew Wyeth

2010-06-22T23:58:00.003-04:00

2010-06-22T02:47:00.004-04:00

Since taking myself off of the facebook grid, this may be a great substitute. Of course, I am liable to start stamping completely inappropriate pieces of paper - my med school diploma, sonograms, unique patient histories, unpaid parking tickets, etc...

2010-06-21T23:27:00.003-04:00

Borderline awesome. Painting light graffiti on the great pyramid...

2010-06-21T12:13:00.001-04:00

I wish someone would just kidnap Nancy Grace.

2010-06-18T20:39:00.005-04:00

Here are a couple of things that America got right...

Also, I was listening to some old music, This Song reminds me of last autumn and applying for residency. "I put my soul into what I do..." Come to think of it, it also reminds me of Donnie Darko...

2010-06-17T02:38:00.003-04:00

Ever wonder what would happen if you went from an area where people drive on the left side of the road, and drove to of another area that drives on the right? That's exactly what happens when you drive from Hong Kong to mainland China. This bridge twists over itself to switch which side of the road travelers are on.

Reminder to all of those starting residency next month- a word on personal hygiene and sanitation:
P.S.S. Worlds happiest duck

What my indie music tastes say about me...

2010-06-17T02:17:00.004-04:00

These are all bands that I have either put on mix-tapes, or listened to on tapes I've gotten. My favorite band on the list has me pegged as "Stay at home dad..."
see the full list here

Yeasayer
Guys who have proposed The Holy Mountain as an alternative to watching A Kid in King Arthur’s Court at family get-togethers.

My Morning Jacket
People whose reaction to the Grand Canyon could be summed up as “Eh.”

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Girls who bought checkered sneakers in the 8th grade.

TV On The Radio
Politically-correct hipsters.

Wavves
Dudes who think low production value is “authentic” and would go down on Todd P.

Devendra Banhart
People who have considered becoming a squirrel.

Animal Collective
Guys who make “Best of the Year” lists in January based predominantly on “feeling.”

Death Cab for Cutie
Girls who quote lyrics as their Facebook status.

The Shins
Premature alts who considered Garden State a life-altering viewing experience.

Radiohead
Everyone.

Tegan & Sara
Lesbians and guys who firmly believe that when there are two girls on stage together, there is a 63% chance of them making out.

Japandroids
Guys who only read Pitchfork for the ratings and haven’t showered in at least two days.

Kimya Dawson
Chicks who are described by their girlfriends as “sweet” and “really nice” when guys ask if their friend is hot.

The Flaming Lips
Self-actualized bros who grow pot.

Phoenix
People who don’t listen to enough music.

M.I.A.
Girls who don’t understand politics.

Justice
Bros who, at one point in their lives, have tried to grow a mustache.

Arcade Fire
Frequent transcendental experience havers.

Deerhunter
Avid doodlers.

Wilco
Guys who go to concerts to relax.

Woods
Indie dudes who wear beanies and you can see the front of their hair pulled back beneath it.

Spoon
Bros who drink shitty beer without ironic intentions.

Dirty Projectors
People who like way too many toppings on their pizza.

Interpol
Dudes who are thwarted by the Chinese finger trap every single time.

Black Lips
Guys who don’t get jobs because their potential employer discovered photos of them bro icing on Facebook.

MGMT
Pre-Congratulations: 81% of College Freshmen. Post-Congratulations: Guys who consider the ability to store 13 pencils in their hair to be an evolutionary advantage.

Of Montreal
Guys who bought kaliedscopes with their Chuck E. Cheese tickets.

Broken Social Scene
People who fantasize about riding an eight-person, single-gear bicycle to the Brooklyn Bowl.

HEALTH
Guys who lit fires in their backyards before hitting puberty. Then they took up smoking.

Iron and Wine
Grown men who always get roped into being the DD for “Ladies Night Out” with their mother and her coworkers from Office Depot.

Pavement
Stay-at-home dads.

Sonic Youth
Guys who mistake their blender for a radio.

Modest Mouse
People who expressed legitimate concern regarding the state of humanity when J.D. Salinger died.

The Decemberists
Virgins, not in the name of God, but as a result of valiant attempts to achieve poetic justice.

Fiery Furnaces
Those dicks who still won’t smile, even after you acknowledge their apathy with the “Woah, don’t get too excited!” joke.

LCD Soundsystem
People who are obsessed with their creepy uncles.

The Pixies
Dudes who feel the need to comment on how advanced Ren & Stimpy was whenever someone discusses their love for Lilo & Stich.

Belle & Sebastian
People who have ended their tweets on multiple occasions with #BringBackMessengerBags.

Dinosaur Jr.
Guys who refused to go on Xbox Live with Halo 2 because it eliminated the community aspect of LAN parties.

Feist
Chicks who”didn’t agree with the ending” of (500) Days of Summer.

Elliott Smith
People who felt really bad for Buzz Lightyear when he discovered he couldn’t actually fly. And think Toy Story 3 is a step backwards for Pixar.

Yo La Tengo
Mature men who wish Q104.3 would expand their horizons to alternative old-people music.

Magnetic Fields
People who “discover” new bands via NPR.

Panda Bear
Young men who know what a 401(k) is.

Neutral Milk Hotel
People who get where Christians are coming from with the whole “hope Jesus will rise again” thing.

Yup.

2010-06-12T00:14:00.000-04:00

2010-06-11T10:32:00.003-04:00

I have a habit that when I'm flipping channels and I happen across "The top 100 most [[whatever]]," I always give it a pause to see what its about. I guess this stems from my natural inclination after 22 years of school to make lists, and make sense of data through order - its certainly not because I'm just as susceptible to garbage TV as the average person...

If the show is in the top 10 of a very long list I wouldn't ordinarily care about - I feel compelled to watch. I feel almost lucky for some strange reason, like if I had a huge reading assignment, but someone just offered out of the blue to read me the Cliff's Notes and explain the last chapter. Even if I didn't like the book, I figure it would still be worth a few minutes "to see what it was about."

Inevitably, the producers of the show know that if the general audience has invested four hours of life into this brain-suck while eating a bag of Doritos (I'm just guessing what others do...); They can easily put 10 minute commercial breaks between every number of the countdown toward the end, and I... they... willl stay to watch.

So now, although I was actually looking for something like "The Medici, Godfathers of the Renaissance." I'm now watching the nail-biting finale' of "America's 100 Silliest Pets!"

Yesterday, instead of having the will to resist, I grumbled while watching an Omnaris commercial for the forth time, anxiously waiting to see who the all time #1 and #2 child stars are. I actually missed going to the bathroom, because hey, it would be a shame if I went and would never know...

It was Macaulay Culkin and Bart Simpson, by the way.

"Ha! Sucker."

Occam's Razor - Intentional Irony

2010-06-10T22:44:00.003-04:00

(Occam's Razor is a philosophy that if there are two viable explanations for something, the more simple explanation is generally the correct one.)

BP spills coffee

2010-06-10T12:26:00.008-04:00

"It's a very small amount of coffee on a very large table..."

Also, this is pretty neat... By scouring sites like Flikr and Picasa, this guy created a program that identifies where pictures were taken and whether they were shot by tourists (red) vs. locals (blue).
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/06/08/tourists-and-locals-photograph-different-new-yorks/

NYC (not a lot of locals in midtown? go figure...)

N.O. (apparently there is one guy with a camera living in New Orleans)

Kudos, Governor Jindal

2010-06-10T01:23:00.006-04:00

BP seems content to take months containing and cleaning up the spill. Governor Jindal promotes inventing new technology to help clean the spill, develops it, then gets on a boat himself and sucks the oil out of the Gulf: "we're not waiting for anyone to come and save us." Take a hint Tony Hayward.

If the pictures of birds choked in thick brown oil didn't make you sick, check out what happens around day 70 in this computer simulation. Today is day 51.

Keith Olbermann - now is not the time, you petty sissy.

2010-06-10T01:15:00.003-04:00

Unnecessary Censorship - Lost edition:

Wait Till I Get My Money Right...

2010-06-07T11:09:00.000-04:00

Feist

2010-06-07T11:07:00.001-04:00

Dennis Hopper - Andy Warhol Screen Test:

Irony

2010-06-06T21:49:00.001-04:00

Awesome. Dancing.

2010-06-05T10:54:00.001-04:00

All Things Considered [[autotuned]]

2010-06-03T22:16:00.001-04:00

2010-05-28T14:54:00.002-04:00

This is really gratifying to watch. A child hears his mothers voice for the first time after receiving cochlear implants:

Going Back to The Island

2010-05-25T17:52:00.009-04:00

Where I was:

Accommodations for Jimmy Buffet concert in BVI

"Tourist season..."

"Wilderness" near Grande Case

Phillipsburg

Maho:

Leigh comes to visit! 2008

Pinel Island:

Wolfram Alpha

2010-05-25T13:35:00.002-04:00

It's like a search engine for researchers. No b.s. Pretty helpful on the wards if you ever need hard facts.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Examples:

mortgage 6%, 25 year, $140000 displays, among other things, repayment rates and graphs that represent capital vs. interest over time.
life expectancy france 25 year old male which gives a survival analysis for a person of the given demographic.
boiling point of water at 6 atm which returns a phase diagram alongside the result of 432.6 Kelvins.
lim(x->0) x/sin x yields the expected result, 1, a plot, and the series expansion. The button "show steps" provides a possible derivation of the result using L'Hôpital's rule.^[7]

Wolfram Alpha is also capable of responding to increasingly complex, natural-language fact-based questions such as:

"Where was Mary Robinson born?"^[8]
"How old was Queen Elizabeth II in 1974?"^[9]
"What is the forty-eighth smallest country by GDP per capita?" yields Senegal, $1088 per year.^[10]
"What is the speed of a swallow?" yields the assumption, "Assuming estimated average cruising airspeed of an unladen African swallow", and the result, "there is unfortunately insufficient data to estimate the velocity of an African swallow (even if you specified which of the 47 species of swallow found in Africa you meant)." This is a reference to a joke from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.^[11]
When asked "What is the meaning of life?", it replies 42. This is a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel, in which a supercomputer is told to calculate the meaning of life, and it finds the answer to be 42. These and all other "humorous" queries are individually written by programmers and not "understood" by the software on a deeper cognitive level.

Lost - Series Finale

2010-05-19T23:59:00.002-04:00

For those looking to "catch up," Kevin Garnett explains the sequence of events in seasons 1-5.

This is pretty neat too:

Der Mensch als Industriepalast [Man as Industrial Palace] from Henning Lederer on Vimeo.

Emergency Cric Kit on Your Keychain?

2010-05-18T00:48:00.003-04:00

Can I put this on my wedding registry?
http://www.airstat.org/

Why pens don't work:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200201/ai_n9049996/?tag=content;col1

Update: I was able to get one of these devices for demonstration purposes for an LSU lab we are doing in July. Take it off the wedding registry, I'm awesome.

2010-05-14T23:47:00.003-04:00

"Something For the Pain" - Paul Austin, M.D.

Great book, a candid look at the extreme difficulties of trying to maintain a caring and open personality while dealing with devastating loss, violence, and exhaustion on a daily basis. Having recently become an ER doc, I'm sure I can "look forward" to many of the dilemmas that he shares in his stories, but hearing how he has managed to handle a family and professional life was definitely motivation to keep moving forward.

Top 23 Ways People Die, and also - bad graduation cakes

2010-05-14T22:46:00.008-04:00

From the National Safety Council:

1 in 6 people die of heart disease
1 in 7 people die of cancer
1 in 28 people will die of stroke
1 in 85 people will die in a motor vehicle accident

Lightning and dogs kill more people than earthquakes...

See the rest here.

Also, I can only hope my mom or wife gets me one of these for my med-school graduation. Eight years of community college for THIS?! Seriously?

Old Spice in the City

2010-05-10T11:55:00.002-04:00

reference

A Womb with a View

2010-05-06T20:28:00.005-04:00

I have to thank my dad for the comic genius in the title; also for the enormous head that will now be passed on to a third generation... Here's to having a difficult time finding hats, good luck little guy...

2010-05-06T19:48:00.004-04:00

One reason to choose St. Maarten vs. Grenada for your Caribbean graduation celebration...

What you should know about pinata violence this Cinco de Mayo

I could have used this for the Behavioral Science on Step 2 - The Bias Song:

Sky Cake

2010-05-04T23:50:00.001-04:00

Are you an 'Angry' man, Henry...?

2010-05-04T17:26:00.011-04:00

"I drink your milkshake..." - Daniel Day Lewis is a genius. I recently watched There Will Be Blood, it was some of the best acting I've seen in a long time. It also points out why I don't trust many preachers (or oil tycoons for that matter). When religion is used as a means to have power and influence over people, and how they feel - it is no better than deceiving someone to take their money and trust. While both of these characters are wretched, Daniel has no illusions about who he is, and does not seduce people under false pretense.

Daniel's Baptism (prior to, and mirroring the previous scene - which is the end of the movie)

2010-05-04T11:04:00.004-04:00

Nashville

You think it's easy, but you're wrong.

2010-05-03T16:21:00.008-04:00

BREAKING: Large Air Spill at Wind Farm

Electron Boy Saves Seattle

My gf's old manager at Hollister at bore a striking resemblance to Emo Alpaca.

2010-04-30T00:33:00.001-04:00

His post-kardz do nohzing to convey the humanity... the MADNESS of Wasldo's adventures...

2010-04-26T23:14:00.002-04:00

Diagnose 100 people in 4 hours with over 100 viruses at 5-500% cost-savings over the current lab system.

2010-04-23T13:29:00.009-04:00

"Stuff White People Like." I have to admit, I do enjoy a good pair of New Balance shoes, indie music, my dog and my bicycle...

Penny-smart and dollar-dumb...

2010-04-16T12:29:00.002-04:00

Stephen Malkmus - king of sarcasm (and a great musician)

2010-04-09T18:22:00.004-04:00

"And I don't need you to catch my wondering mind.
And I don't expect a Southern girl to know the Northern lights
All I want is your eyes, in the morning as we wake, for a short while."

"

2010-03-27T01:43:00.003-04:00

Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

Walt Whitman

Things heard in the subway:

2010-03-26T14:27:00.003-04:00

The scene: 14th street subway station, 3 people standing next to each other buying Metrocards. The author positioned at stage left.

Some guy: ((turning to the middle lady who has what looks like hearing aids on each ear))
Excuse me, do you mind if I ask where you got your headphones??

Lady: ....They're cochlear implants. I'm deaf.

Guy: Omg, I'm so sorry.

I forgot... How big...

2010-03-25T23:34:00.000-04:00

Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging

2010-03-21T20:43:00.015-04:00

My Meyers-Briggs personality inventory has me pegged as an INFJ (the core of my personality is driven by Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging.)

[[Yes. I know, they left out "funny," and "good-looking."]]

A psychiatrist named Keirsey who helped develop the test, referred to the INFJ's as "counselors," one of the four types belonging to the temperament he called the "Idealist."

One of the rarest personality types, INFJs account for 1–3% of the population.

From the results of my test (eerily accurate, even the parts I don't like to admit):

INFJs are conscientious and value-driven. They seek meaning in relationships, ideas, and events, with an eye toward better understanding themselves and others. Using their intuitive skills, they develop a clear vision, which they then execute decisively to better the lives of others. Like their INTJ counterparts, INFJs regard problems as opportunities to design and implement creative solutions.^[14]

INFJs are quiet, private individuals who prefer to exercise their influence behind the scenes. Although very independent, INFJs are intensely interested in the well-being of others. INFJs prefer one-on-one relationships to large groups. Sensitive and complex, they are adept at understanding complicated issues and driven to resolve differences in a cooperative and creative manner. ^[3]

INFJs have a rich, vivid inner life, which they may be reluctant to share with those around them. Nevertheless, they are congenial in their interactions, and perceptive of the emotions of others. Generally well-liked by their peers, they may often be considered close friends and confidants by most other types. However, they are guarded in expressing their own feelings, especially to new people, and so tend to establish close relationships slowly. INFJs tend to be easily hurt, though they may not reveal this except to their closest companions. INFJs may "silently withdraw as a way of setting limits," rather than expressing their wounded feelings—a behavior that may leave others confused and upset.^[15]

INFJs tend to be sensitive, quiet leaders with a great depth of personality. They are intricately and deeply woven, mysterious, and highly complex, sometimes puzzling even to themselves. They have an orderly view toward the world, but are internally arranged in a complex way that only they can understand. Abstract in communicating, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. With a natural affinity for art, INFJs tend to be creative and easily inspired.^[16] Yet they may also do well in the sciences, aided by their intuition.^[17]

With an ivory pipe
And a cummerbund
In the dead of night
On the autobahn
With the long ago
On the radio
And the dreaming moon...
We were young and in love
In a burning town
But the fire went out
I'm alone again now
And I finally know
How cool to be cold
With the dreaming moon
I'll begin again
With another new name
And a whole new life
Full of fortune and fame
But in the 100th year
I'll be right back here
With the dreaming moon

What Gives

2010-03-20T22:38:00.003-04:00

Why are girls obsessed with Robert Pattinson? If I would've known that looking like Lady Elaine Fairchild from Mr. Rogers would get me play, I would've worn more blush in highschool.

2010-03-08T19:23:00.018-05:00

"I made the only decision I ever knew how to make. I did what I thought was right."

-Harry S. Truman

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the unseen
-Kahlil Gibran

Questions aren't a plea for truth and equity, they are the search for validation.

Come on, Mars...

2010-03-03T06:31:00.001-05:00

The World is Yours...

2010-03-01T22:02:00.008-05:00

"A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."

2010-02-28T20:37:00.007-05:00

Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter." -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

And she said that we are all just make believe, but I thought she said maple leaves...

2010-02-25T22:05:00.006-05:00

And she said that we are all just make believe, but I thought she said maple leaves...

Oh you're so silent Jens... Well maybe I am, maybe I am...

2010-02-21T23:40:00.005-05:00

"Les jour et les nuits sout toujour longue Mais les annee' passe vite" -Grandpa

2010-02-19T00:09:00.004-05:00

"If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that's perfectly valid - but don't go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself."
— Tom Robbins

2010-02-18T23:32:00.000-05:00

Dad's Trip to NYC

2009-11-14T22:23:00.009-05:00

Brooklyn and South Street Seaport, Manhattan NY

2009-11-03T22:03:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure what is going on here.

Chicot State Park

2009-11-03T21:38:00.005-05:00

This is sort of in the central part of Louisiana where we went camping this summer. I got a tick and there was no cell phone service, but it was a great time.

enlarge this one and take a look at the roots exposed by the bayou

Interesting

2009-10-18T18:53:00.008-04:00

This is a blog from a guy who goes through photos that he finds randomly on file-sharing networks like Limewire. Photos from ordinary people all around the world - pictures that they may not even realise they are sharing from their computers. I kind of like to think that it is a snapshot into people's personal lives, a moment in time around the planet that shows what each person might be seeing or experiencing at that instant - staring at the light on your bedroom ceiling, watching the sun rise over houses in Sri Lanka, playing Wii and drinking vodka in a Czech slum, flying a plane over Oregon forests, peering down a neighbors driveway in East Texas.

Click here:

http://www.foundphotos.net/

2009-10-15T10:52:00.008-04:00

In William Faulkner’s book, “The Sound and the Fury” there are words and images that express such a deep, and devastating sense of loss, that it makes your heart feel heavy and dense, like velvet lined lead in your chest. And there is a pervasive phrase throughout the book that still rings in my mind. “She smelled like trees.”

I had the fortunate experience of having grandparents that had not only lived out in the country with chickens and cows, but also had a tennis court, a pool, mountains of discarded “junk” in the barnyard for contraptions and hideouts, several barns for said purpose, and acres upon acres of woods and gullies.

When we were younger, everything had a personality and a soul, I can still walk around and tell you the personality of every tree and every place. There was the tree filled with huge black carpenter ants, the knot was stained black where they came out. There was the tree by the back porch where the rain would trickle down the trunk, past the hanging laundry and broom, over the whitewash, while I listened to the thunder and my grandma watched soaps and folded clothes. There were the two trees in the front that supported the white wooden swing, their trunks grown over the rusty metal pole between them. There where the trees with the knotty exposed roots where the chickens had pecked them bald by the barn where we fed them every morning, There was a tree by the statue of the virgin Mary. There was the tree in the front surrounded with a 5 foot radius of lush ferns that were watered twice daily in there white 5 gallon buckets, ferns relatives would often borrow for weddings and anniversaries. There was the tree behind the basketball goal that kept basketballs and tennis balls from going too far out of bounds. There was some weird tree between the highway and the tennis court that I always thought was a tuttle tuttle tree from Dr. Suess. There was the orange tree, grapefruit tree, cumquat tree, pecan tree and fig tree in the orchard, and the persimmon tree. We all got in trouble for when we had a persimmon war one autumn. The tree with the tire swing in the orchard that would always ruin your clothes if you didn’t line it with old news paper. There were the big muscadine vines that grew over the fence between the house and the tennis court. There was even a pirate tree if you were willing to make the hour long hike through the woods with your pellet gun, a huge fallen pine with old cow bones near it my grandpa told us were the bones of pirates that used to sail the gully.

Its strange to see it all now, 3 years after she passed. It has been more or less abandoned since then. She had 7 children and somewhere around 28 grandchildren. She cooked dinner every Sunday, and most of us, usually about 25 or so, sometimes more if extended family or friends would all show up after church, for dinner. There would be 2 six foot collapsible tables set up in the living room, a smaller square one in the kitchen, combined with the normal dinner table with its expander put in, 20 or so extra folding metal chairs would be taken out of the closet in the old back bedroom “the girls’ room.” 25 or 3o family members eating and exchanging stories and jokes under the same roof, every single week at the same time and in the same place. There would be rice dressing, German fried potatoes cooked in a fryer outside, corn, brisket, rolls, iced tea, wine, green salad, fruit salad, and later in the day home made ice cream made in a churn with ice and salt. After dinner everyone would pitch in with the dishes, folding up the tables and chairs in the livingroom, wiping them down, bringing them back to the girls room. Some cousins would go to the back and play Nintendo, some would trek out to the woods with pellet guns and sometimes get in trouble for ending up in a field miles away, or shooting at crop dusters, some would pull out the huge rolling chest full of toys, some would swim or play basketball on the tennis court, sometimes there would be a softball game in the barn yard. And there were a few instances when we would actually try to catch a chicken by hand and put it to sleep by tucking its head under its wing and rocking it (yes, it actually works). At least 2 cousins would spend the night there almost every night; you could hear the katydids chirping so loud it almost drowned everything out, owls, coyotes would howl in the woods some nights. But you always felt safe there, incredibly safe. The linins and rooms where always meticulously clean, the sheets were always cool and crisp under the whirring ceiling fans and the ice cold window unit AC in the back where we would sleep when we stayed over. Sometimes we would watch an old black and white TV before bed.

Now, being a little older, having lost her suddenly to a stroke, and a very close cousin my same age on that side of the family to suicide within 3 years. My grandfather moved out and got remarried. The house is empty, completely empty. All of the whitewash has crumbled off the trees, the tennis court has turned black and grey and needs painting. The basketball goal is broken, the ferns are all gone, the old barns are falling down. The toys and games and pictures on the walls have all been parceled out and gone their separate ways. And things in life just don’t seem as secure or certain anymore. There is no matriarch to shield us from how desolate and lost the world can feel some days. There is no barnyard softball, no crisp, cool sheets, or an army of family. There are no rainy Sundays lying on the carpet in the den watching television with blankets and pillows. There are no carpenter ants. I don’t hear the coyotes or owls at night anymore safely in the distance outside my walls. And I don’t hear the aphids like a choir in their tree lofts making an ebbing and surging fugue.

And I miss those things, especially knowing that they can never be that way again. I guess that’s why I can understand Faulkner’s character, a debilitated man, trapped in time and unable to reconcile the innocence and comfort of something that once was, with a foreign and unforgiving reality that comes with years. And I guess that letting that be, just the way it is, is what makes a person old on the inside, and makes him grateful, quiet, sad, and humble.

2009-09-06T02:28:00.001-04:00

Crowley at Night.

2009-07-03T18:28:00.015-04:00

Redux.

2009-07-03T18:20:00.004-04:00

Been playing with Adobe Lightroom, compare these with the straight from the camera ones...

CS done.

2009-07-02T18:31:00.003-04:00

We used to have a coach in high school for phys-ed that was pretty laid back. Every day we would get dressed in and be sitting on the bleachers in the gym. He would walk out of his office and we would ask "Say coach, what are we doing today?" To which he would reply in a raspy Creole accent: "Relaaxin'"

I liked that guy's attitude.