retrospectacle | October 3, 2006First of all, i apologize for leaving everyone high and dry with no word. I received a few emails from worry worts (which I appreciated!), but seriously all is well. I just needed a few days post-Europe to collect my thoughts and re-adjust to life in the good US of A. Anyway, here's a recap of how things went down after my last post (about the beach).
For the whole trip, I secured a Eurail pass which was a FANTASTIC deal. What this pass gives you is free travel in the countries that you choose for one (lower) price. I bought one for France, Belgium, and the Netherlands---this is really what…
retrospectacle | September 29, 2006I spent the night in Schipol Airport last night, and just got home (to Ann Arbor) today. I'm exhausted! Long stories, regarding Amsterdam. Brussels, a mistake that took me to Paris, trains, coffeeshops and hostels galore on Monday. I'm taking the weekend to try to get un-jetlagged.
Stay Tuned!
retrospectacle | September 21, 2006Posting will be slow for a couple days, as I hop on the Eurail tomorrow and travel to Brussels.
Yesterday I decided to go to the beach, which is a few miles to the south of Montpellier. It was a bit more of a hassle that I expected, as it involved getting on the subway, then getting on a bus. Futhermore this involved knowing exactly what stop I wanted to get off at, and I found this out while face-to-face with the bus driver. After a bit of confusion, the first stop name she said (ended up being Gau de le Roi) I just nodded emphatically and hoped it was correct. (Hopefully, it was!) The line…
retrospectacle | September 20, 2006Just a reminder to submit some neuroscience-related blog posts to the carnival Encephalon! Its a round-up of recent brain-blogging and is usually very high-quality stuff.
It is currently being hosted over at OmniBrain, and submission guidelines can be found here. Submit before the 25th for consideration.
All the cool kids are doing it.
retrospectacle | September 20, 2006
What happens when a Chinese man drinks 4 jugs of grog and decides to jump into a panda pen at the Beijng Zoo? Well, a tussle of course, and I'll let you read who got the worst of it.
The Beijing Youth Daily quoted Zhang as saying that he had seen pandas on television and "they seemed to get along well with people."
"No one ever said they would bite people," Zhang said. "I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don't remember much."
"He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand," and jumped into the enclosure, the newspaper said.
The panda, who was asleep, was…
retrospectacle | September 19, 2006
Where was Ken Wantanabe when Air France lost my bags?? Don't touch my gnome!
retrospectacle | September 19, 2006After another full day of the Inner Ear Biology Conference (I may blog the talks in the future, but I'm on vacation now!), I wanted to explore more of this beautiful city in the south of France. A bit on the history of Montpellier (summarized from its Wiki entry):
Montpellier is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region (famous for its red wine), and as of 2004 the population was about 245,000 people. This makes it about twice the size of Ann Arbor, although it actually seems much more compact (a tourists' distortion, I know.) It is about 6miles from the Mediterranean ocean.…
retrospectacle | September 18, 2006Today and yesterday I haven't been able to do a whole lot other than attend the Inner Ear Biology Conference, which is taking place at a small but very comfortable conference center called the Corum (below).
This conference center blows all the ones in America away in style and convienence. The seats in the auditorium were like overstuffed first-class airline seats (hard not to doze off in them), and the center itself is situated in a lovely old park right off the center of town (park pictures, fountain and small bistro, below).
I presented my poster today. Actually, while I was…
retrospectacle | September 17, 2006So I'll start with last night (actually Montpellier Day 2....). After making that post yesterday, I mustered up the courage to go walk around at night and find some place to get a much-needed drink. As I pass the main square, my ears happen to perk up to the sounds of English! A group of kids, about my age, seem to be discussing what to do for the night. So, I walk right up to them, introduce myself and ask if they know of any good bars in the area. Well, one thing led to another and they ended up "adopting" me for the night. Turns out they were all American exchange students studying French…
retrospectacle | September 16, 2006Ita about 8:45pm here France time, and I thought I'd jot down today's adventures before heading off for a bar somewhere. I was horribly jetlagged last night, and didn't get to sleep until about 4am---meaning I missed breakfast and didn't wake up until almost 11am. The sleep was golden though!
The first thing I did was to call Air France to check on my bag---they still hadn't found it! (I was starting to get worried, however the customer support people were extremely nice and reassuring.) So, I hit the city of Montpellier, walking west down the rue du Baudin to the Place de la Comedie which…
retrospectacle | September 16, 2006Ever find a bug, hideously ugly and strange, that you wanted to identify? Is it poisonous? Should you kill it, watch it, keep it as a pet?
Well, next time, snap a picture of that bug and send it to Whats That Bug! People from all over the world send in pictures of crazy creepy crawlies to the entomologists who made the website their hobby. So, you can see what people have sent in, not to mention a lot of beautiful and interesting pictures of insects. The responses are friendly, informative, and filled with tips to help you learn to live with and appreciate bugs.
Or perhaps, you want to jump…
retrospectacle | September 16, 2006What a journey! Three flights, four airports, a 2 hour bus ride through London, my luggage lost (not my poster though!), but at midnight Sept 16th I have finally made it to Montpellier, France.
First, my flight out of Detroit was delayed over 2 hours, although I received some nice vouchers from Northwest in the form of free airport food and $50 off my next ticket. Not so bad. However, the delay made me miss my British Airways connection in Gatwick Airport in London by about 20 minutes. After being shuffled through several different "queues" (lines, none of which were short) and a different…
retrospectacle | September 15, 2006Ever wonder how plasma TV's work? Well, I did, and decided to figure it out!
"Traditional" televisions use cathode ray tubes, in which a gun fires a beam of electrons inside a large glass tube at phosphor atoms at the other end. The electrons excite the phosphor atoms, causing them to light up as pixels. The image is produces by lighting up different areas of the phosphor coating with different colors (red, green, blue) at varying intensities. While this sort of TV produces nice images, physically they are bulky. In order to increase screen size, you have to increase the length of the…
retrospectacle | September 15, 2006
This looks suspiciously like the pint of Sam Adams I had in the sleezy Detroit Airport lounge (waiting for my plane, delayed 2.5 hours.) But in fact, its a advertising campaign used by a British church!
"The message is subtle but simple -- where is God in all the boozing at Christmas?" said Goodwin, whose group is made up of Christians of all denominations working the British media and advertising.
"For many, Christmas is just drinking and partying and God is excluded, yet many young people are interested in finding deeper meaning and exploring faith."
The poster is a nod to the occasional…
retrospectacle | September 15, 2006
If you buy a parrot from a breeder in America, chances are it has a small metal ring around its leg. My African Grey, Pepper, also has one of these (I call it his "bling.") I'd never really given it a lot of thought, but have recently become curious as to why it is placed on a captive bird and what the code on it means.
A closed band appears to be a flat solid piece of metal wrapped around the bird's leg. It may have letters and numbers embossed in the surface. Most breeders eventually start banding the baby birds they raise. Banding is a good idea because it shows that the babies have been…
retrospectacle | September 14, 2006So, as I've mentioned previously, I'm leaving for Europe tonight (coming back Sept 29th!). Don't worry, blogging will not cease (although may be a little slower), and I'm going to try to photo-blog my travels through France, Belgium, and Amsterdam.
I am presenting a poster at the Inner Ear Biology Meeting in Montpellier, France and then hopping on the Eurail to Brussels and then Amsterdam. Stay tuned for Euro-photo-blogging!
retrospectacle | September 13, 2006Not for 50 years has a new species of bird been identified! But, a new and very colorful species was recently found in India, Yahoo news reports (pictured below.)
The new species, called Bugun Liocichla, was first seen this past May in a remote corner of India--the state of Arunachal Predesh which shares a border with China. It was found by Ramana Athreya, a member of Mumbai's Natural History Society, who named it after the local Bugun tribe.
Birdlife International, a global alliance of conservation organizations, described it on its Web site Tuesday as "the most sensational ornithological…
retrospectacle | September 13, 2006Mark Chu-Caroll related a story in the comments to this post, about how his son benefited greatly from having tubes put in his ears after recurring ear infections became a serious issue.
For children who get frequent ear infections, tympanostomy tubes can be a very effective, and low-impact treatment. (An explanation of ear infections, and how they occur, is here.) A small tube is inserted into the eardrum, which allows the built-up fluid that has accumulated behind the eardrum to drain out. It also allows air to once again permeate the middle ear, and helps prevent further infections.…
retrospectacle | September 13, 2006
A recent Yahoo news story reports that life expectancy is tied to race, income, and where you live. Although not unexpected, it makes for quite interesting food for thought on the disparities that exist in the current health care system in America, as well as genetic factors involved in life span.
Asian-American women living in Bergen County, N.J., lead the nation in longevity, typically reaching their 91st birthdays. Worst off are American Indian men in swaths of South Dakota, who die around age 58 -- three decades sooner.
Compare those longest-living women to inner-city black men, and the…
retrospectacle | September 12, 2006A little more on the topic of ear infections, from Forbes:
A new study found that almost two-thirds of children given a prescription for antibiotics -- just in case -- didn't need to have the prescription filled to get better.
"Our study evaluated a 'wait-and-see' prescription for ear infections in children," said the study's lead author, Dr. David Spiro, who was at Yale University School of Medicine at the time of the study. "Compared to children who were given antibiotics, children in the wait-and-see group had the same outcomes."
Spiro, who now heads Pediatric Emergency Medicine at…