Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Monday, January 28, 2008

imbibed w/ randomnees

Uhm, in thinking about the title of this post, I wondered if there was a noun-version of the verb "to imbibe." I really wanted it to be a noun, so that my title would be free of the erring appearance of "w/." Perhaps, "Random Imbibuations?" "Random Imbues?" "Random Imbibewbs?" ..(that sounds like boobs - NEVERMIND) *shifty eyes* O.o

DUDES! I just looked it up in the dictionary, and the official noun is: *bada pow*

"IMBIBITION"

uh..

Aanywho, if you can't really tell I saw the Science of Sleep the other day. It was gorgeously hilarious! :P Let's enjoy:

Stéfane:
Tonight I'll show you how dreams are prepared - love, friendships, relationships...All those ships.

Stéphanie: Distraction is an obstruction for the construction.

Stephane: [Shows 3-D glasses] You can see real life in 3-D.
Stéphanie: Isn't life already in 3-D?
Stephane: Yeah but, come on.

Stephane: It's like touching your penis with your left hand.
Stéphanie: I don't have a penis.
Stephane: But you have a left hand.

Stéphanie: How's your head?
Stephane: It's okay. It's not normal though...
Stéphanie: It's never going to be.

And my favorite:
Stefane: P. S. R. Parallel Synchronized Randomness. An interesting brain rarity and our subject for today. Two people walk in opposite directions at the same time and then they make the same decision at the same time. Then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it. Basically, in a mathematical world these two little guys will stay looped for the end of time. The brain is the most complex thing in the universe and it's right behind the nose. [plays drums] Fascinating!

*haha* Have you ever experienced PSR? I know I have...I do..ALL THE TIME!

Oh, and my coworker Brian thinks that with chocolate, I'm like a hummingbird. "Was that blur Shruti?" *does funny hand movement depicting hummingbird movements*



And, BLOODY HELL! It's RAINING!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to go roll in some gorgeous snow-mud now! :D *SQWEEEEEEEEEEE*

EDIT: It's "NUCLEAR"..not NUCULAR!!!!! *flails*

MORE EDITS:
Chris: Testicals.....haha
Me: HAHA
sounds like an exam
oh crap, i have testicals tomorrow
*smacks forehead*
gotta study.... *sheepish*

Thursday, January 17, 2008

La Science Des Reves

Cotton and cardboard, cellophane and paper, thread, needle to employ,
All felt and fabric, birds fly and cats play.
Golden the pony boy,
Made out of cloth and standing so still, just like a simple toy.
Gray as the sky on a day without sun,
Golden the pony boy.
Screwdrivers, rubber bands, glue guns and pliers, tools to create or destroy.
Patiently waiting, un-calculating,
Golden the pony boy.Flying wheels and coloured reels,
Spin into motion,
Bringing him lots of joy,
Trot, canter, gallop,
Over land and sea,
Golden the pony boy

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

9,000 words... (& then some)

...Get it? a picture is worth a thousand words! *therefore* 9 pics = 9,000 words! *good god i miss math*

Ok ok..so the following is sort of a "picture post" of certain significant/nonsignificant events of my life. Dad and I were going to mail something at the post office on Drake Rd. after work, and on our way there was TONS of traffic. Well, we soon saw a car, the blue one depicted here, that had been PUMMELED into a tree (the drivers side was obliviated). Wait wait, at first this is us driving TO the post office, and all the while I'm sitting there thinking (apart from "Oh my gosh, I hope the driver's ok") "Oh my gosh, Mikey would TOTALLY get his camera out and take pictures!" So, I decided to be evil and follow in his noble footsteps, except I failed miserably while attempting to take a picture of the car that had a crunched front.....As you can see (above)...I got everything BUT the front end! *haha* ...*wow* I suck at this. So normally you'd expect to start driving at normal pace right? NOOO....pe. Nope. We later happenstanced upon this conglomerate of cars a few yards away...See the black rectangle? It's an overturned Semi truck that had an "oversized load" sign on it. They cleared out the drivers part of the truck by the time we got back from the post office: Yes...I know it was really wrong of me to do, but how often does a semi truck overturn in the city? Not often. (right? *shiftyness*) Alright, THEN I wanted to show ya'll how pulpish the brain becomes upon filling out secondary applications:


Yeeeeaahhh.....Thank goodness I didn't mail that. *yikes* :$
And also how pulpish the brains of people who have no clue who I am are:
Mmmmmhmmmm....wish I were there. BUT I'M NOT!!!!

And, I saved the best for last: :P

My peep w/ her peeps:
And last but not least, FOR my peep:
It's been a LONG time since I drew anything btw..and it's been even longer since I drew a non-perfectionist face (I have a tendency to make all the features boringly expressionless). Although you can't really see it, she's actually got some tears in her eyes due to the wind and her mouth is slightly agape. It's my freakin' drawing so don't you DARE take it w/out permission! *growls*

Monday, January 14, 2008

twisted!

Some dudes in Minnesota actually did something really REALLY cool:

They decellularized a heart, leaving all the extracellular matrix behind (all the "glue" holding the cells together), and upon introducing the decellularized heart with progenitor cells from the same organism, they were able to re-create the entire cellularized heart, capable of pumping on its OWN!!! :O

That's stupendous. Ingenius actually. It was almost expected that that would happen, but ironically one doesn't realize the significance of making such discoveries until they're made. I wonder why? *contemplates*

But the above absolutely revolutionizes cardiac care. Think about all the heart transplants..it's amazing how many complications arise because of the immune system's reaction to a foreign heart (or any organ). The ECM instead simply provides the cells enough support to grow "normally" but when I read said article (cited below) a really small part of me wondered if that growth could go uncontrolled? But no it couldn't right? It'd only occur where there's ECM? ....*sheepish cluelessness & all-knowingness together* :P

article cited from: http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/researchers-create-beating-heart-lab-15218.html

Aanywho, sample of my temporary fav. artist:

Consequence, The Notwist

Thursday, January 10, 2008

'nite :P


*zzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

source: xkcd

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

elixir...

"The 'elixir of life' that could soon be given by injection
By FIONA MACRAE - 16th August 2007

mitochondria

A new injection could prove to be the 'elixir of life.' The injection works on the body's mitochondria, the 'energy centres' of our cells. The prospect of holding back the years with a simple injection could be closer than we think. Scientists have taken a step towards developing a treatment that could erase the health problems associated with ageing.

While their breakthrough relates to rogue genes behind two rare genetic diseases, the approach they used could one day be harnessed to slow down the ageing process - creating an "elixir of life". The research focuses on mitochondria, sausage-shaped "powerhouses" in every cell of the body except red blood cells. They turn the food we eat into energy that can be used by the heart, muscles, brain and other parts of the body. Research has suggested their deterioration is an important cause of ageing, according to a report in New Scientist magazine.

About one in 5,000 children and adults are at risk of developing a mitochondrial disease, which include disorders of the nervous system and blindness. One unique feature of mitochondria is that they have their own DNA, known as mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the mother only. Defects in this mitochondrial DNA are blamed for a range of rare genetic diseases, including some forms of diabetes, blindness and heart problems. They have also been linked to ageing - suggesting that fixing the flaws could slow down the onset of old age. However, all attempts to fix flaws by inserting healthy DNA into mitochondria - a technique known as gene therapy - have failed, with the fresh genes stubbornly staying outside the powerhouses.

Now, by labelling the functional genes with an "address code" - which effectively tells them where to go - French scientists have succeeded in smuggling them inside the mitochondria. Once there, the pair of genes repaired the damage behind a rare form of blindness and a muscle wasting disease, says the New Scientist report. In time, the same approach could be used to create injections of genes that will erase flaws thought to be linked to the ageing process. However, while this might slow down ageing, it would not halt it completely, as mitochondria are just one of many factors involved in the ageing process.

Professor Patrick Chinnery, a leading British expert on mitochondrial disorders, said: 'It is not a panacea but, if successful, it might potentially correct part of this ageassociated damage to mitochondria which might be important in slowing down ageing. "What they are doing sounds potentially a very clever idea. There is no treatment for these diseases, so any advance is clearly of great interest."

The researchers, from Marie Curie University in Paris, now plan to move their experiments from cells to rats, with human treatments the ultimate aim. There are, however, many hurdles to be crossed. For instance, researchers need to be confident that genes act as billed and do not disrupt other vital processes. They also need to work out how to get them to the right parts of the body without causing harmful side effects to other tissues. Gene therapy offers hope of new treatments for a raft of illnesses, from cancer to Parkinson's disease.

In a recent trial reported in the Lancet, injections of genes into the brain significantly helped relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Tremors and rigidity were reduced by up to 65 per cent, with no ill effects."

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=475609&in_page_id=1

Question: DO we want to live forever? (Don't be arrogant and just say yes for the sake of knowledge and understanding, but rather think of the impact of humans on our surroundings too)

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

..let there be light :P


& my favorite one:
source: MalvaAlcea :)

Sunday, January 06, 2008

you 2

Hi! Hooola! Heylo! Namaste! :)

I know a lot of my recent posts have been inspirational quotations, and wonderful music lyrics and videos...not much "content" has been sprawled out for the world to know about me. It's only because I'm in a state where I'm taking everything in. You know..all that philosophical "breathing in" is occurring.

I've grown up a lot. I'm not saying I've "grown up" but I'm definitely more aware of my responsibilities in my own life. I'm surprisingly not as big a spendthrift as I thought I'd be in relation to finances (except for paying oh about a BILLION dollars in secondary application fees *flails inside parenthesis*). I still haven't lost myself in the conundrum that is our "real world." I'm sure I get all confused and frustrated at all the choices and decisions that face me, but I make them eh? And that's saying something. I'm making my own choices! And I'm taking full responsibility for them! It sure as heck is not easy, and I've tripped over myself so many times it's uncountable. (I blame this on the ice *looks of innocence*)

Apart from the above philosophical jazz, the new year could NOT have started off any better! I had SUCH a blast! I got to walk across frozen lakes, and sleep over cuddled with certain best friends. On top of that, the bestest of them all blew my socks off...I couldn't believe she was in front of me so soon that I almost kept pinching myself to make sure she was real (this is AFTER I peed my pants). And OFCOURSE in all the excitement I was bound to forget something (you know what it is *winks*). And noow..I'm sick..sad, but also JOYOUS! Do you KNOW how wondrous it is to be sick? My mom and dad absolutely freak out about me, and the past weekend was, although quite miserable in terms of physical fitness, the most relaxing one I've had in a long long time! :)

Ironically (and maybe a bit impossibly), all of this "breathing in" also takes my breath away.

So I say unto you:

"It's a beautiful day,
the sky falls And you feel like
it's a beautiful day,
Don’t let it get away" ~U2

Just....don't let it get away. :)