Forget 2012. 2019 is gonna be AWESOME!

Once the realm of bad sci-fi movies, (and kickass tv shows) real life scientists are actually working on a simulation of the human brain. Seriously.

Excellent news for fans of computer technology, neuroscience, and people who think that humans telling the machines what to do is totally backwards. Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, says we are ten years away from a functional artificial human brain. The Blue Brain project was launched in 2005 and aims to reverse engineer the mammalian brain from laboratory data.

"Ten years away" sounds pretty arbitrary to me. Like what someone would say when they really don't know how long something will take.

Hmm, like:
Competitive solar energy
Unlimited solar energy storage
3-D television
Spiderman (without all the radioactive spider bite nonsense)
Competitive Chinese cars in the US
Iran's ability to build a nuclear bomb
High speed rail service in the UK
Sony PlayStation 4
Legalized Drugs
Quantum Computing
Ford's plugin hybrid car
Realistic hydrogen-fueled cars
Inexpensive genome sequencing
A spaceport in Wisconsin
Recovery from Hurricane Katrina
A better green lightbulb
Open source speech recognition software
EU's Skylon space shuttle
Male birth control pill (still waiting on this one, 1976)
Cure for tuberculosis

Then again, sometimes they get it right, like this 1998 article mentioning HD-quality video. It was really only off by about 6 months.

At least Google is not involved with this one.

As the plane crashed down, he thought, "Well, isn't this nice"

Wired News reports on the world's largest general science conference in Boston this week:

The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is a mix of scientific workshops, lectures and public sessions that provide cutting-edge science, while also trying to tackle hot-button political issues like adapting to global climate change and embryonic stem cell research.

Of course, the Bush administration has sent its own representative to talk about all the sciency stuff:

Nina Fedoroff, science and technology adviser to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, will be giving a keynote talk called "Making the World Flat"

I wish I were making that up. At least the title implies that they know the world isn't flat already.

Is your mouth a little weak?

In search of the perfect geek love website or shortcut to a sexual harassment lawsuit? Head on over to Despair, Inc. and create a customized message on virtual candy hearts and send it to your one-and-only (or stalkee).

To Boldly Go Where Everyone Is Going...Eventually

I'm not planning on dying anytime soon, but when I do, I would like to be cremated. I just can't stand the knowledge that my body would be put in a hole in the ground where it would be infested with maggots, wasps, and beetles as it rots. Cremation seems so much more sanitary.

The ashes are the problem. I don't have one particular place that comes to mind as the place my ashes should be scattered. Living in Florida, the Gulf of Mexico seems nice, but its a little cliched.

Then today I found the urn I would like to spend eternity in. It, too, is a cliche: nerd wants his ashes in a Star Trek urn. But who cares? The thing looks cool! It looks more like a piece of metal sculpture than the trophy cup look of a typical urn. My kids and grandkids should appreciate such a nice piece to sit on their mantle. It could be worse: they also have Major League Baseball, Precious Moments, and AKC-themed urns.

Yes, the American Kennel Club.

As in urns for your dog.

Star Trek's not sounding so nerdy now, huh?

Oh, and for those of you who prefer to rot than to burn, they have caskets, too.

Somebody really doesn't want me to enjoy life

About an hour before I was scheduled to leave today, the sky decided to open up and pour enough rain to make up for the last 5 months of drought.

Seriously.

I think I am in the Matrix, and they don't want me to be too happy, otherwise I might wake up.

WTF????

Dammit! Janet! Time-waster of the Week

Since we weren't that busy at work today, Beth sent me a link to my favorite new time-waster: You Are Damned! It's a site where you can put in the name of your friend, enemy, mother, or favorite celebrity to damn them to Hell for eternity. The catch is, you must have a reason why they are being damned.

Some people are truly angry, and damn someone for something truly damnable:



Others just bust their friends' humps:



Some of the damnations are political (I saw George W Bush damned at least a dozen times):



Others are pseudo-ironic:



Many showcase the efficacy of the American public school system:



As usual with the Internets, there is a healthy dose of pop culture:



And who can resist the token Howard Stern reference?



Damn your friends and enemies today!