genus Hippocampus

Going live tomorrow, SceneTap will use creepy facial recognition...

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:20:29 -0400

Going live tomorrow, SceneTap will use creepy facial recognition technology to tell us the realtime male:female ratio at bars throughout SF, among other useful tidbits of information. Imagine how much we’ll save on cover!!

Sincerely Causes: Stop CISPA

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:05:00 -0400

Sincerely Causes: Stop CISPA:

Electronic Frontier Foundation shared this link on Facebook just now. I found it cool on two levels.

1) Sincerely is kind of like Apple’s “Cards” functionality in glossy, postcard, be-forewarned-does-not-come-in-an-envelope-so-don’t-let-your-boyfriend-send-to-your-office form. I like what they do, and I think Sincerely Causes is an interesting extension of a fun service.

2) Also fun and interesting: keeping private info out of the hands of the government. Civil liberties just cannot be the cost of protecting intellectual property.

futurejournalismproject: Getting Started With Data Hilary...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:02:10 -0400

futurejournalismproject:

Getting Started With Data

Hilary Mason, Bitly’s data chief, gives advice on how to get started in data science, from finding a buddy to tutorials you can watch and books you can read.

Bonus: Why you don’t need to be a math whiz.

This is exceedingly cool… mapping the distribution of 2010...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:57:16 -0400

This is exceedingly cool… mapping the distribution of 2010 U.S. Census data. Surprises? (Lack thereof?)

So many things I love about this article on Maria Klawe,...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:55:39 -0400

So many things I love about this article on Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd, and her efforts to encourage women to pursue and stick with Computer Science. The subject of the article itself is great, of course. How many times have you felt the following in an introductory math or hard science course?

“Known as CS 5, the course focused on hard-core programming, appealing to a particular kind of student — young men, already seasoned programmers, who dominated the class. This only reinforced the women’s sense that computer science was for geeky know-it-alls.”

For me, that experience reinforced the feeling that, from Day 1, I was already behind. I was already useless. I’m not advocating that a class should be “dumbed down” of course. The geeky know-it-alls who have been passionate from a young age deserve intellectually-stimulating coursework. But students who truly require instruction in the basic fundamentals benefit from a supportive introduction to a difficult subject, not an alienating one. I think Harvey Mudd’s approach to CS 5 shows that a course can accommodate both.

I also love the peek into the relationship between Dr. Pippenger and Dr. Klawe (married.) I found it an encouraging depiction of a successful, supportive relationship between two exceptionally intelligent and accomplished people. Real-life Clara Clayton and Doc Brown?

Wait no, I want to be that…

A long-time fan, I’m particularly grateful now to have had...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:58:21 -0400

A long-time fan, I’m particularly grateful now to have had the pleasure of seeing Earl Scruggs at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this summer in Golden Gate Park. “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” is one of those soundtrack-to-your-life kind of songs.

Rest in sweet, sweet banjo twang, Earl Scruggs!

I want to build you a treehouse.I want to haul uneven planks up...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:36:01 -0500

I want to build you a treehouse.

I want to haul uneven planks up into the branches.
I want to build us walls and windows and beams.
I want to hammer old shingles to the roof and hang fading curtains.
I want you to wonder where I’ve been running off to.

I want to take your hand with my splintered fingers
and guide you there, around the roots and rotting logs.
Standing on my tiptoes reaching up to your face
I want to cover your eyes with my dirty palms.
I want my arms and hands and legs and back
to ache as I swing up the ladder behind you.

I would stock an icebox with our favorite things.
Dry chicken, apple cider vinegar, bunny greens
Berries for me and beer for you and four bottles of wine.

No one would walk through our part of the woods
but even if they did, they wouldn’t think to look up here.
I want to be safe and alone and cradled by the trees
and to talk to you for ever.
I want to listen to your laugh travel through the treetops
and to listen to the birds when there’s nothing to say.

I want to fall asleep in the darkness on a too-hard mattress
to your breathing in my ear and the breeze in the leaves.
I want to wake up in the chill of the dew
your limbs stretched across my body like beams of sunlight.

I want to tie a big brown rope around a branch
and make you a tire swing.
I want to sit forehead-to-forehead
with our feet dangling through the middle
like eight-year-olds on the playground.
I want to wind us up and let us go
so you can see the world the way I do.
Just a mess of swirling colors
and your clear, smiling face.

Unbelievable. I have never been more proud of my alma mater.

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:02:14 -0500

Unbelievable. I have never been more proud of my alma mater.

Photo

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:53:12 -0500

Code Hero raises over $100,000 for shooter that teaches computer programming

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:11:44 -0500

Code Hero raises over $100,000 for shooter that teaches computer programming:

When you ask people where to start when you’re learning to code, they usually say it’s best to think of something you want to make, and then learn to make it… but what if all you really want to do is blow stuff up??

Done, solved, thank you nerds.

Cool infographic showing the processes and parts of the brain...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:31:48 -0500

Cool infographic showing the processes and parts of the brain involved in memory. Especially if yours is photographic!

In honor of my return from Africa (and return to my long-neglected blog…) Leaping African...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:47:19 -0500

In honor of my return from Africa (and return to my long-neglected blog…)

Leaping African lizards inspire design of a robot… with a tail!

Just another example of how understanding the biomechanics of creatures supposedly simpler than ourselves helps solve our ever-complex human problems. Integrative Biology is definitely heaven for the critter and robot obsessed!

When you were a munchkin, did you ever plan vacations by...

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:44:41 -0500

When you were a munchkin, did you ever plan vacations by spinning a globe with your eyes closed and poking your finger somewhere? I may have thought New England was a state until I applied to college, but I do owe my superior knowledge of islands in the Pacific to this technique.

I think I’m going to start using this site to do that. Who’s up for tiger hunting in Boulder, CO?

I feel a little guilty that my first thought was, great, maybe Death Cab will start making good...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:27:32 -0400

I feel a little guilty that my first thought was, great, maybe Death Cab will start making good music again.

"Molecular Tweezers" Unravel Mysteries of Protein Structure

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:15:40 -0400

This molecular manipulation technique provides a “real-time” look at the intermediate structures and states a protein undergoes while folding into its proper form. Understanding exactly what happens as a protein folds properly is imperative to solving diseases caused by proteins that have folded improperly- think Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

HOPING IT’LL BE THIS!

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:07:05 -0400

HOPING IT’LL BE THIS!

I’d argue MySpace Tom’s opinions regarding new...

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:09:18 -0400

I’d argue MySpace Tom’s opinions regarding new “technology” are about as compelling as Standard and Poor’s assessment of the United States’ credit rating.

Why I'm "Long" Long Distance

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:58:00 -0400

I have been thinking about long distance relationships a lot lately. This isn’t just because I am in one, though as anyone whose significant other is time zones away knows, it’s difficult to think of anything else. What got me thinking is a conversation I had with a friend the other night. Admittedly this is going to sound a tad obnoxious, so my apologies in advance.

I was arguing that I am the perfect “banker girlfriend,” because I completely understand when the person I am with can’t put me first. I can see how the early mornings and long hours and unpredictable weekend plans and countless cancelled dinners can weigh on a lot of people. I think these things don’t bother me though, because I expect the person I am with to understand the same will be true for me one day. I need to feel successful, fulfilled, and self-sufficient as an individual to bring my best to a relationship, and I expect the person I am with to possess equivalent drive and insatiable ambition.

I insist on making myself seemingly miserable with hectic schedules and intransigent standards. But what to some seems like misery is my special brand of masochism. It has forced me to confront some difficult long-term implications already. My mother gave up her own career because she couldn’t bear leaving her children to be raised by daycare. It was an unexpected factor in my most recent breakup, each of us realizing we had very different conceptions of our futures and families. And it makes me appreciate the person I am with now— uncompromising in his insistence on my rationality, persistence, and autonomy— all the more.

The happy thing about being a woman now though, as opposed to fifty years ago, is it’s not hard to find people who expect us- indeed encourage us- to be rational, persistent, and autonomous. I’m just a part of an increasing percentage of women who demands this. We are free to be our own people and not feel guilty about it, not like we are shirking our duty to our families, or society, or the human species.

And that is the realization that got me thinking about long distance relationships. I think as women come to be viewed as equal players in the partnership, distance is coming to be viewed less as a kiss of inevitable death and more as an acceptable reality to be weathered quietly. The person you love can wait for you, but the marketplace will not. The best academic program you get into can’t pick up and change locations.

This is why I am content to be a “banker girlfriend” (…though for the sake of accuracy and my own insurmountable conceit, I shall disclose I am actually a “VC girlfriend.”) He is more personally important to me than he will ever be to the business world, because for me he is irreplaceable. In the rational world of work, everyone is replaceable. That’s what keeps us competitive and innovative. I am happy to do what is in my power, and deal with the distance, if it allows him the freedom to innovate and compete in a world that is not as flexible as I am.

I’ve accepted that it’s going to be a long time, not just years but decades, before I get to fall asleep every night next to the person who is my last thought before I go to bed. He will be traveling or I will, he’ll wind up in school one place and I in another. That’s just the reality of allowing two people to freely live up to their full potential. Distance will be inevitable. Scarcity of free time inescapable.

As I get older, I’ve realized more and more couples are in this situation. It is probably most pronounced among individuals in academia. My cousin and her husband, both professors, are the perfect example. Tenure track positions are competitive enough as it is; demanding two such positions in the same location is for most couples, wishful thinking. So they have their little apartments, their framed pictures, and their lives apart. The same is true of many couples that meet before going to graduate school. Add to the academic couples, all the professional pairs with careers like consulting that require constant travel. And finally, the military families, who have been dealing with the most stressful variety of separation for centuries before the rest of us had to confront this.

What this all amounts to is, there are a lot of pining people out there. Little islands scattered about, longing for our other halves. We’re concentrated in coffee shops on college campuses, cross-country or transatlantic flights, and cars and subways at rush hour. Our eyes and thoughts tend to wander from the Wall Street Journal and the inbox on our Blackberries. We flick through the thousands of text messages, the nightly emails, the smiling faces captured during the moments we were together. Every moment I am alone, I am longing to be with him, but every moment I am with him reminds me of being alone.

Sunday Funday

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:09:25 -0400

Things That Are Great About Foldit.

1) Mm yes fun with protein structure.

2) Nerd music.

3) Oh, and this.

GUINEA PIGS!! FOR RENT!! Not this one though, he’s mine.

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:36:53 -0400

GUINEA PIGS!! FOR RENT!!

Not this one though, he’s mine.