I haven't been writing much lately, and I apologize, so I'll try to say a few things here.
I was in Blockbuster and I noticed this gem:
with the classic sub-heading "It's not called
gym-nice-tics." Classic.
In neuroscience news, my schizophrenia / corpus callosum / septum pellucidum / fornix research is still going nowhere, though I figured out that Paint is extremely helpful for wrapping my mind around morphological orientation problems.
Also, apes in the ATL have been showing interesting patterns of communication via gesture as opposed to via facial/vocal expression, which seems like a viable evolutionary precedent (spandrel?) to human language. My Chomsky-an bio-linguistics professor will probably tear apart this idea, but until 7:30 tonight I'm safe to feel like progress is being made in that field. Relevant papers are on BBC and Science News (it's funny how when one journal covers research everyone else feels obligated...):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6610447.stm
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070505/fob2.asp
and the original in PNAS:
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0702624104v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=pollick&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
Similarly, lay journals are all over these dudes that made monkeys see stuff and claimed to present precedents for visual prosthetics:
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9070853&fsrc=RSS
Article in PNAS: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0608563104v1?ck=nck
As for me, I've been compiling papers on music, language, and auditory perception in the hopes that some kind of neuroscience will finally seem worth all the boring work. If I find anything great I'll be sure to mention it. For now, it seems that lots has been published in the field but the evidence is rarely converging and there are no well-established theories. This is kind of a good thing because it means researchers hoping to get started in this field don't have to be overly highly-specialized. Also, authors take lots of liberties with various types of music theory and history, which if I ever established myself in the field would be loads of fun to rip apart in reviews and commentary. The reading has also given me a chance to e-mail Dean Cyrus with a middle-ages/renaissance music question, and it was nice to hear from her.
In other news, our kickball team, "1st base is for making out," won our first game 3-1 against "Mr. Miyagi's kickball dojo." Our pitcher hurt his shoulder, but the back up guy did a great job. I got to kick once, but I kicked it really hard right at someone and they dropped it so I got an RBI. Otherwise I didn't touch the ball. Our team did well at flip cup, but not quite as well as the team in light blue. They were sick nasty.
I'm starting to prepare for Germany from the end of this month till the second week of June. I'll be in, at least, Berlin, Aachen, and Aschaffenburg / Frankfurt. Pimsleur tapes have taught me about three words, and a Swiss lady at my lab has been teaching me more useful stuff like, "I don't support Bush," the cardinal directions, etc. I'll need help soon to learn how to order "whatever's your best local draught," how to order off a menu, "whatever, as long as it's muscle tissue not some weird organ," etc.
I've got some nice pictures of Boston now. Now that the ice has melted it's quite an attractive city, especially around our area and in the parks. Hoping to spend more time outside, play more soccer, and fix my bike so I can get around more.
Finally, lots of people are coming to Boston / surrounding areas for extended stays, which I'm very excited about. This is all the more reason that you should come visit.
