Stuffilike.net

Why Trayvon Matters April 3, 2012

From Let’s be Friends Again, which is not usually so dark.  Or safe for work.

Usually It Takes Longer March 15, 2012

The Inevitable Outcome March 15, 2012

The Third Rock Outdoor Fire Pit is shaped like Earth, made from one quarter inch-thick carbon steel and yours for a mere $1,679.

Futility March 11, 2012

I often find it hard to get my stepdaughters’ attention.

Smart Drugs Attach to and Kill Just Cancer Cells February 18, 2012

“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”¹

Latticework unfolds to release payload molecule.²

They’re specific to just certain types, since the lattice holding the cancer drugs only spring open when they encounter certain selected proteins that the cancer cells make.  This is part of a study by Ido Bachelet, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who says “We call it a nanorobot because it is capable of some robotic tasks.”  Once this package recognizes the correct protein, it unwraps itself when the aptamers bind to the proteins to which they have specific affinity releasing the drugs which then attack the cancer.

So, less of a robot and more of a mousetrap.  Still, that’s some impressive nanomanufacturing.  They used CadNano³ to design it, building in a dozen molecules of cancer-busting drug and two positions on the outside for the aptamers—and they tested it on different cancer types.  Six different cancer-cell types were put together and six different aptamer locks were tested against them.  Each payload attached to the cancer type it was aimed at, and no other (antibodies as it turns out, which stopped the cells from growing).

More remarkably still, these “devices” are able to be destroyed by the usual liver cleanup methods.  This means these devices can be administered to a diseased organ, where they dump the toxic or drug payload there, become empty and then are harmlessly cleaned up by natural bodily methods.

¹William Gibson, right as usual…at least then.

²Image stolen from Campbell Strong, Shawn Douglas, & Gaël McGill using Molecular Maya & Cadnano

³See The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, which elaborates upon this technology somewhat.

Dawn of the Disney Dead December 6, 2011

D. ON ICE from Ale on Vimeo.

Surfing Samurai Robots October 12, 2011

Surfing Samurai Robots is a delightful, reverent homage to the time-honored literary craft that is noir detective fiction, except for the surfing samurai robots, of course, and the alien Zoot who imagines himself to be a noir detective due to listening to radio broadcasts of the period from sixty light-years away (they must have really nice antennas there) and the surfers that Zoot finds himself in the company of attempting to solve mystery (not much of one, but oh, well) with the aid of hallucinogenic yogurt¹.  Zoot is not handicapped by his alien appearance, though very different-looking from humans, as the surfers note:

‘Dig that bitchen schnoz,’ one of them said. The rest laughed, but as far as I could tell, it was nervous laughter. It was just something to do until the shock went away.

I said, ‘I have to explain this all the time. I was born funny.’

‘You mean a birth defect?’ the Earthperson holding the sneeve [Frisbee] said.
Birth defect? It had a nice ring to it. I could use that phrase. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘a birth defect.’

T’oomians are mostly nose. There are less attractive characters in the book².  Zoot finally acquires a fedora, a gat, a Chrysler, and Chandleresque patter:

Without looking at me, Whipper Will said, ‘Gotterdammerung. They’re a motorcycle-punk club that
likes to inspire terror in people on the beach.’
‘Not much of a challenge for them,’ I said. ‘Is it a job or a hobby?’

and a murder case³.

Unsurprisingly, there are sequels: Hawaiian UFO Aliens and Tubular Android Superheroes, which are on my “to read” stack, as soon as I finish Newton and the Counterfeiter, which is pretty engrossing just now.

^1.  A Bulwer-Lytton opening sentence if ever I wrote one.

^2.  Did  I mention the gorillas in suits?

^3.  Not really, but I like writing stuff like that.

Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore August 16, 2011

This cheery little book had me in stitches, and I am a grumpy old man.  Boy from the sticks meets girl vampire and hilarity ensues; that totally does not convey the quality of the humor.  Boy first finds himself engaged to seven Chinese immigrants who will marry anybody to get green cards. Boy meets modern Emperor Norton (“Emperor of San Francisco, and Protector of Mexico”), who gets him a managerial job nights at the Marina Safeway here in Baghdad-by-the-Bay (back when it wasn’t 24-7 operation) stocking shelves.  The Animals, his crew, find themselves amateur vampire hunters and pretty much heroic by the last pages.

Christopher Moore’s book is hysterically funny in that lovely deadpan manner I can’t resist.  There are, however, less humor-sensitive individuals out there, like nansee555.  She gave it one star on Amazon.

“This book is truly bad in so many respects. In case anyone will ask, "Well then, why did you buy it?", I’ll clarify that I was given it as a gift (I enjoy vampire and Gothic fiction and my friend liked the cover art.) And I finished it because I like to finish books, plus I was curious to see how the train wreck would end. If there is anything nice I can say about this book, it’s that perhaps I am not the right audience. And it has appealing cover art.”

I had to see what could be so different about her views and mine, so I entered the dark portal that is See all my reviews.

Oh, my.

Apparently she does enjoy gothic fiction, literary criticism and poetry.

I have often speculated about the personalities of people who could find social constructs like these satisfying.  It’s a little like the old joke:

“How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?”

“That’s not funny.”

Lake Almanor’s Meadow, Unflooding August 15, 2011

The meadow north of Lake Almanor was fully underwater for the first half of this year…it is only now re-emerging, much to the delight of the migratory bird population of cormorants, storks, egrets, swans, geese and ducks.

Flooded:

Unflooding:

Click on either to embiggen.