I don't photograph as much as I used to, when I though of it as my profession. Having let that go, I find that when I do make a picture, it brings me significantly more pleasure. So I carry my already outdated Digital Elph with me everywhere, to the point where sometimes I forget that I have it with me.

I had dinner with M + M last week, during our last, brief patch of glorious weather before the sauna kicked back in. We went to Sequoia down on the Potomac waterfront, and dined al fresco under the pinlit trees. On our approach to the restaurant, I saw this:

3:46:30 PM    please comment []

Where does our intuition about others come from? Why are some people so much more able to intuit what's on others' minds?

We are born face-readers. We have to be able to understand basic human expressions in order to survive. But the face gives away much more than we usually assume, and we either never learn the whole array of interpretive strategies ~ or we are trained to discount and overlook them because sometimes it's equally dangerous (socially, emotionally) to know too much.

Read this article: The Naked Face. I promise you it's fascinating.

[via kottke.org]

1:55:28 PM    please comment []

... and it's riding on the backs of mice.

The technique, in which bits of testicular tissue from newborn pigs and goats were grafted onto the backs of mice, could also provide an unprecedented window through which scientists may watch the mysterious process by which sperm develop in various species -- including humans.

Indeed, several experts predicted yesterday that it won't be long before human sperm are grown in mice -- an advance that scientists and ethicists said could lead to both useful and troubling scenarios.

Mentioned in passing in this article from the Washington Post is the fact the host mice are a special breed whose immune systems have been rendered incapable of rejecting foreign tissue. They're already Frankenmice. And there is some concern about the possibility of interspecies contamination:

"Does that mouse have viruses or something that will infect the human cells? Are we going to have 'mad mouse disease'?" he asked, a reference to the surprise discovery that the infectious agent behind mad cow disease can also, if consumed, destroy human brains.

1:26:35 AM    please comment []

I'm fifteen, and already I'm attracted to and pining after the unavailable inappropriate man. I'm going to be doing this for decades.

I did become "the person other people come to" ~ and I was right: it is lonely. I give great advice. Applying it to myself has always been another matter...

12:32:34 AM    please comment []