Fancy Dress Party

Jack dressed as a wizard (or, as I said, a Human Warlock because I play too much World of Warcraft) for a fancy dress party this weekend. His minion was under his hat (his frog).

Beach in February

No matter the weather, kids love the beach.

Apple and Cisco share iPhone name

I'm always telling Jack to share nicely with his friends, and now it seems that the big boys can do it too.

BBC article.

Back in the lab

Look at me! I'm back in the lab! I need some images to complete a paper I'm about to submit, so I finally get to go into the lab, cut some sections on the cryostat and do a little immunohistochemistry. It feels good, and brings back some good feelings. Oh, the monotony of the post-doc's life. It feels like I'm back in the Cardiff labs and that one of the girls from the group is going to come and remind me that it's time for a coffee break. "Nostalgic cryosectioning"? Google that!

Compare the photo to this entry from 3 and a half years ago.

Oxwich Bay Named Britain's Best Beach

And they're probably quite right.

BBC article.

Google Maps satellite view.

Multi Touch Sensing Displays

Take a look at this technology. This is Minority Report style gesture-based touch screen control of your computer. Imagine how great this would be with the full 3D data (rather than the pre-rendered images) of the interactive anatomical models of anatomy.tv. With one or two large, very high definition displays a student or teacher could work their way towards a region of interest, adding or removing layers of tissue, rotating to show shape and relationships. Instead of jumping around and disorienting your audience you could clearly work your way around the body.

Are these the next generation of smartboards?

More information here.

Blue Men

Jack is watching the Blue Man Group and drumming along with cardboard tubes from wrapping paper and two orange spoons. He's following the rhythm too. I'm just glad he doesn't want to paint his whole head blue.

Flawed Stem Cell Paper Withdrawn

The New Scientist has recently questioned data presented in a Nature paper that described pluripotent cells present in adult bone marrow (link). Clearly a potentially very promising resource, do these cells really have the originally described abilities?

New Scientist article here.

Afternoon nap is good for the heart

A recently completed study says that having regular naps in the middle of the day helps reduce the risk of heart disease.

Right, that's enough evidence for me. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

BBC article link.

Snow

We did have some snow on Friday. Friday's are probably the worst days to have snow if you're at work and you drive because although it's a great reason to start the weekend early, everyone else has the same idea. The roads get clogged (we don't have a huge army of snowplows for once a year snowfall) and you spend the rest of Friday in your car. This was no problem for me as I'd already elected to work from home (smug smug smug).

We were feeling a little left out as the rest of the country had been snowy for a couple of days and we had nothing to moan about. Jack half built a snowman (he'd hurt himself at school and wasn't happy) but the snow was almost all gone by the next morning. Flash in the pan. Storm in a teacup. Something like that.

Caswell Sand

I'm a lazy blogger. Stu and Lisa came to visit in the first weekend of February and we popped down to a beach in the good weather. Jack's firefighting imagination came with him and we built piles of sand (fires) which he put out with buckets of water. It all worked rather well, as the sandy pile got washed away bit by bit until the fire was out.

Gower Golf Club

I was practicing on the chipping range in the late evening, over a week ago. On top of the hill the views and sunsets are great.

Down time

It's good to be back on the bike. My hamstring injury didn't seem to be getting much better so I tried to take a full 9 days off any sort of exercise, which included my daily cycle to work. Very inconvenient. I can't say that it feels as though it has helped much (but it most likely did) so I got back on the bike today. It's a very easy, steady ride and I usually use light exercise as a method of aiding repair of most injuries. Oh well. The muscles seem to have tightened up but don't feel much stronger. Yes, I should probably continue the full rest with light stretching, heat treatment and massage but it's difficult to maintain. I have cut out running and my usual training for 6 weeks now and not even cycling steadily to work and back each day was driving me nuts. (The lack of exercise meant some serious levelling in Warcraft and a new character, suggesting I really need to get out more). Imagine living with me at the moment - poor Kim!

Colouring in

Here's a funny thing. I'm working from home and sat at the kitchen table with Jack. Jack's colouring in Fireman Sam pictures. I'm also colouring in. I've been drawing some heart development diagrams for the cardiovascular embryology podcast in Adobe Illustrator and I'm about to colour these in too. Hmmm.

Hot Fuzz

At last, a film to look forward to. Rarely does an upcoming film fill me with anticipation these days (as most seem to be a remake of a remake of a book) but I've been waiting for this for a long time. The next film to follow Shaun of the Dead: Hot Fuzz.

The TV series "Spaced" started this for most of us. If you've seen it and are anything like me at all you're also a fan. Thank God for DVD - if it had been released on tape I'd have worn it out by now. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are films that let Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Edgar Wright et al. play out all those games they started back then. Unfortunately I expect so much from the team these days after past successes that they've a huge amount to live up to. The trailers look as though they're pandering to me and my kind though, and I have faith in their combined sense of humour. It has got to be good.

I think it opens on Valentine's Day so I'd better start hunting for a babysitter.

Shaun of the Dead at the IMDb

Stitch Pain: New light on stitch

I often get asked about the cause of the "stitch" pain many people suffer from when running. No-one is entrirely sure of the cause or if there are multiple causes, but a recent study has helped define it.

Sports Injury Bulletin: Stitch pain article.

It appears that most people get a stitch on their right side, around the height of the upper abdomen. That's where my stitch pain occurs (very rarely) and I don't remember ever having a stitch on the opposite side. I think that I've also had pain in my right shoulder at the same time, suggesting to me that my diaphragm is involved. They linked eating a large amount of food within the 2 hours before exercise to the stitch, which also fits my history as I rarely eat much before running. If I do I often feel generally awful.