Counterpoints

From a crappy old book.

I'm on a mission to catalog 365 Things I Am Tired Of Which I am Tired. In the interest of positive thinking, I thought I should counter with a year's worth of things that tickled me to no end. This illustration from a 1933 edition of The Pilgrim's Progress is #1.

#2

Maybe this is funny only to me. I was just the other day trying to remember all 12 of the cranial nerves and no one makes fun of German accents anymore. 

Forthcoming! No. Really. This Time I'm Not Kidding. | For Friends & Family

It's a miracle. It only took seven years.

Engineering the Next Revolution in Neuroscience: The New Science of Experiment Planning (2013-- I'm not kidding!-- Oxford University Press)

(If you're so inclined, you can pre-order your copy here. Only $37.95 for the paperback.)

Mr. Big Food and I are just diddling around inside this Saturday afternoon while it's warm outside. As we both looked to see what Alcino said about The Book on his website, we recalled with great nostalgia the last seven years.

On a lovely evening in April, 2005, at a Mt. Adams pub with a balcony overlooking Cincinnati and the Ohio River, Alcino, Mr. Big Food and I were sitting on three- and four-legged chairs enjoying a beer, talking neuroscience and philosophy.

What a Colorful Day!

BLOOD SPECTRA COMPARED WITH SPECTRUM OF ARGAND-LAMP

Handbook of Physiology by W. Morrant Baker, F.R.C.S and Vincent Dormer Harris, M.D. Lond., F.R.C.P. Sixteenth American Edition Edited by Warren Coleman, M.D. and Charles L. Dana, A.M., M.D.  WITH UPWARDS OF FIVE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS MANY IN COLORS; New Yourk: Willaim Wood and Company MDCCCC

~~
Mr. Big Food and I traveled to Jackson, Mississippi today. Mr. Big Food had a couple of meetings with other members of the Mississippi Brain Trust. I tagged along.

I haven't had too much to say about the weather because it's January, but as you can plainly see, it's freaking cold here!

The meeting convened in an old meeting room on the campus of UMMC (University of Mississippi Medical Campus).

Y'all just chat neuroscience amongst yourself. I'll occupy myself.

The history of what we know is interesting.

Follow us to supper

Salad of four lettuces, peas, rat-tail radish, French breakfast radish, spinach, lemon balm.

Sauteed zucchini (three types), yellow squash (two), carrots (three), and Vidalia onions seasoned with fresh oregano.

That's it for the home grown component. But there was also BBQ chicken, and home made garlic-oregano bread on the grill paired with a bottle of French wine. That was followed by fresh fruit and homemade peach brandy ice cream, which was followed by cognac. And all of that was followed by a nice evening rain. 

Explore!

Nearly everybody has a back yard. If you haven't, you probably know where there is a vacant lot. Or you may go to a park or a school playground. Wherever you go outdoors, that's the place to begin your exploring.

An explorer looks carefully at everything around him. ...

A good explorer uses scientific methods. ...

From page 9 of the crappy old book, Science in Your Own Back Yard-- a Weekly Reader Children's Book Club book-- by Elizabeth K. Cooper copyright 1958 published by Harcourt, Brace and Company.

This book's first two chapters encourage us to "Explore the Yard on Your Stomach" and on our backs. When we've finished our initial explorations we'll set up our back-yard laboratory. (More on this below the fold.) After we've located it properly (and asked our parents if it's okay), we'll provision it with old spoons, a garden trowel, some single edged razor blades, a kitchen knife, wire, string, notebook, and so on (but no power tools [see footnote 1]). And then we will commence exploring

• Soil & rock
• Fossils
• Water
• Grass
• Flowers 
• Plant from Seeds
• Plants from Spores [See footnote 2]