Eclecticism

I'd like to relate something I saw last weekend. My wife was driving as we cruised down the interstate at something like 72-73. She muttered an exclamation, looking in her rear-view window, so I twist to see what's coming. Just then, at about 80 or so, "zoom!" the motorcycle that caught her eye passes us. Pretty normal bike with the exception that is cruising down the interstate on its back wheel. It's up straight, so that the rider has to stand straight up on the pegs to maintain that balance. Apart from the surprise, my main thought was that here was the reason that motorcyclists have a reputation for recklessness, despite the fact that most or all of the ones I know are safe, even cautious, riders. (But then, when your first accident may be your last...)

Oh, here's another link that I like to go to on a regular basis. Q106.5 Video Vault. Some of the things in there are the funniest things I've ever seen. Granted, some of them just make me shake my head at the idiocy on display, but most of them are hillariously funny.

Some exciting news in the biomedical field: A researcher in China found the secret to coaxing a stem cell to become a motor neuron. Now, motor neurons are the ones that make you move, so this is a huge step in curing things like Lou Gehrig's disease. What they do to coax them to become other cells involves "chemical cocktails" that sort of simulate what the body does at various stages of development. Apparently this scientist found that the trick is the timing of introtucing these cocktails to the cell. That could also lead to finding the "recipe" for various other cells. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Finally, I saw a good marquee: "Free trip to Heaven! Details inside." I thought that was pretty clever. Got a chuckle out of me anyway (and not the cynical one).

--Beav