http://magicspacezombie.com/msz Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:08:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Gary Gygax died. Story.  I will probably blog on this more. If I can stop my uncontrollable weeping. http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/03/04/no/ Courtesy of Wired: A study by Saint Louis University found that a lovable pooch named Sparky and a robotic dog, AIBO, were about equally effective at relieving the loneliness of nursing home residents and fostering attachments. I've written about humans getting pretty attached to their robots before, so I have to say ... http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/03/02/i-heart-my-souless-robot/ So pretty soon I hope to write a post about my experience reading the Sir Richard Burton version of A Thousand Nights and a Night. The brief version is that I had a lot of mixed feelings about it, but, when all is said and done, it is a remarkable ... http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/03/02/arabian-nights-widget-added/ Blind Irishman sees with the aid of son's tooth in his eye Thu Feb 28, 1:30 AM ET DUBLIN (AFP) - An Irishman blinded by an explosion two years ago has had his sight restored after doctors inserted his son's tooth in his eye, he said on Wednesday. Bob McNichol, 57, from County ... http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/02/28/i-am-just-copying-and-pasting-this-story-because-it-is-so-freakin-amazing-that-anything-i-added-to-it-would-just-dimish-its-awesomeness/ We can now see electrons! Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have combined an oscilloscope with a rapidly firing laser to give us this: the electron in motion. Electron Movie Quicktime movie courtesy of MSNBC, who in turn got it from Lund University. So cool! http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/02/26/video-of-a-moving-electron/ You've heard of the Lizard Brain (Medulla) and the Leopard Brain (cerebellum), but have you accessed your fish brain lately? If you've hiccuped you have, according to Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago. Courtesy of Wired's Blog: Hiccups are triggered by electric signals generated in the brain stem. Amphibian brain ... http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/02/26/hiccups-come-from-your-fish-brain/ Wired's blog had a write up of Neil Turok, one of the big M-Theory brains at Cambridge, who is proposing the multiverse-rending idea that the Big Bang wasn't the start of all space and time, and instead is one of many cycles of "Bangs." He posits that space and time ... http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/02/24/big-bang-is-not-the-beginning-of-the-universe-in-other-news-duh/ I'm sure the Blogosphere is about to set itself on fire with discussions of what Castro's resignation means. Some people will insist that he's already dead and that this "beyond the grave" voice is an attempt to maintain the peace in a period of transition. I'm sure plenty of Cubans ... http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/02/19/castro-resigns-first-ever-dictator-to-willingly-leave-office/ This article, courtesy of Simon Owens, proprietor of Bloggasm, is easily one of the best reviews of the current state of short genre fiction, from the perspective of the magnanimous, masochistic magazines that, despite the fact that they go into the endeavor knowing they probably won't be probable, sedulously fight ... http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/02/19/the-state-of-pulp-is-pulp/ So the good folks at Boing Boing had a link posted today of a mashup of Japanese commercials featuring Ronald McDonald. It was mildly amusing on its own -- it went on too long and wasn't nearly as mind-blowing as, say, the iconic Kikkoman commercial. But the best thing to come ... http://magicspacezombie.com/msz/2008/02/09/zombie-miss-mcdonald/