Viral Videos

Karl Fischer created a trilogy of videos recently about the (i) past, (ii) present, and (iii) future of education. At least the second one ("Did You Know") has gone viral (and is embedded below).

Viral is a relatively new term used on the internet to describe content that transforms from obscurity to near ubiquitousness, due to sharing through email, blogs, and the like. It's exponential growth that in many ways replicates the cycle of pandemics. On top of that no one really understands what the common threads are that make for viral content--some things just seem to resonate with people. It's an interesting phenomenon that will undoubtedly become a significant way that information and knowledge are shared in this world.



A couple other examples of videos that went viral (and have since faded back into obscurity) are the Star Wars Kid and Nooma Nooma. If you missed them when they went around the first time then watch them now--I promise you'll laugh.

God's on the Move in the Bronx

This past weekend Steve and I made a quick trip down to New York City to visit some friends and fellow revolutionaries.

I'm busy with a lab writeup on Photodynamic Therapy (if you're curious), so head on over to harvestboston.net to see what Steve had to say about our trip.

Men are happier

I just received this from a good college friend. I don't usually care for forwards, but it made me laugh and so I thought I'd share. (I don't envy all you ladies out there.)

Men Are Just Happier People--

What do you expect from such simple creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You can be President. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth.

The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pa y. Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress~$5000. Tux rental~$100. People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks.

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of
thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.

Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck. You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your big hips. One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache. You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier. Send this to the women who can handle it and to the men who will enjoy reading it.

The last day of winter, the first day of spring

Taylor and I decided to spend the last day of winter sloshing though a bog in the Blue Hills Reservation. You can enjoy the hike vicareously below. All I have to say is, "thank God for waterproof boots." We in very cold water up to our ankles repeatedly.

An ironic twist is that the last day of winter was warmer than the first day of spring, but it appears that mother nature is only one day behind schedule.

Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
35° 31°	55° 42°	60° 32°	51° 31°

I know I'm ready for spring.


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On an unrelated note, I found the end of the Internet. Kinda sad, really.

Talk about Being Ecumenical

I bet you don't have one of these where you live.

The Mystery of the Missing Card

Funny story: Friday morning I was in downtown Boston to interview with Color Kinetics for a summer internship. They're a really awesome looking company who have merged the geekiness of technical engineering with the coolness of aesthetic lighting. I think it'd be a great place to spend the summer, even though they aren't related to biomedical engineering at all. But the story happens before the interview.

The weather was a bit rough on Friday. We had Nor'easter blow through, so it was very cold and windy Friday morning. By mid afternoon we had several inches of snow, and it didn't stop snowing all night. Well, I was hurrying to the warmth of my interview when I passed a begger. I was planing on walking past until I remembered the $5 gift cards I keep with me to give out. I went back, pulled a card out of my wallet, handed it to him and told him what it was, then I continued on my way.

I made it to my interview (three interviews actually) with a bit of time to spare and the interview went well--if only I remembered how C++ allowcates memory inside object constructors I might have done a bit better. Truth be told, I didn't even know I was interview for a software position. I thought I was there for an electrical engineering one. Oh well.

So I leave the building along with another Tufts student who had been interviewing at the same time. She had driven and offered to give me a ride back to campus. On our way to the garage I decided I should get out the other $5 card in case I came across someone else in need. I open up my wallet to find both cards still in there. There really should have only been one left. I had given the guy earlier that day some card from my wallet, but I have no idea which one it was (aside from knowing it's a nonessential card since that's all I keep in that part of my wallet).

So I feel sorry for this guy I gave the random card to. I can just imagine him going to McDonald's and giving them this card to pay. "I'm sorry sir, but this is your AAA card." "But the guy told me it had $5 on it." "If it does it's not for here." It's sad really, but funny.

New England Skiing

This past Saturday Pat's Peak was kind enough to let slide repeatedly down it's back with sticks strapped to our feet. Jen and I joined a group of about 20 from Calvary Chapel in the City to Henniker, NH for an afternoon of cold fun. The mountain (hill) was beautiful and the skiing was surprisingly good. We were fortunate enough to be hit by a Nor'easter all day Friday which dumped over a foot of fresh powder on the slopes, so we didn't have to experience the infamous icy Appalachian slopes.

We were invited to join Calvary by two of our good friends, Joel and Shoba. Joel's in the biomedical engineering program with me, and we were fortunate (blessed) enough to discover we both belong to the same Lord. As far as we know we're the only Christians in the department (I hope I'm wrong), so we're trying to be salt and light as best as we can. Having a friend and ally around is a great blessing. What's even better is that they play (and actually like!) Settlers of Catan, so I might actually eventually get to play with someone. [Actually Adam and Krista like Settler's also, but they don't live here yet. Coincidentally both couples share a last name--perhaps I've stumbled on something. On a side note, Adam and Krista will be up here in less than two weeks looking for apartments! They'll be Quincians in no time.]

So, all told, New England skiing wasn't nearly as disappointing as I had expected it to be; in fact, it was great! Hopefully we'll even do it again soon, but I think Jen wants to take me cross country skiing first. Sounds like fun.

What is a Christian?

There's an interesting conversation going on over at Steve's site (http://www.harvestboston.net/). (Come to think of it, there are always interesting conversations going on over there. You should definitely frequent his blog.)

Well, the current discussion is on what it takes to be a Christian. It's in direct response to an experience that Steve, his wife, Jen, and I had a couple weeks ago when we joined a local Christian mysticism group for a movie and discussion. You can read all about that experience here (my thoughts are in the comments).

Go check it out.

Inadiquacies in the Naturalistic Evolutionary Model

I'm intimidated by that title, but it's the best I could come up with in six words.

I just got out of the most enjoyable Biomedical Engineering seminar in my life (I've only attended a dozen or two, but still . . .). It was interesting, well presented, and I actually had enough background to understand what he was saying. That's certainly preferable to sitting for an hour on Mondays completely confused and feeling inadequate. Perhaps I am actually learning something.

Well, the seminar was by David Walt (Tufts Chemistry Professor) on Optical Fiber Microarrays. Now I'm not going to pretend to understand what he said well enough to explain it to you (and I'm not going to pretend that you'd be interested if I could), but one comment he made in the Q&A section made me think.*

Someone asked if his setup (which can be used as a "nose") gives us any information about how biological noses actually work--how many specific types of sensors we have. He said that it's interesting because theoretically and experimentally it only takes about 100 distinct sensors to detect every (practically) possible combination of odors; however, humans (and dogs for that matter) have around 1000 distinct sensors. He didn't seem to think there's any practical reason why we should have evolved such a unnecessarily precise array of sensors. I was thinking, "Wow, God's such an overachiever. He's amazing." It made me smile.

* On the off chance you are actually interested: Here's his site which I'm sure has more information than you'd ever care about.

Encouragement from Unexpected Sources

I've joined a research lab at Tufts looking into non-linear optics. Presently I'm working with a couple friends trying to blast tiny (micrometer) holes in silk with a really fast (femtosecond pulsed) laser. We started actually shooting the silk with photons last Tuesday, and I can't tell you how glad I am to finally be working on something that isn't hardware interfacing. But that's not the point of this post. (If you're interested in the micromachining research then look here for a good understandable explanation of the sort of thing we're researching.)

Thursday morning we met up for round two of silk trials, but before Brian arrived Hannah and I were talking. Somehow it came up that I had moved here with friends. She asked why, and so I was able to tell her that we are a group of Christians who wanted to move to a world class city together to live out the teachings of Christ: learning and training how to love people, community involvement, and basically declaring that the kingdom of the heavens is here and available. As far as I've been able to deduce no one in my lab is a Christian, but nonetheless she was extremely encouraging and perhaps excited about what we're up here to do. When Brian arrived she even started telling him about why I was here and he likewise thought it was neat.

It was such an encouragement to hear that from people I know and like who don't necessarily share my beliefs. It got me to thinking about what I had read earlier that morning:

We are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
--Paul describing how Christians are perceived in the world (2 Cor. 2:15-16)

If those who aren't Christians respond favorably to such news then perhaps they better fit into the category of those who are "being saved" than that of those who are perishing. Prechristians if you will.

I know I found the realization encouraging.

T time for God

Getting from on place to another is an adventure up here. I spend about 2 hours on the subway (called the T) here in Boston everyday. That's a good chunk of time--over 8% of my day--and I've been wanting to use it toward our mission up here somehow. Such a great cross-section of the population is within reach (literally) everyday on the T. I've heard of people testing the culture of a city by asking random people on the subway questions, but I'm not quite to the point where I'd be comfortable doing that. (You'd be amazed how absolutely silent a train car with perhaps 150 people packed into it is during the commute hours. Any conversation above a whisper will be heard by dozens of other people, and I generally don't like my private conversations overheard.) Perhaps someday I'll work up the nerve, but for now I've decided on another option.

I know you'll think I must be slow for taking 7 months to figure this out, but I've decided to read my Bible on the T. It's such a great idea! I've been lagging way behind in my Bible reading, so this gives me some set-aside time to do it each day with the added benefit of being a subtle (but visible and obvious) follower of Christ in the city. Being easily associated with Jesus on the T has the added benefit of making me more aware of my surroundings (it'd be horrible to sit obliviously reading while an elderly or pregnant person stands right in front of me!). In fact, having my Bible out and open has even provided the starting point for a few (short) converstations. For instance, a nicely dressed black gentleman today said on his way off the train "Hey man, that's cool [gesturing at my Bible]. What church do you go to?" Now that's a question I usually take a little bit of time to answer and explain, but since I only had about 5 seconds I replied, "Actually, I moved up here with a few friends to start one." He seemed to approve, but the few people remaining on the train didn't make eye contact with me for the rest of the trip (not that that should be surprising--no one ever makes eye contact with anyone else on the train, that's probably why advertising on the T is such a great idea).

I've even starting noticing other people who do the same thing. Today there was a lady who had a Bible open when I got on, and last Friday there was a man reading out of Romans (in the tiniest Bible I've ever seen). I've not yet approached another like-minded soul, but perhaps someday soon I will.

Let the conversations begin.