It sort of stinks that I really won't have time to unpack before leaving for NY tomorrow morning, but at least it's here.

It sort of stinks that I really won't have time to unpack before leaving for NY tomorrow morning, but at least it's here.

Yay for having your stuff!!! How's it going out there??

OTOH, I think I'd look stupid with short hair.

Yeah, that's what everybody said at the Chicago F2F when you had short hair. "That meara sure is stupid-looking in that red dress." @@

Many scientists think there is a strong possibility we'll discover life on another planet within the next ten years, thanks to more sophisticated space-based observations.

[link]

In 2015, the European Space Agency will launch a mission called Darwin, a cluster of four orbiting telescopes that will scour the heavens for life-bearing planets. For five years, the telescopes will peer at 500 stars and conduct spectral analyses of the 50 most promising planets it detects.

"You can be pretty sure that if there's life out there, we've a good chance of being able to say so," said Glenn White, head of astrophysics at the Open University and a scientist on the Darwin project.

Yay!

How's it going out there??

So far so good. I've been exploring the neighborhood (which I'm loving), making the necessary trips to Target and IKEA, and even got out to Sonoma on Sunday. Next week I hope to slowly unpack and explore a bit more of the city. Then, of course, I actually have to go to work. Sigh.

Sounds good, megan!

God, I was just trapped in my office, and I had to pee, but my boss was out in the common area having crazy conversations with anyone in her field of vision. I don't know if she's getting crazier or if I am losing my ability to deal with her.

I vote B. I know it's what's happened to me wrt Big!Boss.

In other Big!Boss news, he was interviewed for a job at Harvard last week. In a meeting this morning, he mentioned Harvard 5 times. I wasn't at the meeting, but my workfriend was, and she counted.

He is everywhere today and I am hiding from him.

A friend of mine just got word that she's been accepted at Harvard's Kennedy School! yay! (sniff - I'll miss her)

This is cool, for thems that need it:

Device warns you if you're boring or irritating

A DEVICE that can pick up on people's emotions is being developed to help people with autism relate to those around them. It will alert its autistic user if the person they are talking to starts showing signs of getting bored or annoyed.

One of the problems facing people with autism is an inability to pick up on social cues. Failure to notice that they are boring or confusing their listeners can be particularly damaging, says Rana El Kaliouby of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's sad because people then avoid having conversations with them."

The "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" device, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.

There's probably a lot of non-autistic people who could use a "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" device too. You know, for those who can't afford a socialization helper monkey.

Here's a handful. Why don't sellers/agents put better pictures up?

Top pick so far, if I can make a deal.

I don't think the images are of the actual property, but we'll see.

Wee, but nice

Hobbit kitchen?"

ETA: crap, lemme see if I can find links you can get to