L | LaptrinhX

Blackout shades for imaging rigs

Your amazing imaging rig should be operated with the room lights on. There’s...

A critique of using animal brains to develop better artificial neural networks

Can artificial neural net (ANN) technology learn anything from neurobiology?...

A sense of scale, public vs. private universities

Private universities have many fewer undergraduate students compared to public universities. From Wikipedia, mostly 2021 numbers. People...

2 tips for making big lab purchases easier

Making good use of those indirect cost returns Spending a lot of money on a big purchase can be time consuming. Whether it’s a high-power...

The brain is a neural net, or it isn’t, wait– what’s your point?

Rene Descartes’ drawing. 1664 Twitter is good for some things, I assume, and it is certainly terrible for many other things. Those other things include debates about whether the brain is a neural net, or a computer,...

Driving your research activities

Vannevar Bush with the world’s most advanced foosball table. Years ago at a Janelia conference, E.J. Chichilnisky asked the audience, which was almost exclusively neuroscientists working on animals, whether they care...

Write it down. Analyze it now.

This piece from Eve Marder resonantes with me. Just a couple of notes to elaborate on it. Pages from Oliver Smithies’ lab notebook Write it down. I tell people in my lab this all the time. Work done that is not...

The Art of the Cold Email in Science

If you’re looking for a lab/prof to sponsor your grad work or post doc, it can be difficult to find a match. Responding to advertisements is one way. Cold emails are another way. Like a lab, but no ad? Apply...

Specifications for new lab space

The Diesel2p. Setting up some new lab space? Need some plans and specifications for renovations? Here are some notes that are relevant for setting up rooms for 2-photon microscopes and/or electrophysiology to be used...

Sourcing scan mirrors in early 2022

ScannerMax Saturn 5 There are some companies that have no real competition. Maybe a product here-and-there in their catalog is subject to market forces, but most of their items have no competing options from other...

2021 Fake News Award — Havana Syndrome — Textbook case of disinformation from Reuters [UPDATE : In Intelligence Matters, Punctuation Really Matters!]

“[CIA Director William] Burns has said there is a ‘very strong possibility’ that the syndrome is intentionally caused and that Russia could be responsible.”Reuters (September 21 2021)“[CIA Director William]...

Happy New Year!

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards” Soren Kierkegaard December 31 2021 — — I wish you all a very Happy New Year! May 2022 be the Year of Truth, Freedom and Justice! Follow us...

Lockerbie — Newly Declassified Doc Reveals True Reason of Trial

“His [Gaddafi] readiness to suffer the extended effects of sanctions rather than to hand over the indictees indicated that he must have something personal to fear. But the present strategy would not only call any...

CIA to Recruit Korean Speakers — Do you know your ABC? [UPDATE — 2021 Duolingo Language Report]

“Fluent in Korean?US citizen with a 4 yr college degree?Interested in national security?Your skills are needed here!”CIA Directorate of Operations Twitter (August 17 2018) August 23 2018 — On May 10 2017, the CIA...

On This Day — Pan Am 103 Debris Show ‘Evidence’ of Plastic Explosive (December 28 1988) [2021]

“I need not go into the rest of the story and the explosion, except to say that some of us believe that, within hours, the Americans had guessed, at a very high level, what had gone wrong. It is a matter of fact that...

On This Day — Benazir Bhutto Is Assassinated (December 27 2007) [If Intelligence Agencies cannot solve the murder of a prime minister, what is it they can do? ]

“The people of Pakistan had rejected bigotry and prejudice in electing a woman Prime Minister. It was an enormous honor, and an equally enormous responsibility… I had not asked for this role; I had not asked for...

The Good Traitor — Remembering George Blake (November 11 1922 — December 26 2020)

“Communism was an ideal which, if it could have been achieved, would have been well worth it. I thought it could be, and I did what I could to help it, to build such a society. It has not proved possible. But I think...

Random Thoughts — [WDYT? Snowden & Havana Syndrome]

“Be a free thinker and don’t accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.” Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) The painting “Random Thoughts” by Sandy Welch December 17 2021 —...

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Red Pill Or Blue Pill?

“Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self.” Trappist Father Thomas Merton The Dalai Lama was 33 years old when he met father Merton. “I often describe him as a very, very strong bridge...

On This Day — CIA COS Richard Welch Is Assassinated in Athens (December 23 1975)

“The CIA and the Ford White House quickly saw Welch’s murder as a political windfall. At a time when the CIA was under assault from Congress and Bush’s nomination was in peril in the Senate, there was now a dead...

5G Belgium — Chaos Across the Spectrum [UPDATE — Boeing and Airbus Warn US Transportation Secretary]

“The interferences caused to GSM-R receivers have been a very strong concern for Railway operators over the last years. Several cases of interference have been reported in various Member States, causing non-acceptable...

On This Day — Pan Am Flight 103 disintegrates over Lockerbie (December 21 1988)

“Operation El Dorado Canyon (1986) turned out to be a more decisive blow against Libyan-sponsored terrorism than I could ever have imagined. There were revenge killings of British hostages organized by Libya, which I...

The August 4 2020 Beirut Explosion — Debunking the FBI Conspiracy Theory [UPDATE : Malice or Stupidity?]

“The amount of ammonium nitrate that blew up at Beirut port last year was one fifth of the shipment unloaded there in 2013, the FBI concluded after the blast, adding to suspicions that much of the cargo had gone...

On This Day — Did the CIA Kill Father Louis Thomas Merton? (December 10 1968) [New Book: Thomas Merton’s Betrayers]

“The very thoughts of a person like me are crimes against the state. All I have to do is think, and immediately I become guilty.”Father Louis Merton — A Signed Confession of Crimes against the State The Dalai...

Two Years Ago — GCHQ boss reveals real reason behind his resignation (February 25 2019) [UPDATE : Watchdog misled over reason for resignation]

“After Father Edmund Higgins pleaded guilty to child sexual imagery offences in 2013, we submitted a character reference on our knowledge of him to the court in good faith. His subsequent criminal actions appalled us...