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From The York Press today, one of the greatest bits of science news I’ve seen in a while…

“Rat Brain Robot

“A biological robot controlled by a blob of rat brain has been created by British Scientists. The wheeled machine is wirelessly linked to a bundle of neurons kept at body temperature in a sterile cabinet. Signals from the ‘brain’ allow the robot to steer left or right to avoid objects in its path. Researchers at the University of Readng are now trying to ‘teach’ the robot to become familiar with its surroundings.”

Now all they need is a robot cow so they can make some robot cheese for the robot rat to eat! I have to admit I don’t understand why they put the word teach in quotation marks. It’s as though they don’t quite believe what they are writing. I love evil science.

This particular experiment makes me think of the Simpson’s Halloween episode where Mr Burns and Smithers put Homer’s brain into a robot because the mind is willing but the flesh is weak, “so I will replace flesh, which is weak, with steel, which is strong”. Then the giant robot Homer crashes through the walls of the building to get to some donuts and thinks, “Mmmmm, sprinkles!” as he chomps them with his giant robot jaws.

Joking aside, this is important research. We need to learn to harness biological intelligence in this way as it could be an important part of space exploration in the future. The Day Mars Stood Still…

I’ve been observing the news from Georgia with fascination. How long will it be before Russia invades a European country and what will we do then? World War 3 or Cold War 2, I hope it all works out all right, but knowing men, I doubt it will. Or maybe I’m being too cynical.

Just a few photos of Clem and various Clem-related events…

Clem instructs me on the guitar. Play louder! Play faster!

Clem explores the world of reading –about a fish who couldn’t get to sleep– during tummy-time on his playmat.

Clem kicks one of the other babies from our NCT pre-natal class, in revenge for an earlier eye-poke. BABY CAGE MATCH III!

Clem and another NCT baby see who can keep a straight face longest.

Clem’s suits hanging on the line on a sunny summer day (one of about five we’ve had this year).

Bedtime with Shaky Bear.

Part of the evening ritual of bath and bed is listening to Lullabies for Babies and giving Clem his soft and calming beige Winnie the Pooh toy to handle. Since he rattles, we call him Shaky Bear.

Goodnight everybody!

So I was in the bookstore the other day, and Becky she says to me, she says, let’s look at the children’s books, let’s get Clem a few books. And so we did.

And while Becky was looking at cute cloth books, I was browsing, looking for Maurice Sendak’s In The Night Kitchen, when this book attracted my attention…

The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business… What’s that on his head?

It’s the story of a mole whose head gets shat upon. Neglecting to clean the shit from his head, the nearly blind mole goes in search of the perpetrator of this turd-based crime. He asks the different creatures in turn if they are to blame. Each creature denies culpability and moveover proves its innocence by crapping for the mole, to show how different is its faeces from the shit-hat decorating his head. Finally, he meets some coprophages (flies) who, sampling the reeking pile of soft-serve, declare to him that the dog did it. And so the mole gains vengeance by shitting on the dog’s head, a tiny tight dry black dropping.

The animals’ excreta are described and drawn in loving detail by the author and illustrator (both Germans). I can’t quite express why the book shocked me. I guess it doesn’t matter. There’s just something wrong with the whole concept. Children and potty humour — no big deal there. But why doesn’t he clean off the shit? Why is it eaten in the book? Why do the animals shit right there in front of the mole, rather than, say, a fly acting as guide to the mole and showing him the different types of turd (without eating them) until they find the right one? And why does the mole take revenge without at least discussing it with the dog, who surely soiled the mole’s head by accident? I feel a bit like Falwell versus the Teletubbies but it just seems so… deviant and dirty.

It’s interesting that In the Night Kitchen was controversial in America because Mickey is naked in the story. That strikes me as ridiculous, but maybe these scheisse-loving Germans think the same of my objections to their mole book.

Anyway here is the American cover, with altered title…

The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit… Same E. coli hat though.

Bizarre?

Next week… Mormons!

It has been many weeks since my last post. Well, finally here it is… loads of baby photos and a few non-baby photos to surprise and entertain you.

Go Git ‘Em!