Skip to main content

To Explore Strange New Worlds

This week I have been making a figure for a paper (due next week) and wanted to get ideas how to sketch the endoplasmic reticulum in a dendrite. I therefore did a Google Images search for "ER dendrite." Because "dendrite" is such a science word, I didn't figure I would get many non-scientific images. I was correct, and a very helpful image appeared on the first line of the first page. That helped in my construction of this draft of my figure. (The ER is contiguous with the upper right-hand corner, sitting in the larger dendrite):
I wanted to be complete, though, so I searched through the next several pages, most of which were just pictures of dendrites without any endoplasmic reticulum. Then to my horror, on page five of the search results, I found this mixed in with all the images of neurons:

Why, oh, why? It turns out the indicated page is an archived week's worth of posts from October of 2005 on a blog called BoingBoing. One post is titled "Dean on Matthews and, er, salami" and another post contains a sentence about some legal decisions:
All of them -- the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Melvin v Doe, New Jersey's Superior Court, Appellate Division in Dendrite v Doe, and now the Delaware Supreme Court -- have required the presentation of evidence before a Doe defendant may be deprived of his right to remain anonymous.
What I don't understand, though, is why Google Images picked that image out of the dozens of pictures on that page to include in the search. The image is in a post separate from any occurrences of "er" or "dendrite." I love Google Images, but the abrupt appearance of the fan fiction soft porn almost made me toss my lunch.

Comments

  1. Unknown7:43 PM

    Spock and Kirk together like that is just wrong. Any two unknown guys - whatever they want, but not Spock and Kirk.

    On another note, I learned how to read your blog on my Kindle. Pretty cool!

    ReplyDelete
  2. J. Michael Andresen8:19 PM

    I agree completely. I am fully supportive of all lifestyles no matter how mainstream or alternative. It was Kirk and Spock in particular that was disturbing. I would have been equally nauseated by a similar depiction of, say, Batman and Wonder Woman.

    ReplyDelete
  3. J-W Maessen7:59 AM

    Couldn't you just have *said* Kirk/Spock? Oh my eyes!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can You Cross Your Toes?

Katie and I had a heated discussion the night before last. We were sitting on the couch watching Jon Stewart when she noticed a large, apparently cancerous growth sticking out of the bottom of my foot. She asked what the big lump in my sock was. "That's my toe," I responded, nonplussed. I had crossed my first and second toes, causing a lump to protrude from the bottom of my sock. Katie was quite alarmed. "You can cross your toes?" "Sure, can't you? Everyone can cross their toes!" "Of course I can't cross my toes. Who can cross their toes?" And I confirmed that Katie could not, in fact, cross her toes. Even manipulating her toes with my fingers, I could not get her toes to stay crossed. She just has very short toes. That led, of course, into a discussion of who was the freak. Were my long, crossable toes abnormal, or were her stubby, uncrossable phalanges the outliers? In case you're confused, here are some pictures. First, of my v...
36 comments
Read more

Max the Model

Katie sometimes talks to Max about all the things he can grow up to be. "Will you grow up to be a scientist like Daddy, or a lawyer like Mommy?" she will query. In recent days, though, we think Max might aspire to be a model. He LOVES the camera. Point it in his direction, and he is mesmerized by the big lens, giving it a big smile. He will sit for long series of photographs, changing his expressions constantly so we'll be sure to get a good one. This is Katie's recent favorite series (mostly because she thinks he looks so cute in the outfit): This is my favorite series, based purely on the dynamic range of emotions that Max is capable of. I am especially fond of the last picture. So cute!
9 comments
Read more

A Little Night Music

I've been in Boston this week at a scientific conference. I've spent nearly all of my time at the conference, but was able to get away a couple of times to see friends. One night off I went out for pizza with Ekrem and Leanne (and their adorable kids). We went to Stone Hearth Pizza , whose head chef is the brother of Bob, one of my labmates in Minneapolis. (He wasn't at the restaurant the night we went, sadly.) Ekrem and Leanne are moving to their new house in a week, and I helped them out by consuming the remainder of a bottle of scotch that they keep at their house for me. I felt very proud of myself for accomplishing this noble task. Last night I went to see Andrea perform in Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music , one of my favorite musicals. Beforehand, I had dinner with fraternity friends Jan, Jeannie, David, Emily, and Ian. Dinner conversation was wonderful in that MIT-nerdy way that I greatly miss sometimes. At the end of the meal, for example, my fortune coo...
3 comments
Read more