Friday, May 25, 2007

Blaise blows our minds

Wait till you see Blaise Aguera y Arcas talk at TED (below) about the gorgeous power of Seadragon and Photosync.

Blaise's talk gave me a sweeping tummy-flipping sensation.  Similar to the first time I faxed a picture, received a voice mail or sailed on the open sea.  Simply marvelous.   Enjoy!





Blaise and Adrienne (Fairhall) have two wonderful kids, Anselm and Eliot, who are about the same ages as Simone and Naomi.  Adrienne's Wall is the name of their family blog.

Adrienne also has delivered masterly contributions to the world.  Both in physics and neuroscience.  She has created tools we can use to decode the language of the brain and see into what a person is experiencing.  Her elegant mathematical operations actually track a neuron's electrical activity and may one day allow us to stimulate an experience for example, give a person the sensation of a prosthetic limb.  Wild no?

Another Adrienne discovery about how we experience is the revelation that what we see and feel  depends upon what we saw and felt previously.  She recently helped teach a visual processing medical class about this, where she showed that-the details a person would notice when looking at a painting, for  instance-depends at a fundamental, microscopic level on what their eyes were focused on previously.  The idea is rather complex, Adrienne said, because it implies that perception is always changing: "What one experiences influences how one experiences it."  More here.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Welcome Naomi!



Proud Papa sings Naomi her first lullaby.


"I'm a big sister!" -Simone


It was 8:46pm on May 16th, 2007.  Naomi arrived weighing an ounce less than 7 pounds and stretched to 19 1⁄4 inches.  Basking in the special day when our family grew to four.  


Somehow when newborn Naomi is getting her first bath, she lifted her body up onto her elbows and knees.  Dr. Sarah de la Torre said this was highly unusual.  






I find myself enamored with the little foot prints.


What a little mouth you have. 


"I can help you take care of Naomi!  Look Mama. " -Simone


Simone sings a lullaby to Naomi.


Sonya meets Naomi.


Theresa meets Naomi.

Yahoo Naomi is here! We were so excited we whipped up a birth announcement and sent it to our friends and family.