In building on this prior article I found, these people have comes across a way to relay sensory perception back to the primate. That is very weird. I mean it's cool too, but still very weird. It really is only a matter of time before they come up with some really kick ass prosthetics.

In fact, this kinda makes me think back to this gentleman who was born disabled, but had prosthetic limbs that made him pretty frickin fast. Might athletes try and abuse this sort of stuff?

So I ran into this great article that compiled a bunch of photos from the various Occupy wherever sites around the nation and world. Number 25 intrigued me in that I had absolutely no idea what this guy was trying to say.

A quick flip through my favorite reference for religion revealed this. Wow, this whole money lending thing has been a problem for a while. Funny how mistakes seem to repeat themselves.

Even funnier though was when I told Chris about this article and she told me about the sad state of affairs in Occupy Singapore. Then again I imagine the people are probably afraid of their government. I wouldn't want to get caned either.

Link to Tony Montana if not already embedded for you.

Absolute genius. I remember in med school neuroanatomy that the hypothalamus was important for hunger and there was a lot of hand-waving about orexins and Neuro-peptide Y, but no one really knew what drove hunger.  These guys are making the pitch for a potential chemical appetite suppressant which would be ridiculously profitable for whoever comes up with a medication to modulate the beta4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. The people who are really unhappy about this are probably the bariatric surgeons and every single diet company like weight watcher's who stand to lose big time if this team's discovery turns out to be true. Primary care will probably rejoice too, but there is the worry that people will abuse this to a ridiculous level. Hopefully it won't have too many side effects like neurotoxicity or rebound hunger if stopped.

I know this is 8 weeks later and a lot of it has been wiped by internal medicine, but this also probably lets me remember things on a more even keel.

In high school english, we'd read Greek tragedies and a big deal was made about foreshadowing for some reason. Even on my flight over to Korea, I think I had a taste of what I was in for when this middle-aged Korean gentleman was itching to get off of the plane despite the fact that the doors hadnt even opened yet and we were in the back of the plane. He was so eager that he started pushing up against me while I was trying to fish my bag out my overhead compartment. I turned around to look at this guy who has the f'n audacity to push me aside when no one is going anywhere and not even apologizing. I turned back to getting my bag down and this guy continues his frotteurism. I dont know if it was the plane ride or what, but I kinda snapped and as my bag was coming down with my two hands, my right elbow just happened to hit him in the jaw. You would think that he would learn from this, but instead he just gave me a dirty look and continued pushing the person in front of me after I stepped back into my aisle. *le sigh*

Fortunately, Korea's airport was quite nice with several kiosks of people who spoke a fair amount of English and assisted with hapless travellers like myself. After hopping onto a luxury bus which kinda looked like a fancier version of one of those airport shuttle buses you ride in between airport terminals or to parking lots, I finally made it into Seoul where I met up with Christina and my sister-in-law at the President Hotel. Afterwards, we went out for very tasty noodles at this restaurant in the local shopping district whose name escapes me at the moment, but they were thin wheat noodles I think in a garlicky-onion chicken broth and some small dumplings that was deceptively good for what amounts to a very busy fast food joint in Seoul. I love little surprises like this.

The culinary treats continued onto the streets where people were eating at sreet vendors serving these rice noodles that were as thick as sausages slathered with a spicy red gravy. Another place had fried squid treats, and my wife's favorite place was this fried sweet potato with caramelized sugar on it. I didnt really develop a taste for it, but I bought into this ubiquitous soft serve ice cream machine which served as a nice treat after a spicy meal since it eased the burning feeling. More on that later.

The rest of the nigt was pretty uneventful as Chris and my sister-in-law ran around shopping while I sampled the hello kitty frosted donut at Krispy Kreme and sat in Korea's equivalent of an Apple store scheming about the sheer amount of money I could have made if I had only bought an ipad2 and brought it brand new in its box for sale there. after an hour or two of wandering/shopping, we finally went back to sleep b/c we were planning to bullet train down to Pusan and then hop onto a boat to Fukuoka, Japan where the ramen is supposed to be legendary.