"... the essence of the thing ..."

"To become some other thing, you have to not be that thing in the first place, and, if you are that thing, then it is hard for you to really believe that anyone else can become it, since the essence of the thing is having been it all along."

-from The View from a Bridge by Adam Gopnik in this week's issue of the New Yorker.

"C480782"

I shared on Facebook photographs of Weston model 301 milliammeter number 480782, made in Newark, NJ; acquired by the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering; surplussed by the MIT Department of Physics. Check it out.

Is the paint made from crushed pearls, and applied by magic elves wielding brushes of unicorn hair?

Did you know that there's a hybrid car with a $63,000 paint option?

That's not the price of the car; that's the upcharge for the fancy paint.

Really:

Proposed: Understanding the brain doesn't suck.

"... recall the famous quip from Jeff Hammerbacher, a former Facebook engineer, who said, 'The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.' We contend that working in biostatistics using complex neuroimaging data to solve the biggest puzzle of them all – understanding the human brain – is a worthy alternative."

-from "WANTED: Neuro-quants" by Brian Caffo, Martin Lindquist, and Ciprian Crainiceanu, which appears in the the Huffington Post.

Compelling and Devastating.

"The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" by Michael Moss will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine.

No kidding.

We like much of what the folks at the Flying Dog Brewery come up with, but we cannot recommend their Double Dog "Double Pale Ale," because 11.5 % alcohol by volume is just too high for us.

Expanding internal collet.

Are you buying a new bicycle – or maybe just replacing some handlebars – in order to be able to use the new "Reverse Lever" from Paul Component Engineering, "a bar end lever designed for use at the ends of bullhorn or porteur style handlebars," which attaches by means of a three-piece "expanding internal collet?"

Expanding internal collet.

Expanding internal collet.

Expanding internal collet.

(When you mount the levers on your bike, no one will be able to see the expanding internal collets, because the expanding internal collets are, well, internal.)

Made in USA. Available in black and silver. To go on that bike – you know the one! – that really needs a pair of these new levers. With expanding internal collets.

A special opportunity to get something for yourself, or ...

I've written here before about Adorama's offerings of "refurbished" Nikon cameras and lenses, but this week's bounty appears unrivaled, both in sheer numbers, and in variety — they've got wide lenses and long lenses, prime lenses and zoom lenses, SLR cameras and mirrorless cameras...

(some of the 145 refurbished Nikon items currently offered by Adorama)

If you already have a full-frame Nikon camera and you're looking for a lens, I recommend, once again, the lovely little 35 mm f/2.

If, on the other hand, you're looking for a gift for your favorite NeuroCooking correspondent, I'd recommend a perspective control lens (either 24 mm or 45 mm) for me, or a V1 camera kit for Thaler. Though I wouldn't turn down a 200 mm f/4 macro lens.

"... so well, ... so, well, ..."

"And as Mr. Jobs knew so well, one thing that makes magic so, well, magical, is that you don’t know how it works."

- from the article "Disruptions: At Its Trial, Apple Spills Some Secrets" by Nick Bilton in today's New York Times.

Mid-June Dog-Blogging! (or, "SG-31R"), Part II.

I ♥ my SG-31R (click image for larger version)!

Bucky in repose on the porch, Friday night (6/15/2012).

Mid-June Dog-Blogging! (or, "SG-31R")

Bucky (June 11, 2012). 

This photograph of Bucky was taken indoors, at an aperture of f/16, using a camera, a lens (with a hood), a Nikon "SG-31R Infrared Panel for Built-In Flash" (that looks silly but costs little and works great), and a pair of ceiling-bounced SpeedLights.

___________

Note: No lurchers were harmed making this photograph. Use of brand and product names is by fair use; no endorsement (not even of the splendid affordable SG-31R!) is implied. NeuroCooking is not sponsored by Nikon (or by General Motors, makers of Cadillac cars, which combine legendary luxury with state-of-the-art performance).

James Charles Marshall, 1923-2012

"You come running in on platform shoes
with Marshall stacks
to at least just give us a clue..."

R.I.P. Jim Marshall.

"AF Nikkor 35mm f/2D" part II (or, "Do you want fries with that?")

(March 20, 2012.)

Last year, we wrote here about our favorite lens, the Nikkor 35mm f/2, which is made by Nikon, and sold by Nikon, but which Nikon doesn't really want you to buy.

Now it appears that if you do own this lovely little lens, Nikon would like you to replace it (with something more expensive). The "technical guide" for their recently introduced super-camera, the 36 megapixel D800 (Tag line: "Every photo will astound. Every video will dazzle."), states that "enhanced sharpness" is available with just a few of their lenses, not including our favorite:

"Enhanced sharpness" is not available with the the AF Nikkor 35mm f/2D!

Doesn't this smell like "upsell?" You've ordered their new camera, and they're asking, essentially, "Do you want a lens with that?" Like when you order a burger, and you're asked, "Do you want fries with that?"

"AF Nikkor 35mm f/2D"

Nikon doesn't want to sell you our favorite lens.

Photo: Nikon.

The lens that's on our camera most of the time, the one with which we take most of our photos, is the little AF Nikkor 35mm f/2D. Why, just this July, for our Four Cities Tour of the Upper Midwest (T.U.M.), the 35mm f/2 was the only lens we took.

Here are four snaps, one from each of the Four Cities of the T.U.M.:

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

Frogwater onstage at Milwaukee Brewing.

STEVENS POINT, WISCONSIN

On our favorite feedlot.

DULUTH, MINNESOTA

Sharing dessert with Mark Mitton at the Duluth Grill.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

Atop the Foshay Tower.

We love this lens. If you want a fast prime that is at least normal, but you don't want to go any wider than necessary (and if you're not willing to lug around a boat-anchor), this is it. And, as such things go, it's actually inexpensive. However, Nikon doesn't really want you to buy one.

When you go to the Nikon USA website, and select "lenses", you get a lens splashpage asking you to choose between lens categories. It appears that these optical devices now come in categories, called "Travel and Landscape Lenses", "People and Events Lenses", & "Sports and Action Lenses":

But here's the thing – No matter which category you choose, you will not find the 35mm f/2! It's not under any of the categories. You can find it only if you click on the small "Show all lenses" link on the lens splashpage.

To be sure, Nikon makes this lens, and sells this lens. But do they really want to? Or, would they rather that you buy something else – something more expensive?

Awesome! One-Hundred.

Announced today! The latest thing!

The AW-100! Perhaps "AW" stands for "awesome."

Comes in three colors! All awesome.

Shall we rush out to buy the very latest Nikon camera, the AW-100, because it was "Born to be extreme", or because Nikon says it will let you "Star in your own viral movies"? While the first may be just an empty slogan, the second sounds like a guarantee.

"Belgian-Style India Pale Ale"

Washington D.C. Pacifica radio station WPFW refers to the local professional football team as "the Washington professional football team" in order to avoid saying its name.

We would like to suggest, to those NeuroCooking friends who drink beer, that you may want to sample the remarkable 20th anniversary ale from Flying Dog brewery. But we will not print its name here.

__________

[Please note: All trademarks are property of their respective owners; their use here does not denote endorsement or sponsorship. Specifically, NeuroCooking is not supported by the good people of Flying Dog brewery, whose upcoming tour of fine establishments serving their superb ales you absolutely should attend, if you possibly can! To locate this "Belgian-Style India Pale Ale" on the Flying Dog website, see their online beer list, and click on the Latin "canis major".]

On smelling almonds & drinking sweat.

Many words evoke in us a rich web of associations. Depending on your personal experience, the word "almond" may conjure memories of the sight of blossoms waving in the wind, the smell of cake fresh from your grandmother's oven, or the childhood joy of your favorite candy bar.

But this only happens when the word is in your native language, or at least a language in which you are fluent. For example, when you discuss the role of the amygdala in assigning salience to various sensory stimuli, even if you know that amygdala means almond, you just don't get all those associations linked to "almond". Because "amygdala" is a neuroanatomical term, that does not link to your grandmother's cake...

And that is how Pocari Sweat can be a best-selling beverage in Japan.

Although, once you watch this TV ad from the 1980's, the words "Pocari Sweat" may forever conjure up images of an oddly-clad Cindy Crawford wielding a sword:

"Nikon 400mm f/2.8G ED AF-S VR(II)" - Gone!

We regret to inform you that the discounted refurbished ten-pound super-telephoto lens appears to have been sold.

Of mice and men.

Scene: Friday morning in the Bethesda Row (Maryland) Apple Store, seven minutes after the ten o'clock opening. I'm buying a mouse. A young man is handling the transaction; his co-worker, a young woman, is standing close beside him.

HE: Do you need anything else today?

ME: No, some mornings you just wake up, and feel like a mouse.

HE: Really.

ME: And some other mornings, you wake up, and feel like a man.

HE (smiling): Yeah.

ME: But then, I'm married.

SHE (To her co-worker, while elbowing him in the ribs, hard): But you're not!

"Nikon 400mm f/2.8G ED AF-S VR(II)", continued.

That refurbished telephoto lens we mentioned back in April is still available, but the price seems to have recently been reduced from $8699.95 to only $7999.95. No reduction in weight, though; it still weighs ten pounds.