Robert Blum Website

Robert L. Blum, MD, PhD

Little Balms for the Nuclear Family

The Galaxy Song: Monty Python's Eric Idle at his very best.
Pure joy!
Wiki says: "Galaxy Song facts accurate, too."

I am the very model of a Singularitarian
Featuring Charlie Kam, with an up-to-the-nanosecond version of
Modern Major General from Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Pinky and the Brain Teach Neuroanatomy
"The Brain" of Pinky and the Brain takes a break from his fanatical quest for galactic domination by teaching a class in neuroanatomy - to song, no less.

Web Site Story
A modern version of West Side Story for the computer age. (Thanks, Sharron!)

The REAL History of Evolution
Clue: it involved Homer Simpson. And, in this one Homer goes to Donut Hell.

The Gnu Song
And yet another of the Flanders and Swann masterpieces (actually just 3 mins),
here sung by the incomparable Michael Flanders himself.

The Hippopotamus Song
Flanders and Swann were one of the best musical comedy teams ever, and this song is one of their most memorable, here sung by humorist Rolf Harris. "Mud, Mud Glorious Mud!"

Glass Harp - Toccata and Fugue in D minor Bach
Hauntingly beautiful and kinesthetically connected to the thermin work below.
Also watch him (Robert Tiso) perform Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

The Swan (Saint-Saens) on Theremin
A captivating rendition of Le Cygne played on the theremin by Clara Rockmore.
(Excuse the following abrupt transition from the ethereal to the earth-bound ...)

It's All About the Pentiums
"Upgrade my system twice a day; I'm strictly plug n play; ain't afraid of Y2K.
I'm down with Bill Gates; I call him "Money" for short;
I call him at home; make him do my tech support."
Weird Al Yankovic has long been a fave... speaking of which ...

Bob = boB
In 1967 in France (during my hippie period) Parisians asked me, "Tu connais Bob Dylan?"
Yeah, I channel Bob. Yo, banana boy! (and other palindromes by Weird Al).
Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
No, sir, away! A papaya war is on!

White & Nerdy
I've still got my MIT slide rule, but my pocket protectors are long gone.

Amish Paradise
Luddites rejoice! Technological civilization is going to hell!

EBAY
How did I accumulate all this crap?

World's Funniest Joke
Is there a science of humor? Yes! And here it is
engagingly described by UK Prof. Richard Wiseman.
And, here are the funniest jokes and the research project, Laughlab, that identified them.
Of course, for Wiseman levitating corks is all in a day's work.
Find that astounding feat and others on his Quirkology website.

Augmented Reality Magic 1.0
A beautiful magic show by techno-magician Marco Tempest, The Virtual Magician.

IBM's Watson appears on Conan
and Andy Richter, Conan's announcer, is not pleased by his robotic replacement.

The Brain As Explained By John Cleese
A clear and concise explanation by one of the Monty Python crew.

Robot Dancer: HRP-4C
She's kinda stiff compared with the human females,
but she can also invert thousand by thousand matrices.

Produce Consume Robot
Click the video to see Sean Montgomery's characterization of pathetic humanity.
(Here, neuroscientist/ roboticist Sean demos gamma oscillations with his Thinking Cap.)

World of World of Warcraft
Warcraft sequel lets you simulate being a nerd playing Warcraft.
Game's amazing level of detail makes players feel like they are actually in a
cramped, dark apartment playing World of Warcraft!

Sheldon Cooper's Friendship Algorithm
Sheldon, notorious physics nerd of tv's Big Bang Theory, has finally deciphered friendship.
And, here, illustrating the doppler effect. Or here, on Superman's flight dynamics.
And, here as the ShelBot (using Willow Garage's TechAI telepresence.)

The Elements
Satire pre-Weird Al? Yes, kids, back then there was Tom Lehrer.

Lobachevsky - Tom Lehrer
Here, Prof. Lehrer teaches us the secret of success in mathematics: plagiarize!
Tom's song is based on Danny Kaye's Stanislawsky. No video of that exists,
but I did find this wonderful clip of Danny Kaye with Louis Armstrong.)

The Vatican Rag
Another of Tom Lehrer's greatest hits: irreverent lyrics set to a catchy tune.

Turing Test? Try Elbot!
In 1950 British code breaker Alan Turing set the most famous goal of AI research
- faking human discourse. A computer passes the Turing Test
if it can fool people into thinking that it's human.
Kevin Warwick presents a good backgrounder on the Turing Test.
Better still is the the Loebner Prize website, awarding money to the best competitors.
But, best of all is ELBOT - the reigning champion. Try it (him?) out!
I also gave myself the Turing Test ... and passed.

If you're really a human, you should be able to distinguish CATS from DOGS, as in this test from ASIRRA. Bots can't do it, yet.

Your Own Home Computer?
Believe it or not, home computers may be possible by 2004.
They will even be easy to use, if the family learns Fortran.

Wall-E Sounds
A robot without a voice is like a soprano with laryngitis. Sounds are next for the designers of
Willow Garage's PR2, whose cousins, R2D2 , Wall-E, and MO have superb voices.

Generic Academy Award Movie Trailer
Insert endorsement for YouTube clip by self-styled movie critic to show great wit.

Susan Boyle: I Dreamed a Dream
Susan Boyle stunned Britain's Got Talent when she sang this song
from Les Miserables: an amazing rendition.

Jackie Evancho: Ave Maria
Even more surprising and delightful is child opera phenom, Jackie Evancho.
She was age 9 when she sang Ave Maria on America's Got Talent.

Pipe Dream
These are stunning musical animations from the geniuses at Animusic:
Aqua Harp, Resonant Chamber, Harmonic Voltage, and Acoustic Curves.
In contrast, the Rolling Ball Marble Machine is real, and so is this
robot playing an unmodified clarinet.

Diavolo Highlights
Spectacular dance performance!

Chomskybot: Words Noam Never Said
Noam Chomsky, the famous linguist, did say
"Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously" to show
that syntax and semantics are separately processed.
The Chomskybot, in turn, repeatedly generates
paragraphs that Chomsky might have written.
(After you click on Chomskybot above, click "Next Paragraph.")

The Treadmill Video: OK Go
"Come on, lads. Let's do the treadmill." Beatles sound, but it's actually OK Go.
U like OK go? Try these! End Love; White Knuckles; WTF?

Jason Mraz - Bella Luna
The new generation of musicians is not lost. There is Jason Mraz:.
transcendental rumba with magical lyrics.

You Grew on Me
Tim Minchin: Elton John with a black heart.
Is love really like this? ET wants to know..

Flying Spaghetti Monster
Pastafarians believe that God created cephalopods (and more!) in His own image.
Wiki describes the beliefs of this fanatical sect.

PrayerMAX 5000
Prayers not bringing you vast material wealth? You may just need a technological boost.
And here, the delightful Edward Current naughtily inquires, "what if God disappeared?"

Off That (Rationalist Anthem)
Baba Brinkman is angry and blunt here on pseudoscience: homeopathy, parapsychology, et al.
Warning: this violates my "PG-13" code, but it's sooo well done.

Dana Carvey as George Bush
This is an oldie but goodie - so good that Pres. Bush invited Dana to the White House to do it.

World Ending in 2012? Vote for Sarah!
John McCain's picking Sarah Palin as a running mate was a boon to comedians everywhere.
Alaska's loss was our gain. I'm encouraging my Republican friends to renominate her in 2012.
In case you missed the fun, here's SNL's Tina Fey: with "Hillary Clinton" and with "Joe Biden."

Ladies Guide to Party Planning
Here, actress January Jones, reprising her role in the Fifties satire Mad Men,
dramatically shows us how women have progressed. It's a huge problem for men.
I'm thinking of moving to Tehran.

Be Saved by Bob!!!
Church of the Subgenius
Guided by their prophet, the charismatic J. R. "Bob" Dobbs,
the faithful of His Church strive mightily for Divine Slack.
This is an unauthorized excerpt from the Book of Bob.

Glucose Song
Who knew glycolysis could be so catchy?

Computer Geek
Ok, many of my friends are computer geeks. They do have some redeeming qualities -
like nifty collections of pocket protectors.

She Blinded Me With Science
A quaint little ditty from the 1980s - not quite Verdi or Mozart.

Siggraph 2010: Emerging Technologies Trailer
A hep 3 min. summary of cutting-edge tech shown at the recent Siggraph in LA.

Tablet Evolution presented by Motorola
Very cool promo combines history lesson with buzz on Motorola's new Honeycomb.

Samsung SSD Awesomeness
Another cool promo. After seeing this I bought an ssd. Now I just need another
couple of dozen to put in parallel in a RAID array.

The Mom Song
Mother's wisdom and admonitions summarized in 3 minutes.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - Laundry Day (My Freeze Ray)
Even arch-villains (Neil Patrick Harris) need love.

I Want to Spend My Life Loving You
Just a very pretty song. (Don't look for romantic love between robots anytime soon.)

Carino by Chris Spheeris:
a beautiful guitar solo. Another lovely song - Heaven's Gift by Gypsy Enchantress.

Old Spice Commercial
that brings a very old product into the Third Millennium. On a side note,
here's how I remember to spell millennium (two "n's").

Will Ferrell's Future That Never Was
A funny article in Wired featuring funnyman Will Ferrell on inventions of yesteryear
that never materialized: designer babies, food in a pill, flying cars, sexbots etc.

Modern Science Condensed Into One Subway Map
by Crispian Jago, who explains that this was achieved "via the medium of
gross over simplification, glaring omission, and a very tiny font."

The Mickey Mouse Club - Original Mouseketeers
just one of the great memories from my youth (and perhaps my introduction to dancing)
And, while we're strolling down memory lane, there's The Lone Ranger,
Zorro, and Roy Rogers.

The Turkey that Ate St. Louis
What do you get when you cross Jay Leno and Carl Sagan: Seth Shostak -
SETI's most entertaining lecturer. This student film by Seth shows his many talents.

Tina Fey & Robert Downey, Jr: Best Original Screenplay
Writers, not actors or directors, make or break a movie (or so say the writers.)
In this 2010 Oscar introduction, Robert delightfully makes his case against Tina.
Movies need actors and writers: "a collaboration between handsome, gifted people
and sickly little mole people."

Diet Coke + Mentos
Almost as good as the Bellagio Fountains in Vegas, only funnier.
The Mythbusters provide an explanation.

Best Kinect Hacks
Kinect is Microsoft's new computer vision system - here put to good use by "the street."

Watsky Raps
and raps superfast (Local Boy - George Watsky - makes good.) Also see Goat Fast.

Where Do Babies Come From?
My favorite Kaiser Permanente Ad. (Also, a great reminder that your knowledge
as an adult was learned at some point in time. Remember?

High-Fructose Corn Syrup is Good for You,
according to this Saturday Night Live "commercial" - or maybe not.

robert, blum, md, phd, stanford, kaiser, robert blum, brain, neuroscience, cognitive, science, psychology, memory, creativity, consciousness, self, improvement, genius, robert blum, artificial, intelligence, ai, machine, computer, learning, vision, cognition, robotics, future, automated, discovery, kurzweil, singularity, robert blum, biotechnology, health, medicine, coronary, cardiac, emergency, scan, mri, drugs, robert blum, thinking, evidence, bayes, global, humanity, knowledge, robert blum, ancient, wisdom, positive, values, planet, earth, ecology, environment, robert blum, population, control, biosphere , robert blum