Andrew R Gross

Last week, the hospital I work at hosted a conference on the role of Virtual Reality in medicine. After strolling through demo booths, here are the top five companies and products that blew me away. Number Five: AppliedVR appliedvr.io/ AppliedVR is a startup that provides VR equipment and support for hospitals to use to manage pain. It’s a simple business, but it makes sense. Virtual Reality is incredibly immersive, which studies have shown can effectively calm patients and distract them from anxiety and even physical pain during procedures like blood draws. Setting up and maintaining equipment and software is something most hospitals are unlikely to be prepared to manage, so AppliedVR encourages them to outsource it. Regardless of AppliedVR’s future, the future of VR to transport patients away from their bodies during medical procedures and to provide mental stimulation to patients confined to a hospital is all but certain to assume a place in hospitals in the future. Numb...

Everyone at the theater was having a blast, but none more than this guy. I ... I can't even. Going in, Tony and I discussed the hype.  I said that although I loved Thor: Ragnorak, I still felt its hype was overblown.  I told him that although I expected Black Panther to be great, I didn't think it could live up to its hype unless it matched Captain America: Winter Soldier, which I contend is the high watermark for standalone superhero adventures (The first Iron Man is comparable, although I think it's an apples-and-oranges comparison). Well... it did it.  Superlatives like "best" are subjective, and I'd still give give Captain America: Winter Soldier the edge in hand-to-hand combat choreography, but there's no denying that this movie is the first and only film I can think of that matches Winter Soldier, and surpasses it boldly  in world building.  That world building, man... shit.  Wakanda Forever . One reason I've always revered Winter Sold...

Last week, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy, a rocket capable of lifting cargo beyond Earth's orbit, to the Moon or Mars.  Along with presumably thousands of other people, I watched the live feed with baited breath.  So I was surprised when I encountered friends online who respectfully questioned why this was really of any consequence.  Sure it's thrilling.  So was the Eagles' Superbowl victory.  But does a billionaire sending a sports car into interplanetary space really have any more significance than a sports victory? I think it does. Although the stated goal is distant, I think that the technologies developed to explore space are usually of the most benefit here on Earth.  Life support equipment in particular is always designed with the goal of making humans healthier and more comfortable while using the least resources.  There isn't anything of that is designed to provide humans with clean water and food on Mars that isn't of use in the un...

I went to Vegas for a little weekend trip and we ended up seeing the Backstreet Boys.  I never listened to them, but Tony was a big fan back in his youth, so I went along.  It was good!  They put on a solid show.

Last weekend, I went to the Women's March in Downtown LA.  While I was there, I had a specific goal.  For a while I'd thought that it was often frustrating how dependent protests were on media outlets to publicize them.  But after the protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017, I realized how critically damaging this reliance is.  It's not just about the visibility of activism: it's about publicizing the facts on the ground.  In the case of  the pipeline protests, stories came out about a woman suffering grave bodily harm when anti-riot ordinance malfunctioned and nearly took off her arm.  The police insisted that any injury had been the result of improvised explosives prepared by protesters.  This kind of uncertainty was shocking to me.  What the hell was going on in rural North Dakota?  Were protesters wildly exaggerating?  Was a peaceful protest being met with state violence and covered up?  I just wanted to...

I made a replica of Mjolnir according to the classic descriptions (as opposed to the well known comic book version).  Unfortunately, Tony and I were both concerned that it might be too brittle for casual use during a party, so he used an alternative, but I was generally happy with the look and it has a great heft.  I'm definitely going to use plaster like this again in the future. Mjolnir, crafted in the classic Norse style

Last weekend, we went to a truly amazing party.  In celebration of the solstice, everyone was asked to come in the guise of one of the ancient deities.  Upon arriving, we were each given three coins labeled with the powers conferred by our characters, and told that we could not use the powers, but were able to trade them and use the ones we received.  We were also each given personalized win conditions.  I attended as Loki, the god of mischief.  Tony attended as the mighty Thor.  Jack came as Heimdall, the watchman.  And we had a blast.  The Egyptian gods, Greek gods, and Aztec gods were present, but the Norse gods clearly owned the night. At the party, I arrived in the guise of Sif, Thor's wife and goddess of the Earth.  Heimdall was given instructions to reveal me, so I spent the beginning of the party trying to evade discovery.  Eventually, after several thwarted attempts to uncover me, Odin and the rest of the Norse gods used som...

Voldemort mask: start-to-finish how to