What's here
his is the official website of imal
(Image Measurement and Analysis Lab), a sophisticated and powerful open-source
image analysis and densitometry software package for Linux, Unix, OS X and similar
operating systems. The on-line manual
provides detailed instructions for installing and using imal. Imal (along with
the C++ source code) is freely available and is distributed under the
GPL.
Please let us know if you have any problems with the software.
We also have a large collection of pages on various problems that we've had over the years with Linux, along with their solutions. Our Book Reviews section has over 400 reviews of books on a wide variety of topics, including the biological sciences, physics, chemistry, metallurgy, language, law, computers, radar and communications, politics, history, philosophy, and the military.
The Commentary section has a number of examples of science humor, as well as more serious articles on current events and other topics. A few of these articles are on controversial subjects. Some readers may disagree with me; if you have a strong opinion on some topic, feel free to let me know what you think. (If your comment is particularly insightful, I may even post it.)
All comments are welcome. If you send a comment by email, I promise your name will never be disclosed. In some cases, your comment may be discussed within the article, but you will always remain anonymous unless you specifically request otherwise.
Finally, we have a section for colleagues to learn various procedures in the lab, like cleaning up mercury spills and working with radioactive materials.
Our motto is "Viscus, incompositus, ignavus, nuntius," which means "Entropy, disorder, disinclination, and messiness." It is a perfect description of the condition of this website and should give some idea of the probability that we will ever do anything about it.
Our other motto is "No Flash, No Javascript, No animated ads, No cookies, No tracking, no ChatGPT, and No viruses."
We accept no advertising or donations. We do not sell anything. But if you value what's posted here, the best way to keep this site alive is by linking to it.
Please note, I am not on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social medium. If you see a post there claiming to be from me, it's fake. In support of the First Amendment, this site will not link to any site that is confirmed to engage in political censorship and will not discuss their content, if any.
Usage
The articles posted on this site may be freely copied and re-posted without prior permission, with two strict caveats: you must maintain the correct authorship, and you must not pretend to be me. No permission or notification is necessary to re-post excerpts or individual images. When re-posting entire articles, please follow the guidelines below.
- The original authorship (either the name or email address of the original author) must be clearly indicated.
- A link or a URL must be shown so that readers know where the article came from and can verify its authenticity.
- As a courtesy, please let me know where you're planning to re-post or publish a complete article from this site, so I know why I am suddenly being flooded with hate mail.
- If you put the article on a site that is open for comments or discussion, it must be made clear that it was posted by you, not me, so your readers don't wonder why I don't respond to their comments.
- If you re-post an article, please do not pretend to be me.
- If you modify the content, please indicate that you have changed the article.
- The article may be re-formatted as desired.
- Permission is required before posting the article on sites that require a fee for viewing. Printed media such as newspapers require permission if the newspaper is sold for a fee.
- Images on this site can be freely used without restriction provided that the phrase "Photographed by" so-and-so or a link to this website accompanies the image.
- Please do not "hot-link" to images at this site.
- CSS files on this site can be freely used without restriction.
Some articles here are frequently updated. In such cases, it may be easier to use a link instead of copying the entire article. If you do copy an article, please check this site occasionally to make sure you have the most recent version.
Please note that some large Internet companies tend to "lose" large amounts of email from other domains. If you don't receive an answer when sending mail from a large Internet company such as Yahoo, this is probably the reason.
NOTE: my email address has changed.
For more information, to send a comment, or to report any problems with
this website, please contact:
About Us
I am a professor of neurology with a Ph.D. in biophysics. Before I retired, I taught and did research at a small medical school. I receive no compensation of any kind for the opinions and information on this website, but my dolphin is solely responsible for its content. He just says the darndest things.
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