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Tuesday, August 31, 2004 Hot Trend Since February, the number of hits this site gets per month is steadily declining. It will only be a matter of time when that number hits zero. Coincidently, the number of silver minivans I've observed on the streets of Hanover have been increasing. It will only be a matter of time when every single vehicle in Hanover (with the exception of mine) will be a silver minivan. Just thought you'd like to know that. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:06 PM : And Yet Another Collection Desiderata. (via Watermark) Cats and Vivaldi in Flash. The Hook Project. (via Metafilter) People can enter and vote on the opening paragraphs of books. Some of them are interesting, I guess, but I don't take books home with me because of the first page. I don't "sample" books (just as I've ranted before, I don't sample food) before I borrow it from the library or buy it from the bookstore. I'm also rather indiscriminate when it comes to cover art although a pretty (or terrible) cover does help catch my eye. I usually judge books by their content--gleaned from back cover summaries and dust jacket blurbs. If there's nothing but rave reviews about how spectacular the book is, I'd probably put it down unless I've looked it up beforehand on the net. 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books. Did I post this one before? Anyways, when I did my stint as a librarian at a very small library down south, all the books about sex ed were kept locked in a cabinet. I thought this was pretty crazy, but what do I know? At least the library had the books. If they were in regular circulation, who knows what the conservative patrons would have done. Seven-Layer Bars. (via Rebecca Blood) Frankly, I find this gross. You might as well buy a bag of chocolate chips and eat them right out of the bag. Ode to the Breast Pocket. (via Evhead) For obvious reasons I don't use one but I think there's an even better way to carry things you can't stuff in your pocket. The bookbag. That's right. I have a bookbag with me pretty much all the time and I can stuff anything into it as long as it's not an entire set of encyclopedias. So take that, you pocket protecting geeks! Beyond Bullets. (via Evhead again) If you have to use Powerpoint, this is something to read. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:47 AM : Monday, August 30, 2004 A Newbie and High School Remembrances Somehow, I found myself in conversation with a first-year med student. The first thing I noticed was that she's really, really hyper. Once I mentioned that I'm a grad student going into my third year, she immediately asked me how I liked it here. Bad question. Wrong person to ask it to. I'm one of those people who feels ambivalent about a lot of things and whenever someone asks me that type of question, I can immediately tell that they're looking for one kind of answer. Of course, I gave her a rather non-committal reply which probably made her mentally file me under "closet depressive" but what do I care? If you're a new or prospective student, the correct question to ask is, "how is student life here?" Then you can evaluate whether or not studying at whatever institution you're looking at is worth it. My feelings are irrelevant. My level of happiness will not be any indication of how happy you will be. This med student reminded me of my high school physics teacher who at the time was probably not much older than the med student I was talking to. She too was hyper--on the borderline of psychotic to be honest. While the chemistry teacher always bragged about her sons, the physics teacher bragged about her husband. She would pontificate to the class that her husband graduated high school (yes, the same high school that we all were attending) as valedictorian and went to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (or if I'm remembering incorrectly, it was definitely one of the UT schools) because he knew it would be easy to get high grades there. He then graduated in the top ten percent and went on to law school--blah blah blah. I am not sure if the quality of the UT schools have changed in the past decade but something about the physics teacher's narcisstic ramblings just struck me as wrong. Only a selfishly driven person who really doesn’t care about learning anything deliberately picks a school because it is easy to get A's. If you don't work for your grades, what's the point of going to school anyway? Maybe people are afraid of failure. Who's not? But glory without any risk, in my mind, is just patting yourself on your back for nothing more than counting to ten. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:19 PM : Gmail Giveaway I have more invites for Gmail accounts. This means that this is your chance to get one! (If you want one, that is.) Send me a request at this e-mail address with the subject "8/30 Gmail Giveaway at Syaffolee" along with a link to your weblog or webpage or, if you happen to be a member of Monkeyfilter and don't have a weblog or wepage, send me a link to your profile. If you personally know someone who wants a Gmail account but doesn't have a weblog, webpage, or profile at Monkeyfilter, you can sponsor them--this means you will have to send the request e-mail on their behalf with your own webpage/weblog/profile as the surrogate link. If I don't get any requests by the time this entry scrolls off the main page, I will have to resort to other measures. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:53 AM : Sunday, August 29, 2004 Four Links and a Meme 10 Things I Have Learned About Blogging. I could agree with most of these. Except #1 and #2. Never been linked by him. I don't think I want to be linked by him. Internet Gives Teenage Bullies Weapons to Wound From Afar. All I can say is--stupid kids! Well, maybe you could say I don't know what I'm talking about since I never got into bullies' crosshairs when I was a teenager (being a mostly ignored nerd does have its perks!) but they shouldn't be wired into the net in the first place. What I mean is--turn off the freakin' instant messaging if someone is harassing you. Get a new screen name. Use a pseudonym. If people ask you for your e-mail address, direct them to some dummy account. And for goodness sake, don't post pictures--let alone movies--of yourself on the net. Bullies who harass people from behind the screen but ignore you in real life are cowards. Pesticides in Produce and Washing Fruits and Vegetables. (via Rebecca Blood) "Nectarines also had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single sample — 85.3 percent had two or more pesticide residues — followed by peaches (79.9 percent) and cherries (75.8 percent). Sweet bell peppers were the vegetable with the most pesticides overall with 39, followed by spinach at 36 and celery and potatoes, both with 29." Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:22 AM : Saturday, August 28, 2004 Recent Reading So how many books have I read so far this year? Well, I double and triple checked and yes, the total is fifty with the culmination (if you excuse the pun) being Gravity's Rainbow. Which means I achieved the goal of this site (even though I never signed up for it--don't you have to get an invitation to join in the first place?) and I'm well on my way to beating this guy (even though the competition is sort of one-sided since he doesn't know that I exist). Does God Play Dice? by Ian Stewart. In a relatively straightforward manner, Stewart explains the concepts of chaos theory to the non-mathematician with almost no equations and plenty of illustrations. Like most people, I first heard about chaos theory via popular culture--specifically from one of Michael Crichton's blubbering characters in Jurassic Park when I was in seventh grade--but had no clue what it really was except that it was apparently a hot and new topic in math. But actually, it isn't so new. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Henri Poincaré--a mathematician who unfortunately fit the stereotypical absent-minded prof to a "T"--paved the path from abstraction to chaos. Poincaré worked on dynamics, but when he set about trying to find out the stability of the solar system by working on the three-body problem, specifically Hill's reduced model, consisting of two very large bodies like Neptune and Pluto and a third insignificant particle like a speck of dust, he found that the trajectory of the dust particle was so complicated that there was no way to draw it. In fact, he was "horrified" by the chaos he unearthed--nature is not so neat and pat. Chaos theory has evolved since then--the gist being that complex behavior can emerge from a few simple elements. This is not to say that nature is completely unpredictable; it only seems that way because we can't take into account every variable and every condition. We can't really make the most accurate measurements no matter how hard we try. But Stewart takes pains to explain that chaos theory isn't some exotic beast that only mathematicians in ivory towers look at. Chaos theory is applied to everything from weather to bed springs and cardiology to epidemiology. Stewart ends with a tantalizing glimpse into the next hot math topic, the so-called "edge of chaos" or complexity theory where we see the emergence of simple behavior from many elements. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I have one question: Were the judges for the 1973 National Book Award on crack when they voted this book the winner? Every two pages, I wanted to scream and hurl the book hard enough that it would crash through the wall and conk the person next door unconscious. What was Pynchon thinking? Or more accurately, he wasn't thinking at all. If this book was a person, it would be an automaton with all the grey (and white) matter blown away except for the brain stem. On the surface it's just one big phallic metaphor as obvious as a guy with a tent in his pants. Look deeper and you might as well go insane by gazing into an encyclopedic Pandora's box. Don't try this one out unless you're a masochist who enjoys painful lobotomies over a nice relaxing weekend. Currently reading: aside from previously mentioned books, a book about the night, a book about Robert Hooke, and a book about books. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:53 PM : Friday, August 27, 2004 Link Fest Hamster-Powered Night Light. I suppose this would be useful if you have a pet hamster that likes running at night and you happen to need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night too. Actually, this reminded me of a Nature news article: Geneticists engineer marathon mice. I bet we could use this as an alternative fuel source like wind and solar power. No Girls Allowed? This Washington Post article ponders why there aren't any great women guitarists. I think this is the symptom of a much larger problem--why there aren't any great women in any field, period. When it comes to history, it's pretty male-centric. If we want to recognize women for their achievements, I do not think we have to go so far as to make women work on men's terms but nor should we have to go so far the other way. Cigarettes more polluting than diesel exhaust. Tell me about it. Every time I have to wait at the bus stop to get to school, I swear about ninety percent of the other passengers smoke like chimneys. It's thicker than pea soup. You could cut the air with a knife! I try to stay upwind, of course. Blair and Bush up for Nobel prize. If they win, it's going to be a sign of the coming apocalypse. But you know how these prizes are--the judges are probably mostly a bunch of old fogies who are thinking more about what the future winner could do for them than what they could do for the rest of the world. Flashmob - The Opera. Sudden opera at the train station! I wish we had flashmobs out here in the boondocks. It'll make life more interesting. Tricks of the Trade. "For every occupation, there is a catalog of secrets only its employees are aware of—such as how waiters with heavy platters know to look straight ahead, and never down. Armed with a bag of reader mail, Matthew Baldwin unfurls a whole lot more true insider knowledge." Hmm. So what's a trade secret for being a graduate student? I still haven't found any. U.S. Issues Its First Plan for Responding to a Flu Pandemic. I know people should really take this seriously but I can't help but think of the "swine flu" panic during the Ford administration that totally went bust. Anyways, even if you say people should get a flu shot, there will be people who won't because, you know, it'll hamper their rights to make choices about their own health. It's like smoking. Tell smokers to quit and they'll yell about how you're trampling their freedom. Tunes, a Hard Drive and (Just Maybe) a Brain. People anthropomorphize their iPods. Somewhat off-topic, I'm beginning to see iPods get a grip on campus fashion. So not only are there people with armpit bags, capri pants, and those ubiquitous flip-flops, but there are also iPods stuck on belts and earbuds wedged into ears. Lambaste me if you will, but I personally think current fashions look really, really stupid. How to write a best selling fantasy novel. (via Metafilter) So I've been going about this writing thing all wrong? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:09 AM : Thursday, August 26, 2004 Downright Stalker-ish Somebody save me from these middle-aged, gossipy women who just won't shut up. I now know more about the dysfunctional lives of the residents of Canaan, New Hampshire than any normal person has the right to know. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:37 PM : Hard Rain Oh great. Now they say we can't use the north entrance. Apparently there's a slab of concrete on the roof that's loose and liable to fall any moment, i.e. if you're really unlucky, that slab of concrete would fall a total of eight stories before hitting your head. Ever since the Great Microwave Tirade, I've been using the entrance to get to the next building to use the microwave. (Why? Stupid department politics, that's why.) Now I can't even do that. I guess I'll bring a sandwich tomorrow. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:34 PM : The Thursday Threesome: Cool, blue mornings Onesome: Cool-- Well, summer is almost gone (except for those Down Under who are expecting it soon), and the cooler weather is coming. ...and other than those who live in places like Hawai'i, things are about to change. Which do you prefer, the coolness of Winter where you live or the warmth of your Summer? Winter. Actually, it's a toss-up with Fall. There's sort of a sadistic glee about watching people get stuck indoors and slowly going batty. Twosome: Blue-- Today's softball: blue or green? Pick one! ...okay, if it's a tie (high or low), what color do you prefer for decorating or accents? Green. I blame this preference on my baby clothes. You see, my parents dressed me in green instead of blue or pink because they didn't know whether I'd be a boy or a girl. Threesome: Mornings-- Mornings, afternoons, evenings, nights... What's your favorite time of day? ...and what makes it so for you? I don't really have a favorite time of day. More like favorite moments. Like right now because my neighbors are asleep and aren't making any noises (like they were at three in the morning). It's those peaceful, quiet times I like best. Unfortunately everyone else seems to have a different idea. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:40 AM : Wednesday, August 25, 2004 Well, Then I'm An Old Prune Middle Age. The author confesses that he doesn't get any reading done except during vacation and what books he does get through are on audiotape. He also thinks watching movies is more fun. Let me tell you something: I despise audiotapes. When it comes to reading, I'm a purist and I do it the hard way. I already spend much of my time listening to people jabbering their mouths off--why should I subject myself to more chatter? And as for reading gobs of books at a time, people like me are virtually non-existent (or at least I like to think so). Everyone says they don't have time to read when in reality, they're blowing their extra time off by doing something stupid like "hanging out". I'm not sure if this is a function of being a poor graduate student, but I don't own any DVDs. I don't watch movies all that often. The problem I find with television and movies is that there's no thinking involved. And if you're not thinking, you might as well be dead. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:33 PM : Tangled Bank #10 This week's collection of science posts is being hosted by Wolverine Tom. There's everything from crayfish to probability in the mix. If you've written a science post you want highlighted, be sure to submit your entry to the next Tangled Bank. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:38 AM : Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Total Smackdown Man, I got this great big lecture after just borrowing the microwave for two minutes. I was putting food in a food microwave, not explosive chemicals. And no one else was using it... Update (2:00 PM): You know, after thinking about this a bit, I believe I was being made an example of. There were, of course, many witnesses to this petty humiliation (one always gets large audiences at one's humiliations rather than one's triumphs) who at least thought my treatment was totally unfair. But if there's one lesson I've learned, it's this: if you have a stupid pet peeve, don't vent in public. It's embarrassing for all involved and it would be much less stressful if you did something else instead--like blogging it. At least then it'll seem more funny than annoying. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:20 AM : Linkage Famous Curves Index. Some of the more interesting math equations in graphical form. Wordcount. 86,800 of the most frequently used English words, in order. Here's how to get on my longist. "What has Tibor Fischer learnt from judging this year's Booker Prize? That publishers don't have a clue about books – or bribes." Blech. I don't think you can win any prize of this caliber on merit alone. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:22 AM : Monday, August 23, 2004 Peering Inside Nature's Nesting Doll Termites, the bane of homeowners everywhere, cause a couple billion dollars of damage in the U.S. alone. A colony of 60,000 can devour a foot of a 2-by-4 in five months. But we would have never known what termites were eating were it not for Joseph Leidy. Leidy was a naturalist of the nineteenth century--a passionate observationist and "the founder of American vertebrate paleontology, parasitology, and protozoology"--yet he has fallen into obscurity. His curiosity drove him to find out the diet of the "white ants" living in a rotting log in New Jersey. These "white ants" were the eastern subterranean termites, Reticulitermes flavipes. Under the microscope, the termite hindguts revealed a teeming soup of partially digested rotten wood and microbes that streamed out "like citizens leaving a crowded meeting hall." Joseph Leidy's paper in 1891 was the first to describe the termite endosymbionts. Three of the most common endosymbionts are archaeoprotists: Trychonympha agilis, Pyrsonympha verteus, and Dinenympha gracilis. And they all exhibit a dizzying array of strange forms. Although Leidy deduced correctly that these protists were entirely dependent on the termite for providing a safe niche, he thought that these microbes were unnecessary for the termite. Today, we know that the protists are essential for termite survival by producing enzymes to digest wood cellulose. Without their gut flora, the termites would starve to death. But it doesn't stop there. The protists themselves are literally beautiful examples of symbiosis in motion. Take for instance the protist Mixotricha paradoxa, first identified by J.L. Sutherland in 1933, which lives in the hindgut of the Australian termite Mastotermes darwiniensis. One M. paradoxa is an amazing half a millimeter in length (a giant compared to other microbes in its family) and has four small andulipodia which act as rudders to change direction. Swimming is another matter. In the 1950s, A.V. Grimstone and L.R. Cleveland examined the protist via electron microscope and discovered at least four different kinds of bacteria (epibionts) living in or on the protist which made some people start calling it the beast with five genomes. Three of the bacteria live on M. paradoxa's surface: a large spirochete which might be a parasite, a small hair-like spirochete approximately 250,000 to 500,000 per cell which act as the protist's propulsion system via synchronized swimming, and a rod-shaped bacterium that anchors onto the host membrane. The fourth member of the quintet is a round bacterium living inside M. paradoxa that acts as the energy factory--just like mitochondria. And on top of that, M. paradoxa breaks down the cellulose ingested by the termite! Another unusual epibiont was recently described by Stingl et al. It is also a rod-shaped bacterium, but it is only distantly related to the one found on M. paradoxa. This bacteria, from the lineage Bacteroidales, is found on the protists of the Staurojoenina species which live inside the dry wood termite Neotermes cubanus. Under a scanning electron micrograph, Staurojoenina looks like a strawberry with a bad toupee. If you look even closer, the rod-shaped bacteria come into view with occasional spirochetes attached like a couple fobs hanging off a sequined dress. But these bacteria aren't getting a free ride on a gentle elephant. Staurojoenina was also observed to phagocytose many of the bacteria on the surface. It's obvious that these epibionts aren't used for locomotion such as M. paradoxa, but they could very well interact with the protist host to help digest cellulose by producing fiber-degrading enzymes. Or, since Staurojoenina has been observed to be "eating" the bacteria, they may just as well be a convenient snack for the protist. But how on earth did these unusual partnerships form? We're still not sure although researchers are slowly moving toward the answer to a different question. Wier et al. examined the ancient Miocene termites Mastotermes electrodominicus from the Dominican Republic which were preserved in amber approximately 20 million years ago. M. electrodominicus is not only an ideal fossil to study because it is related to the above mentioned M. darwiniensis, but these early termites also contain M. paradoxa and similar protists that may help us understand how the modern eukaryote came about. The guts of the fossilized termites were extracted and examined by electron microscopy. By comparing the morphology of the ancient protists and their epibionts to their modern counterparts, the researchers hypothesize that the first eukaryotes depended on their epibionts for the evolution of their nuclei. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:17 PM : Sunday, August 22, 2004 Cranky "May I help you find something?" "Uh, I'm just looking, thanks." Perky salespeople annoy me to no end. I always get the impression that they think I'm some deaf old lady who's either extremely dumb or very confused. If I wanted help, I would go ask them myself. Of course, when I do ask, they act as if I'm the one inconveniencing them. I bet whoever is training these salespeople is telling them that the customer isn't always right but that the customer is always an idiot. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:43 PM : Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:13 AM : Saturday, August 21, 2004 Recent Reading Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe by Dionys Burger. It is called by some, the "canonical" sequel to Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland, a Romance of Many Dimensions, and in a way they're right. In Flatland, we follow the adventures of A. Square who gets a visit by the evangelizing Sphere trying to convince Flatlanders of the existence of the third dimension. Flatland is also the social satire of the nineteenth century with class prejudices and the suppression of women represented by shapes that were Irregulars and the temperamental Lines respectively. Sphereland makes sense as the sequel because the protagonist is a Hexagon, the grandson of the Square in the original. The prose style of this book is also very similar to its predecessor. The Sphere also makes a return appearance and with further observations, the Hexagon realizes that Flatland isn't really flat. The social commentary of Sphereland, however, is somewhat weak compared to Flatland, and the numerous Flatland versions of well-known fairy tales told by the Hexagon doesn't help either. Like Flatland though, the protagonist is ostracized for ideas ahead of his time. Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So by Ian Stewart. This is literally a mix of already passé pop culture references, puns, and Alice in the Wonderland. The social commentary is minimal. The protagonist this time is A. Square's great-great-granddaughter, Victoria Line, who is a temperamental and rebellious teenager who would rather do subversive math than date boys to her parents' chagrin. After decrypting a code she finds in her ancestor's Flatland account, Victoria summons the devil-horned Space Hopper who whisks her away to the Mathiverse to teach her not only about three dimensions and four dimensions, but one and a quarter dimensions, hyperbolic spaces, quantum mechanics, black holes, and string theory. It's not really a story, per se, but a primer to introduce the casual reader to concepts mathematicians and physicists are grappling with today. The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignác Semmelweis by Sherwin B. Nuland. In the eighteenth and early half of the nineteenth century, the understanding of the causes of disease still suffered from misconceptions originating in the philosophy that health was dependent on the balance of body humors. Most people, including doctors, thought that disease was caused by bad atmosphere called miasma which they blamed on city pollution, crowded spaces, gases from the earth and even God. In the mid-nineteenth century, an epidemic was sweeping Viennese hospitals--pregnant women were dying of childbed fever. The directors of the hospitals at the time attributed the outbreak to everything except the medical staff themselves. Ignác Semmelweis, a doctor at one of these hospitals, realized what the problem was after close observation--the doctors did not wash their hands between dissecting diseased cadavers and examining live patients. Unfortunately, Semmelweis got little recognition for his discoveries during his lifetime. Nuland argues that this lack of recognition was not due to forces beyond Semmelweis's control--as previous biographers have suggested--but that Semmelweis precipitated his own obscurity by his self-destructive personality. Semmelweis was a "failed genius" who ran away when he was finally offered a prestigious university position, failed to write up his clinical observations in a timely manner, after one poorly executed experiment refused to perform any further experiments, and even refused to take the next step to observe specimens under a microscope. Sure, there were plenty of people in Semmelweis's life with political and personal agendas against him, but his uncooperative and accusatory manners also alienated people who could have helped him. Altogether this is an interesting look at the doctor who pioneered hand washing although, as the author observed, young doctors today have absolutely no idea who he is. Current reading: Besides the books which I have mentioned in previous weeks that are still stewing on the back burner, I am reading Ian Stewart's Does God Play Dice? which is on chaos theory. I don't think readers need to be mathematicians to understand it, but it would help if the reader has at least taken some higher math. Also from this book, I realize why Neal Stephenson is calling his third book in the Baroque Cycle The System of the World (maybe I totally missed it when I read the first two books). It's from Newton's third book on the laws of motion where he says: "I now demonstrate the system of the World." Anyways, I also got a hold of Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe. Now I can see for myself whether the author explains anything about theoretical physics or goes overboard on the metaphors. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:53 PM : Friday, August 20, 2004 I Am Not Like Other Women Michael Blowhard observes that "Women in gourmet food stores are far more likely than men to help themselves to food-goodies as they shop." Dustbury remarks that it doesn't just happen at fancy markets either. The problem, in my mind, is the reason they think women do this. It is not about a woman's attitude toward food. It's about control. I can appreciate a well cooked meal like the next person, but when it comes to eating food at the supermarket without paying for it, I'd have to say no--I'm not tempted to do this. Not one iota. It's not a sampling problem, but rather a logistical one. If I wanted to eat before paying, I'd go to a restaurant. The concept of a market is that you buy the product before you use it. Yes, it's trendy to think that rules are bad things and should be done away with but that's not how our society works. If you acted upon every impulse that came over you, you'd never get anything done. Back to the control issue: exactly how long does it take to grab food off the shelf and go to the cashier to pay for it? Usually not very long. And it's not like people are starving--especially places that even have markets. It's like airplane trips. People complain about the food so they prepare elaborate meals to bring with them. But how long does the average plane trip take? Three or four hours? I don't think anyone's going to starve during that time. And tasting? Give me a break. A grape is a grape and a chip is a chip. They have quality control for a reason, you know. And if you're dead set on the notion that everything tastes different, then buy a little of it to try first before you take the whole bushel. So women grazing at the market vs. women oohing and ahhing over pastries? Neither has anything to do with the stomach. Both have everything to do with control issues, particularly losing control. But one is about rules, the other visceral. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:19 PM : Linky-Dink Mind Reading. "The new science of decision making. It's not as rational as you think." And nor is this article a piece of fluff. The research here is about behavioral economics--trying to model what people actually do instead of what they should do. Oh, and also one of the guys in charge of the experiment was one of my undergraduate profs. 100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have to Read. I've read surprisingly few of the books on the list. The urban maze. Um, if the author of this article wanted to get to Caltech, he shouldn't have called a cab. He should have called a door-to-door shuttle service. Not only is it cheaper, they also know where the institution is. Circle of clichés. "Tom Payne's guide to the words that reviewers and publishers love too much." I guess I'll have to be extra careful when I round up my thoughts for the "Recent Reading" at the end of the week. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:47 AM : Thursday, August 19, 2004 The Thursday Threesome: Desperate times lead to disparate measures Aside: I always thought this saying was supposed to be "desperate times lead to desperate measures" but it actually makes more sense stated in this meme. Measures can be "disparate" (different) but not really "desperate" (lost hope). Usually only a person or a situation is "desperate". The confusion, I think, stems from the fact that "desperate" and "disparate" are pronounced the same way by a lot of people. Personally, I've always emphasized the first syallable in "desperate" and the second in "disparate" so I (as well as other people) wouldn't get confused. Onesome:Desperate times-- Hmmm... The ever present time crunch. Do you have a story of a time when you needed to be somewhere and it just didn't look like it was going to work out? Did you make it? No??? What happened? I really try to be on time for things. If I'm not on time, I usually blame it on my watch (it always runs slow), my experiments (you can't rush those things, you know!), or sheer procrastination. Twosome: lead to-- What leads you to write at your place? What strikes your fancy and leads you to your keyboard to share it with the blogosphere? I write about whatever I find interesting. Usually. Lately, my life is very boring (or at least it would be described as boring by people who prefer unexpected action to planned schedules) except for those times when I can't help but eavesdrop on my neighbors even though I don't want to. Sometimes I type out a rant about something that annoys me, but half the time, it doesn't make it to the blog. I don't really like reading rants so why should other people? Another part is the memes. If it's a recurring meme, like this one, I do it partly out of a sense of obligation and partly out of habit. To be honest, I'm not even sure anyone really reads these things--maybe I just do it to be nice to the people who've created the meme. The science stuff is another thing. Yes, some of it also ends up in another meme, but I primarily do it because there's some research that I think is interesting and that other people should know about it besides myopic academics. I also want to improve my science writing for a lay audience. I think I need a lot of improvement since I hardly get any comments on those posts (or people linking to them or google searches). I'm probably talking over people's heads (which is the most likely scenario), people are anti-science, or people don't care about microbes unless they're running a fever or vomiting their guts out. In my (not so humble) opinion, people don't care about anything unless it directly impacts them or their beliefs. On reviewing and writing: I read all sorts of books and I review them in hopes that I might interest someone in either reading what I've read or recommending something that they think I might like to read. Same thing for movies or plays or concerts--whenever I do get to see them. But judging from All Consuming, it's probably not worth my effort except for my own edification. Most bloggers seem more interested in political tracts, geeky books about web standards and weblogs, and bestsellers. I also used to write about my speculative fiction writing projects, but I don't anymore (at least on this blog) because people don't care unless you're a Famous Author. Threesome: disparate measures-- Hey, what is it you do that's really different from your friends or family or acquaintances that drives them to distraction? Is it something as simple as the way you put the toilet paper roll on? ...or maybe your habit of eating all your vegetables first? Come on, you know there's a little something it's safe to share with the gang! I don't annoy people. People annoy me. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:13 AM : Wednesday, August 18, 2004 Straight Out of the Books Science creates 'own mavericks'. I don't know whether or not the shunned scientists are doing bad science but this is ripe for social commentary. Actually, the social commentary has already been done several decades ago in Sphereland, a sequel to the social-satire-masquerading-as-math-book Flatland. More about this on Saturday or Sunday when I've finished enough books to review. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:01 PM : Tuesday, August 17, 2004 Total Geek Um, so I went to the library and borrowed some books. Math books to be exact. And no, they have nothing to do with my research. They just looked interesting and I thought I could read through them in my spare time. ... What are you lookin' at? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:16 PM : Sunday, August 15, 2004 Recent Reading The Life of Mammals by David Attenborough. This book was written in conjunction with the filming of the documentary on the Discovery channel (which I haven't seen) with the same title. There are plenty of pictures to look at if you're not into reading, but if you are, there really isn't much new to learn if you've even watched a nature documentary or been to the zoo lately. Or maybe that's just my biologically slanted education showing. I'm pretty sure fifth-graders would gobble it up though. The only quibble I have with this book is the organization. Animals are somewhat loosely grouped by habitat and diet--if I wanted to look up an animal I didn't know about without consulting the index, I'd probably have to do some flipping without much idea which section I should look through. Food: A Culinary History edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. Finishing this book this month seems oddly appropriate. Julia Child, who passed away at the age of 91 a couple days ago described Food: A Culinary History as "literally overflowing with facts, anecdotes, and histories, [...] a major compendium for those in the [culinary] profession as well as a delightful store of knowledge for anyone who loves to read." Sure, there is some really dry history stuff in the essays (I mean, who really wants to read food and farming statistics for fun?) but some of the ideas and theories are pretty interesting. In ancient times up the Middle Ages, people's diets were mostly restricted by religious and medical reasons--i.e. categorizing and eating foods in order to balance the four humors--blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. It was only during the eighteenth century that European people ate because of taste, making the statistics for sugar, salt, and spice consumption actually informative. It is only now that the purpose for eating has turned full circle--back to the medical with all the concern about fats and cholesterol (among other things). An interesting tidbit--the French have far less knowledge about the nutritional value of food than either other Europeans or Americans, yet their cholesterol levels are lower than everyone else with the exception of the Japanese. Perhaps we should pay more attention on taste and gastronomy than mindlessly shoving fast food into our mouths just to satisfy an inconvenient appetite. Staying Dead by Laura Anne Gilman. Wren Valere is no ordinary inhabitant of New York. She's a retriever--a mage who works for hire. One particular job seems simple enough: to retrieve a cornerstone that has been stolen from a business building. But of course, if you're dealing with magic, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. I found it a bit of amusing fiction although the setting, I'm afraid, would probably make it dated in five years. The best analogy to describe the story would probably be what I speculate an hour episode of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer without the vampires would be like except I've never seen that show--only heard of it second hand. (Uh oh, now that I've noticed, this author has written Buffy novels.) Currently reading: See the previous week's entry or take a look at the bookrolling page once I get that updated. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:54 PM : Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:38 AM : Saturday, August 14, 2004 Forced Observation I thought I was going to have a nice, civilized afternoon at home, reading the books I have on backlog and listening to Dvorak. But I was wrong. I was interrupted in mid-chapter by loud banging noises--as if a Californian earthquake had selectively converged on the next apartment. And then my neighbors started yelling obscenities at each other, arguing about money again. More loud noises ensued. It sounded like someone was throwing furniture around and breaking stuff. And finally with more yelling, the guy kicked his girlfriend out of the apartment. Then the horrible, horrible rap music with window-vibrating bass started up. It's still going on. It's not abnormal for couples to have fights and it's not abnormal to fight about money. But my crazy neighbors do it so often that I wonder if there isn't another problem that they're not talking about. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:05 PM : Time Wasters Colorcell. Trying to find the most beautiful color combinations one vote at a time. Oh, and these color squares also have the strange ability to reproduce. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Whaa! I have to wait until September to see it, if the dinky movie theaters around here even carry it. For you film snobs, it was one of two animated films that was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. If you need any more ideas about what this is about, the Movielist has some trailers. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:31 AM : Friday, August 13, 2004 Oh Great Now I know for sure that my crazy neighbors stuff their share of the junk mail into my mailbox. What did I do to deserve this? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:05 AM : Thursday, August 12, 2004 Monkeys, Ye Olde Weblogs, and P2P Monkeys test 'hardworking gene'. (via, predictably enough Monkeyfilter--also see: abstract and pdf of the actual study) A few notes since the BBC article is a bit (well, more like extremely) vague: The researchers targeted the monkey cortex because previous studies have shown that it is involved in visual reward learning. What the BBC got wrong was the drug target--not dopamine, but the dopamine receptor, named D2. The fact that the D2 receptor is particularly abundant in the cortex led the researchers to hypothesize that it may play a large role in how the monkeys would be motivated. In order to block the D2 receptor, antisense technology was used. What's antisense? Well, the D2 receptor, like every other protein in the body, is encoded in the DNA. In order to make the protein, one strand of the DNA is transcribed. This strand is called the sense strand. The other strand, which is not used for transcription, is called the antisense strand. The sense and antisense strands are exact mirror images of each other and when the antisense binds to the sense, transcription cannot occur. So what the researchers are really doing is injecting antisense DNA for the D2 receptor into the monkey cortex. The antisense DNA binds to the sense DNA and D2 receptor can't be made. Even though there may be dopamine in the system, the monkey neurons can't be stimulated by dopamine because they don't have any receptors. Women Go Blogging and Find Freedom of Speech. (via Blog Sisters) There really isn't anything new in the article if you've followed feminist webloggers for any amount of time except for the thing about Blogger templates and gender stereotypes. Or maybe it was just new to me since I don't use other people's designs. Of course, if everyone's sites start looking like NCBI, I'm not going to complain. A Successful Blog. (via Blogdex) I've never heard of this guy before, so I'm not sure whether to take his advice with a grain of salt or not. Most of the tips just sound like common sense anyway. What's Wrong With: BitTorrent. I figure this might be interesting to some of my readers. For the uninitiated, BitTorrent is a technology which allows you to share and download (particularly large) files. Sort of like pre-2002 Napster on speed. But don't ask me how it works because I don't use it--not with my sluggish dial-up connection. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:23 PM : The Thursday Threesome: Flaneur Onesome: One who strolls- How do you primarily get from place to place? Do you walk locally and only drive for distances? Ride your bike around campus or the neighborhood? Or hop in the car to run errands? I either walk, take the shuttle, or drive. I wish I didn't have to rely so much on transportation with wheels and an engine but it's sort of inevitable considering everything is so spread out. Even if I could run the mile in 12 minutes (which I can't), it'll still take me about an hour to get to school. Twosome: about aimlessly; When you have time, do you like to do things outdoors like hike or take long walks? Do you wander rather aimlessly or do you have a destination in mind and the sooner you get there the better? I like hiking and walking. I don't necessarily need to get to a destination sooner, but I'd like to know where I'm going. I don't want to get lost. Threesome: a lounger; a loafer. Or do you prefer to spend your spare time relaxing, lounging on the couch with a good book or a TV program? Or, since the football season is upon us again, do you plop down in the recliner and cheer on your favorite team? Ha! I don't have a couch or a TV, but I do have plenty of books. Maybe too many. (I'd rather spend money on books than the couch or the TV.) And I hate football. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:44 AM : Wednesday, August 11, 2004 Tangled Bank #9 This week's collection of science posts located back at the Tangled Bank's home base, Pharyngula, is exceptionally diverse. So go read and cleanse your brain of those repetitive articles that harp on nothing but ye olde weblogs. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:42 AM : Links: Reading and Driving Reading Online Text: A Comparison of Four White Space Layouts. Text with more margins and white space is slower to read than text without, but people say it's easier to read and comprehend more. Maybe this is why I've switched to text only html files instead of pdf whenever I find a science paper online. Girl Meets Boy, at 60 Miles an Hour. Some teenagers are crazy drivers. Once I got into an accident when some clueless teenage girl rammed into the driver side--while I was driving. It was one of those 90 degree collisions in which the cause of the accident is impossible to doubt. Of course, my dad jumped out of the passenger seat and started ranting and called the cops. The teenage girl just stood around looking sullen. It's people like her who drive up insurance for people like me. Grr. Books that will induce a mindf*. (via Monkeyfilter) Yet another list of books for me to read. When will it ever end? (At least I read all of Umberto Eco's books listed.) [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:35 AM : Tuesday, August 10, 2004 Tales from the Crypt Although microbes in our body outnumber our own cells 10 to 1, most of these organisms reside in our gut. Some of them are beneficial--such as aiding in digestion while others that pass through may not be so benign. So how does our gut keep all those microorganisms--from the commensal to the pathogenic--from going out of control? In the early 1900s, Eli Metchnikoff noted a curious thing: if rodents ingest anthrax, they don't get sick, but if you mix up the bacterium with sand or powdered glass which will damage the intestinal lining, the animals will get the disease. The digestive juices from the intestine, however, did not kill the pathogen. Metchnikoff then hypothesized that something else more complex must be responsible for microbicide. The physiology of the intestine is like a carpet--it is lined with microvilli, or finger-like projections, that increase surface area for absorbing nutrients from digested food. The area between these microvilli, called the Lieberkuhn crypt, can be a comfortable niche for an enterprising microbe. Except there's one hitch. The crypt is a microbial deathtrap. At the very bottom of the crypt reside the Paneth cells (discovered by Joseph Paneth in 1887) which churn out an amazing amount of antimicrobial peptides called cryptdins (short for crypt defensins) that disrupt bacterial membranes. The presence of Paneth cells and how many cryptdins produced are dependent on diet. In the case of carnivores, Paneth cells are absent because meat, for the most part, is sterile. Herbivores have to digest vegetable matter longer to recover enough nutrients. They practice "hindgut fermentation" but they have to figure out a way to keep all the bacteria out of the foregut. In mice, the Paneth cells produce more than 20 different cryptdins. Since we're omnivorous, our Paneth cells only produce two. Also differing from carnivores as well as us, mice produce cryptdin-related sequence (CRS) peptides. When they were first discovered, CRS peptides were hypothesized to also have antimicrobial properties, but it couldn't be proven until now. In this month's Nature Immunology, Hornef et al. show that CRS peptides have potent microbe killing power. By analyzing mRNA in mouse intestinal tissue, the investigators identified 17 different CRS peptides. The CRS peptides, though, didn't act alone. When the peptides were extracted from the intestines, they were found as dimers, or paired with another, in a sort of mix 'n match fashion. The researchers also showed that these CRS peptides were extremely good antimicrobials. One of them was able to reduce Listeria monocytogenes and Streptococcus pyogenes numbers by 105 in 10 to 20 minutes. The "dimer" aspect of the CRS peptides is somewhat unusual but not wholly original. Dimer defensins are also found in the tree frog Phyllomedusa distincta, guinea pigs, and non-human primates. The "mix 'n match" aspect is also quite interesting. The peptide dimers made could very well produce an arsenal of antimicrobials with different properties, ready to fight off a gamut of bugs. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:00 PM : From a Morning Conversation "Are you a Chinese girl?" Great. Thanks for starting my day with another of my pet peeves. "Er. Um. Yeah." So why did I hesitate? For one, "Chinese" means different things--nationality, culture, ethnicity. And for another, my answers to those questions are either not true, or only partially true. When I say "yes", it greatly oversimplifies things. And perhaps in a way, I'm a bit condescending in my intention when I say "yes" because I don't want to overtax people's brains intent on putting me into some pigeon hole. Identity can't be something that you can slap with a label although I don't think most people who just want to know what "kind" of person I am will appreciate something as long-winded and convoluted as "Americanized Canadian who's ethnically 5/8 Chinese, 3/8 Vietnamese, can't understand Mandarin or Vietnamese (except for a couple of words) but knows Cantonese, did poorly in the approximately two years I spent in Chinese school (and forgotten about 99.9% that I did learn), and that's not the half of it." [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:28 AM : Monday, August 09, 2004 Link-o-Rama The virtue of idleness. Oh yeah, this is something I could get behind. But I'm not sure people in charge would like their employees working for only two hours and being slothful and indolent the other 22. Census of Marine Life. Cool recently discovered undersea stuff. Check out the images and videos. Researcher Links Storytelling And Mathematical Ability. "This study suggests that building strong storytelling skills early in the preschool years may be helpful in preparing children for learning mathematics when they enter school." I was one of those preschool kids who kept my mouth shut--which probably would have made the researchers think that my math ability would have gone down the gutter. Actually, that's sort of true. I was pretty crappy at math (compared to the average kid) until I got into middle school. I'm not sure what exactly changed. I didn't become more or less "competitive" or was forced to catch up. I guess higher mathematics required more ability to be an abstract thinker (which I am better at) than route memorization of the multiplication table. The Snowflake Process of Writing a Novel. Arg. I totally cannot do this. When I write a novel, I write a summary and an outline with maybe brief character sketches. This snowflake method reminds me of this notetaking scheme I came across once called "webbing"--basically linking facts together in a weblike fashion. I'm not strictly a linear thinker but I can't spread my thoughts out all over the place either. This snowflake thing is too "flaky" and chaotic. I need to have some sort of order, even if the order is only apparent to myself. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:00 PM : Sunday, August 08, 2004 Recent Reading Birth of the Chess Queen by Marilyn Yalom. An intriguing history of an ancient game or a neo-feminist view of A.D. European history? Although even people with a passing familiarity with chess (like myself) would find this a bit of fascinating reading, I find it lacking on the very point I thought it was about based on my initial exposure to an NPR piece--it's not really about the history of the chess queen. Oh sure, the author does mention when the first queens appeared in place of the original vizier but there were other questions that I felt this book inadequately answered. Primarily, who made the chess sets? Were there any other texts besides chess puzzle books, love poetry, and religious tracts decrying the evil of the game actually telling how the queen appeared and why the moves were changed? So maybe these texts don't exist; but I really don't see why the author should instead expound on the conquests of female rulers like Isabella of Castille or Catherine the Great. Perhaps the appearance of the chess queen around the time when many European countries were strung along by female leaders isn't a coincidence, but I found the evidence, well, tenuous at best. Better leave the chess out of it and call the book Birth of the European Queen instead. The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. "Disease cowboys" fly off to third world countries to track the emergence of Bolivian hemorrhagic fever or Ebola or Lassa--quick and deadly diseases that strike fear and panic, not only in the victims but also the scientists trying to understand them. But this book isn't just about discovery and cures, it's also about the problems the modern world faces that would prevent disease containment--petty rivalries, fear and panic, politics, cultural hatreds, technology, and just plain human nature. I found myself feeling both sad and very angry as I read about governments denying any outbreaks due to economic concerns even though it was obvious that several epidemics were underway, governments slashing funding to scientific and medical agencies, people remaining in denial that they can't get a disease because the outbreaks are observed in minority groups in the margins of society, people blaming those same minority groups due to prejudice, religion, and moral convictions. Well guess what, microbes don't give a damn whether you're a prostitute or the pope. The spread of infectious diseases clearly correlates to human behavior, but few people will admit their own faults. There's a lot to learn from The Coming Plague, but be prepared for a pessimistic and depressing ride. Currently reading: Instead of just thinking about reading Gravity's Rainbow last week, I've actually started it this week. The writing feels odd--because it's written in present tense. I'm also in the middle of reading Staying Dead, an urban fantasy taking place in contemporary New York City, and Food: A Culinary History which is an English translation of a bunch of essays on--what else--food edited by a Frenchman and an Italian. I'm thinking about starting The Life of Mammals which despite its 300+ pages is mostly photographs and the huge tome, Infinite Jest. There is probably a small chance that I'll be able to start the last two this week if I don't get sidetracked by something else. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:13 AM : Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:28 AM : Saturday, August 07, 2004 Morning Observations Traffic on a Saturday morning is usually nonexistent. Except today. The Shriners have come to town with their itty-bitty cars the size of suitcases, zipping around as if the entire campus was a circus. What a pain to navigate. And as usual, the high schoolers working the cash registers at the grocery store still have no idea what kind of vegetables are what. I keep wondering: if I knock on their heads, will they sound hollow? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:43 AM : Friday, August 06, 2004 Bits and Pieces I've added my bookrolling page to the navigation on the right. I know most people don't give a crap about my reading habits, but well, there it is. I'm currently contemplating adding links to reviews and such. However, it'll take a while. The Law of Monkey. Apparently our brains can only handle 150 individuals. Everyone else is a statistic. How not to buy happiness. (via Kottke.org) Most people think money can buy happiness in the form of bigger houses and expensive cars, but this doesn't work. It only works when you use money to buy "inconscpicuous" goods like vacation time. Which I guess, in a way, makes sense. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:41 PM : Thursday, August 05, 2004 Update on Mail Okay, so after I did the Thursday Threesome, guess what I got in my snail mail? A rejection letter from a magazine I sent a short story to several months ago. Woohoo! I'm off to mail my manuscript to the next magazine on my list. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:09 AM : The Thursday Threesome: Surprises in the Mail Onesome: Surprises-- Hey, do you like surprises? ...and what kinds? Birthday parties, dinners out? ...or are you one of those people who absolutely has to know what's going on before it happens? No one has ever deliberately sprung surprises for me. I don't know whether it's because people think that I'm not a surprise kind of person or that I'm not worth the effort or that I'm the kind of laid back person who wouldn't have one of those polaroid moment expressions when I'm "surprised." The only kind of surprises I get are the double-take surprises. You know, the kind where you're minding your own business when you see someone doing something weird. Like yesterday. Out on the green, I noticed a typical yuppie guy in polo shirt and shorts, barefoot in the grass, hands clasped behind his back, butt sticking out, and strutting back and forth like a constipated duck. Was he practicing an obscure form of martial arts or tai chi on acid? Who knows. Twosome: in the-- nick of time: How do you keep track of birthdays and anniversaries and events you need to remember but only occur once a year? ...and where is your bailout place for cards and such when you've cut things a little too close? All important dates are kept in a scheduling notebook. I look at it often because I'm bad at remembering any important date except Christmas and New Years. Threesome: Mail-- Mail Call! Did anything interesting show up lately besides the bills? ...and do letters and cards still make it to your place or have email and ecards taken it all over? Inquiring minds and all that... Uh, no. I never get anything interesting in the snail mail. Or e-mail for that matter. (My e-mail box is almost always empty. Excitement is when someone even bothers to reply to an e-mail I send out. For example, I send out an e-mail to the host of Tangled Bank about a post submission. The host replies that he has got the e-mail. Yep, even that small thing is cause for a celebration.) [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:37 AM : Wednesday, August 04, 2004 Textbook Wisdom "The advantage to the host of not being autodigested is obvious." Ahahahahahahahaha! Fool's World Map. It's a project where the creator makes a map of the world based on other people's comments. Too many idiots don't know any geography... Color Palette Creator. Mmmm, colors. How Hello Kitty Came to Rule the World. "With little advertising and no TV spinoff, Sanrio's 30-year-old feline turned cute into the ultimate brand." When I was younger, I remember that I delibrately didn't ask my parents to buy Sanrio stuff because they would complain that it was too expensive (even though I'm apparently in the demographic that buys most of it in the US). Nowadays, I still don't have any Hello Kitty merchandise, but that's because I'm saving up all my money to buy books instead. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:08 PM : Tuesday, August 03, 2004 Excitment? What's That? Just some breakfast wisdom for today. It is better to eat a grapefruit that has been sitting at room temperature overnight than being chilled in the refrigerator for a week. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:34 PM : Sunday, August 01, 2004 Stupid Webrings I don't get it. The person in charge of one of the numerous webrings I have signed up for two years ago (I think the last webring I signed up for was two years ago) sent some notice to change the code because they moved to a different webpage and changed some administrative details, etc., etc., etc. So I did what they told me to do and they still bumped me off the webring membership. I'm just way too lazy to argue about it or reapply. I never get visitors from webrings anyway, so what's the point? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:48 PM : Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:16 AM : |
