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Monday, January 31, 2005 Give It To Me Baby (A meme from So Anyway. My answers are in italics.) (A) First, recommend to me: 1. A movie: Kontroll 2. A book: "Imaginary Numbers" edited by William Frucht 3. A musical artist, song, or album: Er, Paul Oakenfold? I've been listening to him recently, but it's clubbing music which I don't think anyone is into except those darn young folks. (B) Ask me three questions, no more, no less -- anything you want. I'll answer the questions collectively in an entry later this week. 1. What is your idea of a perfect writing utensil? 2. What would be the first thing you'd do when you realize you're lost? 3. Why did the chicken cross the road? (C) Copy and paste this in your blog, allowing your friends & readers to recommend and to ask you anything they want. Okay. (D) Give me a story idea. Since the author of So Anyway strongly hinted that she'd like to do erotica, I suggest using a subway. You know, for the symbolism.*snicker* [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:42 PM : A Note To My Non-Existent Biographer Some people may argue that memoir writing is mostly an ego-inflating exercise (and maybe they're right), but it suddenly struck me that it's also a rather morbid undertaking. Usually people write memoirs at the end of their lives when pretty much anything of interest is over and done with. I don't want to write a memoir. If I really wanted to chronicle the minutiae of my life, I'd start a diary/journal again (I had stopped, right before I discovered how to make a webpage). If someone else wants to write a volume about my life (I can't really imagine why), well, you would have to do some sleuthing. Besides, I find it perversely funny to think about some stranger rifling through my grocery receipts after I'm gone. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:03 PM : Links and a Meme Researchers Map The Sexual Network Of An Entire High School. (via Metafilter) Unlike adult networks where there are hubs of sexually active people, a high school network is more like a chain. This is probably due to the fact that most teenagers are not as promiscuous and they don't swap partners like trading cards. And there is, of course, those unspoken high school social rules about cliques, dating, etc. Monkeys Pay Per View. In a recent article in Current Biology, male rhesus macaques were willing to give up juice to view pictures of the behinds of female monkeys or pictures of high ranking monkeys. However, they demanded more juice if the researchers wanted them to look at pictures of low ranking monkeys. I'm sure some guy is going to use this as an excuse when somebody finds his extensive stash of pr0n. Homemade Nuclear Fusion Reactor. I can see someone using this concept for a movie like Real Genius, but exactly how safe is this? Author Theorizes 40 Microbiologists Killed Before Unleashing "The Ultimate Epidemic." Sounds like a stupid conspiracy theory. What are the statistics of being untimely dying in other occupations? Why Your Pointy Haired Boss Is A Mathematical Certainty. Ah, managers. People who are paid a lot for not knowing how to do anything. Revenge of the Right Brain. Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age - ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion. Blech. If it's going to be only artistry, empathy, and emotion without any sort of logic--it's going to be a scary thing. Any sensible person will realize that you can't have one without the other. Blog Overkill. A Slate article arguing that blogging is being overhyped and that it'll fizzle out before most people realize its potential. Color Fields. An interesting color picking utility that also uses images. Blogging 'a paedophile's dream'. Well, the bad news is, if some pervert is really determined to find you, he'll get the info no matter what you try to do. I guess the advice is not to make it too easy to tempt anyone who might be borderline. Comparative Morphologies. At first glance these pages look like drawings of biological miscellany like a page out of Robert Hooke's Micrographia, but those objects are just computer parts. A Silly Meme (via Dustbury) How this one works: 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. 5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you. From Jacob's Ladder: The History of the Human Genome by Henry Gee: "To backtrack slightly to before the birth of genetics, cytologists in the last quarter of the nineteenth century suggested that the consistent behaviour of chromosomes during processes such as recombination had parallels with the laws of inheritance." [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:05 AM : Sunday, January 30, 2005 A Show and a Meme Ah, Witch Hunter Robin, where to begin? It's an anime series with seriously dark overtones in both plot and color palatte with main characters in stylish goth costumes. The title character, Robin Sena, is a fifteen-year-old girl raised in a convent in Italy and employed by a secret organization called Solomon which hunts rogue witches. Robin is sent to the Japanese branch to replace another witch hunter that died in the line of duty. We quickly learn that the Japanese branch doesn't kill witches like the rest of the organization--instead, the hunters stun the witches with a mysterious anti-magic substance called "orbo" and carts them off to a place called the Factory for "further study". The series starts out slowly as the first few episode are somewhat self-contained like a typical television mystery show--basically the witch hunters track down mysterious deaths, find the witch responsible, and take him/her down to be sent to the Factory. The plot picks up around the ninth or tenth episode and we see everything unfurling. As Robin eventually learns who and what she is, it is also revealed that practically every other character on the show has hidden agendas which may or may not be at cross-purposes with witch hunting. It's very solemn and brooding and atmospheric. The characters, especially the main ones--Robin and the head witch hunter Amon--are aloof and enigmatic. I liked the design but I didn't feel the series really got going until episode fifteen, which I will have to attribute to dramatic fight scenes. Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:24 PM : Saturday, January 29, 2005 Yeah, Lazy I didn't feel like going outside in the cold if I didn't have to, so I settled down to watch some anime. I could be reading, but I've been feeling that I usually read more in a week than some people do in a decade. Stay tuned for a review tomorrow if I manage to finish the series tonight. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:46 PM : Friday, January 28, 2005 End of the Week Digest Genius grants don't pay off in lit. Well, that's the thing about lit. If you haven't been recognized before and you haven't yet published anything, you're a nobody. And when people are on some committee doing nominations, they're not going to vote for a nobody. Besides, lit is extremely subjective. What may be genius to one person may be downright moronic to another. (Like Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow--I can't even think about it now without cringing.) Do we need more scientists? / Is There a Science Crisis? Maybe Not / Wanted: Really Smart Suckers. (All three articles via Raymond at Tiger Cafe.) I've been feeling rather gloomy this week and this really cinches it. Maybe I should run to the hills and start screaming my head off or something. 100 Soundtracks of All Time List. Most of these are old movies so I'm not sure how fair this list is. And when it comes to soundtracks, I'm more about visceral aesthetics anyway. Lots of romantic strings or pounding techno? Bring it on. Be happy. Here's some utter cuteness: Tsunami hippo befriends tortoise. Mommy hottest. Sure, I grimaced when I read this, but these women can wear whatever the heck they want. But is the next generation going to be populated by more than their fair share of kids with Oedipal complexes? I personally don't buy their excuse for being sexy for themselves--I think they're just succumbing to society's obsession with youth. Big Art/Short Fiction. Is your attention span not long enough for an epic novel? Then read faster! Okay, so that advice may only pertain to me, but it is worth a try. As for equating art for literary fiction--ugh. I can't stand it. If I want to read about truth, I'm going for non-fiction. Fiction for me is supposed to be an escape. I want action! Adventure! Totally crazy stuff! I want a story and not some narrative so frought with meaning and symbolism that I need a lit doctorate to decode. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:57 PM : Thursday, January 27, 2005 Peculiar Type #13 - Wake On a silver afternoon, Peter watched his grandfather's ashes whisk across the slate blue waters of Dunnaday Bay as a glimmering soul-cloud in the crisp air. He stood for an hour on the water-worn dock listening to Reverend Matthews' solemn words and Uncle Gordon's elegy. He remembered when his grandfather first took him here and told him how he worked as a fisherman when he was younger, knotting rope, tending the boats, pulling in the catch. Seagulls had cried overhead and he could swear he could smell the fish and the brine and the sweat and could see his grandfather's eyes, hard and bright. Uncle Gordon said that Peter's grandfather was a stubborn man who knew his mind. That line made Peter smile. His grandfather had always been proud to say that he smoked a cigar every week since he had been ten and a beer every day since that age as well. Aunt Rita, a retired surgeon, was always pestering the old man to give up his bad habits, but he had brushed her off saying that he was immune to such poisons. Peter discretely sniffled as his family headed back toward solid land when the last of grandfather disappeared into the watery beyond. Grandfather would be pleased, he thought. After one last glance at the bay's choppy waves, he turned and nearly bumped into a glassy-eyed woman trying to pull her collar up to protect her neck from the cold wind. Peter frowned. It was Josephine, his cousin. "Cold day. Can't wait to get inside," she said. "Yes." He walked with her toward one of the large wood-planked sheds dotting the shore where a brief reception was to be held. He had intended to have a drink and linger for a while commiserating with his family, but with Josephine around, he wasn't so sure. He hadn't known that she would come to the funeral. Of course, his grandfather was hers too, but a week before, everyone knew she was immersed in something Big and Important. But only Peter knew she was seeing a psychiatrist and taking meds. Once inside, Peter slipped away from his cousin and headed toward the refreshment table for a glass of merlot. He didn't bother taking off his coat. He smiled again as he swirled the wine and took a sip. If his grandfather was there, he would be scowling. "Wine?" he'd roar. "Your friends have corrupted you, Peter." And then the old man would forcibly take the glass out of his hand and replace it with a beer can. But it would have all been in good fun. His grandfather would drink the wine as he had developed a taste for it himself. He spotted Uncle Gordon talking to the reverend at one corner and turned to walk toward the two men, but he froze as out of the corner of his eye, he saw Josephine talking to his younger brother Bobby, Bobby's girlfriend Eliza, and one of his other cousins. "So," Josephine said loudly to Eliza, "How many other guys have you dated before seeing Bobby?" Bobby's mouth dropped. Eliza blinked, shocked. Peter took a deep swallow. Please let that be an isolated incident. Even when they were little, Josephine always talked before thinking. And even after she talked, she never thought what she said was ever wrong. The woman never had any tact, no filter to screen out whatever was churning in that brain of hers. Peter had hoped the meds were doing something. Peter made his way toward his uncle and the reverend. Greetings were exchanged and he chatted with the older men, feeling a little comforted. After a few moments, he was about to excuse himself to get some water when footsteps sounded behind him. It was Josephine. "I must be leaving soon," his cousin announced. "It's getting so dark at this time of year." Reverend Matthews agreed as his uncle nodded. Peter said nothing. "It was nice seeing you Reverend. Peter, don't drink too much. And Uncle Gordon, you look absolutely terrible. Take care of yourself, now, you hear?" Josephine emphasized the word terrible like an overblown stage actress and then patted Uncle Gordon's coat lapel with a disapproving tsk. As his uncle's body jerked at her words, startled, the reverend tried to cover-up a scandalized gasp with a hand. And as a headache brewed behind Peter's temple, his cousin whisked herself off. Those meds definitely aren't working. "I am so sorry," Peter found himself saying. "She's just not herself with everything going on." But that was all that he was going to say. He was the only one who knew about Josephine's psychiatrist--she had entrusted that part of her to him. If it ever got out to the rest of the family, well, he knew for certain that Aunt Rita would be having a field day. Uncle Gordon was silent for a second, gazing at the door that Josephine had breezed through. Something flickered briefly across his eyes before he glanced back at his nephew. "Don't worry, Peter. I know she's been like that for quite a while." [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:59 PM : The Thursday Threesome: Light or Dark Onesome: Light-- Light chocolate or dark chocolate? ...or no chocolate at all? Either one is okay. Twosome: or-- Yeah, easy stuff this week If coffee, then cream. If soft drinks, then the clear sodas. Water is fine too. Threesome: Dark-- Light-colored clothing or dark clothes? Which do you prefer to wear? Angel to goth, we're curious? At this time of year, it's jeans and sweaters with no particular preference to colors. (In the summer, it's jeans and t-shirts with no particular preference to colors.) I am neither angel nor goth. But I think that goes without saying even though I haven't provided any pictures. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:22 AM : Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Tangled Bank #20 Go read this week's round-up of self-selected science writing around the blogosphere over at Jasmine Cola. Trust me, you don't want to hear me rant about my cheetos-induced nightmares and how snow has turned driving to school into a zero sum game. On another note, I am truly disappointed in my fellow graduate students. This year is the first year they've allowed us (and not the profs) to invite a seminar speaker or two and less than half of the students voted for the nominated speakers. When people are given a chance to actually do something, they don't take it. What does it take to shake people out of apathy anyway? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:08 AM : Tuesday, January 25, 2005 Must Clear Out Bookmarks Jules Map Server. "An interactive map tool for virtual exploration of Earth and other worlds; custom map creation with fully interactive pan and zoom & extensive image selection." Storyblogging Carnival. (via Science and Politics) Now this is interesting. Maybe I'll use this as an incentive to pick up fiction blogging again--particularly to add to this list which has been languishing lately. Viagra for Broken Hearts? This Science article sums it up better than I could. Jan. 24 called worst day of the year. Personally I found yesterday depressing for various reasons that I will not get into, but it could have been a lot more depressing. Most people don't realize that their lives could be a lot worse and never think that they're already quite lucky. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:56 AM : A Birthday and a Music Meme Just want to shout out a "Happy Birthday!" to Marvin who has now reached that particular number of years which for some young people, calls for a drunken celebration. The Music Meme (via Jasmine Cola): 1) What is the total amount of music files on your computer? 915 MB. I know, it's pathetic, but I'm somewhat picky when it comes to eating up space on my hard drive. Everything else is archived...elsewhere. 2) The CD you last bought was Paul Oakenfold's "Creamfields". 3) What is the song you last listened to before reading this message? Something on the soundtrack for A Beautiful Mind. I was trying to channel genius but failing miserably. Next time, I'm trying Bach. 4) Write down five songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you: As long as it's not country, I'm fine. Really. 5) To whom (three people) are you going to pass this stick? And why? Eh, no one. I'm the kind of person who does this stuff, not pass it around. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:50 AM : Monday, January 24, 2005 Linky Dinky (Or Not So Dinky) Whoa. There's an advance online publication on Nature Medicine that says Viagra can prevent and reverse cardiac hypertrophy in mice. But guys, don't get your hopes up yet. I have to read the paper first and I'll get back to you--maybe sometime tomorrow. Can you think better when you're typing? I'd have to say it's about 50/50 in writing vs. typing. I'm old enough to say that I've been taught sans computer. I still take notes by hand and not laptop when I'm in a lecture hall. The Beast 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2004. Oooo. You can't help but snicker. Atom Smasher's Error Message Generator. Cute. I like the fortune cookie. The 25 most difficult questions you'll be asked on a job interview. I wish I had these as a guideline when I was interviewing for colleges as a high school senior. PaleoArt. This is awesome. I find myself quite fond of the historical art gallery. Maximum Starbucks density. There is only one (ONE!) store within a 50 mile radius of where I live. I wish it had been zero. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:57 PM : Sunday, January 23, 2005 Unconscious Mutterings
*There are a lot of real people named Wesley that I know, but apparently only the fictional one came to mind first. I think this says a lot about how much pop culture has gotten to me even though I haven't watched television (except during school breaks when I was feeling bored) for the past six and some odd years. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:29 AM : Saturday, January 22, 2005 Narcissism, But Substitute Loathe for Love The Good Body by Eve Ensler. In this play, the narrator/author first launches into a monologue about what it is to be good. For Ensler, good is all about the perfect body. Her stomach, on the other hand, is the representation of bad because it is not as flat as the models she sees in the media. Unfortunately, her preoccupation with her stomach drives her partner away because she has placed more importance on her appearance than their relationship. Her obsession with physical imperfection isn't unique. We read about a variety of other women with the same problem: the exercise-fanatical editor of Cosmo, a teenaged girl sent to fat camp, a Puerto Rican woman dominated by her mother's ideal of beauty, a model who lets her husband/plastic surgeon sculpt her body, a body-piercing lesbian, a middle-aged Jewish woman who gets her vagina tightened by laser surgery, a woman who got seduced by a pedophile when she was younger, a seventy-year-old African woman crusading against female mutilation, an Indian woman who has learned to love her body, Afghanistan women who eat ice cream even though it is punishable by death. Some of these women have their body altered and others have eventually come to grips with their corporeal selves, learning to accept rather than hate. But one pervasive theme running through these vignettes is the want to be desired. In this case, the kind of desire Ensler wants to illustrate is strictly physical and sexual. Women today are confused--is desirability and femininity as depicted in the media and culture really the same thing that their partners want? Has society turned women into self-loathing maniacs because we're conditioned to believe that only the body matters and not intelligence or personality? On one hand, I see the truth of these anecdotes. Who hasn't thought about a part of their body that they didn't like very much? Who hasn't had someone make snide remarks about their appearance? It hurts, and the first emotional reaction is that one is less of a person because of it. On the other hand, The Good Body doesn't cover any new ground. Feminism has been blabbering about body image issues for years. A preoccupation about appearance isn't going to disappear soon--biologically, attracting and finding a mate probably won't change as long as humans are still reproducing in the usual way--although society has certainly made it a problem. The Good Body outlines a solution: personal acceptance. But again, this is not new. The publication of this play only indicates that all the self-esteem classes that have been doled out for the past decade haven't been working. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:08 AM : Catch of the Day What kind of pirate am I? Apparently this is one of those voting things. Go here and put your vote on whether or not yours truly is a heartthrob pirate, software pirate, crafty ship's captain, scurvy sea dog, or woman pirate. Wait a minute. I know what you're all going to put down so never mind. Mystery compound in beer fights cancer and Booze boosts brainpower. Don't we see these kinds of articles every couple of months or so? With the news's obsession of the stuff, you'd think that people are just trying to justify their closet alcholism. Like It or Not, Blogs Have Legs. An article about how the blogosphere has changed the way people read news and communicate on the internet. I'm not sure why Wired would publish something as old hat as this, though. Bacterium infected 3 at BU biolab. "Three Boston University researchers became ill last year after being exposed in a laboratory to a potentially lethal bacterium called tularemia." 20 Strange and Wonderful Books. Arg! More books to read. My to-be-read list is already way past unmanageable. Life, Reinvented. Another Wired article, but this one is about the intersection of biology and engineering. Some way cool stuff. How weird are you? My weird quotient is lower than average. So this means most people are weirder than I am. But...if everyone else is weird, that doesn't really mean that I'm normal, does it? Normal means being average, like everyone else. If being weird is normal, than I'm the one who's really is weird, right? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:06 AM : Friday, January 21, 2005 Bedlam When I'm going to sleep, I'm going to put in earplugs. Good thing tomorrow is Saturday so I won't have to worry about getting anywhere at a particular time. My neighbors are having one of their violent spats again and I can't help hearing that it's about the price of DayQuil. One of them shouts, "If you hate me so much, why don't you just leave?" I don't really think it's about hate. It's about being crazy. What sane person argues about DayQuil anyway? If this was the Middle Ages, I'd have no qualms about calling the authorities to cart the both of them off to an asylum. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:01 PM : Microbe Watching A Field Guide to Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer. First off, I read this at the recommendation of another student who used to attend the college which owns the press that printed this book. But whatever the suspicious connections may be, I found this to be rather informative. Okay, so maybe Dyer too enthusiastically lumps archaea with the prokaryotes--but I'll cut her some slack. This guide was meant to be a practical yet fun primer and not another dry textbook. In my mind, a field guide to bacteria wouldn't be complete without an entire section about pathogenic bacteria, but this may reflect more of my own biases than the author's own intent. So besides a couple passing phrases and one table, the pathogens are relegated into one corner. As Dyer remarks, a medical microbiology textbook would probably be a better resource. Another reason she gives for not including pathogens is that identification would require a bunch of equipment that a regular person wouldn't have access to. And the lay person is obviously the target audience. Dyer calls the reader the "amateur naturalist", a more genteel term for the microbe counterpart of the bird watcher. (Incidentally, this book wouldn't look too out of place with all the other books about bird watching or shell collecting or star gazing.) The goal of all these microbe observations is not to peer at tiny animucles swimming about on a microscope slide (although exercises with the light microscope are included) but to see them in all their macroscopic finery in what Dyer terms as "field marks." A more apt description would be "a conversational and almost colloquial text on observing bacterial signs in the environment". For example, a field mark of extremophiles living in acidic hot springs would be yellow-orange mineral deposits. Salt-loving bacteria on salt flats would color salt crystals pink. But if you can't make it out to those extreme places for one reason or another, there's always your back yard. Alpha proteobacteria cling to the roots of legumes and create gall-like swellings in trees. Gamma and delta proteobacteria are found in the sludge of ponds participating in the use and recylcing of sulfur. Gram-positive bacteria make holes in cheese and give flavor to beers. And yes, even floating poop is a sign that bacteria (specifically methanogens) are present. Just don't hold a flaming torch to it unless you're pretty sure you won't set anything else on fire. In all, a very amusing read. I think the suggestions for experiments and field trips would be invaluable to teachers. One experiment highly touted by the book is a Winogradsky column. This is basically a closed ecosystem of microbes that continually recycle sulfur. If you use a clear tube or jar for the column, you'd be able to observe the different bacteria in the system as different colored layers. I've never done one myself although keeping a jar of pet bacteria on the windowsill does hold considerable appeal. But I guess I'll have to wait till the spring thaw to get some pond sludge. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:09 PM : Collected Untidy beds may keep us healthy. "Research suggests that while an unmade bed may look scruffy it is also unappealing to house dust mites thought to cause asthma and other allergies." This reminds me of something I posted a while back, a link to a paper titled: "The well-made bed: an unappreciated public health risk." The Biology of B-Movie Monsters. Find out why movie monsters are scientifically impossible. Writing Interactive Fiction. I'm always saying that I'll write one someday but so far, I haven't gotten past the manuals and tutorials. Of course, if someone else is a whiz at the programming part, I can always write the story/puzzle. Navel Gazing: Why even feminists are obsessed with fat. I find people's preoccupation with beauty standards a bit neurotic. Maybe a lot neurotic. Or it could be that I say that this is neurotic because I'm not anyone's notion of "pretty" and that I just want to whisk the subject into a dark corner, forget about it, and concentrate on other things that are more "important" (or that I wish were more important). But self-analysis to the point of making myself a victim of today's social mores is just not my style. Yes, there is the contradiction between femininity and feminism but I can't help think that maybe the contradiction will disappear if we change the sociological definitions of what it means to be feminine. For one thing, my definition of femininity excludes helplessness or deference. Those two qualities aren't feminine. They're for weak fools, period. The Shadow Internet. Hm. If the government and media conglomerates keep on chasing down the pirates only to have more pop up, what's the point? They should figure out a way to use the technology to their advantage instead of running after elusive shadows. (This is what everyone has been saying for a while now, but are they listening?) [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:18 AM : Thursday, January 20, 2005 Gah! Now I want to rinse my eyes with bleach. On my referrer logs, I sometimes notice IP addresses that I don't recognize and there's no indication that they got to my site via a search engine or another website. I usually figure they have me bookmarked for some reason or another, but today, I decided to put one of those IP addresses into Google. You can find out all the other websites the person with that IP address visited. To say the least, what I found was rather disturbing. Rest assured, I won't be doing that kind of Googling again unless I have a very good reason. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:22 PM : Science Nitpicking and Some Links In a recent Science article by Andries et al., researchers screened a chemical database and discovered that the drug diarylquinoline inhibits the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This is interesting news, not only because this drug is specific for Mycobacterium species but that it also inhibits strains of M. tuberculosis that have become resistant to other antibiotics. But--besides the fact that MTB is a really important human disease, this sort of research isn't precisely intellectually stimulating. Any idiot with enough money and resources can screen a drug library to check if one works or not. Quinoline-type compounds aren't exactly new either (quinine has been used at least since the 1600s to treat malaria) and how they work isn't a total mystery. Diarylquinoline was found to inhibit bacterial growth by binding to an ATPase. Then again, these kinds of drugs are already known to bind to metabolic enzymes. Off the top of my head, I know that optochin, a drug in the same chemical family first used for Streptococcus pneumoniae identification in 1911, also binds to an ATPase. 50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work. You want to write instead of just sitting around thinking about writing? Here's some tips that might help you. Notes on blogs. Yet another mainstream journalist doesn't quite get what blogs are all about. Not One Damn Dime Day. That's today! Except...if people don't buy anything today, I'm not sure if it'll really make the people in charge change their minds. I think it'll actually hurt the ones at the bottom of the food chain the most. Open-Source Biology Evolves. "BIOS will soon launch an open-source platform that promises to free up rights to patented DNA sequences and the methods needed to manipulate biological material." Grow Up? Not So Fast. Great. Yet another person who assumes that "growing up" means settling down, getting married, and having kids. Some people have all those things, but they still act like two-year-olds. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:54 AM : The Thursday Threesome: The next American Idol Onesome: The next- What would be your idea for the next great reality tv show? I think reality TV is evil so I'm afraid I couldn't give you any ideas. I'd rather write a script for a soap opera. Twosome: American- What do you think of as typically American? Mom and apple pie? Afternoons at the ballpark watching baseball? If you ever get lost in the backwoods of wherever, I recommend you drive through the little towns. Sure, they're not all the same, but it's the atmosphere that counts--the tight-knit community, the sense of history, the old houses with peeling paint, the small kids running about, and the sense that it's very isolated and nothing could really go wrong there. And then there's the feeling that I've stumbled onto a pocketed place that I don't really belong--that I stick out like a sore thumb. That's pure Americana. Threesome: Idol- Who's the one person you admire the most and why? There's not just one person I admire, but funny thing is, I can't really pick anyone I want to write about this morning. Maybe later. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:55 AM : Wednesday, January 19, 2005 I'm Boring I've been thinking about Gina's post on assigning journals for a class and I realized something that I never took note of before. In one of my undergraduate humanities classes, the professor assigned journal writing and suggested that we find a journal that we would be comfortable writing in. The other students bought fancy journals from the local bookstore--fancy covers and thick paper--and wrote with expensive pens and different colored inks. I just grabbed an empty lab notebook and wrote in black. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:45 AM : A Dream This one is interesting because I woke up remembering the words more than the images. Amist a pile of shopping bags, a man lies stunned on the floor. I yell, "Go and apologize to her, or do you want her to think that you're a coward?" [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:03 AM : Tuesday, January 18, 2005 Outside Blistering cold. My nose feels like an ice cube. Frozen slush crackle loudly under my booted feet. Respirations stream out of my mouth like the white clouds of smoke from car exhaust pipes. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:45 AM : Monday, January 17, 2005 Notes to Self *Many hot-button issues make me feel like slapping somebody up the side of his head. People get sidetracked with arguments of how things are right or wrong. Ridiculous and flimsy, I say. Illogical, gut, and emotional reasoning is just an excuse for decisions that are ultimately all about control. The next time you hear someone prattling about morality or God or how things should be--tell yourself that it's not about those issues at all. These ardent advocates might genuinely believe their own drivel, but in the end, it's all about controlling what you do and what you think. Should we listen to them and become nice little automatons? I think not. *I google myself ocassionally--more out of paranoia than egoism. I'm pleased to note that this blog still does not appear in the search results of my real name. The Art of Unhappiness. Well, if it's art, unhappiness is usually a lot more interesting than happiness. And we can't be happy all the time--it's really tiring to smile (both literally and metaphorically) every single moment. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:30 PM : Someone's Making Plans Remember last month's hole? I'm still trying to climb out of it. Most people are trying to be helpful. But one person, from the looks of it, seems intent to dig the hole a bit deeper before pushing me back into it. I do not know why this person would want to do this although I have two, abet irrational, guesses. One could be that this person has a misguided sense that this will be for my own good. The other reason deals with one small mistake I inadvertently made last summer (involving a microwave) which probably led this person to believe that I deserve a total smackdown. To say that I am unhappy right now is a vast understatement. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:13 AM : Sunday, January 16, 2005 Blubbering Limies! Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of the Sail by Stephen R. Brown. Is this historical text about medicine and the British navy "the definitive history of scurvy" as a reviewer describes it? I would say no--the discovery of the cause of scurvy was relegated to a few paragraphs in an epilogue. Nonetheless, it is an interesting account of how British physicians around the 1700s tried to find a cure to a deadly affliction found in sailors. The reader is immediately plunged into the horrifyingly unsanitary world of sixteenth century sailing in the first chapters. Although not unnecessarily repetitive, Brown paints a disturbing picture of inadequate diet due to poor food preservation techniques and a penchant for purchasing food in quantity instead of quality. Lack of hygiene and disease was rampant. And because mortality was so high for sea occupations, the naval bureaucracy decided to impress more sailors into service to make up for the men lost. Unfortunately that compounded the problem--more crowded ships equaled faster spread of disease and more deaths. Despite the British military and government's refusal to acknowledge that the health of one's sailors was critical for success in maritime matters, several physicians and naval commanders tried to find the cure to scurvy--which from the 16th to 18th century was the major disease in crews that served on long voyages. Three of these men profiled in this book are James Lind, James Cook, and Gilbert Blane. James Lind was a young naval surgeon who performed the critical Salisbury experiment. Under controlled conditions, Lind showed that a diet containing fresh oranges and lemons was the best cure for scurvy. Unfortunately, Lind's results were initially ignored because of his lack of social standing, his contradictory claims against more well-known and influential doctors, and his lack of understanding for what caused the disease. James Cook, famous for his explorations of New Zealand, Australia, and the fringes of the Antarctic (as well as ending rather gruesomely with his dismemberment in Hawaii), was also noted for the fact that his crew never died from scurvy. Before setting out on his missions, Cook's ships were outfitted with several kinds of scurvy cures. Part of his mission was to test the efficacy of these cures. The journals Cook and his officers kept, however, were rather muddled and inconsistent leading to further delay for a workable cure. It was only until Gilbert Blane--a gentleman and a naval physician--used his considerable social clout to convince the British bureaucracy that citrus fruits should be used to prevent scurvy. One would have to note, however, that it was only until John Pringle's death did Blane's suggestion really take hold. Pringle held considerable influence as the president of the Royal Society and had no qualms about advocating his own pet cure--wort of malt--as the sailor's panacea. Finally with the cure in hand, preventing scurvy became a major factor in the British naval victories during the Napoleonic Wars. Because sailors no longer developed the disease on long voyages, in the nineteenth century, Britain was able to blockade the French fleet virtually indefinitely. Scurvy is a worthy read--but obviously geared more toward the British naval buffs than those interested in historical science. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:06 PM : Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:04 AM : Saturday, January 15, 2005 The Amusing Bits Men Just Want Mommy. Whoa, major generalizations that sound suspiciously like male-bashing. Of course, if it is true that guys won't like me because they think I'm smarter, more successful, more independent, won't put them on a pedestal, and generally the opposite of their "mommy"--I really couldn't give a damn. I can't stand people who are shallow, sexist, and selfish even if it means that I'll be ostracized. Being alone is better than spending your life as someone else's peon. Fake Love Tokens Fool Flies. "Females among many insects and animals, including humans, enjoy receiving gifts during courtship, but a new study on flies reveals that males can woo their intendeds with worthless, fake love tokens, even if such cheating is otherwise undocumented for the species." For the love of books. A Chicago Tribune article about a well-known book blog. Food bloggers chronicle their delicious obsessions. Another news article about niche bloggers. Why encyclopaedic row speaks volumes about the old guard. An article about Wikipedia. I wish it would be easy for people to know who is editing all the entries. Then people could decide for themselves on whether or not to trust one particular entry. Smaller Not Necessarily Better. A quote: "Anything small enough to put in a backpack doesn't belong on a college campus." Oh really? Everything you wanted to know about literary agents. Includes some interesting references. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:00 AM : Friday, January 14, 2005 Diddly Doo What Age Do You Act? This one says I act like I'm 26. Which is close enough, I suppose. 100 things we didn't know this time last year. Such as: "Street brawlers sometimes arm themselves with potato peelers, according to the Home Office, which wants to make them banned weapons." Yeah, you can seriously poke out someone's eye with that kind of thing. Statue reveals ancient astronomy. "A Roman statue of Atlas -- the mythical titan who carried the heavens on his shoulders -- holds clues to the long-lost work of the ancient astronomer Hipparchus, an astronomical historian said Tuesday." This sounds just like what an author of occult thrillers would make up. ColorMixers. Yay! Another color organizer thingeemajig. A Morse code for human cells. If you know anything about the cell signaling field, this does not come as a big surprise. The only surprise about this is that drug makers finally realize that you can't cure disease by just randomly throwing drugs at it. The Cyclopedia of Puzzles. I'm definitely keeping this link. And endless source for amusement. The Secret Lives of Just About Everybody. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? But you don't have to wonder about me. I don't have a life. Why automatic kissing machines are a bad idea. Neil Gaiman says: "I would like to go on record as saying that I think Margaret Atwood's remote mechanical book-signing apparatus is the work of the devil, or at least a really really stupid idea." NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth. "NASA scientists using data from the Indonesian earthquake calculated it affected Earth's rotation, decreased the length of day, slightly changed the planet's shape, and shifted the North Pole by centimeters." I want my 2.68 microseconds back! U.S. bad for immigrants' waistlines. There's plenty of food over here, but it's all bad food. You know there's something wrong when entire aisles at the grocery store are dedicated to snack foods. Studies in circles. A collection of interesting photographs. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:37 AM : Thursday, January 13, 2005 Linkage on Words Thoughts on the 50 book challenge. (via Science and Politics) "All the rage"? The 50 book challenge has been around for quite a while--I found out about it back in early 2003. Although I did not reach that goal in 2003, I did last year. If you averaged it out, I read a little over a book per week. I also read a kazillion science papers but I don't really think the average person cares about that kind of reading. As for this year, it's too early to tell if I can read (or rather, that I have the time to read) that many books again. Bad book covers. Oh, there are plenty out there. I mostly find that bigger name authors tend to have better covers. Linguists Gone Wild! Why "wardrobe malfunction" wasn't the Word of the Year. I find it interesting that every year, people fixate on a couple of words and never let them ago. Sure, people find the issues that those words are pointing to are important or interesting but I find word overuse sort of like trying to go to sleep while someone's car alarm is wailing. After a couple days of newscasters babbling about things like "wardrobe malfunction", it gets really old, really fast. The Sluice. So I started another pet project. Right now, there isn't much there besides most of the book covers, but I'm hoping to slowly add more information in the coming months. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:41 AM : The Thursday Threesome: The Phantom of the Opera Onesome: The Phantom-- Pick one (or more!): Hey, have you seen it yet? Are you going to go see it? Have you seen it on stage? Read the book? What Phantom? I have seen the movie (see a brief review in this entry). I have not seen it on stage. I have read the book--about ten years ago. Twosome: of the-- Of the sights and sounds and smells of Spring what are you waiting for the most? ...and what is the first sign in your area that Spring is on its way? What? Spring? You've got to be kidding. Winter has just gotten a grip in the Northeast and it's not letting go for about the next three months or so. I actually don't like spring too much--too wet and messy. Threesome: Opera-- Theatre? Stage? Local shows? Do you get a chance to visit any of these venues? Any recommendations on current items? Sorry, I'm not planning on seeing any shows for the rest of this month. Or the next for that matter. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:13 AM : Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Tangled Bank #19 Go read the latest collection of science writing around the web brought to you by Science and Politics. As always, plenty of excellent posts for your reading (and intellectual) pleasure. And if you want to submit a science-related post of your own for next time, head on over to The Tangled Bank for the submission guidelines. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:44 AM : A Dream Interpretation Falling Awake by Jayne Ann Krentz. In this "roller coaster" of a suspense novel, we meet Isabel Wright, an assistant researcher and dream analyst at the Belvedere Center for Dream Research. Her position is a precarious one: her boss just died of a heart attack and his successor, his money-grubbing and stuttering son, fires Isabel due to unresolved issues with his late father. With mounting bills due, Isabel begs her brother-in-law to hire her on his motivational seminar business. Isabel also has this fixation on an anonymous client she used to do analyses for back at the Center for Dream Research. This fixation, it turns out, is mutual. The anonymous client, Ellis Cutler, is an ex-secret government agent turned freelancer who uses dreams to solve crimes. A former co-worker of his is murdered and feeling guilty that he was somehow the reason for the murder, he tries to find the killer. Since he needs a dream analyst but Isabel was fired from her former post, Ellis (as well as the killer) goes in search of her. I found the entire thing, well, amusing. Perhaps this is not the attitude to take with suspense novels, but let's face it, Krentz does not write scary suspense novels. Her main characters are usually sly and witty, secondary charaters even kookier, and villains cool as a cucumber on the outside and as mad as a hatter on the inside. I was somewhat put off by the main characters' whiney-ness though: Isabel was always lamenting about her lack of social life and Ellis was always complaining that other people thought he was suffering the after-effects of a nervous breakdown. As for who the killer was, I guessed who it was before I was halfway through. (The identity of the villain is actually not that obvious, but if you know anything about suspense novels, you'll know where to look every time.) And another thing: the plot device on lucid dreaming. The author certainly did her research on the subject, but I wouldn't take it any more than a humorous tidbit on a psuedoscience. On this note, it actually works better as a speculative fiction work than something mainstream. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:43 AM : Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Snicker I'm reading an article and the author refers to gram-positive cocci as "those blue beach balls from hell". Heh. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:40 AM : Scattered I always figured that not very many use newsreader feeds so I never got around to actually getting one for this site, but beginning today (well, actually yesterday) if you really, really need it, you can get the atom feed for this site here. Don't ask me for the specifications--I only fooled around the settings of the weblog and I have no idea how it works. A Fine Mess. This reminds me of my first roommate. It was my first day at college and housing had randomly assigned people rooms. Everyone was going to move after the first week anyway so at least I wasn't feeling particularly pressured. Then I met my temporary roommate, who was very nice but had absolutely no talent for organization and no concept for sane living. She had moved in first so the whole room was a mess and all I could do was to shove her stuff aside so I could have a tiny corner of my own. Write Till You Drop. An essay by Annie Dillard about what writers are/should be. Building a Better Blog. I mostly agree with the suggestions except for "publish during high traffic times." My personal schedule is too weird to accomodate this. Color Schemes. Ooo. Colors. I can't resist them. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:56 AM : Death In Vitro Bacteria can be characterized in many ways--you could look at colony morphology if you streak the microorganisms on an agar plate, you could check antibiotic sensitivity, you could observe the response to different chemicals like salt and sugar. Another way to characterize bacteria is to observe autolysis in bacterial cultures. Autolysis is the process in which a cell commits suicide by releasing enzymes to digest itself. But why would a bacterium kill itself? Unless we want to get into metaphysical questions on whether or not bacteria get depressed, we will have to look at more practical reasons. Like eukaryotic cells (such as the cells in our bodies), a bacterium usually doesn't live alone. Microorganisms live in bacterial communities like cultures in the laboratory or in biofilms in nature and they exchange signalling molecules all the time to guage the conditions in the surrounding environment and to talk to each other. In one sense, we can think of a bacterial community as a multicellular organism and just like other multicellular organisms, there is cell death in a bacterial community. For example, while we are growing as fetuses in the womb, there is also some programmed cell death going on--such as the webbing in between our fingers. Death in bacteria can also be a part of development. In the case of Bacillus subtilis, cell death occurs during sporulation. Spore formation is initiated when the bacterium senses that the nutrients in its environment are getting low. Vital components of the bacterium are then duplicated and encased in a many layered coat that will protect the spore from harsh conditions. Afterwards, the mother cell is lysed and the spore is released into the world. But some bacteria don't form spores. So why would they lyse? A possible reason might seem a bit altruistic at first. The autolysis of some cells in an environment with decreasing nutrients may benefit their kin. In other words it's like voluntary cannibalism: bacteria lyse so they would release nutrients for their neighbors. This, however, brings up another question. If the environment is bad and this activates the suicide pathway in bacteria, why don't all the bacteria die? In 1944, J.W. Bigger added penicillin to staphylococci to induce autolysis. But he observed something interesting in his experiment. Even after long incubation times in media with antibiotic, a small number of cells still remained viable. The problem was not that these cells were antibiotic resistant--in fact, if these cells were grown out, they were still susceptible to penicillin. So why would there be "persistors" in the bacterial population? The persistors weren't mutants, but then again they still survived in toxic conditions. What sort of mechanism do these persistors use to remain dormant or even to turn off their suicide pathway? One possible answer is that of the phenotypic switch described by Balaban et al. in Science. In E. coli, the hip genes encode regulatory proteins that control the switching from a normal state to a persistent state. Balaban et al. were able to determine mathematically how often the bacteria switched between the states. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:54 AM : Sunday, January 09, 2005 Old Man with Bite Last night, I braved the snow and the night for a piano concert. It was perhaps not the smartest thing I've done, but rest assured that I went well below the speed limit on the roads that the snow plows had not had a chance to get to. Besides, I had ordered the ticket several months in advance and it seemed like a pity to waste it on something like the weather. By all appearances, Richard Goode seemed like a soft-spoken, pleasant old man--not at all someone I would picture as a leading interpreter of Beethoven who channels the old master himself on stage. You can read up on the program notes here. As someone else in the audience had remarked, Goode's current interpretations of Beethoven have matured since his recordings of the works some ten years earlier. If anything, I would say that it is much more intense. The only Beethoven works I heard were Piano Sonata No. 27 in e minor, Op. 90 and Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major, Op. 81a. Some parts were very lyrical--if you sat close enough to the stage, you would notice that Goode was singing along as a "wannabe tenor" (Goode's own words). And other parts--well, let's just say that for a few agonizing moments, I became totally convinced that the man sitting in front of me was actually my advisor and that he would at any minute turn around and ask me why I wasn't in lab. Of course, even if my advisor really was sitting in front of me, he wouldn't be that mean, but it really says a lot about the music when it brings out your inner paranoia. I thought Goode's version of Joseph Haydn's Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:50 was especially funny and light-hearted. I was vastly amused while observing the interaction between Goode and the piano--sort of like a dirty old man chasing around a buxom young wench with plenty of slaps and pinches and giggles. Mozart's Rondo in a minor, K. 511 on the other hand, was altogether more serious. Two descriptors: exaggerated and romantic. I had in mind an overwrought young man sitting in his lonely attic room attempting to pen love poetry to his mistress in the light of one candle. Ocassionally, he would scream out in frustration before wadding up his latest attempt at an ode and chucking it behind him to add to the growing pile of wasted paper. In the second half of the program, Goode played a collection of twelve preludes by Debussy. Some people would think that Claude Debussy--one of the major French impressionistic composers--would be all light and fluffy and romantic. He could be: for example La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair). However, I find his other pieces to have more "omph" and depth. My favorite in the collection would have to be Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest (What the west wind saw) which was wholly dark, edgy, and violent. I sat beside two people. On my right was an extremely enthusiastic clapper. To my left was someone who rarely clapped at all. I would have to side with the person on my right. It was altogether a very satisfying program and well worth the drive in the snow. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:10 PM : About a Book and a Meme Imaginary Numbers edited by William Frucht. This collection of short stories revolving around mathematics isn't particularly long, but it did take me quite a while to finish it, even discounting the fact that I had been distracted with other things. This isn't something to be hurried and it's not because there are lots of equations in it (there aren't). Each story is like a morsel in a box of fine chocolates--to be savored and pondered over, not gulped in a second. I think Frucht made an excellent choice in starting out the anthology with Italo Calvino's The Form of Space, an erotic and angsty tale of parallel lines. Other gems that stood out: Philip K. Dick's The Golden Man (I liked how this one had the combined themes of probability and evolution), Stanislaw Lem's The Third Sally, or The Dragons of Probability (hilarious), William Gibson's Burning Chrome (more for the imagery than the themes), and Connie Willis's Schwarzschild Radius (I really liked how she compared war to a black hole). There were also some excerpts of novels that were included such as The Planiverse by A.K. Dewdney and, of course, Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. Ultimately, I found that a bit frustrating because I wanted to read the entire book (especially The Planiverse) and not just some snippet that the editor thought was particularly interesting. Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:46 AM : Saturday, January 08, 2005 Reading Update Slowly, I'm editing the bookrolling page so that it will be a little more user-friendly. This means that I'm adding links to authors, books, reviews that I have written, and some indication of recommended books. (I am not going to do ratings since I personally find that kind of thing rather useless.) If you visit that page with any regularity, you will also notice that I've added some entries before August 2002. The list of books I've read before then are not entirely accurate since I've only included the ones that I've reviewed. As for my current reading (besides the non-fiction listed), I'm trying to finish off books that I've gotten distracted from way back when. This would include a dark fantasy thriller, a collection of short stories with themes about science and immigration, and a famous A.S. Byatt novel. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:47 AM : Friday, January 07, 2005 Nutty I should be ashamed of myself for being such a soundtrack freak, but I'm not. Ever since I saw the trailer to Les Choristes, I've fallen in lust with the music and today, I finally have the CD in my hands. The whole thing is more gorgeous than I could have imagined. I'm not really a fan of boys' choirs and I don't really care if critics will trash it as sentimental and commercial, but I'd have to say, this will go in my keeper collection. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:52 PM : Perfect Boy Has Yuppie-fied I was out minding my own business and doing errands when a passing pedestrian nearly made me scream. Surreptitiously, I pulled my hood down so he wouldn't recognize me. Perhaps this was someone else entirely, but this guy looked like the exact replica of someone I knew many, many years ago. The last thing I heard about Perfect Boy was that his hair was graying and that he had moved to Schwarzenegger-land. And now, this guy is strolling down main street, no gray hairs (dye perhaps?), trendy black winter coat, Starbucks latte in hand. Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if I saw him in Boston, but here in the boondocks? Impossible! Addendum: I have decided to give the nickname "Perfect Boy" to this guy because way back when, everyone else always thought he was the perfect genius. If I ever have an arch nemesis, he would be it. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:06 AM : Potatoes How would you pronounce the word autolysis? Would you say it as it looks like with the emphasis on the first syllable or would you put the emphasis on the second? Most people I know use the latter pronounciation even though I personally think the former more logical and more understandable. Do people like the second pronounciation better? Yes, it sounds all fancy, but do you really want it to sound like the word ontology? Suicidal bacteria has nothing to do with metaphysics unless you believe that those one-celled organisms have souls. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:01 AM : Gmail Is there anyone out there who still doesn't have an account? I feel like there has been a glut of invites already. Anyway, I have a couple invites to spare so if you want one or know someone who wants one, send me a request at my contact e-mail with "syaffolee 1/7/05 post" somewhere on the subject line. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:50 AM : Linkage What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have? Ah, another one of those ego-stoking quizes. But you don't have to be a genius to figure out how to manipulate the results. Six Apart to buy Live Journal. I don't read LiveJournals that often (I'm not in that "clique" so to speak) but let's hope they don't change it too much. Weblog formats are already quite homogeneous as it is. The World Question Center. Intellectuals and scientists answer the question, "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" What a loaded question. I don't take anything on faith. I don't really believe anything unless it is proven to be true. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:39 AM : Thursday, January 06, 2005 White Stuff Around eight this morning, the sky sprinkled snow lightly and sporatically. I had the impression that it would melt later in the day. But when I finally looked out the window again at two in the afternoon, an expletive left my lips. Everything was covered in a blanket of white and it was still snowing. Heavily. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:52 AM : The Thursday Threesome: Fish, Chips and Mushy Peas Onesome: Fish- Do you have a favorite outdoor hobby or are you a strictly stay at home type? I am neither the outdoor type or the stay at home type. I like traveling and visiting and seeing new places--which may not necessarily be outdoors. Twosome: Chips- Do you gamble? Lotto, weekly poker night or weekends in Vegas? No. Threesome: and mushy peas- What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten? Well, it depends on what you mean by strange. If you mean anything other than typical American fare (like ethnic foods), I really don't see what's so strange about it. On the other hand American food can be quite weird. Like chicken-fried steak. What's up with that? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:50 AM : Wednesday, January 05, 2005 Paper Wasted Dang it! An unorganized med student ran off with my printouts. At least I still have an electronic copy. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:13 AM : Tuesday, January 04, 2005 Book to the Wall Today someone said, "You've got to use more jargon or they'll think you don't know anything." And I thought: Good grief. No wonder the general public feels alienated and suspicious of scientists. I suppose using simple words to describe something is, well, too simple. Lately I've been slogging through several articles. Unfortunately they're more biochemistry than microbiology with an average word length of, oh, about 20 letters. And no diagrams. I'm not sure if I'm getting dumber or if I'm just getting more and more fed up with people being inscrutable just for the heck of it. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:28 PM : Monday, January 03, 2005 Fog and Slush It's been foggy and slushy and not at all a typical January day. Then again, the day might as well be foggy and slushy and whatever it wants to be. My head feels foggy and slushy. It won't take a genius to notice that my sleeping habits have gone out of wack yet again despite my efforts during the holidays to put it back to rights. It's stress. Bad for my health, I know, but the alternative doesn't bear thinking about. Meanwhile, I'll take solace in the small things that are working. Maybe these things feel like I deserve a reprieve on the first Monday of the year or maybe it's completely inadvertent, but I suppose I shouldn't look too deeply into it. I'd start tearing my hair out if these problems go round and round my head for too long. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:00 PM : Sunday, January 02, 2005 Linkage and a Meme The BitTorrent Effect. A Wired article about the P2P software BitTorrent and its creator Bram Cohen. I'm amazed that this accounts for more than a third of the traffic on the internet. Or maybe I'm just amazed because I'm still in the Dark Ages of dial-up. Cryptozoology and Philately. Extinct animals and stamps. What more can you ask for? Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:20 AM : Saturday, January 01, 2005 A New Year We're already in the middle of a decade. Somewhat daunting, come to think of it. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:35 PM : |
