« October 2010 | Main | December 2010 »
November 29, 2010
product
I've been talking to several people lately about the idea of a good product. Here's an excerpt from an email to a friend:
This past weekend, we went to a pizza restaurant where the kitchen was converted into a dining room. So, you could see the wood ovens and the people cooking the food. We got there early because the last time I tried to go there, their pizzas had sold out by 8PM. By 5:30PM, there was already a line. We got there around 4:30PM. Their pizzas were good; I still love their roasted cherry tomatoes but still, it's a pizza restaurant with no real plates and you get to eat in the kitchen with paper towels. This is a case where product truly rules.
Posted by azileretsis at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2010
brilliant
I love the concept of iGEM. This idea is quite brilliant, no wonder they won this year.
Posted by azileretsis at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2010
satire
If you don't laugh about our current political state, you want to cry. Jon Stewart sometimes poignantly strikes too close to the heart of the problem. With tools like Wikipedia, you should at least be able to hold an informed debate about issues like deficit spending.
Posted by azileretsis at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2010
reading
I came across this paper on Archea viruses (sorry, if you don't have institutional access). One of the professors had presented on the three domain system in one of my classes but I don't think we showed as much interest as she hoped. But, this article raises some interesting questions about the viruses that infect this domain. Concerning prokaryotes vs. archea and bacteria debate, scientists are always changing names. Both arguments have merits.
Posted by azileretsis at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2010
global
If you want to understand how much economically US is connected to the world, just observe the stocks sink today. So, things like lack of economic power in the Asian talks and GM's IPO worry me. What worries me is that US is becoming tied to a country where their large businesses are stated owned and opaque.
Before I make my comments, here is what Economist or what one person there thinks. It is ironic that a communist country would be buying up capitalist country's products but their motive should be considered. For the communist country, the products they buy, these companies, will fuel their political agenda which is to protect and expand. But, this means that a country who hasn't grown in their understanding of basic human rights or respect for their neighbor's borders (Japan, Taiwan) will be freely allowed to expand their agenda. Some may say expansion will lead to learning. I wonder if Tibetans feel like they have influenced the Chinese government. What does it mean to have a country with eastern and communistic ideals buy a large percentage of international investments? We don't know because we have never seen it before. Will their purchases impinge upon or limit a country's own political ideals? Is it not fair to say a economical Risk game is just as damaging as a military one? These are ideas that the rest of the world should contemplate since the dragon will wake up quickly.
On another topic that a friend brought up recently, body scanners, have they not seen Total Recall? It is invasion of privacy beyond what is required for safety. More thought could have been put in or TSA has too many men.
Posted by azileretsis at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2010
difference
Sweet couple decides to donate lottery winnings. "Money can't buy you health or happiness," says the wife. That's the difference between Americans and Canadians; Americans behave like health can be bought and sold.
Posted by azileretsis at 07:16 PM | Comments (0)
November 03, 2010
patent
I'm glad to see that the justice department ruled on gene patents. In this case, I don't believe it's the role of patent office to decide what should be patentable. Native genes should never be patented and I would argue that manipulated genes should not be patented. Patenting genes would be like trying to patent words in literature or in the computer science world, patenting programming structure.
My argument is that the technology that detects breast cancer genes should be patentable but the actual gene, BRCA, should not be patentable and I would argue the information should be available for other breast cancer detection technologies.
In this field like computer science, it is very difficult to work in a closed source system. But, imagine if Microsoft owned programming definitions or Java the class system. We pay enough to these companies for their technologies without conceding to their greed.
Here, we see again businesses moving faster than the law or even the understanding of the coming biological revolution. For once, someone in the justice system has taken a biology class and not bowed to the pressures of a manipulative lawyer. Maybe, it's a plus that the biological revolution comes after the Internet.
Posted by azileretsis at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
state
I love reading state ballot measures. The measures really give you a sense of the diversity in the U.S.
Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee would like to add the right to hunt and fish to their state constitution.
Washington does not want higher taxes on their candy, bottled water, and sodas.
Illinois wants the right to recall their governor.
California cares about their climate more than employment and despite poll data, they really do not want to legalize marijuana.
Concerning the other results, I'm not sure why Wall Street rose. Despite the prediction, my crystal ball says four more years of slow growth or continuing recession. Partisanship is going to make government a rock instead of a train. Well, at least someone has a job.
Posted by azileretsis at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)