« February 2011 | Main | April 2011 »
March 31, 2011
problem
Facebook requires that you use your own identity but it is still possible to create a false identity.
The problem with Facebook is privacy. Everything that you put up on its pages has limited personal privacy. More importantly, Facebook has the right to change the rules.
Recently, my advisor showed us a few of his graduate school pictures and it made me realize that future students of mine will have little problem finding pictures of me and information about me as a student. No more are our profiles hidden in books in a physical library but we all can be found with a few clicks in a search engine. Not only our information but Facebook has information about our collection of networks and communities.
I refuse to be a node in their matrix. Though I use Facebook, I rebel against exactly how much information can be gathered.
In other news, Republicans hold government for ransom. In other words, they can hold their breath until the next election.
Why isn't the question from this diagram about global scientific citations how come Britain, Germany, and Japan do so well? Someone told me recently that in certain subjects, the Japanese researchers translates all the papers into their own language.
Posted by azileretsis at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2011
order
Order in disorder in the area of virology.
The problem with looking for a journal club article is that it is easy to become distracted.
Posted by azileretsis at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2011
moment
If you were on YouTube front page in the last few weeks, you would have seen the link to the Asians in the Library video (not posted). It had become of one of YouTube's viral videos. With the insensitivity of the student plus the ongoing disaster of Japan, it had the genes to spread like wildfire across the country. In the end, it has cost her her school and most likely, her name.
The call for professionalism among students and in the workplace is not misplaced in a world of instant and global communications.
Posted by azileretsis at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2011
known
Reagan airport (DCA) is one of my favorite airports to land. As you land, you can see many of the Washington D.C.'s famous landmarks. So, I wanted to post about the controller incident at Reagan. All of us works with some fatigue but two people you don't want fatigued are those who are doctors when in a life/death situation and those who control large airplanes. I wonder how much of a deep sleeper he was to sleep through all the calls. What is most scary about this incident is that there was only one controller up there.
On another subject, 10 tips on writing.
Pauvre PhD students and a possible answer to those that are on the academic pathway.
Aren't all Americans essentially immigrants even the Native Americans? If immigration is so tied to the fabric of American history, why is that 21st isolationist American wants to create and enforce laws that would have probably prevented the immigrants in their own family history from living as Americans.
Posted by azileretsis at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2011
story
If you haven't heard of them already, The Moth is a movement of storytelling. Among their stories is the story from Jerry Mitchell about his work as an investigative reporter of Civil Rights murders that went unresolved until 1990s in Mississippi.
Posted by azileretsis at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2011
third
The third reviewer comment mentioned by a seminar speaker today.
Posted by azileretsis at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2011
ncbi
Again, I have to toot NCBI. Why do I not go running to NCBI first, I have no idea. You help solve the puzzles in my life quickly and never ask for much.
Posted by azileretsis at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2011
japan III
It will be interesting to see the decision making process that has occurred with the stakeholders of the Japanese nuclear plant crisis.
World Nuclear News website got overwhelmed last night after the last explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi 2. It has become one of the more objective places for news about the plants unlike the media sources. The objective sentiment as of 11AM EST is that higher than normal radiation has been released but still is considered a local incident (15 miles and less). The latest monitors have shown a substantial decrease of radiation, demonstrating successful containment.
The bottom line is that the Japanese have done an excellent job and have moved fast to contain the situation than many other countries (even the US) would have done.
However, the irrational masses will take it to a place where radiation exposure higher than one year's exposure is a sign of the end times.
Also, it would be good to watch the Asian markets. It wouldn't take much (real or imagined) to upset the Chinese market which would endanger the largest Asian economy.
Google Resources including sites where you can donate money.
Posted by azileretsis at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2011
japan II
Japan's Nuclear Emergency: Third Fukushima Reactor Failing - ABC news
60-year old man saved after two days adrift, after losing his wife in tidal wave.
Objective assessment of the nuclear plant crisis in Japan.
Posted by azileretsis at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2011
japan
Prayer for Japan. Information on Wiki.
Person Finder on Google. This incident reminded how important it is to register with your embassy if you are in a country for more than a week. In incidents like this, it is good to be found.
Thank God for a slow evaporation rate!
Who have been on a train in an earthquake prone area and not thought about this?
It has been confirmed that two passenger trains containing an unknown number of passengers disappeared in a coastal area during the tsunami. - AAP
Science behind the quake. My fav quote is the following:
Japan's latest national seismic risk map gave a 99 percent chance of at least a magnitude 7.5 quake hiting the region in the next 30 years.
Information you could really use.
You hear the theory behind nuclear plant cooling and then you see the reality.
Emergency cooling systems have to be available for weeks.
Posted by azileretsis at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2011
flu
Did you know that flu season goes until the end of April? Or, that for this season, the hospitalization for flu-like illness is slightly higher for 50-64 years old than for all ages.
Posted by azileretsis at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2011
dreaming
My dream come true.
In an expanded analysis that we performed in 2007 (Lozupone and Knight, PNAS, 104:11436-40, 2007), that included 111 papers, we had to read each paper to decipher which sequences were associated with each type of sample surveyed. This was a great deal of work, but a properly organized database could do it in seconds! - Science Watch
Posted by azileretsis at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2011
common
I interrupt your work to insert a short plea for IT people in the world of Science. Why would you put data for one item on two lines? Why not use an export file like xml instead of an out file?
I could either create a short program that moves the second line of data to the first line or manually shove through. Which is more time consuming? Why can't I just get to the analysis part?!?
Thank you Textpad for macros!
Posted by azileretsis at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)