Azileretsis

aid

Last night, I watched the Brian Williams' special on Katrina. It's amazing to see how an urban city can dissolved into chaos within only five days. The anchor's bias was clearly evident and it didn't tell the whole story of LA's attempts to contain the one disaster that they tried to prevent, the breaking of the dams. It just was a matter of too little resources and ultimately, the blame, justifiably, fell on the leaders.

Yet, as we are reminded of this, we don't have to look too far to see another disaster in the making in Pakistan. The story isn't as obvious since nobody is screaming in English for help but their situation is much more dire. There's no constant media attention to point out the twenty million people affected or the two thousand people who have died. One just hears the whisper of the grim reaper passing over their lands with disease and suffering following in its wake.

Foreign donors and the U.N. were slow to respond to the disaster, in part because it took a long time for its extent to become clear. Aid is slowly reaching the worst-affected areas by army helicopter, road and boat, but millions have received little or no help.

You can donate here or here.

signs

I think a sign of recovery is definitely when recruiters start coming out of the woodwork. For the first time, I know more job opportunities than people looking for work.

product

Suffering from pneumonia, I've been fighting HP concerning their product warranty. My laptop stopped working all of a sudden. And, when I called them to get it repaired, they told me to take it to a computer shop, a computer I only purchased three months ago. That lit a fire under me.

Is it fair for me to disparage and harass a company to provide a product that I can use? That they waste the time to deal with the many documentations that I can generate easily. I will easily expend 100 of their company hours for a problem that could have been easily fixed quickly. I will also generate enough negative online sentiment about their product and product warranty that will take thousands of dollars to compensate. I believe good customer support is really worth the cost since the hidden costs are so much more. For every 50 good things said about your product, that one bad thing will sway a customer.

BTW, my negative review is number seven on their product in Google Search.

brit

I love BBC. Not only do they produce Merlin, I found another show, Sherlock, that I really like.

Name

As I'm looking through some funded research titles, I see the title is very critical. Who knew an antibody could be called a biotherapeutic? The difference b/w research and a commercial product is how much others are willing to invest in your idea.

celebration

I am going to celebrate being home with some awesome cooking.

hotmail

Hotmail is actually my oldest email account that I still use. It is also the one that gives me the most trouble. Microsoft changes it every six months today. Maybe, the new one will actually stay for awhile.

big picture

Sometimes, we tend to be too focused on the small picture rather than looking at the big picture.

How Microbes Defend. - Transplant of microbes

What This Chinese Hacker Could Teach Apple

I also came across the Minamata disease story today.

wandering

I miss letting my fingers guide my learning. Targeted learning is good but web learning is awesome. I have also missed exploring crazy ideas with my peers.

control

Who else thinks releasing a virus as a population control is a bad idea? Too little is known of viruses and their evolutionary pathways.

school love

Today, I found another professional connection to my alum mater. Something about my school produces just the most particular type of people with veracious love for the school. It's not the most well-known or prestigious but if you need a connection, you can always find one. My alum mater is the only place I would want to teach.

possible

World Cup is best watched outside the US.

Will US drift into the semifinals?

tool

Google Flu Trends was a probably one person's idea over a bored weekend or over a few beers, leveraging technologies that already existed. So, Google and CDC decided to test the accuracy of the information. Their conclusion is that it's not a bad estimate. Perfect information is pricey and impossible to obtain but imperfect information is just as good as long as you understand the problems with the data. Who knew that working at Google would allow you to publish in Nature?

BTW, there are trends for papillomavirus and summer camps.

quote

It's quotes day:

I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men.

I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
- George Eliot

half

So, due to new FB privacy concerns, I followed these instructions for privacy lock-down. I had done half of these already. Just a reminder that all that information is on someone else's computer and therefore FB has a right to that information. If you aren't paying for it, be careful what you put online.