Azileretsis

out there

Google thinks I am Age: 45-54, Gender: Male. Not entirely a bad call.

I like the following:
Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Urban & Hip-Hop - Rap & Hip-Hop
Computers & Electronics - Software - Multimedia Software - Audio & Music Software - Audio Files Formats & Codecs
Computers & Electronics - Software - Multimedia Software - Photo & Video Software
Games
Law & Government - Government
People & Society
Reference - Language Resources - Foreign Language Resources

love

'Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell's despair.'

So sung a little clod of clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:

'Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a hell in heaven's despite.' - The Clod and the Pebble, William Blake

I got the black screen of Wiki for the first time today.

spread

Ugh, Norovirus in the skies.

Establishment of a permissive line for Hep C using microRNA.

BTW, the last episode of Sherlock was so good!

So, is the Chinese economy cooling? Someone who doesn't believe the Chinese have a real estate bubble really has their head stuck in the sand.

Chemistry students have it so easy these days! So many calculators online. You don't have to manually calculate anything anymore!

An interesting idea with bad execution, SOPA. Unfortunately, the Internet community would rather err on the side of freedom rather than protectionism. Wiki is still planning on shutting down on Thursday. :(

show

Sherlock is back!

citizenship

The Economist has an article about multiple citizenships. I would argue against it. As an individual, you may represent a diversity of countries but one is dominant over the others. This country is the one you hold your loyalty to, identify with, and would protect with your life. I was recently joking with a friend about Canadians. Canadians never let anyone traveling with them doubt who they are. They may talk like Americans but just look at their clothes and property, the maple leaf is somewhere apparent.

In terms of security, I would be more worried about those who carried multiple passports. Why would they need them? Some may argue, practicalities of travel but seriously, a visa isn't that troublesome or that expensive for an experienced traveler. You should petition your government for better relations with that country!

I also argue that patriotism is still important. It represents what your true feelings are about a country. Do you support its laws and basic values? When you go overseas, do you represent this country? Ask the Canadians, they know what it means to represent!

new

Further show of love of the The Economist to the Chinese economy where there is no question that it will continue to fly high.

I disagree with this statement:
Protesters on Wall Street have no ability to remove the CEOs. - How to be a dictator

A historical fallacy has been in the belief that the masses do not impact political and economic systems. In this day, the masses are particularly good at mobilizing media support and can turn the tides of the positive and negative opinions of companies. Otherwise, I like the article.

good vs. bad

A good programmer idiot-proofs his or her software! NCBI! A good programmer never assumes that the user knows what they are doing (in this case, assuming directory paths). With NCBI software, the average scientist will not know certain aspects of IT programming that programmers all know. Here is the difference between a hobbyist and a true IT programmer.

command

Today, I was reminded of how comforting a command line is compared to working with people. I know I'm going to discover after doing my professor's project by command line that someone already has a gui developed. Scientists! Befriend some IT people.

rochester

I think I am in love with University of Rochester. I just heard a faculty seminar on CD28 that reminded me the wonder of immunology. This school is definitely past a tipping point.

more or less

In my view, it is highly unlikely that laboratory-modified viruses will be able to cause extensive disease in humans. When humans tinker with viruses, they generally do not know what the virus needs to replicate efficiently, cause disease, and transmit in humans. Consequently, they are likely to introduce changes that attenuate pathogenesis in humans. Nature is far better at producing viruses that can kill – to think that we can duplicate the enormous diversity and selection pressures that occur in the wild is a severe case of scientific hubris. - Vincent Racaniello

I would disagree. I think we have enough knowledge especially of Influenzae at our fingertips combined with the technical tools to make a more pathogenic virus. Also, a Type A personality would take this as a personal challenge. However, I hope Influenzae labs are somewhat controlled.

Just in Time (JiT) in bacteria. Now, if we could just measure the inventory holding costs....

majors

Is it right to limit the choice of a major to only those that can produce a job? I'm tired of meeting Indian and Chinese students who are only studying Science because of their family. They need to be told it is the worst way to get out of poverty. Do IT! If you can't do IT or business, you definitely shouldn't try Science.

I like the idea that viruses use bacteria to their own advantage better than the idea that viruses protect against bacteria infections as discussed in journal club recently. The idea of symbiosis is a difficult theory to test and must demonstrate longitudinal studies.

Calvin and Hobbes snowmen for a good laugh.

opposites

"There are dreamers and there are realists in this world, you think the dreamers would find the dreamers and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not the opposite is true. See the dreamers need the realists to keep the dreamers from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists? Well without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground" - Modern Family

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

goat rodeo

If I ever go senile, just put Goat Rodeo Sessions (YouTube) on repeat and leave me be. It is soothing to my mind.

A Goat Rodeo AKA Goat Rope, is about the most polite term used by aviation people (and others in higher risk situations) to describe a scenario that requires about 100 things to go right at once if you intend to walk away from it.

debt

I love this The Economist interactive graphic. I inputted US vs. Italy. They don't look as bad as us.

charlie

I have been missing Charlie this week. As a college student, I worked many odd jobs from serving as a temp receptionist for a busy graphic design office to tutoring to working in our school's International Students office. However, my favorite job then and ever since was the job I got my senior year in college. Looking back, I'm not sure how I was qualified for the position but I worked as a community facilitator for mentally disabled adults and autistic teenagers and adults.

Among my job description, I was to take people around to community events and serve as facilitator for them at these events. Instead of me acting as the ambassador, they acted as an ambassador to me in the community since in my college community, I was the outsider but not them.

Charlie knew more people in my community than I would ever know. When I first met him, he had been a part of this community for fifty plus years. Tied to his patterns, he was always drawn to the small mall that we had in our college town. It was easy to understand why. Everyone in the mall knew him. More importantly, he knew them.

The years after I left my college community, I would occasionally go back to my college town. When I had a chance to visit the mall, I would look to see if Charlie was around. One of the last times I got to visit, he was and of course, he recognized me and gave me a hug. It was like I had never left. Something about cool Autumn days that makes me miss Charlie.