Algae at the pump

Two to ten years away.

There’s a material divergence of opinion on the timelines for algal commercialization. Groups are generally in the 10-year camp or the 2-3 year camp. In the ten year camp we find researchers such as Ron Pate, but also companies such as ExxonMobil and Sapphire Energy. Sapphire’s commercialization path aims for 1 billion gallons in the 2020s, while ExxonMobil’s biofuels chief Emil Jacobs has candidly discussed algae in 10-year timelines. Although the National Labs have occasionally been chided for thinking in “elongated timelines,” there are major commercial players thinking in the same time frames.

PLFA

Does anyone know of a core facility/commercial lab that does PLFA analysis?

Tap water safety

A study out of Canada is hypothesizing that tap water could be a source of at least one virus that annually plagues Canadians: Norwalk virus.

University of Toronto researchers, comparing Norwalk outbreaks to river water flow and lake temperatures, theorize that a near-endless "feedback loop" sends the virus from human waste to surface waters, then to water treatment plants that are unable to eliminate the bug, and finally back into household faucets.

How to stop the cycle?

The theory, if proven, raises the question of whether tap water should be treated with ultraviolet exposure, virtually the only way to kill the hardy viruses, the researchers say.

Yet another reason for me to eschew water and stick to drinking Coke Zero.

1000!

I simply cannot believe that this is my one thousandth post! It's hard for me to fathom that I've had this much to say in the past few years that I've been blogging. Additionally amazing is that over the past two plus years I've actually averaged over a blog post a day. Now, most of it is rather inconsequential ... but it's still a bit amazing that I've stuck at it for this long!

When I started this blog I was finding my way along in the agricultural/environmental sciences. Coming from a medical microbiology background I knew more about the Krebs Cycle than the Nitrogen Cycle (I still have a diagram I made my first week at work taped next to my monitor ... right next to a soil texture triangle) and I was more than a bit intimidated by my new surroundings. At that time I was also being transitioned in biofuels research, and this blog started out as Biofuels! to serve as a repository for links on the subject that I found interesting. During these couple of years I've found firmer footing in my research areas and I don't feel weird calling myself an environmental microbiologist at this point (though I'd stop short of calling myself a microbial ecologist ... that is going to take a lot more training).

So now, four years (I did start the blog at the end of 2006) into this "experiment" I'd say I'm entirely on a different road than I was when I started. Tenured, maybe a bit more mature, and definitely more seasoned ... I'm looking forward to continuing onward for as long as I can (I'm still considering my resolution to strive to post more relevant material).

I'd like to thank everyone who has come along and contributed to the discussion, I appreciate it ... and it has certainly helped me continue on this journey. Thank you!

Currently ...

Listening To


Here Come the Mummies, a great funk band I just stumbled upon as I was driving to Omaha to catch an airplane.

I do not Facebook ...

... but if I did, I would follow this advice.

Do you need this guy to help you through V-Day?

He's based in New York.

Death Bear will take things from you that trigger painful memories and stow them away in his cave where they will remain forever, allowing you to move on with your life. Give him an ex’s clothes, old photos, mementos, letters, etc. Death Bear is here to assist you in your time of tragedy, heartbreak and loss.

I guess this is Death Bear's website. I don't think he travels cross country. Bummer.

Also see: Date with Death Bear.

ETA: This is Death Bears (aka Nate Hill) website.

Can you guess ...

... where I was this past weekend?

Hint

The Olympics are this year?!?!

I usually get excited for the Olympics. This year ... meh. There just doesn't seem to be a compelling storyline for me to latch onto to make me care enough to want to watch.

For reals?

Nice SNAFU here by the State Department. This woman has spent her life thinking she was an American citizen.

A State Department spokeswoman, Adriana Gallegos, declined to discuss Boneva's situation, citing confidentiality laws. She sought to clarify the overall matter in an e-mailed comment, saying, "We don't revoke citizenship; we revoke documents." But she declined to elaborate on what that means for Boneva.

What the heck is that supposed to mean? You don't revoke citizenship, just documents. Sheesh.

Just Shoot Me

The bullet-proof tailor. Interesting read and watch.

Hubble captures mystery object ...

What could it be?

The weirdest thing, however, is not only the prettyful X-shaped debris pattern, but the fact that its 460-foot-wide nucleus is outside the dust halo and separated from the trail. This behavior is something which has never been seen before in a comet or any other solar-system-swooshing object.

I wonder how far away this thing is ... to get that good of a resolution (capturing detail on a 460 foot wide object) is pretty impressive. Yet another reason to keep Hubble up and running.

Here is NASA's press release on the object.

At the time of the Hubble observations, the object was approximately 180 million miles from the sun and 90 million miles from Earth. The Hubble images were recorded with the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

Ok, so that answers my question ... a resolution of 460 feet (probably can go lower) from 90 million miles away. Makes you wonder exactly what spy satellites can do, huh? Probably read your text messages on your phone from outer space. You better shield your iPhone from prying eyes when you're outside!

Food for thought ...

How we access and store data is critical.

In 2008, for instance, it emerged that the US had "forgotten" how to make a secret ingredient of some nuclear warheads, dubbed Fogbank. Adequate records had not been kept and all the key personnel had retired or left the agency responsible. The fiasco ended up adding $69 million to the cost of a warhead refurbishment programme.

I'll see your humans, and raise you two turtles and a mouse

Iran *ahem* enters space race.

"The scientific arena is where we could defeat the (West's) domination," Ahmadinejad said in remarks broadcast live on state TV.

Launching worms (along with the aforementioned critters) into space is a step, I suppose, in that direction. I think they have a long way to go though.

The Mediteranean is a cesspool ...

... and it appears that organized crime has taken killing to a whole other level.

That African nation possibly holds clues to the kinds of health hazards Italians might face. “My committee heard from Somalians who said many people in that area had symptoms of poisoning and some died,” Scalia attests, referring to a stretch of highway along which Alpi and Hrovatin may have witnessed the offloading of toxic substances. The tsunami of December 2004 dredged up giant metal containers from the seabed and placed them on Somali beaches—proving that the country’s coastal waters had also received questionable trash. A United Nations report blamed fumes from these unidentified objects for internal hemorrhages and deaths of local people.

In April 2007 Calabrian authorities had temporarily halted fishing in waters off Cetraro (where the Cunski lies, according to a turncoat from the ’Ndrangheta mafia) because of dangerous levels of heavy metals in marine sediment. In the region around Amantea, mortality from cancer between 1992 and 2001 exceeded that in neighboring areas, a study found; just as worrisome, hospitalizations for certain malignancies have risen in recent years.

Why can't we treat the Earth better than we have?

It has begun ...

... my foray into P90X territory has started. I've been taking notes on my diet, have a shopping list for the next few nights dinner (very high in protein, low in carbohydrates), and a one hour date with my DVD player this evening. Wish me luck!

Haiti the 51st state?

I think a number of Haitians would want that.

"I want the Americans to take over the country. The Haitian government can't do anything for us," said Jean-Louis Geffrard, a laborer who lives under a tarp in the crowded square.

Currently ...

Playing


If you love strategy games, you have to try the Advance Wars series. Two Gameboy Advance titles, and two DS titles.

Listening To

Space Cannon!

The space cannon would shoot astronauts to the moon from the ocean.

The basic concept behind a space cannon is simple: A hydrogen explosion shoots the payload -- Hunter is concentrating on delivering rocket fuel at first -- up the lengthy tube. The tube's mouth sits just above the surface of the water, and when the payload emerges, it's aimed directly into outer space.

Re-positioning an underwater cannon would be easier than moving one on land, and the sonic boom would be nearly eliminated due to a concept called impedance mismatch, which predicts that over 90 percent of the explosion's ear-deafening sound would be reflected into the atmosphere.

A couple of problems though ...

"I'm not sure where in the world's oceans you'd put it so that the cannon remains aligned," he mused. "Remember, at the exit speeds described, extreme precision of alignment is required, in a variety of wind and water conditions. This would be a very large target, and if placed in international waters -- where you need at least 700-800 meter depth, given the angle of the cannon -- ownership and guardianship is questionable."

Laugh or Cry?

Bin Laden blames US for global warming, calls for boycott of American goods.

$60 Billion Theft

Ridiculous!

Officials said Medicare pilferage is so widespread, with so much of it never detected, that no one can accurately say how much it costs American taxpayers. But a figure widely used by law enforcement officials suggests a staggering $60 billion a year is stolen from the national entitlement program, which funds medical treatment, equipment and prescriptions for 45 million seniors and the disabled.

I'd rather we create jobs hiring people to better police Medicare, which would cut down on this theft in the long run ... than continue to let this happen without doing anything significant to prevent it. Say we spend $100 million (1/600th of the $60 billion in fraud) hiring people to combat this fraud. Say we set the average salary + benefits at $100,000 per person hired. That gives us a thousand people to track down these cases. Seems like that would get the job done, no?

Probably not.

Change I can believe in ...

... when the President of the United States says that the USA needs to be the leader in clean energy initiatives, jobs, and technologies because whichever country does so will be the one with the largest influence on global policy, I believe it and agree with it.

Now, can our government make it happen?

Currently ...

Listening To



Gasoline
So you tried to put the fire out
But you used gasoline
When the congregation gathered around
You're screamin' "It wasn't me,"
So there is a sickness that's going around
But no one's got a vaccine
I think it drowned in holy water
I think it's time we all come clean

I swear it's like dying
To catch a ghost
It feels like I'm trying
To hold smoke
I swear it's like dying
To catch a ghost
It feels like I'm trying
To hold smoke

When the army had to hold the line
Well you were nowhere near the front
Before the kids could tell their dog goodbye
Well you were loadin' up your gun
I want to know why there's a great divide
I wanna know what I've become
You think that no one else is lonesome?
You think that you're the only one?

It feels like I'm jumping towards a train
It feels like I'm jumping towards a train
We all try to make our way

It feels like I'm jumping towards a train
It feels like I'm jumping towards a train
We all try to fake a way

Lasers!

It's true, lasers CAN make you slimmer.

Overall, participants in the treatment group demonstrated a total girth reduction across all four sites of 89 millimetres (3.51 inches) compared with control subjects who showed a 17-millimetre reduction. Maloney says the reduction in the placebo group is a reflection of the typical placebo response. The results were published last month in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine (vol 41, p 799).

Sheesh, that sure would be easier than what I'm currently about to do ... P90X.

Yep, I'm an idiot. I've finally decided that I just can't tolerate my *ahem* girth any longer. It (my body) is a far cry from what it looked like during my track and field days, and I just can't stand it any longer. So I got P90X, an iron gym (that doorway pull up bar) and resistance bands and I'm going to start torturing myself soon. First I need to get everything together to keep my nutrition in line with what the program recommends because I figure if I'm slurping down Mickey D's every day, no amount of pull-ups is going to help my waistline.

So why am I telling you about this? Well, for one simple reason. I hope that by putting this out in public, if I don't follow through, I will be publicly shamed. A perverse sort of peer pressure I suppose.

So while I'm out grocery shopping, I suppose I need to look and see if I can get myself into one of these laser trials.

So close, but yet ...

... so far. For the first 28 minutes of the game last night I thought it looked like the Jets could be going to the Super Bowl for the first time in my life. Then Peyton Manning found Austin Collie* not once but twice, the last time in the back of the end zone for six, and things started to fall apart at the seams. Manning, Garcon, and Collie abused everyone in the Jets secondary not named Darelle Revis ... in particular Lowery and Sheppard. It's obvious where the Jets need to focus this offseason.

With that said, I don't think anyone (except maybe Rex Ryan) thought the Jets would make it this far this year. There are high hopes for next year though.

Congratulations on the win Indy. A friend asked me how many scores I thought you guys could muster and the Jets stll get the win, and I said two. Well, I would have been correct if that had happened, but it didn't. You definitely outplayed us and you deserve that berth. Now I hope you get stomped by New Orleans.


*What is with my teams losing to BYU players this year?

Errr ...

... I'll pass.

I don't know how FOXNews finds these stories.

Here she is ...

... one of several organisms my lab has putatively identified as novel. I have a name picked out for her, just need to finish the ubiquinone and DNA:DNA hybridization analysis to the next closely related type organism/strain and then we can get her published and named.

TEM image

Coverage

Water covers approximately 70% of the Earth's surface, the rest is covered by Darrelle Revis.

Go Jets!

Owning a home bites sometimes (part deux) ...

... so in the comments section of the last blog entry detailing my woeful attempt to spruce up my laundry nook, I said things got even better with the whole fiasco. And boy howdy did it ever.

I woke up bright and early on Sunday (and by bright and early I mean 10AM-ish), got dressed, and just decided to get it over with. Grabbed a broom, the new dryer vent hose, and my big Maglite, and opened up my crawl space. Got on my hands and knees, looked inside and saw about a million spider webs. Fun ... I hate spiders.

Started whacking the webs with the broom, allowing me access without getting a face full of sticky gunk. Located the outside part of the vent, made my way over and took off the old hose. It was lined with at least a half inch of lint, so it was a good idea to replace it. Tried getting the new hose on but it just wasn't fitting. The fact that my crawlspace is about two and a half feet high meant that I didn't have much space to get good leverage to slip the hose on. I lose my grip on the clamp which is to hold the hose in place, it hits my thumb and splits it wide open. So now I've got blood pouring down my hand and the hose is all sticky with blood too. Fun fun! Finally manage to get the hose on (which involved a trip back into the house to get duct tape to really make sure the darn thing isn't going to come off). Meanwhile my dogs have decided to see what all the fuss is about, so now I have three animals wandering through my crawlspace ... not what I wanted because they don't really know the concept of "if you knock that out of joint, I'm going to have to fix it". Fortunately, they didn't do any damage (I think).

I stretched the hose out and made my way towards the opening in my floor ... and came up about eight feet short. Ack! So had to run out, buy a second hose, jury-rig the two hoses together (relying heavily on duct tape) and then spend a half hour getting the end of the second hose through the floor. Spent another thirty minutes behind my washer and dryer trying to get the hose onto the back end of the dryer in a position such that it would stay on.

All of this because I wanted a a peg board in my washroom.

I hope when I start hanging my pictures things aren't this hectic!

Forget a lifetime ban ...

... Jose Offerman needs to go to jail! What a no-class punk.

Jose Offerman was banned for life by the Dominican winter league for throwing a punch at an umpire during an argument on the baseball field.

Minor compared to what else he's done ...

On Aug. 14, 2007, he was batting for the Long Island Ducks against the Bridgeport Bluefish in an independent minor league game when pitcher Matt Beech hit him with a fastball. Offerman charged the mound with his bat and swung at least twice, striking Beech and Bluefish catcher John Nathans.

Sounds like assault with a deadly weapon to me.

Owning a home bites sometimes ...

... especially when you're doing "home improvements". Lately, I've been trying to tweak little things in the house, before I start my major projects. Things like changing all my knobs so they're not these drab beige things which are found all throughout my house. So now I have some rooster knobs in my kitchen (going with a rooster theme), and some pewter knobs in my bathroom, along with different patterned knobs throughout the rest of the house (Hobby Lobby rocks). I also have been hanging more pictures and things in my rooms (which had been pretty sparse until this point), as well as fixing the tiny little things which have worn down but I didn't give much thought to. For instance, replacing a couple missing screws in the screen door frame, gutting my toilets and installing new flush kits, taking down some ugly ceiling fans and putting new lighting in.

All these things were not much of a problem, nary a hitch. I should have known the gremlins could come pay me a visit sooner or later though. Little did I know they'd all show up today. So I decided I wanted a peg board above my washer and dryer. Not a big deal right? WRONG. So very, very wrong.

Went to Home Depot, bought the plastic peg board (two 16" by 16" panels) along with all the relevant hardware. Bought anchors to put the boards up too. So I drilled the first set of holes and planted the anchors. Put the peg board up against the holes and started to drill, only to see the anchors and part of the sheet rock pull away. Argh! Tried another --different -- set of anchors only to see a similar thing happen. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

Call up the dad to ask him what the hell to do. He informs me that the studs should be 16 inches apart (duh) and if I find those, that I can just screw them into the wall. Go back to Home Depot, grab deeper (2 inch) screws and putty, return home, place putty into the holes I had drilled, and then screw those peg boards into the wall. Peg boards attached, I step back to look at my handiwork. Something doesn't look quite right though. Take out the tape measure and measure both ends. Guess what? Damn thing droops a quarter of an inch at one end. Argh!

To hell with it. Damn thing is going to be crooked until the next time I paint that laundry nook. With that decided, I get ready to push the dryer back into the nook. Look at the dryer vent hose and see that it's pretty worn. Run back out to Home Depot and grab a new one. Return home and go to pull the old hose up out of the floor. Yes, it runs through the floor. Foot after foot this hose pulls out, with no end in sight. Finally figure out that the hose runs through my entire crawl space to the vent outside. Lovely, oh and guess what ... I've never ever been in my crawl space. *sigh*

So, no laundry is getting done tonight, and tomorrow I need to crawl under my house to attach this new laundry vent hose up. Oh, and did I mention it's raining?

What are you reading?

Today I'm reading the following:
A widely distributed bacterial pathway for siderophore biosynthesis independent of nonribosomal peptide synthetases.
by: Gregory L. Challis

There is no abstract for this article (published in ChemBioChem). As you can surmise from the title though, it deals with iron acquisition and siderophore biosynthesis. I have a side-project I am working on in which I'm taking some techniques I used in graduate school, studying pathogens, and employing them in the area of soil microbial ecology. We'll see, eventually, how successful I am. I'm doing all the DNA preps now.

Work Related Resolutions for 2010

This year I have two work-related resolutions for 2010, and both were based on hard-learned lessons over the course of 2009.

1. Better Organization: 2009 was a productive year, but there is always room for improvement. To that end, I'm trying the "daily planner" route again, I'm learning the in's and out's of MS's Outlook Calendar, and I'm attempting to resurrect efforts to get electronic notebooks into the lab.

2. Field Work: Make no bones about it, I'm a lab rat. The extent of "field work" I ever did was to go to another state to do some lab work. After debacles with collaborators retiring technicians, samples showing up in my lab without advance notification, and incomplete site histories rendering my efforts all but useless, I've decided that I will no longer rely on collaborators alone to send me samples for analysis. So my lab and I are making a concerted effort to find new locations for our research efforts. We started that this week with a couple of riparian sites which we'll begin studying soon.

Currently a bit waterlogged
I wonder if they'll let me buy a gator?

Currently ...

Listening To

Reading

PlayingThe Sky Crawlers

Woo hoo!

I was waiting for this!

Sweet.

Maybe I'll switch to coffee ...

... in the mornings.

Nearly half of the 90 beverages from soda fountain machines in one area in Virginia tested positive for coliform bacteria -- which could indicate possible fecal contamination, according to a study published in the January issue of International Journal of Food Microbiology.

Researchers also detected antibiotic-resistant microbes and E.coli in the soda samples.

The problem? Most people consider "clean up" to be a menial task which is boring and pointless. That means it either gets done half-assed, or maybe not at all.

Oh, and to everyone who works in the food industry, or in some way comes into contact with items which may be consumed. WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY*! WEAR GLOVES!

Sheesh, just thinking about these things makes me want to stop eating out.

*Especially when leaving the rest room.

Reason #1

To root for the Jets over the Chargers this weekend.



This is horrible. Yeah, wave to your ma LT ... from the sidelines as the Jets "take the knee" and perform the victory formation!

Add these people to the list of ...

... people who really need to get a life.

On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope.

For reals! You really can't make this nonsense up. But the part that really had me screaming at the computer screen was some idiot named Ivan Hill. Why? Well, here is what he had to say:

"When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed ... gray. It was like my whole life, everything I've done and worked for, lost its meaning," Hill wrote on the forum. "It just seems so ... meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep ... doing things at all. I live in a dying world."

Nevermind the fact that Mr. Hill is 17, so I'm not sure all of what he's "done and worked for", but the response of the article really missed a golden opportunity in my mind.

The bright side is that for Hill and others like him -- who became dissatisfied with their own lives and with our imperfect world after enjoying the fictional creation of James Cameron -- becoming a part of a community of like-minded people on an online forum has helped them emerge from the darkness.

And what is this community going to do? Seems like absolutely not a god-damned thing. No call to action to lead people to live greener lives, to demand real government action to protect and save the environment, no campaigns to hold politicians (who literally hold the earth's sustainability in their hands with their votes) accountable. Nah, just a place to pat each other on the head and tell each other that life doesn't suck that much. Oh, and to do the following:

Within the fan community, suggestions for battling feelings of depression after seeing the movie include things like playing "Avatar" video games or downloading the movie soundtrack, in addition to encouraging members to relate to other people outside the virtual realm and to seek out positive and constructive activities.

Yeah, go play a freaking video game. Forget about volunteering time to build a local garden or park ... that's for those idiots who live in reality. Reading this stupidity makes me depressed. Excuse me while I go play a video game.

I'm not linking to this article ...

... because of the article itself. Rather, I'm linking to it for one of the comments because it sums my thoughts up pretty darn well. The comment was made by "RichP the Pocono's" and he said:

The biggest losers in the country are the american people and american business, mainly from the carpet baggers and faux royalty we have in all three houses. Coming up on a year now and still no legislation enticing or making it advantageous for american business to stay here in the US, NONE. In fact quite the opposite, more and higher taxes, that is a really good incentive. Bravo DC, bravo....

Bravo, and Amen.

ETA: Don't know why this was the top link on the CNN Politics/Polls page. Must be a slow time of year, eh?

Currently ...

Listening ToOne of my favorite bands, and one of my favorite albums. Reminds me of my undergraduate days when I saw these guys play at The Icon in Buffalo. I heard they (The Icon) closed, but The Connells are still making music (supposedly).

Made in the USA

Honestly, it's time to limit the amount of things individual consumers purchase from China. Here is the latest news about child items being contaminated with cadmium.

Lab testing organized by The Associated Press shows that it also is present in children's jewelry - sometimes at eye-popping levels exceeding 90 percent of the item's total weight.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

Cadmium is particularly dangerous for children because growing bodies readily absorb substances, and cadmium accumulates in the kidneys for decades.

"Just small amounts of chemicals may radically alter development," said Dr. Robert O. Wright, a professor at Harvard University's medical school and school of public health. "I can't even fathom why anyone would allow for even a small amount to be accessible."

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say that this is all being done intentionally ... to weaken our next generation. I'm not, but I still say that if China can't clean up its act, at the very least we as consumers should do so. Heck, in reading those articles, it appears that cadmium containing items are sold heavily in China, which makes me wonder if China actually cares about its own populace. And if China can't be bothered worrying about their own populace, what makes us think they'd care about ours?

And in case you were wondering where some of these products might be found, this article indicates several stores in the United States could be carrying them:

Some of the most troubling test results were for bracelet charms sold at Walmart, at the jewelry chain Claire's and at a dollar store. High amounts of cadmium also were detected in "The Princess and The Frog" movie-themed pendants.

Poverty

Came across this article today and it was an interesting read. The very end of the article caught my eye though:

The emergence of the working poor in the world's second largest economy has shocked a public used to the image of a rich and egalitarian nation with lifetime employment for its workers. The latest figures from the government reports a 15.7 percent poverty rate. Compared to other industrialized nations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says Japan ranks fourth, behind Mexico, Turkey and the United States.

Yep, that's us, the good ol' U S of A on that list.

According to the Census Bureau, in 2008 the poverty level was 13.8%, a 1.3% increase over 2007. No doubt it went up in 2009, for reasons we're all too familiar with (and which the article seems to indicate). In 2009, Health and Human Services listed the "poverty line" guidelines for the US. Those numbers ($10, 830 for a single individual in the contiguous 48) look awfully low.

Also, here are some other factoids mentioned by the Bread for the World Institute, who bring you the Hunger Report:

*A family of four generally needs to earn twice the poverty threshold to provide children with basic necessities.

*24.5 percent of black and 21.5 percent of Hispanic people live in poverty, compared to 8.2 percent of white people. 34.5 percent of black and 28.6 percent of Hispanic children live in poverty, compared to 15 percent of white children.

*16.5 percent of foreign born US residents experience poverty versus 11.9 percent of native born residents. This number is particularly high among immigrants who have not naturalized, at 21.3 percent.

None of these numbers are comforting.

The difference between love and hate ...

... can be as simple as a matter of a few degrees centigrade.

Love
Hate

Of course, the old one is now sticking to its story that hovering at -71C is a "Good Thing".

Ack!

ASM abstracts are due ... soon!

I put the date in my new planner though, so everything should be juuussstttt fine! ;)

ETA: Abstract done and sent to collaborators for approval/tweaks. Now turning attention to a peer review. Need to clear my plate because I have grant reviews next week. Yippie!

Enlighten me!

So people have gotten onto my case about my choice of news sources for some of my blog entries. So, I am asking my readers to edumacate me and point me in the direction of better sources. Here is a list of the sources I read routinely. Probably not every morning, but once a week, or in the case of some of them once or twice a month. It also doesn't include local sources (for obvious reasons).

My news sources. Click to enlarge
So, what am I missing? What do people in the blogosphere read regularly for reliable news?

For shame ...

... why would you do such a thing? Is this a corporate decision, or is it done at the individual store/manager level? I am going to assume it's a corporate thing, and as such it's a truly horrible (despicable) corporate policy.

Heh ...

I need to change my WiFi router to be ThanksForPilingAllYourLeavesOntoMyProperty. I don't think that will fit, so appropriate abbreviations/alternatives will be appreciated.

Currently ...

Listening ToEverytime I hear Immigrant Song, I think of the Viking Kittens.

O RLY?

If I'm going to feel "shock" at the failure of the intelligence community to ensure that air travel is safe, then please answer this: Why is Napolitano still in place?

It's her job to ensure that the system runs smoothly, yet it seems that coordination of intelligence gathering efforts is stuck in a pre-9/11 loop. Get someone who is competent for crying out loud, and won't claim that the system "worked" (yah, thank goodness for quick-thinking-on-your-feet civilians who had to do the governments dirty work for them) when it's obvious it had a moment of EPIC FAIL.

Before I start dropping f-bombs all over the place, whatever happened to Obama's promise of accountability? Lies, lies, and more damn lies from politicians.

Lab angst

Since I've been in my lab, I've had a low temp (-80C) freezer which has been nothing but a pain in my tookus. For the past three to four months it has been hovering at around -62C. We finally scratched up enough end-of-year funds to purchase a new one, and after canceling one order (it was confiscated by pirates I believe, because it appears to have been "lost at sea") the new one arrived last month. We have this new puppy fired up and at temperature and I began transferring shelves (one per day) yesterday. Well, I did the bottom shelf yesterday, went home, came back this morning and the old freezer is up to -71C. I don't know whether the threat of termination was enough to get its butt back in gear, or if the thing was just filled past capacity (which doesn't seem like it should happen). Anyone around here a low temp freezer guru who might know what's going on here? I mean, I can use this older freezer for temp storage (though nothing around here is ever temporary for long) and holding a secondary backup stash of clones/strains without using 25% to 50% of the freezer for storage. But talk about inefficient.

What are you reading?

Today, I'm reading the following: Induction of purple sulfur bacterial growth in dairy wastewater lagoons by circulation (PDF, 7 pages).

Abstract
Aims: To determine whether circulation of dairy wastewater induces the growth of phototrophic purple sulfur bacteria (PSB).

Methods and Results: Two dairy wastewater lagoons that were similar in size, geographic location, number and type of cattle loading the lagoons were chosen. The only obvious visual difference between them was that one was stagnant and the water was brown in colour (Farm 1), and the other was circulated and the water was red in colour because of the presence of PSB that contained carotenoid pigments (Farm 2). Both wastewaters were sampled monthly for 3 months and assayed for PSB and extractable carotenoid pigments (ECP). After this point, circulators were placed in the wastewater lagoon on Farm 1, and samples were taken monthly for 9 months and assayed for PSB and ECP. Before the installation of circulators, no PSB-like 16S rRNA sequences or ECP were observed in the wastewater from Farm 1; however, both were observed in the wastewater from Farm 2. After the installation of circulators, statistically greater levels of PSB and extractable carotenoid pigments were observed in the wastewater from Farm 1.

Conclusions: Circulation enhances the growth of PSB in dairy wastewater. Significance and Impact of this Study: Because PSB utilize H2S and volatile organic acids (VOA) as an electron source for photosynthesis, and VOA and alcohols as a carbon source for growth, the increase in these bacteria should reduce H2S, volatile organic compounds and alcohol emissions from the lagoons, enhancing the air quality in dairy farming areas.

Can it be done?

Can I really, truly, make a resolution work? I have had limited success with New Year resolutions. The only one I can ever remember following through on was cutting out soda for an entire year ... but that only worked for the one year I did it, and now I can down a 2L bottle in an afternoon.

At any rate, my goal for this year is to write (and get accepted) three first author manuscripts this year. I have the data for two of them already collected so this should be an accomplish-able task. Also, since I have a paper already under review, that should count towards one of the accepted papers should things go favorably.

However, in order to achieve this level of success, I need to organize. It's not one of my strong suits, and my desk is a cluttered mess. I know where everything is, but I'm still not organized, and I need to get there. I know it behooves me, for my long term productivity and upward mobility in the ranks of research, to achieve this goal. So, I took my first step in this direction today ...Is increased productivity in my future?
I went out and purchased a daily planner. I tried this last year, with very mixed results ... but I have the fire in my belly this year. I swear! At any rate, I've already started filling out January, which is a good thing because I have a manuscript review and a grant review due in the next few days. I better get cracking!

What I would like this weekend ...

... a repeat performance of last nights 37-0 drubbing of the Bungles.

J-E-T-S!

They say you can't change someone ...

... but it appears that you can sculpt them.

A new international review of seven papers on "the Michelangelo phenomenon" shows that when close partners affirm and support each other's ideal selves, they and the relationship benefit greatly.

So go sculpt your significant other.

The caveat?

"It's not just that you treat me positively," Finkel said. "You treat me in particular ways that dovetail with my ideal self."

It's all about the bugs ...

... so says this report.

"Our paper presents measurements from all the major regions of the world where we have experimentally determined the effect of this enzyme, produced by many microorganisms, on carbon dioxide released from the soil," said Dr. Behzad Mortazavi, an assistant professor of biological sciences at The University of Alabama, and a co-author of the article.

So what effect did that have?

Revising the computer model predictions to take the soil enzymes' impact on CO2 into account reduces the discrepancies between the model and atmospheric observations, according to the paper whose lead authors are Lisa Wingate and Jérôme Ogée, representing the University of Edinburg and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, respectively.

Sounds like it's time to look into what molecular probes exist for this enzyme (carbonic anhydrase) ...

Can we really expect ...

... emerging countries to give a crud about global stewardship?

If this is any indication, the answer is a resounding: No.

"If you look at it, it's a really bad idea. It uses as much electricity as an entire city. And every time the toilet is flushed they've got to pump water half a mile into the sky," he said.

The telescopic shape is also presents problems of a more practical nature Krane says.

"The upper 30 or 40 floors are so tiny that they're useless, so they can't use them for anything else apart from storage. They've built a small, not so useful storage warehouse half a mile in the sky," he said.

Of course, having built their country on the back of oil (with the industrialized worlds help, of course) I doubt they want to see a push towards greener industry.

What's your name?

I figured to start off the new year I'd do something a little different. As I've written about before, I'm intrigued by how people come up with the names of the organisms they identify. So, I'm going to start a once-monthly blog entry (we'll see how long I can keep it up) highlighting some of the more interesting ones I come across.

The best resource for this is the International Journal of Systemic and Evolutionary Microbiology, so it will be the journal a majority of my citations come from. You'll notice that I'm running a year behind in the journal because for some reason our institution doesn't carry this journal *grumble*. I guess this qualifies as a Research Blogging entry as well, no? So here goes... our main entry:

1. Halorhabdus tiamatea - (ti.a.ma.te'a. N.L. fem. adj. tiamatea belonging to, or related to, Tiamat, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of ‘the primal abyss’ and salty water). Named after a Mesopotamian goddess, this organism is extremely halophilic.

... and now for a few others ...

2. Nocardioides daphniae - (daph'ni.ae. N.L. gen. n. daphniae pertaining to the water flea genus Daphnia, as the type strain was isolated from Daphnia cucullata). Self-explanatory.

3. Salinicoccus iranensis - I doubt this one will come as much of a surprise, looking at the species name ... (i.ran.en'sis. N.L. masc. adj. iranensis from Iran, where the organism was isolated). Yep, no brainer there.

4. The next group got to name the genus AND species of this organism, Perlucidibaca piscinae. Perlucidibaca - Per.lu.ci.di.ba'ca. L. adj. perlucidus transparent, pellucid; L. fem. n. baca a small round fruit, a berry; N.L. fem. n. Perlucidibaca a transparent berry, and piscinae - pis.ci'nae. L. gen. n. piscinae "of a fish-pond".

5. Methylobacterium iners - (i'ners. L. neut. adj. iners inactive, lazy). I guess this fellow isn't very motile.

Primary Article
Antunes, A., Taborda, M., Huber, R., Moissl, C., Nobre, M., & da Costa, M. (2008). Halorhabdus tiamatea sp. nov., a non-pigmented, extremely halophilic archaeon from a deep-sea, hypersaline anoxic basin of the Red Sea, and emended description of the genus Halorhabdus. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY, 58 (1), 215-220 DOI: 10.1099/ijs.0.65316-0

Auld Lang Syne

Ok, I'm not really going to wax poetic on the year. It certainly had its ups and downs. Some of the highs were really, really high. Some of the lows were really, really low. All told, I got through another year with my health and sanity relatively intact, and that's got to be a good thing. On a blog note, I'm pretty amazed that I've kept at this for two years fairly consistently. Most of it is utter crap, and useless to everyone, including myself ... but I stuck at it anyways. So I am going to make one resolution for 2010. I'm going to try to add more substance to this blog over the next year. If I can do that, and life cooperates, I'll keep at it in 2011. If I can't be bothered to really utilize this blog to explain and push science, it'll be time to move on.

Anywho ... hope everyone has a great day, and I'll see you all next year!

What gives NewScientist?

So I'm reading an article today and about a minute into reading, the screen goes black. A bright blue box in the middle of the darkened screen tells me I've read 3 articles from NS this month, and if I want the privilege to read up to four more -- free of charge -- I need to register. Yes, I need to give you my email address so you can spam me incessantly, right? Yes, I have an email account I use just for these purposes, but that's besides the point. I stopped using ESPN to catch up on my sports because they started switching their articles to their INsider service (that and they now pipe live video on just about every page you read ... which is annoying because I don't care to watch or listen to Sports Center blurbs when I'm reading an article ... it's like websites with music on the page, they're damn annoying and intrusive). So, NewScientist ... I will not register for access to four more articles a month. Which means, I suppose I should stop visiting your site altogether. Or I will, once you fix the workaround I employed. I just don't allow any java scripts to work from your site, and the blackened screen went away, allowing me to read articles to my hearts content.

Baby want a bottle? A big dirt bottle?

LaMarr Woodley is an idiot. A really big idiot. An idiot that gets paid a lot more money than I do, but an idiot nonetheless.

Listen ya big crybaby ... if your team hadn't laid down for five games in the middle of the season, you laid down for the Cleveland Browns for crying out loud, you wouldn't have to worry about the final game on the Patsies or Bungles schedules. But, ya didn't ... you screwed the pooch and have no one to blame but yourself.

Besides, a team that lost to the Browns will surely strike no fear in the heart of any other NFL team.

Once we get into the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers is a playoff team.

No duh. Like I said ... idiot.

"I think when you say that [teams will lay down], it calls into question the character of the players on their team. And I think all those guys are character football players and competitors," Clark said. "Now if it were last year's [Steelers team], yeah, they probably wouldn't want to play us. But this year's team, I don't think strikes fear in anyone."

Woodley's teammate, Ryan Clark, is not an idiot. Oh, and he thinks Woodley is an idiot too.

"To say Cincinnati doesn't want to face us, that would kind of be a little dumb, being that they beat us twice this season," Clark said. "So I'm sure they have a lot of confidence if they do have to play us."

Exactly.

There is hope!

If this article is correct, by my calculations the Mets should win the World Series in 2014!

The outcome: Foster hit 13 home runs in his first season in New York. He played an abysmal left field, was booed mercilessly, shunned in his own clubhouse and -- even as he went on to spend 3½ more decent seasons with the Mets -- labeled one of the biggest busts in the team's history. By the time the team won the 1986 World Series, he was out of baseball.

So, the Mets sign Jason Bay for the start of the 2010 season. They tank the 2010 season and the following three, and then Viola! World Series Champs!

As we approach 2010, New York Mets history is about to repeat itself.

One can only hope!

Forget explosive-laden tighty whities ...

... being the biggest threat to your health when you travel by air. The greatest danger may come from the airport itself!

The newspaper said that 77 percent of the 35 restaurants reviewed at Reagan had at least one "critical" violation. Tasty!

I generally do not eat fast food when I'm traveling. Doesn't matter if I'm traveling by plane or car. There is nothing worse than being a couple of hours into a lengthy travel schedule and getting the Aztec two-step. Explosive diarrhea and/or vomiting at 30,000 feet in close quarters is one of the least appealing things I can imagine.

Of course, the thought does conjure up the notion of a different sort of explosive-laden tighty whities. *shudder*

Can you say ...

... "Mama's boy"? What is this kid going to do if he gets drafted by the NFL, by a team out West? Tell them no, that he's decided he's going to play for the Patriots?

It's good to be a Mets fan ...

... ok, not really.

Interesting articles ...

... in Newsweek. How Dams Influence Local Climate Patterns.

[D]ams increase atmospheric instabilities in the vertical profile of temperature and humidity. Those instabilities arise because the presence of a dam—specifically, the reservoir it creates—increases evaporation and therefore atmospheric moisture. That enhances the amount of convective energy in the air above the reservoir. The end result: more precipitation.

And another environmental article (2009 in review) from the New Scientist, complete with photo caption gold.

This strange bug-eyed salamander is was discovered in the Cordillera del Condor.

Next time I does/do make a discovery, I'll be sure to write just like they does/do.

Spam

I'm starting to see more spam rise up on my site. I'm going to hold out putting in some sort of moderation for comments as long as I can, and I hope this is just a blip on the radar that will pass. However, if I need to put in some sort of moderation, I'll try to use the least intrusive method available.

Is death a "complication"?

It appears so, at least in this instance.

Then came the Hermanstorfer's Christmas miracle. "Immediately after delivering him, her pulse came back," said Dr. Martin. Martin tells 11 News, when pregnant women have complications, they have been known to recover once the baby is delivered.

Both mother and child survived. I guess the obvious response for the child -- as he is growing up -- to the hyperbolic question "Are you trying to kill me?" (sometimes said in exasperation) by his mom should be "Been there, done that, Mom."

Pretty shocking statistics

Found here.

*In 18 U.S. states, not even one elementary math class is required for certification.

*Some teaching colleges allow admittance as long as students have math skills equal to their future students -- that is, as long as they could pass a 5th grade math test.

*It's possible in some states to pass the teacher certification exam (Praxis) without answering a single math question correctly.

*In Massachusetts, there's a special program to reacquaint teachers with math. The man who runs the program says half of teachers can't answer basic questions involving fractions and has concluded that many elementary teachers are "phobic" about math.

*Teachers seem to be math-averse from the start. College bound seniors headed for elementary education have math SAT scores significantly lower than the national average (483 vs. 515).

Pathetic. No wonder things don't add up properly.

Happy Holidays

Hope everyone enjoys this time where we usually get to slow down for a day, or two, or three ... and appreciate all that most of us already have.

I dunno ...

... who dies at the age of 32 of a heart attack?

Has to be either a congenital issue, or drug-related.

You Could Have It So Much Better

by: Franz Ferdinand

The last message you sent,
said I looked really down,
that I oughta come over,
and talk about it.
Well ... I wasn't down,
I just wasn't smiling at you, yeah.
As I look at you now it seems,
that you're slapping my back,
as if it's alright,
but its not.

I'm trying to get up,
but you're pushing me down,
oh yeah, you're pushing me down,
so I'll get up on my own.

Now there's some grinning goon,
on my TV screen.
Telling us all that
it's alright ... because
she wears this,
and he said that,
and if you get some of these,
it'll all be alright.

Well I refuse
to be a cynical goon.
Passing the masses
an easy answer.
Because it won't be alright,
Oh no it won't be alright,
it won't be alright,
unless you get up,
come on and get up!

Well I'm just a voice in your earpiece,
telling you no it's not alright.
You know you could have it so much better,
You could have it so much better.
If you tried. If you tried. If you tried.

Get up on your own!

This is not how you win the war on terror ...

... $4.5 million dollar US military hardware hacked by $26 off-the-shelf software.

Speaking of inhumane treatment ...

... sounds like this guys son should get a little. Then again, perhaps the dad is the real dummy for putting his 13 year old son on his phone plan without taking the proper precautions (like only allowing the phone to dial home and 911).

Growing up ...

... I had fond memories of attending the circus. I've been to the Ringling Bros. a couple of times as a child. However, where there is smoke, there is fire. I do not, any longer, view these shows as humane.

Article ...

... in Scientific American.

Bugs Inside.

Linkage

Small Worlds - a very interesting flash game.

Currently ...

PlayingDead Space: Extraction is a cool on-rails FPS for the Wii. It's the first time I've ever played an on-rails game, and while it took a bit of getting used to, I've become a bit fond of it. It certainly helps that EA put a ton of extras into this game, not to mention that it's fleshed out with a great story and voice acting. Definitely my game of 2009. Thanks EA!

Listening ToThe Veils are an alt rock band that has been around for a bit, but I found this album mentioned in a "Best of 2009" list somewhere on the internets. It's definitely a great album and worth a listen. They have a video or two on Youtube.

There are very few things I want for Christmas

But to see the Patsies implode ... that would be on the top of my list.

Surprise, surprise ...

... wasted stimulus funds.

Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., held a news conference Tuesday in which they released a report criticizing 100 projects paid for by the stimulus package that they claim wasted $7 billion.

How much agricultural (and medical) research could $7 billion fund? Alone, that money could fund the place I work at (given current funding) for over a millenium. Just imagine what we could do with double the budget (which would only fund us for a handful of centuries).

Oh, and here is my non-FOXNews link to the same issue. ;)

I can't believe ...

... I had not read this short story (PDF, 4 pages) until last night.

He did not remember when he began to regard the heap of books on his desk with boredom and dread, or when he grew angry at writers for writing them. He did not remember when everything began to remind him of something else.

This is what he remembered. Heat. A baseball field. Yellow grass, the whirr of insects, himself leaning against a tree as the boys of the neighborhood gather for a pickup game.

Sorry, I can't make spinning class today ...

... I just won the Nobel Prize. How cool would that be? Well, very cool.

Reading that story, it's obvious that Carol won the prize with work she did as a graduate student.

The holiday season

This is typically the time of year that most/some/a few of us think back over the last 300+ days and reflect on how cruddy/great/boring they were. I'm not going to bore anyone with my own musings, other than to say that I think I'm in a much better position than a lot of people, and for that I should be thankful -- and I am. Therefore, I'm going to shameless plug a favorite charity of mine, in the hopes that if you're looking to spread some holiday cheer, you might consider them.

CFCA the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. Why? This reason, if for no other.

CFCA assigns the highest reasonable amount of available resources to the direct benefit of sponsored members. In 2008, CFCA’s total contributions and revenues exceeded $103.9 million, a record level. A total of $93.6 million was disbursed in direct assistance to our projects for the benefit of the children, youth and aging persons we serve.

That's a pretty good return on your dollar. I receive several letters a year from Alex, the child I've been sponsoring, and I've gotten to see him grow up and thrive thanks to this foundation.

Chimera! (Part 1)

NOTE: I've been sitting on this for quite awhile, and while I wanted to add to it, i figure I may as well post this now, and then followup at a later date. I think it can hold up on its own for the purposes of discussing the problem. So I'll call this post "Part 1" for now.

To the left is the mythical creature known as the chimera. Though, to be honest, do you know how hard it is to find an actual drawing of what the mythical chimera was described as? It was a fire-breathing creature with the body of a lion, with a tail ending with a snake's head. On top of that a goat head sprouts up from the middle of the back. Weird creature, eh? And you wouldn't think that's too terribly hard to draw, but that's not typically how artists do it. I dunno, artistic license and all that jazz, eh? But anyways, that's a bit of an aside, as I don't really intend to hearken back to my geeky AD&D-playing teenage years to talk about mythical creatures. Rather, I want to talk about the phenomenon that gene jockeys who do microbial community analysis face when doing 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis. Yes, I'm talking about that chimera.

It's a problem, and depending on who you read, it's a very BIG problem at that. I'm going to cite a couple of papers to illustrate. The first is by Kevin Ashelford et al. who titled a 2005 AEM article: At Least 1 in 20 16S rRNA Sequence Records Currently Held in Public Repositories Is Estimated To Contain Substantial Anomalies. Quoting from their abstract (this article should be in the public domain by now, so I'll link to it down below):

A new method for detecting chimeras and other anomalies within 16S rRNA sequence records is presented. Using this method, we screened 1,399 sequences from 19 phyla, as defined by the Ribosomal Database Project, release 9, update 22, and found 5.0% to harbor substantial errors. Of these, 64.3% were obvious chimeras, 14.3% were unidentified sequencing errors, and 21.4% were highly degenerate.

Translation: Our sequence databases (which start with GenBank) are a mess.

Then there is this study by Hugenholtz and Huber from 2003 in IJSEM entitled: Chimeric 16S rDNA sequences of diverse origin are accumulating in the public databases. Quoting their abstract (I believe this is also a freely accessible article) they state:

A significant number of chimeric 16S rDNA sequences of diverse origin were identified in the public databases by partial treeing analysis. This suggests that chimeric sequences, representing phylogenetically novel non-existent organisms, are routinely being overlooked in molecular phylogenetic surveys despite a general awareness of PCR-generated artefacts amongst researchers.

Now, this article was written a little over 6 years ago, but it continues to be a problem. These sequences are still in the databases and will no doubt remain there in perpetuity. So yah, we're stuck with the mistakes and total messes that people have submitted in the past. What needs to stop happening is adding to the problem in the future. That doesn't seem to be happening though. In 2006 Ashelford published again in AEM that recent large library submissions contained high percentages of chimeric sequences.

Defining a large library as one containing 100 or more sequences of 1,200 bases or greater, we screened 25 of the 28 libraries and found that all but three contained substantial anomalies. Overall, 543 anomalous sequences were found. The average anomaly content per clone library was 9.0%, 4% higher than that previously estimated for the public repository overall. In addition, 90.8% of anomalies had characteristic chimeric patterns, a rise of 25.4% over that found previously. One library alone was found to contain 54 chimeras, representing 45.8% of its content. These figures far exceed previous estimates of artifacts within public repositories and further highlight the urgent need for all researchers to adequately screen their libraries prior to submission.

In this article they talk about a program called Mallard which they use for chimera detection. As a matter of fact, there are a number of programs that can be used to identify 16S rDNA gene chimeras. Two of the most well-known programs are Chimera_Check and Bellerophon. Bellerophon is, of course, the mythical Greek who slew the chimera. All these programs work well, and they do what they are intended to do, under the proper conditions. I add that caveat because as most people who use these know, the conditions are important.

For instance, Chimera Check and Bellerophon are champs at chimera detection when looking at full length 16S rDNA gene sequence. That means that your sequences should be roughly in the 1,500 basepair ballpark. So when you want to analyze sequences in the 300 to 600 base pair size range, those sequences will likely get thrown out by those programs. Chimera Check goes so far as to flat out state that sequences less than 400 base pairs in size may not be reliably analyzed, so it's definitely a case of "buyer beware". So, if you are someone who likes to look at a couple of variable regions (and there is good reason to narrow down your focus, which I hopefully will get to in another blog entry) you're going to have to find another way to check for chimeric sequences.

References
Ashelford, K., Chuzhanova, N., Fry, J., Jones, A., & Weightman, A. (2005). At Least 1 in 20 16S rRNA Sequence Records Currently Held in Public Repositories Is Estimated To Contain Substantial Anomalies Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 71 (12), 7724-7736 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.71.12.7724-7736.2005 (PDF, 13 pages).

Hugenholtz and Huber. Chimeric 16S rDNA sequences of diverse origin are accumulating in the public databases. 2003. IJSEM. 53: 289-93. (PDF, 5 pages).

Ashelford et al. New Screening Software Shows that Most Recent Large 16S rRNA Gene Clone Libraries Contain Chimeras. 2006. AEM. 72(9): 5734-41. (PDF, 8 pages)

Biometric fraud

Wow, that's a lot of work and money to slip past immigration.

Local media reports said Ms Lin had undergone surgery to swap the fingerprints from her right and left hands.

Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand.

The job cost her, allegedly, $15,000. Of course, she went and got caught again.

As a friend pointed out to me ...

... it's quite possible that the last three Heisman winners will all lose their game which immediately proceeds the award. That is, of course, if Colt McCoy wins, and I'm hoping that after Saturdays dreadful performance (Texass had no business winning that game with the way they managed the last 10 seconds) he doesn't.

Last Goodbye

by: Jeff Buckley

This is our last goodbye,
I hate to feel the love between us die,
but it's over.
Just hear this and then I'll go.
You gave me more to live for,
More than you'll ever know.

This is our last embrace.
Must I dream and always see your face?
Why can't we overcome this wall?
Well, maybe it's just because I didn't know you at all.

Kiss me, please kiss me.
But kiss me out of desire, babe, and not consolation.
You know it makes me so angry 'cause I know that in time,
I'll only make you cry, this is our last goodbye.

Did you say "No, this can't happen to me,"
and did you rush to the phone to call?
Was there a voice unkind in the back of your mind?
Saying maybe you didn't know him at all,
You didn't know him at all, oh, you didn't know.

Well, the bells out in the church tower chime,
burning clues into this heart of mine.
Thinking so hard on her soft eyes and the memories,
offer signs that it's over ... it's over.

Friday Funny

Courtesy of Golf Digest. Their January 2010 issue headlined with: Top 10 Tips Obama Can Take From Tiger. Oh we could have a field day with this one!

Oh, not to mention that that cover is a PSD. Either that or I failed to realize Tiger Woods had the legs and left arm of a white dude.

World Cup

Looks like the United States has a very favorable draw for the World Cup:

England
United States
Algeria
Slovenia

The US could wind up 1st or easily 2nd in this group.

Hey Reid ...

... if we wanted you to do stand-up comedy, I'm sure Nevada would not have elected you into office. Then again, with any luck you won't be around after the next election cycle anyways.

PS: What the &%#! does Tiger Woods have to do with Afghanistan and Health Care Reform anyways? Idiot.

Uhhh ...

... I don't think I qualify as "young" any longer. I don't have children. I have as many degrees as I do fingers on one of my hands. So what gives?

Anger is more likely among the young, those with children at home, and the less educated, a new study finds.

It was only a matter of time ...

... before some twit did this.

Home Owner Associations

Can suck it. I'll never live in a development that has one. In this particular case (linked to) it's simple, just write a provision that says Medal of Honor recipients can have a vertical flag pole limited to 21 feet in height. End of story, you stupid asshats.

Yah, yah, yah ... there are benefits to living in a development with HOA's, I know. But they can also be invasive as all get out, and the fact that a group of asshat neighbors with potential axes to grind can slap a lien on your house? To hell with that!

Have you ever ...

... had one of those days that made you want to scream, and then go home and just go back to bed?

Yah, that's been my week so far.

Six weeks?

Read this article over at ESPN: From Hunk to Chunk, and Back Again. Crazy dude decides to gain 90 pounds so he can relate to his clients. I can see where he's coming from, but this is the part that scares me the most.

James says it took about six weeks of training and willpower to finally kick his addiction to junk food and start eating healthy food consistently again.

Yikes! This is what I'm looking forward to as I attempt to lose the 20 pounds I've gained since I stopped running competitively in college.

I should probably start soon ... right after I finish all the Thanksgiving left overs. Nom nom nom.

How microbes can save the world ...

7 ways microbes may solve our energy woes by MSNBC.

I think our best efforts (and greatest impacts) would be by focusing on butanol and methane.

Interesting read ...

... over at Mark Shea's. He reported on a Dick Cheney hullabaloo yesterday as well, and it gets interesting in the comment section. Here is a comment by a reader named Sean O'Kane:

A further problem with Cheney's "tough guy" stance is that when he was a young man he went to great lengths to avoid serving in the armed forces during the Vietnam war. Cheney fully supported the Vietnam war yet he sought 5 deferments to avoid the fighting because he "had other priorities." He was content to let others do the dying & dirty work. I find his "tough" stance to be very hollow and hypocritical.

Unfortunately, his experience was the norm among top Bush adm people. The notable exception was Colin Powell had expressed the most caution about going into Irag. Powell served in Vietnam.

Being President of the United States calls for an individual to wear many hats. He has to make sure the country is safe and secure from threats, has a strong economy, sound social policies, and that the citizens are happy, healthy, and productive. There is a lot more to it, and I know that I'm probably overlooking a great many things but I think that only further supports my point that whoever takes on the position of President has to have a wide range of experiences and knowledge.

Washington D.C. has become a place, at least it seems that way to me, where politics is the fabled perpetual motion machine. It doesn't need anything but itself to run. To hell with economics, to hell with sound military policy, to hell with medical health care experience. All they need to know is how to wiggle out of their fumbles and scandals come election time, and how to bring home the bacon to fund projects which really only impact a few people in their districts but have a nice dollar value on the bottom line.

It also points out to me that the populace is naive at best, stupid more likely, and downright apathetic at worst. Instead of clamoring for individuals experienced in things outside of how to perform the perfect "back stab" or "reach around", we continue to elect people, seemingly for life, who continue to flush this country down the toilet (I'm thinking particularly of people Barney Frank and Chris Dodd). Why didn't Colin Powell run for President? Probably because he didn't want to deal with the backroom crap and negative campaigning, part and parcel of politics. I think that if he could have been allowed to just do the damn job of running the country and not deal with all the whiny pissants who scuttle around the Capital, he could have been convinced to do it.

I guess what this boils down to is that I would prefer someone with actual military experience to run this country. They are, after all, Commander in Chief and a knowledge of what our forces are capable of, how they can be usefully deployed in a way that they are the most effective, not over-extended, or put into a losing situation thanks to politics (notice a trend here with politicians?) would be great. We're not going to get that in this Presidency, we sure as heck didn't get it in the last Presidency (or the one before it). You can think through a situation as much as you like, but sometimes actual experience will prove the most valuable commodity. Right now, I don't see much of that and haven't in a very long time.

Mr. Powell, would you consider running for President?

Ho boy ...

Kerfluffle over PETA ad. Bill Donahue is about as bombastic an individual as you'll ever meet, so I'm sure PETA is thrilled that he's on the case. Mr. Donahue's problem is, he seems to fail to realize that every time he rails against something, he only gives those people more exposure. He fell into this trap with Dr. Pharyngula, he's falling for it here. Let the idiots have their rambling, don't give them their fifteen minutes of fame too.

It's typical PETA crappola, but this really caught my eye:

Krupa issued a statement responding to the Catholic League, saying: "As a practicing Catholic, I am shocked that the Catholic League is speaking out against my PETA ads. I'm doing what the Catholic Church should be doing, working to stop senseless suffering of animals, the most defenseless of God's creation."

Wow. I guess Ms. Krupa doesn't keep up with the times, and seems to overlook the generation-long struggle of the Pro-Life movement. I would not be surprised if Bill Donahue points out the unborn and asks if they're not defenseless too? If he doesn't, he's just a loud idiot.

Besides, given that St. Francis of Assisi (Patron Saint of Animals and the Environment) is such a celebrated figure in Catholic circles, I really find the charge leveled by Ms. Krupa a bit odd.

Please God, No!

Dick Cheney in 2012.

"Why would I want to do that?" he replied. "It's been a hell of a tour. I've loved it. I have no aspirations for further office," Cheney said in an interview with Politico.

Yeah, it was hell alright.

Joe Mauer as a Met

Oh that would be sweet. Spring training can't get here soon enough!

The Mets’ plans at catcher are fluid ...

With the exception of Francisco Rodriguez, Johan Santana, and David Wright the status of the entire Met's franchise (including their GM, Manager and Owner) is fluid.

Good riddance to bad rubbish

Cop killer dead.

Before I was against the death penalty, I was for it. There are instances, like this one and others* that force me to reconsider that stance. I think it's no surprise that they didn't bring this piece of crud in alive, but the point is ... he should never have been out on the street to begin with. I also believe that there is no way Huckabee will run for President now in 2012. These sorts of things tend to haunt people for their entire lives. I know the families of these four police officers will have to live with it, so it's not as if Huckabee will suffer alone through all of this. Besides, he still has his television show ... those families don't have their sons and daughters, moms and dads, brothers and sisters.


*Jessica Lunsford is another one that comes to mind. While that scum died in jail, every breath he took was an insult to humanity.