I took a few minutes this morning to shop for a wireless adapter for my Xbox. I wanted the Microsoft one, and Amazon.com had it for $60, which is almost 50% off the list price. I put it in my shopping cart and browsed for a few other products. By the time I was ready to check out, the price had gone up to $87 and now it was offered by Office Depot and not Amazon directly. I’ve seen wild and incomprehensible price changes on the Internet before, but nothing like this. It boggles the mind. It also makes me less inclined to buy stuff from Amazon in the future. I mean, if I wanted wild and unpredictable price fluctuations, I’d shop on eBay.
This is big. Researchers at Seoul National University have successfully harvested stem cells from a cloned human embryo. South Korea has trumped the U.S! This is like, well, not like anything before. It’s similar to the way Sputnik gave us a swift kick in the rear, but the Koreans are not threatening military conquest. Instead a lot of Americans are probably dismissing this as the work of godless heathens intent on sending us all to hell.
But really it proves my point that the United States is quickly losing our lead in biomedical research. This type of research is underway in this country, but without federal funding, it is severely hampered. American scientists quoted in the article state the need for a more even-headed approach to cloning and stem cell issues. That’s not going to happen with the current administration. In fact, all human cloning would be banned in this country if not for the foresight (or neglect) of the Senate. (When was the last time anyone credited legislators as having foresight?!)
I’ll say it again: This is big. Stem cells from a cloned human embryo, and the paper published in a leading peer-reviewed journal. This could be the beginning of the end.
See the Wired News article.
I�m through the first version of my bioinformatics program for my first rotation. The results are disappointing, but you can take a look at some of them here. (You�ll need the Chime browser plug-in.) One problem lies in trying to calculate distances in three-dimensional space between a nucleotide and an amino acid that is hydrogen-bonded to it. Another problem is trying to figure out possible orientations for the amino acid that would still satisfy distance and H-bond requirements. I did some thinking on these topics yesterday, made some sketches, and then tried to do some research on 3D math on the internet. It turns out a lot of this stuff has already been worked out — a lot of it by people who do computer animation and graphics — so I don�t have the reinvent the wheel. The bad part is that it�s all horribly horribly complex. And involves vector math. Which I don�t remember. So I think I�m going to do a little more fine tuning on this algorithm, which should make it more accurate — and hopefully yield some interesting data — before moving on to other approaches that, again, will hopefully give me some really interesting results.
He’s our man, if he can’t do it… Maybe Kerry can?
I suppose I should weigh in on all this nonsense… I went to a Supa Bowl Partay and drank too much beer. Damn, what a game! I wasn't rooting for either team in particular, but I was on the edge of my seat thru the whole fourth quarter. It was decided in the last four seconds. It's doesn't get closer than that.
But really, halftime is what everyone's talking about. So first, here are some good picks D sent me. You can see from this that Janet's not wearing a pasty, but some freaky looking piercing. That makes it look a little accidental. But after watching it about 80 times on CNN today, Justin clearly meant to rip something off her outfit. Which raises the question: What exactly is a “wardrobe malfunction”?
My verdict: MTV planned it all along. How could they not? They have a freakin Pilates video now! And all the conservatives who are offended need to get over it. We shouldn't shun or deny sexuality. That attitude is the real leading cause of teen pregnancy.
