Rod's Alter Ego

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:28:28 GMT

Noodle Butt

The other day Mom used "rococo" in conversation. There's a wikipedia page devoted to the word. You know, when you live with uprights this bookish it's bound to rub off on you (e.g., note my use of bookish).

I've been hanging close to the house lately. A few days ago I had a Lipoma (benign fat tumor) removed from near my tail. Before sewing me back up the surgeon inserted a tube to drain the serous. It's a floppy, two-ended gizmo which has earned me the temporary nickname, "noddle butt." The last time I had one of these put in me I removed it myself, much to the chagrin of the uprights, but this one is safely out of my reach. Now maybe if I were a contortionist...

Progress at .edu is proceeding more or less on schedule. Master should have his paper submitted to a new journal by week end. Certain edits have definitely improved the quality of the manuscript, and additional data has been appended to support the conclusions (always a good thing). And this time the suggested reviewers will be more appreciative of proteomics approaches to systems biology.

The next step is to move the study into a relevant cell line and perturb certain protein interaction networks that were found significant for disease in the first part of the study, and formed the basis for the manuscript. "Perturb" means to knock down the expression of one or more genes in the network (see siRNA), or over express a gene (a harder experiment), and in doing so try to cause a measurable phenotype, like retarding cell proliferation or, ideally, inducing apoptosis. If either one works it will unquestionably be a sound basis for another paper, and that will be it - two first author papers in peer reviewed journals, write and defend the dissertation, and were on to the next phase of our lives. Summer of '09? Let's cross our fingers.

And wish me luck this Lipoma doesn't come back.

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:31:14 GMT

Late Bloomer

So Brett Favre is a Jet now. It will be queer seeing him play in a new uniform, with that elderly arm unpredictably throwing TD's or interceptions when you least expect either.

I think Jerry Brewer of the Seattle Times nailed it:

From now until Rodgers proves his worth, maybe until the franchise wins another championship, the Packers will be the team that gave up on Favre. It's so much more complicated than that, but the Green Bay front office, including former Seahawks executive Ted Thompson, cannot deny the end result. Favre is gone, and the Packers must live with the fact that they weren't peacemakers in this process.

Favre certainly didn't win. He wanted out, and his first choice was Minnesota. Instead, he had to accept a trade to the Jets, a team that finished 4-12 last year and went on a panicked offseason spending spree to mask its many flaws. Even if Favre thinks he can make the Jets a playoff team, he must ask himself this: Wouldn't he have a better chance of going to the Super Bowl if he stayed in Green Bay? Surely, if Favre had handled this situation with more diplomacy, that option would've been available.

Yes, Favre could still be a Packer, were it not for the stubborness of both he and Packer management. But the winds were blowing in a different direction that day, and Brett was swept away. Good luck in New York man, we'll be watching.

...

It's been quiet around here lately, and unseasonably mild outside as well. Only a high of 69 yesterday. And dry. The uprights waded into a kitchen remodeling project this weekend. Nothing too major -- a new sink and backsplash to make the kitchen more appealing to would-be buyers. The project will be finished well in advance of the anticipated sale date, long enough to enjoy it ourselves for a short while. Though it doesn't make much difference to me; from my point of view I can barely see the backsplash.

Master heard back on his paper. The two reviews were not negative, per se, but not positive enough to invite publication, at least at this particle journal, which according to Master's mentor has a "pretty high bar." Evidently it's not very unusual, at least in the life sciences, having your first draft rejected. Still, you want to reach out through the anonymity of the review, pull the reviewer close and point by point tell them, "Look, right here, we showed that!" But alas, it's not to be.

You can formally rebutt the review, and this is done all the time, and they may say, "Oh, okay, we now understand what you meant. Send in a revised manuscript." And then ultimately publish it. Sometimes. The question is, do you want to take that chance, or do you digest the comments, incoporate the reasonable ones and submit a revised manuscript to a different journal with different reviewers. Because if you submit to the same journal you're stuck with having to overcome the criticisms of the same two reviewers.

Master's reasonably confident a lightly edited version will pass muster at a different journal, one with reviewers more likely to appreciate the technique(s) employed. Caveat is once again he'll have to wait maybe four weeks or more to hear. Like I said before, some things are out of our control.

At least his dissertation committee was pleased with his progress since the last meeting in November '07. Based on that, and other criteria as well, he was placed on the Pharmacology training grant, a nomination of some distinction. Nice for the CV, too.

I know what you're thinking: Isn't it a little odd to be building your CV at a such a relatively late age, at a time when the average 48 year-old is more concerned with their arterial plaque score than their current vitae? What can I say, some people are late bloomers. Colonel Sanders was 60 before he sold his first bucket o' chicken. Charles Bukowski published his first story at age 48 (which, given his world view may require that many years). A 41 year-old American woman is kicking butt in the Olympic swimming pool. There are others. Think of the late bloomer as the inverse of a child prodigy. Or like good wine: age concentrating truth and mystery.

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:17:47 GMT

Brett v2.0

$20 million bucks to stay home instead of come to work?

Earth to Brett, "Take the bloody $$$!"

Sounds like a duh thing, I know, but here's something even duhier, if you ask me anyway. Packer management is making a mistake. What they should do is invite Favre back and start him in the upcoming season. Yes yes I know, management has already committed to starting Aaron Rogers and investing in him for the long haul. But so what? Favre changed his mind. Packer management should do the same. Why? Because the decision will be an instant hit with the fans, and no team in the NFL enjoys more fan involvement than the Packers. Isn't fan support correlated with the Packer's performance? Packer management will subsequently be cheered, and ever more so if Brett v2.0 'n Co. bring home the Lombardi trophy this year, something Aaron Rogers, despite expectations, is unlikely to do. Plus they only have to pay Favre $12 million. A savings of $8 million!!

The only loser so far as I can tell is Aaron Rogers. Everyone else concerned wins. On purely utilitarian grounds, I say it's the way to go.

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:53:51 GMT

We're Back Up!

Whoa, what a couple of weeks. The blahhhg software up 'n died on me. Just like that: "Radio has experienced an unexpected error and cannot open." Consult support. So I did. Re-install, they said. Move a bunch of files 'n folders around. Stand on one leg (no easy feat for a quadruped). Close your eyes and count to three. Voila! We're back up 'n running again.

Oh, that all dysfunction in life was so simple to correct. Engine in the car died? No sweat, simply re-install a new version. Re-connect some wires. Add oil. Varoom!

Finally, the uprights have returned to Ohio after two weeks in Alaska. They were two of a three member team ("The Amaroamers") that captured second place in overall fund-raising for this year's Ride for Life from Anchorage to Seward. The weather was horrible in Anchorage during the week preceding the ride. The suspected culprit is La Nina, the cold-weather cousin of El Nino. A number of people leaped to the conclusion that a colder than average summer is evidence against anthropogenic global warming (AGW). A conclusion quickly dismissed as mistaken by the experts because, they say, AGW is based on long-term trends, not a single seasonal aberration. Though you can bet if it were abnormally warm in Anchorage this year, said experts would have cited it as the latest tocsin of global calamity.

Exceptions are data.

Weeks earlier the uprights were splashing around in lake Erie,

and by night out for an evening on the town.

All the while we're anxiously awaiting word from the reviewers of Master's paper. So many of the hurdles between him and the PhD are out of his control, and this is one of them. Exciting for sure, but frustrating all the same.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:37:49 GMT

Wet

You've probably heard by now that there is (or was) water on Mars. Heck, if NASA wanted evidence of water they might have saved a bunch of tax dollars and gone to Iowa. Irrefutable evidence there. Unlike what we hear from them now - "It has to be ice. Because one day there was this white-ish substance in a hole, and then we woke up the next day and looked again and it was gone! What else except ice does that?" Oh, I don't know, I can think of a half dozen things right off the top of my head. Not that I'd expect of any of them to exist on Mars, but you never know, there might have been life there once upon a time. If there was intelligent life it might have burned all the hydrocarbons creating massive holes in the atmosphere to the point where the atmosphere finally disappeared. Followed shortly thereafter by the life itself.

Not to worry though, Obama's going to fix all this before we earthlings suffer the same fate.

Uh huh.

In unrelated news, Master and "Kev' Man" (KM) both returned safely from the HHH which, to review, stands for Horribly Hilly Hundreds. To hear master recall the experience it was somewhere between punitive and sinister torture. The event offered a 100K and 200K option; Master and KM opted for the latter.

The day began early (7 AM), cloudless and warm. At about kilometer 160 a nasty thunderstorm appeared and sent everyone scurrying for shelter. After about 25 minutes it passed, and some people, including our heroes, opted to continue riding. Others headed for the sag wagon and a ride back to the finish. Unfortunately for those who continued on, about 7 miles later the road marshals indicated the course was being officially shutdown due to the threat of a larger and more violent thunderstorm approaching. At this point our heroes were separated on the course. Master had made it to the final rest stop whereas KM was, as it turned out, on a short cut detour to the finish line. At the rest stop everyone was encouraged to get in the sag wagon for a lift back to the finish, due to the threat of bad weather.

Decisions decisions.

On the sag wagon console there was a laptop computer with a real-time display of a weather radar map. Hi-tech bunch of folks those triple-H people. Master appraised the approaching storm, and conceded the concern: something nasty this way cometh. Reluctantly, he opted to call it a day and lifted his bike and himself into the sag. This was mile 103; there was officially 24 miles to go. As mentioned KM was elsewhere on the course and had been strongly encouraged to take a short cut back to the finish - with an emphatic: "Hurry up!" He hadn't quite made it back when Master passed by him in the sag, and just then the sky opened up for the second time that day. Violent it was. Biblical in fact. Sheets of cold rain, penny-sized hail and tornadic-like winds. KM rolled up alongside the Honda before the worst of it hit, soaked to the bone. He joined Master inside who was, well, also very wet. Both of them much wetter than Mars.

A disappointing end maybe, but no one came away ashamed for having completed 100+ miles that day.

2008 HHH - Start - KevMan 'n Master

All in all the hills were relentless, and lived up to their name as hideously horrible. Must've been forty or more of those buggers with a cumulative climb of ~10,000+ feet. The Colorado Rockies have nothing on southwestern Wisconsin.

Brutal.

Gotta love this guy. Caption on bike mount: "If you want to blend in - take the bus."

Coming up: In a few weeks the uprights are off to Alaska for fun w/friends 'n family. There's water in Alaska. Life too. Master has promised to send pictures of both as proof.

Ciao for now readers.

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:34:47 GMT

Be Cool

Hot. Stinkin' hot.

So hot Mom scored us a backyard pool to cool down in:

(Hat tip: Carol)

I'm kidding!

About the pool, not the stinkin' heat. (What a lucky dog). Now, we do have an $11 Wal-Mart wading pool in our backyard. For the most part it's used by the uprights to cool their feet after work whilst making homemade wine coolers disappear. I suppose our neighbors find them to be quite a spectacle: look at those pathetic Alaskans, wading through the summer swelter. Ha ha ha.

Speaking of hot. Wedding anniversary #2. Ageless aren't they?

I'm telling you it's the Resveratrol they take - a pharmacological mimetic of calorie restriction. The consistent reduction of caloric intake triggers a genetic program in many organisms that prepares them for tougher times ahead. Surprisingly, this same stress-response program evidently also increases lifespan. There's growing evidence that low doses of Resveratrol may turn on a similar genetic program in mice, and perhaps humans too. This adds to the existing body of evidence that Resveratrol promotes weight loss and even suppresses tumourgenesis (onset of cancer).

Some people raise a moral objection to a drug that may cause humans to live longer. They don't imagine a quality of life attending increased quantity. They imagine, for instance, a country suddenly filled with 200 year old grandpas still falling asleep after Christmas dinner in front of a blaring TV set. In other words, ever more people living dramatically longer but not necessarily better lives than they do today. And on an earth with dwindling resources to boot. A Malthusian's worst nightmare. Since gutless humans are so fond of experimenting with drugs on animals before themselves, allow me to be the first dog to enroll myself in a controlled Reserveratrol study. I wouldn't mind living a few years longer.

Sat, 31 May 2008 02:00:33 GMT

Big Easy 'n Back

We're all doing well so don't worry. The paucity of posts is due to... well, I'm not sure really. Try the usual excuse that we're all unforgivably busy.

Mom 'n Master were in the Big Easy recently enjoying an extended weekend with family and friends.

Stepping up to the counter to pay for the bayou trip tickets, it occurred to Master that bugs may be a problem on the boat. Still water, lots of trees 'n swamp stuff, eighty degrees and high humidity. Can you say mosquitoes? But no! Turns out, according to "Captain Gary", that mosquito larvae die in water if it's the least bit disturbed. The water must be completely stagnant. "You're saying this ain't stagnant water?" Master asked incredulously, pointing to what appeared to be quintessentially stagnant water. Nope. Per Captain Gary, an unseen current runs through much of the bayou; even though it appears stagnant it ain't. Not only were there no mosquitoes, there weren't any pesty bugs at all. Amazing.

They saw alligators, too.

Alligators enjoy marshmallows. In fact, an alligator can be facing 180 degrees away from you and still detect a marshmallow hitting the water many feet behind them. Captain Gary - a proud Cajun who shamelessly proclaimed to everyone in the boat that Cajuns poach: “It’s what we do” – held forth in didactic fashion about the tiny sensors lining the underside of a ‘gators mouth, which evidently provides them an exquisite sense for the slightest movement in water.

Everyone went on a cemetery tour, too. Hey, you can't spend all your time in The Quarter. Turns out everything in New Orleans is slowly sinking, including the remains of the dead. The highlight of the tour was learning that Dennis Hopper shagged some girl on a sacred burial stone in this cemetery during the making of the movie Easy Rider. According to Ernie the tour guide you need to get the uncut version to see it. Personally, I can way see Dennis Hopper doing that.

Everyone's back at home now, and all is normal. Well, sort of.

In the evening after dinner and wine, when we're all laying around winding down for bedtime, Master (or Mom - one can never predict who) will remove one or both of their socks and fling it at the fireplace brick. This usually only works with sticky wool socks, but every now and then a basic cotton sock will stick too.

Seriously, the image is not doctored, this is exactly how it stuck!