Sleep is for chelonians

New photos! Boston, Salem and fall foliage

This set of photos includes some stolen from my pseudonymous comrade Popeye, who spent a week here earlier this month. During that week we ate a lot, visited the sights of Boston, took a day trip up to Salem and ate some more. Not half bad as far as short breaks go! I'm still holding out hope that he might write a guest post for this blog, so as so have his take on things. Maybe it would help if enough readers leave a comment requesting that he do it...

 

Sushi dinner

Yum yum!

Tako, suzuki and rocky sushi; negisake, Elias and scorpion maki; extra ginger and spicy seafood miso soup (not pictured); all courtesy of Oishii Sushi takeaway. Accompanied by a chilled Riesling, lovely.

A seasonal recipe

I improvised this tonight and it's pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

Slice up a yellow squash, start it off in a pan with olive oil then add a healthy measure of cooking sherry. While the squash boils gently in the sherry, take a chicken breast and slice it up in small pieces. If the chicken is coming out of the freezer, cut it up before it's entirely thawed; that makes it easier to make thin slices. Cook the chicken in a pan with a sesame and ginger marinade (pre-marinate it if you can remember to do it before starting the rest; I didn't). While that's browning, cut up an apple into small pieces and add it to the squash. Top up with sherry if necessary to keep the apple and squash mix nicely moist. Add cinnamon and dried cranberries, then add in the chicken once the apple pieces are suitably softened. After a few more minutes on a gentle flame, the sherry should be mostly evaporated.

Serve with a side of rice and enjoy! (I might try adding onions next time...)

Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock

From my new favorite ultra-geeky show "The Big Bang Theory" comes this awesome variant of the classic rock-paper-scissors game.

Here's how it goes:

Too fast? Read the rules below the fold :-)

Everyone's a critic

I just came home after a busy evening of building IKEA furniture (a fellow newbie from the lab moved in very recently and needed a hand). Little Gus, who's been out of his cage constantly for over a week and loving it, has apparently been doing some reading. And from the evidence he left behind, it seems he doesn't think much of my latest draft. I foresee a great career in science reviewing for him.

Gus denies allegations of misconduct

Young Gus, pictured here at his favorite neighborhood snack bar, has declared himself "shocked and dismayed" at the allegations that were circulated recently concerning his treatment of unsupervised jigsaw puzzles. Interviewed this morning by Fox News' senior pet correspondent Dextrogyrus Vulpis, he denied any involvement in the mutilation of an unspecified number of puzzle pieces that were found over the last week with missing head-parts.

Police investigators had reported that the damaged pieces displayed marks typical of rodent front teeth, and unofficial sources stated that one witness described the attacker as a "small, evil-looking grey rodent with huge ears, a bushy tail and a pronounced limp".

 Originally named as chief suspect in the investigation and taken into custody, Gus was nevertheless released without bail when the main witness was discredited following a positive blood alcohol test. The remaining evidence has since then been dismissed as circumstantial and it now appears that the case is to be shelved, sparking rumors of a cover-up by corrupt officials.

Gus continues to claim his innocence and describes himself as the victim of an elaborate plot carried out by jealous rivals to undermine his cuteness. If anything, insisted the adorable wide-eyed little furball this morning, he has always sought to protect errant puzzle pieces. He further expressed his happiness that the case has at least resulted in greater protection of jigsaw puzzles in the community, notably through the creation of umbrella programs that use spare quilt blankets to provide a barrier against rambunctious rodents and similarly sharp-toothed delinquents.

Rejoicing in the time difference

The great thing about having parts of my life on either side of the ocean is that my birthday lasts six hours longer. Seriously, it's not my birthday yet and yet...it already is!

Oh wait, it just turned midnight, so it really is my birthday either way now.

So, a general but nonetheless heartfelt thank you to everybody who has sent me birthday wishes already; and there'll be extra personal thanks guaranteed to everyone who sent me an actual card.

I leave you with Rockstar Gus: The Satanic Years (Evil Chinchilla Demon courtesy of Dad)

The roots of rythm remain

Miriam Makeba aka Mama Africa is no more, but her music lives on. Here is a video of a concert in 1987 where she sings with Paul Simon. There are several pieces, including the poignant "Soweto Blues", then at the end they sing one of my favorites from Paul Simon's "Graceland" album. Enjoy.

F*** the mammals, judge says

Just when I'm basking in the heart-warming glow of knowing that humans are still out there deploying treasures of ingenuity to help safeguard the health of endangered marine mammals (see previous post), reality rears its ugly head.

The US Supreme Court has removed restrictions on the navy's use of sonar in training exercises near California, the BBC reports.

"The most serious possible injury would be harm to an unknown number of the marine mammals," Chief Justice Roberts wrote. "In contrast, forcing the navy to deploy an inadequately trained anti-submarine force jeopardises the safety of the fleet."

Yeah, who cares about an unknown number of marine mammals. Pretty soon there won't be anymore to worry about anyway.

Now excuse me while I go hug a tree for comfort against the meanness of the world.

Below: cool PBS video on the evolution of whales (with shots of wolves, Dad -- check it out to see why).

Polite disagreement (rant alert)

There's this manuscript from my previous lab that I've been working on. Literally moonlighting, since I'm working on it at night.

I'm the second of five authors, and in this case I'm not really supposed to do a lot of writing on it; mostly comment and do some language corrections. But this project is kind of my brainchild, originally -- although I must rush to admit that I did very little actual wetwork on it -- so I care about it very much. And as a result I've been spending nights obsessing about specific points, particularly in the section that discusses the results, i.e. the Discussion (very original terminology, yes).

One of these points concerns a bone of contention that I've been gnawing at since last year, when a couple of people I'd never heard of before came in and trampled all over our little subfield with their great big mud-caked clogs. These boers spotted a juicy topic with lots of potential for buzzwords, proceeded to speculate wildly after doing very little actual analysis, made some totally overblown claims that failed to acknowledge very basic facts in published literature (alright, so they CITED our paper -- but they obviously didn't READ it) and generally made obnoxious asses of themselves. Cue lots of grumbling about the fact that people can get just about anything published with the right buzzwords.

It's not that it harmed me or anything -- it didn't affect my work or my record in way-- but they were WRONG, so obviously and stupidly WRONG. And sloppy. They set out with a specific idea to sell and completely ignored all the facts that didn't fit. That just made me angry.

So now, a year on, I'm writing up a part of this manuscript Discussion that ties directly into the very issue that those guys mangled so badly in their paper.

I've spent the last five hours trying to formulate a concise paragraph that shows polite disagreement, matter-of-fact exposition of the new data, logic-based interpretations and non-confrontational conclusions.

One of my early attempts included the phrase "In a breathtaking display of ignorance and stupidity, Smith and coworkers claimed that...".

Quite obviously, the persons' name was not Smith, but you get the idea.

I eventually did manage to whip together something that leaves out most of the seething anger and resentment. I suppose it's more appropriate this way.

It'll be a lot less entertaining for reviewers, though.