Ever had one of those days?
Category: uncategorized
Science coming out of left field
I just had a very interesting phone call. It went something like this:
Phone: Ring!Ring!
Me: Hello, Proteomic Services.
Phone: Hi, I’m new to the field of proteomics and would like to know what the difference is between a full-length protein and a mature protein.
Me: Buh! Sorry, you just caught me debugging some code, so give me a minute to go into science mode.
In a nutshell, the person on the phone wanted to known which protein sequence to use to generate antibodies against. I explained the differences in protein sequences and steered him towards PDBe so he could use structure information to make sure the peptide he’s trying to raise antibodies against isn’t buried deep within the 3D structure.
The amusing bit came when I asked him how he got my contact information. Turns out my name is the first in the list when you search all staff in the proteomics team.
Hee hee, turns out 6 years of biochemistry hasn’t been wasted after all :D
Boobquake determined to prove cleric wrong
A one-woman mission to prove breasts don’t cause earthquakes has swollen into a shirt-straining global movement preparing for the inaugural “Boobquake”.
Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi angered womens’ groups around the world on Monday when he claimed that promiscuous women were responsible for literally making the earth move.
“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Sedighi said.
“What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?” he asked during a prayer sermon on Friday. “There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes.”
Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but Sedighi says an increase in young women flaunting the law – and not the fact that Tehran straddles scores of fault lines – is risking the lives of the city’s 12 million inhabitants. Jennifer McCreight is determined to prove him wrong.
Since launching the “Boobquake” Facebook page two days ago, she has enlisted more than 20,000 women promising to show as much cleavage as possible on Monday, April 26.
If the world doesn’t then disappear into an apocalyptic fiery chasm, then Sedighi will have no option but to admit he was wrong. “On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own,” Ms McCreight wrote. “Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that’s your preferred form of immodesty. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I’m sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn’t rumble.”
Success! well, kind of.
I have found a cheese producer that would sell me cheese curd. Yay. Unfortunately, it’s in Somerset (about 150 miles away) and the cost of having it shipped would be more than the value of the cheese. All is not lost though, as apparently there are some pubs in East Anglia that order cheese from them and I *might* be able to piggy back on their order.
I’m not giving up that easily :)
EXTREME CAT CLOSEUP!!!
That’s how I like my weekends
We had our first big bbq of the season last Saturday. It was a glorious day and – having done most of my prep the previous afternoon following great advice from Katy – I was able to get everything setup at an orderly pace. We had just under a dozen people over – mostly my work colleagues but also Sara and Nick, from down the road. People seemed to have a good time and there was enough food to choke a small horse, so it was all good.
The beastie gave me conniptions when he was running around the BBQ, but there were enough pairs of hands to keep him at bay.
On Sunday, we went to ikea to buy a child-size poang and to costco to stock up on bulk items. We were quite proud of the beastie because he fed himself most of a sandwich (roast beef and horseradish, if you would believe!).
He got a bit tired of Ikea but had a blast at costco. Sadly the Ikea trip was a bust. The baby poangs are out of stock for the next 4-5 months or so. Apparently, Ikea are having supply issues with them. Bummer.
We went home, chilled a bit, had more stuff on the BBQ and called it a day. I could live with weekends like this. The only downside is that neither Katy nor I really slept very well. Don’t know why, but I’m knackered today.
Poutine, how I miss thee.
Poutine. Just the word conjures up bafflement on this side of the pond. But oh, how I miss you, salty cheesy goodness.
I can get very good chips, and decent enough gravy. It’s the cheese curd that is missing.
From wikipedia:
Cheese curds are little-known in locations without cheese factories, because they should ideally be eaten within hours of manufacture. Their flavor is mild with about the same firmness as cheese, but has a springy or rubbery texture. Fresh curds squeak against the teeth when bitten into, a defining characteristic, due to air trapped inside of its porous body. Cheese curds are sometimes referred to as “Squeaky cheese”.
Yes, squeaky cheese is near on impossible to find here, and I have started a crusade to find me some! I’ve contacted and emailed local and traditional cheese producers to see if I can get some fresh curds shipped from their factory. So far, no luck. But I’m still chasing some leads.
Watch this space!
Like Dennis Leary said
the problem is not less drugs, it’s more drugs given to the right people!
Russel Brand thinks heroin would save the music industry.
The British comedy actor claims heavy drug use could help the world avoid the “awful music” teen stars such as Justin Bieber are releasing. Brand – who has overcome heroin addiction and is the patron of a rehab centre in the UK – told Rolling Stone magazine: “The top of the hit parade would look very different if teenyboppers were exposed to heroin.
“It would weed a lot of them out. I don’t think Justin Bieber could handle Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd’s habit.
“A lot of people in their journey to rehab overdose, and then, perhaps, we could be spared their awful music. It’s Darwinian. It’s the law of natural selection.”
Brand also insisted that rock stars who penned top tracks while drugged should be the idols of today, rather than “transient pop stars”. He said, “The music I listen to is mostly by the dead and dying, which is how I want my rock stars: Syd Barrett, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors.”
Lovely spam, wonderful spam!!
Every once in a while, I get spam comments on my blog. Generally, they’re completely unrelated with the post content. The only use for the spammer is the referring website URL – the text below was a comment on my BBQ rib recipe from a patio furniture seller. Makes perfect sense:
This information is bit incomplete, I must say that the homework was done really good, but the problem came when you tried to assemble this information and present it. No doubt you did your best and I appreciate the fact that this will help as well, you should read other posts as well to make your posting really to the point and really understandable. I will PM you some of the threads about this topic so that the next time you visit the forum and post something really informative like this, it will be more effective and helpful to all.
Now that’s ironical :)
Schadenfreude, baby!
The Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy in Chantilly, Virginia proudly and purposefully limited what it would stock on its shelves. But it turns out that no birth control pills, no condoms, no porn, no tobacco and even no makeup added up to one thing: no customers.
The self-described “pro-life” pharmacy went out of business last month, less than two years after it opened to great fanfare, with a Catholic priest sprinkling holy water on the strip-mall store tucked between an Asian supermarket and a scuba shop. It opened amid a string of well-publicised incidents in the United States and abroad in which pharmacists refused to fill women’s prescriptions for birth control or the morning-after pill and, in some cases, refused to refer the women to another pharmacist or return the prescription to her.