Question of the month

Here's a clue for a special person:

"It's not my anus."

My guess is that he'll know the answer.

The smell of basketball

One of my favorite things about the fall, amongst the turning and falling of the leaves and the arrival of cooler weather, is the start of college basketball season. One thing that is almost inevitable after spending any meaningful amount of time in Chapel Hill is that you become completely aware of when basketball starts. If you hate basketball, you dread this time of the year because everyone around you is constantly talking about the local teams. If you love basketball, you love it because you are constantly talking about your local team.

Even now, from several hundred miles away, I can't help but feel excited for the start of a new basketball season. A basketball post can only be finished by saying:

Go Heels!

No forgiveness

One aspect of science that is sometimes hard to swallow is that it can be very unforgiving. At least that is what I tell myself when I either screw up an experiment or when experiments don't work out my way. The way I see it, if the experiment is well set up and executed you will get something out of it. Now, more often than not you end get a result that is either negative or does not fit your model and as such you don't know what to interpret it. The downside to research is that no matter how hard you try, and no matter how hard you wish things to work in your favor, if your experimental setup is flawed odds are against you.

Thankfully there are occasions when we get lucky and get a surprising results out of flawed experiments, or experiments that where the scientist made a mistake, that point us in the right direction. I actually think that this element of science is not recognized enough by us scientists. You have to be smart enough to see lightning strike and learn what to do with it, but in the end the initial discovery was pure chance.

On the other hand, there are days like today where the scientists just screws up the experiment beyond recognition. In the armed forces this is called F.U.B.A.R.

Alobar

I like to think that I am not alone in my lack of understanding of death. I have some feelings about it (e.g. I don't believe in the afterlife) but I am nowhere close to coming to terms with death. When I was reading that Jason Ray piece on ESPN I especially took notice of this entry in Jason's journal:

"1.) people acknowledge death and live toward it.
2.) people choose to ignore death and distance themselves away from it."

I found this passage interesting because I have always felt that I gravitate towards both. That is, while I acknowledge the finality of life I try to distance myself from it. A good example of this is our dogs. Every now and again I catch myself petting Stella or Phoebe and knowing that I am likely to outlive them and that I will have to deal with the hardships that are associated with the death of a loved one. When I think about my girls not being around it really pains me, even if I understand that it is just how life goes.

One downside to not believing in the afterlife is the realization that this is all I get. There is no getting together with my loved ones or hanging out with the big man or being born again as a plant or whatever. To put it in geeky terms, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). This creates a bit of a paradox in that you want to live life to the fullest (carpe diem) but you want to do that while being a responsible human being and hopefully while creating something that, even if it is in the smallest of ways, contributes something to the human race.

While all of this sounds very deep, I am also one to be more than happy to sit around watching TV. Part of it is that after long days at work I find it rewarding to just sit back and relax and watch TV with Natalie by my side. We can chat about whatever we are watching while also being able to shut down the brain a little.

I know this means that I am a confused individual, which I am, but in the end you can't think about the big picture stuff every breathing minute of your life or you'll drive yourself crazy. So, while it is possible that one day I will regret all the time I spent watch my favorite teams eke out a win, today I am more than happy to do so with Natalie, Phoebe, and Stella by my side while Emmitt sleeps away on the red chair.

PS- Alobar is a character in Jitterbug Perfume, one of my favorite books by Tom Robbins. In the book Alobar tries to cheat death.

Jason Ray

Pretty good story by ESPN on Jason Ray. Jason played Ramses for UNC before getting hit during the NCAA tournament by a car.

Late [afternoon] with Roy

Today signifies the start of college basketball season. For the past 5 years this meant something to look forward too, especially with my maligned Cowboys not being all that good for the past...oh 10 years or so.

I have nothing much else to report after spending my day at the Vascular Biology Training Program retreat. I just wanted to wish the boys in blue, Carolina Blue, the best of luck in the upcoming season.

Go Heels!

Some Mexicans...

Sometimes when you see one of your fellow countrymen do something absolutely, positively dumb you just shake your head and say: "Why couldn't you be Nicaraguan." This guy thought taking a shortcut in a fairly popular marathon was a good idea. I mean, did someone forget to tell him that the little box attached to his shoe was an electronic tracking device that would figure out if he took a short-cut during the race? I also hope that the picture in the story is not the clothing he wore during the race.

Oddly enough his last name-Madrazo-is vulgar slang for taking a hard hit, as I am sure this guy and his family is about to take.

Oh and my favorite all time Mexican screwup is this guy.

Radio Lab

I have become somewhat obsessed with a podcast that Natalie found called Radio Lab. The show does storied on scientific phenomena or scientific questions through their interviewing people that are experts, or at least work on these questions. In a lot of ways Radio Lab reminds me of another of our favorite NPR (technically PRI) shows This American Life.

There is a show on the concept of "emergence" that is great. This is what Wikipedia has to say on this and a cool site from MIT. The most interesting part of that show for me was about how individual brain cells interact with each other to function. In other words, how is it that when you look at, say, a steaming coffee mug your brain processes the information so that it knows that it is a coffee mug, the shape of the coffee mug, the color of the coffee, etc. (visual senses) on top of knowing it has coffee in it (olfactory senses). I guess I just never sat back and thought much about how it is that the brain incorporates a bunch of sensory signals, whether they be light, chemical, or other and turn them into consciousness. Just crazy stuff and all in public radio.

Radio Lab also has some interesting pieces on language and music, where part of the show talks about some languages being more musical (Mandarin) than others (English) and some of the interesting effects of growing up in one language or another. There are also a couple of shows on time, one of which looks that "choice" from a particle physics point of view (let's just say that choice and math don't go hand in hand) and a piece on archaeologists finding a huge pile of trash in Egypt dating back thousands of years that contains some interesting pieces of writing (guess the Egyptians didn't have shredders then).

Give the show a chance if you have some time. It is not the best radio show for sitting at work because it can be so interesting that it distracts from actual work but it sure is fun to listen to while stuck in traffic or diving somewhere.

Belugas

Recently we drove down to Atlanta to the wedding of one of our friends from graduate school (for more details read Nat's blog). Sunday morning after the wedding Nat and I walked to the Georgia Aquarium to check it out as we had heard great things about it. While somewhat pricey, $24 per adult, the place is set up incredibly well. The first exhibit we went to was a massive tank that had an underwater tunnel where you could look up and see the giant whale sharks swimming alongside a constellation of other fishes including this guy, a sawfish, this guy, a giant grouper, as well as rays and others.

We also got an interesting show from the beluga whale exhibit. According to the staff at the aquarium we were lucky enough to catch the tail end of the beluga whale mating season. The one male beluga whale, in a true display of showmanship, did a mating dance, including nipping at the female whale and an attempt at intercourse, with one of the three female whales in full display of all the visitors. I guess it is not every day you get to watch beluga's getting it on at 930 in the morning.

The final highlight of the aquarium trip had to be the sea otters. The guide at the aquarium told us that sometimes, like the day we were there, the otters are fed a clam/shellfish mixture that they put inside these bottle cozy-like containers. The goal is to make the otters work for their food. The fun part is that the otters have figured out that the best way to get the clams/shellfish out is to take the cozys and smash them against the rocks in the exhibit. By doing so, the clams/shellfish break and the otters can shake the cozy and get the part they want out of their meal. So, as you are watching the otter exhibit you get to see them lift the cozys and hear a loud *whack, whack, whack* sound as they smash them up. Fun stuff.

One more note, if you ever decide to check out the aquarium, we strongly recommend going first thing in the morning. It was great being able to walk through the exhibits while the crowds were at a minimum.