Nothing much to report on my end, which really means things have been moving along just fine. Nat turns 31 on Thursday and we are going here to celebrate. Beyond that the front end of our year will be loaded with friends coming over, us going to friends and family getting married, and the ever entertaining science meetings. Somewhere in there we hope to watch our Carolina sports teams win a championship or two, or three.
Just about the only thing other thing of interest is the epidemic hitting Nashville of women, I guess there could have been a few dudes too but that is another issue, that like to drive while doing their makeup in the morning and, on special occasions, while on the phone.
Oh, and I recently learned that macaques can jump up to about 16.4 feet.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Just For Dawg
Is your home dawg going gray? Is her butt sniffing taking a hit because her muzzle is going gray? Does he or she spend extra time grooming that gray fur? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, it may be time for you to try "Just for Dawg." Just for Dawg has been unscientifically proven to remove gray fur in minutes and it can be yours for only $2.99. If you bark now, we will even throw a bag of kibble at no cost.
Disclaimer: this message was not approved by the Mainou-Thornburg dawg association (MTDA).
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy VD!
Since I have nothing much to say except that I love snow, especially when it comes down during the day, here's another funny YouTube video:
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Tyler Hansbrough-PG
Things have been slow so I have been lagging behind on my writing here. I did see this off the Roy Williams Monday press conference that I thought was interesting:
"On any other players that could slide over to the point guard spot:
“We worked Tyler Hansbrough there last week for a couple of possessions so we’ll have to see if he can handle it or not… He really did good. You think I’m lying, but we put him in for one play just to lighten the mood at practice the other day. We put him at the point and let him bring the ball across the court. We even kept a defensive point guard on him, so he didn’t get it stolen and he brought it across and he could do was giggle the whole time. So I think if he did it during a game, he would probably lose the giggling part.”"
I am not sure I like our chances against the damn dookies if Tyler is playing the point, but I guess I am not completely surprised. On the other hand, I feel like Q is having his best stretch in the team, I mean, he is even shooting the ball somewhat well. If he can just cut down on the plays like the awful layup he did at the end of regulation in the Florida St. game we'll be ok.
"On any other players that could slide over to the point guard spot:
“We worked Tyler Hansbrough there last week for a couple of possessions so we’ll have to see if he can handle it or not… He really did good. You think I’m lying, but we put him in for one play just to lighten the mood at practice the other day. We put him at the point and let him bring the ball across the court. We even kept a defensive point guard on him, so he didn’t get it stolen and he brought it across and he could do was giggle the whole time. So I think if he did it during a game, he would probably lose the giggling part.”"
I am not sure I like our chances against the damn dookies if Tyler is playing the point, but I guess I am not completely surprised. On the other hand, I feel like Q is having his best stretch in the team, I mean, he is even shooting the ball somewhat well. If he can just cut down on the plays like the awful layup he did at the end of regulation in the Florida St. game we'll be ok.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Boeuf
This article on the NY Times is pretty interesting. It talks about some serious issues associated with mass production farming of livestock. My favorite part is that in the future we may be eating tissue culture beef. Yuuuuummmmmy!
For those of you that are of the vegetarian variety, let me thank you in advance for saving energy for all of us.
PS- if you find this stuff interesting Nat is reading the Omnivore's Dilemma and she loves it.
For those of you that are of the vegetarian variety, let me thank you in advance for saving energy for all of us.
PS- if you find this stuff interesting Nat is reading the Omnivore's Dilemma and she loves it.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Of Mice and Men
Let me get started by saying that I am for animal research. Animal research, when done properly, is absolutely necessary to develop compounds before they reach human patients. It is just too hard to figure out how a compound will work in a whole living system by simply using tissue culture models, computer models, etc.
That said, I believe that the research establishment greatly abuses the use of animals. For starters, I can name several instances by several labs where experiments were badly planned and animals, mostly rodents here, had to be sacked. Rodent colonies are not always maintained thoroughly resulting in rodent offspring that needs to be sacked because of negligence.
Another aspect of animal research that I don't think receives enough attention is whether certain types of research should be doing animal research. An example of this is basic research on biologic agents that have no foreseeable use to improve the standard of life of humans or other living organisms. While scientists argue that basic research is necessary to fuel the therapies of tomorrow, and this is a fair argument, I find it that fairly often scientists rush to the rodent to determine if there is something of interest. It also drives me crazy when animal experiments are carried out to simply fill out a figure for a scientific paper.
While I do not advocate the stop of animal research and I am no fan of PETA, I do think that scientists need to do a better job at making sure that animals are treated as living organisms that can feel and sense pain rather than just as an assay that can be easily disposed of if something comes up.
That said, I believe that the research establishment greatly abuses the use of animals. For starters, I can name several instances by several labs where experiments were badly planned and animals, mostly rodents here, had to be sacked. Rodent colonies are not always maintained thoroughly resulting in rodent offspring that needs to be sacked because of negligence.
Another aspect of animal research that I don't think receives enough attention is whether certain types of research should be doing animal research. An example of this is basic research on biologic agents that have no foreseeable use to improve the standard of life of humans or other living organisms. While scientists argue that basic research is necessary to fuel the therapies of tomorrow, and this is a fair argument, I find it that fairly often scientists rush to the rodent to determine if there is something of interest. It also drives me crazy when animal experiments are carried out to simply fill out a figure for a scientific paper.
While I do not advocate the stop of animal research and I am no fan of PETA, I do think that scientists need to do a better job at making sure that animals are treated as living organisms that can feel and sense pain rather than just as an assay that can be easily disposed of if something comes up.
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