The power of fear

Bush is promoting fear again.

Two weeks to the mid-term elections.

Coincidence?



Word of the post:

ter·ror·ism
n.
The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

Definition from the American Heritage Dictionary. Emphases mine.

No example. Just think about the above definition when considering the Republican's, and especially Bush's, tactics leading into the mid-term elections. Terrorism can adopt many, many forms.

Arrrrggghhh! I can't live without...

...vegemite! Well, actually I can, and have for some time now. Still, this seems on the sublime side of ridiculous...



Another bonus word of the post:

ster‧nu‧ta‧tor  [stur-nyuh-tey-ter]
–noun
a chemical agent causing nose irritation, coughing, etc.

Example: The plastic-smelling odor given off by the new blinds in my office is a sternutator.*




* True. New blinds were installed today and they stink!

Mid-term elections

The Republicans must really be worried about the up-coming mid-term elections. They've rolled out that proven old strategy of scare-mongering. The US public might fall for that approach once, or even twice, but come on, who do they think they're kidding? Terrorism is clearly on the rise, bin Laden is still on the loose, the Taleban are once again a force in Afghanistan, and Americans are dying daily in Iraq. How can the Republicans claim their approach is the better one?



Word of the post:

blath‧er‧skite  [blath-er-skahyt]
–noun
1. a person given to voluble, empty talk.
2. nonsense; blather.

Example: Actually, this one is just too easy. You don't need an example.

Correction...

I do have something to say. We're embroiled in a seemingly endless war, terrorism is on the rise, we have a mind-boggling deficit, millions are without health insurance, and we have corrupt and pedophilic politicians... Congress however has identified something really important to look into...



BONUS Word of the post:

tur‧pi‧tude  [tur-pi-tood, -tyood]
–noun
1. vile, shameful, or base character; depravity.
2. a vile or depraved act.

Example: The current US Congress has participated in an unprecedented amount of turpitude.

Word of the day...

Not much to say lately. Life has a way of getting in the way of everything else.

Word of the post:

tor‧pid  [tawr-pid]
–adjective
1. inactive or sluggish.
2. slow; dull; apathetic; lethargic.
3. dormant, as a hibernating or estivating animal.

Example: Without sufficient coffee, Odyssey becomes torpid.

Imagine that!

A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics has found that good, old-fashioned playtime is good for kids!

Well, duh!

Of course it is. You don't need a study done by a bunch of MD's to know that. All you need is a little common sense. Think about it. Free play allows children to develop in a number of vitally important ways. One is socially. When a kid has unstructured playtime with other kids, he/she needs to learn to interact without an adult telling them how to. Very useful skill that. Now that I'm an adult, I find I don't having some older, wiser person following me around telling me how to act. Good thing I learned how to do that myself.

And then there's imagination. Never, ever underestimate the importance (or power) of a good imagination. I could not do what I do without a strong, active imagination. You can't be a research scientist without one. Well, you could, but you'd suck at it. Look around at people you consider really successful at what they do. I bet they all have strong imaginations. Over-scheduled kids don't get a chance to develop and exercise their imaginations. You can't do that if everything is planned out and structured for you.

Perhaps the people who did the study should participate in some good, old-fashioned playtime...



And now a new feature for the blather...

Word of the post!

I will be attempting to introduce a new word each time I post. Your challenge is to use the word in everyday conversation. Today's word is:

de·fen·es·trate
tr.v. de·fen·es·trat·ed, de·fen·es·trat·ing, de·fen·es·trates
To throw out of a window.

For example: George W. Bush and his cronies have defenestrated the Constitution.

Have fun with it!

Republicans, the moral party!

Or not.

Return of the blather

I'm baaaaaccckkkk! Didya miss me?

My father was visiting over the last week and a half, hence no blatherings. It was a great visit. I hadn't seen him for five years, so it was good to catch up. He also got to know his grandchildren, which was good for both him and the kids.

Anyway, while gadding about with my Dad I saw a bumper sticker that struck me as funny/sad/appropriate. It had a picture of George W. Bush with the words "American Errorist" next to it. I, like many people, subscribe to the view that W is a dangerous idiot. But...

I'm really not a conspiracy theory kind of guy, but I've been thinking about W and his minions and all that they've done recently. It occurred to me that W has set himself up perfectly for an almost seamless transition to dictator. Think about it. He, and only he, has the power to declare anyone an "enemy combatant". Anyone. Even US citizens. And thanks to the power-mad Republicans and spineless Democrats in Congress, such enemy combatants have no legal recourse. No right of appeal. No hope of a trial. At least not a fair one. And thanks also to Congress, W can wiretap anyone's phone without a warrant. And he and his minions have demonstrated time and again that they are more than happy to trample all over the Constitution and people's rights... So, in principle, W could have anyone who opposes him rounded up, declared an enemy combatant, and shipped off to some secret detention camp for a little "torture lite" (also okayed by Congress). Anyone. Including anyone who might point out that he's supposed to step down at the end of his term. Scary isn't it?

Not that I buy into such a theory.

Of laptops and bricks

Well, I did it. I finally bought a bright shiny new MacBook Pro. It's very, very nice. And fast. I'd say it's cool, but the Intel Core Duo cpu actually runs rather hot. Apple really calls this a portable, not a laptop. Feeling the bottom of it I know why - it would be rather uncomfortable on your lap. Anyway, me like.

Setting up the laptop portable led me to crawl under my desk at work in order to connect/disconnect various power cords etc. As I tangled with the maze of wires under there it occurred to me that every device has a power brick nowadays. Here's what is currently residing under my desk - power bricks for:

• USB hub
  
• External hard drive used for backups (I'm such a good little nerd)
  
• Inkjet printer
  
• Powered computer speaker system (I like my iTunes)
  
• Cordless phone
  
• Voice over internet phone converter^*
  
• Answering machine
  
• Charger for my PDA (nerd, nerd, nerdy, nerdy, nerd)
  

Just imagine the heat these put out! I guess my feet won't be getting cold in the winter... And it was worse - I disconnected an external CD burner, with associated power brick, this morning because I don't use it much now.

I think there's a fortune to be made here. If someone could invent a universal power brick that you could plug several devices into simultaneously, I would buy it.



^* This sounds cooler than it really is. Voice over internet phone (VOIP) service is okay, but not wonderful. We didn't have a choice. The University, in it's wisdom, decided that the new building we're in had to be all VOIP. Of course that causes a few issues with things like fax machines (which don't work with VOIP) and emergencies with power outages (how do we call for help?). Minor issues according to the University hierarchy...

Irony defined

Compare:



to:



Enough said.

Pondering an Imponderable

How did I get here?

Not how did I get here. After three children, and having witnessed all three births, I think I have a handle on that one.

Rather, how did I get here? Here, in this place, typing this.

Ever wonder about that? How you ended up where you are, doing what you are?

So, how did I end up in this country with a beautiful, wonderful wife and three incredible children? How did I end up at this university working as a professor studying protein folding? How did all this happen?

Buggered if I know.

Every now and then I find myself asking this. Out of the blue.

I distinctly remember when I was postdoc in Pennsylvania. One winter night, sometime after midnight, I was walking back to my apartment after a party or something. I was stopped in the middle of the road by this overwhelming thought. "How the hell did I get here? Right here. Right now. How?"

I didn't know then.

Still don't.

I don't suppose it really matters.

Sounded like fun...

...so I stole it from thatgirlygirl.

Open iTunes/iPod or Windows Media Player to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrassing it is.

How many songs? 1400 (exactly!)

Sort by artist:
First artist: Aaron Neville
Last artist: Zero 7

Sort by song title:
First: (Do The) Instant Mash - Joe Jackson (Look Sharp!) - apparently parentheses come first in iTunes...
Last: Zoo Station - U2 (Achtung Baby)

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: Nr. 3 G Dur Adagio - J.S. Bach (Brandenburgische Konzerte 1-6) - yeah, I'm a dweeb (it gets worse) (0:13)
Longest Song: Symphony No. 9 I. Andante - Mahler (Symphony No. 9) - told you it got worse... (29.27)

Sort by album:
First: 1978-1990 (The Go-Betweens)
Last: World Reggae (various artists)

First song that comes up on Shuffle: Dominos - Office (Q&A)

How many songs come up when you search for "sex?" 0
How many songs come up when you search for "death?" 15 (is that healthy?)
How many songs come up when you search for "love?" 81
How many songs come up when you search for "you?" 83
How many songs come up when you search for "why?" 15
How many songs come up when you search for "God?" 4
How many songs come up when you search for "crazy?" 13
How many songs come up when you search for "f**k?" 0


Your turn.

Wide open Vista...

Remember this? I mentioned it back in June. Not surprisingly MicroSoft were just a little too cocky...

Video games "failing" women?

I find this interesting. The videogames industry believes it has failed women because far fewer of them play videogames. Those that do play tend to play games like The Sims.

My take on it is that it's a good thing that women don't waste enormous amounts of time playing uber violent games. And that when they do opt to play, they play what could be considered far more intelligent games. More men should be that way.

One of the smartest things ever said...

"The public has an insufficient understanding of our ignorance."
Susan Hockfield, president, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

'Tis true. I just came across this quote today, but have been thinking along these lines for the last couple of weeks. Not coincidentally, I started this semester's teaching about two weeks ago. Here's the thing, we often teach out of textbooks, giving the impression (albeit not purposely) that this is gospel. It's not. My postdoc mentor, a very smart man, is fond of telling students that if they want to find a really good research project, just open up a textbook and find somewhere with a sentence that starts "It is well known that..." There's a research project. We really know so very little. I spend much of research time learning just how little. In fact, I've spent the last nine or so years working on an area of proteins where "It is well known that..." I get funded to do this, publish papers on the subject, and have begun to gain a (hopefully positive) reputation for my work. If it's really "well known", really all worked out, then how could that be so? Perhaps "It is well known that..." should be replaced with "We currently believe that...but we could be wrong. Again." At the very least we should be honest about what we do know and what we don't.

Ultimately the people we think are smart and wise aren't that way because they know so much more than we do. The difference between them and everyone else is that they recognize just how little we know.

Making the world a better place, one smile at a time

Baby J has learned to smile. The real thing, not those gas-induced half smiles we parents delude ourselves into thinking are the real thing. There's nothing like a baby smiling at you. They are innocent. They know nothing of the larger world. They don't know about dangerously dim-witted presidents, suicidal terrorists, mid-East strife, global warming, rising gas prices, or any of the thousands of things that stress out adults. The smile of a baby is given without strings attached. It's pure. It lifts the heart and makes you forget, at least for the moment, that some aspects of life can really suck. They cause you to remember that life, for the most part, is actually pretty damn good (at least for me). A baby's smile brings pure, unadulterated joy.


Daughter J: "Mommy, baby J just smiled at me! Fifteen times! And twice with dimples! Okay, maybe just eleven times. But twice with dimples!"




It's contagious. Try it - you actually don't need to be a baby.

Not the stark reminder he thinks it is...

I'd say this was a stark reminder that Bush's war on terror isn't working...

From the "Only in the US" file...

He must have had a HUGE litter box somewhere... Probably has a few rabbit bones in it.


Honestly, how far out of whack can this society get?
(I'll probably regret asking that.)

Mild cheddar cheese

Why?

What's the point? If I'm going to eat something so laden in fat, I want it to at least have some flavor.





Spot the sleep deprived...

Setting sail on another journey into the unknown

There's an old cliche about life being a journey. It isn't really. It's multiple journeys undertaken simultaneously. This week I started a new journey into unknown territory. My son, baby J, was born. I have two daughters, so I have no experience with sons. In fact I had grown comfortable with having daughters. And I was convinced this one would be another girl.* That was going to be my fate - me in a house full of women.** Don't get me wrong - it's not something I was unhappy about. I have never had this pressing need for a son. So I was surprised when out came this perfect little boy. And he is perfect. It was an amazing moment. I cried. With joy. Joy from having witnessed this miracle. Joy from having another wonderful child. Joy from having the most incredible, beautiful woman as my wife and mother of my children.

So now I have a son. This poses a few issues, some of which are dealt with by our wonderful friend ThatGirlyGirl. Another is circumcision (WINCE). And then there's sports. I grew up in Australia. I know cricket, Australian Rules football and soccer. I guess baby J is going to learn soccer - the former two sports aren't much use here. I'm sure DocStymie, a great friend and husband of ThatGirlyGirl, will be able to give me some advice on all things sport.

I'm not how I'm going to explain my older brother JollyRgr, the pirate policeman, but I'm sure baby J will be delighted to have a piratical uncle. And a musical aunt who tends to speak with her Mouthfulofpancake. And a scientific geek uncle (my younger brother who does not have a blog as yet so I can't link to any pithy posts by him). And those are just my siblings. He has wonderful aunts and uncles (from both my side and my wifes) and cousins who can't wait to meet him. And two older sisters who fight over who gets to hold him. And doting grandparents. And good friends. And the world's greatest Mom. So you're going to be alright, baby J, despite a clueless Dad.

Welcome to this journey baby J. This one we take together. With lots of good company. L'chaim.




* We had decided not to find out the gender prior to the birth.
** My wonderful wife knew better. She believed it was going to be a boy.