Weblog Archive

So that's where it went!

baltimoresun.com - Nonprofit CareFirst nets $171.3 million. Premiums went up for graduate and professional students in the state as well, not just for the private sector. Looks like taking from grad students can make you rich.

Nuances in ethical issues wordwide

BBC NEWS | Health | Scientists doubt animal research. I find it interesting, not necessarily odd, that in the UK the anti-vivisection movement is highly active and carry a loud voice, whereas in the US, animal research, although I am not saying it's not an issue, is hardly given a second thought. On the other hand, on the issue of embryonic stem cell research, the UK is a step ahead, both legislatively and scientifically, of the US. In other words, here in the US you find a much louder voice against the use of embryonic stem cells -- not in the least due to the moratorium put in place by the current administration.

Straw -- RSS Aggregator

Straw is turning out to be a fairly promising and currently highly functional RSS news aggregator. I've got it working with Hubmed RSS (XML) generator and am now easily scanning new articles for some of my most important search topics. If you are a little rusty on how to search Pubmed most efficiently with a one-line query, then check out the online help and familiarized yourself with each search parameter. For example, I have a query to look for any mention of HIV in the journals Nature and Science and it looks like this:

hiv AND (nature [journal] OR science [journal])

Punch that in Hubmed and get the link to the XML file shown on the upper right hand side of your browser and put the URL into your RSS news aggregator. Now you have an efficient way to keep up with current literature.

Great research, unfortunate name

Black Death vaccine developed. Great work done by a group in the UK. The PI of the group has one of those names that probably made him one of the most teased in school, unfortunately. I wonder if his first name Rick is short for Richard -- man, that would have made it unbearable.

Union of Concerned Scientists on Bush

UCSAction Center and UCS' Statement. Lots of Bush bashing has been in the news lately -- now it's from scientists. Whatever side of the fence you're on, it's worth a read. Apart from the Bush bashing, many know that the time to apply for grants is now, in this year, since it could very well be Bush's last and since he did raise NIH and NSF spending.

Using TeX with Keynote

keynote_equations.pdf (application/pdf Object). Ok, I haven't used Keynote yet, but I hear it's the s#$@. For you math buffs, here's a little pdf with information on getting TeX/LaTeX to work with Keynote. Just perused it myself. Come to find out that there's this great tool called i-Installer. Too bad I don't have a Mac myself.

Increase Mac Use in Science

Linux News: Cutting Edge: Scientists: The Latest Mac Converts. Higher Mac usages leads to more Unix usage and maybe eventually to Linux? I wouldn't be surprised if this is happening.

Turning your handwriting into a font

Stylish or Chicken Scratch, Your Handwriting as a Font. The NY Times had a little article on Fontifier.com's service. The site started last November. I wrote about making your own fonts in Linux last June, through the use of pfaedit.
Pfaedit's site has a very good manual/tutorial on developing your own fonts -- for those of you wanting to see for yourself the process undertaken in creating a font. If you think the process is too time consuming, perhaps the $9 fee at Fontifier is well worth it.

Grow light sold from police property room.

Stealitback.com Item# 0025-006815. Stealitback.com happens to be a service for police departments with full property rooms. They sell the stuff the police confiscated and can not find the rightful owner. Stealitback makes money and the police make money and empty their property room. Well, just so happens the this one item has a highly active bidding history -- a grow light. Hmmm....I wonder who they got this equipment from? I like the first sentence "Grow yourself a salad" LOL! Yeah, like that will happen. I bet you can scrape enough residue from the sides of the thing that you can be charged with narcotics trafficking.

Another reference manager for Windows

GetARef's Homepage. Somewhat pricey software -- but as long as there's competition in this market, it's all good.

Streaking the SuperBowl

Mercury News: Bay Area news, technology, jobs, cars & real estate. Apparently, the Super Bowl had its fair share of skin, and I don't mean pigskin. On top of Janet Jackson showing her boob (had to rewind that on my ReplayTV just to be sure I wasn't seeing things), a streaking Englishman, Mark Roberts, does it again at the Super Bowl's second half kickoff -- this time outside of the UK. One must wonder how a man, dressed in a referee uniform, was sly enough to get past security and do the deed. Of course, he's now sitting in jail, having to contemplate how he's mocked security and law enforcement of the US President's homestate.