Missing Seattle

I haven't even left, and I miss Seattle already.

Perhaps it was this cartoon by Milt Priggee...


Not that I'm not a sports fan. I root for the Cubs and try to find places to watch my beloved Pitt Panthers. But it's the other stuff I'd rather do. And the study has particularly suspect scoring methods for 'misery.' Namely not including pro soccer, for which many Seattlites go bonkers for and for giving more misery points to teams that reach the finals but lose... Maybe Seattle residents just find ways to celebrat that they actually got to the finals...

Lest you think this cartoon inaccurate, I live in Seattle, and routinely see eagles, owls, red tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks and ferocious hummingbirds from my window. Salmon spawn within city limits. Seals hang out near the Ballard locks to harvest said fish. And we see snow-capped mountains on any day with clouds above a 7,000 foot ceiling. You can rent a kayak two blocks from my apartment.

Ahhh, Seattle.

Super Bowl Commercial

If you are as un-American as I am, and will not be watching the Super Bowl this afternoon, or if you happen to live in one of the 26 states that will not have elections this week, you may yet be interested in seeing the first commercial ever placed in the Super Bowl by a political candidate*.



I'm sure it varies by market, but that this spot costs about $250,000 dollars in Boston. Now we know where that $32 million raised in January is going. Might it have been cheaper to buy a national spot?

I still haven't decided, but things keep pointing in the direction of Obama for me... I'm going to review the two remaining Dems' positions on health care again before I make a decision.

What am I doing with my time not spent in front of the TV?

1. During the daylight, I'll be sledding.
2. At night, I'll be working on manuscript revisions.
   

Hat tip to The Caucus blog, who by the way, misuses an apostrophe in the second paragraph of the post. It's not like I never misuse punctuation, but doesn't the NYTimes need to be held to a higher standard?
*I'm actually not sure this is true, but it sounds true. Can anyone out there help me fact check?

Double Dipping

It's time for the Super Bowl, and you know what that means - you'll be going to a Super Bowl party. The folks over at ScienceBlogs are making a big deal about double dipping - you know, the socially scorned practice of going back into the spinach dip or salsa with a chip that you had already munched. Dr. Free-Ride, Greg Laden, OmniBrain and Tara Smith all have chimed in. Evidently there's a lot of bacteria that gets transferred in the mouth to chip to dip to chip to mouth pathway. 10,000 bacteria. That sounds like a lot. Or is it?

1) How many of those bacteria cause disease?
2) How many of them do you not have in your mouth already?
3) What's the equivalent transfer from multiple hands going into the same snack bag?

Frankly, I'd rather get someone else's mouth bacteria than their hand bacteria. Because you know what hand bacteria is the same as? That's right, folks: butt bacteria. And butt bacteria can cause real problems.

And there's one more thing. If you really want to stay healthy during the Super Bowl, don't bother with safe dipping. In this case, I advocate dip abstinence. What's in those dips? Mayo, cheese, sour cream, butter; this equals fat, fat, fat, salt salt salt. And that's before we consider the chip... Now I don't have any evidence behind this, but my hunch is that this stuff will kill you faster than the bacteria you'll pick up this afternoon.

Just say no to dips and chips. You'll avoid anxiety over bugs, and your waist will thank you.

Darwin Trounces HIV

This just in: Charles Darwin has won the 2007 Spring Science Showdown. For those unclear of this event, it is a parallel (yet protracted) version of college basketball's March Madness. 65 themes, subjects, ideas and personalities from all corners of science converge for a grand battle of wit. Each match-up consists of a science blogger's play-by-play (sort of) commentary on the relative merits of the two entities facing off. The final match was between Darwin and HIV, and in a curious twist was decided by readers' comments. As you can see from this post, Darwin won. Some interesting past match-ups featured internal medicine (my current clerkship), Thomas Kuhn, invertebrates and fossil fuels.

I hope that I can be part of Spring Science Showdown in 2008. With my real-life basketball team (Pitt) missing two of its starters to injuries, I think I am going to need some more abstract objects to root for. As for credentials, I offer this commentary.

Miraculous or Mundane?

One of the most miraculous plays in the history of college football is just another day in rugby. Surely, you've seen this one by now:



Medical school places you a little out of the loop on some things. For example, I heard about this play on NPR's Weekend Edition... The sort of response this single play received suggests to me that rugby, if given a chance, could be really popular in the US. My bias is that I played rugby for 3 years in Pittsburgh and never played American football. But seriously folks: this is what rugby looks like! And really, it only takes a season to learn the rules and strategy.

Stealing Home...

The game is tied in the bottom of the 10th. I'm in graduate school's extra innings - that's the time between defending the PhD and moving on to whatever's next. If you've been there, you know that this period involves putting the finishing touches on the manuscripts, making sure the margins are all spaced correctly on the dissertation, cleaning up hard drive filing systems and making sure the lab notebooks are legible.

In baseball, if you don't score in the bottom of the inning, there's always the next inning. My situation is different. If I don't score right now, that's it. There's no second chance. Soon, a two-headed beast will emerge from the depths of the sea, barge through the bleachers and destroy the very field I am playing on. Lucky for me, I know the beast's schedule. It is due to arrive in 17 hours. Perhaps by the time you read this, the game will be over. I'll be a medical student at Children's Hospital

I'd made it to third base on Friday. My adviser and I had settled on the text for one of my papers and only had one figure to finish up for it. A second paper was in worse shape. I had modified one of my dissertation chapters for half of the paper, and was in the process of filling in the other half with the needed background and appropriate referencing. After fiddling with some of the figures (for too long!), I tied myself to the computer. I knew my adviser (former adviser?) was leaving early Sunday morning and he needed a copy before he left. Last week in a similar situation, I left a document on his doorstep. Hard copies are easier to travel with... This morning, I made sure the document was on his stoop by 5 AM. When I tied myself to my desk, I committed to stealing home. It was do or die. That sea monster was looming.

By midnight, I was in a full sprint. The southpaw pitcher had a deliberate windup, and I was two thirds of the way home by the time the ball left the mound. I just hope the pitch is in the dirt. I've already found weaknesses in the document I finished this morning, and one of my co-authors has already sent back some helpful comments. At least something is written. Today, I've been touching up my figures and combining them into those big panels that folks use so much these days. I'm ready for the imminent maelstrom of dust, dirt, and colliding bodies.

Let's hope that my trip home is as fortunate as this one by the Cubs' Derrick Lee. By the way, I've been tapped a couple of times in the past few days; Kate and Mike have passed on some good memes. You can expect my responses to show up in a few days. Those are two tags I don't plan to slip in under...

Jena Six Revisited

The best coverage of the Jena Six story I have read so far is on ESPN.com. Why on a sports network? Mychal Bell was a star football player for the high school's team and was being scouted by LSU among other teams. He is still in jail, even though an appellate court has thrown out the charge; nor has Bell been permitted release on bail.

Ant Cup

- Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to the friendly match between the antional soccer teams Japant in the red and white jerseys and Spaint in yellow. The outcome of this contest today will not affect either of the team's rankings, and is just to keep the players legs limber and antennae at their peak condition.

- The home team seems to have an advantage today, not having to suffer the excruciating pressure changes during altitude change involved in the plane ride.

- I don't think the Spantiards are used to all of the sushi, either.

- Spaint also had to transfer its captaintcy to a rookie drone after an unfortunate accident on the sidewalk out front.

- With the second half now underway, Japant's striker has firm control of the ball at mid field. I wonder if we will see any of the precision ball handling the Japantese players are known for?

- Or will Spaint's coach bring out some of the sociobiological tricks that team is known for?

- You never know with E.O. Wilson.

- Let's switch to the overhead cam for a view of the entire field. Sometimes we can get a better sense of the action from these shots. Our overhead view is presented today by the folks at GoodYear tires. "We keep you in the car and off the sidewalks."

- I bet the Spaint players wished some more folks were kept off the sidewalks before this match.

- I can't seem to make out any semblance of order, however, and the ball still has not left center field.

- Our antgineers in the control room say that we're getting good signal from the ant-cam. The ant-cam is brought to you by Hoy-Hoy Trap-a-Roach. "It works for spiders, too!"

- Wow! Look at those ants push the ball. Note the players' strict observance of the rules barring forelimbs from touching the ball.

- I'm just glad it's left the center circle.

- You' know, these playants train in the off season with regimented schedules. Busy as their fellow hymenopteran cousins, they devote themselves to amassing large quantities of food all year, just so their little sisters have a chance at survival.

- Enough entymology - back to the game. It seems like E.O. Wilson's team is in serious trouble; the ball is deep in their backfield. Japant's players are poised for a Raid!

- Funny, it doesn't seem as though anyone is paying attention to the ball right now. The Japantnese team is really passing up a golden opportunity here. It's as though a fine particulate mist has fallen on the pitch.

- A good number of defenders are in the vicinity, should the need arise to expel the invading orb. I wouldn't really worry until the ball is in the keeper's box. Team Japant seems prepared to take this food back to the nest. The Spantiards might as well fold up their legs and roll over.

- What happens now? Team Japant has penetrated the keepers box and seems to be poised to score, yet something is missing... Hey, where are the goals?


- I'm guessing they got lost in the shuffle. Let's just count this one a victory for Japant.

- Tune in for next week's match between global powerhouses Antgentina and Frant. I think we can expect some serious social behavior in that game.

- From the leader in world wide sports, AntBC, that's all from this week's Ant Cup.