aciel, posts by tag: psa - LiveJournal

I haven't written much.

There are reasons for this which I can't explain here (because of those same reasons). In short, I've decided my personal life needs to be somewhat separate from my professional life--as much as such a thing is possible.

Other than the Reason That Cannot Be Named, it's also been very frustrating for me that those who comment don't always seem to give "due diligence." This term is one ario used in describing the issue, and I think it fits quite well. One of my main insecurities in writing controversial entries here has been that I will fail to communicate an idea properly and be attacked for it. That kept happening. To be fair, I think I take comments a little too seriously.

And that's why there needs to be a separation.

Don't get me wrong. I've appreciated a lot of comments. A LOT. I don't know how I would've gotten through April 16th (or the subsequent one) without you loyal readers. I may need you again this time 'round. I can't express how grateful I am for all the times someone's emailed me privately and said, "Hey, keep writing. You don't know me, but I read." That's meant so much. A couple of my sister's sorority sisters (that's a tongue-twister) at VT told her they read this blag through Facebook and were grateful for it. That made me glow a little. Thank you. Ut prosim.

I'm in the process of starting a new blog. I won't link to it yet because I still have a few tiny bugs to work out. I plan to take comments there less seriously. In fact, I'll probably ignore anything negative altogether, a skill which I learned (belatedly) from the guys over at FiveThirtyEight and all the trolls on Slashdot.

I do need this blog, though. I need to vent, I need to write about personal issues, I need your insight. I'll probably friend-lock a lot of what I write.

And I probably won't write as much.

I decided yesterday that I really prefer radishes. To what, you might ask? It doesn't matter. Radishes are truly an awesome fruit--err, vegetable?--thing!

Radishes are both fresh and spicy. They taste slightly of wasabi, or perhaps mustard, but have a coolness to them that balances the burn. They germinate and grow in a matter of weeks, and are in season here in North America as late as January. What's not to like?

I make these observations because we have a lot in common with radishes. My research topic is based on this assumption: having descended from the same common eukaryotic ancestor, we have many orders of magnitude more in common with radishes, yeast, and fruit flies than with modern bacteria.

We have many genes in common with other multi-cellular organisms. By leveraging those common properties, we can determine relationships between properties that are not so obviously similar.

Therefore, radishes are like politics.

If you don't follow this argument, you're not alone. Pick any two distinct ANYTHINGs, and then try connecting them in a non-obvious way. Start by picking one thing they have in common, and use it as a jumping-off point.

I picked politics and biology. What do they have in common? They're complex systems. Like a butterfly generating a hurricane, a single mutation in a gene produces cancer or cell death, and a single person's actions can dictate whether tens, thousands, millions, or billions of people live or die.

I'm starting a new blog.

I'd like you to read it.

I'd like you to comment on this entry and tell me what you think.

The topic will be radishes. I'll be talking about biology, politics¹, science, and education--four topics that don't appear to be related at all--with a systems approach.

One potential logo for a new blog, by awesome graphic designer Kate Weir.

I need a name for this blog. I've got a couple ideas (all variations on "radish"), but would love to hear some of yours. Here are a few to get you started:

• The Blue Radish. Because there are infinite variations in nature, and very small changes in genotype can effect especially large changes in phenotype. This name also reflects my political leanings.


• Radish Pi. Because radishes are probably good in pie, since they're so awesome; but also because as a computer scientist, I don't necessarily approach radishes as others do.


• Radishblog. Because some radishes are pretty generic.


• Donkeyradish. Kind of like horseradish, but with political leanings.

Tell me what you think!

Footnote

1. I don't mean partisan politics, at least once the election cycle is over. I'm planning on discussing mostly non-traditional issues. Other political discussions might remain here. Undecided so far.

I'm doing some research on pseudoscience for an article I'm writing, and I stumbled across this review (from "Reel News", hehehehe, at the American Chemical Society) of What the Bleep Do We Know!?.

There's this notion among certain pseudoscientist types that our experiences are entirely the result of our own thoughts. That is, if you have a negative outlook, the things that you anticipate happening will actually happen. This is roughly formulated--well, actually, it's not, since there's no consensual definition--as the Law of Attraction, which was in part made popular by a film just as awful as Bleep, called The Secret.

I have my own thoughts on this, but first I'd like to present a brief quotation from the ACS review:

What’s most odious about “What the Bleep,” though, is its message of profound self-absorption: The universe is all about you, and everything in your life is a product of your mind. Try selling that idea to tsunami survivors in Southeast Asia.

Elizabeth Wilson, the writer of the review, touches upon the thing that makes me so incredibly angry at such ideas.

I'm not upset by the pseudoscience; every adult who watches such films is already inclined to believe in some nifty novel idea. It's kind of like the argument for not getting rid of the Bad Guy: "He'll just be replaced by someone worse." On the other hand, children who watch such films are more likely to go explore quantum physics and discover something that interests them. How nice to even have quantum physics in a semi-mainstream film!

What upsets me is the notion that Bad Things won't happen to us if we don't think about them. Let's examine the consequences of such an idea:

• The belief that Max was murdered because she was thinking about school shootings all the time. (In fact, I know with some certainty that she wasn't. Perhaps it could be argued that she was thinking of Taylor, her friend who was kidnapped and murdered. But then, of what was Taylor thinking? And what of the other people who were killed?)


• The belief that people deserve--or are at least responsible for--the bad things that happen to them.


• Practicing compassion becomes hazardous. What does this say about such people as Mother Theresa? Ultimately, we must all look inward and revel in our fortune rather than wonder about those who are less fortunate.

I don't really recommend that you tell me that you believe in the Law of Attraction. As I half-joked to racingpenguins, anyone who says such a thing to me is liable to be, in order:

1. punched in the face.
2. asked if they were thinking a lot about broken noses.

( Collapse ) (click once for the cut and again for the test site)

(If you're reading this from Facebook, go to my actual blog--there should be a link at the top of the page--and click the link from there. Otherwise, it'll rate you among Facebook users, which you can do anyway; I'm curious about how people rate among my readers, which I can only see if you click from within my blog.)

Pretty cool site. It groups people by smartest web browser, smartest operating system, and then based on your location and stuff.

Unfortunately, it seems to think I'm in California, which means IT FAILS.

It also re-normalizes all of the scores on a daily basis, which is awesome.

EDIT: Lani has asked me to point out that this is not an actual IQ test, and that you shouldn't necessarily trust the results. For amusement only, friends! (Actually, one of the questions it asked me had no correct answer.)

Your opinions wanted!

I blog for three major reasons*. First and foremost, I write to entertain people. This goal has gotten somewhat obscured by recent life events, but I'm working on getting back to it. Secondly, writing (and speaking) helps me think. Finally, the blag allows me to keep in contact with distant friends.

When I applied for the NSF fellowship, I proposed to create a biotech-education-oriented blog and, essentially, try to make science sexy. I didn't get the fellowship, but I'm still thinking of ways I could do that. (It's quite difficult to make science sexier; I think it's sexy already, so how can I understand people who don't?)

I've also spent a lot of time talking about guns and gun control here. I think I've pretty much exhausted the topic for now (do correct me); if I want to entertain people, I need to focus more on what the readers want to read.


There's also another issue associated, one that's been tickling my mind for awhile. There are so many shitty things happening in the world. So many things for which we could attempt to be responsible--protests and activism, mainstream political participation, getting out the vote, law, etc.--and it's quite impossible to find time in the day for all of them.

I've learned in the last year that progress is not per-issue. That is, progress is (IMHO), the movement of our political system toward the nurturing family frame. As we achieve that, most other issues will be snapped up and moved toward resolution automatically--issues such as mountaintop removal, health care for everyone (in the world?), free public education, energy and environmental reform, hospitals and schools not bombs, Invisible Children-related topics, and so on.


Aside from the actual topics, I've also been toying with alternative presentation methods. My writing is much better than my speaking at this point, and it would behoove me to improve my oral communication skills. If people show a lot of interest in one topic area or another, I could put together a video blog or podcast on that topic.


What has interested you in the past year or two? Of what would you like to see more? I know a lot of you showed up (and still read, whether you comment or not) because of my experiences at Tech. Have you found anything I've touched upon besides that interesting? What about boring? Please feel free to comment, don't be shy. Constructive criticism is absolutely welcome.


* Minor reasons: to educate, to practice writing, to create a record of my thoughts that I or others can go back and look at.

I've renamed my blog to The Exosome. I've been looking for a nifty biological term for the last few months, and I've finally found it. It's not a terribly deep title.


The exosome is responsible for mRNA decay in the cell. If the cell needs to change gene expression (say, because the cell is differentiating, becoming something that does something or does something different), it can do so in a couple of ways. The most obvious method is turning up transcription of certain genes. But of greater importance is degradation of existing mRNA.

The exosome is also responsible for getting rid of mRNAs that haven't been made correctly.

mRNAs, of course, typically code for proteins, which do quite a lot for the cell.


Anyway, I'm also going by my actual name henceforth. Bad form to imply I'm an M.D. when I'm really pursuing my Ph.D. No sense in hiding it, anyway--it would only take a few Google searches to reveal my identity, and nothing I post here is super-secret any longer.

I thought about going by Mohawk-John for awhile, since so many people know that name--but in the end decided to trim it. Get it? That's a pun.


In other words, not much else will be changing. Just the name.

People keep asking me to hang out with them this weekend. I'm not really sure how this is going to work, because I'm only in town for three days, and apparently now my mother is going to be there as well.

I do know I'm sleeping at either Sammy's or Erica's. I'm also RSVP'd for Jack's retirement party. I'm planning on eating dinner Friday in Shultz (since Dave's working there and said he'd cook me something). Lindsey is picking me up from the airport.

Jack's party is on Saturday (6pm - 10pm, won't stay the whole time). There's also a brunch at 11am, but don't know yet if I'm going.

Aside from that I'm fairly flexible, but I promised Curtis I'd try to go hiking with him. Curtis, how about during the day Saturday? I just need to be back by 4:30 or so, so I can shower and stuff. We could go earlier on Sunday instead, if that'd be better. Or Friday afternoon, too! Damn, so many choices.

I also hear there's swing dancing going on, and I was thinking of doing that. Does anyone know when?

And I need to stop by Relay for Life, but since that's all night Friday, I should be able to go basically whenever.

Gillie's breakfast one morning is a must.

If you'd like to see me and we don't have plans, you can either (a) come swing dancing, (b) come hiking, (c) go to Relay For Life, (d) drive me to the airport on Sunday, or (e) stay tuned, because I'm somewhat free on the two days I'm not hiking.

On Wednesday, we're having a memorial for Virginia Tech and school violence in general. "We" in this case refers to me and the very generous Student Government at the University of Texas.

If you're in Austin, are somehow reading this, and have been affected by school violence, please: I need you to speak on Wednesday. Talk about your experiences. Talk about prevention. It can be any kind of school violence--sexual assault, assault, even verbal abuse. Leave me a comment or drop me an email.

From Bush urges conservatives to rally behind 2008 nominee [NYT], the following quote:

'We’re Switzerland here,' the White House counselor, Ed Gillespie said in an interview this week...

I just have one question: Why do you hate America, Ed Gillespie?

SUPPORT THE TROOPS OMGZ! (And call in the ROFLcopters.)

It gives me a place to vent, to be introspective, to articulate my thoughts, and to argue my feelings.

But best of all, a lot of really smart people start arguing with each other in the comments. That makes it all worth it, because I learn so much from them.

Thank you, all of you.


(And to those of you on Facebook, you should get your fine butts to the original entries and comment from time to time. Yes, that's why I have comments turned off on Fb, so I don't get them in two different places.)