jfiore | June 29, 2007Today, small, simple, pale white, and dare I say it, almost virginal. But soon, red, swollen and sweet on the tongue.
Yes, we're talking Rosaceae fragaria, strawberries. This particular cultivar is an everbearing variety called Berry Basket. About a half dozen plants sit in two long window boxes on our elevated deck. The berries are fairly small but sweet. They're no match for the Cabot and Cavendish June bearers in the garden, but then there's nothing quite like a little late season fruit to perk you up.
jfiore | June 28, 2007Shifting gears from the usual ranting at the Refuge, I came across a nice series of articles from Audio Design Line on the usage and selection of bypass capacitors in electronic circuits. This is a topic with which my students often seem to have difficulty. There is a nice tutorial on the modeling and behavior of capacitors and some practical info regarding the various types, with strong and weak points for each. One of my favorite bypass tricks is dealt with in some detail; namely placing different types and sizes of capacitors in a parallel arrangement to create a sort of "super cap" that…
jfiore | June 27, 200721.285 km in one hour. That's what legendary Ethiopian distance ace Haile Gebrselassie managed at the Ostrava Golden Spike meet today. Full details here
This is roughly equivalent to an average velocity of 4:32 per mile, 13.23 MPH, 5.91 meters per second, or 354.8 meters per minute. I could add furlongs per fortnight if you're really interested, but I'll pass for now. Geb also broke the world 20k record en route.
Any way you slice it, that's one hell of an effective and efficient aerobic system.
jfiore | June 27, 2007UK gold medalist in the triple jump, Jonathon Edwards, long known for his wear-it-on-your-sleeve Christianity, has admitted to apostasy. Here is an article in The Times Online. It's a good read. Here's an out take:
Once you start asking yourself questions like, 'How do I really know there is a God?' you are already on the path to unbelief," Edwards says. "During my documentary on St Paul, some experts raised the possibility that his spectacular conversion on the road to Damascus might have been caused by an epileptic fit. It made me realise that I had taken things for granted that were taught…
jfiore | June 22, 2007The common foxglove Digitalis purpurea is certainly one to affect your heart. Literally.
Foxglove is, of course, the source of the cardiac drug digitalin. Ingestion of foxglove can be fatal, so no munching, no matter how much you may be attracted to it. Symptoms may include nausea, hallucinations, and bradycardia (slowing of heart rate).
A much less toxic avenue to bradycardia (usually taken as a heart rate less than 60 bpm) is copious application of aeorbic exercise. Accompanying nausea is infrequent except at the end of particularly grueling races and any hallucinations tend to be…
jfiore | June 15, 2007Lily fair, lily fair, around the house, everywhere! Yes, we've got all types: Oriental lilies , Tiger llilies, Daylilies, and the ever-so-shy but pungent Lily of the Valley.
Interestingly, most of those mentioned above aren't true lilies (the exception being the Asian or Oriental types). I can sort of understand the confusion with the Tiger and Daylily due to the blossom, but the the Lily of the Valley? If a true lily is a horse, a Tiger lily might be a zebra, but a Lily of the Valley would be a hyrax.
Not ones to "do it in the road", these Lilies of the Valley like to cluster-flock by the…
bushwells | June 14, 2007Following up on the wacky tobaccy post, the FDA advisory panel voted 14-0 against recommendation of rimonabant to move forward as a treatment for obesity, citing the need for further safety studies. As noted, the primary concerns are psychiatric/neurological issues.
I really can't resist a "No shit, Sherlock!" as pertains to the psychiatric and neurological issues. The endocannabinoid system is under scrutiny for psychiatric indications, i.e., new antidepressants and anxiolytics. It's not exactly unexpected that such adverse effects might arise given the different responses among…
jfiore | June 14, 2007Yesterday, I mentioned the Fast Food Friends program at Gardendale First Baptist Church in Alabama. Here is how they describe it on their website:
It is a creative way to show people in our community the love of Christ. You ask how does it work? The next time that you go to your local fast food resturant (sic) drive thru, tell the cashier that you would like to pay the bill for the car behind you. Simply pay their bill and leave a fast food friends card for the cashier to give to them. Next, you drive off praying that God will use that act of kindness to bless the recipient of your…
jfiore | June 13, 2007Audio is where I spend much of my time, both professionally and as a hobby. In fact, quite a few years ago I used to design public address systems and components (most notably loudspeaker systems and subwoofers). That venture didn't last too long because I discovered that many people just didn't care that much about high quality audio and weren't willing to pay for it. If only I had been born 20 years later.
One of the pro sound magazines I receive is Pro Audio Review. Lots of material on new equipment, studio redesigns, and stuff like that. They have a column entitled "Worship Audio" which…
bushwells | June 13, 2007
Today, the FDA's Endocrinologic and Metabologic Advisory Committee reviews rimonabant, the cannabinoid receptor antagonist developed by Sanofi-Aventis, for recommendations, or lack thereof, as an anti-obesity medication. Rimonabant was approved in Europe for limited cohorts of obese patients, but rejected as an anti-smoking medication. Approval for marketing rimonabant in the US is pending next month, and the advisory committee's assessment will weigh heavily on this decision.
There are other 'bants in the pharma pipeline so it should be interesting to see how today's decision plays out…
jfiore | June 11, 2007Aussie Craig "Buster" Mottram won the Pre Classic 2 mile this weekend in a meet record 8:03.5. Apparently, Buster has a certain anatomical secret which allows for such quick running, and which he mentions during the interview at the end of the race.
Actually, I'm a little surprised that it didn't slow him down. Matt Tegenkamp came in third in an American best 8:07.07. Full results may be found here.
bushwells | June 8, 2007An e-droog recently waxed poetic about a single malt Scotch that she gave to a friend on the occasion of his thirtieth birthday. If I recall correctly, this was an especially rugged Islay beast, and stronger than the infamous Laphroaig. The subject of single malts triggered an avalanche of nostalgic reverie, not uncommon for us geriatrics, so I will inflict you with my aged yammering...and photos... here.
A British friend, then a post-doc in the lab next door and now a chemoinformatics guru, introduced single malts to me back in my grad school days. My previous experiences with Scotch had…
bushwells | June 8, 2007Today's offering is a departure from the usual floral genitalia.
I found this specimen at Marquand Park in Princeton. This park sports a variety of ornamental trees. I believe this is a leaf of Fagus sylvatica, the European beech, likely the atropunicea variety, the same species as the "copper beech" shown in todays Orgasmic sparklers and single cask malt Scotch entry. Carotenoids and anthocyanins contribute to the coloration.
The Wellesley College Web of Species has a good description of Fagus sylvatica.
Beeches of both European and American origin have smooth grey bark, and have…
bushwells | June 7, 2007
So the notion that human semen may act as an antidepressant is rearing its semi-flaccid head again.
Broadsheet from Salon.com (May, 2007) asks are you addicted to semen?
Someday they'll have a patch for that. Dr. Gordon G. Gallup theorizes (via Feministing) that women have a "chemical dependency" on semen. He's based this conclusion on a survey that found that women who regularly had sex without condoms became increasingly depressed the longer they went without sex (read: semen). Women who regularly used condoms didn't have this experience. So, it could be that if you consistently have sex…
jfiore | June 5, 2007The 2005 Energy Policy Act is known by some as being written by the energy lobby and by others as containing things down right goofy. One provision creates what are known as energy transmission corridors. Supposedly, the idea is to lower energy costs and increase security (is there anything that's done by the government these days that doesn't have the word security thrown in?) Here is a map of the draft Mid-Atlantic corridor. You will note that most of New York State is within the corridor with the exception of the southwestern portion and a chunk of the Adirondack Mountains.
Now I'm all…
bushwells | June 5, 2007Three pant-hoots and a grooming session to my very favorite cheeky pharma-insider monkey over at PharmaGossip (see the Chimp Refuge Blogroll) for the following, Can Peter Rost be silenced? including the link therein which led me to...
...the reprint of the article on Peter Rost in Fortune Magazine, posted on Dr. Rost's blog: Fortune: "Peter Rost has become the drug industry's most annoying - and effective - online scourge.
As a pharma discovery scientist, I regard marketing as the Devil Incarnate in its current form, and it's refreshing to see someone pitbulling them. But will Rost can hold…
bushwells | June 4, 2007Orac clearly knows too much. For an accurate look at a Big Pharma board room, check out The pharma conspiracy acts against a threat. Orac, with his delightful and respectful insolence, reveals why Dan Olmsted, Thimerosal-Conspiracy- Crusader Extraordinaire, is actually Pharma's Best Friend.
Orac's characterization of MegaPharmCo's head honcho, ESB, is pretty accurate, too, e.g.,
+
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.Most Big Pharma CEOs
bushwells | June 2, 2007"Your children, like or not, are attracted in their weaker years to the occult..."
Sit in on an actual gaming session with the Dead Alewives' Watchtower and see for yourself!
8-bit D&D from Cyber Moon Studios.
Sent to me by my delightfully nerdsome son, a D&D aficionado, who sports a permanent "Kick Me" sign on his back.
jfiore | June 1, 2007Thanks to commenter Derelict from my Summer Reading entry, I listened to a talk with Christopher Hitchens on the Dennis Prager show. There was one particular item that caught my ear. Prager posed the following question:
"If you were in a strange city in the USA at night and you saw ten men coming toward you, would you or would you not be relieved to know that they had just come from a bible study class?"
Apparently, Hitchens mentioned this question in his book God Is Not Great, but generalized it to "religious study" and any city in the world. Hitchens then recounted a number of instances…
bushwells | June 1, 2007
What's that hanging out of the Dutchman's trousers?
A Dicentra spectabilis specimen displays its cash and prizes near the Princeton campus.