Well as I mentioned awhile back, I have been busy writing away. Both the wet-lab work and the computer-based results were submitted together to the Journal of Cool Stuff . This was my first time submitting to J. of Cool Stuff. My advisor hadn't submitted there in awhile. The review on the computational work took 6 weeks. Minor revisions, mostly highlighting things for the reviewers that were not as obvious as we originally had thought. Easy fix. It took 8 weeks to hear on the wet lab work. Accepted pending minor revisions which included additional experiments along with curtailing the discussion or doing even more experiments. I took a week did the easy additional experiments (all yielding the negative results I expected with tons of caveats that make it hard to say anything conclusive about them, hence I did not do them in the first place, but we included all of that in the revised paper), and then we curtailed the discussion. The further potential experiments I am now doing and will turn into a short article, which in the end I guess puts me ahead of the game. I guess a thank you to the reviewer is in order.
The work I did for collaborators currently is sitting in their hands as they write their part. Glad there was a delay since in the meantime I wrote a review with another post-doc in the lab for Building Blocks Journal which was reviewed & accepted within the span of two weeks for the holidays. Our lab has submitted research articles to Building Blocks Journal they are also turned around in the same amount of time. We already sent back the proofs. Still waiting on the proofs for the articles for Journal of Cool Stuff. The reviews for BBJ are very complete. Their editors actually push the reviewers to you know actually review in a timely fashion. Wish other journals did the same thing. Nothing worse than waiting, wondering if you are going to have to drop what you are doing to do additional experiments to satisfy a reviewer. Better to get it done sooner rather than latter. You have to be able to move on, move forward, so much better for peace of mind.
And now what? Well, it is work with a post-doc in the lab pushing for a paper, work on the further experiments discussed above for another and then also work on a third project that hopefully will turn out a paper before the year is out. Productive yes, which is good but boy can writing be draining.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
A day to remember what we forget as a nation...
Today in the US is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is a day in theory we are to remember the work of Dr. King and by extension the Civil Rights Movement in this nation. Usually I am afraid to say we gloss over it looking at through safe feel good frames, of peace and brotherhood. We must force ourselves to remember. There is much still to be done. Equality is still a dream we are striving for.
I offer these reminders on this day of the work still to be done, still to be thought about and discussed. What we must remember.
The March on Washington in 1963 (The one in which Dr. King gave his "I have a dream" speech) was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. What were they advocating for?
Comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation from the present Congress — without compromise or fillibuster — to guarantee all Americans:
Access to all public accommodations
Decent housing
Adequate and integrated education
The right to vote
Withholding of Federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists.
Desegregation of all school districts in 1963.
Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment — reducing Congressional representation of states where citizens are disfranchised.
A new Executive Order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds.
Authority for the Attorney General to institute injunctive suits when any Constitutional right is violated.
A massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers — Negro and white — on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages.
A national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living. (Government surveys show that anything less than $2.00 an hour fails to do this.)
[The minimum wage at the time of the March is $1.15/hour.]
A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to include all areas of employment which are presently excluded.
A federal Fair Employment Practices Act barring discrimination by federal, state, and municipal governments, and by employers, contractors, employment agencies, and trade unions.
Dr King on the Vietnam War:
"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just.""
Dr. King on capitalism:
"You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong… with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism."
The latter sentiments lead Dr. King to begin to push for what he thought of as the 2nd phase of the Civil Rights Movement, dealing with poverty across the board (the first phase being taking on the challenge of segregation) with the Poor People's Campaign where he was going to champion for an economic bill of rights. He was assassinated in Memphis, TN before he had to chance to really push the campaign. Dr. King was in Memphis to support striking Black sanitation workers.
We must remember. We have a long ways to go. We have a history of only going so far to deal with the inequalities in our society. We gave up on Reconstruction after the Civil War, turning the South over to the segregationists, rewriting our history to look poorly upon Reconstruction (Gone with the Wind anyone). We only ended segregation in name only. We failed to do the hard work of actual integration. Giving instead into fears of "other" breeding the modern Republican Party and with it the presidency of George W. Bush.
I offer these reminders on this day of the work still to be done, still to be thought about and discussed. What we must remember.
The March on Washington in 1963 (The one in which Dr. King gave his "I have a dream" speech) was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. What were they advocating for?
Comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation from the present Congress — without compromise or fillibuster — to guarantee all Americans:
Access to all public accommodations
Decent housing
Adequate and integrated education
The right to vote
Withholding of Federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists.
Desegregation of all school districts in 1963.
Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment — reducing Congressional representation of states where citizens are disfranchised.
A new Executive Order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds.
Authority for the Attorney General to institute injunctive suits when any Constitutional right is violated.
A massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers — Negro and white — on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages.
A national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living. (Government surveys show that anything less than $2.00 an hour fails to do this.)
[The minimum wage at the time of the March is $1.15/hour.]
A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to include all areas of employment which are presently excluded.
A federal Fair Employment Practices Act barring discrimination by federal, state, and municipal governments, and by employers, contractors, employment agencies, and trade unions.
Dr King on the Vietnam War:
"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just.""
Dr. King on capitalism:
"You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong… with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism."
The latter sentiments lead Dr. King to begin to push for what he thought of as the 2nd phase of the Civil Rights Movement, dealing with poverty across the board (the first phase being taking on the challenge of segregation) with the Poor People's Campaign where he was going to champion for an economic bill of rights. He was assassinated in Memphis, TN before he had to chance to really push the campaign. Dr. King was in Memphis to support striking Black sanitation workers.
We must remember. We have a long ways to go. We have a history of only going so far to deal with the inequalities in our society. We gave up on Reconstruction after the Civil War, turning the South over to the segregationists, rewriting our history to look poorly upon Reconstruction (Gone with the Wind anyone). We only ended segregation in name only. We failed to do the hard work of actual integration. Giving instead into fears of "other" breeding the modern Republican Party and with it the presidency of George W. Bush.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
BCS Nightmare II...
So the BCS title game pits Ohio State (11-1) vs. LSU (11-2). A team with two losses could be the "national champion" of college football (well of the BCS division, aka the division formerly known as 1A). This would be a nightmare for the BCS. Why? Well those Warriors of Hawaii. They are currently undefeated. They play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. If Hawaii wins, they will be 13-0. In other words they would have done what no other team in the division formerly as 1A could do this year, win all its games. You then throw in the other teams with two losses and you could have really muddled situation. Here are my rooting interesting this BCS season:
Rose Bowl: USC v. Illinois - Got to go with the Pac-10 here. Plus, USC would have two losses (see above why that matters). If they blow out Illinois and LSU barely gets past OSU in the title game then how can you really argue that the Trojans shouldn't also be thought of as national champs?
Sugar Bowl: Hawaii v. Georgia - The Warriors of Hawaii as discussed above.
Fiesta Bowl: West Virginia v. Oklahoma - Going to go with the Mountaineers. Why? Why not. Both teams have two losses.
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech v. Kansas - Going to go with Virginia Tech. This would move Kansas to two losses and keep Tech with only two.
BCS Title Game: OSU v. LSU - LSU.
If all of the BCS games go the way I hope this will be the end of the season records:
OSU 11-2
LSU 12-2
Kansas 11-2
Virginia Tech 12-2
West Virginia 11-2
Oklahoma 11-3
Hawaii 13-0
Georgia 10-3
USC 11-2
Illinois 9-4
This would be beautiful!
Rose Bowl: USC v. Illinois - Got to go with the Pac-10 here. Plus, USC would have two losses (see above why that matters). If they blow out Illinois and LSU barely gets past OSU in the title game then how can you really argue that the Trojans shouldn't also be thought of as national champs?
Sugar Bowl: Hawaii v. Georgia - The Warriors of Hawaii as discussed above.
Fiesta Bowl: West Virginia v. Oklahoma - Going to go with the Mountaineers. Why? Why not. Both teams have two losses.
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech v. Kansas - Going to go with Virginia Tech. This would move Kansas to two losses and keep Tech with only two.
BCS Title Game: OSU v. LSU - LSU.
If all of the BCS games go the way I hope this will be the end of the season records:
OSU 11-2
LSU 12-2
Kansas 11-2
Virginia Tech 12-2
West Virginia 11-2
Oklahoma 11-3
Hawaii 13-0
Georgia 10-3
USC 11-2
Illinois 9-4
This would be beautiful!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Back...
Well it has been a bit. I have been "productive". I submitted two journal articles and a review. The journal articles were sent off of a month a half ago. The review was submitted on Friday. Last week, I also got the comments on one of the articles I submitted. The reviewers thought the paper should be published pending revisions of clarity and to address their ideas (or lack thereof). Incorporating their comments did improve the paper which is good. The only problem was my PI wanted the revised manuscript submitted on Friday as well. Of course the PI (who I do like and is usually good about work/balance) had to go home (significant other wanted PI home by a certain hour, so did mine but I am not as high up on the totem), so it was me submitting the review and then the revision. Now they are off. Of course, they are sitting there. PI was hoping someone this week would look at them. I don't think that is going to happen. We shall see. The other paper is still listed as "under review" so hopefully I hear something in the new year. If it was to be rejected I would think we would have heard by now. It is much easier to reject outright than accept/accept pending revisions. We shall see on that. Hopefully it is fine. At the very least no new experiments. I have moved on to two other projects with the goal to get them finished and manuscripts submitted before my wedding in July. I can be slightly crazy like that. I hope to apply for faculty positions in the fall so two more papers would be fantastic. I will be an author on another article hopefully submitted before the spring, but I won't be a first author but rather a contributing one. So it will be a busy new year but I do resolve to blog more. It is good therapy as is reading all the wonderful other blogs out there. Happy End of 2007 CE to all.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Rooting interests or the BCS nightmare scenario...
LSU, who was ranked number one in the BCS rankings, lost last night to unranked Arkansas. This sets up the nightmare scenario for the lords of the BCS as the Warriors of Hawaii kept winning (they are 11-0 now). If this week Missouri beats Kansas, UConn upsets West Virginia, and Oklahoma St. beats Oklahoma, and Missouri then looses next week in the Big-12 championship game it would mean Ohio State at 11-1 would be number 1 and going to the championship game. Number two would be unclear but most likely it would be a team with two losses. The same scenario can come to be if West Virginia wins this week but then looses to Pitt next week. In other words a team that has lost twice in a season would be going to the BCS Championship Game over Hawaii, a team, if they beat Washington next week, that went undefeated. Kansas under this scenario would have only one loss and would also be out of the big game. The BCS would be shown to be the joke it is.
Besides how do you pick one two loss team over another? How it is set up now, if a team lost two weeks ago would be in better shape than one that losses this week or next (including one that would have only one). It is absurd.
Besides how do you pick one two loss team over another? How it is set up now, if a team lost two weeks ago would be in better shape than one that losses this week or next (including one that would have only one). It is absurd.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and Chimps. Oh my!
Over on Evolving Thoughts, John Wilkins is going to make the case for sociobiology. He starts out by distancing sociobiology from evolutionary psychology taking the position the latter takes an overly adaptationist view of evolution. It should be interesting to say the least.
What I am still waiting on is to find someone to discuss the article published in PNAS a couple weeks ago entitled Phylogenetic analyses of behavior support existence of culture among wild chimpanzees. The authors, as summed up in the commentary by Andrew Whiten accompanying the article, "conclude that the phylogenetic trees that best describe the affinities between the behavioral profiles of different chimpanzee communities are not compatible with a genetic explanation and instead support the cultural interpretation." In other words, Chimps might have social learning and the cultures that go with that. An interesting question is then, did the last common ancestral ape of Chimps and humans also have social learning/culture? If so, how does that impact how we view human evolution? If yes, then the evolution of humans in terms of brain development/intelligence/behavior/etc. must be looked at in both a biological and social context (really the interplay between the two).
What I am still waiting on is to find someone to discuss the article published in PNAS a couple weeks ago entitled Phylogenetic analyses of behavior support existence of culture among wild chimpanzees. The authors, as summed up in the commentary by Andrew Whiten accompanying the article, "conclude that the phylogenetic trees that best describe the affinities between the behavioral profiles of different chimpanzee communities are not compatible with a genetic explanation and instead support the cultural interpretation." In other words, Chimps might have social learning and the cultures that go with that. An interesting question is then, did the last common ancestral ape of Chimps and humans also have social learning/culture? If so, how does that impact how we view human evolution? If yes, then the evolution of humans in terms of brain development/intelligence/behavior/etc. must be looked at in both a biological and social context (really the interplay between the two).
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Remember in '08, Vote Colbert!
Colbert's campaign is over before it really began. The Democratic Party in South Carolina has decided not to allow Colbert to be on the ballot in their Primary. He paid the fee ($2,500) but they have the option of not letting him enter if they don't think he can win.
I have to say given they have that option, why do they charge a fee? At least it is not as crazy as the GOP. The fee for them is $35,000. Talk about crazy! Forget about paying for a campaign, someone who is working class can't get even in the game for the two major parties.
Just for this my vote for 2008 is going to be a write-in: Stephen Colbert. I encourage others to do the same. The system isn't broken, it is just set-up in a manner that isn't for, of and by the people. Colbert is a vote for pointing out the absurdity of it all in a nation that tries and sells itself as a democracy.
For those of you thinking you will be wasting you vote, REALITY CHECK you usually are wasting your vote in a presidential election. The way the electoral college works means if you are in a solid Blue or Red state, it doesn't matter who you vote for. Even in "swing" states the margin of victory is so significant in actual number of votes that you choosing to vote Colbert isn't really going to matter. Look at the numbers and think. Your vote is already being wasted. If that is the case, why not send a message? What do you have to lose? I say vote Colbert in '08! Write him in. Send a message!
I have to say given they have that option, why do they charge a fee? At least it is not as crazy as the GOP. The fee for them is $35,000. Talk about crazy! Forget about paying for a campaign, someone who is working class can't get even in the game for the two major parties.
Just for this my vote for 2008 is going to be a write-in: Stephen Colbert. I encourage others to do the same. The system isn't broken, it is just set-up in a manner that isn't for, of and by the people. Colbert is a vote for pointing out the absurdity of it all in a nation that tries and sells itself as a democracy.
For those of you thinking you will be wasting you vote, REALITY CHECK you usually are wasting your vote in a presidential election. The way the electoral college works means if you are in a solid Blue or Red state, it doesn't matter who you vote for. Even in "swing" states the margin of victory is so significant in actual number of votes that you choosing to vote Colbert isn't really going to matter. Look at the numbers and think. Your vote is already being wasted. If that is the case, why not send a message? What do you have to lose? I say vote Colbert in '08! Write him in. Send a message!
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