you know who look like they are having a lot of fun?
people in pictures.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
bent science
I found a great site today for quick elucidation of sometimes complex ideas.
For example, read the following:
----------------------------------------
Pol III, the main DNA replication enzyme, cannot work in the 5' - 3' direction, and so replication of the lagging strand is more complicated than of the leading strand. On the leading strand, Pol III "reads" the DNA and adds nucleotides to it continuously.
On the lagging strand, primase "reads" the DNA and adds RNA to it in short bursts. Pol III lengthens the bursts, forming Okazaki fragments. Pol I then "reads" the fragments, removes the RNA, and adds its own nucleotides (this is necessary because RNA and DNA use slightly different kinds of nucleotides). DNA ligase joins the fragments together.
----------------------------------------
make sense? probably not
okay, now try this:
www.maxanim.com
sorry for all the science-talk. I got exams soon. I got biochemistry on the brain.
For example, read the following:
----------------------------------------
Pol III, the main DNA replication enzyme, cannot work in the 5' - 3' direction, and so replication of the lagging strand is more complicated than of the leading strand. On the leading strand, Pol III "reads" the DNA and adds nucleotides to it continuously.
On the lagging strand, primase "reads" the DNA and adds RNA to it in short bursts. Pol III lengthens the bursts, forming Okazaki fragments. Pol I then "reads" the fragments, removes the RNA, and adds its own nucleotides (this is necessary because RNA and DNA use slightly different kinds of nucleotides). DNA ligase joins the fragments together.
----------------------------------------
make sense? probably not
okay, now try this:
www.maxanim.com
sorry for all the science-talk. I got exams soon. I got biochemistry on the brain.
Friday, August 25, 2006
big things in little packages
last day at the job and, as a present, they gave us all copies of the Merck Manual.
It is the new edition. It has bible-esque pages (you know, the really thin pages .... bible-esque) which I assume is important.
What is the Merck Manual? Only the greatest book I have ever received.
Let's flip to a random page:
p934 (Dermatologic Disorders): Did you know that Pruritus (itching) can be a symptom of primary skin disease or of systemic disease? How about the fact that skin diseases notorious for causing intense pruritus include scabies, pediculosis, insect bites, urticaria, atopic and contact dermatitis, lichen planus, miliaria and dematitis herpetiformis?
new page:
p1836 (Neurologic Disorders): Use of hypnotics in sleep disorders. Hypnotics act at the benzodiazepine recognition site of the gamma-aminobutryic acid (GABA) receptor and augment the inhibitory effects of GABA. Hypnotics should be used cautiously in patients with pulmonary insufficiency. In the elderly, any hypnotic, even in small doses can cause restlessness, excitement, or exacerbation of delerium and dementia.
awesome ... 2991 pages of medical diagnosis. With a small bible-esque font.
by the by, GABA is one of the brain's major inhibitory neurotransmitters and is formed from glutamate in a one step process. It looks like this:
HOOC-CH2-CH2-CH2-NH2
Except in physiological conditions the carboxylate is deprotonated and the amine is protonated. Just like most amino acids. Glutamate (or glutamic acid) has the basic amino acid back bone with a propionic acid side chain.
This is pretty basic for a lot of you, but for me ... pure fascination.
It is the new edition. It has bible-esque pages (you know, the really thin pages .... bible-esque) which I assume is important.
What is the Merck Manual? Only the greatest book I have ever received.
Let's flip to a random page:
p934 (Dermatologic Disorders): Did you know that Pruritus (itching) can be a symptom of primary skin disease or of systemic disease? How about the fact that skin diseases notorious for causing intense pruritus include scabies, pediculosis, insect bites, urticaria, atopic and contact dermatitis, lichen planus, miliaria and dematitis herpetiformis?
new page:
p1836 (Neurologic Disorders): Use of hypnotics in sleep disorders. Hypnotics act at the benzodiazepine recognition site of the gamma-aminobutryic acid (GABA) receptor and augment the inhibitory effects of GABA. Hypnotics should be used cautiously in patients with pulmonary insufficiency. In the elderly, any hypnotic, even in small doses can cause restlessness, excitement, or exacerbation of delerium and dementia.
awesome ... 2991 pages of medical diagnosis. With a small bible-esque font.
by the by, GABA is one of the brain's major inhibitory neurotransmitters and is formed from glutamate in a one step process. It looks like this:
HOOC-CH2-CH2-CH2-NH2
Except in physiological conditions the carboxylate is deprotonated and the amine is protonated. Just like most amino acids. Glutamate (or glutamic acid) has the basic amino acid back bone with a propionic acid side chain.
This is pretty basic for a lot of you, but for me ... pure fascination.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
imagery for the chemically inclined
Integral proteins are like icebergs floating in a lipid bilayer sea.
sad part? I love it.
sad part? I love it.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
in the midnight hour
hosting things is a lot of fun.
Last night I hosted my own good-bye / cristal's b-day bash. I purchased a 100 bucks of booze and mix, made a great dancing CD, advised the downstairs neighbours that they would not be able to sleep and prepared to party ... kinda ...
When the first people arrived ( Shane and a few of his friends ) at 10 o'clock I was just waking up from a nap and was stumbling out of my room wearing just my boxers. It was classic. Shane already equates me with the art set ( I am certainly far from any art set, but with him being in finance, anything not in finance is part of said set ) so he was probably a tad hesitant to bring his finance friends to an "art" party. And then they walked into an almost empty house, the only guest a half-naked, bleary-eyed man.
I love montreal for the late starts. I love that I could nap until 9:30 and be pretty confident that no one would arrive.
It was just Shane et al. and me and the roomies for another hour or so, so we talked about law school and MBAs and things of that nature. Just getting it out of our system.
And then the people arrived and it was fantastic. I got to DJ. I got to wear a suit and rollerskates. This morning was a tad rough.
Montreal is cooling down. The amazing heat only comes in spurts now and it gets dark early. Hibernation already? It is only late august .... you have to move like a hummingbird here to enjoy it. Move fast, see everything, consume entertainment like nourishing fat reserves, build up stories to dream about in the dark depths of winter. So cold, but remember how fun summer is? Survive winter for summer.
I listen to BBC dance music occasionally and one of their tag lines is "we're living for the weekend." They even have a weekend countdown timer on the website. Isn't that depressing? Poor britain. Poor brits. Maybe just poor "brits who like BBC radio 1."
The sneaking into ballet was great. It was free and in the park, but we arrived late and the stage was at capacity so they wouldn't let us in. So we snuck in. The best part, besides the ballet (which was contemporary - think stretchy jeans and thrusting as opposed to tutus and nutcrackers), were the people who saw and said "you realise that it is free?" and we replied that we knew and didn't elaborate. I assume they still think about us.
I got to see mr manes briefly in Montreal which was, as always, a great pleasure. Him and his girl are off to do great things in Burma and I am jealous and excited. They are going to do stuff in burma ... good stuff ... stuff I would be incredibly happy to do. And they are going to law school ... you see? See!!!
I was having a discussion with my boss about all the wrongs in the world ( he strongly disagrees with law school and is not afraid to tell me but he is going to introduce me to his environmental lawyer friends who love what they do (which is sue American companies that think they can use NAFTA to pollute Canada and Mexico)) and he started to tell me about a project he was interested in: providing nitrogen fixing rice to impoverished nations and this struck me as something I could get behind. Raising money to provide beneficial rice is immediate and needed. I am going to look into this. Anyone know more about this?
He also raised an interesting point about intense poverty being a trick to survival in a place where people want what you have and are not afraid to take it. This is Hobbes in action. I need to read Guns, Germs and Steel again.
Out of here on the 4th. Attempts to get to burning man have failed. There is no time and I still haven't been to the architecture museum here. God.
Last night I hosted my own good-bye / cristal's b-day bash. I purchased a 100 bucks of booze and mix, made a great dancing CD, advised the downstairs neighbours that they would not be able to sleep and prepared to party ... kinda ...
When the first people arrived ( Shane and a few of his friends ) at 10 o'clock I was just waking up from a nap and was stumbling out of my room wearing just my boxers. It was classic. Shane already equates me with the art set ( I am certainly far from any art set, but with him being in finance, anything not in finance is part of said set ) so he was probably a tad hesitant to bring his finance friends to an "art" party. And then they walked into an almost empty house, the only guest a half-naked, bleary-eyed man.
I love montreal for the late starts. I love that I could nap until 9:30 and be pretty confident that no one would arrive.
It was just Shane et al. and me and the roomies for another hour or so, so we talked about law school and MBAs and things of that nature. Just getting it out of our system.
And then the people arrived and it was fantastic. I got to DJ. I got to wear a suit and rollerskates. This morning was a tad rough.
Montreal is cooling down. The amazing heat only comes in spurts now and it gets dark early. Hibernation already? It is only late august .... you have to move like a hummingbird here to enjoy it. Move fast, see everything, consume entertainment like nourishing fat reserves, build up stories to dream about in the dark depths of winter. So cold, but remember how fun summer is? Survive winter for summer.
I listen to BBC dance music occasionally and one of their tag lines is "we're living for the weekend." They even have a weekend countdown timer on the website. Isn't that depressing? Poor britain. Poor brits. Maybe just poor "brits who like BBC radio 1."
The sneaking into ballet was great. It was free and in the park, but we arrived late and the stage was at capacity so they wouldn't let us in. So we snuck in. The best part, besides the ballet (which was contemporary - think stretchy jeans and thrusting as opposed to tutus and nutcrackers), were the people who saw and said "you realise that it is free?" and we replied that we knew and didn't elaborate. I assume they still think about us.
I got to see mr manes briefly in Montreal which was, as always, a great pleasure. Him and his girl are off to do great things in Burma and I am jealous and excited. They are going to do stuff in burma ... good stuff ... stuff I would be incredibly happy to do. And they are going to law school ... you see? See!!!
I was having a discussion with my boss about all the wrongs in the world ( he strongly disagrees with law school and is not afraid to tell me but he is going to introduce me to his environmental lawyer friends who love what they do (which is sue American companies that think they can use NAFTA to pollute Canada and Mexico)) and he started to tell me about a project he was interested in: providing nitrogen fixing rice to impoverished nations and this struck me as something I could get behind. Raising money to provide beneficial rice is immediate and needed. I am going to look into this. Anyone know more about this?
He also raised an interesting point about intense poverty being a trick to survival in a place where people want what you have and are not afraid to take it. This is Hobbes in action. I need to read Guns, Germs and Steel again.
Out of here on the 4th. Attempts to get to burning man have failed. There is no time and I still haven't been to the architecture museum here. God.
Friday, August 11, 2006
crisse
serious apologies to anyone who checks this with any regularity. I am afraid that I will have to win you back.
I am writing this while standing next to the window, desperatly trying to soak up the internet's basking rays.
That is part of the reason I haven't posted. The other is summer.
I will write more when summer and montreal and fun are over. I assume this is irony.
Life for the past month has been relatively simple: work and class and paper writing and sneaking into ballet and new friends and all that associated shit.
I don't want to leave but, for the sake of the future, I just must.
I will probably live with Noah in Victoria, assuming he finds a good place. If not, I am thinking about finally living on my own. A boy has got to strike out on his lonesome eventually.
Victoria. Blah. Although the wedding was great and I do miss tippi and chris. It will be fine. Not exciting, but fine. I am going to get my outdoors on. And maybe some of your more musically inclined folk will help me to put together a weekly night of dancing. I am going to miss dancing.
I am writing this while standing next to the window, desperatly trying to soak up the internet's basking rays.
That is part of the reason I haven't posted. The other is summer.
I will write more when summer and montreal and fun are over. I assume this is irony.
Life for the past month has been relatively simple: work and class and paper writing and sneaking into ballet and new friends and all that associated shit.
I don't want to leave but, for the sake of the future, I just must.
I will probably live with Noah in Victoria, assuming he finds a good place. If not, I am thinking about finally living on my own. A boy has got to strike out on his lonesome eventually.
Victoria. Blah. Although the wedding was great and I do miss tippi and chris. It will be fine. Not exciting, but fine. I am going to get my outdoors on. And maybe some of your more musically inclined folk will help me to put together a weekly night of dancing. I am going to miss dancing.
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