I know I should not

blog and read around, with all the things I've got to do today. But will just steal three minutes to pint you to an interesting bit:

Kerala Articles

It will end up in my blogroll as soon as I can. Cheers.

Tracking a meme as it multiplies.

Here's something I always wanted to do. You have an idea, write about it, or talk to your friends, then they write or talk to others, and your idea spread, at the same time changing, becoming more complex - this is the essence of memetics, as envisioned by Richard Dawkins. Until now, tracking a meme was a very hard thing to do, but not anymore. in the age of blog, memes can be tracked back to their origins, as long as persons who propagate it link back to the place wehere they first read. It would be nice to have an easy, automated way of checking the path of a meme. Well, it is possible. Here.

So, since Laelaps asked, "Why do I blog?"

Well, a mix of many things in fact. Down somewhere in my mind there's the dream of earning my bread (and butter) by writing about science, rather than helping it grow from within. I did realise my writing skills weren't up to scratch, yet, so I decided to try myself at a blog. Also, the blog works as a place where I can point out interesting ideas to my old friends, with whom I share many intellectual interests - also, it makes for an easy searchable virtual memory. Finally, there's the diary part. I do have good memory, but I believe that putting things down in writings will help me to better re-live those events, once some years have passed. I plan on blogging for my whole life, possibly changing ways with the evolving technology. May be some of my future children or nephew will enjoy reading my blurbs. who knows?

so, it's my time to help the meme spread now:

Darren, Ilalice, Gupy, Pac, Paolo?

Easter is gone.

And it was a nice one. I spent it up in Anthisnes, with my fiancee family, eating and talking and having fun in general. Yes ok sometimes I'd get crossed at the different way they do things compared to what I am used to, but all in all it has been a positive experience. I've met plenty of interesting people, like Desiree's sons, and desiree himself, who I hope I'll be able to talk to sometime soon. And the gorgeous tiny Adeline, who gave new colors to my "Dr Tatiana's" book. Literally, since during lunch she was put to sleep in my bedroom and took some pens from my gf's purse and started scribbling not only the book, but the floor and the walls too!!! but she's so cute...

And I also enjoyed riding by bike the countryside around, I went on saturday for a two-hour long tour in the small dusty and rocky roads (pictures to follow). Incredibly funny, I thought I'd be out of breath after a couple km but no, I kept going and having fun like I did not since... I don't know, many years - on a bike.

The food was good too, the dinner with Marie's friends and relatives wasn't exactly african-themed, except for the "Lake Victoria's capitain" fish she roasted in the oven - and oh, the rwandese-grown avocados. A bit of Sardinia was present in the shape of deep-fried aubergibne with tomato sauce and dried ricotta cheese. I think they liked them.

That's it, for the moment, I have to go back to work and today is going to be heavy, with a brainstorm supposed to decide what the hell I am going to spend my bext few months on. Meeting for which I feel (I am) terribly unprepared. Gosh!

See you soon, and thanks for stopping by.

To teach, or not to teach?

Strangemaps has a map (d'uh!) showing whether "Evilution" is taught decently or not in the states of the Union. Kind of depressing, I would say. especially if you consider that many of the states were teaching of the subject is deemed satisfactory/good then you discover that may be human evolution isn't spoken off, or the theory is marred by creationist notions, and so on...

Some of the comments then are just complete rubbish:

# Evolutionism is the tinfoil hat atheists wear to keep God out of their brainwaves.
--
# There is a junkyard acroos the street, I don’t see it turning into an airplane.

Explain: Love, Guilt, Happiness, Sadness, Passion, Self-Control to me. How did evolution create those things?
--
Morons...

Wow!!!

If the traffic to this website continues to grow this way, almost exponentially, in a couple of months I will be read by more people than are actually on the planet - Don't hold me on that, I haven't done any calculation, it is just a rough guesswork.


Anyway, I don't think it will keep going like this, especially since i don't have much to talk about.

Today is my last day before a very short Easter break, I am leaving work this af'noon to drive down to Mechelen, open a bank accoutn where to put the deposit for the new apartment I am going to move in by the begin of june. Then I'll head off to Dilbeek to wait the night, and my girlfreidn will come out of a night watch the morning after.

And off we go to Anthisnes, to spend Easter with her family. I've already dismantled (literally) her bike, and put it in my car, I'll stick mine inside as soon as I cycle it back home. Then I am officially on holiday.

I don't actually feel like it, there's so much to do here at work... not that I feel like doing it either, otherwise it would not have accumulated...

I really have to start properly writing that damn paper on cardiovascular safety, everybody seems so excited about the results, but I am very bad at writing down things. Uh... must... force... myself.

Luca Off.

Yesterday's TV

Been spending the last couple of evenings watching my new favourite TV show, 3rd rock from the Sun, alongside the old favourites Scrubs and Ally McBeal.

So funny!!! And it looks like he keeps going strong for most of its six seasons.

On the culinary side, I cooked two sausages in a pirex ovenplate, added vegetables and pasta "al dente" and that was it! The day before instead, the same vegetables, stir-fried in a wok, ricotta fresca, and pasta.

But do you care?

difficult to work...

...when a crane is being mounted, suspended above your head - it makes you wary of it coming down to meet you.


Anyway, I pledged that I will work more and blog less today. Too much time wasted yesterday. I better start then. Ok after I finish this.

Yesterday I tried to repair an inflatable plastic pillow, using those high-pressure can of foam which are known in Italy as "Fast". I wanted to make it from a permanently deflating to a permanently inflated pillow. Without much success I am afraid. The connection wasn't perfect, so I sprayed foam all over my bathroom. Then it started leaking air/gas from the little hole. the hole may have been closed, but this morning the pillow was severely deflated. I wonder if it's worth giving it another blast... I'll use a football needle this time, though.

cheery-oh!

Licensed to procreate

Stephen D Levitt makes the point on a recent study showing how anti-social behaviour of children can be significantly altered by training their parents to be better parents.

He concludes with a telling line:

This kind of study does make you wonder why, here in the U.S., where you must acquire a license to drive a car, sell real-estate, or hunt deer, there is no such license (or commensurate training) for raising children. I’m not saying there should be such a license.

Or maybe I am?

And this makes me think of a David Brin's short story in his collection "Otherness" (can't remember the novel title), where a woman goes to great lenghts to get a license-to-procreate, working while she attend a university level course - something I'd frankly make compulsory. I have seen enough children born by parents who just didn't know how to behave themselves.

Pareto's principle

And since I cited Sturgeon in the previous post, let me cite italian economist Pareto in this one (rip/mix/burn from Wikipedia):

He made several important contributions especially in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices. He introduced the concept of Pareto efficiency and helped develop the field of microeconomics.

Oh, why should I copysomeone else's words? Ok I don't have time just go there and have a look at it. You will not regret it - economist are actually fine people - and I am pretty sure Pareto would have enjoyed a conversation with Steven D. "Freakonomics" Levitt ;-)

The truth is...

I previously rambled and ranted about my insatisfaction with being a scientist. How I took the wrong field, how am not interested to what I am studying now, and so on... Blah blah blah...

Oh, please...

The truth is, I'd like to have a work place as fun as SCRUBS, with people giving me high five when they meet me in the corridors, something interesting and significative happens every day, people are crazy and either smile psychotically (men) or look at me lusciviously (girls).

Instead, I have to make do with - well, in fact a place which is even weirdier. Scientist who are very versed in their discipline, but almost nothing else. Don't take me wrong, some people I work with are absolutely brilliant in their own right, and as an environment where to work in this is OK. Challenges are there, for the willing mind, it just takes guts and will to tackle them. May be I miss those. But even in the best of cases, the work is for 90% frustration, and only 10% satisfaction. But I guess Sturgeon's Law holds for every thing: "Ninety percent of everything is crud. And it would apply to my next escape job too, I guess. Ouch! This sucks. I better get to grip with this. and life in general. Good evening.

Finally, Rhinogradenthians

I'm two days late in celebrating April's fool, but darren naish nailed it with a couple of post on these nose-deambulating mammals:

Rhinograndentians I

and
Rhinogradentians II

Thinking in time

Carl Zimmer has a new piece on the NY Times dealing with the ability of certain animals to remember episodes of their past, but also forecast their future needs and take steps towards this, much like we humans do. Some birds who cache food in various places are able to remember not only the location, but also the content of each one.

Others will store food for future use only if they think it's needed (that requires judgement), and they will restrict their choices depending on various factors. for example, squirrel monkeys will only eat one date instead of four, if they know that by eating four they will not get any water after.

The case for Unidentified Flying Objects

aka UFOs. I believe that we've been visited. I mean, let's face it. the evidence is all around us. Who would dare to challenge or deny this fact?

Tha Nazca figures, Martin Mystere's Atlantidean gun, the recently unearthed archeological findings from Putifigari, in the island of Sardinia, which seems to confirm that this island was Plato's Atlantis; the rocky altars of this island, bearing surfaces of syntherised rock, clear indication of vertical landing and takeoff of rocket-powered vehicles.

Also, dinosaurs still survive in the oldest and inacessible region of the island, Aspromonte: Su Scultone.

Do you have any doubts that the land I come from is special, not to say magical and central to the planet. Let me tell you, the world's belly button isn't Easter Island, but rather Sardinia, the mopst savage and beautiful of them all.


ps: yes, this article is written tongue-in-cheek, I am just curious to see how many people would link it. :-P

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

This has to be the funniet rockband name I have ever heard of.

It is (or rather, was?) the preferred rock band of my fiancee youngest sister, aka Cadette.

Apparently she's now into another band called !!! as in three excalamtion marks, pronounced Bang Bang Bang - can't find any internet website, though - sorry.

I know she has a blog somewhere. As soon as I find it I'll post it.

The asymptotyc PhD

I was good at school. I've always been. At the high school, I'd read my science book in the two or three days after receiving it, and then I'd be done. Probably, the understanding wasn't perfect, specially for physics, and chemistry, but biology would be a doodle. University wasn't much different, the time to pass the exams was spent mostly memorising the stuff the way the professors wanted it, not by grasping the concept - exception made for QM and StatMech.

So, why do I feel like I can't get to the damn PhD, which i started begin of 2001? I've spent now four years and a half, let's say five to account for the hours spent re-running things while I was writing up. Ok, since then I haven't been idle, I'm one year inside anm industrial postdoc and have learned so many new things at work, and outside. Still, i can't help but feel that I've lost the magic touch. May be I have reached my maximum potential? I don't think so. I still spend very little time on research... exactly like ten or fifteen years ago, I just do what's necessary, and devote the rest of my time to learn new things - things which are undeniably cool, but don't bring home the bread - other than to the amount to which my wide-spanning knowledge impresses people during job interviews, that is.

I sometimes thought that I am not really lin love with science, I just collect cool things to say to impress people - especially girls - almost all of my girlfriends I attracted this way... I'm kind of a sea urchin, coating myself with hard and shiny piece of science to show off myself... interesting idea uh? or may be not.

Fact is, I don';t think I am researcher material - not really. I know many of them and they have such a focus on their field which I can't simply match. I like to discover new theories, yes. I like to learn some new techniques. I even like playing with them for a while - But then my interest dries up. Sometimes, just before being able to wrap up what I have done in a publication of sort. Hence my sparsely populated publication list. may be I just haven't found my field, yet. May be I should really have gone into biology, discarding the concerns on the ability to find a job later on. As I used to say to my younger friendss, there's always a place for the best in the field: is the mediocre who has to recycle him/herself. Am I mediocre?

Or is this long tirade just another excuse to avoid having a look at my PhD Thesis correction, or even finally getting down to write the apparently insightful work on drugs' cardio vascular safety I spent my last year on? Cheery-o!!!

Laelaps has made it...

... to my blogroll. litle step I know. Anyway. Just wanted to let you know.

The lancet against the cluster bomb...

In 2005, editors and authours affiliated with the famous british journal "the Lancet" (it: Il bisturi) discovered that their publisher, Reed Elsevier, also organises and sponsors weapons expositions - a position that most of them consider inconsistent. I do agree.

More info and thoughts are expressed by Revere on his Effect Measure. Go and check it out.

And oh, check out also John Wilkins summary of France, Great britain and Germany strive to mantain biodiversity at Evolving Thoughts.

and one more.

Since I haven't worked at all today (almost nothing at the very least), here's one more blog I stumbled upon: Laelaps. Whatever this may means. Again, enjoy!

I am off to buy some food for my empty fridge.

No, not this one...

As I said before, I have been tinkering with the idea of getting a new digicam; my thoughts initially converged on the cool-looking nikon s10. The swiveling body is particularly attractive - but it has some things I don't like. mainly, the battery is a proprietary LiIon thingy, and this means that I'll have to use their own charger rather than carry with me my AA/AAA charger - one more charger and so on. I am nitpicking I know.

Anyway, I love the idea of having a "real" SLR, with interchangeable objectives if possible - although this will make it less cumbersome, therefore less likely to be lugged around when on a bike trip or such.

mah... I'll check some more p/review before taking a plunge. Anyway, I can survive without. Especially since I haven't noticed that my digicam was missing until now, one month and more after using it. And that i do not plan to go anywhere particularly interesting before some months. It's not like the price of these things is going to spike - ah ah.

Sarda, I envy you...

Hi there again. slow pick-up today, after browsing the net this morning and updating this blog with ont or two posts haven't managed to do much else - bad since I'm supposed to fruitfully use this time :-|

Anyway,. I already cited the Fish Feet blog, right? Sarda has managed to do what I did not, despite all my passion for dinosaurs, have the courage to do: become a palaeontologist. Or at the very least, she's on her way to it. Her study encompass, in her own words, "the evolution of terrestrial communities". That is, everything above the shoreline. well, not exactly, i believe she focuses on terrestrial vertebrates, aka tetrapods (four feet) - which bizarrely include also humans and chickens.

Anyway, she surely has an interesting blog (differently from this one ah ah), so go and check it out!!! ;-)

by the way, "Sarda" is her real name and not an indication of her geographic origins. She's not from Sardinia (again, differently from me), rather from India. Where she is right now, the reason why her friend janine is filling in.