Windows is for Wimps

'cause, can you do this?

main=$PWD; for dir in `\ls`; do [ -d $main/$dir ] && cd $main/$dir && echo && echo && echo $main/$dir"\n" && echo && /ppr/cadd/pkgs/openeye/bin/babel3 -i `\ls -c1 *.oeb.gz| head -n1` -o $dir.sdf -n 1 && cp -v $dir.sdf $dir-on-GCRS.ROCS.sdf && for gzed in `\ls *.oeb.gz`; do [ -f $PWD/$gzed ] && sdf=`echo $gzed | sed s/'.oeb.gz'/'.sdf'/` && /ppr/cadd/pkgs/openeye/bin/babel3 -i $gzed -o $sdf -skip 1 && cat $sdf>>$dir-on-GCRS.ROCS.sdf && rm -v $sdf && sleep 1s; done; python ../sortmols.py --in=$dir-on-GCRS.ROCS.sdf --out=$dir-on-ROCS.oeb.gz --blanks_first --sdtag=ComboScore && rm -rv $dir-on-GCRS.ROCS.sdf && sleep 3s; done; cd $main;


or this?

while read line; do echo "${line}"; option=${line}; opt=`echo $option| sed s/\ //g`; echo $option \=\> $opt; for data in `echo IV1 IV2 IS`; do grep -A 100 Evaluation */$data/*-$data.$opt | tee logs/onTrain/${data}${opt}-performances.log; done; done < <(cat option.run)

John Rambo

Hi, after a long iatus. I saw this movie yesterday, and boy, it has a higher body count than Saving Private Ryan... (what follows has a lots of spoilers. be warned)

It's not a bad movie, per se, it's just that it isn't as good as it could have been. They certainly went the extra-mile to show how gory war can be. People don't just die, they explode as if they were nothing more than baloons filled with blood and intestines... Arrows pierce heads as if they were watermelons... landmines blow leags and bodies in two different directions...

Stallone has a monolithic presence on the big screen. He's so tough that he doesn't even have to utter a word to annoy people around him, especially the boss of the mercenary group he's leading into the Burmese jungle... And of course, he can shoot arrows quicker than anybody can draw a gun... Kind of a post-modern Willem Tell. What is missing, in the movie, is a point. A story. A reason for it all. But then, may be that's OK, as it goes to show Rambo cynical and disenchanted attitude towards the world, especially towards those people he tries to dissuade from looking into trouble, only to have to save them after... The war is brutal, but I felt like the Burmese troops didn't really put up a fight here, I mean, if the soviet could not be a match for John, how can they? So, from the point of view of fun, they are like, well, trees waiting to be felled by him...

Cool trick, with the british bomb though.

Enough spoilers...

La mirinzana e' tarocca!!!

come scoperto su "Sassareserie"

Le Twittre

I've come to know that there exists an advanced (though don't know yet how much more) version of the mood message in facebook, gmail, skype or other instant messanging services...

It's called Twitter, and I came to know about it thanks to the immor(t)al Penny Arcade online comic.

Essentially, you type in what you're doing at the moment, and friends around the world which are interested will receive a near-istant update on it...

You can write meaningful things such as 'in flight to madrid', or less interesting ones (but not less meaningful) such as 'I am taking a dump' (I am not going to do it, but this is what Penny Arcade gloats about)...

Albeit in its infancy, and a bit clunky (compared to facebook's and other's mood msg) it's got the advantage of being 'postable' on other site via a javascript snippet, so that my blog now has a mood message too. you can also, interestingly, post to it from your mobile (and of course, my guess, read update from it. One step closer, if you like, to that permanently connected society of tecnomadic people The Economist was talking about in the Special Report of last week. (click here to download thefull edition), or 'here' for the Special Report only. Thanks Economist for putting this online for free. We greatly appreciate.

So, where do we go from here? will we become 100% internet freak attempting to digest this sea of essentially irrelevant information about our friends and less close relationship? Or we will learn to ignore as pointless background noise, the same way I ignore the Economist's readers once I dwelve deeply into the work? Who knows?

Iron Man

The movie is out, and it may even be decent, accordingly to the NY Times Review. Most of all, you've got to love their children rating

“Iron Man” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has a lot of action violence, none of it especially graphic or gruesome. Also, Iron Man has sex, and not with the suit on. But not completely naked either.

Isn't it lovely?

Dedicated to women ;-)

I know many will despise, me, but I think this sond is funny, witty and, well... I just like it ;-)

Serenata Rap by Giovanotti

Se t'incontro per strada non riesco a parlarti mi
si bloccano le parole non riesco a guardarti
negli occhi mi sembra di impazzire se potessi
amplificare il battito del mio cuore sentiresti
un batterista di una band di metallo pesante ed
è per questo che sono qui davanti
perché mi viene molto più facile
cantarti una canzone magari che la sentano i muri
e le persone piuttosto che telefonarti e dirti
tutto faccia a faccia rischiando di fare una
figuraccia; sono timido ma l'amore mi dà
coraggio per dirti che da quando io ti ho visto
è sempre maggio e a maggio il mondo
è bello e invitante di colori ma ancora
sugli alberi ci sono solo fiori che prima o poi
si dice diverranno pure frutti e allora tu che
fai? golosamente aspetti, aspetti che quel
desiderio venga condiviso io sono qui davanti che
ti chiedo un sorriso, affacciati alla finestra
amore mio. Affacciati al balcone rispondimi al
citofono sono venuto qui col giradischi e col
microfono insieme al mio complesso per cantarti
il sentimento e se tu mi vorrai baciare
sarò contento e questa serenata è
la mia sfida col destino vorrei che per la vita
noi due fossimo vicino una serenata rap per dirti
che di te mi piace come mi guardi mi piace come
sei con me mi piace quel tuo naso che s'intona
con il mondo mi piace il tuo sedere così
rotondo da rendere satellite ogni essere vivente
mi piaci perché sei intelligente si vede
dalle tue mani come le muovi mi provochi pensieri
e sentimenti sempre nuovi nei tuoi fianchi sono
le alpi nei tuoi seni le dolomiti mi piace quel
tuo gusto nello scegliere i vestiti quel tuo
essere al di sopra delle mode del momento sei un
[ Find more Lyrics at www.mp3lyrics.org/eIc ]
fiore che è cresciuto sull'asfalto e sul
cemento

Affacciati alla finestra amore mio, affacciati
alla finestra amore mio affacciati alla finestra
amore mio affacciati alla finestra amore mio

Serenata rap serenata metropolitana mettiti con
me non sarò un figlio di puttana non ci
credere alle cose che ti dicono di me sono tutti
un po' invidiosi chissà perché io
non ti prometto storie di passioni da copione di
cinema, romanzi e che ne so di una canzone io ti
offro verità corpo anima e cervello amore
solamente amore solo solo quello

Affacciati alla finestra amore mio affacciati
alla finestra amore mio affacciati alla finestra
amore mio affacciati alla finestra amore mio

Amor che a nullo amato amar perdona porco cane
lo scriverò sui muri e sulle metropolitane
di questa città milioni di abitanti che
giorno dopo giorno ignorandosi vanno avanti e poi
chissà perché perché
chissà per come nessuno sa perché
perché chissà per come due sguardi
in un momento sovrappongono un destino palazzi,
asfalto e smog si trasformano in giardino persone
consacrate dallo scambio di un anello e un
monolocale che diventerà un castello,
affacciati alla finestra amore mio.

Nei tuoi fianchi sono le alpi nei tuoi seni le
dolomiti mi piace quel tuo gusto nello scegliere
i vestiti questo essere al di sopra delle mode
del momento sei un fiore che è cresciuto
sull'asfalto e sul cemento.

Affacciati alla finestra amore mio affacciati
alla finestra amore mio affacciati alla finestra
amore mio affacciati alla finestra amore mio

affacciati alla finestra amore mio affacciati
alla finestra amore mio per te da questa sera ci
sono io

Microcosm is out!!!

So, if you really want to make me a present, well, you know my address don't you?

I'd be happy with an E. Coli plush toy, if you wish...



The author is touring the US, so if you happen to be close to one of his presentation, please go, as he's a really science writer. The best one around, I dare say.

This is the legal equivalent of an ex-girlfriend request to be 'still friends'...

Get a life, but don't go that far that you can' be reached, should I still need you... D'oh!

Gufo Was Here...

Yesterday, I went here to look at Tulips and Hyacinths in flower. The colors were quite nice, although the whole thing at times did look more like an industrial estate than a garden...


View Larger Map

I must admit, though, that looking at the landscape painted in various colors was impressive. a Pity that Holland is so flat...

Piccies to follow.

Mi piace...

Allora, visto che una certa signorina (ancora x quanto?) mi ha invitato, mi ci appento fra le pause del lavoro...

Ecco il regolamento:
Indicare il link di chi vi ha coinvolti; (tick!)
Inserire il regolamento del gioco sul blog; (copia-incolla, ti adoro!)
Citare sei cose che vi piace fare; (non appena trovo il tempo)
Coinvolgere altre sei persone; (mi metteranno nella loro spam-list...)
Comunicare l'invito sul loro blog. (uhm... skippero' questa?)

Allora, si comincia:

- Mi piaciono gli animali, ma piu' di tutto i dinosauri, xke' son di questo pianeta, ma di un altro mondo...
- Mi piace leggere, possibilmente un libro sui dinosauri :-P, ma qualunque libro che mi faccia scoprire qualcosa di nuovo e' benvenuto.
- Mi piace andare in bici o camminare in montagna, in una foresta, e passo i fine settimana a chiedermi perche' non lo faccia piu' spesso.
- Mi piace cucinare, x gli amici o anche solo x marie, quando la sera si rientra a casa. Mi piace prender cose semplici e trasformarle magicamente nel mio fuoco alchemico... La rivincita del chimico che lavora al computer.
- Mi piace viaggiare, scoprire un posto nuovo, la gente che ci vive e anche le altre cose che lo rendono diverso da dove ho gia' vissuto. L'Africa, come a molti, mi ha rubato il cuore.
- Mi piace esser il primo, mostrare che sto un passo avanti, anche se non e' bello essere immodesti. Ma son fatto cosi'.
- Mi piace romper le regole non appena posso, x questo ho scritto sette cose che mi piacciono e non sei :-P

ed ora, gli inviti: Francesca, Antonio/Gaccu, Ilalice (o Ilalice?), Emiliano, Gupy, Luca (prima che lo inviti Paolo, lol!!!).

Attack Number One!!! Real Live Action!!!

Of course somebody had to get it on the (You)Tube.



But if anybody can point me to a website where I can buy this series, I'll owe him for ever. Seriously. This was one of my favourite sport series...

Xke ha cambiato sesso allora?

sxo si vedano...

Anch'io, anch'io!!!

Hilarious (encore...) se non si vede, cliccate sul titolo del post...

Benefit for bringing to term a pregnancy.

This is Hilarious.

After suggesting the Freakonomics blog to a friend, I went off to read some posts myself.

In particular, one of the posts captured my attention, about a study correlating Depression and abortion rates in Australian women...

Then I start reading the comments, and I find out that the Australian government recently raised child benefits, instituting a 4000US$ Baby Bonus which can be claimed for every pregnancy brought to term. That's right, you get the 4000 bucks not only for bringing to light a live baby, but also if he/she's stillborn.

Factsheet is here.

this brought me to think how hard the legislator job really is, when to draft a law it has to account for almost every possible case!!! It's akin to programming, in fact, where every outcome of an expression must be guessed before hand to avoid crashes or the program malfunctioning. Only, there are no known debuggers for politics. Not yet...

My next steps.

I am toying with the idea of applying for research position in the anti-microbial, or generally anti-infective area.

The reasons? As far as I know, targets are easier to work with, more specifically, proteins are easier to Xtallize so that Structure-based drug design actually has some chance to work. Well, at least there's some material to start from. second, and most importantly, there is a resurgence of such diseases all over the world.

On the converse, though, big [pharma seems to have dropped this field as few doses of an antifungal or anti-viral are less remunerative than the long term treatment of a mentally or metabolically ill patient. But frankly, I don't like that area. It may be challenging, but also gets frustrating when your animal models have very limited analogy with the human condition.

One withdraw of such a coice is that such research positions are mainly available from small companies, and this means (ouch!) smaller salaries too. On the good side though, I'll be able to wear more than one hat, the environment will be more dynamic, and I may grow quicker, if I play my card well.

Well, good luck to me... Now, let's go and hunt down some bacteria!!!

Richard Dawkins goes to the movies with PZ Myers

They went together to a free (as in beer, not as in speech) pre-screening of Expelled, a documentary about the lack of controversy between Evolutionary theory and IDiocy.

Anyway, PZ Myers was singled out by the security guards and asked to leave, whereas the much less illustrious Tricky Dicky was let in.


He's said to have gone berserk half-way in the projection, dismembering several spectators before being put to rest by the bite of an intelligently designed bull-mastiff. Lol. What a quintessentially english gentleman...

Get the full story here.

ForeRunning

Been using my new Forerunner 305 this morning.


Here's the recorded track from home to work along the motorway.

Its accuracy is remarkable... It even gets the lane right, most of the time, an operation that seems to be beyond of the abilities of my GPS navigator, which uses its maps to lock my position on the road.

The forerunner can get a precise lock just by staying in the passenger's seat... Great!!!

I wish I could upload the kml file so that you can have a look at my wanderings on google Earth... Well, may be not my way home, but it would be nice to fly over my next Rwanda trip by using Google Earth in 3D mode...

In the Easter Egg

First post in so much time...

A white Easter has come and gone, with some friends from the UK over to visit us. It was nice and we had a good time, toruing around and eating lots of good stuff...



Also, they acted as surrogate Easter Bunnies, delivering to me a new pair of isolating ear-phones for my MP3 listening, plus the ultimate gadget, a GPS-enabled watch with cardio-pulse recorder...



Now I can finally track my errings, up and down belgium, within a few metres... Now particularly interesting I know, but it'll come in handy when I want to geo-tag some pictures during trips and so on... Plus I can upload my tracks and treks to Google Earth, to look at them frm above and brag about with my friends ;-)

Ain't that nice?

Happy Easter to everyone!!!

Evolution of foods

Some scientist have analysed the evolution of recipes through time in four different cookbooks, and concluded that traditional cuisine evolve quite slowly, mosty because special ingredient are difficult to replace.

I wonder if some sort of tree of cooking could be built from gastronomic traditions of various populations and how it would relate to migrations, either known or presumed to have happened before historical records began...

update: in fact, since recipes are memes, as in the original definition of Dawkins, it may really turn out to be an interesting exercise...

Amazon.com 4 the Amazon

After reading a piece on conservation-lease of land in developing countries, a reader (Simon Edwards) had an idea:

Simon Edwards wrote:

March 04, 2008 01:50

Let's get Amazon.com to start saving the Amazon! Imagine what a great publicity stunt it would be both for Amazon.com and for leased conservation if they adopted a "Save Your World" business approach. Everyone would write about it! They wouldn't even need to launch an advertising campaign, the story would sell itself. Amazon.com has nothing to loose; they could even make it optional: "add 50 cents to the price of your book, and Amazon.com will match your donation to preserve one hectare of the Amazon for one year." Everyone wins! I implore everyone who reads this, do what you can to spread this idea. Post it on blogs, email it to Amazon.com, whatever. Maybe somehow it will seep through and someone will act on it. Only one way to find out!

So Amazon, let's make it happen.