Thankfully, I don't work with anyone like this lady!!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Steve Harvey Book
I saw an ad for this book and for some reason, I had to laugh!! But, I tried to make it more like a women's giggle.
Hatshepsut and Her Reign
I read this awesome story about the she-king of Egypt Hatshepsut in National Geographic. Her family history, rise to power as a Pharaoh, and reign of over 20 years are remarkable. I would love to visit the Valley of the Kings someday!!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Whiskey and Dylan
I was catsitting the other day for DA and AR and Dylan took the liberty of drinking all the whiskey!! They taught him well - that cat can drink!! It was one heckuva fun party, brownie!!
Why Didn't Tonto Get a Disguise??
It seems really unfair that Tonto didn't get to wear a disguise like the Lone Ranger! Wasn't he in just as much danger?? At least give him the fake nose-mustache-glasses mask to wear!!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Calcio Fiorentino
I read about this crazy game that takes place over in Italy once a year. It's basically a mix of MMA and soccer - everything is legal except sucker punching and kicking to the head. But, head butting, punching, elbowing, and choking are encouraged. When the game starts, one group starts boxing each other, one group starts wrestling, and another group starts trying to score a goal.Injured players are carted away on stretchers. Centuries ago, even popes were known to play in the game. Nowadays, the pope is nowhere to be found, but the game goes on!!
Limer (aka Diamond Dave) is Famous!!
Holy cow! This Nature article was just amazing. Not only is the science interesting, but it was written by my freshman year roommate at Carleton College. Basically, Professor David Lund research shows that the Little Ice Age cooling in the North Atlantic was at least partially due to a decrease in the amount of reduced oceanic flow and heat transport. They are able to make these determinations by measuring the amount of 18O in a particular type of fossilized microbe in sediment cores and compared it to the amount of 18O in the water. The differences can be used to estimate seawater density. I think. Anyway, he has sure come along way let me tell you!! He's traveled from 5th floor Watson, to Firehouse, to the Gulf Stream, and now at University of MI. Very impressive. But, I'll still whoop the Master of the Chunder's butt at ping pong!! The scientific image is from the Nature article that is linked at the title.
TJ's Great Game Last Night
The link sends you to a sweet story on my cousin TJ's game last night. The move he puts on a veteran team are awesome! Too bad I didn't inherit the genes for those moves!!
FINALLY!!!
I got this new promotional BART pass that I HOPE solves all the problems with deactivated passes. I won't hold my breath, but it does seem alot like my AC Transit pass that never gets deactivated. I could rub my G1 phone all over the AC pass, take a shower with it, AND put it in the garbage disposal and it would still work. But, if you breathe on a current BART pass wrong and it deactivates. WEAK! I hope these new passes work!!!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Three Genes Important for Warfarin Dose
This new paper reports an entire scan of the human genome and 370,000 gene variants from 1000 warfarin patients. In it, they identify the 2 genes that have been implicated in determining the warfarin dose in patients. However, they add CYP4F2 to the mix. Allan Rettie's group at UW (my alma mater) recently published that CYP4F2 is involved in vitamin K metabolism. The effect of mutation in this CYP450 is to increase the amount of vitamin K in this patient population that results in the need for an increase in the dose of warfarin by about 1 mg.
Littering is the Least of Her Worries!!
This story is directly from the 3/25/2009 SF Southern Station Newsletter. Captain Daniel McDonagh seems to have a pretty good sense of humor..."Friday 03/20/2009 12:27PM, 6th & Minna: Ofc. Lee and Young were on their foot beat detail at 6th and Minna when they observed a female subject littering at 6th and Minna. Upon making contact with the subject for the violation, they discovered she was on active probation and had a stay away order from the area. The officers then observed the female subject attempt to conceal something from them and upon attempting to take physical control of her she resisted arrest and dropped suspected marijuana on the ground. It was discovered that the suspect had a long time extensive criminal history dating back to 1997. She was booked for the marijuana, resisting arrest, violation of a stay away order and probation violation. Oh yeah, and littering. Don’t be a litter bug."
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Was I Robbed by The Unknown Comic??
Have you seen this man?? According to this story in the Examiner he's been robbing bartenders while they are not watching their stuff. Nice getaway try!!
DEEEEEEEEElicious!!
A new delicious grape has been created by researcher at the University of FL by cross breeding two different berries. The names of the berries are pretty hot too: AA10-40 and CD8-81. Sound grape! The beeries produced are oval shaped and reddish and turn black/purple when ripe. This strain of grape ripens early, produces high yields, is disease resistant, and supposedly tastes great! I wonder what MH would say???!!!
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Low Carbon Diet: Cool Cuisine
This diet is not my favorite diet, but it does make a whole lot of sense. Basically, you pick out foods that are locally produced and seasonal (not as much fuel is required to deliver it), don’t contribute greenhouse gases (i.e. cattle), and use natural fertilizers (to avoid nitrogen runoff and water pollution). These concepts are not hard to grasp, but finding recipes and sources for the foods might be a little tough. But, a book written by Laura Stec (an SF based chef) with help from Eugene Cordero (a climate researcher) entitled “Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite Out of Global Warming” sets forth to do just that. I’m going to check it out as I’m sure this philosophy has to be the wave of the future!! But, I’m pretty sure I can’t give up the meat!!
Brain Blunder Detector
No, that isn’t a toilet on this guys head. It’s an instrument that is used to measure brain waves. Scientists at UC Davis studies people’s brain waves while administering a super boring test and found that certain areas of the brain were activated when the brain went into “autopilot” and committed mistakes in the test. Basically, the test takers got bored and stopped thinking causing the errors to be committed. The application they discuss for this research is if someone starts to fall asleep or lose focus at work a person monitoring their brain wave activity could be notified. The research maybe sound, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to walk around with a big toilet shaped hat on my head at work! What terrible fashion sense!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
MALDI-IMS
In this review from Richard Caprioli's group at Vanderbilt, they discuss the MALDI-IMS technique for localizing drugs and proteins in tissues. So far, it's been applied to the analysis of olanzapine and vinblastine in rodent brains. Very cool method!
W
We just watched the "W" movie by Oliver Stone and I thought Josh Brolin did a great job as GWB and Richard Dreyfuss was believably evil as Cheney. The story of his life and rise to the presidency was interesting even if some of it is fiction and well done too!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Which Way Do I Go?
Classic MUNI move - trying to confuse everyone with their signs. As if you needed another reason for people to be delayed by MUNI in getting to their destination.
Chocolate March Madness
We checked out a chocolate expo at the Herbst Theater at Fort Mason today. I think we ate about 100 lbs of chocolate from about 30 different vendors. The best was an espresso toffee and a citron flavored dark chocolate. Luckily, they also had some free wine and vodka samples to wash it all down. However, it was jam packed and the VIP wristband we were given, didn't mean anything (everybody had one)!
Undesired Public Dancer
I read this news item in the Examiner today about a man that was arrested in the area of North Beach with all the strip clubs for taking off his clothes and dancing. Apparently, the restaurant and the patrons were not impressed with his dancing technique or naked body. I wonder if they took him away as he was singing "I'm your priiiiivate dancer. A dancer for money..." I love this city!!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Medical Madoff
Are all the Madoff's in the world going to be exposed soon?? How about a Basketball Madoff?? This Scientific American article details an investigation against a "Medical Madoff" that reveals over 20 of his studies on pain medications were fabricated. The doctor apparently received funding from a large pharma company to perform his research and, in turn, would report positive results. This type of activity is what gives the health profession and pharma a bad name. The whole case against him is amazing and it's incredible that the fraud wasn't uncovered earlier! 
Bat Astronaut
When I entered college my plan was to major in physics and then try to become an astronaut. But, a little thing called calculus and physics 101 derailed my plans. Well, a little bat got to do what I didn't on the space shuttle lift off Sunday. It was able to hang onto the shuttle's external fuel tank at least past the liftoff but, unfortunately, probably didn't make it into orbit. He even got a name from NASA "Interim Problem Report 119V-0080." Love it and I hope it was able to fly away before getting too far into space!
Effect of Madoff on SF
I read this story in the Chronicle today about how one of our neighborhood restaurants is caught up in the Madoff scandal. I hope it doesn't get shut down! I love their pork chop!!
Smoke Signals Gone Wrong
These guys are doing it all wrong. Those smoke puffs are WAY too big and expressionless. Show some emotion Kemosabe!!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Former Roommate = Lazy Garfield
This Garfield cartoon reminded me of my college and graduate school roommate, EH. He was always lying around the house and put up his #1 finger in every picture you took of him. Congrats EH! You are #1 at being lazy!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Lost in the Fog and Aleo Documentary
I've never been a huge fan of horse racing but when my great aunt Connie told me about her friend's horse called Lost in the Fog, something in me got interested. We went to see him once at Bay Meadows, he kicked ass, and we had a blast. The story ended in a sad way when LITF had to be put down after contracting cancer and then Harry Aleo passed away. He was a neat guy and had this realty store up in Noe Valley that I never saw open. But, my aunt and I would walk buy and she would point out all his funny signs about liberal SF. Thank goodness someone decided to make a documentary about the horse and his owner. The link above goes to the full story. I'm looking forward to the movie!
Science Guy
I picked up this little action figure magnet at a vendor show today. I'm not so sure what the white thing on her foot is, but I like the look! Where's the pocket protector??
2009 Men's Basketball Bracket
Even though I want the Gophers to go all the way, I don't see them making it past the 2nd round. I have a feeling that this year, the final four is going to be filled with the usual suspects. But, at least Minnesota is back in the reall mens tournament and not the fight for 66th place!!
Applewood Dinner
We had a fantastic dinner on Saturday night at the Applewood Inn. We each tried the 5 course tasting menu with the wine pairing and loved it! Great job AW!
Tiburon Theater
This little guy welcomed us to the Tiburon Theater where we saw a very good movie called The International with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. I think he's related to MH. It was a great little theater with about 80 seats and pretty good sound system. I don't know why that movie wasn't more popular especially since we all now know that banks are evil!!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
UFL in SF
Not sure how I feel about the newly proposed UFL team heading for The City, but I'll probably check it out. So many other minor league football leagues have failed in the past, USFL, XFL but the coaches in this new league are well known. One was even a head coach for the MN Vikings (Dennis Green). So, maybe it has a decent chance. They are looking for people to suggest names for the team in SF. How about the SF Rainbows?
Russian River Sightseeing
The Applewood Inn had this sweet solarium right next to our room and a fireplace on the other side. The next photo is of the Hop Kiln winery that used to be huge brewery before they converted it into a winery. We saw this poor little headless baby on the sidewalk outside Main Street Station. Poor little baby also lost part of his arm!
Drive Down Highway 101
We had great views of the ocean and surfers on the drive down Highway 1 and we also saw a bunch of funny little statues and signs like the smoking salmon and the giant gnome.
Russian River Wineries
Loved the Homer Simpson sign at Armida. Too bad we didn't like anything else there. We also checked out these wineries on our Saturday tour for the barrel tasting weekend: Korbel - great little appetizers
Moshin - super friendly hostess
Hop Kiln - huge crowd and cool history of the winery
Armida - heaven and hell and frat house feel
Thomas George - AWESOME! Best one we visited! The people there were young, cool, and hip. and they are building caves for entertaining and dinner parties.
Amphora and Family were crowded like keggers.
Talty - best zinfandel
David Caffaro - great views
Main Street Station and Applewood Inn in Guerneville, CA
We had a great pizza and salad dinner at Main Street Station in downtown Guerneville. The pizza was really fresh and they even had a 3 piece jazz band playing until about 10pm. There was some other "entertainment" as well when one of the patrons had a little too much to drink. She kept walking outside the restaurant and staring into the place at her boyfriend who just sat at his table and continued to drink. Hilarious! I don't know why the reviews of this place only give it 2 stars, because I thought it was pretty good! Loved the teapot lamp in our room and the view out onto the courtyard at the Inn. The people there were super friendly!
Blue Gay Ducks
This story is funny! A bird sanctuary was hoping to have some rare Blue Ducks mate and instead the males fell in love with each other instead of the females. A warden at the park was quoted as saying the two male birds make "a lovely couple." Rainbow love in West Sussex!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)