Merkel Cells and Light Touch

I had never even heard of Merkel cells and the controversy surrounding their involvement in feeling texture and shape. This paper in Science submitted by a group from Baylor and HHMI describes work that supports the idea that these cells are involved in light touch responses. They accomplished this by engineering an Atoh1 knockout mouse as this gene is responsible for the specification of Merkel cells. These mice lost the ability to respond to a stimulus normally. This story got me thinking, since blind people seem to have a better degree of proprioperception than non-blind people, could the reason be an increase in the upregulation of Atoh1?

Madoff Gets 150 Years

WOW! And nobody - not even his family - writes the Judge a letter of support. Have fun in jail Bernie!

Lactose Intolerant

Not sure if EP would appreciate being compared to a buzzard...

A Pharma Joke in Fusco??!!

Say it ain't so!!! Whitey would love this one!!

Biocentury

My new favorite weekly!!

Great Looking Banana Split Sundae!

KL got the best banana split sundae at the Metreon the other day! Looks yummy!

Best Comic Ever!

Most accurate too! I need to get that t-shirt!

Sweet Ride at the Metreon

Saw this cool little ride as we were leaving the Transformers movie!

Peskin Tells Daly to "shut up!"

I loved this story from Matier and Ross in today's Chronicle. Chris Daly was going off on a representative from the Fire Department when Aaron Peskin put him in his place. Awesome! It probably needs to happen more often.

What's your fault?

Everything!

Pre-Pride Rooftop Party

It was a scorcher in the city today and we spent the late afternoon at a rooftop party at D and A's. TL, MH, and even MB stopped by! LB showed up later after she was done rooting on her cousin pitching for the A's. Weather was great this weekend and loved seeing the pink triangle on Twin Peaks for Pride!

Brunch at Beach Chalet

After Tut we went to the Beach Chalet - one of our favorite spots to have brunch. The view of Ocean Beach is great but the food has gotten alot better then it was when I first went there in 1998. Awesome Bloody Marys and perfect weather!

King Tut Exhibit at the De Young

We went to the King Tut exhibit on Saturday and I thought it was pretty cool. They had a nice display of artifacts from various Egyptian tombs not only Tut. The level of detail and amount of work to construct many of the items we saw was incredible. The people that made them were super-talented! I don't think I have the patience or have the talent to make them. Also, learned a few new things I didn't know before. A few things were that: Tut's death was unexpected so his tomb was not designed for him but probably one of his chief advisors, the mummy of Tut was covered in 7-8 layers of different coffins, gold body masks, and head mask, and the internal organs were stored separately in different vases. Highly recommended!

Transformers, Dinner, Valkyrie, and The Wrestler

We saw Transformers II on Thursday. Tons of action, absolutely no plot, some truly annoying characters, and about 30 mins too long. DA, AR, and MH came over for steaks and crab afterward and to watch Valkyrie. A much better movie than Transformers! And we were still waiting to get Indy from the vet hospital! The Wrestler was too depressing to finish watching past the half-way point.

Jim Meko Campaign Kickoff

I've been a member of the Western SOMA Task Force for over 2 years now and the chair of the group is Jim Meko. Recently, he threw in his hat to replace Chris Daly as District 6 supervisor of SF who is termed out next year. Not only has been the head of the WSTF, he has been a tireless activist in SF for years. And, he's from Minnesota (extra bonus)! I think he would make a great Supervisor and hope he wins in 2010! This video was shot at his campaign kickoff event this past Tuesday. I really hope he gets his voice back soon!

Buffalo Field Campaign

I read about the plight of the buffalo (bison) in Yellowstone and how the officials there think it is necessary to kill some of them each year to keep them from migrating too far outside the park. These particular animals contain DNA from the bison that have been here since before the Europeans arrived.

American Indian Festival at YBG

This past Sunday there was a small but very cool American Indian Festival held at Yerba Buena Gardens. We stopped by for a couple of hours to enjoy the music and fantastic weather. This video was taken of the mini-powwow show they put on near the end of the program. The kids that were dancing were great!

Urban Tavern

Great drinks and bartenders are to be found at Urban Tavern! We ran into a bachelorette party and, of course, KL had to get the party started by ordering them all shots! The moms in the party were wilder than the girls!

Hilton San Francisco

We had a nice stay at the Hilton SF over the past weekend. The weather was fantastic for the pool lounging we did and we even enjoyed a few mojitos during the afternoon by the pool. The service at the hotel was fantastic and the bartenders at Urban Tavern we lots of fun. We also hit up Ponzu and the Grand Cafe for some sweet happy hour cocktails and appetizers. Our room was in Tower 1 and it had a balcony with some very nice city views!

Taylor Street Coffee Shop Breakfast

We spotted this place across the street from the Hilton and it looked pretty cozy. It turned out to be a great place for a cheap but good breakfast. They had a sweet list of different hashes and I got the one covered with Hollandaise. It was pretty darn good. Service was great and the price was right! We'll definitely be back!

Rafael Nadal Story

As much as I enjoy watching Federer, it's hard not to like Nadal too. I read this great article by Cynthia Gorney in the NY Times about him, his game, and his family. I hope the knee problems keeping him out of Wimbledon are only a temporary setback!

Getting Into Le Club

How true!

Glass of H2O?

This scene is very familiar - except for the beer part. But, I can dream!

Fragment Based Ligand Discovery

I read this very cool introduction and review to fragment-based ligand discovery. Highly recommend to anyone working in Discovery.

Oil and Indians Don't Mix

Just like oil and water, oil and Indians just don't mix well together. I read this story by Greg Palast about the oily trail of tears that happens around the globe anytime oil is discovered on Indian land. This quote from the former governor of Alaska is telling: "Land ownership comes in two ways, Mr. Palast." explained the governor and pipeline magnate, "Purchase or conquest. The fact that your granddaddy chased a caribou across the land doesn't make it yours." Never mind the fact that the Indians he was talking about had lived there for thousands of years! I bet if they discovered oil on Bush or Clinton land, they would have to pay dearly to drill there! He also has some awful quotes from Chevron lawyers that make Big Oil look even worse than they already do. Awful.

Thomas Jefferson: Founding Father of Indian Removal

According to this link and the article I read in the recent NMAI magazine, Thomas Jefferson pursued policies from 1801-1809 that eroded tribal homelands and cultures. These policies paved the way for the vast Indian removal programs of the 1830's. I find this pretty interesting and hypocritical for a man that supposedly admired Native character and considered them to be equal to whites. But, by encouraging the Indians to become farmers and give up traditional hunting, the white settlers were able to trick and pressure them to ceding their tribal lands. The small amount of money the Indians were given was used to buy farming equipment but they eventually went into debt. This debt was repaid by ceding more land. Jefferson's strategy yielded 30 treaties with about a dozen tribes and netted the US government about 200,000 square miles of land. Those tribes that did not make deals, were removed further and further west. This laid the foundation for Andrew Jackson's national policy of removal and the eventual Trail of Tears. Between 1816 and 1850, more than 100,000 Indians would be moved west of the Mississippi.

Dinner at Wexler's

I had a great dinner at this new small restaurant on Tuesday night with Whitey and Mr. Lek. The mac and cheese and lamb sliders were my favorites - Whitey liked the Scotch Eggs. Good drinks too!

Memories

This cartoon reminded me of some of my days as a kid (and even some days now!).

Botanists Can Be Funny!

I read this story about the naming of this new mushroom species by a botanist that has names over 100 different species. But for this one, he chose to play a little joke on a friend. If I had the chance, I probably would've done the same thing!

Feeling Young Again? Maybe not!

Just a reminder to take it easy from now on!

Litterbox

A full litterbox is NOT a good thing!

Lecture on Lincoln

We went to a lecture on Abraham Lincoln given by the Lincoln Scholar Michael Burlingame at the Commonwealth Club on Monday. The 30 min lecture and 30 min Q&A was filled with very interesting stories about Lincoln. I’m not sure if I’m going to buy the 2 book volume as it is 2000 pages long and weighs 10 pounds. He also mentioned that some of the stories in his new book had not been widely documented or studies in the past. Some of the more interesting things I heard were:

- Lincoln would probably be considered to be predisposed to depression and had 2 episodes when the depression was physically debilitating (death of his first love and broken engagement to Mary Todd). His mother died when he was young and he was estranged from his father who beat him for minor indiscretions. When his father was dying, he asked to see Lincoln, but he refused.

- He had a high tenor voice and spoke with a “hillbilly accent,” but his voice was very passionate and it carried long distances.

- Mary Todd had a VERY difficult life and she made Lincoln’s life very difficult. Her mother died young, her father abandonded her and her siblings after marrying her stepmom, 3-4 of her children die before adulthood, and then her husband was murdered. She did some pretty unethical things in the White House and frequently was physically abusive even though he was 6’3” and she was 5’2”. Because of her treatment of him, he traveled a lot and stayed away from home by keeping busy with work.

- In 1865, soon after Lincoln’s death, Frederick Douglass said that he was the black man’s president and that he was the first president to rise above the prejudices of the time.

- In his 2^nd inaugural address his comments seem to infer that his justification for the Civil War was that it was god’s punishment of white people for enslaving blacks.

- 2 days after Lee’s surrender Lincoln put forth the idea of limited black suffrage – meaning those blacks that had fought in the war or were intelligent (i.e. literate) should be given the right to vote. After this speech, Booth decides to assassinate him.

- Lincoln would often send in letters to the Springfield Whig newspaper ripping on the Democrats. There were no gems to be found in these letters.

- The greatest amount of personal and professional growth for Lincoln was the 5-7 years pre-presidency when he was essentially on political hiatus. Basically, he had a successful mid-life crisis. He had an inferiority complex about his education and his looks.

- Stephan Douglass was an even more amazing hateful race baiter than most people realize.

- Was great at working with people during his presidency – even his enemies (esp. Seward and Chase).

- Lots of similarities between Obama and Lincoln, but Lincoln was a wartime president and Obama’s biggest priority is the economy. Obama is probably more like FDR.

American Indian Health Care Stinks

I read this story in the Washington Post about the sorry state of American Indian health care on the reservations. According to a 1787 treaty with the government, American Indians on reservations should be provided free health care. Big surprise, the government is not following through. There are some pretty sad stories detailed in this article about the lack of care on the reserves. I really hope that Obama keeps his promise to these tribal communities and does something about it!!

Hi-Dive

I fulfilled a life-long dream yesterday - well at least it's been a dream since I started living in SF. We actually went into the Hi-Dive bar/restaurant to check it out. Surprisingly, it was very nice and the bar food was pretty good and cheap. They have a nice view of the water and an open patio. We had some of thir huge onion rings and they even made KL a turkey reuben. Their motto is " Cmon in! We were just talking about you!" so LG would love it! It did get pretty loud with the music, sports on TV, and drunk people yelling at each other. Some random guy ran in and started yelling some nonsense that wasn't even English. What a place - definitely will be back!

Huffaker Park Walk

We took a nice stroll through Huffaker park and around the Mission Creek watershed to check out the new sports courts and were pleasantly surprised. Saw this old boat sitting there for some reason. The park is pretty small but nice and clean and the tennis, basketball, and sand volleyball courts are all in very good shape. The tennis court is where I will be schooling AR. I read the story attached about the history of the watershed too. They also have a nice bike path and kayak rental place that takes people on excursions into the bay. Very cool! And all of it is just 2-3 blocks from our place!

The Travels of Franky and Indy's Ancestors

According to this recent article in Scientific American, the domesticated housecat originated in the Middle East and were important members of the home as early as 9500 years ago. They base their conclusions on genetic and archaeoligical data. So, Franky and Indy's ancestors took the path shown in the map to the left in order to arrive in their cozy home in SF. The rest of the story of the migration and domestication of the housecat is also very interesting.

You're Fired!!

FINALLY! The hater known as Carrie Prejean was fired from her "job" as Miss CA. I'm afraid we haven't heard the last of her, but for now, it was nice not knowing you CP!!

End of the World? In 5 Billion Years

I read this article today in Nature (pic from Nature website) about the possibility that Earth is on a collision course with Mercury, Venus, or Mars. Luckily, it's predicted to happen in about 5 billion years, so I think I'll sleep well tonight. The collison is predicted to happen due to the chaotic behavior of our solar system. Briefly, one simulation indicated that a change in the eccentricity of Mercury's orbit could cause a transfer of angular momentum from the larger planets resulting in a destabilization in the rest of the terrestrial planets leading to the collision.

Weird Alien Figure in Science Journal

I had to laugh at seeing this image in a journal article today.  It looked like an alien!!  But, it really is an image of a rat after dosing it with a radiolabelled compound.  The dark spots show that after the compound was administered orally (head at the bottom), it localizes to the kidneys (the dark eyes in the alien face).

Leatherback Turtles

I read this very interesting story on leatherback turtles in the May 2009 issue of National Geographic.  Some of the interesting things that were discussed were the migration patterns for laying their eggs (some travel 6500 miles), what they eat (jellyfish), how much they eat (some that weigh 500 lbs can eat 500 lbs in a day), their weight (they can weigh up to a ton).  Very interesting animal!  Save the leatherback!

Drop the Case Against Bonds!

Finally!  In this column in the SF Examiner, Art Spander argues that the case against Bonds should be dropped.  Aren't there more important terrible things going on in the world??