There are stages.
Stage 1: awareness of option.
Everyone has options of some kind or another. In my case, it's the end of my Honours year, signifying my entry into the world of academia, industry or neither. Will I stay in this specific area? This field? Will I research? Will I talk/write/administer science? Or will science see the back of me?
Stage 2: research of alternatives.
Before I had broadband, I really felt the lack. Now that I have it, I'm not sure it's made things any better. There are times I feel I am closing in on a decision. I have it within my grasp. All of a sudden, it rears up on me, whinnies and bolts away, often kicking me in the head in the process. Then there are the times I feel no closer to a decision than ever. It's times like these I can be paralysed by indecision.
Stage 3: decision.
This needn't be a lifelong commitment, although a PhD does entail at least 3 years of research. The comforting thing is that time has an inexorable way of passing. Thus, despite my current ignorama and ignominy, in but a few months the decision will have been made. I find stress about exams can sometimes be eluded in a similar fashion.
Stage 4: awareness of option.
About three months after the decision has been made, new options arise. The cycle resumes, with hilarious consequences.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
The Ineffable Anxiety of Planning Experiments
Next week I begin a large series of experiments, on which my Honours thesis hinges, swaying gently in the breeze. If I'm not careful, i'll cut myself on the screen door like Cletus.
There are essentially three steps:
1) grow some neurons
2) take some of them and
a) visualise the location of several different proteins using fluorescent antibodies
b) examine their morphology using other fluorescent antibodies
3) take the rest and meaure the amount of certain proteins
If I could perform these steps sequentially I'd be living the life of Riley. Nary a worry in the world, but so slow that my scientific competitors would rise above me. So I must do 2 and 3 at the same time, and therein lies my fear. Still, that's what molecular biology is made of. Is it any wonder women do well here, with their notorious ability to multitask, while men flounder and bream? This is just a stereotype to make me feel better, but I'm sticking with it 'til the sun don't shine for three months.
There are essentially three steps:
1) grow some neurons
2) take some of them and
a) visualise the location of several different proteins using fluorescent antibodies
b) examine their morphology using other fluorescent antibodies
3) take the rest and meaure the amount of certain proteins
If I could perform these steps sequentially I'd be living the life of Riley. Nary a worry in the world, but so slow that my scientific competitors would rise above me. So I must do 2 and 3 at the same time, and therein lies my fear. Still, that's what molecular biology is made of. Is it any wonder women do well here, with their notorious ability to multitask, while men flounder and bream? This is just a stereotype to make me feel better, but I'm sticking with it 'til the sun don't shine for three months.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Red Computer Bucket
Arthur a grammar. What is a question.
How'm I s'posed to get outta here, somehow?
I am king of plasma.
That's the only thing i want so much.
Kim's got her watermelon gun.
You sold me fifty dollars.
A tear drops my eye.
Nonsense or fact? You be the judge.
How'm I s'posed to get outta here, somehow?
I am king of plasma.
That's the only thing i want so much.
Kim's got her watermelon gun.
You sold me fifty dollars.
A tear drops my eye.
Nonsense or fact? You be the judge.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
World's Oldest Bat Discovered Underneath Fat Man
The oldest bat in the world was discovered on a couch previously occupied by a morbidly obese man. The bloodsuckler was a Townsend's Big Eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii) and biological testing confirmed its age as 37, beating by seven the previous record held by a little brown bat.
The man involved was identified as Barry Templeton, a 62 year old man from a village near Bristol, England. Templeton, who weighs 132 kg, explained that he would not have noticed a thing, but his dog, Marmaduchess alerted him to the unlikely visitor's presence after he had gotten up to answer the door. Templeton took the bat to his local vet, who pronounced the bat dead on arrival. Templeton said he had "no idea" how the bat got there.
Although a battery of tests were used to establish the deceased bat's age, the clincher was DNA testing of blood which had dried around its lips. This was amazingly traced back to a male pig-tailed monkey (Macaca nemestrina) known as Bonnie, who died of heart failure whilst in orbit around the earth aboard the NASA spacecraft, Biosatellite III. The monkey passed away 9 days after being launched in June, 1969.
Templeton, an amateur astronomer, casually mentioned the story to a friend working at NASA, who recounted the tale of Bonnie. NASA regularly takes blood samples of humans and animals it sends into space for identification purposes. Although it usually keeps these records confidential, NASA had no problem releasing the data to the Bristol veterinarian.
A NASA official was unable to confirm whether Bonnie had been bitten by a bat, but suggested that a trip to the zoo a few days before launch by members of the Biosatellite III team, including Bonnie, would have been the only time the monkey would have been exposed to bats.
The man involved was identified as Barry Templeton, a 62 year old man from a village near Bristol, England. Templeton, who weighs 132 kg, explained that he would not have noticed a thing, but his dog, Marmaduchess alerted him to the unlikely visitor's presence after he had gotten up to answer the door. Templeton took the bat to his local vet, who pronounced the bat dead on arrival. Templeton said he had "no idea" how the bat got there.
Although a battery of tests were used to establish the deceased bat's age, the clincher was DNA testing of blood which had dried around its lips. This was amazingly traced back to a male pig-tailed monkey (Macaca nemestrina) known as Bonnie, who died of heart failure whilst in orbit around the earth aboard the NASA spacecraft, Biosatellite III. The monkey passed away 9 days after being launched in June, 1969.
Templeton, an amateur astronomer, casually mentioned the story to a friend working at NASA, who recounted the tale of Bonnie. NASA regularly takes blood samples of humans and animals it sends into space for identification purposes. Although it usually keeps these records confidential, NASA had no problem releasing the data to the Bristol veterinarian.
A NASA official was unable to confirm whether Bonnie had been bitten by a bat, but suggested that a trip to the zoo a few days before launch by members of the Biosatellite III team, including Bonnie, would have been the only time the monkey would have been exposed to bats.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Alright, I'll write something about science
After claiming to be a scientist (at least in training), it is probably time that I offered something of a scientific bent. I may still manage to fit sport in somewhere.
The world media was aflutter with reports of a paralysed man who controlled a cursor and a robotic hand using his brain, but not his muscles. Y'see, he had a sensor in his brain which sent signals to a processor, which decoded them and moved said cursor/robotic hand.
What to make of all this? First of all, it's worth checking out the article itself:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7099/pdf/nature04970.pdf
It's nice that Nature has made this freely available, as like most scientific journals they have a way of keeping things to themselves and their subscribers. When faced with a journal's website telling me i'm not allowed to view an article, I go here: http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/ejournals/
and access is usually forthcoming.
Nature Publishing Group is also one of the most respected/highest impact/popular series of journals in scientific publishing. If you're a scientist with a paper that you think is white hot, you might try sending it to Nature.
Returning to our cybernetic tetraplegic, MN - for some reason, subjects are always referred to by their intials. Does it really protect their privacy when there's pictures of them in the article? And how hard can it be to find a tetraplegic with those initials? They also mention that his injury was from a knife wound that transected the spinal cord between cervicl vertebrae C3-C4. C'mon, you can't give those details but not explain any more!
One of my first thoughts was: how the heck do they transduce his brain signals? To me, it all came down to the signal processor. Measuring neuronal activity is not such a big deal, but converting that into movement of a cursor seemed to me more complicated. This probably reflects my background in neuroscience and I would like to now call upon anyone with an engineering background (you know who you are) to fill in the other details.
Without knowing anything, the following sketch may not be too far from the truth. The sensor uses its 100 electrodes to detect the activity of neurons - sometimes single ones, other times groups. This activity is measured in microvolts. What they then do is build up a database of firing patterns associated with certain movements. Imagine putting your hands together then apart, get pattern X. Open and close your hands, get pattern Y. Imagine manually tracking a technician-operated (in Australia we call them research assistants) cursor, get pattern Z.
This pattern was converted via a filter function into a two dimensional output signal - the neural cursor. This makes sense for imagining moving a cursor, but I'm not sure what a 2D output would mean for opening your hands or shrugging your shoulders. I still have no idea how the filter function works, but it seems to do the trick.
They then compared MN's neural cursor with the techinician's actual cursor. Over 6 sessions the correlation between the neural cursor and the technician's was 0.56 +/- 0.18 on the x axis and 0.45 +/- .15 on the y axis. It would be weird if there were a difference between x and y axes. This didn't seem to me to be a particuarly impressive correlation, but the results were 'similar or better than those seen in intact monkeys'. Unsurprisingly it turns out that they've done this in monkeys before. 'Preclinical animal studies' are a common story in neuroscience research.
It turns out the robotic control was also by using his cursor skills. Later on they got him to open some simulated email. Why was it simulated? I have no idea.They also got him to adjust the volume, channel and power to his television. Now that's research you can take to the bank! They also made movies of MN playing Neural Pong and Neural "HeMan" game. I'd love to watch these but damn MediaPlayer can't play the mov file.
Am I alone in finding many scientific papers hard to get through? This one had a lot of techniques I was unfamiliar with but still, it'd be nice if they converted it to a laywoman's version. Most newspaper reports just don't even try.
It seems like they had a few technical difficulties with the sensors, one of which required 'clinical protocol change', which meant cutting MN open and fiddling with the device. In a second subject (no initials for him) a technical issue caused an abrupt signal loss at most electrodes, the reason for which is being evaluated. I suppose this would be like getting disconnected at a critical time. Impressive research, though more reporting of difficulties and problems would better serve the public.
I can't think of a good way to sum up this paper, so I'll end with Go the Doggies!
The world media was aflutter with reports of a paralysed man who controlled a cursor and a robotic hand using his brain, but not his muscles. Y'see, he had a sensor in his brain which sent signals to a processor, which decoded them and moved said cursor/robotic hand.
What to make of all this? First of all, it's worth checking out the article itself:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7099/pdf/nature04970.pdf
It's nice that Nature has made this freely available, as like most scientific journals they have a way of keeping things to themselves and their subscribers. When faced with a journal's website telling me i'm not allowed to view an article, I go here: http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/ejournals/
and access is usually forthcoming.
Nature Publishing Group is also one of the most respected/highest impact/popular series of journals in scientific publishing. If you're a scientist with a paper that you think is white hot, you might try sending it to Nature.
Returning to our cybernetic tetraplegic, MN - for some reason, subjects are always referred to by their intials. Does it really protect their privacy when there's pictures of them in the article? And how hard can it be to find a tetraplegic with those initials? They also mention that his injury was from a knife wound that transected the spinal cord between cervicl vertebrae C3-C4. C'mon, you can't give those details but not explain any more!
One of my first thoughts was: how the heck do they transduce his brain signals? To me, it all came down to the signal processor. Measuring neuronal activity is not such a big deal, but converting that into movement of a cursor seemed to me more complicated. This probably reflects my background in neuroscience and I would like to now call upon anyone with an engineering background (you know who you are) to fill in the other details.
Without knowing anything, the following sketch may not be too far from the truth. The sensor uses its 100 electrodes to detect the activity of neurons - sometimes single ones, other times groups. This activity is measured in microvolts. What they then do is build up a database of firing patterns associated with certain movements. Imagine putting your hands together then apart, get pattern X. Open and close your hands, get pattern Y. Imagine manually tracking a technician-operated (in Australia we call them research assistants) cursor, get pattern Z.
This pattern was converted via a filter function into a two dimensional output signal - the neural cursor. This makes sense for imagining moving a cursor, but I'm not sure what a 2D output would mean for opening your hands or shrugging your shoulders. I still have no idea how the filter function works, but it seems to do the trick.
They then compared MN's neural cursor with the techinician's actual cursor. Over 6 sessions the correlation between the neural cursor and the technician's was 0.56 +/- 0.18 on the x axis and 0.45 +/- .15 on the y axis. It would be weird if there were a difference between x and y axes. This didn't seem to me to be a particuarly impressive correlation, but the results were 'similar or better than those seen in intact monkeys'. Unsurprisingly it turns out that they've done this in monkeys before. 'Preclinical animal studies' are a common story in neuroscience research.
It turns out the robotic control was also by using his cursor skills. Later on they got him to open some simulated email. Why was it simulated? I have no idea.They also got him to adjust the volume, channel and power to his television. Now that's research you can take to the bank! They also made movies of MN playing Neural Pong and Neural "HeMan" game. I'd love to watch these but damn MediaPlayer can't play the mov file.
Am I alone in finding many scientific papers hard to get through? This one had a lot of techniques I was unfamiliar with but still, it'd be nice if they converted it to a laywoman's version. Most newspaper reports just don't even try.
It seems like they had a few technical difficulties with the sensors, one of which required 'clinical protocol change', which meant cutting MN open and fiddling with the device. In a second subject (no initials for him) a technical issue caused an abrupt signal loss at most electrodes, the reason for which is being evaluated. I suppose this would be like getting disconnected at a critical time. Impressive research, though more reporting of difficulties and problems would better serve the public.
I can't think of a good way to sum up this paper, so I'll end with Go the Doggies!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Zizou Butt Theories
There's too many comical items in this to single out any.
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,19752159-5004540,00.html
Oh, alright. My favourites are Thierry Henry's comment, SOS Racism quoting "very well informed" sources, The Times' lip reader's analysis, and Materazzi's command of whichever language it was he was speaking.
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,19752159-5004540,00.html
Oh, alright. My favourites are Thierry Henry's comment, SOS Racism quoting "very well informed" sources, The Times' lip reader's analysis, and Materazzi's command of whichever language it was he was speaking.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Hamish’s Portfolio Theory of Sport Following
This is quite a simple idea, but can be very effective.
One of the great things about sport is you are admitted into a world of vicarious highs and lows. This leeching of the emotional experiences of elite athletes is enhanced if you follow the athlete/team, and moreso if for a long time. In the World Cup, because the athletes are so good, and the fans so involved, it’s the ultimate sporting spectacle. But if your country happens to qualify, you top up your enjoyment account manifold. If you have followed your country’s vain attempts to qualify or progress for three decades, the ante is upped again. And the World Cup is special because your emotions (limited as they are to the sporting spectrum, but valid nonetheless) are shared by many of your countrywomen and men.
The problem with sport is the lows can be a bit a of a bummer. First of all, it can be genuinely heartbreaking seeing some losses. This is one of the easiest, sure-fire way to get one of those ‘replay the scene in your head’moments, or more likely continuing episodes. If it was a bad loss, you may temporarily forget failure and imagine what would have happened if they hadn’t lost after all. You may even map out future opponents and results of these games, if only... Interestingly, such counterfactuals are largely involuntary, and can indeed be hard to suppress. Second of all, bad moods can follow losses, which disrupt your interactions with loved ones and colleagues, and may impair your productivity, thus draining the economy of the wealth it so richly deserves. Lastly, it is frankly downright embarassing to admit a sporting team’s influence on your person. After all, are we sports nuts any better than those pond scum who indulge in gossip magazines? P’raps. I know there are many things I’d feel in my soul of souls more pleased doing - playing guitar, singing, listening to Mars Volta, playing Druglord, cooking for my wife - the list goes on. But back to sporting failure, and how to hide it under your bushel.
This is where the portfolio comes in. Having a sports portfolio - a range of teams or individuals to follow - means somewhere, sometime there is always someone winning. You black out the failures and take the winners on board. My portfolio has consisted over the years of (in rough order of frequency of support and importance) the Bulldogs in the NRL, the Socceroos, the Golden State Warriors (NBA), the Sydney Kings (NBL), and then a range of lower tier ones: Sydney Swans (AFL), River Plate and pretty much any team from Sydney, NSW, or Australia. This takes in tennis players (although for Lleyton Hewitt I’m willing to make an exception), golfers (especially Appleby, Allenby and Ogilvy), cricket teams and whatnot. In the English Premier League I generally support a team with (decent) Aussies - Blackburn, Liverpool. Because of the GS Warriors, I even retain a modicum of satisfaction when the Oakland Raiders win in the NFL - and I haven’t watched an NFL game in about 15 years. (In fact I spent more time in my youth playing the superb NFL PC game where you could make your team really fast, or fat, and we had a guy called My Main Man Maxwell, and one season later in the draft we were shocked and delighted to see that his brother had turned up - Rick Main Man Maxwell, or something like that. Tas, where are you? What was his first name?) So by having a sports portfolio, you can have success all the time, and credibility is just around the corner.
Of course, if you subscribe to the underdog school of sports supporting, you’ll rarely be pleased. But it’ll be worth it when you are. But it’ll be lame most of the time.
An added bonus is that if anyone questions why you follow so many different teams and sports, you can rationally justify it and return to the sports section unfettered.
One of the great things about sport is you are admitted into a world of vicarious highs and lows. This leeching of the emotional experiences of elite athletes is enhanced if you follow the athlete/team, and moreso if for a long time. In the World Cup, because the athletes are so good, and the fans so involved, it’s the ultimate sporting spectacle. But if your country happens to qualify, you top up your enjoyment account manifold. If you have followed your country’s vain attempts to qualify or progress for three decades, the ante is upped again. And the World Cup is special because your emotions (limited as they are to the sporting spectrum, but valid nonetheless) are shared by many of your countrywomen and men.
The problem with sport is the lows can be a bit a of a bummer. First of all, it can be genuinely heartbreaking seeing some losses. This is one of the easiest, sure-fire way to get one of those ‘replay the scene in your head’moments, or more likely continuing episodes. If it was a bad loss, you may temporarily forget failure and imagine what would have happened if they hadn’t lost after all. You may even map out future opponents and results of these games, if only... Interestingly, such counterfactuals are largely involuntary, and can indeed be hard to suppress. Second of all, bad moods can follow losses, which disrupt your interactions with loved ones and colleagues, and may impair your productivity, thus draining the economy of the wealth it so richly deserves. Lastly, it is frankly downright embarassing to admit a sporting team’s influence on your person. After all, are we sports nuts any better than those pond scum who indulge in gossip magazines? P’raps. I know there are many things I’d feel in my soul of souls more pleased doing - playing guitar, singing, listening to Mars Volta, playing Druglord, cooking for my wife - the list goes on. But back to sporting failure, and how to hide it under your bushel.
This is where the portfolio comes in. Having a sports portfolio - a range of teams or individuals to follow - means somewhere, sometime there is always someone winning. You black out the failures and take the winners on board. My portfolio has consisted over the years of (in rough order of frequency of support and importance) the Bulldogs in the NRL, the Socceroos, the Golden State Warriors (NBA), the Sydney Kings (NBL), and then a range of lower tier ones: Sydney Swans (AFL), River Plate and pretty much any team from Sydney, NSW, or Australia. This takes in tennis players (although for Lleyton Hewitt I’m willing to make an exception), golfers (especially Appleby, Allenby and Ogilvy), cricket teams and whatnot. In the English Premier League I generally support a team with (decent) Aussies - Blackburn, Liverpool. Because of the GS Warriors, I even retain a modicum of satisfaction when the Oakland Raiders win in the NFL - and I haven’t watched an NFL game in about 15 years. (In fact I spent more time in my youth playing the superb NFL PC game where you could make your team really fast, or fat, and we had a guy called My Main Man Maxwell, and one season later in the draft we were shocked and delighted to see that his brother had turned up - Rick Main Man Maxwell, or something like that. Tas, where are you? What was his first name?) So by having a sports portfolio, you can have success all the time, and credibility is just around the corner.
Of course, if you subscribe to the underdog school of sports supporting, you’ll rarely be pleased. But it’ll be worth it when you are. But it’ll be lame most of the time.
An added bonus is that if anyone questions why you follow so many different teams and sports, you can rationally justify it and return to the sports section unfettered.
PGC as Rohrschach Test
Regarding the revealingness of post-goal celebrations, I wouldn’t say that the more subdued the celebration, the closer to insanity. Because I can imagine myself there, on the world stage, and scoring, and perhaps because I’m such a hot player, I kind of expect it. Or I react so quickly, I am able to tone it down and so reveal my utter, utter coolness. Still, Zinedane’s placid display will surely be the last of the finals.
My prediction: whoever scores in the semis will be accosted by their team mates. First beset upon. Jumped upon. Smothered. They’ll crush the air out of him, then tear his clothes off and hoist them skyward, in the manner of days of yore. Content with their fill, and spent, they’ll return to the game. Meanwhile, our poor scorer will have nothing to wear. Shrinkage will inevitably follow, followed by borrowing of Olivar Kahn’s garb, even if it’s someone from the Portugal-France game.
My prediction: whoever scores in the semis will be accosted by their team mates. First beset upon. Jumped upon. Smothered. They’ll crush the air out of him, then tear his clothes off and hoist them skyward, in the manner of days of yore. Content with their fill, and spent, they’ll return to the game. Meanwhile, our poor scorer will have nothing to wear. Shrinkage will inevitably follow, followed by borrowing of Olivar Kahn’s garb, even if it’s someone from the Portugal-France game.
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