"sequence the charismatic megafauna"

William Andregg interviewed by Sander Olson.   Read the whole interview at Next Big Future:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/12/interview-of-gene-sequencing-expert.html

One of the best, most succinct descriptions of whats in store as we utilize gene sequencing for research (that I've found.).  Money quote:

"The grand design is to read, write, program DNA. The better and faster and cheaper you do that, the sooner we’ll hack biology and be free from disease. Billions of individual human genomes, and billions of genomes of domesticated animals, is only the beginning. The amount of genomic information on this planet that might help us hack biology is orders of magnitude vaster than that. You have quadrillions of unique genomes in your body, counting the metagenome of all your individual genomically different cells and the metagenome of all the stuff living in and on you. Someone will probably want to sequence every tree in a forest, or every leaf on a tree, or every bacterium in a speck of seawater. Someone will definitely sequence every ear of corn in a cornfield. We’ll probably sequence all the charismatic megafauna we can find on the planet, and all the trillions of less glamorous animals as well. But even that is only the beginning. People will do forward genetics studies where they sequence trillions of individual cells or model organisms. And there may be just as much or more sequencing of artificial genomes or genetic constructs in the course of solving synthetic biology- the writing and programming part of the grand design. Tangentially, synthetic biology might be the least insanely difficult way to robust nanotechnology, making anything you want from spoons to space elevators, just like your cells build things with atomic precision all the time, using a billion year old programming language that we aim to completely understand. And so sequencing might turn out to be upstream of a lot more than merely freeing humanity from all disease."

Extremely exciting.

Thanks to Next Big Future and TechCrunch TV.

William Gibson "takes to Twitter like a duck to water"

You’ve taken to Twitter (GreatDismal).
I have indeed. I’ve taken to Twitter like a duck to water. Its simplicity allows the user to customize the experience with relatively little input from the Twitter entity itself. I hope they keep it simple. It works because it’s simple. I was never interested in Facebook or MySpace because the environment seemed too top-down mediated. They feel like malls to me. But Twitter actually feels like the street. You can bump into anybody on Twitter.

see: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/09/vulture_transcript_william_gib.html

thanks to nymag.com

secret spaceplane X-37B

well, just how secret can it be?

via: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/photos-x-37b-robot-space-plane-landing-101203.html

America in decline?

From time to time in conversation with friends, and even in this blog, I lament about the condition of the United Stares.  I have used the unwieldly phrase "banana-republification", as well as other terms.

James Fallows pointed to an article in der Spiegel which advances several themes about how we got in the condition we're in.  Its interesting to see our quandary from the point of view of others.   Maybe there is a little schadenfreude, but its gentle enough not to distract.

Anyway, if you've got a few minutes, take a look at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,726447-6,00.html

recently, in San Francisco (or nearby)

Who knew it was fleet week?  I was invariably too slow to photograph Blue Angels.

Apollo! 

USS Makin Island

Muir Woods deer

in line during William Gibson book tour

belated post:

2nd half of line in Brookline

that HTC EVO I got at Google IO?

oops!   Gave it to my lovely wife and.....

Shattered!

Concord River

recent experiences captured for posterity

Our Friendly Pasta guy

From a Recent Hike

More From a Recent Hike in the White Mtns

Cats Monitoring the Garden

woodpile - firewood delivered today

We like the woodstove and the heat it generates, and the cats really like it, especially on those otherwise cold days.   Delivered today...

collapse

I frequently think about what I refer to as the banana-republification of the United States.  Just watching, it seems hard to understand what a country of our wealth, innovative spirit, and successful history can no longer afford, or perhaps - chooses to no longer to afford.

Here is an article on that theme by Glenn Greenwald in Salon, "What Collapsing Empire Looks Like":
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/06/collapse

I think we've increasingly moved to a winner-takes-all style of economy, and in so doing we've managed to also develop a winner-breaks-it style of economy that is anything but resilient.  Perhaps these winner-takes-all policies are really golden-goose-killing policies.

I think of the lottery winners who squander their winnings and wake up one day to realize they've lost it all and and only in that moment of realization recognize what they now wish they had done differently.  Or athletes that  sign a big contract only to see themselves in bankruptcy court because they failed to treat their good fortune wisely.   I have optimistic friends who see emerging innovative ways-of-living and economic models of activity that may result in more success again for our country in the future; they turn away from the dystopian view I might see in Glenn's article.  I hope they are right.

Boston Globe on Fisher Cats

The Boston Globe has an article today about Fisher Cats locally.   We've seen a Fisher around our house for at least three years now.  A beautiful creature (similar to the one to the left) he's graceful and dangerous-looking.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2010/08/04/house_cats_be_warned_fishers_are_back_on_prowl/

"strike at the root"

Excellent 18min video from TedXBoston, - Lessig's plea to "strike at the root" of the problem facing us today.   He makes a strong case that our Republic stands in the balance, and the root of the problem is the effect of corporate funding of Congressional campaigns.

No one has said it better, in my opinion.  Its worth the 18mins, check it out here:  Of/By/4

 http://lessig.blip.tv/file/3945764/

Andy Grove on job creation

Best, most succinct article on basic problems in America's ability to create jobs.   For a while I've been telling people that American companies have been creating millions of jobs in the last decade or two.  Just not here.  Grove puts seasoned analysis behind my sloganeering.

Read it here, thanks to Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-01/how-to-make-an-american-job-before-it-s-too-late-andy-grove.html

a quick snap from the garden

it is prolific this year.  more to come.

(note, still learning to take photos with camera on Droid.   not too good at focus yet.)

Recently, in Bermuda:

We traveled around the island of Bermuda for a few days recently.  Here are a few non-consequential snaps.

sheep on the fort

from Fort George

flying

So, if you live around here...

...and are interested in local history, you might be interested in this book.  I found a link to it  recently, thanks to Google:  http://books.google.com/books?id=QGolOAyd9RMC

Its a history of Middlesex County, written in 1879, by Samuel Adams Drake.    Its a lot of fun to dig into.

I thought I'd put this here for the permanent record.

recent flooding

Some recent flooding scenes in Concord.

Can I make it?

When Calves Have Gills

Fording Lowell Road

Thats Too Bad!

local flooding

So, three days of very hard rain have led to a fair amount of flooding in our local towns.  Here is the road we take to leave our little cul-de-sac.  Daunting, but navigable so far.

road flooded

Walden Pond and Climate Change

Harvard researchers have published a paper on the effect of climate change on the Walden Pond area.  Important to understand is how climate change can enable and strengthen the hand of invasive species. Interestingly, data from Thoreau's own journals were useful in this research.  Relevant snippet from the summary:

"Climate change may exacerbate species invasions across communities if non-native species are better able to respond to climate changes than native species."

Here is the link thread to the paper.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/how-climate-is-changing-walden-pond.html

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/02/when-success-spells-defeat/

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0008878

We often walk in these woods so its fun to find information that helps us understand and appreciate our local area in more detail.

supplements

Here is a great post and graphic from Information is Beautiful - http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplements/  that describes the posible value of various supplements.  The cool thing is that the graphic is driven real-time off their updated data, so when new information comes in - the graphic is automagically updated.

I believe, to a certain extent, in the benefit of supplements.  These days I take, from time to time, a multi-vitamin, fish oil, folic acid, SAM-E, l-lysine, and vitamin D. 

winter wonderland

After the storm.

And, from last month.

climate science accuracy, advocacy

This article in the Washington Post captures some of my feelings about the issues raised by (in my opinion) carelessness in how climate science results have been communicated, or not.

See: "Series of missteps.... "

One of the fantastic qualities of the scientific method is focus on reproducibility of results; share your data, analysis, and conclusions, and others can verify or not your results.   Opinion and advocacy is welcome; both are separate from the scientific process.  Rely on science for scientific results; engage the political sphere to determine policy.

ICA in Boston

Yesterday we visited the ICA in Boston.  I was particularly interested in the Damian Ortega exhibit and found his work compelling.

Here is a photo of the ICA building as we approached from the back.

personal responsibility for health - patriotism 2.0

  
Great blog post at Jen’s Posterous

 http://hmrx.posterous.com/personal-responsibility-for-health-patriotism

This makes perfect sense to me.  One problem with health care is exactly as Jen describes.  Its easy for us to make poor health-related choices and then expect the heath care industry to solve our problem for us.  It certainly doesn't help that our free-market economy spends billions marketing poor choices to us. And also marketing diets and exercise schemes to help us counteract our bad habits.

Not to ignore the fact that real health care issues certainly arise, but our system could probably work better if we could spend more resources on providing health care remedies (and researching medical solutions) for unavoidable or otherwise tragic diseases and injuries.   Ironically, in a time of economic distress for many, it can turn out that eating better and exercising simply but with consistency, not only saves money in the short-term but can save larger heath care costs in the longer term.