Always a good stop for a breath of reality. Fleeting as it is.

Decius wrote:

...

Hooray for the arts!

RE: DiskJokke - Interpolation - YouTube

Holy sh!T!

Here, we show that these mutagenic tRNAs efficiently and specifically cause randomized proteome mutations and increasing levels of stress response activation depending on the mutation being introduced. As an example, we describe the utilization of this method for the identification of human microRNAs (miRNAs) that may be involved in the induction of apoptosis during late stages of the unfolded protein response.

From the ADAPT TO EVIL PURPOSES department

"If you're good, if you're any good at all, you put yourself in a situation where reality could come around and -- WHACK! -- knock you down. That's what you really are afraid of. If you don't have that, you're not playing science,"

"That lab was a strange, strange place. A lot of weird, weird, different kinds of people. The dean would look at it and say, 'That's a strange damn place.' I'd answer: 'Have you looked at me?' "

Much of the work was some variation of two basic LTP experiments. One involved isolating single neurons, which, using high-powered microscopes, were identified, then pinched with a clamp to hold them in place. This was exceptionally tedious. Researchers could go entire days without successfully clamping a single cell.

"There is so damned much housekeeping. The problem is, biology is a very horizontal science. You have this result over here, that one over there. None of it lines up."

One man's epic quest for understanding

noteworthy wrote:
Silver star.

This is better with the audio/video, but the transcript is still quite worthwhile.

Rose: Did you get what you needed from the budget in order to carry out the kinds of thing that is you think are a part of this battle against terrorism, this long war, and this attitude that you're reflecting now? In terms of the kind – how you're shifting from a Cold War to a different war.

Rumsfeld: The budget is fine. It's going to --
Rose: You can live with it?
Rumsfeld: We can live with it and we ought to do a better job of spending it. In other words, it is --
Rose: In terms of weapon systems?
Rumsfeld: Well, no. Weapons systems are one thing. Everyone talks about this airplane or that ship.
Rose: Right.

Rumsfeld: I'm more interested in intelligence gathering, connecting intelligence to the operations in real time so that you can actually stop something from happening. That's what we need to get better at. It is the soft stuff. It is the connectors. In linking the services in a way that you leverage that capability. Increasing precision in your attacks. Speeding data to the user, the person who needs it. The operator of that -- to have that data in his hands so something good can come of it. That's what we need. Sure, we have to worry about platforms and ships and guns and tanks and planes and that stuff. That is not what the department of defense has to be about.

MemeStreams is what it has to be about.

And the paragraph highlighted above is going on a posterboard in my office.

It's a ruse! That's an extraterrestrial being that is trying to fool us! Wait! Wait! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! If not - then we'd better check his blood alcohol content!

RE: Interview with Secretary Rumsfeld on the Charlie Rose Show

Collective intelligence - It's not just for badgers

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Published Friday 11th November 2005 01:59 GMT

Friday Poll Results Three weeks ago we asked you - what does "Web 2.0" mean? What is it, really? No one who promotes the buzzword seems to be able to explain it. Even after a few mystical incantations of "collective intelligence" - we were none the wiser.

Best laugh I've had in a long time.

What is Web 2.0? You redefine the paradigm