aphoticmelody

Kind of a strange question ... not so much a "what" as a "why".

Did anyone here see Regis & Kelly this morning? I tuned in maybe halfway through, and was surprised to see both of them wearing poppies. I'm Canadian, and everyone wears them for Remembrance Day here, but I had never seen Americans do so. Did they say anything about that, or did they just wear them without mentioning anything?

There was a game, along the lines of Bop It, that was really popular when I was in elementary school (so like 1996-98). It was a ball with six pegs coming out, each was a different color (I think) and each had a number on it. You'd start the game and it'd tell you which way to turn the ball (by number or color) and you had to do it in a certain time or you'd lose.

Does anyone have any ideas?

I read a short story a few years ago that I absolutely loved. It was included in an anthology that I know I have SOMEWHERE, but since some of my books are in storage and the rest are still at my mother's I can't search through them at the moment, and Google isn't helping. I'm looking for the story name & author, and perhaps which anthology it's in.

( Spoiler-y description under the cut )

I just remember it being a very powerful story and probably the only one that really caught my attention out of that anthology. So.. uh.. any ideas?

(yes, crossposted to whatwasthatbook)

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/murder-re-enacted.html

The Graveyard Book just won a literary award, which never gets old, and this one came with a medal, and also with a cheque. I thought, Hm. I have to get myself something with the cheque and I have to do it immediately, otherwise it will simply vanish into the day to day bank account of life, and I will never look at anything and go "Ah, that is the thing I got with my Graveyard Book Award."

Well, I have been attempting to read The Queen Of The Damned on eBook. That isn't working out too well. Some of the words have letters missing from them and it's quite unreadable after while. So I'm thinking, I can't get an actual copy of any Anne Rice books in India, so maybe I should try listening to it on audiobook. I don't really think it is a good idea for a word junkie like me to actually listen to an audiobook. But I really want to read the rest of The Chronicles. And I really like Anne Rice's writing. 

So, what I want to ask is that are the eBooks which are 'complete' abridged in any way or are they  the same thing as the books? Do they match the books word for word or are they a little different?

I'll decide whether I want to listen to them based on what I find out.

What is that phenomenon/syndrome called where after you first see or hear something, you begin hearing about it/seeing it everywhere?

i found this great website that ripped audio from youtube and other files. i don't remember what it was called! listentoyoutube.com doesn't work for me, so i would really like this re-find this one. i am pretty sure it started with an m. after it converted your file, it emailed it to you.

Okay, there's this quote that's been bugging me for months now. I know it's from a film (Possibly The Virgin Suicides?).

I think it's about a little girl who doesn't speak. The quote goes something like:

"Months went by, but all that changed was the length of her hair."

Where, oh where is this from?

At a difficult time for one of my very oldest friends, we still take a moment to mark his birthday today. And better words I do not have, than those I wrote on his birthday years ago.

The story again, for his birthday today.

In recent years, we've come to understand that there is far more to DNA than just the sequence.

Human diseases whose root lies in the control of cell operations by DNA -- like pediatric cancers -- have driven the need to understand exactly how a diseased cell's DNA differs from their normal counterparts. And we have come to better understand that those differences often go beyond differences in the actual sequence *of* that DNA. For example, it is becoming clear that one mechanism by which DNA activity is regulated by cells is through carefully controlled methylation -- the addition of a methyl group -- to sequences of DNA.

Thus, being able to map DNA -- not just it's sequence, but it's modifications like methylation and many other characteristics -- would be an extremely useful tool for being able to compare, for example, cancer cells to normal cells. Being able to map them across the entire genome would be especially useful, to give us clues on why cancer cells do what they do -- and what we can do about them. This, however, is a substantial challenge. There are approximately three billion base pairs in the human genome, after all. To have any reasonable shot at routinely doing this kind of mapping would require the development of machines that can process vast quantities of DNA in rapid succession.

As it happens, there already *are* machines that can process vast quantities of DNA. Our cells, after all, do it every single second of our lives. The nuclei of our cells contain a whole arsenal of tiny, complex protein machines which spindle, fold, assemble, disassemble, and label DNA with extreme speed and fidelity. So why re-invent the wheel -- or the polymerase, helicase, gyrase, methylase, etc? Why not just take these molecular DNA-handling machines from our cells and strap them onto microscopic assemblies of electrical sensors, micro-fluid chambers and pumps, building a half-biological, half-mechno-electrical machine that can scan DNA for the characteristics of interest with a cell's speed? After all, electrical engineers are very good at fabricating millions of complex machines at a molecular scale. Why couldn't them incorporate biological molecular machines into their computer-chip assemblies? It's just chemistry, after all. MacGyver the cell's own machinery into a computer matrix, like a bacteria-sized cyborg?

The first machines to do just that are just beginning to appear as prototypes in some of the most cutting edge research laboratories in the world. They've quietly, silently been spending the last few years working the kinks out of the process, and now they're ready to actually unleash the new technology on real discovery. It's like ship builders who have spent years learning how to build ships that can sail against the wind, and now they're ready to actually take their vessels out over the horizon to see what's there. Engines of discovery so radical they aren't even available for commercial sale yet. Technology so advanced only the working prototypes are in operation in a select few laboratories in all of the world, just waiting for scientists to use them to apply them to the study of cancers still resistant to everything we know.

And that's the sort of stuff I got a sneak peek at, over four days in October of meeting potential research mentors at Johns Hopkins and the National Cancer Institute @ NIH. A peek at the kinds of work I have the chance to join in a year's time.




The work that has already been published is groundbreaking. But the stuff that hasn't been published *yet* -- the stuff that is being written up, the stuff that is still secret, the stuff still underway -- is totally mind-blowing. To crack the unsolved, unconquered, uncurable problems in oncology is going to require radical new techniques, radical new advances, and radical new technology. And the investigators and engineers at the furthest forward edge of medicine are rising to the challenge, looking at cancers in ways totally beyond what we know now, and doing it with machines like something out of a cyberpunk novel.

Investigators identifying novel biochemical pathways cancer cells use to turbocharge their metabolisms, firing up energy-processing systems their normal neighbors can't touch. Investigators making cells dance between the normal mature state, their forever-young stem cell origins, and their Mr. Hyde cancer counterparts. Investigators diving into the vast sequences of our genome which don't directly code for genes, and exploring the constellations of regulatory mechanisms hiding out in what was once thought to be "junk" DNA. Across four days at Hopkins and NCI, I got the chance to meet with over a dozen faculty, each allowing me a chance to look at *all* the revolutionary projects and data they have, well beyond the stuff they've already published or shown, well beyond the stuff *anyone* in the world has yet done. Professor after professor, laboratory after laboratory, each taking a totally different approach, looking at wild new angles in oncology with prototype machines custom built for the purpose. And inviting me to come aboard for the journey.

We have made tremendous progress torwards the treatment of cancer. When my most senior pediatrics attendings began their careers, pediatric leukemia was a total death sentence. Now, forty years later, 90% of our kids diagnosed will walk away cured. That progress was made possible by generations of systematic, national clinical trials, decades of courageous patients and their families, the effort detailed in the story Legion of the Brave. But it depended upon generations of basic science advances making those cures even possible, generations of research which form the foundation for the ground-breaking, mind-blowing, "holy $%#%!!" work I was invited to take a sneak peek at. And as far as we've come, we still haven't gotten far enough.

Our best as a profession still isn't enough for too many of our patients and their families. A 90% survival rate for pediatric leukemia is just another way of saying one out of ten of our children will die. And for most other cancers, the survival rate varies from nowhere near as good to absolute zero. Not good enough. Until every child with cancer has the chance to grow up -- not good enough.

We've come a long way. We have much farther to go. Somewhere over the horizon lies the scientific keys to defeating not just cancer, but all the other devastating diseases which threaten those we love, bound together by the common science and biology that links them all. In hunting for what makes cancer cells go bad, we will learn too how to fix broken kidneys and broken nerves and broken brains and everything else. Knowledge is power, and to hunt for that knowledge -- to push forth after those cures -- bold engineers and scientists have built engines of discovery beyond anything anyone outside of the very greatest research centers in the world have ever seen or even dreamed of. They await the next generation of physician-scientists to grab hold of the wheel and set sail. And I am humbled to have the chance to earn a place as one of them.

Twenty years of work from eighth grade to the end of my pediatrics residency was just to get to this point. Now the real adventure begins.




The future stretches forth like the vast undiscovered country it is, a journey to places barely imagined and glimpsed. On a personal level, I hope that I might yet earn the privilege of a lady wife's love, of a child's hug. On a professional level, I hope that I might yet be able to make a difference in the fight and cause I am grateful to be given the chance to serve. I have no illusions about the challenges or my chances, but no road worth travelling was ever either easy or certain. And I excited about the new wonders we'll see along the way, voyaging on the furthest edge of the scientific unknown; and the company of the friends and family we'll share the journey with.




Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die...

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are,
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find -- and not to yield.

http://feeds.reference.com/click.phdo?i=8ccd8d54c6e3f8266a57bb450a843a5d

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/11/11.html

forfend: to avert; also, to protect or preserve.

About ten years ago, my sister and I had a big box of coloring books, all from the same printer/brand. I remember they had titles like Cats and Butterflies. The images were all really complex and the paper was good paper. These were not the newsprinty coloring books that you buy from the dollar store or something. :)

I can't remember the name of the printer/maker/publisher, and it's driving me nuts, because I want to get my sister some for Christmas! Does anyone remember these?

I saw this video a few months ago on YouTube. The artist is a pretty blonde girl with brown eyes. In the video she's playing the piano most of the time. The piano is old and broken and the keys are really messed up. The house is old and breaking down as well. I remember a lot of sunlight coming through the windows. There are faceless phantoms in the video as well. Oh, and I think the girl is wearing a white dress.

Anyone know?

There was a one panel comic I read a long time ago that I'm trying to locate. It was a woman standing on her front step facing a delivery guy looking shocked and upset. The delivery guy is handing the woman and plain looking box and saying something like 'I don't see why you're upset, we shipped it in discreet packaging'. In the background you can see a large delivery truck that says something about sex toys or dildos and it has a giant dildo on top of the truck. Has anyone else seen this or possibly have it? Thank you for your time!

albinowolf has saved the day!

I am trying to think of a video game I used to play at my cousin's house in the 90s. It was for Playstation (one) and it involved driving tiny cars (what I assumed what toy cars) around normal human places like desks or whatever (I remember driving over pencil bridges from table to table). I forget the point of the game, just that it was fun.
It wasn't violent or difficult, and it wasn't Twisted Metal.

Are there any private scholarships that are geared towards helping you live off-campus in an apartment? Or, if necessary, ones that focus on having an apartment because of unique circumstances?

If not, have you ever tried to get financial aid or scholarships (merit or need) transferred over to help pay your rent?

I go to art school in Boston, and we are joined with a university in Cambridge. We use their facilities, including the dining halls and the dorms. Us art school students have to take a shuttle over to our school in Boston every day for classes. The ride takes 20 minutes to almost an hour depending on traffic. Also, if you miss your shuttle in the morning, you're fucked. Good luck with THAT train or bus route during rush hour. No matter what you do, you'll be an hour or more late for class.

I currently get up at 6:30 AM every day to take the 7:30 AM shuttle, and wait for my 8:00 AM class... or my 8:30 AM class.

I am looking to get an apartment next year in the next town over. It could be a 15-20 minute walk, a swift bike ride, or a quick bus ride to my school. Also, I would save $6,000 a year living in an apartment (this counts not having to deal with the exorbitant... and poop-inducing... meal plan. blah!).

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/half-lifetime.html

The editor at CBS Sunday Morning asked if I had any photos of my son Mike back at the period when I first had the idea for The Graveyard Book - late 1985. I looked. We really didn't have any. I wandered next door and asked Mary (his mum, my former wife and for these last five years my friend and next-door neighbour) if she had any photos from back then. "No," she said. Then, "Do you mean those transparencies? I have them in an envelope somewhere." She vanished and came back with a large manila envelope from a long time ago. "Here."

Half a lifetime ago -- literally -- I was nearly 25, and working for magazines. Henry Fikret, who photographed a lot of the interviews I did, volunteered to take some photos of me and my family, and he did.A week later the envelope arrived, and I realised that everything he shot was on colour transparencies -- like huge slides -- and I was never sure what do with them, other than being fairly sure I couldn't take them down to Boots the Chemist and have prints knocked out. So they stayed in their envelope, and they kept their secrets, and were forgotten.

Yesterday I had the transparencies scanned, and finally got to see lots of pictures I had never actually seen before of Holly as a baby, Mike at the time that I would have watched him riding his tricycle around the graveyard, and me... at exactly half my age: A young journalist who had sold a very small handful of short stories and two non-fiction books, with dreams of writing fiction and comics. At the time I was dressing in grey, but was getting tired of the way that you would buy something grey and take it home and discover that it was a blueish grey or a brownish grey, and wondering if I'd have the same problem if I just started to dress in black.

And half a lifetime on, it seemed like it might be good to put one up here. I checked, and Mary didn't mind. What odd clothes we wore back then. What big glasses. And look, my hair is practically normal.





So long ago, and it went like the blink of an eye.

Could I get a decent non need based scholarship with a 29 ACT (29 English, 25 Math, 32 Reading, 31 Science), about a 3.7-4.0 GPA (Not exactly sure), a heavy course load (2 APs, 3 Honors) and a few extracurriculars? (NHS, Mentoring, and some volunteering). I'm currently a junior in high school, so some of this may change by my senior year. (I plan on taking 3 more AP classes senior year, so it would be 5 APs total.) So would I be able to get a non need based scholarship, and if not, do you think there's anything I should do by my senior year to change that?

What was that documentary about North Korea where the guy went in pretending to be some sort of celebrity and he had a camera that he sometimes pretended was off and got all this secret footage? I believe the filmmaker was French, and for pretty much the entire trip he was escorted by these two North Korean tour guides. It came out a couple years ago, I'm sure it's post-2000.

Thanks!