Most people with whom I have had significant email correspondence have probably noticed that I try to capitalize and punctuate my sentences appropriately, and rarely misspell words. My obsession with preventing the slow degeneration of the English language into an informal mess probably is a result of my graduate education; science requires clarity of the written word in order to be comprehensible and reproducible. I'm not perfect; I use slang and often make mistakes grammatically, but I strive to improve. That's why it was such a pleasure to see this online question and answer session from the Deputy News Editor of the New York Times, Philip B. Corbett. It's an intriguing peek into the style and grammar guide behind the New York Times, a newspaper often regarded as the standard.

On a related note, two words that have been bothering me to no end are "orientate" and "scuffle." In standard American English, "orientate" is not even a word. Use the word "orient" instead. My understanding is that in British English it is acceptable, but frankly, it sounds ridiculous. Though you may have a conversation at your orientation, you converse to get oriented, not conversate to get orientated.

My problem with "scuffle" is completely different; somewhere along the way a bad sportswriter with a thesaurus polluted its meaning when looking for a synonym for "struggle." A batter in a slump may be "struggling" but he is not "scuffling" unless he's fighting with the catcher or ump. A "scuffle" is a physical altercation between two people.

I probably sound like a stuffy shirt, but I really believe that we need to make an effort to preserve the language. I realize that languages do evolve (English more than most) but at the same time, conflating words and weakening grammar and punctuation rules only serve to make it more difficult to express oneself with precision.

Posted by Dennis at 11:39 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in Boston, at a conference, on lunch break from listening to dry biopharmaceutical talks, and right now Group E action is on. Ghana, up 1-0 over Czech Republic in the 37th minute off a goal in the 3rd! This could totally change the math in Group E. The U.S. still needs to get at least a point today, preferably three, but this makes the group a whole lot more interesting...

Posted by Dennis at 11:35 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

While I was setting up for my show yesterday, I found an album in the studio that really has no business even existing.

I'll be honest, I haven't even listened to the remix album yet. But honestly, was this necessary? I mean, I like the original album - I even own it on vinyl - and who doesn't like to look at pretty young things covered in whipped cream? But this is taking the whole remix thing to a level of absurdity.

Posted by Dennis at 15:29 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't know how many people read this site (probably not many) and of those, I imagine it is a small subset that care about politics, and an even smaller subset that actually follow the comments about science that I've been posting. Anyway, there are a couple of ongoing discussions; you might be interested in reading them (check the left side). Here's what I really want to say, though: Not all ideas are valid under all circumstances. That pretty much cuts to the heart of my stance on creationism/"intelligent design" and my opinion of the media with regards to political coverage. While there might be two (or more) sides to every story, both sides are not necessarily equally right. We as scientists and educators have a responsibility to actively debunk bad science (e.g., cold fusion) and things that aren't science at all (e.g., creationism/ID). The media ought to take up the responsibility of actively checking the talking points that politicians spit out. Because they don't, I suggest checking in over at Media Matters whenever a talking head spouts some drivel that makes it into the press. Katrina's utter devastation has seen the media call out the GOP talking heads, but how long will that last? Update: some elaboration (or rambling, depends on how you see it) after the jump.

Continue reading "a small note about ideas" »

Posted by Dennis at 17:41 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every time I check the news, it infuriates me. I mean, it's pretty plainly obvious that the Bush administration dropped the ball and is now trying to cover up their mistakes, even though their energy _should_ be going towards actually doing something for the people affected by Katrina. Sometimes you just have to step back and breathe deeply (literally or metaphorically) in order to maintain some sanity. For a lot of people, including me, that means falling back on routines. The daily New York Times crossword puzzle goes a long way towards calming me down (even though the rest of the paper regularly drives me crazy) and when I combine it with a pint it makes for the perfect post-radio show tradition. I'm not even going to try to cover all of the Katrina-related news, but I will point you towards some sources of news and (liberal) commentary that I've been checking: * AmericaBlog has been on top of breaking news better than anyone else I've seen. * Oliver Wang a.k.a. O-Dub is actually a music writer, but he's an educated man (Ph.D.) who writes coherently, and has been touching on a lot of the social issues implicit in Katrina's devastation (poverty and race). * The usual suspects: Daily Kos, Political Animal, and Eschaton. * Update: Check out this timeline of events put up over at Talking Points Memo. I was heartened by the way that the media tore into the Bush administration last week, but all signs are pointing toward the media reverting to their natural sycophantic ways and regurgitating Bush administration talking points. We'll see what happens - when all is said and done I expect that Katrina will have an unprecedented body count, ecological damage beyond imagination, and an economic impact that will last for years.

Posted by Dennis at 10:31 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You may or may not have heard about Kanye West's impromptu remarks about George Bush that he made during a Red Cross telethon the other day. (the video is here) Well now he's gone and topped himself with a new beat for Houston's own Legendary K.O. (formerly known as K-Otix). Damien and Big Mon rip Dubya a new one. Update: I should have paid more attention on the first listen; it's a flip of the beat for "Gold Digger" feat. Jamie Foxx. So, it's not a new beat, it's just been re-used by Damien and Big Mon. You can get both from this torrent I packaged up. (Assuming I packaged it up correctly.) Kanye vs. Bush (video from Red Cross benefit, plus new song feat. the Legendary K.O.)

Posted by Dennis at 15:09 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

There's not a whole lot I can say that hasn't been said already. Donate money to the Red Cross and if you're in the Houston area, consider donating blood, as survivors are being evacuated to this area and blood banks are in short supply. Hurricane Katrina has proven to be the worst catastrophe the U.S. has seen, in terms of number of people affected and total property damage. New Orleans is now effectively an extension of Lake Pontchartrain. Where was George Bush during all of this? On vacation, playing a guitar. I don't mean to make light of the human aspect of this disaster, but another aspect of this disaster that hasn't been covered much is the impact on American energy security and the economy. Well, if you hadn't heard about peak oil, you better start reading about it. The near future is only going to be a small taste of what is to come. The oil industry is on a razor's edge, and now that 20 or more oil rigs are damaged or missing, we're going to see some serious volatility in prices of _everything_ in the near future. Even though the Bush administration has authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to refineries in the short term, large problems still exist, like the fact that South Louisiana and New Orleans were two of the top 5 ports in the nation, and half of the nation's refineries are on the Gulf Coast. Projections for rebuilding New Orleans and the surrounding areas are on the order of _months_ at this point, _years_ for a full rebuild. My guess is that we're going to see $100/barrel crude before the end of the year, and $4/gallon gasoline. Concomitant with that, I expect that prices of everything else will go up because shipping costs will rise. Start saving your money...

Posted by Dennis at 03:07 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

There is no detectable trace of cherry or vanilla above and beyond the normal taste of regular Dr. Pepper. So what's the deal?

Posted by Dennis at 21:17 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In perusing Boing Boing today, I found a link to this blog entry which discusses this article (L.A. Times, free registration required) about specially bred fish that are triploid. For those who aren't familiar with the terminology, what that means is that the fish have three sets of chromosomes. Most sexual organisms have two sets of chromosomes - one from the mother, and one from the father. Having three sets of chromosomes almost always results in sterility or other defects (Down's Syndrome (Google search) in humans is a triploidy of chromosome 23 only). However, triploidy is nothing new, and certainly not threatening in any way. In fact, the bananas you buy at the store are triploid and sterile.

These fish grow bigger, since they don't have to expend any energy on sexual reproduction. I would be happy to eat these fish; there should be no problems. This is not even really genetic engineering in the sense that most people understand genetic engineering; no new genes are being added to the fish and thusly no new proteins are being made. And even if new proteins were being made, the fish are sterile and couldn't propagate the changes to the wild population anyway. This is just another example of people who aren't really educated about the field getting riled up about nothing.

Adding genes from one organism to another organism (for example, RoundUp Ready soybeans) is a different issue, but I am still of the opinion that the process is greater than 99.5% safe. (Disclaimer: I am a Ph.D. student in biochemistry and genetics, studying plant genetics. However, this is also why you should believe me.) No process will ever be guaranteed 100% safe, but without genetic engineering we will never be able to feed the world's population at the current rate of growth.

Posted by Dennis at 15:34 (Central) | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Maybe some of you have been interested in the whole SCO vs. IBM battle regarding Linux. Anyway, Larry Lessig just ripped apart some statements made by Darl McBride, SCO's CEO. Lovely.

Posted by Dennis at 11:30 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The world has gone completely fucking insane.

Exhibit 1. Metallica is apparently suing some Canadian band over the usage of the E and F chords. What the fuck?!? I can understand suing over a riff, but a generic chord progression like E, F? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I'd boycott their music, but I hadn't planned on buying anything from them anyway.

Update: I'm dumb. Not a real story. Something that I would believe that Metallica would do, though. (re: Napster)

Exhibit 2. North Korea is on the verge of producing more nuclear weapons (in case you didn't know, the general consensus is that they probably already have a couple of 'low-yield' nuclear weapons) and the Bush administration just keeps shuffling their feet and averting their eyes.

Exhibit 3. Enough said.

Update: I've copied the above mentioned AP news article into this post, in the interest of archiving. If the AP would like for me to remove this, please contact me.

Continue reading "insanity" »

Posted by Dennis at 14:53 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Shit, I shouldn't have had that Coca-Cola.

Anyway, lots of stuff to report on in the last week or so. Many thanks to those people who came out and supported the crew last Friday at Firestation #3. Not as many people showed up as we would have liked, but it seemed like everyone was having a good time. One guy who just moved to Houston from New York asked me why there weren't more people at the event, as something like this in NY would be jammed with people. I just looked at him and told him this was Houston...

Still trying to rehab my ankle. No game this weekend, so it'll get almost a full week of rest. Hopefully that will help.

In other news, the Supreme Court ended its most recent session with some amazing rulings. I'm glad to see them rule on affirmative action with a majority opinion that recognizes that the strength of the union depends on having a diverse leadership, and that we don't currently have that now. They also ruled in Lawrence vs. Texas that the state has no right to legislate rules governing private adult consensual activity. I'm glad they did this, and I'm rather surprised to see that there are people out there who still believe that gays shouldn't have the same level of rights. Senator Frist (R-Tennessee, current Senate majority leader) has come out saying that he would back an amendment barring gay marriage. That's ridiculous. The religious right should remember that the U.S. is supposed to stand for equal rights for all, and that marriage is no longer solely a religious pact between a man and a woman. Hell, you can get married down at the courthouse by a JP, so it clearly doesn't have to be based in religion. Marriage is no more than a social contract between two people - there is no logical reason that I can find that suggests that the two people have to be of the same gender. In fact, I would argue that allowing gay marriage is to the advantage of corporations. Right now, corporations are pressured to extend benefits to partners in same-sex relationships. One of the arguments against extending benefits has been that is prone to abuse by fraud. Who's to say that those two people are really dependent on each other? If same-sex marriages were legalized, there would be no reason to extend benefits to domestic partners. It would be, to put it bluntly, a situation where the corporation could say 'put up or shut up.' It would force gay partners to get married in order to get those benefits. A possible side effect of this would be the subtle social engineering of the gay relationship. Another complaint by the religious right has been the promiscuous behaviour exhibited by many gay people. If you force gay people to get married to get benefits, well, that also opens them up to divorce and the whole load of other crap that comes along with marriage. It may actually encourage monogamy in the gay community, which then might lead to a decrease in diseases spread by sexual contact. Win-win for everyone!

OK, enough about politics and sociology. Last night I went to see a local Houston vibraphonist (Roman Skakun) with Jason Marsalis on drums. I spent a lot more money that I expected to (the show was moved from Cezanne's to Sierra Grill, causing an estimated 30% increase in my bar tab) but it was worth it. The quartet started off a little rough, but progressively got tighter. Jason Marsalis is an amazing musician - he even brought along a pair of finger cymbals that he busted out near the end of the night. Roman Skakun had some nice four-mallet work, although I felt he wasn't playing loud enough. The guitarist was talented, as was the bassist, but I felt neither of them really stood out. I am, however, slightly biased as a fellow percussionist, having played both vibraphone and drums in my earlier years...

Posted by Dennis at 03:16 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OK, things are spontaneously up and running again. The tech support people at TWCable said they would send someone out on Wednesday, but we're up and running so if things look smooth tomorrow I'll probably call and cancel the service call. It feels like it's a little bit sluggish; I checked a couple of bandwidth meters, and sure enough, I'm running somewhere between 150 and 350 Kbps right now, where I should probably be getting download speeds of 1.5 Mbps. Whatever. At least I'm online. Maybe it's just a high traffic time. I'll let the dust settle and check again in a couple of days...

Posted by Dennis at 19:11 (Central) | Comments (0)

Well, you won't be able to see this rant until everything gets fixed (again) but I'm currently stuck in cable modem hell. My cable modem was working for a little less than 24 hours. This is absolutely ridiculous...

Posted by Dennis at 11:52 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, after almost an entire week of no internet access, Time Warner Cable has apparently fixed all of the problems. Apologies to anyone who may have tried to email me in the last week or so; no internet access = no server = no email. We'll see how long it stays up...

Posted by Dennis at 18:22 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Strange that so many references to mixtapes have popped up lately. One of my friends wrote about mixtapes and the Morning News wrote about a particular mixtape compilation from StarTime International. I've been listening to old mixtapes in the car because I kept forgetting to charge the battery of my iPod.

Anyway, if you feel like sending me a mixtape (yes, Shareta, you can; I've actually ordered some Grand Buffet but I don't have it yet) you can send it to the following address:

KTRU 91.7fm attn: D.L.
Rice University
6100 S. Main St.
Houston, TX 77004

Be sure to put your contact info on the tape or cd, especially if you're looking for a guest spot on my radio show.

Posted by Dennis at 13:49 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Tables suck. Christ, I can't get tables to look correct using CSS. Mozilla derivatives (I use Camino) and Safari behave reasonably well (but slightly differently) under the border collapse model, and also both behave reasonably well (and the same) under the separate border model, but IE5 refuses to behave well under any model. Screw Microsoft.

If anyone reading this is a CSS wizard with tables, please drop me a line via email or in the comments.

Posted by Dennis at 10:20 (Central)

So about the accident. A couple of days ago, coming back from lunch, my friend and I were in an automobile accident. We were going through an intersection in his pickup truck when we were broadsided on the driver's side by a Ford Explorer. We fishtailed, then rolled over, spinning and sliding on the roof of the truck as glass shattered around us. We finally stopped about forty feet later, rotated almost 270 degrees. As I hung from my seat belt, I turned to my friend and asked him (stupidly), "What just happened?"

"We got hit." [Duh.]

And then we unlatched our seat belts, fell onto the roof, and crawled out through the broken windows. We were unbelievably lucky to have survived with as few injuries as we have (he broke his finger and has a bump on his head, I have some cuts and bruises) and I have no doubt that we would not have survived if we hadn't been wearing our seat belts.

So buckle up, please.

Posted by Dennis at 19:57 (Central)

For cryin' out loud, what has happened to our nation? Read this story about a t-shirt some student in Ohio wore to school. He got a nice visit from the Secret Service. Last I heard, political speech is still protected. How can anyone take this t-shirt as a serious threat to the president (who I'm still not convinced was elected legally, btw)?

Posted by Dennis at 11:52 (Central)

I just saw this site which has an amazing little flash animation that pretty much sums it all up. Next time, people, be sure to get out there and vote, and don't vote for idiots. In the meantime, question authority. That's what our freedom allows us to do, and it's our duty to do it. Don't let anyone tell you it's not patriotic - it's the most patriotic thing you can do. How can letting the government take away your rights be a patriotic thing? That's what they're doing right now...

Posted by Dennis at 16:23 (Central)

I'll admit it, I'm a total geek. And I'm also hopelessly addicted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So this page about the population dynamics of vampires in Sunnydale pretty much takes the cake as the coolest thing I've seen in weeks.

Posted by Dennis at 11:56 (Central)