Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
My First Official Blog Post About Twitter ANd How It's Taking Over Blogging And Social Media
I read this blog post by Lexy Klain, an Account Manager at Ogilvy PR, titled “Twitter – A Professional Networking Tool.” It’s an older article but I got there in my ever popular and addicting game of Link Frogger where I jump from article to blog post to website from site links inside said articles, blog posts and websites. Usually I forget from where I originally started but when something interesting strikes me I stop hopping and read. I came to Lexy’s article from a post by Brian Giesen, a Digital Influence Specialist at Ogilvy.While it is true that many, many people do update Twitter with useless bits of info, and in the past it was a bastion of minutiae better left to the ether, if you follow the right people and manage that list correctly while offering your own useful information and links it is a powerful Social Media and Networking tool. Believe it or not there is a learning curve to Twitter. It's best when people post tinyurl links to articles and information, join the discussion and add value rather than tell others what type of salad they are ordering or what color their poo might be.
Good ideas sometimes take time to germinate. Twitter has evolved because the users have made it useful. They have contributed the most value to Twitter, I suspect more than any other Social Networking site and that’s because of Twitter’s simplicity.
I blog less because of Twitter. In fact, I find people (myself included) apologize for blogging or emailing (instead of just replying or Direct Messaging through Twitter) saying that sometimes “140 characters is just not enough.” But it seems that most of the time 140 characters is just right.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Shft in the way we look at genes.
This is a very interesting way to look at genes. It's not one for one anymore. It's one here and one over there and then another string from over there. Kinda makes you wonder how we don't have more mutations and cancers than we do.
Now: The Rest of the Genome
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: November 10, 2008
Over the summer, Sonja Prohaska decided to try an experiment. She would spend a day without ever saying the word “gene.” Dr. Prohaska is a bioinformatician at the University of Leipzig in Germany. In other words, she spends most of her time gathering, organizing and analyzing information about genes. “It was like having someone tie your hand behind your back,” she said.
But Dr. Prohaska decided this awkward experiment was worth the trouble, because new large-scale studies of DNA are causing her and many of her colleagues to rethink the very nature of genes. They no longer conceive of a typical gene as a single chunk of DNA encoding a single protein. “It cannot work that way,” Dr. Prohaska said. There are simply too many exceptions to the conventional rules for genes.
It turns out, for example, that several different proteins may be produced from a single stretch of DNA. Most of the molecules produced from DNA may not even be proteins, but another chemical known as RNA. The familiar double helix of DNA no longer has a monopoly on heredity. Other molecules clinging to DNA can produce striking differences between two organisms with the same genes. And those molecules can be inherited along with DNA.
The gene, in other words, is in an identity crisis.
Read the rest.
Now: The Rest of the Genome
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: November 10, 2008
Over the summer, Sonja Prohaska decided to try an experiment. She would spend a day without ever saying the word “gene.” Dr. Prohaska is a bioinformatician at the University of Leipzig in Germany. In other words, she spends most of her time gathering, organizing and analyzing information about genes. “It was like having someone tie your hand behind your back,” she said.
But Dr. Prohaska decided this awkward experiment was worth the trouble, because new large-scale studies of DNA are causing her and many of her colleagues to rethink the very nature of genes. They no longer conceive of a typical gene as a single chunk of DNA encoding a single protein. “It cannot work that way,” Dr. Prohaska said. There are simply too many exceptions to the conventional rules for genes.
It turns out, for example, that several different proteins may be produced from a single stretch of DNA. Most of the molecules produced from DNA may not even be proteins, but another chemical known as RNA. The familiar double helix of DNA no longer has a monopoly on heredity. Other molecules clinging to DNA can produce striking differences between two organisms with the same genes. And those molecules can be inherited along with DNA.
The gene, in other words, is in an identity crisis.
Read the rest.
Monday, November 10, 2008
VA Grants Benefits to All Veterans with ALS
On November 11th America honors the people who fought for our country. When the armistice to end World War I went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 it marked the end of “the war to end all wars.”
read more | digg story
Friday, November 07, 2008
I Can't Believe It Either...
Once Again Loren from 1938Media gets to the heart of the issue and says aloud what everyone else only dares to think...
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
My British friend here at work sent me the below email. Since he's currently reading my copy of Watchmen, I can only assume that he was thinking about V For Vendetta when he sent this to me. In any case, I wanted to forward my own recognition of Guy Fawkes Day to all my British friends out there.I just wanted to wish everybody a happy Guy Fawkes Day, as we celebrate this today in England.
In 1605 Fawkes was involved in the Gunpowder Plot which sought to blow up the Houses of Parliament with the aim of killing King James I. Catholics realized that Spain would be of no help to them in fighting against King James, so some decided to take matters into their own hands.
Fawkes was underneath Parliament surrounded by 1800lbs of gunpowder when he was discovered with a lighted torch, and his hand was removed just before he could light the gunpowder. Fawkes was tortured, found guilty of high treason and was hanged, drawn and quartered.
Still to this day in England we celebrate his capture by setting off fireworks and creating bonfires upon which an effigy of Fawkes is usually burned.
The rhyme associated with this celebration begins as follows:
“Remember, remember the fifth of November
The gunpowder, treason and plot.
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”
Once again, have a happy Guy Fawkes Day!
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