two great things that go great together

It's like finding out that two of your favorite people have become best friends: a Japanese Red Sox page

すごいですよ!

Go レッドソックス！！！

World's tallest man saves dolphin

That headline is a quote. news.bbc.uk.co. Bad ass. Dolphins ate some plastic, and nobody could figure out how to get it out of their throats. Eventually, somebody apparently must have said, 'Hey, let's get the world's tallest man on the case. I bet he has long arms'. Does he have his own version of the bat signal? And yes, his arms are long. Over 1 meter.

If you're ever in trouble, if you don't know where to turn, if you need to reach something really hard to get at, call Bao Xishun. He's a modern day superhero.

killing me softly with no songs

The music industry has set a new low for itself, by issuing 'cease and desist' letters to the online tablature/chord sites (see www.olga.net). Apparently, my being able to freely download the chords and lyrics to "hey jude" and "enter sandman" is why Paul McCartney and Lars Ulrich live in abject squalor. Or maybe it's playing songs on the guitar, alone in my apartment, that's forced them into homelessness? And what if I transcribe the tab myself, listening to the music? that must also be a crime. Or if I listen to music, and say to myself 'Oh, it goes A E Dm'?

The argument made is that musicians derive income from sales of sheet music. There is certainly some merit to that, but the vast majority of music released is not available on sheet music. It would make much more sense to say that tabs are legal, unless expressly prohibited by the artist. I would like to see a handwritten letter: "yes, you are a fan: you've bought the albums; you've bought the concert tickets; you've bought our overpriced merchandise; but you're not allowed to play the songs until you purchase this crappy book of sheet music, that very few guitarists can read anyway."

Playing a song yourself is just another way to experience it, to make it a part of you -- does that really need to be litigated to death?

And if the whole world's singing your song,
and all of your paintings have been hung
Just remember, what was yours, is everyone's from now on

-- Jeff Tweedy

King & Keillor

Interesting... I'm not saying there's any real resemblance, but there is something similarly odd about both of them.

'Character' or 'Ugly' - what do you think?

UCLA, and why people hate cops

So, if you haven't heard anything about this, here's the story and video. I don't know what happened to start this incident, but even in the event that a first tasering was justified (and let's just say I'm pretty skeptical), the other five were clearly unwarranted.

This is clearly torture in my book. My book, meaning the dictionary: 'the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty'. They were using excruciating pain, and the threat thereof, to punish and compel action from a person who presented no immediate danger.

I can't help but wonder whether this is a indication of the broader national climate (actually having to have a genuine debate about torture is sick enough). Are these cops going to plead the 'dick cheney said it was ok' defense? After all, if repeatedly electrocuting a man with 50,000 volts is a reasonable way to get someone to stand up, surely we can do even nastier things to extract important intel from possible terrorists/drug-lords/enron execs.

Lastly, I'm amused that the UCPD chief kept referring to them as 'peace officers' in his interview. Clearly, these men had no interest in peace. They did nothing whatsoever to diffuse the situation, opting rather to escalate it. What the hell do they teach people in police academy? Isn't there something in there about actually trying to fix situations? We heard 'stand up!' shouted about 50 times, but not once do we see any indication of a rational approach to ending the situation without violence.

If an officer can't be angry at someone and still be able to respond coolly & effectively, and treat the 'perp' with civility & basic respect; then he/she has ceased to be a cop. If a cop is a slave to his own adrenalin and anger, then he has become a vigilante with a badge.

thesis/hypothesis

Ok. I was just thinking about the word hypothesis, and I realized the obvious: under-thesis. Actually, I think this is a really amazing distinction... at least in the way I'm thinking about it right now:

a) A thesis is something you believe. An argument. It is something you accept as truth. You go out and dig up supporting evidence. Evidence that contradicts it, you have a number of choices: ignore, repudiate, or ridicule.

b) A hypothesis is something you want to believe. A proposition. It is something you have a hunch is truth. You go out and dig up every bit of evidence you can find that pertains to your hypothesis. Evidence that contradicts it, you have to sit with, breathe it in, digest it, until you figure out what's going on.



In science, we tend to glorify hypotheses. I never really liked this idea, because it seems to get all mucked up with theses. People get attached to ideas, and become unwilling to let them go. I've seen embarrassingly few examples of a lab producing one paper, and then another paper that tests and contradicts their original conclusion; they almost always seem to find some evidence that supports it.

I guess the key lies in numbers and mortality. If Newton had lived to see Einstein, he probably would've clung to classical mechanics to the bitter end. Einstein probably would have held to 'God does not play dice' to the bitter end. We just have to hope that, over time, enough people without pride at stake will take a look at the evidence, and that those who are deified in their time will eventually fade and be relegated to the ranks of the fallible.

my online store

if anyone actually ever reads my sorry excuse for a blog, feel free to check out my cafepress store:

http://www.cafepress.com/cloningclothing

food, and why people are idiots

I don't know why, but no subject seems to instill more false confidence and neosuperstition than diet, nutrition, and herbal medicine.

First all, the terminology has completely gone to hell. What is "organic"? From what I recall, it means that the compound concerned contains carbon, in combination with oxygen, nitrogen or hydrogen. Which pretty much makes every food I can think of, except salt and water, "organic".

Ok, so let's accept that the new definition of organic stands (although there is no consensus on it, as far as I can see). What makes it healthier than the "inorganic" food that all of the plebians eat? No "chemical" fertilizer. Again, I have no idea what "chemical" is supposed to mean outside of the context of "chemistry", but let's assume the following: "chemical" fertilizers are composed of defined mixtures of a single or limited number of chemical compounds, whereas "natural" fertilizers are composed of a greater variety of compounds. So, I'm supposed to accept that eating plants that ate Potassium Nitrate is much worse for me than eating plants that ate Potassium Nitrate, miscellaneous other inorganic nitrates and nitrites, along with the inactive ingredients of cow dung?

Now, antibiotic-free, that is something I can 100% get behind. Not because it's good for me in anyway, but because it prevents the spread of antibiotic resistance among bacteria that may eventually kill me (or my great-great grandchildren). But this has nothing to do with diet, this is ecology pure and simple. Same reason I use fluorescent light bulbs and recycle.

Vegan cooking. If you want to be a vegan because you believe animals should not be used in any way by humans, I support you. I don't agree, but I think you're right on. But to claim that veganism is somehow healthy, is ridiculous. Humans have evolved to be omnivores -- look at our teeth, look at our digestive tracts, look at our enzymatic complement. Human vegans are in danger of B12 deficiency and consequent peripheral neuropathy (although eating dirt can help). Cows aren't. So, recognize that veganism is *unnatural*, and get over it.
Don't get me wrong - most of the western world is *way* too far to the other extreme. But the solution to one extreme is not its opposite. A vegan who eats a big mac every two weeks will probably outlive us all.

Herbal medicine - I can't stand to hear people who are completely distrustful and skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry (as they rightly should be) talking about echinacea like it's god's gift. Just because the hippy-nutraceutical industry isn't quite as big, and doesn't have intellectual property lawyers up the wazoo, doesn't make them any less crooked. If someone tries to sell you anything to cure something, *be skeptical*, whether they're wearing a suit or hemp. At least the pharmaceutical industry has the FDA to hold them to some basic standards of safety and efficacy.

But no, we like to follow the latest trends, because it's 'natural' and 'chemical-free'. Maybe I can popularize hemlock as a cure for headaches? Or chewing poison ivy as a cure for palpitations? Hell, I don't have to prove jack, because it's a plant. You can't sue me the way you could sue pharma, and I can say whatever the fuck i want on the label as long as I put the 'FDA has not evaluated these statements' warning on it.

Traditional use is, of course, a special case. The Chinese have used ephedra (active ingredient ephedrine, a chemical *gasp*!) for thousands of years, and it works. TCM and empirical science agree on that. Oh, but it causes heart attacks -- when dumbass westerners buy bottles of it at the GNC down the street without even thinking of talking to someone who specializes in medicine. Coca - never caused too much of a problem until somebody realize how to purify it. Then somebody had the bright idea of cooking it with baking soda, even better. Point is, if you're going to adopt another culture's drugs, prepare to get screwed, because you're almost certainly not using it in the same way.

Pro vs. Con: becoming a Mets fan

Yesterday was a day of soul-searching. It's looking like the trade is not going to happen, but my mind is still unsettled.

Pro:
1. Manny & Pedro on the same team (again).
2. Being able to see my team play.
3. Keeping loyalties with Washington Heights, home of columbia health sciences, and the 2nd largest city in the dominican republic.
4. Finally being able to figure out this whole national league thing.
5. Red sox no longer the underdog.

Con:
1. It's the Mets. Meh.


Go sox!

This link speaks for itself...

Pedro


http://www.amazingben.com/arf0014.html

biannual posting?

ok, i'm bad at this. I have a journal somewhere which reads about the same as this 'weblog'. Someday, my autobiography will be printed on a post-card. The picture will have to be very big.

Ok, the Oberlin college reunion was freaking fantastic. Once again I'm reminded of what an amazing place it is, and how it really is something I'll carry around for the rest of my days. It's funny - I had anticipated much more schmoozing with people who I would otherwise never see (unless I actually took the subway to williamsburg - yuck). But really, the whole experience is much like college originally was - i wanted to spend time with the people who i deeply care about, rather than trying to find common ground with casual acquaintences. There was certainly some good conversation with people I knew in passing, and some good, clean drunken idiocy with complete strangers. But mainly, it was just nice to have so many good friends back together 'in context'.

The whole experience made me think alot about the relationship of place, time, and people. Any place that holds a profound feeling for a person isn't really just a place. It's a time and place together, and no matter how much we wish it would, simply visiting the place doesn't resurrect the time. It's still physically the same place, but your emotions belie any feeling of sameness. I've been back to Oberlin a handful of times since graduating, and that has always been my experience.

This time, on the other hand, there was time travel involved.

The combination of the physical place, the familiar faces of both good friends and anonymous classmates, and the abundance of unstructured, unemcumbered free time added up to more than the sum of the parts (I'm sure the beer also helped (whiskey counts as beer)). The similarities were especially remarkable to those classless times like orientation/disorientation and post-finals revelry.

Anyhow, my time travel was so significant, that I got a little bit lost. I sat down to mapquest my ass back home [can i get a 'boo-yeah' for the use of mapquest as a verb?], and it took me a good thirty seconds to remember my zip code and address in New York. It must be even more dramatic for folks, like the esteemed Half-Jew Leav-Dog, who are in a transition state and don't have a day-to-day mundanity (well-dug rut?) to enforce the current time and place.

Speaking of the current time and place, I promised myself that this morning would be spent learning about neurological disorders. Joy!

Anyways, I offer a hearty shout-out to all of you who were in Oberlin during the 1997-2001 era. Much love to those life-long friends who have shaped me and given me so much, both those present and those MIA. You know who you are.

-Neil

"the more diseases we cure, the fewer we have to learn about"

And the magic happens here...

I had the 'pleasure' of participating in an fMRI study yesterday. In compensation for spending an hour and a half lying completely motionless and doing boring repetitive tasks, I got pictures of my brain. No, not money. Not fame or adoration. Just the security that my brain is more or less as it should be. Kind of comforting actually.

Anyhow, here is a lovely section. Is that a huge frontal sinus, or what? Also, what is that weird thing behind my occipital lobe? I'm going to hazard that it's the remains of my twin brother, whom I cleverly entrapped in my skull as a young fetus.

pictures from the lou

pictures from the lou may be found at:

http://www.columbia.edu/~nag2103

i'm tired now. but later, i will maybe at fancy high-fallutin' features
like a web page, or verbiage.

OK, so I'm going to try this again

1) I'm a nerd.

Yes, we've all known this for some time. But recently I bought a PDA (an HP pocketPC to be precise). I selected a model with wireless internet. Now, with stylus in hand, I write email, surf, and blog. I installed AvantGo, which archives websites so that I can read them at my leisure. The New york Times, the Onion, Health News digest, etc. I even recently added ABJ and Leavy's blogs. Yes, this morning on the subway I was pleasantly surprised to find that young ABJ had also caught Barbara Boxer schooling Condoleeza on C-SPAN. (why were we both watching C-SPAN? See point 1 above). Anyway, the point is, my love-affair with this beautiful little device is going strong. Yes, I have the Windows Mobile version of Age of Empires...

2) I have touched another man's prostate.

In the stark light of a urology office after hours several weeks ago, I learned the proper method to 'palpate' (medicalese for feel) inguinal hernias, testicular torsions, syphilitic ulcers, and prostate tumors. Yes, gloves and extensive handwashing were involved. No, candlelight was not used to 'set the mood'. Yes, I feel dirty. Now, let us never speak of this again.

In two weeks, OB/GYN. Ah, the traumas of med school...

that's goddamned right

I have joined the world of blogs. That is all.