community

I've been watching a lot of the NBC sitcom Community lately. About half way through the first season. I really like it. It's well acted and written, and the characters are endearing. Actually, it's the first non-British sitcom I've watched seriously in a long time. I know, I know "suspension of disbelief", but a couple of things "bother" me about it. First, it's a community college, but why is is set up like a university? They have dorms, student organisations, sports, tentued professors and research . . . none of that exists in real community colleges. Also, I'm confused by Jeff's character. He's a lawyer. That means he had to already have at least a bachelor's degree and a juris doctorate . . . but somehow he's taking community college classes? I also wish they'd stop focusing on Jeff so much - he's a great character - but I'd like to see others take a bigger role. For the "cute girls" I have to go for Annie over Britta - I have a soft spot for nerdy girls who don't know how hot they are. I think it's weird though that they always make a big deal of her "being so young" when she looks like she's actually 30. The bromance between Abed and Troy is pretty good. Pierce is funny, but I think they're wasting Chevy Chase's talent a little bit. Shirley doesn't do much as a character, but she's a decent "straight man". Senor Chang is the best character on the show. The dean is a little annoying, but if they made him a bit more sadistic or stranger or whatever I think he'll be a better character. Well, you know, I list these "complaints" but they aren't really. I just go with it event though it confuses me. It's a fantastic show nonetheless. Glad I check it out.

All Saints redux

Second verse, same as the first.

It's hot again. Same hot dusty coffee house. It's packed with people. Half everyone has tattoos. They were out of Snapple lemon Iced Tea so I had to get a Stewart's Orange 'n Cream. It's supposed to be 81 degrees tomorrow. It's mid-80's in my apartment - but I'm not ready to turn the air conditioner on yet. Huge paper due next week. 25 pages. I'm probably about 4 deep. That's what I'll be doing for the foreseeable future. That's what I'll be doing in the next 10 minutes. In a bit of coincidence the girl from yesterday - the one drinking hot tea on a hot day - is a friend of my friend Safiah. Her name is Noreen and she is a biology major and wants to go to veterinary school. This is the second friend of my friend who I've randomly met in as many weeks. Time to start working.

science fair

It's hot. I'm sitting in a grimy coffee shot sipping on lemon Snapple iced tea. It's humid and my hair is more "helmety" then it should or perhaps I want it to be. A girl sits across the table. Pretty. In all white she drinks a steamy cup of coffee and eats an "everything" bagel with butter. It's too hot for coffee. I'm not entirely sure what she's studying. She taps her foot as she licks the tip of her upper lip. I ask her why she's drinking hot coffee on such a hot day. It's tea not coffee. She wanted honey in it not tea, and didn't think it polite to have them stir the honey until it dissolved and then pour it over ice.

I came here to study but I haven't much motivation. I'm writing to get into the groove. This morning I went to a science fair. There's a compound a few miles away, on the edge of town, that houses the university's engineering and physics departments. Cryogenics, Tesla coils, magnets and lots of little things more. Even a tank of starfish, fiddler crabs, sea cucumbers and horseshoe crabs - all of which you can play with. Everything a smart child would enjoy. I went with two non-science people. They were amazed by the concept of heat transfer, and that in a vacuum acceleration due to gravity is the same for both a feather and a penny. Had a cup of homemade icecream that used liquid nitrogen as a freezing agent. Glad I went. Almost didn't because I had to get up so early to go. But a pair of owls were my alarm clock.

spring frost

It's windy. The light blooms covering the trees like mist. The hairy moss sways from the branches of newly budding oaks to the rhythm of the breeze. I feel strange. Dehydrated. I feel disappointed. Dissatisfied. Everything is artificial. Just two days ago I defended the position that everything is natural, that there is no such thing as synthetic. But right now, everything seems that way. The sheets of cotton light, the licking chill of the wind, and the distant smell of burning leaves is all illusion. In front of me, the canvas of a table umbrella painfully flaps like the head of a swimming jellyfish. It wants to be free of its metal skeleton and drift in the sky. I want to go with it.

Mainichi

is the Japanese word for "daily". I'm sure I've used it as a blog title at some point in time. The word sticks in my head because many years ago when I was in undergrad I would read Mainichi Shimbun's English website for news from Japan. The phrase "mainichi mainichi" means "every day".

Anyway, this semester I've started studying at two new places. The first is a library called Dirac located in the sciences section of campus. It's the main science library on campus. It's pretty lively here - a lot of people studying organic chemistry. Nice crowd, I've started noticing regulars. The only real downfall is that it takes me nearly 25 minutes to walk here. The second is a coffee bar called All Saints. All Saints is filthy, uncomfortable, noisy, their internet often doesn't work, and their coffee is terrible. But it's very friendly to studiers, and has a really eclectic group of people who study there. It's about 10 minutes from my apartment. I've been alternating days and sometimes spending time in one and then going to the other. Usually, I'll study until about 5 or 6 at Dirac, go run and eat dinner, and then study at All Saints for a while. For weekend nighttime sessions I always go to All Saints.

OK back to work. I'm actually in Dirac right now. I'm supposed to be working on my papers. At 7:30 I'm going to walk over to the campus theatre and see a free sneak preview of the Adjustment Bureau.

Bioethics assignment 06

Below is my most recent bioethics essay. The articles I had to read for it angered me because they were so knee-jerk. I think it reflects here. Sorry the read is so long!!

The sad fact is that too often the irrational fears of the cultural majority hinder progress. This is particularly true when it comes to bio-technological advances. Their fear is that from the top of the mountain, cell biology is a downhill slide of solid granite, wet and covered in moss, that leads to a crevasse of ruin. Participants in the cultural debate bemoan that scientists are “playing God” or that their research will lead to “moral decay” - yet they fail to objectively define either ‘God’ or ‘morality’ so it is impossible to know how to actually satisfy either task.

Indeed, the anti-science movement is old. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences is largely a criticism of the burgeoning scientific movement. In it he argues that science corrupts and leads to immorality. In contemporary times, stem-cell research, cloning and genetic engineering are the bogeymen who will drag us into the darkness. Threats of dispensable cloned slaves, eugenics, and fetuses aborted for their stem cells color the discourse. Even popular media plays into the scaremongering. The 2005 film The Island describes a world where the hedonistic wealthy can have fully developed clones made of themselves to be used as spare parts when their organs fail. And more poetic, but no less critical of the biologic future, the 1997 film Gattaca presents a dystopia where genetic discrimination is rampant and those who are not products of genetic engineering are relegated to the bottom caste.

I am not saying that there is not need for concern, only that the concerns that dominate the conversation are unfounded and hyperbolic. Biological science has certainly caused harm. Biological weapons have killed and destroyed the lives of many - one need only to look at the victims of Agent Orange as evidence. But this is the rare exception, and is wrought with near universal condemnation. The vast majority of biological advancements have greatly benefited the species - clean drinking water, vaccines, antibiotics, organ transplants, and synthetic hormones just to name a few. The future of biological advancement promises tailor-made organs, more effective drugs, treatments for congenital diseases, healthier foods, and ways for the infertile to have children - not Stormtroopers, super-AIDS and grey goo. Of course those things may happen, but if the history of biological science is evidence of its direction, the clear trend is toward benefit.

Woven into the issue of the future of biology is the evolution of healthcare - in particular the commoditization (or commodification) of human tissue. The fear is that commoditization of tissues will lead to tissue slave industries or that the poor will be exploited. An example is in India where right now poor people are being exploited in an underground organ transplant industry. Commoditization may have lead to exploitation, but I think it is more likely that the exploitation occurs because it is illegal rather than the commoditization itself. Exploitation is not a necessary result of commoditization. If legalized, regulated and made open to public scrutiny then the chances for exploitation should be diminished.

In the background of the discussion of biological advancement is the notion that there is something vaguely immoral about it. In reference to science, the phrase “playing God” implies that there is something special about organisms and that is should be taboo to understand them to the same detail as God. But this problem is that neither morality, nor the concept or meaning of God is not universal. We do not live in a homogeneous society, and perceptions vary widely from amongst people. Personally, I reject the notion of morality in its entirety. Furthermore, and more importantly, we live in a secular society. Consequently, the more society influencing policies base themselves upon particular metaphysical notions the more inappropriate they become.

An example is the suggestion that with advances in science people are forgetting how to deal with death, and that technology is hampering the natural process of aging and the psychological process of dying. But this is entirely a value judgment. There is no reason to accept the fact of death because it is “natural”. Disease is natural, yet we actively seek to avoid it because it decreases the personal value of our lives. Presumably this manifests itself as aggrieved owners who clone their lost pets in an effort to summon their pets from death. While this behavior is delusional it is fairly benign - no one is hurt except for the owners disappointed when they realise that the animals are in fact different. Perhaps a more valid concern is that when human cloning becomes viable parents who are the victims of child loss will clone their lost child, treat that child as though they are the same, and the child will suffer psychological trauma. However, this technology does not yet exist, and more importantly, even if it did, as a person, the cloned person would have full rights and protection under the law.

Reading the question prompt again, perhaps I have warped the question too much. But I can think of no other way of answering it. Western culture has been plainly hostile to science, and for unfounded reasons. Even today, after 150 years solid evidence, school boards debate whether evolution should be taught in schools, and media invariably portrays the scientific future in dystopian terms. Science is a discipline of evidence, and the evidence is that biological advancements have been overwhelmingly positive for society. Until the time comes, vague fears of prostitution and slavery, and the spectre of lost morality, are not sufficient to overcome the far more likely result that notions of property and personhood will change with advances in biotechnology. The question then is not “are fears of slavery and prostitution enough to out-weight the benefits of biological advancement?” but rather “with advances in biotechnology, what can be done to ensure that the law and society have been adequately advanced to meet its needs?”

icecream for bad teeth

cyborg arms

Here are some impressions from me and my mates:

Zack: kid a > king of limbs > amnesiac > httf > in rainbows

Me: I've only listened to it once so I can't really tell yet, but wow that's a positive review. I get the feeling that it's going to be a fairly controversial album though - it's not accessible at all. Consequently, I think it'll get a lot of comparisons to Kid A and Amnesiac.

Tommy: That's an interesting review Zach. I've only listen to the new album a few times so far, so it's a little premature for me to give my impressions, but for me the order is: Rainbows, Amnesiac, Hail, Kid A/King, OK.

Zack: Initially I'd say I'm a big fan of KoL. "Lotus Flower", "Codex", and "Give Up The Ghost" work so well as consecutive tracks. I haven't heard a record this cohesive since 'And The Glass Handed Kites' by Mew (which you guys should definitely check out). That being said, In Rainbows is probably one of my least favorite Radiohead records, but I digress that a bad one is still better than most. also i didn't include OK in the ranking b/c it reigns supreme!

Me: About to go my second through. Will post more specific impressions later. Zack, your incessant proselytizing of Mew has convinced me to give them a go ;P

Me: And I'm back. A few things. It's too short. all of their other albums have had breezy instrumentals and short songs to break up the acts (treefingers, pulk/pull, faust arp). That would've helped here. The horns are brilliant. As is Colin Greenwood's bass playing and Thom's beatsmithing. Right now, Codex is the best song - especially because of the found sounds bit at the beginning. Lotus Flower was played during the Haiti Relief concert - you can hear an early version of it at the link.

Todd: If kid a and amnesiac had a baby, this would be the zebra striped understated possibly adopted stormtrooper cloned version who was raised in an underground post-apocalyptic alternate reality sewer rave. With a green thumb.

Me: todd i feel the same way

innitial impressions

In the pitch black of night, and hoovering somewhere between awake and asleep, I laid on my back, cuddled a thick pillow, and allowed myself to be consumed by the sounds. These were the things going through my mind as I heard. Now, they are just comments without analysis. I'll give a fuller critique later once I've listened to it a couple more times and it's all sunk in.

Initial impressions: it's not about the music or instruments but the quality of the noises; it's not composed of songs but rather it's a 35 minute song broken up into movements; it's a blob of sounds; it's a play; it's Fall coloured; it's got a classic rock vibe (which doesn't surprise me given the singles that came out last year); it's got an Indian Classical vibe; I'm not sure how they'll play it live; the brevity reminds me of an early Pink Floyd album; it's got hints of Neil Young; it's probably about environmentalism; I'm sure it'll become an "old friend" soon enough.

appendages

Long day. Tired. Wrote a whimsical article on why the frights of biotechnology are unfounded. Got to use the words "scaremongering", "bogeyman", "Stormtroopers", and "grey goo" in the same essay. Fun. Will post it when I'm done editing it.

What am I doing now? Gonna fall asleep and listen to the new Radiohead album. I'll write my impressions tomorrow.

Sleep tight.

welcome to the current

Got an iphone today. So much fun. So what apps do i need for it?

Merry love day

What better way to spread happiness and cheer, and tell your sweetheart that you love her than with an announcement that Radiohead's new album comes out at the end of the week!!!!

Gymnasium

Just got back from the gym. Second time this week. I'm surprised at how in shape i am considering how sick I was. I think it's because I was able to run outside a couple of times between illnesses that kept it up. "Mild" workout. Ran 3 miles, 150 incline sit-ups and 20 bench reps of 120lbs. Not bad. To be safe I'm going to mainly run a couple more times before I start adding in more serious lifting. It's strange to me, no matter how hard I lift, even at my peak, when I could bench 220, throw it down, and curl 180, I was still skinny as a rail. You know, I think there's something positively erotic about a sweaty girl who's just finished working out. Something about it makes my heart pound and my mouth salivate with lust. It's better than perfume. Yum.

Refrigeration

I've been collecting postcards and refrigerator magnets. I'm not sure why, it just seems fun to me. These are the best ones:



1. Magnet of a margarita a friend got me from Puerto Rico
2. Just a tag from a bottle of lemon concentrate. It says "Sicilia" and has a lemon tree in the back. Sicilian lemons are brilliant.
3. Picture of my grandfather Harlan known as "Peep". He died at age 97 last year.
4. Birthday card from my parents. Chimpanzees are some of my favourite people.
5. Business card of the cool tiny jazz club in town called "HiFi Jazz Cafe".
6. Birthday card sent by friend. It has insects on it.
7. Sudoku puzzle I've been meaning to finish.
7. Oops there's two sevens. Magnet of a guy playing the trumpet a friend got for me from the Bahamas
8. Postcard of Lord Ganesh sent to me by my brother when he was India a couple of months ago. It's hand painted and very nice. I really need to get a frame for it.
9. Postcard of London sent to me by a friend.
10. Postcard of Sri Lanka sent to me by the same friend as 9. She is a vet and volunteered at hostel/hospital for dogs a couple of months ago.
11. Random card sent by my mum.
12. Gold leaf and stamps of Mother Teresa. I think cool stamps is the next thing I'm going to add to my refrigerator.
13. Party flier, has a picture of C-3PO on it.
14. Stamp from Britain - has the Queen on it.
15. Magnet of Sri Lanka. It has someone dancing and says "A land like no other".
16. Magnet of my friend's design company "Fairwell Designs".
17. Sticker on a magnet that says "Homeland Security" - my bags were searched last time I flew.
18. Christmas card of a friend's kids. How cute!

Something stupid

It's late. I had a long - but productive day. Class, wrote the abstract for the paper I'm working on, studied, a couple of chapters of the book I'm reading and then I went to the gym. Homemade chickpeas and couscous for dinner. Boiling hot shower. I should proofread these things more - found a tonne of bad grammer and mismatched words going over the last few entries.

Anyway. My friend Todd who I sometimes call Thodd had a birthday last week. His last name is Binder which he pronounces "Bai:n der", bur I like to call him Bender (from Futurama). I made this for him as a birthday card because I thought it was funny. I photoshoped his hair onto it. The hair on the fembot is his girlfriend's. It's funny because it captures the two of them pretty well. Good night.

Patenting isolated and synthetic genes

I'm taking a bioethics class this semester. Thus far it has focused mainly on the problems with our current organ transplant system and on the concept of informed consent. Actually, I am probably going to write a very long paper on informed consent so if anyone has any thoughts on this subject I'd love to hear about it. Each week we have to write "policy positions" on that week's topic. This week we are moving into patents on genes. This is a highly controversial thing. Currently, you can receive a patent on any isolated gene. Hypothetically, this means it would be a possible for receiving a patent on haemoglobin if you were the first to isolate it. Almost everyone within academia thinks it is a bad idea, but every big pharmaceutical company thinks it's necessary. I think it's a bad idea. For a variety of reasons (most of which I don't go into because I am word limited on this exercise), but principally because the evidence doesn't support the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector's argument that the patents are necessary to support development. It's a long read, but I think it ties together well. Cheers

Proposed Legislation:

"The Genomic Research and Accessibility Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by a Republican and a Democratic Sponsor early in 2007. The Act provides: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no patent may be obtained for a nucleotide sequence, or its functions or correlations, or the naturally occurring products it specifies. H.R. 977, 110th Cong., 1st Sess. (2007)."

Response:

Because the language of the proposed statute is too broad I could not support it. However, this is not to suggest that the idea of gene patents is not in need of both reform and definition - only that the proposed statute, as worded, would cover too wide a range of gene products. Additionally, the statute is unnecessary because traditional patent theory is sufficient to address problems in biotechnology development.

In traditional patent theory both things of nature and abstract ideas are unpatentable. As extreme examples, neither water, a thing of nature, nor the Pythagorean theorem, an abstract idea, can be patented. The rationale is that patent systems are supposed to promote invention, not elucidation. But this can become complicated quickly. For example, could Q2O - quadrium or super-duper-heavy water - or ununennium - a synthetic element - neither of which exist “in nature” be patented? A nucleotide is any nucleoside (a purine or pyrimidine base attached to a sugar) attached to a phosphate group. When bound together as chains they can be either DNA or RNA. Functionally, the difference between the two is that DNA acts as a massive reference library for storing genetic information and RNA is a transcript of that information. Like the reference section of a library DNA must be copied to be used somewhere else. RNA functions as this copy as is used directly to make protein and other gene products. Ultimately, the sequences of both DNA and RNA are directions for the synthesis of gene products - the language of which is a particular nucleotide sequence. A specific sequence of nucleotides that produces a product is called a gene. The collection of all the genes of an organism is its genome.

But while organism do not exist without some sort of “nucleotide sequence” those nucleotide sequences, DNA and RNA, are simply molecules - compositions of atoms covalently bound together. Many molecules do not exist in nature, require an “inventive step”, and can be protected by patents. Thus, it is not inconceivable that specific sequence of nucleotides (a gene) could be created that do not exist in nature. Because of the broad language of the statute these novel genes would not qualify for patent protection. This is problematic because if there is no incentive for economic gain then it is reasonable to conclude that biotechnology companies would be less interested in funding development in that field.

But there is clear need for reform. In both Europe and the US (ignoring Warner-Lambert co. v. FTC), patents are being issued for wholesale human genes. These are not novel genes, nor genes that have been manipulated to have unique characteristics, but genes that exist naturally in populations of people. Thus, biotechnology companies are receiving patents not for invention, but for discovery.

On its face this may not be problematic. Perhaps the prohibition on things of nature and abstract ideas is mere dogma, and expansion of patent theory would yield more utility. Biotechnology companies are already arguing that this protection is necessary to spur progress, that without the economic incentives of patent protection they would be disinclined to invest in research. But without evidence that loss of patent protection for discovery of genes would make the field stagnant, statements that it would are little more than untested hypotheses. In fact, the evidence seems to be pointing to the opposite conclusion. Rates of development of truly novel drugs is in decline. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry has become focused almost entirely on “blockbuster” drugs and drugs that have the potential to generate over a billion dollars in revenue yearly, only. Indeed, the data suggests that even though patent protection has become more expansive that biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors have become stagnant in terms of invention.

But I do not want to give the impression that this argument is entirely without merit. It is reasonable to suspect that without some sort of protection companies would be disinclined to invest in biotechnology development which is admittedly expensive. Furthermore, society presumably gains from patents because of disclosure. Ultimately, a balance should be struck whereby patents are strong enough to actually promote development, but not so strong that companies can strangle competition.

This is particularly true in reference to biotechnology. Advances in biotechnology mean alleviation of disease and suffering, and have global implications. What then is the appropriate balance? While ultimately it is a matter of evidence, for the time being, I think the best solution is to maintain the teaching of traditional patent theory, but with the goal of weakening patent protection over time. Genes should be patentable if they meet the criteria for novelty, utility, and non obviousness. Isolated genes do not meet this criteria, but synthesised genes do. Consequently, because patent theory addresses the non-patentability of isolated genes, and because the proposed legislation is seemingly overbroad anyway, I would not support it.

Staving off boredom

I'm listening to Alison Goldfrapp's new album Head First right now. I don't like it quite as well as Seventh Tree, but it's really good none the less. It's "chippier" and more synthpop than her last one which had stronger downtempo and acoustic sounds. Here's the first song on the album.

But I didn't come here to talk about that. I came to talk about the profound sense of boredom and lack of motivation I've been experiencing for the last several months - if not the last couple of years. I have such are had time now being interested in anything. It's really frustrating. It all feels so meaningless to me, and I wish it didn't. I'm not sure why do I do anything. I'm not sure who it's even for - it isn't for me. I also get painfully bored in social situations. I remember thinking years and years ago that I was tired of "going out" and couldn't wait for the quieter calmer aspects of life to set in. But it's never happened. I'm still out to the club or the bar and it's as dull as it ever was. Don't get me wrong, I have had a great many just brilliant "going out" experiences. When going out is fun it's really fun . . . it's just that it's rarely fun. It's usually just noise, trite half-heard superficial conversations, and a huge waste of money. Tired of not having anyone interesting to talk to I usually end up finding myself a dark end of a sofa and wait until whatever group I'm with stumbles past and I can coax them into leaving. This was the way it was last night, and basically every other one of these "socials" I've been to in the last couple of years.

Now I don't want you to get me wrong. For sure I'm hating, but I don't want to be asocial. I just want to do something that doesn't involve noise, drugs and alcohol for a change. I can think of loads of things to do: watch movies, play games, late-night arcades, bowling, group art projects, or day-time things like parks and hiking or adventuring or whatever. The problem is that I don't really fit the demographic of people who do this sort of thing.

One problem I have is that while politically/socially I'm very progressive or liberal when it comes to my personal life I tend to be fairly conservative. I frankly don't care if you want to get matching angry Atheist tattoos of a burning American flag with your same-sex husband/wife or heterosexual life partner while taking bong hits with a prostitute you thought it would be fun to have a three-way with. That person is probably pretty fun to be friends with . . . but it isn't how I want to live my life. "Experimenting" never has seemed appealing to me - it's not the way I seek adventure. Unfortunately, culturally in White America people who are like me in their personal lives are usually backwards social regressives and religious fundamentalists. It's frustrating. It's almost like there is overwhelming cultural pressure to actually behave at the level of openness you are OK with others doing on a larger scale. So while I think I'd have more fun engaging in the less drug-induced fun of those with self-restraint and modesty I can't because the things they actually believe are so contemptuously arcane and uncomfortably too often hateful as well. But let me be clear as to not offend, specifically I'm talking about White American Christians.

But I also don't want to give the impression that having drinks and going out is never fine either. No, quite oppositely I think it's healthy to go out. That's why even though I usually don't enjoy myself I always go whenever my friends want to go - it's social, there a chance I'll have a good time and likely someone I'm friends with will have a good time. I'd just would like mix in others things too.

Actually, you know what I really want to do is go to the pet store and play with the puppies. Seriously, I'm not just saying that to sound sensitive. I've been trying to get someone to do that with me since I got here. It would be so much fun. They've got so much energy.

a twilight owl

As I walked out of the front door of my apartment a large white blur fluttered past me. When I looked up, perched on the branch of the live oak thirty feet away was a large white and grey owl staring at me. I believe it was a barred owl. Transfixed we started at each other for several minutes. I've seen owls before but this was the biggest one I've ever seen, and the most up close I've ever been. It was absolutely beautiful. Owls are my favourite bird. Brutal predators they attack their prey silently and deliberately. You know the saying, "the early bird gets the worm"? Well, the patient owl gets the bird. After a while I walked down the stairs to the driveway of the house I live in to go to a friend's house. The entire time mine and the owls eyes were locked, and it's head twisted to follow as I walked away.

On my ear, there's been no change. I still can't hear anything in my right ear. I have an appointment with a specialist next week. My hope is that it was just a middle ear infection, that the hearing loss is because of fluid behind my eardrum and that it'll go away by the time I see the doctor. Thank you so much for the concern.