Monday, September 22, 2003

The last time a total solar eclipse visible from New York City (and Connecticut, Rhode Island) was on Saturday, January 24, 1925, just after 9 AM. It was a cold, clear day, and the city was covered by snow. Observers were stationed at every other intersection between 72nd and 135th Streets to determine the most southern part of the 'belt of totality'. Totality could only be observed above 95th to 97th Streets, so residents of Brooklyn, southern Queens, Staten Island, and much of Manhattan missed the full spectacle. Nevertheless, Millions of people witnessed the Eclipse. They crowded onto roofs, bridges, and the upper floors of skyscrapers. Open spaces in the city's northern reaches were mobbed by eclipse gazers, who braved the 9-degree cold to watch as the moon's shadow gradually cast the city into morning twilight. Streetlights across the city flickered to life. Skyscrapers blinked in empty streets. At the Bronx Zoo, herds of deer raced in panic. At 9:11, the sun disappeared completely. ''As the black ball of the moon settled over the fiery sphere of the sun, the brilliantly shimmering corona came into sharp relief against the dull sky.'' The sun reappeared about 30 seconds later.

Other Links:
Solar Eclipse Newsletter Vol 6(2), Feb. 2001 (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Eclipse Home Page by NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center
Path of the 1925 solar eclipse at Dave Owen Home Page


Snippets:
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Video: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1988). Wonderworks Family Movie. Award-winning BBC production. Very close to the book.
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Three famous men died all died on the same day, on Friday, November 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy (assassinated), Aldous Huxley, and Clive Staples Lewis.
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Saturday, September 20, 2003

Virgil (70-19 BC): The Aeneid (written 19 BC). A brief summary can be found here. The Aeneid is an ancient Roman Epic about the adventures of the Trojan hero, Aeneas, who was destined to go to Italy and set up a new kingdom after Troy fell to the Greeks. On his way, Aeneas encountered many problems, but through many trial and errors he completed his journey and became the true founding father of Rome. On his way one of the people Aeneas meets is Dido, the young Phoenician queen and builder of Carthage, who falls hopelessly in love with him.


Snippets:
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Video: Moby Dick (1956). After the novel by Herman Melville; directed by John Huston; w/ Gregory Peck (Captain Ahab). The tale of hunting the White Wale.
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Video: The Matrix (1999). w/ Keanu Reeves (Neo), Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus), Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity). Finding out about the true nature of 'reality'.
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Carrie-Ann Moss also played Natalie in the movie 'Memento' (2000).
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Internet Broadway Database: Comprehensive history of shows produced on Broadway, including historical information about theatres.
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Online Bible Study Aids: including online bible versions, commentaries, dictionanries and bible concordances.
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Video: Wag the Dog (1997). Directed by Barry Levinson; w/ Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche. Plot: Before elections, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to "fabricate" a war in order to cover-up a presidential sex scandal (IMDB). Plot is a nice idea, but after a half hour becomes repetitive.
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Book: C.S. (Clive Staples) Lewis: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950). Oldest volume of 'The Chronicles of Narnia'. The four children (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) enter the land of Narnia, and help the lion Aslan to free the country from the terror of the White Witch.
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Book: Sue Townsend: Adrian Mole. From Minor to Major. The Mole Diaries: the first ten years (1991). Incorporating 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4' (1982), 'The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole' (1984), 'True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole' (1989), and 'Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibians' (1991?). First two parts are hillarious, don't bother with the rest.
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Video: Monster's Ball (2001) w/ Billy Bob Thornton (Hank Grotowski) and Halle Berry (Leticia Musgrove; Academy Award Winner Best Actress). Directed by Marc Forster. Plot: A Death Row prison guard in the Southern US quits his job, then falls in love with the wife of a black man he has executed. Movie is breathtaking at times. Weird plot. Good movie!
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Henry Purcell (1659-1695), one of England's greatest composers. Epoch: Middle Baroque. Opera: Dido and Aeneas. Purcell wrote only this one full opera, a short work supposedly designed for a girls' school.
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Saturday, September 13, 2003

Notes to 'Apprentice to Genius' by Robert Kanigel (1985):

Chain of mentors

  • James Shannon: director NIH

  • Bernard B. ('Steve') Brody: anti-malaria drugs, drug metabolism

  • Julius Axelrod: drug metabolism

  • Solomon Snyder: opioids

  • Candace Pert, Gavril Pasternak, Diane Rusell: opiods

  • Terry Moody: bombesin receptor; Michael Kuhar: autoradiography in brain


  • Sol Snyder was the youngest full professor in the history of Johns Hopkins Univ.; 'idea man', rarely working at the bench. Snyder has reputation of 'stealing' other researchers results; very competitive, always trying to scoop them; e.g., competition for publishing the enkephalin story first after hearing about it from a different froup at a conference. Snyders approach: do it quick, don't spend too much time on details; conflicts with Pasternak, who was opposite.

    Julius Axelrod was at first a technician under Brody, then moved on to get his Ph.D.; always working at the bench; he discovered COMT; considered a pioneer of modern neuroscience; won Nobel Prize in 1970.

    Candace Pert co-discovered opiod receptors by binding studies (1973); used the antagonist naloxone as ligand.

    Pedro Cuatrecasas: discovered insulin receptor by binding studies.

    The book opposes various scientific approaches:
  • sloppy and fast vs. carefully and slow

  • idea man vs. bench man

  • take a flier (i.e., pursue your best guess first) vs. systematically trying everything

  • keeping things simple vs. trying to cover every aspect


  • Candace Pert one-liners:
  • "And what do you do besides standing around looking adorable?"

  • "Manic depressive psychosis is like diabetes of the dopamine receptor"

  • ...the brain is "a little wet minireceiver for collective reality"
  • "You can't be secretive. [...] You have to surround yourself with the smartest people your ego can stand, then concentrate on the work, not on who'll get credit for it."


  • Snyder/Pert: Choose your problem with exquisite care, distinguishing those that are merely interesting from those that are important as well.

    Snyder: "One experiment in the lab is worth a week in the library." So don't think about it too much. Just get hysterial and do it!

    Snyder, even years after working with Julius Axelrod, would sometimes ask: "What would Julie do?". He wouldn't waste time on the trivial or the impossible. He'd keep it simple. He'd do it fast. He'd take a flier.

    Albert Lasker Award for Basic Biomedical Research; is the 'American Nobel Prize'; Snyder has won it in 1978 for the opiate/enkephalin story; Pert was upset because she was not included, even though it was her work. Pert wrote a book (Molecules of Emotion) which is largely autobiographical.

    Robert Merton (1967/1968): The Matthew Effect in Science: "Them that has, gets"

    Most important U.S. schools: Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, Princeton.


    Other Links:
    Bernard B. ('Steve') Brodie:
    NIH/Stetten Museum of Medical Research
    International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics
    Lasker Foundation
    BASi

    Julius Axelrod:
    Profiles in Science/National Library of Medicine
    Nobel E-Museum
    NIH/Stetten Museum of Medical Research

    Solomon Snyder
    Candace Pert

    Lasker Award
    NIH/Stetten Museum of Medical Research


    Snippets:
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    Database: Gene Knockouts from the online journal 'Frontiers in Bioscience', a non-profit organization created by scientists for scientists for fostering international scientific communication and for providing scientists, physicians and patients with a diverse array of information, tools and techniques.
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    Video: The X-Files (1998). w/ David Duchovny (Agent Fox Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Agent Dana Scully), Martin Landau (Alvin Kurtzweil, M.D.). Mulder and Scully try to unravel a conspriacy around a dangerous alien virus.
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    Sunday, September 07, 2003

    Onur Guentuerkuen, Nature 421, 711 (13 Feb 2003): Adult peristence of head-turning asymmetry. A preference in humans for turning the head to the right, rather than to the left, during the final weeks of gestation and for the first six months after birth constitutes one of the earliest examples of behavioural asymmetry and is thought to influence the subsequent development of perceptual and motor preferences by increasing visual orientation to the right side. Interestingly, twice as many adults turn their heads to the right as to the left when kissing, indicating that this head-motor bias persists into adulthood. Of 124 kissing pairs, 80 (64.5%) turned their heads to the right and 44 (35.5%) turned to the left (ratio ~ 2:1), which is statistically significantly different from 50% (1:1). Funny, what some people do research on!

    Saturday, September 06, 2003

    The Soviet Army Memorial in Berlin was built shortly after World War II, long before the Berlin Wall was raised. However, the memorial to the Soviet forces ended up just West of the dividing line. The memorial is located adjacent to the German Reichstag which was the scene of heavy fighting during the Soviet capture of Berlin. It is flanked by two T34 tanks, said to be the first to reach Berlin. The curved structure itself is created from marble presumed to be taken from Adolph Hitler's Chancellery ("Reichskanzlei"). At its focal point is a bronze statue of a Soviet solder holding a child in one hand and a sword smashing a Nazi swastika in the other. The stones from Hitler's Chancellery are engraved with the Soviet sickle-and-hammer design along with quotes from Stalin. The monument was guarded around the clock by the Red Army until German reunification in 1990.

    Other Links:
    Berlin von A bis Z: Sowjetisches Ehrenmal (in German)


    Snippets:
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    Video: Subway. The Empire Beneath New York's Streets. Hosted and narrated by Jack Perkins. A&E Home Video (1994). Documentary about the history of the NYC subway.
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    Timothy 'Tiggy' Ticehurst. Painter born in Kent, UK, in 1965. Lives and paints in NYC. Sells his art on the street near the Metropolitan Museum. Previously worked under the names Timot and Timotoo.
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    Restaurant: Blue Room. 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA. Serves a world of ethnic entrees. Buffet-style brunch. Dinner.
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    Movie: The Perfect Storm (2000). Directed by Wolfgang Petersen; w/ George Clooney (Captain Billy Tyne), Mark Wahlberg (Bobby Shatford), Diane Lane (Christina 'Chris' Cotter; Bobby's girlfriend on shore), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Linda Greenlaw, fellow skipper). Fight of the Gloucester sword-fishing boat Andrea Gail against the 'storm of the century' that took place off the New England coast in 1991; book by Sebastian Junger; film is based on a true story (even though no member of the ship survived to tell the story).
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    Video: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). First volume of J.R.R. Tolkiens fantasy story. Movie is rather disappointing.
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    Music: Stina Nordenstam. Swedish singer; similarities with Anja Garbarek. Voice not particularly interesting, but music is intriguing through its strangeness. Stina's web site is very well designed. Requires Shockwave Flash plugin.
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    Music: Skin. Former singer of British punk band Skunk Anansie. Album: Fleshwounds. Softer than S.A.
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    Book search engine: Fetchbook. com. With price comparison. Used and new books. Good!
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    Jefferson Davis (1808 - 1889): Only president of the Confederate States of America
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    Video: The Civil War 1861-1865 (1991). Dan Dalton Productions. Dramatic recreation of events through use of historic still photographs and early cinematic dramatizations of the war. Story of the war is told within 90 min; some of the film clips are repeated on several occassions throughout the film.
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    Dynamic Planet Blog
    TOC: Table of Contents
    August 2003


    1.) Laser
    2.) Brain Teaser: Cork in Glass
    3.) 'Cavendish Experiment'
    4.) Brain Teaser: Cork in Bucket