I can blog from my phone. Berlin. Plenary talk on calcium vesicle signaling in neurons. Not my thing.

Back (sort of)

Got back last night to Germany from Dar Es Salaam. Exhausted. But now I'm hanging around Berlin for a few days for an HFSP awardeees conference. I haven't thought about science for nearly 3 weeks.
And I feel like I need to relax and have a vacation.
There will be posts and photos from Africa - but it may take a while as I took half my pictures with that ancient stuff called film and I'll need to get it developed and maybe even scan in the slides myself.

Trip log:
Nairobi - Masai Mara Reserve - Nairobi - Stone Town (Unguja Isl., Zanzibar) - Nungwi (Unguja Isl., Zanzibar) - Wete, (Pemba Isl., Zanzibar) - near Makangale (Pemba Isl., Zanzibar) - Pujini (Pemba Isl., Zanzibar)- Pangani - Dar

Mr. Lake visits

Today if all goes well Mike will arrive in Dresden. And then next week we'll leave for Africa. The plan is to fly into Nairobi, do a 3 day safari, and then figure it out from there. Probably head to the coast of Tanzania and out to the islands there and hopefully get in some diving.
I have a history of traveling with Mike,

from scaring away monkeys in Ecuador

to acquiring black-market rice liquor in predominantly Muslim Indonesia

To getting lost in a jungle in Malaysia

To generally acting a fool in the back of a pickup cruising through Thailand

Fox News is so transparent.

I didn't know if it was just me, but a couple of times I thought Fox news was loading their Obama headlines with subtle references to stereotypical "black" culture items. For example when he clinched the nomination, and I can't exactly remember the headline or find it, it was something like "Historic Performance in Crunch Time" or something. Basically it was a sports headline. Something reserved for an athlete. But today I saw this on some blogs. Fox news referring to Michelle Obama in a headline as "Obama's baby mama". I mean, are you kidding me? Not even "Obama's baby's mama", but "Obama's baby mama." It just kind of leaves you speechless.

And on a related side note, I feel sorry for the normal people of West Virginia and Appalachia, cause we've been hearing a lot of absurdly idiotic, racist, and ignorant comments coming out of there. You can only conclude the press (and often foreign press) is sifting through hundreds of hours of taped interviews for these "gems", and it's not putting the region in a good light.
For example, the guy that said :

'We'll end up slaves. We'll be made slaves just like they was once slaves,' he said. Telvor, a white Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton in West Virginia's primary, said he planned to vote for Republican John McCain in November. 'At least he's an American,' he added with a disarmingly friendly smile.

Or the women featured in this Daily Show clip, on why Obama didn't do so well in West Virginia.

Trabi kaufen

Today we (Tony, Cliff, and I) went and had a look at some Trabis for sale.


On the left is a 1968 Trabant 601 "Kombi" (Station wagon). On the right is a 1989 Trabant 601 Limousine.

Cliff and Tony discuss the rewards of a 2-stroke engine.

I WILL vote this time!

Mailed the paper work out today to do all I can to get a ballot for the presidential election.
Last year it took a mailing, several emails, and THEN several phone calls to Virginia to get the people there to realize they were supposed to be sending me a ballot. And then, THEN, after my third conversation with the nice lady in Virginia she acknowledged that they "found" my application and would be sending me a ballot - it never actually came. (Which later I found out happened to thousands of people overseas - makes you wonder when you think about how VA was considered nearly a swing state last election and that it goes without question that most non-military overseas voters are going to vote Democratic...)

Now it seems VA could really be a key state - so I think I'll raise hell to make sure my vote is counted - at least for peace of mind.

Obama signals Republicans face fierce fight in Va.

Yellow Fever Virus Kicking My Ass

Well, a live attenuated version of the virus called 17D. Know the difference between the one that causes Yellow Fever and kills people and the one that is used for vaccinations? Well, scientists don't either. They only really know it works. Every time somebody is given the attenuated live virus they become resistant to the really bad virus. And most of the time they do not die.

Real virus, or 17D version currently kicking my ass?

The virus I got 3 weeks ago was the same as the one discovered/isolated in 1937. They got it then by taking virus from a man infected with Yellow Fever from Ghana, infecting some monkeys with it, accidentally killing some lab workers with it, and eventually passing it through mouse brain and chick embryo tissue over and over until it seemed to be benign.
Today ongoing research is still conducted to try to find out the difference between this "attenuated" virus and the real one, and why it seems to be so good as a vaccination.

When I got the vaccination the doctors just told me not to exercise for a week. For a week I had no ill affects. Then about 10 days after the vaccination I suddenly got some flu-like symptoms: cold sweats, headache, sore muscles over the entire body, exhaustion. Then 24 hours later they were completely gone. The internet confirmed this was most likely from the vaccination. In 2-10% of cases, patients experience flu like symptoms 7-10 days after vaccination for 24 hours. That seemed pretty cut and dry. Even interesting after it was over, thinking this live virus was running around eliciting an immune response, but one that my body nicked fast.

But then 3 days ago, 17 days after vaccination, I started to get symptoms again. Started with lightheadedness and dizziness all day Friday. Then Saturday the whole-body muscle aches, fatigue, etc came again. Spent the whole weekend on the couch.

This morning (Monday) I was still immobilized so I dragged myself to the doctor. He was rather unimpressed, and relatively convinced it's my immune system still dealing with the vaccination. Peracetamol (Acetaminophen) was his answer. So I just have to wait and try to fight the pain with Acetaminophen and hope for the best. Thing is, things I found on the internet only have side affects of vaccination lasting under 2 weeks. It's been three weeks for me now. The only evidence of those are where people end up in the hospital fighting for their lives!
Like these guys:

Case 3. On September 17, 2001, a man aged 36 years received YEL in preparation for travel to Brazil. He had diaphoresis, fever of 102.2º F (39.0º C), rigors, and headache 13 days after vaccination; 16 days after vaccination, he lost consciousness and was hospitalized with severe headache and fever of 106.0º F (41.1º C)

...

Case 5. On February 7, 2002, a man aged 41 years received YEL and hepatitis A vaccine in preparation for travel to Venezuela. Six days after vaccination, he had low-grade fever, headache, and myalgia, which worsened over several days; 16 days after vaccination, he was hospitalized with fever of 104.0º F (40.0º C), headache, and rigors.

The main lesson from this is probably to not read the internet.
But I'm waiting for that super-high fever to kick in.


references:
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/324/7335/439
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5144a1.htm

Summer is here. I'm blogging this from my cell phone. See how it works. The color me my hefeweizen seemed to attract flies, which would get stuck there since it was sweating profusely.

Good Weekend (!)

This weekend my first first-author paper of my postdoc was accepted for publication (in the Journal of Cell Biology) This is work I've been doing for 3+ years, and a manuscript I started writing up 9 months ago. The basic focus of the research is on how cells build and regulate the transient apparatus (shown below in purple) needed when the cells divide to accurately segregate their DNA (green) perfectly and equally into the two new cells.



In addition, this weekend our MPI-CBG Ultimate (frisbee) team "Ring of Fire" competed in a two-day tournament in Jena against teams from around Germany, and took home 5th place! out of 20 teams. (photos and video to follow...)

New Blog Name

I decided to change the name of this blog on the 1st blogiversary, and I finally did. Something now that references my hometown, my name, and my current residence. We'll see if it sticks. I think I'll start playing around with some photos on the title too.

Oh O'Reilly.

update: Link is down, try to watch it here.
And definitely check out the dance remix.

I saw this on Talking Points Memo. This is awesome.



The calmness with which the crew handles him and gets him to finish suggests this wasn't his first tantrum. But it doesn't make me dislike O'Reilly any more. Actually it makes me want to watch the spectacle that is his show. I used to watch it semi-regularly for the entertainment value.

Dreams - edition one

For several years I've been trying to write down my dreams as soon as I wake up from them. It's actually amazingly difficult. I really have to fight myself so that I don't convince myself in my sleepy daze that a) they are not interesting enough to write down, b) I won't remember the good parts, and/or c) I'm just too tired to be bothered with it all. So I'd say I only end up writing down 10-20% of the dreams I actually awake from, which is likely only a fraction of all dreams.
Anyway, they are interesting to go back and read. Often I don't even remember them when I go back and read them. I thought I would just post them on here.
I figured I would scan in what I wrote - sometimes seeing the chicken scratch is interesting in itself - and then transcribe it word for word - without interpretations or explanations.
Here's the last one recorded in my book by my bed - appropriately including science and German.

(click to enlarge)

Transcription:

26/4/08 3:45am

Somewhere unknown. Some bldg or complex.
developing Western. machine taken down. Must do manually.
woman shows me trays of chemicals. she hands me my sheet from developer ->
but now I don't know which tray. to go to next. I guess. and put it in. then kinda hold it up to my nose. At some point she looks and sees I've gone to wrong tray, and worse it's very toxic & I've inhaled it. We may need to get to doctor. Somebody needs to help us. We are walking thru building looking for help. I think I see a young woman, turn corner & she is not there. Like a ghost. Finally I run around the corner & she is there. "Entschuldigung, konnen Sie uns bitte helfen?" I say. She seems annoyed. Not helping. I see another woman. Then I see a third woman, but it is the same as the 1st. There are 2 of the first there. I start panicking. The chemical is making me crazy. Then I see 2 of the second. I tell the original woman we have to hurry to the doctor., I'm going crazy, I'm seeing two people (& not like double vision, like independently being, but identical replicates of people walking around). I'm panicking.

Favorite Songs of the Moment

One old one...
The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight




One new one...
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The World's Greatest (R. Kelly Cover)



Listen to the original here.
hat tip to Maria for the second one.

Bad omen?

While campaigning in Kentucky, Hillary Clinton thought it would be cute to tell voters to put their money in the Kentucky Derby on the lone filly in the field, saying "I want everybody to place a little money on the filly". This was the first female contestant even in the race in 9 years. Seeing how this horse was a 20:1 odd to win, it seemed an odd thing to say, since it seemed that the lone filly was destined to lose in her analogy. But it was actually worse.

I just saw the race results on CNN. The filly actually ended up finishing second behind the male horse, named "Big Brown".
But then shortly after crossing the line in second place, sadly the filly broke both front ankles, collapsed, and had to be put down there on the track.

Classic German

I realized that I am in fact learning German when I was able to understand this unusual sign I saw when walking by a hospital in Martinsried.
"Hubschrauber Flugverkehr - Drachensteigen verboten!"
That is some classic German.

And then on the same trip as I was waiting in the airport to get on the plane a Lufthansa employee came by and conducted a little interview with me about my travel habits and plans for statistics - and to my enjoyment without switching to English. It was like an extended German class exercise.

Busy busy busy

No time for blogging - just got back from traveling to Munich, Vienna, and Děčín over the last 2 weeks - more on some of that later. maybe. This week will be all writing to get a paper finally resubmitted.

But here's something:
Favorite German word of the month: angrillen
This is a verb that is used in reference just to the first time you fire up the grill in the spring for the new year. how sweet is that? Like 'wir haben gestern angegrillt'. Or 'wir grillen heute an.'
I opened the grilling season for myself officially I guess when my friend Amy from Brighton was visiting and we scored some homemade bratwurst - lamb and standard variety - from the local butcher, and Amy hooked up some homemade kartoffelsalat to go with them. I cannot begin to explain the difference between these bratwurst and the store-bought variety (even here in Germany).

World Tour 2008

Well, World tour 2008 is about to kick off. World Tour 2007 was a hit and will be hard to match. Here are the current dates:

• April 2-6 Collaboration at MPI-Martinsried
  

Munich, Germany

• April 9-11 Mitocheck Annual Meeting

Vienna, Austria

• April 13-15 MPI-CBG Postdoc Retreat
  

Děčín, Czech Republic

• July 6-9 8th Annual HFSP Awardees Meeting

Berlin, Germany

• September 12-16 EMBO Centrosome Conference

Heidelberg, Germany

• September 19-22 Hanging out with Mom and some good food and sun

Venice, Italy



Solid yet unconfirmed dates:

* May 30 - April 1 Splatsch Ultimate Frisbee Tournament

Düsseldorf, Germany

* October 15-20 Texas Longhorns football game and general Austin time (good eats)

Austin, TX, USA

Tentative Dates:

*MAY 5-7 Hyman Lab Retreat, Mendel Center (on the site where Mendel worked)

Brno, Czech Republic

* Summer Roughin' it with ol' Mike

??, Madagascar

* December 13-17 ASCB Annual Meeting

San Francisco, USA



Whew. Adds up when you write it all out at once.

Colby Bird explained (kind of)

Many people ask me to explain my brother's art. Usually I try to give them an idea as I understand it, but then generally stop as I envision Colby listening and getting quietly frustrated. The gallery in NYC representing Colby has a small blurb on his art in general, but doesn't help for specific pieces. Now, lucky for all you that have asked me, the gallery has published a small publication (scroll down for download), which includes an essay by João Ribas, whom (who? eric?) I ignorantly presume is some big-shot in the art world. Anyway, there are specific pieces referenced there, including a few that were in his show last year that I made it to.

Be warned, in contrast to what you read here, it includes big sentences with big words, like

It is this confounding mixture of individualized capitalist aspiration, ersatz opulence, perceived authenticity, and the obsession with consumptive iconography that gives the work of Colby Bird its distinct resonance.

I don't even know if I've heard the word "ersatz" before. At least in English. In German I know it most familiarly from "Ersatzverkehr". Which often means you gotta ride the bus cause the tram is broken. I guess like "replacement transport".

Jazz gig

Last Thursday night went to a show in a student club down towards the university. I had seen some pretty cool posters (is this picture not cool?) advertising a guy named Johannes Bauer playing the trombone. From the blurb they had on the website I knew I was going to be in for some jazz improvisation on the trombone with an unconventional overtone, but had no idea to expect this. Most of the time he was not playing the trombone as you would expect, but rather making noise with it in ways other than vibrating the lips, like just blowing air through, or speaking into it, or making strange animal-like noises, etc. and all while having small fits and spasms. And looking vaguely drunk.
Here's a youtube clip I found that basically sums up the show.





So I while it was interesting watching him contort himself while making strange noises with the rest of the band, it was a little disappointing. and it got old. I think I was craving structure and rhythm after listening to 4 talented jazz artists on drums, keyboard, trombone and bass for an hour without any of it.
I guess it didn't help I was listening to some Bill Watrous prior to heading down:


(wait for the trombone solo)

New Blog Name

Working with Jeff's suggestion...




Ummm, yeah, I think I'm going to you know, keep this on the table and also look for other options

Blogiversary

Today is the one year anniversary since I posted my first post on this blog.
This will be the 153rd post in a year, which comes out to about 3 a week on average.

One of the (several) reasons I started this blog was to provide friends and family in the US that I am seldom in touch with an easy way to get glimpse into what's going on over here. Ironically, however, almost none of my family and friends (in the US) that I told about this blog are among the regular visitors I get here. I try not to take it personally.
I guess not surprisingly, by far most of my hits are from Germany.

In the next year I hope to post more of my photography, haven't really been doing that. And at the same time hopefully find more time for posts of actual substance and a bit of writing rather than one-liners.

At this landmark I've decided to change the name of the blog. Wendelicious just sounds stupid to me now for whatever reason (The name comes from my middle name, Wendell). I just haven't decided on what to change it to yet.

Score

Look at this lovely pair I picked up for FREE from a couple moving to California.

Some horribly unfortunate Americans forced to pay just over half what Europeans pay for gas

just so they can drive their Chevrolet "Avalanche" (No, that's really the name) that was shipped from Colorado all over Maui.

"After seeing the total, I won't be smiling," Sweeney said as he watched the numbers on the Chevron pump spin faster than a slot machine.

The pump finally stopped at $97.20, which put 24.5 gallons in his Chevrolet Avalanche.

He was elated about living on Maui and being reunited with his black, super-size pickup truck, which just arrived from Colorado, but he wasn't so thrilled about paying nearly $4 for a gallon of regular.

...

"Outrageous. Completely outrageous," said Janet Carone, of Wailuku.

The thing is, it actually evens out cost-wise, because while Europeans pay twice as much for gas, their cars also get twice as many miles per gallon.

Rant

It appears sometimes stealing is OK. Like when you are in Germany.
I think there may be a cultural difference here.

In the basement of my apartment is a room where everybody keeps their washer. Which is weird on its own because there are like 6 to 8 new washers down there, and never is more than one running at once - but everybody gets an individual key to turn on their washer's electricity. I guess so nobody is tempted to steal another's electricity and use their washer. I share mine with Nate, a concept seemingly lost on the rest of the residents. We could have in fact two washers shared between the whole building and never have to wait. anyway.
The basement is locked. Only tenants of this building can get in. I started keeping my laundry detergent down there - no reason to bring it up and down. But one day I felt like somebody was using my detergent - it seemed to be going away too fast. So when I got a new bag of detergent I put my little glass cup in it in a way I would remember to see if it changed.
Last weekend I came down to do some laundry and all my detergent was gone. And my little cup was left on top of the washer. Somebody just stole my detergent. Because they could. Somebody who lives in my building and has a washer. Somebody who is probably paying 400euros+ in rent plus has a 300euro+ washer. And they are going to steal detergent from their neighbor. detergent. Because they could.

I'm starting to realize there must me some cultural differences here when it comes to such things. I mean maybe I'm naive, but it seems like there's more of an attitude of "If you leave something in position in which it could be stolen, it's fair game, and you can't complain."

A couple years ago I left my bag in a restaurant/bar. When I came back for it, it was gone. The bartender said matter-of-factly "you should have come back earlier". As if there was a statute of limitations on how long something can sit there before it's fair game. Then when I went to the police to report it (my laptop, passport, and ipod where in there), the officer told my dryly "This isn't technically a crime, we cannot report it as such. Since you were not with your bag when it was stolen, you left your bag there, and somebody else found it." Did I mention my passport was in there? It's not like it wasn't clear who's it was. but I guess this is part of the cultural difference.

A friend of mine had a party in the back of our complex. Again, it's locked - you have to have a key to get in, or be buzzed in. So we're all friends there and, long story short, somebody at the party steals my bike light I had been using as a flashlight. Just walked home with it. one of the guests. Even an email to the invitees produced no knowledge. But I guess I shouldn't have just set it down on the table and walked away.

My new bike was stolen a few years ago, locked at night behind a friend's house. But that seemed like more of a professional job - they cut the lock and may have even watched me ride it back there. So not really relevant here. But I just want some pity for all I've had stolen.

But I'm even going to call out a labmate here. One day comes in with a digital camera 'found' at a train station or airport or something. I think the reasoning went something like if he left it there somebody else would steal it. It had a whole lot of nice pictures somebody took on their trip around the world.

But worst of all is my friend Alex's roommate. This guy is at a club and finds a coat check button. So what does he do? Promptly heads straight to the coat check - and gets the guy's coat, wallet, and cell phone. Trashes the wallet, and then goes home with a new cell phone and coat. This a college student. Then he brags to his roommates about this pathetic shit. but everybody seems to find it moderately amusing except me. I mean, what an ASS. Losing 50 euros in a wallet is one thing. All the documents and the cell phone stuff - ugh. And ready for the kicker? This asshole was needing a new cell phone and had just won one on ebay. So now that he 'found' a new one, he decides he's going to renege on the won ebay bid and screw over the seller. class act! Moral of the story as explained to me: You shouldn't leave your wallet and cell phone at a coat check.

I've never lived in a 'city' in the US. In Austin I was really in a nice neighborhood and Ann Arbor and Charlottesville don't count at cities. Maybe this is just me learning that people aren't nice and it only seems like it's Germany because I've only lived before in little happy college towns and neighborhoods. But it's really getting on my nerves.

update: I got the story above wrong. It was not a wallet, but a keychain that was found with the coat and cell phone and trashed.

Airbushes and Photoshop

It's clear to anybody now that over the last 10 years the use of the airbrush in magazine cover portraits is getting out of hand. Early on the most absurd seemed to be limited to "Men's" magazines like Maxim and whatever. And while it's ridiculous, and in fact just not sexy, somehow it wasn't too bothersome, it's not like anybody expects anything more from these kind of eye-candy driven magazines.
But nowadays it's just creeping up everywhere. Look through any advertisement flyer. Probably even one for "Sears" women's section. Everybody is airbrushed to hell. Women and Men. But it's like everybody is getting used to it so they keep pushing and pushing it. Like we are actually accepting that people look like that. Soon they will be able to completely do away with models and just have purely computer generated images.

But the point of this post was for you to check out this website, advertising for "retouching".
Click on 'portfolio', then click on the pictures, then mouse over the large photos of celebrities for before-after. And then be prepared to gag. WTF? Not only are complexions turned to alien-smooth ivory, but thighs are thinned, chins are pulled in, eyes modified, asses given more curves or cut down.
And then you wonder if there is one human image in today's entertainment or advertising for ANYTHING that hasn't been dramatically modified. It's to the point where I don't think anybody could argue this can't be healthy for society.

Illustrated nicely in this video:


From this old post on Shakesville.
Where there are actually a number of posts on the "impossibly beautiful" theme.

Spiders on Drugs

Ohrwurm

Just Jack - I talk too much




hat tip: Maria

Not a friendly site when in an old east-German basement hospital room

That is one mean looking thing on the wall. Somehow since it's written in German it makes it more scary.
Snapped it with my cell phone.

(translation: Potential Equilization Panel - For the connection of electro-medical equipment)

Not boding well for my future sports entertainment

There are really three things I think I miss most about not living in the USA: Stores open late and on Sundays; having a car; and watching American sports, particularly college basketball and football. Fortunately the last has been alleviated quite a bit by a TV channel I get called NASN - North American Sports Network. Each year their programming has been getting better, and I've even been able to watch my favorite teams play basketball several times this year. But when they have a poll like this on their site it worries me.

Over FOUR times as many people are looking forward to the Stanley Cup playoffs than March Madness?!?! wtf? March Madness, which refers to the college basketball conference tournaments and then the national, 65-team tournament over 3 weekends to decide the national champion, is in my opinion the most exciting time in American sports. Okay, fine, I can see some people excited about hockey playoffs, but FOUR times as many? And more NASN viewers would rather watch spring training than march madness.
spring.
training.
If they start showing preseason baseball games over college basketball tournament championships I don't know what I'll do.

Fight continues against Waldschlößchenbrücke

In the continuing saga....."Construction" started a few months ago - the area is turning into dirt and machines. But the fight continues - now mostly in the form of proposing a tunnel as an alternative. A petition was sent around the city to consider a tunnel alternative to the bridge (The bridge plans include a tunnel anyway up to the river, where it will turn into a bridge). I was unable to sign because I'm not an EU-national, but they've got 20,000+ signatures....

Regenbogen statt Brücken!
-what luck with this photo

Here's the website leading the fight.

New Year's Eve in Dresden

Finally putting up a few pics. We gathered at my place and then headed down to the river for the madness. On this night there are no laws against setting off any fireworks anywhere in the city....and people did.

(click to enlarge)

the aftermath of exploded firecrackers on Alaunstrasse

By FAR, the two best times I've had on NYE have been the two years I spent it in Dresden.

Sächsische Kartoffelsuppe

I've come to realize that one of my favorite foods I've found in Germany is potato soup. I love me some good potato soup. So it's surprising I haven't tried until now to just make it myself.
A quick google search for "Sächsiche Kartoffelsuppe Rezept" (Saxony Potato Soup Recipe) provides a lot of recipes. Learning to make it "Saxony-style" will give me another nice "souvenir" when and if I ever leave here.

I made a giant pot recently.
Of course it starts with lotsa potatoes and veggies

Here it is pre-stab-mixer - one of the greatest little appliances I've got that makes quick work of 5 liters of veggies like nobody's business

I even made a time-lapse movie of myself making the giant pot of Kartoffelsuppe in my kitchen - but unfortunately my camera's broken and somehow decided to do this vignette thing which actually covered up where most of the action was in cutting up all the different veggies.
anyway:

And of course for echte Sächsische Kartoffelsuppe brauchen wir ein paar Sächsische Wiener Würstchen dazu:

Disturbing, concerning, yet not surprising.


and then on top of it things like this.

Favorite song of the moment

Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel




reminds me a bit of driving from Texas to Virginia through NC or TN.

props to Eric for the heads up.

This is awesome

Create your own album cover.

Here are the first three I got:

Instructions here
(and just crop it to a square)
(via punkassblog)


Update:

And here's one where I cheated on the photo - one I found surfing the web. I couldn't resist. But I think the album and title came out more than perfect!

You want some of this?



Then bring it. down to the little elementary school in Striesen on Wednesday nights. They have a small kinda basketball court they let us use. If one of the little old teachers stops you just tell her you're playing with the MPI people and hopefully you can get in.
But seriously.

I think things are healing well. The glue seems to have worked. Everybody feels the need to tell me that "chicks dig scars", which worries me a bit that this will be permanent.

And I've received a lot of Harry Potter jokes, the first from the nurse in the ER.

And the results are in.....

Sächsisch Beer vs. Czech Beer at the MPI beer hour. I think the picture speaks for itself.

One week and counting.....

One week from tonight will be the last evening smokers will be allowed to freely smoke in every bar and restaurant in Saxony. I can. not. wait. It's kind of interesting. In one day, Saxony will go from being about 20+ years behind the US in smoking laws to maybe 10 years ahead of some states/cities. As far as I know, about 20 years ago all restaurants in the US did away with "smoking" sections. I can barely even remember there being such a thing. I don't know how long ago it was they introduced smoking sections. But right now here in Dresden, for about 95% of restaurants, there are no smoking vs. non-smoking sections. It's all just smoke-em-if- ya-got-em, so to speak. You can be sitting down to a fancy dinner filled with delicate flavors and the couple next to you can light up and chain smoke the rest of the evening, so that everything just smells/tastes like smoke.
On the other hand, in many cities in the US, there's still no restrictions on smoking in bars. I guess because of that it wasn't completely shocking coming to Dresden, since I was at least used to the smoke in bars. But as of next Friday, in Saxony bars and restaurants will have to be primarily non-smoking. All of them I assume. Although apparently they will be allowed to have a smoking "section", as long as it can be separated from the rest of the bar by a closed door.
It would seem like it will never work, people will never accept it. But if it's worked in Ireland, Italy, Paris, NYC......I guess it can work anywhere.
Again I wonder what will become of my neighborhood bar Hebeda's. I think I might go this Friday to take some final photos of the smoky mood, and then go again next Friday to celebrate the lack of smoke.

New Scanner (Milk and Sugar, baby)

I realized the other day that when I take photos with my SLR (an old film kind of SLR), it's costing me a fortune to make them digital just to share with people or put on my blog or whatever. For a 36 roll of slide film, it only costs about 2.50 euro to develop, but then my photoplace charges about 12.50 to scan them onto a CD at 2400 dpi. So when I take 2 rolls of film in it costs me 3o euros, and there's no prints or paper involved. For some reason it took me this long to realize if I were to just have them develop them and scan them myself it would be 1/6th the cost. So it seemed obvious to go buy a scanner that can scan negatives/slides and soon it would pay for itself. But then again I want to get a digitial SLR soon and would I then not have a use for the scanner anymore?? I decided it was worth buying a good scanner, then I could also use it for other things or even archiving old slides/film.

So I got this guy (Canon 8800F)

and here's my first scan, of an awesome graphic I had found out on the town. (click to enlarge)

Making a Gingerbread House in Germany

As usual this is about a month late, but had to post some pictures to show that while in Germany I actually helped make a gingerbread house during Christmas-time. There was a cookie competition at work as part of the Christmas party and our lab decided we would make a gingerbread house as our entry....

The walls go up. Not looking like a standard house

Jenn was the master-coordinator of the project, and supervised the American postdocs



A sidewalk and street, and pedestrians go down...

Final touches included a speed bump and smokers outside in the cold. (Gummibärchen, of course)

And BAM! The MPI-CBG in the snow. Complete with funky awning, trees, speed bumps, smokers, benches, pond, and even some little guys playing kicker up on the roof.

First place! And this contest was no joke, as evidenced by the mean looking cookie on the certificate. Notice Till lurking in the background. He was cherry-picking the candy when eyes were turned.

Soon everybody got into the act. It didn't last very long. But tasted pretty good.

Cuts!

Collided heads in basketball tonight and somehow it opened up a one and a half inch cut on my forehead. No stitches, though, they put it back together with hot glue.



I had it coming, though, the last 2 collisions I had sent the other guy to the ER.

Speeding up Microtubule Growth

Molecular biochemists doctor Gary Brouhard and doctor Jeff Stear (of The Stools) have teamed up to present their last couple years of work, published this week in Cell. CELL is perhaps the most prestigious journal in the world for publishing in the biosciences, and here they have pulled off the cover. Gary and Jeff have shown us how microtubule growth is mechanistically regulated on a molecular level, which until now has been the subject of debate, by the protein XMAP215.







Cover design by Gary Brouhard

The authors at their finest

In the authors' own words:

"Microtubules are long, slender filaments with which cellular structures such as the cytoskeleton, the mitotic spindle, and the axoneme are built. These structures are not static. Rather, they are broken down and rebuilt when a cell moves, changes shape, or progresses through the cell cycle. This remodeling is achieved by the disassembly and reassembly of microtubules and occurs primarily through the removal and addition of tubulin dimers at microtubule ends. "

(Here is a movie illustrating microtubules growing in live cells.)

More specifically:

"To distinguish among the different possible ways that XMAP215 might promote microtubule growth, we developed an assay to visualize single XMAP215 molecules during microtubule polymerization. We demonstrate that XMAP215 does not, in fact, act as a tubulin shuttle. Rather, XMAP215 acts as a processive polymerizing enzyme or polymerase: XMAP215 forms a 1:1 complex with tubulin and resides for long periods at microtubule plus ends where it catalyzes repeated rounds of addition of tubulin into the microtubule polymer."

Nice work, dudes.

New Year's Eve in Dresden...

As soon as I get my photos developed from New Year's Eve I want to post some up here.
But briefly I'll put this great video that Sarah took. This captures the attitude of the evening in Dresden. chaos and fire.



This was outside my flat as we were preparing to walk down to the river for the festivities and Sanni thought it a good idea to try a large rocket in the tram tracks.
Garrett with the commentary. Unfortunately there was a guy where it exploded and he wasn't too happy about it.
it's fun to pause it on the frame of the first explosion.