Greatest Collecting Locations I

These amazing Salt Pillars are from the Dead Sea, Israel and seem to be an ideal collecting location for extremely halophilic Archaea.



Image from the research of Dr. Richard Shand at Northern Arizona University.

morphbank browse scraper

Just in case you would want to add a little www.morphbank.net image scaper to your Web page. It returns the url to embed the image into a Web page and the link back to the morphbank record. Using nifty php client url library functions (curl). Any morphbank image browse query will work. Just find the browse you want and cut and replace the returned url in place of the one below.

$ch = curl_init();
$timeout = 5; // set to zero for no timeout
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://www.morphbank.net/Browse/ByImage/?tsn=655371');
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);$regex = "/Image \[(.+?)\]/";
preg_match_all ($regex,$data,$match);
foreach($match[1] as $id )
echo '<a href="http://morphbank.net/Show/?id='.$id.'"> <img src="http://morphbank.net/Show/?id='.$id.'&imgType=jpg" /></a>';
?>

Works ok for a small number of images, will really bog down a web page

Check that Acronym

OTU

Acronym Definition
OTU Occupational Therapy Unit
OTU Office of Technology Utilization
OTU One-Time Use (disposable)
OTU Operating Time Update
OTU Operational Taxonomic Unit
OTU Operational Training Unit
OTU Optical Translator Unit (Lucent)
OTU Optical Transport Unit (IEEE)
OTU Outcome Tracking Unit
OTU Output Terminal Unit
OTU Over to You
OTU Oxygen Tolerance Unit

OTU OTU!

Oh those little white lies

While browsing Google scolar this evening I found a few gems. One is a paper from 1992 by Jennifer Epstein, Bella DePaulo, Susan Kirkendol, Deborah Kashy and Melissa Wyer, whimsically titled “Lying in Everyday Life”

They found some interesting results of the daily lying of college students, generally they produce about 2 little lies a day.
Here is a brief review of some of the interesting results:

1. Participants told more lies about themselves than other people; except when you got a group of women together than they told as many lies about others as themselves.

2. Participants told more lies about themselves to men and lies about others to women.

3. Little lies are common but do not seem to relieve distress in social situations.

4. The most common lie is the removal of facts or absence of truth.

5. Lying serves the function of “impression management, emotional regulation and social support”. For impression management people fashion new and untrue selves.

6. Lying may have long-term emotional effects but ‘many people may prefer not to hear that their muffins are grainy or that they look like a blimp.”



the funny final statement

Are you a summer rain or a clean and clear?

The feeling of being overwhelmed by too many choices is more common than I supposed. The toothpaste isle alone is a marketing train wreck. Interestingly in the article Iyengar and Lepper found that contray to what seems to be the trend, complexity in choice tends to drive people away from the product, either to another less choice-laden product or to not choose at all.

When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 995-1006. (2000

Your codex just got schooled

A codex by definition is a book in the format of modern books, considered those with binding. But it seems that most codices come to us as epic works, historical documents and often marviously illuminated. Many codices are so magnificent they are named for the town or the library in which they have lived.

Nothing could be finer than the
codex seraphinianus, except well the Dresden Codex or the Book of Kells.

seudo-Seneca, and others from the British Library Catalogue

Codex Seraphinianus

Such a classic

The Beckman Model JR-21 needs no introduction. Bit frightening sounding on the inside, sort of a demons from hell listen.

mp3

Another good shaker

Unfortunately I do not remember the exact make and model of this old standby. He would easily boogie a 1000ml Erlenmeyer flask all night. Have a listen

Best lab sounds

Attachment to inanimate objects is not uncommon, particularly if you work with 'it' every day. Computers commonly have names.

Its a bit less common for a vortex to find a special place in the hearts but to those who have grown to rely on him he is one of a kind.

Let me introduce Fred the Fisher Vortex Genie 2. Although only a shaker for single micro centrifuge tubes he really could boogie

mp3 of Fred in action

Tree octopus

humm oh really?

Whats the temperature?

oh and here is a link to the ever helpful Dolbear's Law formula on wikipedia. Makes me wonder why the snowy tree cricket (Oecanthus fultoni) is so very consistant for telling the temperature. Supposidly the average cricket is not consistant with variations in the amount they are chirping dependant on their age and mating success. Oecanthus sp. chrip a bit differently in the West as they sing a bit faster. Here is a nice Website with some sound samples and info
Its 98 degrees here. I think those snowy tree crickets would be a bit overworked.

End of August at the Hotel Ozone

Great movie and a excellent view if you are into the end of the world. Its a super bleak, 1967-Czechoslovakian film from directors Pavel Jurácek and Jan Schmidt. Best human and least affected human extinction film I have ever seen. Supposedly all of the actors but one were recruited from the army without any prior acting experience. Only adds to the bleakness and flat profile of the actors.

Favorites from the lab

A chemistry lab I believe is one of the loudest labs ever. Or at least the one Pax and I visited in Lexington a bit over a year ago. These recordings have made their way into Auk Theatre soundtracks but I think they sound really good stand alone! Nothing about the original sound is modified.
hash_chemistry.mp3
engine.mp3

Another odd one

oh yeah I first posted this by accident. Another record with interest in the temple of understanding.

not invited to dinner

Except I probably wouldnt open the door if this guy came over. I am guessing he would be selling shoes, or toasters.

Found the temple of understanding

Possibly one of the best records ever picked up is a (perhaps early 60s) record called the Temple of Understanding with Mrs. Dickerman Hollister Interviewed by Rabbi Samuel Silver. It is regarding a 'place' where all can come in one giant religious understanding. As off key as this record is I was totally surprised when I found that the temple actually exists as a not-for-profit founded in 1960. Although there is no indication that the awesome building Mrs. Hollister had envisioned was ever built unfortunately.

The message is telling...and quite informative.



temple_of_understanding.mp3