The desirability of my car, an able machine, is subject to seasonal fluctuations because its air conditioning has not worked for several years. In the graph above, it is apparent that my personal satisfaction with my car, at its lowest during the summer months, steadily increases during autumn and winter, only to decline near the end of spring.
Photo from the Life archive.
billy: [places order]
cashier: “Your total is $2.51. May I have your name?”
billy: “No, that’s not necessary.”
cashier: “I have an iced grande americano.”
barista: “That’s an grande iced americano. What’s the name?”
cashier: “He won’t tell me.”
billy: [realizes with embarrassment the cashier was asking for his name, not offering him a receipt]
Mission Accomplished
Office 2007 was installed on my machine at work this week.
Billy D and Baby V!
I’m very happy for Sydney and Q and Vera. On the way to the hospital and certainly when holding Vera, I couldn’t help but be moved by the importance and beauty of this new life.
From Earth Observatory’s caption for this photo:
This simulated natural-color image of southeastern Fars province in southern Iran shows a dry river channel carving through arid mountains toward the northeast. The dry river spreads out across the valley floor in a silvery fan. A broad belt of lush agricultural land follows the curve of the fan and stretches out along a road that runs parallel to the ridgeline. The valley-ward margin of the intensely green agricultural belt fades to dull green along streams (or irrigation canals).
It looks even better at full size.
I recently spotted a velvet ant ensconced in lovely red and black setae. I’m glad I didn’t disturb it because I just learned they are actually wingless female wasps of family Mutillidae, able to defend themselves with a notoriously painful sting.
This photo is from here.
I visited the Wikipedia article on element 112, temporarily named ununbium (Uub), because I was hoping it would have a new name. Disappointingly, IUPAC is expected to keep us all waiting until January of 2010 before officially endorsing copernicium (Cp) as its permanent name.
On a related note, the image above illustrates the small footprint of the island of stability in the vast sea of instability, a phenomenon observed in nuclear physics and my last relationship.
Six people might not seem like a lot for a Tumblr meetup, but the bar has been set pretty low in the past so it qualifies. Scorning the many flakes, Erin, Lacey, Nicki, Sydney, Will, and I got together at the Chimes to discuss all the rest of you, your habits, proclivities, aberrant tendencies, and secrets. It was astonishing.
Syd’s husband also attended and took perhaps the worst photographs in history, most of which aren’t included in this Flickr set. From gaming the waitress to doing lines in the crowded bathroom, it was a night I’ll never forget.
I enjoyed this event.
I think this enzyme party needs a bouncer before things start to heat up, specifically to ward off useless non-enzymatic molecules that only pretend to be your friend until they suck all of the class out of your otherwise respectable being. By that, I do mean ethanol (commonly referred to as EtOH, vodka, tequila, or rum…or whatever it is you choose).
Alcohol dehydrogenase catalyzes the reduction of NAD+, a reaction vital in eliminating toxic alcohol in the liver. Of course, it’s just about the only enzyme with which I am well-acquainted both in and out of the classroom, so proposing its invite to the enzyme party is hard to resist.
This photo was posted by some brilliant guy here.
This party is really beginning to take off. I’m going to need a lot more cilantro.
I happened upon a new kind of fun: an enzyme party! The first invitation will be sent to rubisco (ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase for anyone playing at home), a kind old friend and a bit of a celebrity, having been featured by the RCSB Protein Data Bank in November of 2000 as the molecule of the month.
Rubisco, which is integral to the Calvin cycle, is the most abundant protein in plants but is an extraordinarily slow enzyme, with each molecule catalyzing only 3 reactions per second. That makes it four to six orders of magnitude slower than enzymes in the carbonic anhydrase family.
The image above is from here.
