Kids Gone Wild

There was a piece in the 27 November NY Times called "Kids Gone Wild", subtitled "Parents are more involved than ever before. So why do children today seem so rude?" It struck a chord since I have noticed our oldest son, who is 11, sometimes behaves rudely. Not always, but more than I would like. Is it my fault?

According to the article, "Most parents would like their children to be polite, considerate, and well behaved. But they're too tired, worn down by work and personally needy to take up the task of teaching them proper behavior at home. People don't necessarily feel great about their spouse or their job but the kids are the bright spot in the day. They don't want to muck up that one moment by getting yelled at. They don't want to hurt. They don't want to feel bad. They want to get satisfaction from their kids. They're so precious to us - maybe more than any other generation previously. What gets thrown out the window is limits. It's a lot easier to pick their towel off the floor than to get them away from the PlayStation to do it".

Amazing! It's exactly my problem! I can't believe I fit the bill perfectly. I'm glad I know what the problem is.

So now what do I do? The article doesn't give any answers.

Non so niente

I am practicing my Italian by listening to recordings in the car to and from work. If I am dedicated I can study for at least two hours a day, even more if there is traffic. Why am I doing this? I would like to be able to communicate when I go to Rome next spring. I also feel I need to get in better touch with my cultural past. And there are probably other reasons as well.

This is what I learned today:

Non so quando.
Non so chi.
Non so niente molto bene.
Non so dove.
Non so quale.
Io so poco
e quest'é male.

Very nice. Extremely useful on the streets of Rome, I would say.

Or maybe it's just what I am.

Children

Many years ago, when I brought our first child to the pediatrician, I saw a poem on the wall. It made a huge impression on me. Not long ago I read the obituary of the author in the NY Times. The poem was written by Dorothy Law Nolte. Apparently she had dashed it together to make a newspaper deadline. Now it's a classic:

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.

I hope I have and will always give my children encouragement, tolerance, praise, and acceptance.

It's never too late for adults, either.

Are You the Needle or the Thread?

I've been the needle and the thread
Weaving figure eights and circles round your head
I try to laugh but cry instead
Patiently wait to hear the words you've never said

--"Must Get Out", Maroon 5

Mentors

"Mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults than we would like. It's the only way to grow".

--Padme Amidala, Star Wars, Episode II

(I admit it. I saw it on a box of Corn Flakes).

Stem Cell Fraud

I think it's quite sad that the Korean scientist, Hwang Woo Suk, fabricated his results on establishment of human stem cells. This great advance was greeted with fanfare this past summer.

It's bad enough for a scientist to fabricate data. As a scientist I fully understand the pressures to push research forward. Personally I would never fake data; if I can't do it myself, I want nothing to do with it. I'd rather fail than fake scientific results; it's a matter of experimental pride.

What is particularly sad in this case is exemplified by a photograph I saw in the NY Times on Saturday. It shows Dr. Suk waving to a crowd of rather young people, ostensibly students, some of them weeping. The caption is "Hwang Woo Suk said farewell to students as he left his office at Seoul National University yesterday, after resigning his post there". This is the real tragedy - that he misled his own students. These are the people he was to have mentored, to have taught to become excellent and honest scientists, and he failed miserably. In so doing he scarred these future scientists, perhaps robbing them of a productive career. The data can always be supplied by someone else; the damage he has done to these young scientists will be present forever.

Narnia

I went to see "The Chronicles of Narnia" yesterday, with my three children and the child of a friend. The movie is quite well done, and evokes its share of tears from those who are so inclined (such as myself). I particularly liked Lucy, the youngest Pevensie - wonderful acting for a young child. I was least enthralled by the actress who portrayed the White Witch - I don't think she quite got the part down.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film (as did the children) without reading anything religious into its story. It's a great tale on its own, and both adults and children will enjoy it.

I particularly liked the line "I haven't felt this good in 100 years". Can't remember who said it and when, but it's a good one.

Gandalf quote

A few days ago I sent this wonderful quotation from 'Lord of the Rings' to a friend of mine. It is from the mouth of Gandalf:

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that we are given."

Every now and then I think we all have to step back and think about that one. In fact we all have a limited amount of time here, and we should make the most of it.

Thank you, Paola, for making me think of that.

Virologist?

I'm thinking about the title of this blog: "Ramblings of an east coast virologist". Why do I define myself by my profession? This is after all a personal blog, not virus-related (that one can be found at www.virology.ws) - so why can't I find another title that characterizes me? Am I only defined by work? Is there nothing else? I better think of something, or else it will be very sad.

Young Man?

This past Monday, as I was walking up the ramp to my workplace, I caught up with an older man who was walking slowly, with a cane. I slowed behind him; as we reached the door a gust of wind took his black baseball cap and flung it back down the ramp. I turned and ran after it; as I reached for it another bit of wind blew it just from my reach. Finally I retrieved it for the man. He smiled and said, 'thank you, you are so kind, young man'. I laughed and told him that I was not a young man; but he just smiled and said 'enjoy your youth'.

Learned from the best

This weekend, our oldest soon took six hours of karate, in preparation for the test next weekend for his first star. I was so proud of him, I told him so on the way home, and I said he is 'a really good kid'. He said 'thanks Dad, I learned from the best'.

Now isn't that something I'd like to remember in ten years?

Summer's Gone

It's too bad I haven't posted since July....we had such a great trip through western Canada in August, I would have loved to read about it years from now. But internet access was spotty, and the energy barrier too high. Let's summarize: flew to Edmonton, drove to Grande Prairie, drove to Jasper, drove to Lake Louise, drove to Sicamous, drove to Vancouver, drove to Tofino on Vancouver Island, drove back to Vancouver and flew home. Over 3000 kilometers in 20 days. But what great country!

This weekend we went back to the shore. There is nothing like the Jersey shore after Labor Day - not many people on the beach, water is warm, and if the sun is out - like it has been the past two weekends - it's grand. Saturday evening I just walked in the surf around 6 PM; water must be in the high 70s, calm surf, clear skies. The people there now really love the beach. Sunday - today - was just as great. The tide was way out, leaving a flat, wide expanse of beach, more so than any other time this year. Our oldest finally mastered skim-boarding today - was he proud! I told the other two it would be their time next year.

But now the fall is here in earnest - this week summer officially ends, and I start teaching Virology to graduate students. I'll be so busy, I won't notice the time flying, and before you know it, snow will be here...or should I say next summer?

Aprilhop

I found a new beer worth drinking: Dogfish Head Aprilhop. It's an India Pale Ale brewed with apricots. While that might sound odd (the apricots part) the taste is not at all apricot-y. I'm a big fan of Oregon IPA and I'll vouch that Dogfish Head stands up to the challenge. It's a great summer brew.

Bon Jovi?

I went to a Bon Jovi concert last night at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ. I am not a Bon Jovi fan - I don't like the sound of the band, and I never bought any of their recordings. But last night, Jon Bon Jovi performed an acoustic set without his band. He was accompanied by Lorenza Ponce on violin, Jeff Kazee on keyboards, and Bobby Bandiera on guitar. He would sing a few songs, then sit down with Philadelphia DJ Pierre Robert and talk about his life. The music was very good, and the talk was interesting. Mr. Bon Jovi has a good sense of humor! I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't want to go, but in the end I was happy I did.

The theater, by the way, is brand new. It's small (350 seats), with excellent acoustics and a very nice design. The concert was a benefit for the theater company. It was called "Jon Bon Jovi: Off the Record".

Polio Giants Week

This was an important week for poliovirus (the virus I work on): Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the licensure of Salk's polio vaccine strains. Salk attended medical school at NYU, and they have a week long celebration there in his honor. I gave a seminar on Tuesday as part of that celebration. On Monday they had a poster session, with contributions from students from a local middle school. They were great! I was happy to see that many of the students had found our work online, and used our images. By the way, not only did Salk attend NYU, but so did Albert Sabin, whose live poliovirus strains supplanted Salk's in 1961. Furthermore, at NYU Salk worked in the laboratory of Thomas Francis, who conducted Salk's clinical trial of his vaccine.

Yesterday I hosted Hilary Koprowski for a lecture on the history of rabies. Hilary is one of the remaining giants of virology. He developed the first oral poliovaccine, given to children in February 1950, made a vastly improved rabies vaccine, and developed the first therapeutically useful monoclonal antibodies. He's also an accomplished pianist and composer. I had met him before, but it was great to hear his story - he has been around so long, and rubbed shoulders with so many scientists, that he is full of history. I had him autograph a copy of his biography (Listen to the Music: The Life of Hilary Koprowski, by Roger Vaughan) which I will treasure.

Blue Norther

I read the following statement today: "I was taught... to urinate South when a blue Norther was coming through Dallas". What exactly is a 'blue Norther'? Here is the definition, from the Handbook of Texas Online (www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online):

"The term blue norther denotes a weather phenomenon common to large areas of the world's temperate zones–a rapidly moving autumnal cold front that causes temperatures to drop quickly and that often brings with it precipitation followed by a period of blue skies and cold weather. What is peculiar to Texas is the term itself. The derivation of blue norther is unclear; at least three folk attributions exist. The term refers, some say, to a norther that sweeps "out of the Panhandle under a blue-black sky"–that is, to a cold front named for the appearance of its leading edge. Another account states that the term refers to the appearance of the sky after the front has blown through, as the mid-nineteenth-century variant "blew-tailed norther" illustrates. Yet another derives the term from the fact that one supposedly turns blue from the cold brought by the front."

Arm & Hammer

I work in the Armand Hammer building. Someone asked me today who he was, and whether his name had anything to do with Arm & Hammer baking soda. He was a philanthropist and chair of Occidental Petroleum, and his name has nothing to do with baking soda.

Then the question arose as to the origin of the name 'Arm & Hammer'. Here it is:

THE HISTORY OF THE ARM AND HAMMER® TRADEMARK

The ARM & HAMMER symbol was first used in the early 1860’s by James A. Church, the son of Dr. Austin Church, one of the founders of our business. James A. Church operated a spice and mustard business known as the Vulcan Spice Mills. In Roman mythology, Vulcan, the god of fire, was especially skilled in fashioning ornaments and arms for the gods and heroes. The ARM & HAMMER symbol, therefore, represented the arm of Vulcan with hammer in hand about to descend on an anvil.

Church & Dwight, Company Information, History of the Logo
www.churchdwight.com/company/company_information.htm

John Paul II

I heard this morning that the papacy of John Paul II began in 1978. This brought back a few memories from that era - specifically, watching his motorcade drive through central park from the 16th floor of the Annenberg building (5th Avenue and 100th St.). I couldn't see in the car windows, and it was too high up anyway, but the idea that an important person was in there made it a memorable event. I suppose this was during his first visit to New York. A few days later, my alarm at home went off and I heard his farewell speech - of which I only remember 'the kingdom and the power', and his soothing, accented English. 'John Paul II, he's for you' also originated during that trip, I think.

Gee Five

For the record, I started up the new G5 in my office today. Copying all the files and applications from my G4 was a snap - when you start up the G5, it has you connect a firewire cable to the other computer as a way of moving the files. It's seamless and very well done.

The G5 - a dual 2.0 GHz processor model - feels snappier all around. Applications start up faster, and everything is completed in less time. No scientific analysis here, just a happy customer.

The G4 - a dual 1.25 GHz processor, dual optical drives - is now in the lab. It's still a great machine.

I'm looking forward to Tiger. I guess it's not enough to have a new box!

Snapple Caps

Two weeks ago I ran my son's Cub Scout Den meeting, helping them to earn their scientist badge. I brought a box of stuff with me to do demonstrations, and as I was setting up, I noticed a Snapple cap among the material. It had a question on it: Where was the first sailing ship made? So I asked the scouts the question. One boy raised his hand right away, and gave the correct answer: Egypt. I was impressed. Then he told me it was Snapple cap #177.

The moral is, we should have kids read Snapple caps at school, then they would remember things. Having them read books just is not as effective!

Lehman College

I gave a seminar at Lehman College yesterday. This is a small college in Bronx, NY that is part of City University system. The audience comprised mainly undergraduates taking a biology course and a few faculty. They were attentive and asked good questions. The best part was lunch afterwards at Arthur Avenue.

I drove there and back; no weather problems. Next up: University of Michigan in late April.

Boston blues

I spent yesterday in Boston to present a seminar at Harvard Medical School. I know many virologists there and it was enjoyable to speak with them and the graduate students. However, I have vowed never to travel in the winter again.

I left home at 5:30 AM to catch a 7 AM flight to Boston. The weather was mild and I was warm in scarf, coat, and gloves. It was raining. The flight was one and one-half hours late. Fortunately I had not had coffee! When I arrived at HMS, instead of going to my first appointment, I stopped to pick up a tank of coffee at the local Starbuck's. During the day, the temperature dropped slowly, and the rain turned to freezing rain. In the late afternoon I was told I should probably take the train back to New York. By 4 PM my flight had been delayed two hours, to 9:30 PM. I ended up taking the Acela to New York, 3 1/2 hours. Then NJ Transit from Penn Station to the Liberty Airport station (20 minutes), then the airtrain to the parking lot to get my car. I was home just after 11 - and who knows if my flight ever made it.

A miserable traveling day. So what is worse - miserable traveling, or miserable commute? Not a great choice. But that's it for traveling in the winter on the east coast.

Blue sky

Between WNPR stories, they often play a short clip of music that is relevant to the preceeding news piece. For example, a few weeks ago, after an interview with Christo about the gates in Central Park, they played a bit of 'Mellow Yellow' (I'm just mad about Saffron....). Then one night this week they played the guitar introduction from 'Blue Sky' by the Allman Brothers. It brought me back years; I haven't listened to the brothers in ages.

These days, if you want a song, you can get it in minutes. So the other night I bought 'Eat a Peach' from the iTunes music store and listened to 'Blue Sky' this morning driving in. What a great guitar duel - two lead guitars spinning lovely riffs. It is really a wonderful song, inspiring, I might even add.

Miserable traffic

Yesterday was a commuter's nightmare...two and one-half hours to drive in, due to a massive auto accident on the southbound NJ Turnpike, just south of interchange 18. Then in the evening, thanks to the snowfall, another two hour plus commute. Nearly five hours sitting in the car. Good thing I have an iPod...although I like WNPR/WNYC, there are times when I have had enough.

It just goes to show that wonderful AM commute such as that of the past Friday must be savored.

C.S. Lewis

A few weeks ago, while reading "Tolkien: Man and Myth", I became interested in C.S. Lewis, the Oxford Professor who was a great friend of Tolkien. In particular, I decided it would be useful to read "The Chronicles of Narnia", Lewis' seven-volume work.

It was therefore very surprising to read in the New York Times Arts section this past Sunday that the Disney company is preparing movies based on this set of stories by Lewis. Apparently "Narnia" is the last classic set of childrens' books that has not yet been made into movies. Furthermore, turning these books into movies is no trivial feat; one cannot insult those who love the stories for their religious value, nor alienate those not interested in Christianity.

Needless to say, I will be reading these books in coming weeks.

Fifty Minutes

My commute was fifty minutes this morning...door to door, 38 miles, suburban NJ to upper Manhattan. That is because there is no school today, and it is just before President's Day.

It was a pleasure.

If it could only be like this every day, a great deal of stress would be subtracted. I could deal with the commute. But alas, it is like that once a month if I am lucky.

Young Romance

I am writing this post mainly because I want to remember it in 10 or 20 years, and show it to our son.

For some time our older son has professed his interest in a young lady at his school. For Valentine's day he prepared a box of homemade chocolate lollipops and a wonderful, candid, handwritten love note. In the note he professed his love for her, and why he did love her. He read us the note a few days before and I recall it was wonderful. It began with "I am writing you this note to tell you that I love you" and it ended with the exact same phrase - very well done, I thought. In between he reminded her when they first met ("you remember, I walked into class crying"), and that they both wore eye glasses, and many other cute things that I can't remember. This note was delivered to the house of the young lady on the evening of Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, she was not at home, but the Mother promised to deliver the items.

A few nights later the Mother called our home and conveyed the fact that the daughter was not happy with this profession of love. She preferred to be a friend instead, and did not like the contents of the note. Furthermore, the Mother indicated that 'we do not encourage this kind of behavior'. My wife, who took the call, answered that we encourage our children to be affectionated and the letter was consistent with that behavior.

I fully understand if this girl is not interested in our wonderful son. However, I cannot understand the 'we do not encourage this kind of behavior' comment of the Mother. What kind of behavior? Writing notes? For Pete's sake, the kids are 10 years old - it's basically meaningless. What will the parents do when the children are a few years older and become seriously interested in such matters? Will they not be permitted to interact, and thus grow up cold and lifeless?

This is all so bewildering because they are so young and it means nothing. I think it's awfully cute. I wonder if the poor child has been so stifled by the parents that she cannot respond meaningfully to such an overture.

It will be very interesting to look back on this in coming years.

Childrens' Books

Why do I read childrens' books every now and then? I never did before I had children of my own. Books like 'The Bad Beginning', and 'The Artemis Fowl Files'. Not Dr. Seuss mind you, but for a slightly older audience, perhaps 8 years old and up (although I do like Seuss as well!).

For one, childrens' books can be very simply written, which is a delight in itself. Second, at times the plots are not bad. Third, they can be read in a few hours. Fourth, I want to learn how to write childrens' books - I might want to write them some day.

Perhaps best of all, to see what my children like to read! All the childrens' books I have read were first read by - yes - my children!

Leaving the nest

During our visit to Sedona, AZ over Thanksgiving 2004, we were having dinner in the hotel when an interesting event transpired. We were seated at our usual corner table, and this evening an elderly couple was next to us - both in their late sixties or early seventies, she in a wheelchair. Shortly after we ordered I noticed them getting up to leave, and suddenly the lady was next to me, reaching for my hand and introducing herself. She told me that it was so wonderful to see a family together, and began to explain that their children were grown and long gone, and I suppose they both missed doing things with them. We chatted for a while; he is a retired architecture Professor, and he was very much enjoying traveling.

I guess I did not appreciate their angst until tonight, when I was reminded that soon our children will leave, and our wonderful times together will end. It is something to cherish now; I believe I do but I wonder if there is something more I could do to appreciate it. I asked my seven year old boy tonight what I would do when he left; he said that I could come with him, or that he would allow me to see my grandchildren. We have such good times together, and they want to be with us so much, it is hard to look forward to the time when that will no longer happen.

I realize this happens to everyone, but again, everyone is different. I wonder how others cope. Of course, we do have at least eight years in the case of our older one, but still, it bothers me a great deal when I dwell on it.

Today's quote

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

--Mark Twain

Moved again

Just moved this blog to blogger from dreamhost.com, and before that from my office G4. I'm trying it out on blogger now, because I like the idea of being able to post from anywhere; with my other blog, posting involved firing up an ftp client, downloading a template, writing, then uploading. Not a big deal, but this way is much easier. I also like the ability to change the date of the post; I want to back-post some of my old writing with the correct original posting date.

So far I like being able to post from a web browser, anywhere. I also like the simple look.

Today's quotation

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

--Elbert Hubbard

(From under the cap of a bottle of Honest Tea).

Today's Quotation

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

--Elbert Hubbard

(From under the cap of a bottle of Honest Tea).

Black Belt Revisited

One more tidbit about Aidan's black belt test this past Sunday. After kickboxing (in which he did a few rounds with the girl mentioned previously) Aidan came up into the stands, exhausted. It so happened that the girl's parents had sat next to us througout the event, and so the girl ended up sitting, exhausted, next to Aidan.

He looked at her through the opening in his mask, breathing heavily from exertion, and reached over and squeezed her hand.

One of those moments when life is good.

More Windows bashing

As a huge Mac fan, I have to love this quote from Hadley Stern's AppleMatters:

"...Window's boxes in the home are virus-riddeled, spyware crippled piece of junk that keep a large number of IT drones in business; that Windows is a cheap rip off of the Mac UI and that using Internet Explorer on a PC to check your online banking is akin to giving your debit card to some kid in Eastern Europe..."

There was also a wonderful article at salon.com this week by Farhad Manjoo, entitled "Hallelujah, the Mac is back". Very much worth reading. Here is a thought-provoking quote from that article: "When discussing the PC business, an important thing to remember is that nothing's quite settled yet. The personal computer is a young product, and the PCs we have today are not the PCs we'll have forever. David Gelernter, the Yale computer scientist, raised parts of this argument in December in an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, published on the occasion of IBM's sale of its personal computer business to Lenovo, a Chinese firm. Gelernter lamented that sale; it indicated, he wrote, that IBM no longer saw potential for the greatness of the PC, and that this "is a shame, even a tragedy -- because the modern PC is in fact a primitive, infuriating nuisance. If the U.S. technology industry actually believes that the PC has grown up and settled down, it is out of touch with reality -- and the consequences could be dangerous to America's economic health."

Black belt

Our son, Aidan, was awarded his black belt in karate yesterday. He's ten years old, and has been attending the Tiger Schulmann karate school in Watchung, NJ since he was five. It's a great school with two wonderful mentors, Sensei Querido and Sensei Holland.

During the kickboxing part of his black belt test, five rounds of two minutes, Aidan had to fight a girl about his age. It was a great fight with both being very aggressive. Later Aidan told me he didn't want to fight the girl. When I asked him why, he said it was because he wanted her to get her black belt.

Well, they both got their black belts. I need to remember his words, because they are so kind.

Aidan matured a lot yesterday. He also said he had fun.

Building an external SATA RAID array

Last week I decided to build an external RAID array to faciltate video capture and editing. I looked around and settled on SATA drives (big and cheap - $119 for a 250 GB Hitachi from newegg.com), a Sonnet Tempo-X SATA host card, and a Burly 4 drive SATA enclosure from MacGurus. The Sonnet card has four external and four internal SATA ports, will work in a PCI or PCI-X slot, and is compatible with G4 and G5 Macs. However, the card is not compatible with hot-swapping of the drives. The Burly enclosure was reasonably priced ($254) and looked sturdy. I picked the Hitachi drives because I have a bunch of them and I've never had any trouble.

I purchased four drives and the Tempo card from newegg.com, and the 4 drive Burly enclosure. Last night I put the drives in, inserted the PCI card into my G4 dual processor MDD, and cabled up. Each drive is connected to an individual channel in the Tempo card. I powered up and four dialog boxes came up, asking to initialize the drives. Clicking yes brought up Disk Utility; I configured a striped RAID array with all four. In a few minutes I had a 1 TB RAID array mounted and ready to go. Total time to assemble and mount, just over one hour.

We'll see how this performs in coming days. So far the experience has been excellent.