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.

V.B. Nimble

Here is my favorite poem about science. I found it stuck on the wall in an empty lab when I first came to Columbia in the fall of 1982. It is still tacked to my corkboard, yellowing and frayed.

V.B. Nimble, V.B. Quick

(inspired by V.B. Wigglesworth, F.R.S., Quick Professor of Biology at the University of Cambridge)

V.B. Wigglesworth wakes at noon,
Washes, shaves and very soon
Is at the lab; he reads his mail,
Swings a tadpole by the tail,
Undoes his coat, removes his hat,
Dips a spider in a vat
Of alkaline, phones the press,
Tells them he is F.R.S.,
Subdivides six protocells,
Kills a rat by ringing bells,
Writes a treatise, edits two
Symposia on "Will man do?,"
Gives a lecture, audits three,
Has the sperm club in for tea,
Pensions off an aging spore,
Cracks a test tube, takes some pure,
Science and applies it, finds
His hat, adjusts it, pulls the blinds,
Instructs the jellyfish to spawn,
And, by one o'clock, is gone.


From The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures, by John Updike. Copyright © 1955 by John Updike.

How to change headlamp in VW new Beetle

I've put off for several months changing the headlamp in my wife's 2001 VW Beetle. The battery is in the way, and the manual says it's too difficult, that one should have the dealer do it.

Have a dealer change a headlight? Ridiculous.

I searched the internet and came up with the easy, 10-minute solution. I found it here. It's the message from BeachBugger.

Under the fender, near the top of the lamp assembly, is a small lever, about 2" high, with a crescent shaped notch near the top. The lever is locked in place by a sheetmetal latch near the base. The latch has a diamond patten embossed on it. Press down on the latch to release the lever, then move the lever upwards. Once the latch is all the way up, the lamp assemby slides out through the fender, allowing access to the bulbs. It takes some jiggling of the lamp assembly and the lever, but it works. When you put the assembly back in, make sure it rides on the small track on the bottom. Furthermore, a small knob needs to fit into the latch groove on the top. I had to put it in and out a few times before it fit nicely. Close the latch tightly and it's done.

Amazing!

Of mice....

Just went through a mouse-testing phase which is worth recalling. I have a PowerBook Ti 1 GHz which I have been using for nearly two years. I usually use a mouse as I have never been able to get used to the trackpad. Some months ago I decided I needed a compact wireless mouse which would be easily transportable. I bought the Logitech cordless optical mouse for notebooks. This mouse is battery-powered and communicates with the laptop via a small dongle that plugs into a USB port. The mouse is small but not as small as some other portable mice that I have tried (see below). It has two buttons and a scroll wheel and works well under OS X, although the buttons cannot be readily customized. My only objection with this mouse is that the two mouse buttons have a rather long click distance and also make a very loud noise when clicked. I prefer a short and silent click.

After a few months of working with this mouse, I developed chronic pain in my right thumb (I use the mouse in my right hand) which I attributed to repetitive stress injury caused by the small size of this mouse. I think the best way to use a mouse is to have it fit within the entire hand; this requires quite a large mouse. Portable 'notebook' mice simply can't achieve this fit.

I tried two other wireless 'notebook' mice - the Kensington PocketMouse Mini Wireless (model 72214) and the BT-500 mouse from RadTech. The Kensington mouse has nice software to program it, and the mouse buttons are quiet with a short click, but it is even smaller than the Logitech mouse mentioned above, and in less than an hour caused my hand to cramp. The BT-500 mouse is a bluetooth mouse that is very impressive - the tracking is beautiful and the two mouse buttons and scroll wheel work out of the box with OS X without any drivers. However it is also too small for my hand.

I can't use these three small mice; I'm giving them to my three young children.

I finally purchased a Logitech MX900 bluetooth optical mouse. This is a large mouse that fits nicely in my hand, and is very comfortable to use. The buttons have very short click distances and are quiet. It's very nice to use, except of course that it is rather large to be traveling with. Unfortunately Logitech has not produced software for this mouse for OS X. Consequently, one cannot assign functions to the 8 buttons. All the buttons do work, with the exception of the two on the left side of the mouse (usually assigned to forward/back for web browsers) but I would like to have the option of programming them.

By the way, I'm using the Logitech MX900 with a TRENDware TBW-101UB Bluetooth USB Adapter (about $26). It's not advertised to work with Macs but it works perfectly with OS X 10.3.4 and 10.3.5. I use the MX900 base for charging only, not for bluetooth.

I found a great deal of helpful information on the web when I was trying to set up the MX900 with OSX. One source was www.macosxhints.com, in particular this thread. There I learned the numbering scheme for the 8 mouse buttons:

Button 1: Left Mouse Button
Button 2: Right Mouse Button
Button 3: Wheel Click
Button 4: Left Side Arrow Button, pointing towards you
Button 5: Left Side Arrow Button, pointing away from you
Button 6: Switch Windows Button
Button 7: Double Arrow Button, pointing away from you
Button 8: Double Arrow Button, pointing towards you

This site also has some useful suggestions for the MX900, including the use of MouseZoom to set acceration to a higher value than possible with Apple's standard. He also suggested using Game Pad Companion to customize the mouse buttons. This software works with the MX900, but needs to be restarted after a wake from sleep. Consequently I am not using Game Pad Companion.

I am very happy with the MX900, but I do hope Logitech will some day provide a way to customize the buttons in OS X. I also am not fully happy with bluetooth; there is some latency that causes the cursor to jump around at times. I suspect this might be a conflict with my wireless network but I need to investigate this further.

Welcome

Just started this blog to record things which I forget to write, or if I do write them, I lose the piece of paper or forget the location of the digital file.

The software for this blog is a PHP rewrite of a PHP rewrite of Blosxom by Bernard Teo. It's running on a Power Macintosh dual 1.25 GHz G4 in my office at Columbia University.

For a more professional (and probably more useful) blog, see virology.ws - about viruses and viral disease.