Mike

Happy DNA Day!

Happy DNA Day Everyone!   Today marks the 55th Anniversary of the publication of the Double Helical Structure of DNA.   

We will spend the day working with students all over the St. Louis area talking about DNA, DNA Sequencing, the Human Genome Project and how modern genetic research will impact human health.

To learn more about DNA Day, and activities near you, please visit Genome.gov.

We are also celebrating the US Senate FINALLY passing the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act yesterday.  The bill must go back to the House to approve the Senate changes.  Once the House approves (hopefully next week), the President has said he will sign it.

Have a great day!

-- LittleMike

We'll be on the beach and you won't

Posts will be few and far between until I get back to the States.  That's mostly because Justine and I have better things to do rather than sit in front of a computer, but also because 99.9% of Australian businesses have yet to grasp the concept of WiFi and the 0.1% that have want $4 an hour.  (We're on campus at the moment where WiFi is free everywhere except the dorms which are wired for Ethernet.)

I'm in Australia. You're not.

Several of you wanted proof that I'm actually in Australia.  Here are a couple of photos.  I'll save the rest for when I get back and can organize them in a Flickr folder.

The beaches here are awesome.  The waves on a calm day are way bigger than what we see at Folly Beach.  This is Surfers Paradise this morning.  The flags show you which parts of the beach you can swim on.

The Surfers Paradise chair.  I have no clue, either.

I'm in Australia. My luggage isn't.

I knew things were going too well when all of my flights left and arrived on time.  My luggage may be at LAX.  It may be in Auckland.  If it's in Auckland the earliest I can get it back is tomorrow since there is only one flight to Gold Coast a day.  I was on today's flight.  The bags weren't.  If they are in LA I may never see them again.  More later.

Update:  Anita from Qantas phoned and said that my bags were flying from Auckland to Brisbane this afternoon.  Someone will walk them through Customs and then drive them to me in Surfers Paradise later tonight.

Leaving for Australia in a couple of hours

At least that's the plan.  With airlines as screwed up as they are you never know.  If all goes well I'll step off of the plane at Coolangatta airport 28 hours after I leave Charleston.  I'll check in the first chance I get.

E\A/R\T/H\Q/U\A/K\E

5.2
120 miles east of here (here being St. Louis).
Shook us pretty good.  Woke us up.   It shook for about 20 seconds.

This is pretty rare for the midwest, and was a bit un-nerving.  I'm sure those of you on the west coast are used to it, but we are not.

-- LittleMike

Your tax dollars at work

A study funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism discovered something shocking - Men are clueless.  Crap.  I could have told the researchers that for free.  Evidently men often confuse friendly non-verbal cues with cues for sexual interest.  In guy-speak that means that she smiled at you and you thought that she'd like to go to bed with you.  Less widely reported is that men are more clueless than you would think.  Sometimes a woman smiles at a man because she really does want to go to bed with him and he thinks that she's just being friendly.

For the record, if you are a single female and want to have your way with me make your intention clear from the git-go and use small words.  "Let's go back to my place/your place/the hotel and have hot, sweaty, monkey sex" is guaranteed to get my attention.

I think he does it just to wind up bloggers like me

Brian is using his favorite S-word again.

Brian, it's April.  It never snows in Charleston in April.  In fact, as you probably know by now, it rarely snows more than a trace in Charleston regardless of what month it is.  The over/under in Vegas is once every five years.  Take the over.

Make way for ducklings

[As always, click it.]

It's that time of year.  Ducklings everywhere.  These were in my backyard but before I could grab the camera Mama took them to the other side of the ditch.  As you can see she's still keeping an eye on me even though I'm at least 50 feet away at this point.  The most striking thing about this photo is that there are still seven ducklings in the brood and that they are no longer tiny.  Every spring the Mallards and Muscovy ducks hatch ducklings, usually seven or eight to a brood.  Unfortunately there are also lots of predators in the neighborhood - dogs that people let run wild despite the leash law, cats*, owls, and lately a fox that has been stalking Psycho.  I'm not sure which are to blame but one day you see mother ducks with seven ducklings, a day or two later with five, and a day or two after that with one.

*Psycho swears that he's never had anything to do with it and I believe him.  He's the cat that went on a hunger strike because I gave him food with poultry in it.

Quote of the Day

"Wait until you're 88.  You'll find out."

  -- Ms. Hilda, after I made the mistake of complaining about growing older.

It's safe now!

A kid just got eaten by a shark here in Australia, in case you haven't seen it on the news.  Guess where he was!!!  He was at a beach called Ballina, which is just below one of my favorite beaches on the Gold Coast!  I plan on taking Dad down that way.  Luckily for us, out of the 15 shark attacks that happen every year in Australia, only about 1 is fatal!  So now if we get bitten, we won't die.  It'll just hurt real bad...

Fatal Shark Attack

Apparently, the last guy that got bitten hauled the shark up on to his boat first!  IMO, he practically ASKED the thing to bite him!  I don't plan on asking any sharks to help me fish.  I think I've got it.

--Justine

It must be a slow news day

The New York Times is reporting that bloggers are dying from stress and long hours in front of the computer.

The Times' reporter admits, "To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic."  That didn't stop him from filing the story, though.

Regardless, impending death is now my excuse for not posting that often.

Like taking candy from babies

Mike +$10
Justine -$2
William -$8

Justine and I both have Kansas winning so there's no hope for Justine there.  William tapped out when North Carolina lost.  He has to hope that Memphis wins in order to cut his loss.

On to the Final Four

Mike +$7
Justine -$2
William -$5

I don't think either can catch me now although they can cut into my lead.