Did you know that there’s a group called The Asian Network Inc. (TANI)? I’m still not really sure about these race-specific entities (organisations?) established in the name of representation (democracy?). Does this entity need to relate to you, so that they understand you (ahem, they probably need to be Asian, for starters)? But then aren’t you really highlighting that nobody gives a damn about you unless (a) it’s their job and (b) they can relate to you, but (b) only works if they are like you, but nobody (or entity) is really like you, especially one that tries to be like the whole of Asia, so basically, these sorts of entities actually just break up information into semi-arbitrary groups and then people “out there” never really see information holistically? I mean, one of their recent endeavours is to tell “Asians” how they are predisposed to heart disease - but it’d be sort of good to know how that compares with other genotypes and various genotypes with different diets and lifestyles and also the variability within these groups and... oh, nevermind, you’ve stopped reading.

Articles From Around the Interwebs

Otago scientists “recreate” human face from 2500 y.o. bones [article/video]. I’m not really interested in that story, but I want to know where I can find information about just how much information about flesh you can gather from bones. What do you call that?Anthropology?... But hey, there’s a fellow '06 Biomeder in the video. :P

Boy, oh boy, multifactedness!!! [article]. Honestly, is that a word?

Solar-powered aeroplane + interesting comments. [article]

New service for people with eating disorders [article]. I was going to say how annoying it was that this article tells you nothing useful, but then I realised it’s Newstalk ZB, so its site just provides snippets, not articles, right? So, deviating from my usual rant about the deterioration² of news reporting/writing, I will say that Google News shouldn’t index Newstalk ZB. On a related note - notice how Google search results have become more trashy and irrelevant? Will post an example soon...

Child abuse leads to mental disorders [article]. Apart from that it’s re-stating common belief without any proof, don’t you think psychoses are being sold like... I dunno, IQ scores and other socially-enforced labels? (sorry, I'm reading The Mismeasure of Man atm)

The Social Network [movie trailer]. Are they serious? Kevin Spacey is the producer and he reckons it'd be funnier than people expect³?

Random Thoughts

I want to replenish my lab-candy stash. I need to exercise. I'm getting fat.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to record my stream of consciousness for a day?

Not today.

I still need some new shoes, regardless of how comfortable walking around in running shoes is.

Nowadays when people ask how long it'll be until I finish "studying", I am overly-sensitive to their mild (if existent) tone of why-are-you-still-studying? Now, they don't know me and so I don't really care, but I do sometimes feel that it is something wrong with me that I've taken so long to accept (i.e. more than just realise, but to understand) some things - like, it's okay to have my own ideas and to put them out there, that people around me don't have the answers already and that this process (if done well) is/can be more humility- and curiosity-driven, not purely ego-driven. It's sort of like I had this set of ideals at the beginning and then somehow, seeing/experiencing new things put me into defence/scared mode questioning my own beliefs, motives, philosophies... and I've come back almost all the way around, but not quite because it's like I'm in a different place/plane now and am almost the same, but not quite.

It's freaking cold in Auckland, right now!

Nike Reuse A Shoe

Nike is collecting old trainers and selling you new trainers at a discounted price. This service is now available in NZ, at Nike Platinum stores. I didn’t know about this until today and I don’t know if it’s useful or controversial or what. I’m just putting it out there.

---

So, I Googled “Langendorff heart perfusion” and stumbled upon:

**Speechless** But one idea from this - I will now be able to put my washing weigh boat directly beneath the cannula, which might shorten my time, though the dripping might hinder my finding of the aorta if the initial dissection wasn’t very good.

Then I clicked this, because I thought maybe I would see a commercially-sold system:

Then I saw this:

What the hell is Luck’s solution? Is that a joke?

.
.
.
then I discovered a mine-field of cardiac physiology videos on Youtube.
.
.
.
Your next BSc (Physiology), University of Youtube. It’s all there in text, audio, video, animation... and I’m sure if you looked hard enough there’d be a play somewhere. Well, if there isn’t a play, at least there’s this Professorial dance: John C. Grammer.

And damn, there’s a music video featuring the cardiac myocyte techno-dance group.

Makes me feel slightly better about what I try to aim for, but then I'm not really sure why my voltage-clamping success rate is so low - I mean, there was a time when I was patching continuously throughout the day - I guess it could be a combination of skill and slight differences in setup and enzymatic digestion.

1 I am finding ways to make good of a bad situation - open offices, a tea room shared by effectively 3 floors, a toilet that takes me 6 to 8 door openings and a flight of stairs to get to. I’m surprised the toilet cubicals don’t have swipe card access. They can monitor that, too. May it please the court. >:)
2 Or I'm getting older.
3 According to Wikipedia, which cites MTV. Funny how social gossip can now be referenced like it's scholarly. Tea hea.

From cherrieland.blogspot.com