typinginboldprint’s Friends

Vampire Genetics?

nobody@vox.com(Steve Betz) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:38:07 -0700

Yesterday, I saw a cool paper that described a previously undiscovered mechanism used to detect ultraviolet and near-UV light. Researches found that worms would move away from UV-light exposed to a portion of their body, but not similarly exposed sources of heat and/or other less intense wavelengths of light.

UV That Worm

Pretty cool since worms don’t have eyes or any of the other half-dozen or so ways that organisms have evolved to detect light. They also tracked down the gene responsible for this response, which they termed LITE-1. (…cute, huh?) I’m sure lots of studies are going on right now to figure out how it does its job.

But what intrigued me most was that the worms’ response to evade UV light over-rode all other biological processes– worms are deathly afraid of UV light, it seems. (...and you might be too if your entire body was like 10 cells thick and a sunburn could be lethal…) And that got me thinking what other organisms are vulnerable to UV-light?

Of course – vampires.

Redheads Sunburn Easily

So my hypothesis is that humans must possess an analog of LITE-1 that is normally dormant but activated by process of becoming a vampire (alternatively, the vampire’s bite may infect humans with a LITE-1 transgene – I’m not sure which makes more sense…). Anyway…in worms, activation causes locomotion, in vampires it induces a large exothermic reaction that quickly races out of control with continual exposure, leading to the vampire’s demise.

LITE-1 at work on Nosferatu?

Now all I need is some vampire DNA for comparison...

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Question

nobody@vox.com(Kelly) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:06:56 -0700

How would I go about becoming a delegate? I know it's too late for this convention (as my mother helpfully pointed out when I mentioned it on the phone) but can you imagine how awesome it would be in the next one to cast a vote for history?

According to the DNC website, it is open to all voters who wish to participate as Democrats, including new voters and non-affiliated voters who wish to register or enroll.

I wish to participate as a Democrat, ergo it is open to me!

Any ideas as to the next step?

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Breaking news

nobody@vox.com(Kelly) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:42:03 -0700

Apparently John McCain's picked his running mate and will announce it at 11 a.m. Friday.

(Note, please, how it is not 3 a.m.)

It'll be interesting to see who he picks. :)

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Micki Kitty Update

nobody@vox.com(Disneyholic) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:40:22 -0700

The eye is looking a little better, even if Frank tells me he doesn't want to look at the kitty when he's about to eat. Tomorrow he has a recheck of it and I guess as long as it continues to improve I will keep applying the drops and ointment twice a day. Micki tolerates it pretty well. With any luck we won't have to invest in a kitty eye patch for the future.

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Back To School

nobody@vox.com(sixweasels) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:44:08 -0700

I'm not a mom, and I haven't been a student for years.

So I guess in some ways, I owe my job for letting me hang on to a feeling I always kind of liked - that "back to school" feeling. I was one of those students who always adored it - the coming of fall, the buying of school clothes and supplies, the meeting new classmates and teachers and finding out what my next year or term's classes would be like. That hopeful sense September brought of starting something new and exciting began for me in middle school and carried through college.

In college, there were always at least two starts a year, in fall and spring. But somehow, that "back to schoolness" never carried over into the beginning of the spring term. It was tied to September the way Christmas is to December or Halloween is to October, at least in my head.

When you work in a college, you still get that feeling, even if you don't have children of your own and you aren't slinging a backpack over your shoulder yourself. Campus is often seriously quiet in the summer. Sure, we offer classes. But it isn't a regular term, so instead of having thousands of students milling about there a just a few hundred spread out over the day. On a decent-sized campus, that can feel like a ghost town sometimes.

There's a downside to this for the worker-bees. In the summer, people can be late to work and still grab a primo parking space. Forget that in the fall. At lunchtime in the summer months, you can go to a food vendor and grab a slice of something without waiting in a line of more than two or three people. In the fall, you start remembering to pack a lunch again, because if not you'll spend your whole break in a line.

But for the most part, the good outweighs the bad. You can't help but be energized in that sea of new faces, most of them there in search of ideas and dreams. The hopefulness, nervousness, excitedness and promise seem to permeate the air you're breathing sometimes.

This year is a little different. In the past, at least part of my job has involved working directly with students. I've been in the role of advisor, helping them select the best courses for their situation, and an administrator who helped them resolve more bureaucratic problems. So during the first two weeks of school, those hopeful and sometimes frustrated faces were standing in my office doorway, day-in and day-out, nonstop. It was often overwhelming, but there was nothing better than having someone come in frustrated and close to tears because of some annoying circumstance that new students face, and having them leave reassured and ready to focus on new courses and new friends and all the things college SHOULD be about.

This year, I'm removed from all that, because the project is too intense to spare me for any of the customer service work. Most of the time I'm glad of that. But this time of year, I get a little twang of regret about not being in the thick of things.

Still, when I walk across campus for meetings or to check in with the "home office," I am surrounded by the newness. A girl who looks about 14 but MUST be college-age timidly asks me where a certain lecture hall is, clutching her schedule in her hand like a lifeline. A guy in a baseball cap who looks like he just got out of bed but is practically bouncing on the balls of his feet anyway wants to know how to get to Financial Aid. And on it goes as I make my way through surroundings that are so familiar to me I could navigate them in my sleep, but to these newcomers are confusing and strange.

I was 26 when I started working at the college - just a few years older than the seniors and younger than many of the non-traditional and grad students. Now, at 38, I could easily be the mother of any of the freshmen and sophomores. Back then, I blended into the crowd and most took me for a student myself (of course, back then we also had a very lax dress code too!). Now, I look like someone who knows what's up. They just know I either work somewhere on the campus, or maybe think I'm a professor.

It's weird.

My friend Sully is off work this week. We became friends back in college, and he stills holds a nostalgic love for the place. To me, campus has become "work." - that's one of the downsides to getting a job where you went to school. To him, it is where we grew up and had more fun and adventure and mischief than we ever would again. He comes up to campus to grab a coffee and soaks in that feeling, and as I meet him for a quick break and we sit outside and drink our javas, I look at the students milling by and wonder which of them are at that very moment walking with a new friend who will become their "Sully," someone who will still be a brother-like friend when they are creeping up on 40 and have been through jobs and marriage and children and possibly divorce or other hard luck, or maybe amazing good fortune.

Then I notice that almost all of them are talking on cells or texting as they walk. And I realize that unlike Sully and I, they will never know a college experience where most students didn't have access to this kind of instantaneous conversation with EVERYONE. They will never know college without the internet and texting and cells and IM.

And in some ways, I think they're incredibly lucky to live in this age where they set foot on campus having already had so much information and communication at their fingertips. I think they are light years ahead of where I started.

But another part of me feels bad for them. At 18, they already have the shackles of instant communication that make it so easy for your life to be one of constant distraction and interruption and to-do's. That comes with the territory of being a grownup, and will happen to them out of necessity soon enough. I hope that having it now doesn't mean they won't experience those long hours I did of reading fiction with a small circle of classmates by a pond, focusing on nothing but the books in our hands and the blades of grass under our butts and the sun in the sky, because the outside world couldn't touch us until we got home to our voicemails. I hope it doesn't mean they won't spend hours and hours talking in the campus coffee shop or at the pub with that classmate who will become an amazing friend, so focused on each other's thoughts and experiences that everything else fades for just a while. Can people still do that when their phones vibrate with a new text every 5 minutes?

Back to school makes me think about everything, in a circular but somehow hopeful way. I love it.

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On the Home Stretch!

nobody@vox.com(Mello) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:57:02 -0700

In the last two days, our bathroom project has made some gigantic leaps forward. For one thing, the shower door has been installed. That actually happened two days ago, but the guy recommended waiting 24 hours before using it, to allow the adhesives to set up. OK, fine. But guess what - even though this is supposed to be my bathroom, Brian took the inaugural shower while I was at work!!! I'm not mad about it. Actually, I'm glad that he was the one who got the air out of the pipes and figured out how the handle works. (If you've read Steve's post on selfish wives, for your benefit I will insert an object lesson here regarding how lack of selfishness - i.e. letting the other one do the cool thing like be the first to use the new shower - can actually benefit you!!)

Anyway. The bathroom is looking fabulouso. The shower is functional, the built-in linen closet is now built in - complete with doors - and the trim is finished. I have to touch up the paint and decide what hardware to put on the cabinetry. (I'm really stressing over this decision!!) And we're still waiting for the SileStone sink top, but the good part is that they will install it when it comes, along with the sink and the faucet.

Oh yeah, Shower Door Guy knocked $125 off of our price because it took forever for the door to be done, and also because of the rude reciptionist we had to deal with when we went into the store. We'd almost cancelled our appointment for a measure because she was so unfriendly we weren't sure if we wanted to give this company our business. But we kept the appointment because we couldn't get what we needed at any of the big-box stores (Lowe's, Home Depot, Menards) and the other glass place in town was more expensive. Brian told Shower Door Guy how rude she was, and not only did he know exactly who we were talking about, but he must've said something to his boss to get us a discount! Major points for him and that company (K&M Glass, if you happen to live in the Rochester area. Ask for Shower Door Guy.)

So now you're at the bottom of this post......were you expecting a picture? Sorry! Not gonna happen. I do have some, but I'm going to wait for the grand reveal until this project is all done. Sayonara!

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DNC, again

nobody@vox.com(Kelly) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:21:56 -0700

I finally got to see Ted Kennedy's speech, which made me cry.

I've been so cynical for so long that it's really weird (but nice) to be hopeful about something.

Right after Barack Obama officially got the nomination today, they showed one of the delegates crying and they talked to her. Apparently her dad was refused the right to vote and he was one of the people who marched on Washington in the 60s. He has Alzheimer's now and she was saying that he'd be so proud of this country, and I started crying again.

I teared up a little when everyone said "aye" for Barack Obama, too. Although my teary pride turned to confusion when they started playing "Love Train."

Seriously.

Even so, this is totally my Olympics.

I'm not sure if I'll watch the Republican convention. Well, I'm sure I'll watch the first three nights; I'll be at work. But I don't think I'll DVR CSPAN and I'm not sure if I'll watch John McCain's speech.

I'm pretty sure I'll be gritting my teeth and fighting the urge to mutter obscenities at my TV. And I'm trying to stop swearing (or at least drastically cut back).

It's not so much that I think it's offensive; it's more that I have a good vocabulary, and I'd hate to think that people don't know that.

(I'm not giving up crap, though. That one's my favorite.)

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Vox Hunt: Get Off My Tail

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:12:01 -0700

Show us a funny bumper sticker.

Bumper sticker

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:)

nobody@vox.com(Kelly) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:37:57 -0700

I have now lost 12 pounds. (Thank you, Bekki, for whatever voodoo you did over text message yesterday.)

I'm trying to figure out what to do for dinner. I'm probably going to pick Sam up around 7 (we went on late last night and I'm sure we'll go on late again tonight), so I'd like to get something I can share with him. (He doesn't enjoy watching other people eat when he's not getting food, too.)

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First day for Noelle

nobody@vox.com(Disneyholic) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:53:20 -0700

Nicolas the protective big brother.

UPDATE: She had a GREAT first day and she can't wait to go back next week!

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