Back to reality, Ooops there goes gravity

I'm quoting Eminem - nice!  It has been grey, rainy and gloomy lately.  Not surprising really it's winter in the deep dark heart of the southern hemisphere.  Today was lovely though - blue, blue sky, but so cold if you came too close your eyes would be in danger.  Snow on the hills was the spectacular reason for the very low temperature last night.  So what does one do when it's cold and rainy and you have no car and the bus service to your suburb doesn't run on Sunday and public holidays?  You read lots of books, listen to music and watch fun movies.

La faute a Fidel! (Blame it on Fidel!)

A lovely wee movie by Julie Gavras about the upheaval a young girl goes through when her thoroughly bourgeois parents decide to take a step sideways and become far more proactive in left leaning humanitarian causes such as abortion in France and advocating for Chilean activists.  It's a really cool look into 1970's French society and social change from a child's perspective.  It is also a look at how parental choices affect children, no matter how well meaning they are.  I really liked the conversation about how group solidarity was different to be a sheeple.

I would say watch it!  It is in French with subtitles in English.

Lungs - Florence and the Machine (2009)

I love Florence's voice.  I love strong interesting female vocalists and Florence is definitely one of them.  I have to say Dog Days Are Over is my favourite song - that and Rabbit Heart (Raise it up).   I also quite liked Hurricane Drunk.  There is a very modified 80's feel going on in this album.  I keep thinking I can hear Talking Heads in Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up).  I like the harp in the background and the fact that she can sing is a definite plus.  Nice to have a boogie and chill out music on the same album.

We saw her live on Jules Holland's New Year's Hootenany and frankly it rocked - this album was a birthday present for my 30 mumblemumble birthday - thank you darling man!

As an aside I-tunes has flung up Fly My Pretties and Fur Patrol - I think I need to have a chillax music night me thinks.

Holysmoke - Gin Wigmore

Now I like her - I like that she writes her own lyrics and music and I like her crusty rusty voice.  It is a plus she is good looking and hails from New Zealand.  She does get a bit thrashed on the radio but Im okay with that cause when Im in the lab doing monotonous stuff singing helps drive away the lab bench blues :D.   Her songs have strong beats and they are very catchy songs that worm their way into your head such that you find yourself singing away to them all day.  I really like Oh My and Too late for Lovers.  She's funky and kinda hot - it will be interesting to see how she develops as a musician.  Her earliest offering Hallelujah was good and I think she's brewing like a nice nana tea.

The live video isn't that flash, you can find another better version here.  She wrote the song when she was 16 - I couldn't write my name at that age :D.

Wideacre - Phillippa Gregory

In the world of Wideacre (the first of a trilogy), it pretty much sucks to be a woman, with no real rights to anything in 18th century England.  Beatrice Lacey loves her bit of land farmed by her semi gentry father - he takes her everywhere teaching her the lay of the land and how to take care of it.  Turns out she is good at it, but she's a bit of a sociopath who will do anything to control that land and see her children inherit that land.  Anything includes murder (twice), attempted murder, fraud, incest, starvation of people on her land and lots of sex.  Oh and she forces her husband to become alcoholic and steals his inheritance.   It is not for the faint of heart and she isn't a particularly likeable character but it's a great to see a strong, dark character in the pages of a nicely, nicely author.  It was a good tale, it got a bit phaffy at the end of the book, felt a bit rushed.  I would possibly read it again.  I think I have to read the rest of the trilogy now.

That's all for now.

S.

Bored? No not I....

It started out as "Yes dear readers - your very absent blogger returns."

AFRIKAANS : Ja liewe lesers - jou baie afwesig is teruggekeer het blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes dear readers - your very absent returning blogger.
ALBANIAN : Po i dashur lexues - bloger shumë mungon tuaj kthyer.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes dear reader - the blogger much miss your turn.
ARABIC : نعم عزيزي القارئ -- المدون افتقد كثيرا دورك.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - the blogger much I miss your turn.
BELARUSIAN : Так, дарагі чытач - блогер я тугу ваша чаргу.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - I blogger anguish is your turn.
BULGARIAN : Да, драги читателю - аз блогър мъка е ваш ред.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - I blogger grief is your turn.
CATALAN : Sí, estimat lector - que pena blogger és el teu torn.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn penalty blogger.
CHINESE : 是的，亲爱的读者 - 轮到你了刑罚的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn penalties blogger.
CHINESE_SIMPLIFIED : 是的，亲爱的读者 - 轮到你了处罚的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn punishment blogger.
CHINESE_TRADITIONAL : 是的，親愛的讀者 - 輪到你了處罰的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn punishment blogger.
CROATIAN : Da, dragi čitatelju - na redu si kazna bloger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your fine blogger.
CZECH : Ano, milý čtenáři - je to vaše pořádku blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
DANISH : Ja, kære læser - det er din ret blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it is your right blogger.
DUTCH : Ja, lieve lezer - het is uw recht blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
ESTONIAN : Jah, kallis lugeja - see on teie õigus blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it is your right to a blogger.
FILIPINO : Oo, mahal na mambabasa - ito ay ang iyong karapatan sa isang blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it is your right to a blogger.
FINNISH : Kyllä, rakkaat lukijat - se on sinun oikeus blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it is your right blogger.
FRENCH : Oui, chers lecteurs - c'est votre droit blogueur.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it's your right blogger.
GALICIAN : Si, caros lectores - que é dereito seu blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, my dear readers - that's right your blogger.
GERMAN : Ja, meine lieben Leser - das ist richtig Ihrem Blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, my dear readers - that's right your blogger.
GREEK : Ναι, αγαπητέ αναγνώστη - ότι είναι σωστός blogger σας.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - the blogger you are right.
HEBREW : כן, קורא יקר - בלוגר אתה צודק.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger you're right.
HINDI : हाँ, प्रिय पाठक - एक ब्लॉगर तुम सही हो.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you're right.
HUNGARIAN : Igen, kedves olvasó - egy blogger, igazad van.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you're right.
ICELANDIC : Já, kæri lesandi - a blogger, ert þú til hægri.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you are right.


I love BAD Translation.  You should too.

Word to the wise

If you are a microbiologist or evolutionary biologist don't read Virolution by Frank Ryan.  It's pop science repetitive vomit.  If you have had any sort of genetics learning it becomes very boring very quickly.  Pity because I thought it would be good.  Now Im not a great decryer of pop science - I just like well written science books that dont read like a massive ego boost on the authors behalf.   For a really cool pop science book on microbiology read these books - I have read them and they are good.  Yes I am a scientist - so you know they're good.  The bold ones are written by author's I just could kiss - they are just that good.

10 Good popular science books (emphasis on the micro side)

1. The Coming Plague - Laurie Garrett (Awesome book - been out a while but still very, very good.  It is on the long side but dont let that stop you very good book)
2. Parasite Rex - Carl Zimmer (one of my favourite pop sci books - really well written and the parasites are just cool)
3. The Seven Daughters of Eve - Bryan Sykes
4. Stiff - Mary Roach
5. The Doctor's Plague - Sherwin B. Nuland
6. Plague's Progress - Arno Karlen
7. Viruses vs Superbugs - Thomas Hausler
8. Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
9. The Hot Zone - Richard Preston ( Very, very interesting book)
10. The Dark Lady of DNA - Brenda Maddox

There are more - I just have to remember which ones I have read - there is a really good one about antibiotics whose name escapes me.  I will return :)

S.

Eww look her eyelashes are fluttering!

Yes dear readers - your very absent blogger has returned. So what have I done since I last posted? Got married, promptly ran away to a faraway land, started a new work contract and moved house. Not much really. I have been reading - lots of science guff but also a few books as well. 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Moral corruption, theft of bodily tissues and the multi-million dollar business that is of the world that is HeLa. HeLa cells are quite frankly God's gift to this world - they have enabled a very large amount of life saving science to proceed eg Polio vaccine, cancer research etc. None of it would have happened if Henrietta Lacks had not contracted the HPV virus which caused cervical cancer. The tumour grew wildly and spread throughout her body eventually killing her. The short and the long of it was that the doctor who first cultivated the cells took them from her pathology without patient permission or any sort of informed consent. He then proceeded to send the cells around the world for a fee. Did I mention this occurred at John Hopkins? It is a really, really interesting book about the life and death and immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks. Oh and the really slack, pass the buck culture that has occurred within the Science community at large and at John Hopkins and Invitrogen in particular.

PS thank you darling man for my bday present.

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

Who doesnt love a bit of Zombie gore and biowarefare? I liked it - good for reading on a plane - which is what I did. It is all about our main character chasing, killing and generally blowing up the terrorists and their pet zombies. Not too hard out Im in a thinking mood kinda book - but we all need a blow em up book every now and then.

The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen

I like Tess Gerritsen.  I like her slight fluff style of murder thriller novels.  I liked this one too.  It has nuns, blood and gore, and dirty secrets.  Dr Isles and Detective Rizzoli on the case.   Good for killing time.

Eww and I have been watching some movies and docos:

The Bridge 

Compelling and disturbing is an accurate description of this documentary.  It revolves around the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the people who are determined to jump off it.  Literally the stood and filmed for a year people walking the bridge, some stopping, some jumping, some being hauled back over the bridge by worried citizens.  They took note of the jumpers and then went and interviewed the relatives and friends of the jumpers.  In one case it was a guy who stopped a female jumper, in another it was one of the jumpers who decided half way down he didn't want to die and changed his position on the way down,  so instead of dying he just shattered most of the bones in his body.   It was really weird watching these people walk across the bridge trying to pick the one who was going to jump - odd.  It also worried me that they were waiting for these people to jump to film it and not doing anything to stop them - icky ethical issues.  If you get the chance watch it.

Invasion

Im a microbiologist - I inherently wanted to watch it.   A space shuttle crashes bringing a type of alien virus with it and it spreads through blood or body fluid contact (loved the vomiting into coffee pots at a CDC conference).  Enter Nicole Kidman, psychologist and her son (who by rare coincidence has had a type of chicken pox from which he almost died and so is now immune to the scary virus).   The virus enters the human host and become symbiotic once the human enters REM sleep, they then start talking and feeling as one and talk about being harmonious because there is no Other - so no fighting or wars just everyone working together minus the emotions.  The fight is to keep Nicole awake and her boy from his infected father.  Fluff movie but I liked it.

That's all.

S.

Okay I will bite

I haven't been very ranty lately - quite mellow actually.  The thing is at heart I'm a scientist, in particular I am a Microbiologist.  I am also a parent of a teenage girl.  Several headlines and news articles caught my attention this week and annoyed the bejesus enough out of me that I am going to rant.   This rant is pretty much about Immunisation and the media's role in demonizing common good sense science.  Here goes:

Once upon a time a doctor and his colleagues thought that they would publish an article on a study they had carried out.  This study had no real scientific basis, had a small co-hort of 12 individuals amongst other later revealed disturbing unethical bits and pieces going on, but came to the conclusion that the MMR vaccine causes autism.  This piece of research was held up by the media in general, autism conspiracists and general wackaloon's as stone cold solid evidence that the MMR vaccine was mad, bad and dangerous to give your beautiful babies.  Pity of it was that almost as soon as it was published it was called into question and it's findings refuted - did the media want to know? Nope - they ignored the majority of scientists and went with the one study that was the proverbial "whistleblower".   

The result of the media's ability to cause calamity where there was none is that a large number of reasonable, otherwise smart parents were conned into believing that the MMR vaccine could put their child at harm.  Whereas, in reality the truth is that the MMR vaccine is necessary to protect your child from some potentially nasty diseases.  Much like the meningitis jab - had a great conversation with someone last week who said cause the epidemic had "gone away" it wasn't necessary to vaccinate her child.  WTF?? Are you serious?? I mean really - what did you think caused the decrease in cases??  What happens when the now vaccinated cohort grows up and the kids who are being born now aren't vaccinated?  Quite possibly another epidemic - just because we controlled (note I say control not eliminate) this one doesn't mean it wont happen again.  Bacteria and viruses survive because they change and try to dodge the immune system - if you don't give the immune system a heads up - your child has a higher chance of becoming seriously sick and possibly dying.   Am I scaremongering?  I dont think so - I think that is it almost criminally negligent of parents not to vaccinate their children.  We as parents have a responsibility to provide kids with proper care and attention - part of that is ensuring they are healthy and have access to proper medical care.

The other current vaccination scaremongering is concerning Gardisil - the HPV vaccine or rather a HPV vaccine which has been associated (via the media not scientific publications) with nasty side effects like death.   HPV causes cervical cancer - it does.  Part of the problem is that there are many different genotypes of HPV - this vaccination protects against the most commonly associated strains.   So while it is conceivable you may get one of the rarer ones - you will be covered for the most common ones.  You can only do so much.

Am saving the other part of the rant for another time.

Suffice to say vaccinate your child - herd immunity will only take you so far.

S.

Counterclockwise

xkcd

I love the UK's charity shops.  They have the best range of second hand books for the most reasonable prices ever 1 - 2.50 pounds - awesome.  I found Austerlitz on the shelf - love that.  The range of books I find is really cool - it's like people read them once and then give them away - I am so not that kinda girl.  I often read my books once, twice - sometimes three times.  Sometimes more if I am in love with the book.  Go figure.

S.

Ipad me baby!

If it had a camera so I could use it to Skype, it would be sex on legs.  I think I still want one.