FlaSoxxJim

That press snippet is incredibly misinformed. The scientists didn't clone the cats by manipulating the RFP gene – they cloned a transgenic cat that had the RFP gene inserted into it, and the fact that the offspring glowed is evidence that they are derived from the transgenic parent. RFP (red fluorescent prrotein), GFP (green fluorescent protein, glowing fluorescent protein), and a couple of others – apart from the Weird Science novelty of creating glowing mice, rabbits, cats, and 'Frankenfish' that you can buy at Wal-Mart for a couple dollars – are proving to be really powerful biotech tools. The genes coding for the proteins were originally isolated from a jellyfish and a coral, and I give a pretty good overview of them here on a Marine Biotechnology website I developed with funding from Sea Grant. Click on the "Cnidarians" link to open a cascading page with all the information. Here's a rundown of some of the coolest 'serious' uses of the fluorescent proteins: One important application of these glowing protein gens is gene is as 'reporter genes.' Incorporated into a vector along with another gene that is the one researchers are actually interested in, the vector can be inserted into a new host and incorporation success can be quickly assessed by visually testing for GFP. There is also a San Diego biotech company that has developed more than 100 different glowing mouse lines that can be used to visualize tumor expression, growth, and metastasis. Human tumor tissues and cancerous cell lines that have had GFP/RFP inserted into them are surgically grafted into the mice and the expression and progression of the cancer can be visually assessed from the fluorescence, so the mice don't need to be sacrificed to be assayed. One of the coolest applications is using transgenic zebrafish that have fluorescent proteins incorporated into them as pollution indicators. Here, the GFP gene has been associated with a promoter gene that regulates when GFP is to be synthesized. A research group out of Singapore is working to identify promoters that switch on GFP production in the presence of specific environmental contaminants like estrogen and heavy metals. Basically the zebrafish will light up when the encounter specific pollutants, so this may become an extremely powerful indicator organism. The group is working on a new Frankenfish (I love that term) with 5 different fluorescence producing genes that will fluoresce different colors in response to the presence of different environmental pollutants. Wicked cool stuff.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Dec 12, 2007 -> 12:18 PM) You know, whoever the heck it was around here that used to say "they all do it" may have been on to something after all.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Dec 12, 2007 -> 09:57 AM) I hear a Christmas picnic with The Wiggles is a pretty hot deal down there... Totally off the hook now that Bananas -N- Pajamas is on the bill too! Yea wacky Aussies kids teevee. Other than that horrid Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, that is.

By: John Cole December 10, 2007 at 10:29 am

I'm not a huge gambler either (the only one in my family who isn't), but I still had a greatt time in Vegas. It was fun to se how many $1 shrimp cocktails and $2 prime rib dinners i could put away in 72 hours. Make sure to get off the Strip and hit some of the old downtown casinos, if only to get the flavor of old Vegas and to see that crazy cool walkway light display. A highlight for me was my first visit to a Gordon Biersch brewpub to sample their excellent European-style lagers. I know the brewery's restaurant assets were sold to Big River a few years back, and I don't know if what they serve in-house on tap is on par with what the G B brewery continues to put out, but it's probably still worth a try.

Savor that first cup of senior-discount coffee and welcome to your golden years, Old Timer.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 10, 2007 -> 12:27 PM) Nowadays, you order it today, you get it tomorrow. My experience with techies, and I work with a lot of them, is that they hate the idea of going into a store to look at computer hardware. There's also just no way for a brick-and-mortar outlet to have all of the bajillion various doodads and dongles that the random nerd off the street might come in looking for. There's just no way for any physical superstore to compete with the vastness teh Internets.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Dec 9, 2007 -> 11:18 PM) Blue Moon tastes like Corona with a lime in it.... a rotten lime. I think it's on it's 14th minute of fame. Blue Moon is no world-class beer to be sure, but it's easily the most interesting beer the Coors company has ever produced. It's actually not an altogether terrible megabrew Belgian witbier interpretation, but I think it's a little too perfumy and not quite acidic enough to be considered fully authentic. I'll drink it in a pinch, and happily so if the only alternative is adjunct-loaded megaswill. The rotten lime flavor you allude to is likely the bittter orange peel added to the boil, and the coriander also gives citrusy notes. If you try a Belgian Hoegarden or a Wit, or an American Allagash White or a Lost Coast Great White and don't find them enjoyable, it's priobably more of a stylistic impasse than Blue Moon's lack of merit.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Dec 7, 2007 -> 02:58 PM) You don't think Jesus is great? Well that's fine, have fun in hell! :lolhitting

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 6, 2007 -> 10:59 PM) Seriously? If I spend some time finding that stuff and it's Private Thighs stuff I'll get even. Is this like the Bee Gees, great stuff and poor, crap and rich? It's actually as much a Rundgren album as it is a Hall and Oates album so I'm obviously biased toward it, but it's pretty darn good. For H&O it was the follow-up to the very soulful Abandoned Luncheonette album, the album She's Gone originally appeared on though it wasn't a chart-topper until it was re-released as a single a couple years later. War Babies is not nearly as accessible for the average listener, owing to the quirky arrangements, time signatures, and song cycle of a psychedelic "A Wizard, A True Star"-era Rundgren production. It also features Todd on lead guitar chores (a vast upgrade from Oates) and a good many members of a couple of Utopia incarnations on there as well. Although the complexity of the Rundgren production makes it less soul and more art-rock than the previous album, there is absolutely a Philly vibe to the album that H&O and Todd contribute equally to. I have it on vinyl and I have read that the CD remaster is weak, but if CD is all you can find I'd still love for you to check it out and tell me what you think. Edit: Here's a page of mp3 teasers for the album, so you can see if it's up your alley or not. The teasers don't do the song cycles or tracking justice, but it's a taste at least. Todd makes Hall and Oates sound good!

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 6, 2007 -> 03:26 PM) I can't believe you got that down off your bedroom wall and scanned it so fast. Even faster, I took it from the pile of old Tiger Beats I keep in my sock drawer. I actually really like the earliest Hall and Oates stuff – the 1972-1974 "blue-eyed soul" stuff that KG thinks is a myth. The Rundgren-produced War Babies album is quite excellent.

By the way, GP, if your friend wouldn't bang Hall, as her if she'll at least consider a mustache ride from Oates.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 6, 2007 -> 03:19 PM) when you feel you can't go on, I'll come and hold you Watch out boy, She'll chew you up!

I'm still trying to work out how anybody gets involved in a conversation in which the subject is whether you would bang Hall from Hall and Oates. . . And for the record, I would not. I can't go for that. No can do.

QUOTE(juddling @ Dec 6, 2007 -> 11:32 AM) The new 2007 Pornaments . . . afraid to click this link from work. . .

A completely lame name bracelet from an old girlfriend that I never wore in public once.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Dec 3, 2007 -> 12:52 PM) how would I go about taking a DVD and uploading those files to youtube? 1) what file formats are youtube appropriate? 2) what program should I use to rip the DVDs 3) what program would allow me to take those files and convert them to a youtube compatible format? thanks in advance. Cinematize is a great program for converting VOB files to Quicktime, but I don't think it's available for the cheap iron (Windows).

Evel Knievel Comes into my bedroom late at night Evel Knievel Jumps all my beds end to end RIP you crazy man

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 30, 2007 -> 03:58 PM) She is beautiful, and hopefully she keeps cooperating. Sadly, they rarely do. Sleep can be hard to come by for new parents. She's a keeper though for sure!

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Nov 30, 2007 -> 11:39 AM) I would think that the debate would benbefit the voting public, and that should trump whatever other concerns they would have. Then the debates should go on, but they shouldn't be televised by any of the broadcast outlets targeted by the strikes. I'd prefer to have the debate moved to PBS/NPR rather than canceled myself.

Alpha, can you provide a link to a more recent story indicating that there was to actually be a targeted picket of the debate, rather than merely a continuation of the WGA strike and the CBS news writers strike already in force? The original story was presented as: If that still more or less sums things up, then I’m not sure where your incredulity regarding the DNC and the candidates’ decisions to honor the strike comes from. The debate was going to air on and bring viewership to CBS, whom both the SGA and the CBS news writers have identified as an adversary in the current fight for fair compensation. If the DNC and the candidates support the position of the writers, why would they consent to a televised debate that would benefit the network?

QUOTE(zimne piwo @ Nov 29, 2007 -> 04:00 PM) Everybody knows that the good guys lost Beaten by the Queen of Hearts every time. Don't you draw the Queen of Diamonds, she'll break you every time. You know you know the Deuce is still wild. Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night. And I've got such a long way to go, to make it to the border of Mexico Like a bat out of hell I'll be gone when the morning comes Come spend the night inside my sugar walls And the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls. I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty. Yet I swear I see my reflection some place so high above this wall. Way up in the air in my beautiful balloon Gonna get high as a kite by then She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie, cocaine Sittin' downtown in a railway station, one toke over the line There's a guy with a ticket to Mexico. No, he couldn't look much stranger. I don't want a pickle. I just want to ride my motor-sicle. I like smoke and lightning...Heavy metal thunder. Fat-Bottom Girls you make the rockin' world go 'round. Get on 'yer bikes and ride! Ride, take a free ride, take my place. Have my seat, its for free. Oh, anything I want he gives it to me. Anything I want he gives it, but not for free – It's hateful! You got to get it up, get it up. You got to get it up, get it up, yeah you got to give it to me. Rock me baby, rock me baby all night long. Rock me gently, rock me slowly, take it easy, don't you know that I have never been loved like this before. So do that to me one more time. Once is never enough. One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. I'm a soldier. A lonely soldier, away from home. A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot, remembers the words "Thou shalt not kill". Said he's dangerous, armed and extremely dangerous. You're a notch and I'm a legend. Twenty dollars will make you die. I love the dead before they're cold. Dead babies can't take care of themselves. Helpless, helpless, helpless. Baby can you hear me now? Don't say words you're gonna regret. Its only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away. See the rapper's problem usually stems from being tone deaf. Pack the house and try to sing, there won't be no one left. You'll find him anywhere. On a bus, in a bar, in a grocery store. It's just that I am not in the market for a boy who wants to love only me. My Mama told me you better shop around. Big-legged woman, come and hold my hand. Lawdy mama, no need to worry. I will carry you home in my teeth Ahhhh Oooooh ... Werewolf of London Why don't you stay for the night (Night!), or maybe a bite (Bite!) From my laboratory in the castle east to the master bedroom where the vampires feast Not just any kind of burger will do, I'm being hit by those White Castle Blues. I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz Fifty-seven and French fried potatoes. Onions, onions, la la la, onions, onions, ha ha ha. Ob-la-di Ob-la-da life goes on brahhh...Lala how the life goes on. Life, Life, Clouds and clowns, You don't have to come down. Life is a carnival--its in the book. Life is a carnival--take another look. If I'm not the sole fool who pulls his trousers down. . . then Dear Madame Barnum, I resign as clown. Well, do the trouser press, baby! One, two three! Shake your pants, I like the way we dance, Shake your pants, For action and romance AAAAAHHHHH Macarena!!!!!!!! Come on shake your body baby do the conga. Bongo fury. Bongo fury. Bongo fury.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Nov 29, 2007 -> 03:02 PM) Festivus for the rest of us! I've got a lot of grievances with you people. . .

Mark my words, there will be ballads written about this heist.

QUOTE(hi8is @ Nov 29, 2007 -> 02:20 PM) its been that way for a long time now. over a year. =) life's much better these days =) GO SOX! Well, sure, but the threads around here sure have been boring. j/k. Well done.