Many of those who embark on a PhD are the smartest in their class and will have been the best at everything they have done. They will have amassed awards and prizes. As this year’s new crop of graduate students bounce into their research, few will be willing to accept that the system they are entering could be designed for the benefit of others, that even hard work and brilliance may well not be enough to succeed, and that they would be better off doing something else. They might use their research skills to look harder at the lot of the disposable academic. Someone should write a thesis about that.
via Doctoral degrees: The disposable academic | The Economist.
rePost:: NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life – Yahoo! News
Aliens exist, and we have proof.
That astonishingly awesome claim comes from Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who says he has found conclusive evidence of alien life — fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) Hoover’s findings were published late Friday night in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth,” Hoover, who has spent more than 10 years studying meteorites around the world, told FoxNews.com in an interview. “This field of study has just barely been touched — because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.”
Hoover discovered the fossils by breaking apart the CI1 meteorite, and analyzing the exposed rock with a scanning-electron microscope and a field emission electron-scanning microscope, which allowed him to detect any fossil remains. What he found were fossils of micro-organisms, many of which he says are strikingly similar to those found on our own planet.
via NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life – Yahoo! News.
SOME COMMENTS ON PAPER from SCIENCEBLOGS here.
Reading the text, my impression is one of excessive padding. It’s a dump of miscellaneous facts about carbonaceous chondrites, not well-honed arguments edited to promote concision or cogency. The figures are annoying; when you skim through them, several will jump out at you as very provocative and looking an awful lot like real bacteria, but then without exception they all turn out to be photos of terrestrial organisms thrown in for reference. The extraterrestrial ‘bacteria’ all look like random mineral squiggles and bumps on a field full of random squiggles and bumps, and apparently, the authors thought some particular squiggle looked sort of like some photo of a bug. This isn’t science, it’s pareidolia. They might as well be analyzing Martian satellite photos for pictures that sorta kinda look like artifacts.
Duplicitous Media Bankers VS Teachers Pay :: The aily Show with Jon Stewart
Current LSS :: Dr. Dre – I Need A Doctor (Explicit) ft. Eminem, Skylar Grey
[Hook: Skylar Grey]
I’m about to lose my mind
You’ve been gone for so long, I’m runnin’ outta time
I need a doctor, call me a doctor
I need a doctor, doctor to bring me back to life
[Verse 1: Eminem]
I told the world one day I would pay it back
Say it on tape, and lay it, record it so that one day I could play it back
But I don’t even know if I believe it when I’m sayin’ that
Doubts startin’ to creep in, everyday it’s so grey and black
Hope, I just need a ray of that, cause no one sees my vision
When I play it for ‘em, they just say it’s wack, they don’t know what dope is
And I don’t know if I was awake or asleep when I wrote this
All I know is you came to me when I was at my lowest
You picked me up, breathin’ life in me, I owe my life to you
But for the life of me, I don’t see why you don’t see like I do
But it just dawned on me you lost a son, demons fighting you, it’s dark
Let me turn on the lights and brighten me and enlighten you
I don’t think you realise what you mean to me, not the slightest clue
Cause me and you were like a crew, I was like your sidekick
You gon either wanna fight me when I get off this fuckin’ mic
Or you gon’ hug me, but I’m outta options, there’s nothin’ else I can do cause
[Hook]
[Verse 2: Eminem]
It hurts when I see you struggle, you come to me with ideas
You say they’re just pieces, so I’m puzzled, cause the shit I hear is crazy
But you’re either gettin’ lazy or you don’t believe in you no more
Seems like your own opinions, not one you can form
Can’t make a decision you keep questionin’ yourself
Second guessin’ and it’s almost like your beggin’ for my help
Like I’m your leader, you’re supposed to fuckin’ be my mentor
I can endure no more I demand you remember who you are
It was YOU, who believed in me when everyone was tellin’
You don’t sign me, everyone at the fuckin’ label, let’s tell the truth
You risked your career for me, I know it as well as you
Nobody wanted to fuck with the white boy, Dre, I’m cryin’ in this booth
You saved my life, now maybe it’s my turn to save yours
But I can never repay you, what you did for me is way more
But I ain’t givin’ up faith and you ain’t givin’ up on me
Get up Dre I’m dyin’, I need you, come back for fuck’s sake
[Hook]
[Verse 3: Dr. Dre]
It literally feels like a lifetime ago
But I still remember the shit like it was just yesterday, though
You walked in, yellow jump suit, whole room, cracked jokes
Once you got inside the booth, told you, MiC smoke
Went through friends, some of them I put on, but they just left
They said they was ridin’ to the death, but where the fuck are they now?
Now that I need them, I don’t see none of them
All I see is Slim, fuck all you fair-weather friends, all I need is him
Fuckin’ backstabbers, when the chips were down you just laughed at us
Now you bout to feel the fuckin’ wrath of Aftermath, faggots
You gon’ see us in our lab jackets and ask us where the fuck we been?
You can kiss my indecisive ass crack, maggots
And the crackers’ ass, little crack a jack beat
Makin’ wack math, backwards producers, I’m back bastards
One more CD and then I’m packin’ up my bags and as I’m leavin’
I’ll guarantee they scream, “Dre, don’t leave us like that man!” cause
lyrics from here
Hillary Clinton on Family Planning.
I’m pro Family Planning and a rational reality based Reproductive Health program. I think the RH Bill is not being marketed well. It has become somewhat a war between people of great passion and even far greater pride.
Hillary Clinton’s words: “Good Family Planning and Good Medical Care Brings DOWN the rate of Abortion” and
“Keeping women and men in IGNORANCE, and denied the services actually increases the rate of abortion”.
The unrealiable and increasingly stupid fourth estate must be circumvented to prevent the horse race reportage that it has fallen on.
Twice and Thrice Cooked Adobo
After a couplpe of days stored in my fridge I thought of dividing the remaing adobo into two batches for twice coked and thrice coked adobo, angol style.
I’d have to say that I wasn’t too happy with the taste of both batches, luckily still had about 4 medium sized potatoes in the fridge. The reason I wasn’t too happy with the adobo was that I kept thinking of rice when I was tasting them. The flavor was just too strong. The potatoes helped in tempering the flavor. I finished those two batches in one seating.
Wasted Day 20110221
Was sick with fever since last night, felt this was a wasted day. I can usually shrug off things like this but I’ve been a little depressed lately .My day started with some experiments with twice cooked adobo and relearning how to cook great liempo. Initial experiments with salt and ginger message to 1-1/2 inch thick liempo. Heating was what i was trying to relearn. Started slow fire to high fire setting , the second batch was done in reverse. The high to low was less consistent but the meat center was juicier and a crisp outer parts. The low to high was more consistent across the whole liempo.
Elink Video :: Legend of Zelda as aJohn Hughes Movie Trailer
So cool!!!
Elink Video :: Brad Bird's funny acceptance speech.
via kottke
Astig, Estrada on the Offensive
Revenge is a dish best served cold. hehehe. I have a feeling that the recent offensive against the afp generals (notice the non capitalization FTS). I have a suspicion that these are the same generals that withdrew their support from the former president.
Corrupt VS Corrupt the people win??
I’ve always been conflicted about this, but if we have to wait for a white knight (CUE in Hans Zimmer) we would probably never be able to clean up the system. Cleaning up large messes such as our society has proven to be a game of inches (superbowl inspired sentence). We try to improve little by little, introduce systems of oversight , systems of transparency, till we finally have a place most people can be proud of.
We should view the Philippines as a young country, we do not have the foundations of a 1000, 2000 even 3000 year old culture for a cohesive and ready for success country. Philippine culture is probably less than 50 years and yet what we have already achieved when viewed in the proper context cannot be scoffed at.
BTW this is a rabbit hole we are entering. Who watches the watchmen?? (We are looking at you COA and Ombudsman)
PS: Both parents of a friend work for the COA, I have nothing against the Commission and my dealing with them have shown that the bad apples are concentrated on certain institutions(I’m looking at you DPWH, Customs, and BIR) and most people try their best and are honest people.