David's LiveJournal

So I got home from work, tired but determined to get a few more things done before kicking back.

I walked through the door to the darkening apartment as I have many other nights. I immediately noticed that the balcony door was more than a foot open. Being of the philosophy that paranoia makes for good survival rates, I assumed that some punk kids or possibly even a robber had broken into the apartment. I glanced around and saw that nothing of value was missing from the living room, so perhaps they were still here looking around!

I picked up the nearest pointy thing (which in my case is the 8' halberd by the door). I promptly began to search the apartment medieval FBI style. I'd tap a corner before rounding it. Checked behind doors before entering. After a good 5 minutes, I finished up in my room satisfied that Tyler must have left the door open.
( This is where it gets good. )

http://www.limeproject.org/order.php

If you like tits and hate cancer...CLICKY!

Thanks onceupon and krasota.

While things continue to heat up in the middle east, another event is going on that reminds us of one of the amazing aspects of humans, our ability to explore and expand.

The privately funded SpaceShipOne reached suborbital space in October of 2004, but today a privately owned craft now sits in orbit with the goal of a space based business. Genesis I is a 1/3rd scale prototype of an inflatable space hotel, hoped to be operation by 2015. Bigelow Aerospace has spent $75 million to get to this point and has committed $200 million more to the goal of space tourism.

Genesis I was launched into orbit by a converted Russian ICBM. It has no successfully inflated and is in stable orbit, paving the way for a full scale version.



Artist rendering.

Sources:
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1152741017829&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1112101662670
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,19780415%255E663,00.html

In 2001 there was an odd red rain in India. Collected from this rain were cells samples. The red cells have very thick cell walls, budd daughter cells within themselves, and seem to be lacking DNA. Many test have shown a lack of DNA and a single test sugested there is indeed DNA within the cells. One hypothisis is that the replicative code of the cells may be similar to DNA but with key differences, thus causing only the one test to be positive for DNA.

All this combined leads to the serious possibility that these cell are extra terestrial having been deposited into our atmosphere by a comet or asteroid.

Dr. Godfrey Louis of Mahatma Gandhi University is preparing to publish the results of his test. Chandra Wickramasinghe and colleagues at Cardiff University in Wales are currently replicating Louis' experiments to confirm.

Dr. Milton Wainwright, a microbiologist at Sheffield, is now testing samples of Kerala's red rain. 'It is too early to say what's in the phial,' he said. 'But it is certainly not dust. Nor is there any DNA there, but then alien bacteria would not necessarily contain DNA.' -Observer Article

Pictures

Sources
CNN
Observer
Popular Science
New Scientist
Louis's Paper

Well, they did it!

After the first two movies showed that story and character can drive a movie about superheros, they also showed that you can just leave all that out, butcher the thing, and leave you feeling unsatisfied and insulted...like finding out your hooker has a penis.

I'm looking to hire temps for light labor work.

Shout out now if you want a short term (few weeks tops) job.

Starting thursday, monday the 26th off. Probably $8-12 an hour.

helacyton gartleri is the species name of the first known organism to have evolved from humans. helacyton gartleri is a single celled organism and is "immortal" meaning that it never dies of old age and can divide indefinitely. helacyton gartleri is called HeLa for short.

HeLa started out as cervical cancer in Henrietta Lacks, a Baltimore woman. The cells were taken from her in 1951 and she died shortly after. She was killed by HeLa.

Once in the lab HeLa grew at a phenomenal rate and offspring were sent around the world to use in studies. HeLa is so successful as an organism, that it has numerous times lept from one cell culture to others, contaminating research. HeLa is an all female species but reproduces A-sexually. HeLa is female due to its two X chromosomes. HeLa has already split into various strains that are divergent from each other due to fast growth rate and high mutation rates. HeLa contains the same genetic material as Henrietta Lacks did, with natural modifications over time.

HeLa is a single celled organism that evolved from a human and has now lived and reproduced on its own for over 50 years. HeLa has typical humans genes, including those that code for an entire human being, plus any associated with the abnormal (cancer) growth.

HeLa is a great example of how a forward step in evolution is not always something more complex or more advanced.

Here is the wikipedia article on HeLa. A Google search can lead to even more info.

Did I get everyone? Anyone one missing from my friends list?