Spending my Saturday morning, as I do, trolling through published U.S. Patent Applications so as to help out a consultant friend and make a few bucks in the process, I came across this one:
United States Patent Application 20050069541
Karlik, Stephen J. ; et al.
March 31, 2005
Composition for and treatment of demyelinating diseases and paralysis by administration of remyelinating agents.
Which I didn't find so terribly interesting (you'll be shocked to hear), until I came across this particular claim:
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the effective blood level of natalizumab is about 1 gnome.
Hm. I always suspected that gnomes were useful for something.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Development mule
It has been a while since I first leaked word of The Light Car, an R&D project of Junior Ricardipus #1 Motor Works, Inc. For those of you who a) don't remember, b) didn't read the first post, or c) have no idea what I'm talking about for any other reason at all, a brief update. When last we saw it, the Light Car had reached the stage of being built into a development "mule", capable of something less than the targeted three trillion kilometres per hour.
Following an extensive design process which you can read about at length, some careful calculations were performed:
Very hard math was required.
And then the hard work of engineering the prototype began. After many hours of labour, the prototype was completed!
Not exactly as shown in the plans.
Preliminary testing has been very positive so far, although we are not convinced that the power transfer from the solar panels to the drivetrain is quite where it should be. At a top speed of about 5 kph, the prototype is adequate for shaking out some of the early design bugs, but there is a great deal of work to do in order to achieve the desired performance. The 14-cylinder gasoline engine is also turning out considerably less than the anticipated 2,000 horsepower. The addition of the flames on the side has certainly helped to speed it up, however.
We at Junior Ricardipus #1 Motor Works continue to be enthusiastic about this project, and will work hard to make the Light Car a reality. Coming soon, to a galaxy near you.
Following an extensive design process which you can read about at length, some careful calculations were performed:
Very hard math was required.
And then the hard work of engineering the prototype began. After many hours of labour, the prototype was completed!
Not exactly as shown in the plans.
Preliminary testing has been very positive so far, although we are not convinced that the power transfer from the solar panels to the drivetrain is quite where it should be. At a top speed of about 5 kph, the prototype is adequate for shaking out some of the early design bugs, but there is a great deal of work to do in order to achieve the desired performance. The 14-cylinder gasoline engine is also turning out considerably less than the anticipated 2,000 horsepower. The addition of the flames on the side has certainly helped to speed it up, however.
We at Junior Ricardipus #1 Motor Works continue to be enthusiastic about this project, and will work hard to make the Light Car a reality. Coming soon, to a galaxy near you.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
San Francisco, earlier
Hi all. I'm back safely from San Francisco, where the weather was pleasant, the hills were steep, and the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill were raucous.
My first day, I had a couple of extra hours to spare, and hiked from my hotel (which, although very swishy, didn't have a room ready for me just then) over to Telegraph Hill, a distance of a couple of kilometres or so, to peer at the attractive Coit Tower. A note to potential tourists: the hills are absolutely brutal to walk. Take the tram instead.
The view from the hill is rather nice, with the bay, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate bridge and various other landmarks in plain sight.
But - and here's the highlight - being a big fan of both the book and the film about said parrots, I was resolved to find the famous Greenwich Steps, hike down them looking for the house where Mark Bittner lived, met and cared for the parrot flock, and see if the birds themselves were in evidence.
Finding the Greenwich Steps turned out to be remarkably easy:
This, I'm pretty sure, is the house in question, hidden among the leaves, about halfway down the steps to the base of the hill.
And this, my friends, is a big green tree that was squawking a lot more than trees usually do. A great big flock of what are predominantly Cherry-Headed Conures was in there, and I caught a few glimpses of them wheeling around between trees. As one might expect of parrots, they're very noisy, very fast fliers, and darned near impossible to see once they alight in the foliage.
All in all, a thorough success, I'd say.
More photos in the San Francisco set.
Monday, June 09, 2008
You are on some road
[This post was written yesterday, on a plane. I've stolen the title from a Susan Musgrave poem.]
And so am I, metaphorically. I’m on the way to San Francisco, a city I’ve only visited once, for dinner. I’ll be delivering a blockbuster (hm, strange, as I typed that my fingers wanted to type something like “bollocks” – I hope that’s not prophetic) lecture tomorrow morning.
But for now, here I am sitting once again in the departure lounge at gate 151 of Lester B. Pearson International, airport code YYZ. Fortunately, the weather is a bit nicer than the last time I was here. Behind me, someone talking on his phone about how he’s off to an Apple conference, how Steve Jobs will be giving the keynote lecture, and how he’s burned a bunch of installation CDs for OS 10.whatever. Perhaps someone should let Mr. Jobs know.
But not me. I’m off to another conference, provocatively entitled “Beyond Genome – Tools to Therapies”, where I will talk about a) the genome, rather than anything that might be “beyond” it, and b) nothing to do with therapies for disease. But it should be fun, and a colleague and collaborator of mine is giving the talk right after mine. Monday morning, 11:15 AM Pacific Time, I will manifestly fail to change the course of scientific research and discovery. But it should be well-received, and I’m looking forward to it.
I don’t do enough of this, lecturing about science, these days. My own personal road has taken me in different directions, but now I find myself back in a research setting and liking it again. I’ve even managed to put the finishing touches on a scientific manuscript that I sent to the editors of the journal in question last week. That will be my first publication since 2006, which those of you in the academic world will recognize as a very low rate. There might be more of this in the future, though, which could be fun. Putting these things together, especially with a veritable host of co-authors, collaborators and hangers-on, can be a bit of an irritating challenge, but the end result, seeing the discoveries in print for the rest of the scientific community to read, is eminently gratifying. It will, ultimately, join my other publications in such esoteric journals as Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics, the European Molecular Biology Organization journal, and Genomics. Don't get all excited, now.
I’d better wrap up – these whimsical posts of mine tend to ramble a bit, and I’ll be boarding soon. In a few hours I’ll be in San Francisco, which is currently a pleasant ten degrees cooler than Toronto.
See you then.
And so am I, metaphorically. I’m on the way to San Francisco, a city I’ve only visited once, for dinner. I’ll be delivering a blockbuster (hm, strange, as I typed that my fingers wanted to type something like “bollocks” – I hope that’s not prophetic) lecture tomorrow morning.
But for now, here I am sitting once again in the departure lounge at gate 151 of Lester B. Pearson International, airport code YYZ. Fortunately, the weather is a bit nicer than the last time I was here. Behind me, someone talking on his phone about how he’s off to an Apple conference, how Steve Jobs will be giving the keynote lecture, and how he’s burned a bunch of installation CDs for OS 10.whatever. Perhaps someone should let Mr. Jobs know.
But not me. I’m off to another conference, provocatively entitled “Beyond Genome – Tools to Therapies”, where I will talk about a) the genome, rather than anything that might be “beyond” it, and b) nothing to do with therapies for disease. But it should be fun, and a colleague and collaborator of mine is giving the talk right after mine. Monday morning, 11:15 AM Pacific Time, I will manifestly fail to change the course of scientific research and discovery. But it should be well-received, and I’m looking forward to it.
I don’t do enough of this, lecturing about science, these days. My own personal road has taken me in different directions, but now I find myself back in a research setting and liking it again. I’ve even managed to put the finishing touches on a scientific manuscript that I sent to the editors of the journal in question last week. That will be my first publication since 2006, which those of you in the academic world will recognize as a very low rate. There might be more of this in the future, though, which could be fun. Putting these things together, especially with a veritable host of co-authors, collaborators and hangers-on, can be a bit of an irritating challenge, but the end result, seeing the discoveries in print for the rest of the scientific community to read, is eminently gratifying. It will, ultimately, join my other publications in such esoteric journals as Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics, the European Molecular Biology Organization journal, and Genomics. Don't get all excited, now.
I’d better wrap up – these whimsical posts of mine tend to ramble a bit, and I’ll be boarding soon. In a few hours I’ll be in San Francisco, which is currently a pleasant ten degrees cooler than Toronto.
See you then.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
An opinion nobody asked for
Despite rpg's efforts to distract me by asking me to post about muppet-ish behaviour at another place we both frequent, here is yet another post about cars. Because there hasn't been one for, oh, five posts or so.
Which cars? Jaguars? Faster-than-light prototypes? The now-available, oh-so-spiffy battery-operated Tesla Roadster?
Nope. This post is about, now hold your breath, it's a shocker, I'm telling you, you really won't believe it...
Ferraris.
[cue sound effects of mass exodus of disgusted readers]
Ok, ok, it's my marque of choice I know, and I spend far too much time yakking about them, but I really couldn't hold this in. Because after a year or so of speculation, disinformation, and the occasional faked Photo-chop picture, the venerable Scuderia has finally announced its plan for the next Prancing Horse (or should that be, 460 horses?). In true Ferrari style, they've resurrected a hallowed nameplate: the California, reminiscent of the beautiful 250 GT California Spyder of old. Hey, it worked with the Testarossa and the Mondial, so why not?
So, quivering in anticipation, I read the exuberant press release, looked at the typical airbrushed-beyond-belief factory "photos" (of a car that has not yet, as far as I can tell from my limited attempts to find out, been built) and generally spent some time thinking about it instead of doing more useful things. And the result is that I find myself... unimpressed. Someone, somewhere else, opined that when Ferrari releases a new model, we expect to be blown away by its styling and looks. This one looks like a Honda S2000 spliced onto a BMW Z4 roadster, and given a glossy Rosso Corso paint job. Not that either of those cars are particularly bad, but they just aren't Ferraris.
The California is a front-engined (ok, "mid-" front-engined) V8 sportscar, with a folding hardtop roof. The location of the V8 engine is a first for Ferrari, which is not nearly as exciting as you might think since they've been making V8 cars since the early 70's, and front-engined autos since the company's earliest days. The folding roof is a first too, catching Ferrari up to such high-performance heavyweights as, oh, say Pontiac. All this hype is really just another way of saying that it's the first such vehicle to emanate from Maranello simply because they haven't bothered to build one before.
My main gripes, however, are these: first, it basically seems like a front-engined F430. Which I confess is not an original observation, as just about everyone who cares seems to have come to the same conclusion. What makes the F430 great is that it's an absolute demon, a Formula 1-inspired bottle rocket of a car, with Launch Control, paddle shifters, big cheerful air ducts and a gorgeous Pininfarina styling job. No matter that they stole the mirrors from the Testarossa, the tail-lights from the Enzo, the teardrop-shaped cheek vents from Phil Hill's race car, and the overall body plan from the 360 Modena - it's still a mean, lean, lovely machine. A latter-day Enzo for the quarter-million-dollar-a-vehicle set.
Why we need a front-engined version of this, which gains a trunk but almost certainly sacrifices a whole lot of handling, is anybody's guess. The earlier rumours hinted at a "baby Ferrari", a return to the Dino, which I think would have been much more fun. A cheap and cheery little Ferrari, almost in reach of someone who might otherwise buy, say, a Porsche Boxster. Instead, we get a high-tech Corvette that will doubtless cost as much as an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, which, truth be told, is probably its main competition.
Shame really. The world really doesn't need another Corvette, or any number of other front-engined V8 berlinettas I could name. What we need from Ferrari is another monster, something verging on the edge of ridiculous, without stepping over the line into Lamborghini or Pagani territory. Maybe not an Enzo, or the turbo-charged, crazed rocket ship that was the F40, but how about something really eye-popping, really fast, or really different from the rest of the pack? While I'm sure the California will contain excellent technology, a tremendous assortment of bells and whistles, and those trademark hand-stitched leather seats, I can't help but feel just a little, teeny bit let down.
Ah well. Ferrari doesn't exist to make people like me happy, and I imagine that they'll sell an absolute pile of these things. Coming soon, to a highway near you.
Which cars? Jaguars? Faster-than-light prototypes? The now-available, oh-so-spiffy battery-operated Tesla Roadster?
Nope. This post is about, now hold your breath, it's a shocker, I'm telling you, you really won't believe it...
Ferraris.
[cue sound effects of mass exodus of disgusted readers]
Ok, ok, it's my marque of choice I know, and I spend far too much time yakking about them, but I really couldn't hold this in. Because after a year or so of speculation, disinformation, and the occasional faked Photo-chop picture, the venerable Scuderia has finally announced its plan for the next Prancing Horse (or should that be, 460 horses?). In true Ferrari style, they've resurrected a hallowed nameplate: the California, reminiscent of the beautiful 250 GT California Spyder of old. Hey, it worked with the Testarossa and the Mondial, so why not?
So, quivering in anticipation, I read the exuberant press release, looked at the typical airbrushed-beyond-belief factory "photos" (of a car that has not yet, as far as I can tell from my limited attempts to find out, been built) and generally spent some time thinking about it instead of doing more useful things. And the result is that I find myself... unimpressed. Someone, somewhere else, opined that when Ferrari releases a new model, we expect to be blown away by its styling and looks. This one looks like a Honda S2000 spliced onto a BMW Z4 roadster, and given a glossy Rosso Corso paint job. Not that either of those cars are particularly bad, but they just aren't Ferraris.
The California is a front-engined (ok, "mid-" front-engined) V8 sportscar, with a folding hardtop roof. The location of the V8 engine is a first for Ferrari, which is not nearly as exciting as you might think since they've been making V8 cars since the early 70's, and front-engined autos since the company's earliest days. The folding roof is a first too, catching Ferrari up to such high-performance heavyweights as, oh, say Pontiac. All this hype is really just another way of saying that it's the first such vehicle to emanate from Maranello simply because they haven't bothered to build one before.
My main gripes, however, are these: first, it basically seems like a front-engined F430. Which I confess is not an original observation, as just about everyone who cares seems to have come to the same conclusion. What makes the F430 great is that it's an absolute demon, a Formula 1-inspired bottle rocket of a car, with Launch Control, paddle shifters, big cheerful air ducts and a gorgeous Pininfarina styling job. No matter that they stole the mirrors from the Testarossa, the tail-lights from the Enzo, the teardrop-shaped cheek vents from Phil Hill's race car, and the overall body plan from the 360 Modena - it's still a mean, lean, lovely machine. A latter-day Enzo for the quarter-million-dollar-a-vehicle set.
Why we need a front-engined version of this, which gains a trunk but almost certainly sacrifices a whole lot of handling, is anybody's guess. The earlier rumours hinted at a "baby Ferrari", a return to the Dino, which I think would have been much more fun. A cheap and cheery little Ferrari, almost in reach of someone who might otherwise buy, say, a Porsche Boxster. Instead, we get a high-tech Corvette that will doubtless cost as much as an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, which, truth be told, is probably its main competition.
Shame really. The world really doesn't need another Corvette, or any number of other front-engined V8 berlinettas I could name. What we need from Ferrari is another monster, something verging on the edge of ridiculous, without stepping over the line into Lamborghini or Pagani territory. Maybe not an Enzo, or the turbo-charged, crazed rocket ship that was the F40, but how about something really eye-popping, really fast, or really different from the rest of the pack? While I'm sure the California will contain excellent technology, a tremendous assortment of bells and whistles, and those trademark hand-stitched leather seats, I can't help but feel just a little, teeny bit let down.
Ah well. Ferrari doesn't exist to make people like me happy, and I imagine that they'll sell an absolute pile of these things. Coming soon, to a highway near you.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
As per your request
Fellow blogger, scientist and Nature Network celebrity rpg requested that I post this bit of literature that was recently sent to me, so here it is. It ain't exactly the kind of quality effort you might find over at LabLit, but it amused him. And me.
To: [alternate name for Ricardipus]
From: [a forum muppet]
Subject: PhD position
Message: Dear [alternate name for Ricardipus]. I went thru your profile and found ur connection in academics. I want to do PhD. I have scholarship of US $100,000 and wants a PhD position in Canada. Can you help me.
Very flattering. Just a few problems with this:
The whole thing stinks of desperation, or perhaps with the sulphurous stench of a 419 scam. I suspect that if I responded positively, the next email would have asked me to help "liberate" the aforementioned scholarship from a nice, safe, but surprisingly inaccessible offshore bank account.
Sigh.
To: [alternate name for Ricardipus]
From: [a forum muppet]
Subject: PhD position
Message: Dear [alternate name for Ricardipus]. I went thru your profile and found ur connection in academics. I want to do PhD. I have scholarship of US $100,000 and wants a PhD position in Canada. Can you help me.
Very flattering. Just a few problems with this:
- Ricardipussssssssss doesn't wants nasssssty PhD studentssssssss. Wants fishesssssss, tasssssty fishessssssssss.
- I'm not a university professor, and therefore don't have an appointment in the local graduate school. Which makes it difficult, nay impossible, for me to take on a graduate student.
- Any student with a $100k scholarship ought to be able to choose any lab, anywhere, pretty much. This guy/gal sounds desperate.
- I will never hire anyone who uses the word "ur", even in a forum message. I've complained about this before.
The whole thing stinks of desperation, or perhaps with the sulphurous stench of a 419 scam. I suspect that if I responded positively, the next email would have asked me to help "liberate" the aforementioned scholarship from a nice, safe, but surprisingly inaccessible offshore bank account.
Sigh.
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