Ssshhh......

Have you ever been watching and enjoying a program or movie on TV, and all of a sudden got shocked and irritated by loud commercial breaks?  Then you turned the sound volume level down, and then got annoyed when your favorite program got back on just to realize you are not hearing a word because now the volume is too low?  And worse, got into a fight over remote or sound levels with whoever you are watching TV with?  If you live in the U.S., chances are you know what I am talking about.  Well, no more of that starting today!

As of today a law is in effect that mandates commercials' sound level be the same as that of the TV programs.  This is probably one of the best regulations FCC has passed, saving people's mental health, sanity, and relationships!  Learn more here.

Reference:
http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials

OSIRIS REx

OSIRIS REx is the name of a mission to an asteroid that is expected to launch in 2016.  This mission is tasked to study a 1900 feet near Earth asteroid called 1999 RQ36.  OSIRIS REx is scheduled to arrive at its destination after a three year journey in 2019.  This mission studies and examines this asteroid and its regolith for possible resources like water and metals and for organic molecules that originated life on Earth.  OSIRIX REx will return the asteroid samples to Earth in 2023.  To learn more please visit here.

Reference:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/osiris-rex.html

Time Reversal Process

Researchers at University of Maryland at College Park have come up with a new technique that has the potential of making many science-fiction scenarios, realities of everyday life.

"
Using a time-reversal technique, the team has discovered how to transmit power, sound or images to a nonlinear object without knowing the object 's exact location and without affecting objects around it.

"

That means one day you can charge your cell phone remotely without any cable, without even knowing where your cell phone is! and many other cool applications!  Learn more here.

Ruby on Rails

Today I learned about Ruby on Rails programming language for the first time!

http://rubyonrails.org

Apparently, this is what Zooniverse uses.

Do you know about this programming language?  What is its advantage over say Java? Is it hard to learn and use?

Be Fearless!

It is hard to believe it was just last weekend that I attended TedxMidAtlantic 2012.  This was my third year attending TedxMidatlantic and I have learned that the most shocking, awe-inspiring, and jaw-dropping talks are usually not those coming out of famous political figures, rather those people who you did not know before, who fight so many battles every day, and after listening to them, your world's boundaries expand, possibilities not only grow, you think anything is possible!  The theme of this year's conference was being fearless.  This is how they phrased it on their program:

When we stop worrying about what might go wrong, we discover what is truely possible.  We celebrate the stories of the people who weren't afraid to fail, who overcame the odds, and persisted when the look was bleak. BE FEARLESS.

And there were some fearless people there, all right.  Now, this is the story that made all hundreds of us go to deep silence, and shed tears together, and yes, it was confirmed there were some good amount of man tears shed during this conference!

The organizers did a nice job of adding beautiful music at the end of each session.  It was good for taking a mental break and changing the mood.  We listened to a nice opera towards the end of a  session, and then when it was done, the moderator slightly announced, oh by the way, the opera singer, Ms. Charity Sunshine, has had two double lung transplants in the past!  While we were chewing on what we had just heard and how such music can come out of having two double lung surgeries, she came on stage for her speech: "Three years ago, today, I came out of a coma after xx many days.  I had to learn to talk, walk, and remember again. ........", and then she went on saying how she started singing again, performing concerts, attending ceremonies of world leaders, etc.  How her new lungs are being rejected by her body again, and how she won't get another transplant, how she faces death every day as she lives, and how she believes through love only we become ethereal.  She expressed her gratitude to her donors, that every breath she takes, every note she sings, is theirs.  How life continues after one dies, if organs are donated to continue and save other lives.

I was overwhelmed by her music, her experience, her speech, and courage.  If she can be a world-class opera singer after two lung transplants and being in coma for so long, what is stopping us to achieve our goals? Be Fearless.

p.s. Below is a CNN story on her.  I will post her talk once it is available via TedXMidatlantic.  Also, here is Chaity's website.

JPSS

JPSS stands for the Joint Polar Satellite Systems.  NASA builds JPSS for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that is JPSS is procured by NOAA through NASA.  It is the United States's next generation polar orbiting satellite systems.  Its goal is to ensure continuity and increase timeliness and accuracy of weather and climate events forecasts, public warnings, global measurements of atmospheric and oceanic conditions such as ozone, surface sea temperature, and reducing potential loss of human life and property.  The primary user of JPSS satellites is NOAA's National Weather Services.  "Data from the JPSS system will be made available by the U.S. government to domestic and international users in support of the U.S. commitments for the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS)" [2].

JPSS satellites will fly and their scientific data will be processed by the JPSS- Common Ground System  (JPSS-CGS).  The JPSS-CGS consists of a Command, Control, and Communications Segment (C3S) and the Interface Data Processing Segment (IDPS), both of which are build by Raytheon company. Major components of CGS have been delivered and NPP satellite is the first satellite to use the CGS system and some key sensors as a risk reduction and early flight opportunity for JPSS.


"

The first spacecraft, JPSS-1, will take advantage of technologies developed through the Suomi NPP satellite which was launched on October 28, 2011.  The JPSS payload of Scientific Instruments includes:

• Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).
• Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS): developer and builder is ITT corporation.
• Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS): developer and builder is Northrop Grumman. 
• Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS): developer and builder is Ball Aerospace.
• Cloud and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES)
• Total Solar irradiance Sensor (TSIS)

" [1]

JPSS-1 is expected to launch in November 2016.


References:

1. http://www.jpss.noaa.gov
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Polar_Satellite_System#Technical_specifications 
3. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/sep/HQ_C10-058_JPSS-1_Spacecraft.html 

CMMI

I have heard CMMI a lot in my organization, how it is a set of best practices, how we should follow it, ...., but I have never formally used it since I mostly work on research and development stages of projects, pretty much right after a scientist thought of it, way before it is matured, integrated into larger systems, and are operational.  It seems like as I am growing up professionally,  I can no longer ignore, skip over, or deny existence of things like CMMI!  So, I have decided to take a look at what the hell CMMI really is?  There are books and classes on this topic, but for now a few websites and articles are probably a good point to start from.

CMMI stands for Capability Maturity Model Integration.  It is an approach for process improvement, for increasing performance.  It is not a standard or requirement, but a set of best practices for improving processes.  It is a way of structuring and organizing efforts such as development of large data systems.  Surprise: Google does not use Agile nor CMMI practices.  Why? They do not believe in structure and organization.  For the rest of us trapped in or chosen to be trapped in structures, let's carry on! :-)

First of all CMMI is patented by Carnegie Mellon University, and was developed by experts in government, industry, and Software Engineering Institute at CMU.

CMMI addresses three areas: Development, Services, and Acquisition.  It has two representations: continuos and staged.  The continuos representation focuses on processes that address an organization's immediate business objectives and goals, processes that have high importance and risk associated to them.  The staged representation provides sequence of improvements to evaluate maturity of projects and organizations.

There are 5 maturity levels defined in CMMI for Development:

1. Initial: Processes are unpredictable, poorly controlled, and reactive.
2. Managed: Processes are characterized for projects and are often reactive.
3. Defined: Processes are characterized for the organization and are proactive.
4. Quantitatively Managed: Processes are measured and controlled.
5. Optimizing: Focus is on process improvement.

There are several core CMMI processes at different maturity levels including, but not limited to, organization process definition, process performance, process performance management, training, project monitoring and control, project planning, measurement and analysis, and configuration and risk management.

Organizations are not certified in CMMI, they get appraised by SEI and are awarded different maturity level or capability achievement profile ratings.   The SEI published that 60 organizations have measured increases in performance in categories of schedule, productivity, cost, quality and customer satisfaction.

Do you use CMMI in your work or organization? If yes, please share your examples, whether or not you found it effective and  helpful, and your lessons learned.

References:

1. SEI: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/
2. CMMI: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi
3. Wikipedia's page on CMMI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_Maturity_Model_Integration

The Sound of Silence: Part 1- Behind the No Fear Act

A few days ago, I attended a workshop on "Sound of Silence".  It was about conscious and often unconscious choices we make that results in organizational silence, how such choices affects productivity, efficiency, and morale of an organizations, and how to face different fears, speak up when needed, and prevent it from happening.  This post and probably the subsequent ones are my notes from this workshop.

This workshop was "an admission that like all other human-centric organizations, we are susceptible to organizational silence simply because we are not perfect at communication, and that it creeps even in the loudest meetings, from a perception that it is safer to stay silent than to speak up, and that it plays an important role in our mission's success".  It was acknowledging "Silence like a cancer grows" (Paul Simon).

We learned about different resources available to us to speak up and be heard when immediate superiors or team members do not listen to us.  We are lucky now to work in a place with so many rules and trainings not only to protect whistle blowers but also to encourage them to do so.  Little did I know about the stories behind our No Fear training, a mandatory training that federal employees are required to take every two years.

The story was very moving and powerful, especially when hearing it  from its own protagonist while being with her in the same room.  It was the story of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist.  She had learned that one of her agency's grantees (contractors), was spending their grant for mining in South Africa, and that their practices was poisoning, sickening, and killing local people and ruining the environment  there due to unsafe use and handling of a chemical called Vanadium. She learned about a problem to say the least, she reported it to her supervisor.  She was told to shut up and not concern herself with such issues.

She performed her own investigation.  We watched a movie of one of her trips to South Africa, interviewing local people.  A widow telling the story of how quickly she lost her husband after him joining the mine, how current workers were seeing blood in their urine, eyes, or ears and how children and wives got sick and contaminated from washing workers' cloths or sleeping next to them. We learned that most people in that movie are now deceased.

She fought for five years, with a government agency who receives free lawyers from the department of justice.  She first lost her high profile science project and eventually her job.  She had to get loans and second mortgages on her house to afford attorneys.  But she won.  She won big.  She won a lawsuit against EPA based on racial, sexual, and hostile work environment.  After five years,  NO FEAR ACT was signed into law in May 2002, the first Civil Right and whistle-blower law in 21st century, and the first civil rights bill that was passed unanimously in the house.  Our protagonist is Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo the author of No Fear and founder of No Fear Coalition, and the world is a better place because of her.

She said that she wrote the book for five reasons: to fullfil a promise to South Africans that she will tell their story to the world, to challenge the culture of absue and silence that instills fear, to tell the story of the first passage of civil right law, to provide a guide and narrative so that when you take the NO FEAR training, you learn the sacrifices and the stories to give you these rights.

She reminded us that the goal is complete elimination of discrimination in federal government and that we should not confuse the tools to get to a goal with the goal itself (i.e. such laws, bills, and trainings are tools not the sign of no discrimination and abuse).

She is not done yet!  She is going back to court to prove her job loss or firing was a retaliation act for her whistle blowing.  It was so hard to believe that the conversations she has had with her superiors, the interactions, the threats she received, all happened just a few years ago in the U.S.  I  realized how lucky and fortunate I am to have not experienced such abuses and threats in my work place.  I hope I never have to.  However, if I have to, I know that there are laws protecting me, thanks to Dr. Coleman-Adebayo and people like her.

Project Definition

A favorite quote from my project management class is the following:

"You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating nine women."

If a task takes nine months to complete, if it requires nine months, it requires nine months.  Throwing more money and hiring more people, is not always the solution to getting something done faster.  So, just define the tasks that need to be done to achieve your goal, prioritize, schedule, and do them within budget and schedule.  There are no shortcuts!

Here is another one:

"So how do projects get to be weeks, or months behind...?
......Drifting one day at a time."

Roman Law in U.S.

Apparently, Louisiana state is the only state in the U.S. that practices Roman Law as opposed to the Common Law practiced in the rest of the country.* It has many implications, one of which is not having the right to a trial by a jury in civil cases.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_law

Venus

Ever since the Venus transit on June 5th, I have been wanting to write about what I learned about Venus at lectures I attended on that day.  Sadly I do not recall all the cool stuff I learned, except two major ones:

1) It takes Venus longer to rotate once around itself than it does to rotate around the Sun.  That is, Venus days are longer than its years!  While it takes 224.65 earth days for Venus to rotate around the Sun, it takes 243 days for it to rotate around itself.

2) Venus surface is very hot!  Its atmosphere is about 500 degrees in Celsius, more than 900 degrees in Fahrenheit, hot!  Thus, no mission will last long in its atmosphere or on its surface.  For example, Venera 4 sent scientific data from Venus atmosphere for 93 minutes before being crush by pressure and reaching Venus surface. Even with all advances in cooling and hardware technologies today, it is expected that we cannot send data for more than 4-5 hours from Venus atmosphere and surface.

Venus Express of the European Space Agency (ESA) is currently orbiting Venus.  Its seven year mission will end in December 2012.

References:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus
[2] http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Venus_Express/SEMS5N808BE_0.html
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Express

Venus Transit!

Did you know that June 5-6 is our last chance to see a Venus transit? Unless there be a scientific breakthrough that allows us to leave 105 more years!  So, do not miss it!  Learn about it and how you can observe it.



References: 
[1] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/2012-venus-transit.html
[2] http://www.transitofvenus.org/
[3] http://open.nasa.gov/blog/2012/05/17/venus-transit/
[4] http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/venus0412.html

Switzerland?

Did you know that Switzerland requires that all able-bodied male citizens keep fully automatic firearms at home in case of an invasion? And that until 2007 their government was providing ammunition to such adults for storage at their homes?

References:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics#Switzerland
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland

Airport Codes

Did you know that initially, a lot of U.S. airports had a two letter code, representing their city or state, and only after the number of world's airports increased and they had to move to a 3-letter code to support them all, they added letter X to so many previously existing airport codes?  And that letter X in their names is meaningless? Like LAX. In a way, maybe the X identifies older airports?

SpaceX Dragon Captured!

Today is a historic day! SpaceX Dragon, a commercial unmanned spacecraft, was captured by the International Space Station (ISS). It is a year after NASA retired the 30-year-old shuttle program and turned to industry to pick up on the job. I would say plans worked perfectly. Just as we saw the boom of technology and computer industry in the early 2000 after internet was no longer something government was using internally, expect a boom of space industry, exploration, and new discoveries! Government took risks, made the large investments, matured the technology, and now started the commercialization process.  This is done so nicely since NASA is handling the ISS section's mission control and SpaceX the SpaceX Dragon.  They are working together and NASA is transitioning a lot of knowledge and skill set.  A new exciting era has begun!

References:

[1]  http://www.spacex.com/updates.php
[2] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
[3] http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57441570-76/success-space-station-snags-spacex-dragon-capsule/

How do you feel?

Have you ever fell down hard when running fast, biking, or playing basketball?  Have you ever had a broken leg, or arm?  A painful tooth? A tumor that had to be taken out?  Did you ever think you just wait these out and your body will take care of them?  Does the tooth get any better without you either taking care of it or pulling it out?  Do you expect your friends, your family, or neighbors with no medical training help you fix it? 

What makes you think when a physical wound, or a toothache won't heal by itself, you can recover fast from emotional wounds and bruises, from difficult tragedies and hardships in your life, or simply hormone and chemical imbalances in your body?  If you are so down and depressed for so many months or even years everyday that you do not look forward to doing anything, or if you are always angry at everyone and everything and constantly stress out and alienate the people in your life and isolate yourself, if you do not remember the last time you had a good time, a good laugh, a good memory, it is time you take care of your mental health; for your own health, for saving your life; for your children who need you to be happy, healthy, strong, and have a good parent and role model in you; It is important to get help from experts and professionals.

Here are some resources about mental health, mind/body health, and family well-being:

www.apa.org/helpcenter
www.youtube.com/apahelpcenter
http://www.ymca.net/healthy-family-home/
http://www.whatadifference.samhsa.gov/index.html
http://www.realwarriors.net/
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/may

May is Mental Health Month, and I am blogging for Mental Health today, because it matters! 


Reference:
http://www.yourmindyourbody.org/mental-health-month-blog-day/

Tesla

Apparently Nikola Tesla did the ground work for the electricity we use everyday (Alternative Current or AC), wireless communication and radio, radar, x rays and more.  Then, how is it that others are credited for each of these inventions?  Was he a smart scientist and engineer with great vision and initiative but just could not finish, package, and sell his ideas?  Or was the author of this site just a big fan of him and not so much of Thomas Edison?

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
2. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

Manto y saya

I went to a Peruvian restaurant with some friends on Saturday.  Among us was a lady from Peru who was helping us with the dishes.  I enjoyed a sweet juice of red corn, and saw how Peruvian corns are bigger than those in the U.S. and taste like lima beans.  But more importantly I learned about part of the history of Peruvian women, that I had no idea about; that was surprising; and I did not expect it there from all places in the world.

I learned that Peruvian women used to cover themselves, from head to toe, with something called "manto y saya".  It was black, and they would hold it with their hands and only reveal one of their eyes!  Sound familiar? Is that where/how Iranians got the idea for black chadors/veils?  Is there any relationship between the name of their attire and what Iranians refer to as Manto (long over coats women wear)?

For more information read the views of Flora, Tristan, in Lima, Peru in 1838:

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/lesson19.html

More here (apparently my guess about the origins of chador is valid):

 http://inmemoryoflatapada.blogspot.com/2010/08/theories-of-origin-of-la-saya-y-el.html

The art of mending

I learned this Japanese tradition and belief from Read, Love and Learn community on Facebook.

Somnambulism!

Yes! There is such a word: Somnambulism, meaning sleep walking! Made of the two words somn (sleep) and ambul (walking), which just made me realize the word ambulance must has something to do with this ambul(ant) too! :-) It means a moving hospital!

تنخواه گردان

امروز واژه "تنخواه گردان"
را به لطف دوستى كه ما را در فيس بوك سر كار گذاشته بود، آموختم :-)

Aging of the Eye and Health!

As we get old, we have increased risks of facing various health problems such as cancer, heart attack, etc. Often times, researchers blamed various factors like lack of exercise, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, ... as contributing factors to such diseases. A recent article suggests that natural light, and how much of it we receive through our eyes is a huge factor in our health and well-being. In fact, aging of the eye does more than just affecting our eye-sight, it affects our health!

For more information, read the full article here.

If you know Persian, you can listen to an informal translation of this article, here.

Our oldest rock

What is the oldest thing that you have ever held in your hands? How ancient and antique was it? Well, you cannot beat the age of what I held today: the oldest solid rock in our solar system, a meteorite that is 4.56 billion years old! Older than our Earth!

What I did not know about Nourooz!

Every year we celebrate the beginning of the Spring, Nourooz. We take pride in this holiday. We clean our houses, set up new year's table, wish friends and family the best, all because of Nourooz. Nourooz reminds us of the rebirth of the nature, and we aim to have a new start as well. For at least a couple of weeks most people forget about their past grudges and come together. For at least two weeks everyone is friendly and nice, hoping the spirit of spring and rebirth continues in the coming year.

I knew that people in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, parts of India, Iraq, and Turkey also celebrate Nourooz. What I did not know was that Kurds of Turkey, some of whom want independence from Turkey and a state of Kurdistan (similar to some Kurds in Iraq) were not allowed to celebrate Nourooz openly in Turkey until 2005; that many kurds were detained on Nourooz by the Turkish government who takes action against supporters of the Kurdish rebel movement; that many Kurds in Turkey use this holiday for making political rallies and statements; that they often use fire (holy and important in Nourooz celebration) to ruin so many public places; that many Turks have negative feelings towards Nourooz because of all the destruction and bad news they hear on that day in their country. That is a shame; That is the last thing I could expect to hear about our beloved Nourooz.

اين هم از فوايد ترك شيرازى شدن!

References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowruz

Some of this year's sad news:
[1] http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/nevruz-clashes-erupt-in-five-cities-across-turkey-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=16452&NewsCatID=338

[2] http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/explosives-found-near-nevruz-site-in-eastern-turkey-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=16420&NewsCatID=341

[3]http://www.ubalert.com/a/86851

Dress to impress yourself!

Today I learned about the stroop effect, a measure of our brain's reaction time. There is a test associated with this effect, mentioned on the right hand side column of the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect

Apparently, there are other things that can affect our brain's reaction time, including our clothing!

"
“The clothes we wear have power not only over others, but also over ourselves,” Northwestern University scholars Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky write in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. While much research has looked at how our wardrobe influences the way we’re perceived, their study examines its impact on our own thinking and behavior.
"

Learn more here:
http://www.miller-mccune.com/science/the-brain-focusing-power-of-the-lab-coat-40108/

TED Ed

Today TED introduced TED Ed! A great project, aligned with the purpose of this blog; Something I envisioned to make or have one day through different efforts, whether it was our podcast, my project at work or this blog! Who knows, maybe I contribute to TED Ed one day!

http://youtu.be/FfJ5XG5i2aw

Their online channel is here: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDEducation

Keep learning and sharing!

Do you want to forget it?

Do you want to delete your traumatic, stressful memories? Is there a past event that keeps haunting you? There is an article that suggests you can forget! Their method is a very novel one!

Previously, the most common approach for preventing post dramatic stress disorder (PTSD) was to make potential patients talk about it as soon as possible before the memory is sealed and repressed within them. Or to make PTSD patients recall the memory and talk about it.

It turns out this approach was flawed and wrong. Remembering bad memories does not unburden us, they reinforce the stress and pain every time we relive those memories!

The new approach exploits the changed set of connections in the brain that occur when we recall something

"Every time we think about the past we are delicately transforming its cellular representation in the brain, changing its underlying neural circuitry. It was a stunning discovery: Memories are not formed and then pristinely maintained, as neuroscientists thought; they are formed and then rebuilt every time they’re accessed. “The brain isn’t interested in having a perfect set of memories about the past,” LeDoux says. “Instead, memory comes with a natural updating mechanism, which is how we make sure that the information taking up valuable space inside our head is still useful. That might make our memories less accurate, but it probably also makes them more relevant to the future."

The new approach uses a drug to target those specific neural connections that occur through protein synthesis. Then a drug is used to target and ruin those proteins. The timing is the key to get it done right! Later on, even if you want to remember that memory you cannot! "Because the protein required to reconsolidate the memory will be absent, the memory will cease to exist."

This to me sounds like having a memory leak in computer science! Delete the pointers or links between memory cells and let them just hang out there? I wonder if this approach would cause other problems? I guess maybe like large computers with a lot of memory, we can afford to have a few unused, unconnected cells, floating around!

"In the very near future, the act of remembering will become a choice."

I think maybe to some extent we still have this choice, not necessarily for traumatic and stressful life changing events though, maybe just for some unpleasant and negative memories. We can refuse to get into a negative cycle of remembering them, and talking about them and reliving them over and over and over ....

Reference:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/02/ff_forgettingpill/all/1

Pill controls more than just the birth!

As you may know, several recent articles on psychology of love and attraction suggests that we subconsciously select mates that increase the odds of us having stronger, healthier children. One of the major factors in making this decision is how we perceive the smell of our potential mate. We naturally find the smell of those whose immune system is way different from ours more attractive [1]. Now, the thing I did not know and learned during the last Nerd Nite is that when a woman is on birth control pills, this natural selection does not work as designed. In fact, it works in the exact opposite way: the woman finds men with similar immune system to her own, attractive [2]. Then, say if things work great between them, they get married, and decide to have kids, and the woman goes off the birth control pill, what happens? She does not feel attracted to her husband. She wonders "what the hell have I done?". Who did I marry?! Interesting, huh?

[1] http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/smell-life/200902/the-scent-sex

[2] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=birth-control-pills-affect-womens-taste

Xenopus

I have not updated this blog for over a month! My apologies. I assure you that it does not mean that I have not learned at least one lesson a day though. Let's get back on the track.

A couple of weeks ago I attended Nerd Nite in DC! A nice way for a bunch of nerds to go out on a Saturday night, have some drinks, mingle, listen to some music and some funny, and yet scientific, lectures.

One of the talks was about Xenopus, a kind of frog that I had no idea was so important to us! This frog is a premier research tool in medical sciences, and also used in pregnancy tests! Did you know that if you mix Xenopus's egg with a pregnant woman's urine, they reproduce and multiply in hundreds and thousands? And that is how the tests work?

Ponder about this piece of information as lesson of the day. If you like to learn more about contributions of Xenopus to humans and science, read more here and here.

Carnage

I saw the movie Carnage last night, which made me go look up its meaning .

Driving with a cold

Studies show driving with a cold can be as dangerous as driving while intoxicated, in fact intoxicated with four double whiskeys! "So if the cold-related accident rate holds true in the U.S., colds cause more than 600,000 accidents per year." *

Call in sick if you can when you are sick!

Reference:
* http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Driving-with-a-cold-as-dangerous-as-driving-while/wGY3uLV1r02ZMhEK63Ddeg.cspx