“Superman Returns”…June 30, 2006… Here’s the trailer… The new one came out today, so if you haven’t seen it, you should watch it… Kevin Spacey rules, yo…and, at least according to the trailer, they kept the Christopher Reeve-style music… So, essentially, my summer begins with “X3” on May 26th and ends June 30th…
…yeah…can’t get much better than this…until next year, when “Spider-man 3” comes out, that is… 😉
“Superman Returns”…June 30, 2006… Here’s the trailer… The new one came out today, so if you haven’t seen it, you should watch it… Kevin Spacey rules, yo…and, at least according to the trailer, they kept the Christopher Reeve-style music… So, essentially, my summer begins with “X3” on May 26th and ends June 30th…
…yeah…can’t get much better than this…until next year, when “Spider-man 3” comes out, that is… 😉
The X3 Trailer is online…apparently premiered on Fox last night…? Needless to say, I’m rather excited for May 26, 2006… :-P? Although, this one doesn’t have Bryan Singer directing (…since he’s directing Superman Returns…), but damn if Kelsey Grammer doesn’t look awesome as The Beast…w00t…
I guess I’ll just have to pass time time with V for Vendetta, coming out next weekend… 😛
I bought an iPod…
That is all.
I bought an iPod…
That is all.
So yeah, new theme…and I’m still toying with it… I was inspired by Kai and Goodspeed to try messing with a new theme for once. The banner at the top is random, so it’ll put up a random banner at the top with each refresh…also, if you click on the oval at the top of each posting, it’ll minimize and then maximize the post (which is useful in the archived posts…). Also, there’s a built-in feature for random pictures to show up in the right-hand column, but I haven’t quite figured it out yet.
Anyway, new stuff…instead of studying…w00t to me… Happy Christmas Break, Truman folks!
…’cause that’s when “X-Men 3” will be released… USA Today has an article about it out today… It’s looking like the switch from Bryan Singer (“X-Men 1 and 2;” “Usual Suspects”) to Brett Ratner (“Red Dragon;” “Rush Hour 2”) won’t be as bad as it could have been…
But, damn if Kelsey Grammer doesn’t look tight as the Beast…I was a bit worried about that one…that, and they got Halle Berry to play Storm again, even though it was thought she wouldn’t return (…as she has an Oscar now and doesn’t really need to do superhero movies…).
…and on a semi-related note, Bryan Singer is all about doing a “Star Trek” movie in the future…w00t!
Click thru for the Official “X3” trailer.
So, we talked in class today about transposons. For those who don’t know what they are, I’m going to give a brief description. For those who usually stop reading by now when I start talking science, keep reading ’cause there’s a relatively important point toward the end that warrants discussion…
A transposon is also known as a “jumping gene.” They are pieces of genetic information that can code for the machinery to either copy itself to another location in a genome, or even excise itself from one location and move itself to another. Cool, eh?
Well, think of it this way. Let’s say a transposon lands at some location in a bacterial cell that’s pretty close to a gene that codes for tetracycline resistance (that’s an antibiotic…). Let’s say another transposon lands on the other side of this resistance gene. Now, what you have is a bigger transposon that, at either side, can cut itself out and move the whole thing (including resistance) to another location, or replicate itself.
Why is this bad? Well, that’s one easy (and scary) way that antibiotic resistance is spread between bacteria. Apparently, for example, there’s a transposon in the fruit fly that is found in all fruit flies…but wasn’t there 50 years ago…so within a span of 50 years, all fruit flies on Earth got this gene. Do you know how fast bacteria divide? It’s insane to think of how fast bacteria can get these “jumping genes” and then become resistant to all of our antibiotics.
Know what else is bad? And this is the point of the discussion… The government is more concerned with developing defenses for smallpox and anthrax than they are about protecting us from resistant strains of flu, or pneumonia, etc. How many people do smallpox and anthrax kill every year? Not that many. Now, flu and pneumonia (etc…)? How many? Lots. And those guys aren’t resistant to all of our antibiotics…yet…
So yeah, at this point, it’s likely that within the next 20-30 years (or sooner?), all of our current antibiotics won’t be effective against common ailments that are curable today. And we’re wasting our money “protecting” ourselves from dangers that barely blip on the radar in the natural world.
Believe you me…I’m more worried about an antibiotic-resistant strain of influenza than I am about anthrax…and you should be, too…
Update (12/2/05): Case in Point. Here’s an article about a new strain of bacteria that is proving difficult to fend off… Be afraid…be very afraid…
So yeah, I got to thinking today… I use Linux and various other open-source programs instead of Windows for a variety of reasons, but one of those is that the information contained within is freely available to anyone who wants it. What does that mean? Well, it means that if you download the “source code” of the Linux kernel and other “open-source” programs, you can edit it and tweak it to your heart’s content. If you decide you don’t like the way a certain function of the program works, you can (assuming you know some programming…) change it to fit your purpose. The reason why this is cool is that it allows knowledge to travel freely between different groups; what one person starts with a program can be learned from and transferred to another application, allowing for the programming itself to improve over time.
Now, switch gears into science. My plan has been to get my Ph.D. and then work in industry for awhile, making some cash, and then maybe switch back into academia and teach for a few years to alleviate boredom around retirement time. The correlation is that academia is like “open-source,” where information is published and freely available for other scientists to learn from and take a step further, while industry is like “closed-source” where you work toward patents that can allow you to make money and prevent y our opponents from coming up with a solution to a given problem that’s better than yours.
So, the question remains: am I hypocritical in using open-source software, believing in what it stands for, and then getting a job and making a career in industry where I will work in a “closed-source” environment? I mean, I have relatively expensive hobbies (computers/electronics, etc.) and I’d like to be able to finance them, and to do so, I need a job in industry so I can afford that 1969 Shelby Mustang…but is it right to compromise principles in doing so?
I dunno…I guess there’s no simple answer to the question…but I’ve got 5 years to figure it out…
So, I discovered gDesklets this past week… It’s been out for awhile, but I just now found out how badass it is… Here’s what my desktop looks like on the laptop:
As you can see, the bar at the bottom functions like the one in OS X, so when you highlight an icon, it has this nifty animation on it…and you can set up different windows that are on your desktop, such as weather, a Gmail checker, or even an RSS (news…) reader or little “Post It” notes to mark things on… Here’s a more close-up look at the launcher at the bottom:
The only thing I can complain about is how much RAM the damned thing takes up…I mean, 512 MB can run it just fine, but much below that may not be a good call…
So yeah, here’s the deal: install Linux on your computers. It’ll look pretty. Prettier than WinXP. You can install it on your desktop as a secondary OS so you can run WinXP by default and boot up Linux when you feel like toying around. seriously. Do it. I’ll install it for you.
“It is your destiny.”
