謝長廷真是垃圾

一早來實驗室看到新聞就整個起肚爛，你謝長廷打馬二十年前請過綠卡然後硬要說這是「準美國籍」就算了，你現在扯到小孩是怎樣？所以不辦美國護照就沒有美國籍了是不是？

一個窮學生在美國唸書生了小孩，不給他美國籍，一些社會福利就學有的沒的，你給我喔？

講來講去骨子裡還是暗暗地扯愛不愛台灣，為啥我要為了你的虛無飄渺的愛台灣，犧牲小孩的權利？

民進黨根本還沒輸醒，應該讓它死透，徹頭徹尾的垃圾！

--

ETTODAY
謝長廷：「小孩的護照還是要申請，大人要去申請，而且5年還要去換一次，對不對，這是大人替她選擇，等到她18歲，她自己可以選擇，不是說都推給小孩，說是在那出生，當然是這樣，其實這有大人意思在裡面。」

CHINATIMES
對於馬英九陣營指稱，馬英九的大女兒是馬在美國留學時出生，因為美國法律採取出生地主義，所以她出生後就取得美國護照。民進黨總統候選人謝長廷三十日晚間則暗批馬英九，不能把問題推給子女在美國出生，可以自動取得美國籍，還是要人幫忙辦護照，且五年換一次，這是大人替她選擇，等到小孩子十八歲才能自行選擇，所以「還是有大人的決定在裡面」。

--

p.s. Ting, 看來你綠得不夠徹底，早就跟你說生美國小孩會去要被批鬥了。那個墨綠的前會長自己也在這生了女兒，不知她心裡怎想？她自己還是 greencard holder。

Would You Marry Me, Brady ?

Tuesday is Superbowl's media day, and Tom Brady got his question, from a Mexican reporter asked him to marry her.

Tom Brady handled that question pretty well, prince charming!



Clips after


From Mexico press

下雪天

禮拜天新英格蘭又下雪了，趁著雪小了，帶著凡凡到樓下中庭玩，讓凡凡摸摸軟綿綿的新雪。

凡凡超樂，玩了一陣子怕他手會冰想帶回家，不肯進去，堅持一定要留在外面繼續玩。

凡凡對天上落下來的雪很感興趣，不時用手指著。後來學校負責鏟雪的人來了，凡凡也好奇地直瞧那人在做甚麼。

之後路上的鏟雪機也出現了，一開始凡凡聽到聲音感到好奇跑出去看，等到鏟雪機經過門口時，反而又害怕退了幾步，不過等過了之後，立刻又尾隨出去看。

畫圖

這陣子凡凡很喜歡畫畫，一早起來第一件事就是拿著筆和本子畫圖。


我們也沒有特別教他，不過凡凡拿筆的姿勢和架勢都還蠻專業的。

WOW at REI Garage Sale

禮拜六早上 REI 舉辦 garage sale，等了一年終於等到這一天，趕在開門十點開門前到，門口已經排了長長的一列人龍了。

凡凡坐在推車上一起等。

大家一進去根本就是用搶的，先抓到手上再找個地方慢慢挑選。
戰利品，$28.83 的雪靴，很好穿。


排隊結帳時自然也是得排隊慢慢等，趁著空檔就讓凡凡在 REI 店裡跑一跑，凡凡現在很喜歡說 "WOW!"，每次看到甚麼新鮮東西就在那邊 "WOW! WOW!" 地叫個不停。

The PCR Song

A new marketing strategy? I admit it is funny - PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.

But, uh... can this really help Bio-Rad selling more PCR machines???



The PCR Song
There was a time when to amplify DNA,\ You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells. \ Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,\ Said you can amplify in vitro just as well. \ Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,\ Nucleotides and polymerases, too. \ Denaturing, annealing, and extending. \ Well it’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do. \ PCR, when you need to detect mutations. \ PCR, when you need to recombine. \ PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is. \ PCR, when you need to solve a crime.
(repeat chorus)

牧笛

昨天整理資料發現了張從台灣帶過來的 VCD，轉檔了一下放了上來；也把 VCD 帶了回家讓凡凡看。

這影片名稱叫做「牧笛」，片長二十多分鐘，是中國大陸在 1963 年就做出來的片子，可惜後來政治上的極左以及文化大革命讓這影片在倉庫裡一放就放了 17 年，直到 1979 年參加國際影展震驚世界拿到首獎後才廣為人知。其中製作水墨動畫的技術更被列為當時大陸國家級的機密，受到嚴格的保護。

這不是中國大陸做的唯一一部水墨動畫，卻是我覺得最好也最喜歡的一部，第一次看是在國中美術課，後來一直到去國衛院工作的那段時間才讓我在南港家樂福的便宜地攤價 VCD 堆裡找到像挖到寶一樣地買回家。



這片子是以「李可染」的畫作為範本做出來的，而李可染就是我最歡的畫家。我很喜歡他的故事和整部片的風格。

May the Force Be with You

Similar, but way Cuter!

Interesting but Scary

Aaron is a cool guy who sits besides me, always saying something interesting.

Yesterday we chatted as usual and I mentioned how Tim reviews manuscripts. Aaron heard and laughed loudly, said

"It is interesting because when you give Tim your draft, he only read the content but no abstract and figure legends. Even I put my mother's name in the figure legend, Tim will never notices that."

Hmm...

Besides, one of my reviewers wrote Chris yesterday said he reviewed my paper. Bet he is not the negative one, ha-ha.

Group Meeting Done !

I am frustrated that I still haven't finished my manuscript rewriting. But, I've my group meeting done today. That makes me feel a little bit better.

Finally I start feeling comfortable giving talks in English. The language issue really bothers me for a long time. A good sign for me.

三吋日光

人到了國外後，特愛聽台灣的歌，國台語都行。

從以前實驗室學弟那兒拿到了個 FTP 帳號網址，想到的時候就去逛逛看有沒有新的音樂或華語的電影(沒辦法，這裡看不到)。最近聽了梁靜茹的「三吋日光」，覺得不錯，結果在 Youtube 上竟然找不到這歌的 MV，實在意外。

後來發現有人自己剪了一些梁靜茹其它歌的 MV 弄了個版本，就湊活著看吧。

拼裝版


Live 版


三吋日光\梁靜茹
詞：方文良 & 陳沒 曲：方文良

深秋山頂風微涼\戀人並肩傻傻看夕陽\仰望你為我敞開的天窗\一段日光落在手心\三吋長\你說秋天掌上的日光\一吋能許一個願望

希望我愛的人健康\個性很善良\大大手掌能包容我小小的倔強\你的浪漫只有我懂欣賞\能讓眼淚長出翅膀飛離我臉龐

還想每天用咖啡香不讓你賴床\週末傍晚踩著單車逛黃昏市場\我的浪漫只有你懂欣賞\就讓每個颱風晚上不恐慌緊張

第三個願望還不想講\你自己想一想\問微笑的月光

一人一支閃閃仙女棒\好像我們指尖有星光\很燙可是很燦爛很漂亮\一點點光捧在手上像太陽\等到世界末日你再講\那個願望一起握緊不放

18 and O, with One to Go!

Surprisingly Tom Brady threw three interceptions in the game versus Chargers, but not surprisingly, Pats still got a "W", going to Superbowl in Arizona.

Seemed the strong wind hurted Tom Brady bombing to the endzone. Randy Moss did all asked dirty work, blocking defensive players all game long, which is unthinkable for him when he was in Oakland. Now Randy is a real team player.

BTW, Tom Brady made another record in this game. He is the QB who spends least games to get 100 wins.

In NFC, surprisingly Eli Manning's Giants upseted Packers and advanced to the Superbowl. Eli and the Giants are kind of unpredicable these weeks. Eli used to be labeled "choker" on his shoulder, just like his older brother Peyton. Now he seems having a hugh confidence in himself.

However, I will say Giants still cannot compete with Patriots. Both games Giants won were shakey, and Packers did have tons of chance to win the game but let it go.

Anyway, it is one step away from the ultimate prefect season, 19-0. Let's Go Patriots!

Now it is time to buy some free-after-rebate soda and chips!

Flip King

籃球裡常有人被叫做 Flip King，像以前 Sac Kings 的 Divac 守 Oneal 時只不過擦到了衣角，就倒下去了，就是人說的「假摔王」。

凡凡也很愛這一套，剛洗完澡在床上跳來跳去，看起來好像是我的手把他給推倒，但看到後面你就會知道，手連碰都沒有碰到凡凡就倒到床上去了。

之後還被看到凡凡「自摸」了一下。

指甲剪

以前凡凡爸爸的外婆教過晚上不可以剪指甲，說是人的精氣到了晚上會聚在身體的末端，剪去人就衰弱了；所以從以前到現在家裡剪頭髮剪指甲這些事都挑在白天做。

禮拜天凡凡爸爸一早起來剪指甲，沒多久凡凡也起床了，看到指甲剪很有興趣。家裡有一個凡凡專用的迷你指甲剪，便拿給凡凡玩，凡凡也知道要扳轉一下才可以用，但怎麼轉就是轉不好，只好找人幫忙，表示要剪手指甲。

A Piece of Work

昨天帶凡凡的媽媽帶凡凡去 windsor street 上的 playgroup，一開始以為是要去看醫生，凡凡便開始裝哭凹著不要進去，後來進去房間裡轉身發現裡面一堆玩具，態度一百八十度大轉變，馬上跑過去跟社工和其他小朋友一起玩，吃東西唱歌跳舞。

這是凡凡的作品。


別的地方不清楚，不過住在 Cambridge 真的不錯，這種政府辦的 playgroup 不用花錢，資源又多，凡凡這班每個禮拜一個半小時，兩個社工帶八個小朋友一起玩，師生比 1:4，很不錯。

Judah Folkman, 1933-2008

Today I still stayed in the Fung Library in the international center which is only two-minute walk from my house. Just got this message from school that Judah Folkman died on Monday.

Geez, what a shock. I had one talk from him last year. He looked fine then.

The first thought came to my mind is "what will happen to his lab?". Folkman has more than 100 postdocs under him in Children Hospital. Several months ago one Taiwanese postdoc in his lab just posted messages on PTT/NTU BBS boards trying to recruit new postdocs to Folkman's lab.

Now you have this.

Yeah, no good for working for elder PIs even they are really successful.

Storm

We have a heavy storm today, 10-12 inches. In the morning when I walked out the door, the snow is so heavy that even trees in the yard are hanging down to the ground. It is beautiful though.

I made a wise decision staying in Cambridge, not going to the lab. Instead, I walked to the library closest to my house and spent some time rewriting my manuscript.

Another good news is, we will have another storm at the end of the week, and it could at least give us some extra "homecourt advantage" to the SD Chargers!

刷牙

上禮拜去 Target 買了嬰兒用的學習馬桶回來，現在大部分的學習馬桶都是設計成兩種功能，小的時候直接坐在上面，等到長大了些可以當板凳讓小朋友能夠踩著坐上去一般的馬桶。雖然凡凡還沒這麼快就學會蹲馬桶，不過當小板凳的功能倒是立刻就用上了。

凡凡現在有小凳子可踩，自己洗手和自己刷牙就不是問題。刷完牙就很自動地蓋好備子床上躺平，不用大人費心。

17-0 Now, 2 to Go !

Tom Brady made another record, finishing the highest completion rate of passing in playoff (26/28). He is also the only one who has it above 90%. Peyton Manning had a try several years ago, but it is about 80%.

Play of the game - Tom Brady uses a "Statue of Liberty" play action move to find Wes Welker open in the End Zone.



You have to admit it, Pats are really fun to watch unless they are against your team.

Go Brady! Go Pats!

一個人的午後公園

上禮拜去 Target，大概小孩子多聚在玩具區的關係，回來就生病了，醫生說這症狀跟附近的小孩都一樣，就是吃甚麼就會吐甚麼。

凡凡也一直無精打采了好幾天，最近一兩天才好像沒事了。不過也因為這樣整個禮拜都沒有帶他去外面玩，大概很悶吧，所以禮拜六去圖書館還 DVD 的時候就帶著凡凡一起去，途中經過一個小公園就讓凡凡在那盡情地玩上一陣。

這公園因為離家近，凡凡常跟媽媽來玩，也有一些固定的玩伴，不過今天下午整個公園就只有我們，凡凡還是玩得很開心，每一個玩具都要去摸摸試試。

呼拉圈，別鬧了，你想凡凡真的會搖嗎？


溜滑梯和玩具車，一個特點就是，不管怎樣，凡凡一定會記得要把車門關好。

Newton or Alba of Biology

Now is off the semester so there is no Friday theory lunch until February. I just checked it's schedule for next semester, here it is.

8 Feb 2008 Bruce Gomes Challenges to the practical application of systems biology in the pharmaceutical environment
15 Feb 2007 Arup Chakraborty How T cells "see" antigen
22 Feb 2007 Gerald Sussman Title to be announced
29 Feb 2007 Mark Alber Title to be announced
7 Mar 2008 Markus Kollmann Adaptation, sequestration and co-regulation - key concepts of robust information processing in cells
14 Mar 2008 Franziska Michor Title to be announced
21 Mar 2008 Leor Weinberger Design principles from viral transcriptional circuits: experiment & theory
28 Mar 2008 Ben Simons Title to be announced
4 Apr 2008 David Miguez Title to be announced
25 Apr 2008 Nicholas Christakis The spread of health phenomena in complex, longitudinally resolved social networks

Two names quickly catched my eyes. One is the last speaker, Nicholas Christakis, who is the new dean of my school (GSAS), and also a distinguished professor of history of medical sciences in my another school (medical school).

The other is, Franziska Michor. She has been mentioned in ptt3-bio-board before, so some of you might have impression on her. She spent only 2 years graduated from the University of Vienna, and then finished her PhD in evolution in 3 years.

During that 3 years, she had 20 papers (11 are first-authored, including 2 on Nature). After that, she got a very outstanding fellowship from my school and spent one year in Dana Faber studying cancer. Then she got a position in Sloan at 2007, when she is just 25.

She is a mathematician, trying to treat cancer by math. She is definitely smart. One magazine actually called her the "Issac Newton of Biology". But the most important of all, she is young, and cute (if you remembered, Jiunn had a very positive view on this point...)


Some people on the Internet call her "Jessica Alba of Biology" (Uh... I have to say Michor is not even close!)

Here is another article from a website called "Science and Supermodels". They made a list for Newton and Michor, and claimed actually Michor wins. It is an interesting article.

Seriously speaking, recent days there are more and more non-biologists jumping in to solve biology questions. Most of them are smart, and can bring something news to this field. However, I still feel the interactions between bio- and non-bio people are not enough. Take Michor as an example, cancer is an extremely complicate case. It indeed resembles evolution in some ways, but talking about to find a cure for it simply by math could still be a long shot (although I have to admit it is extremely difficult for me to understand what she is talking about in her papers).

Looking forward to her talk in March. Then we will know how good she is. Bet there will be more people coming then, probabaly more for Alba rather then Newton, I think.

People say mathematicians have to make an achievement before 30, so I asked Aaron, "what do they do after 30?"

Aaron answered, "they become biologists!"

Well said; well said.

Simple Rules for Getting Published ?

There is an editorial series in PLoS Computational Biology named "Ten rules" which describe tens rules for everything in sciences. Weeks ago it is "Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published". Take a look if you are interested.

Okay, okay, I know some of them are cliches; here is a feedback to it, also on PLoS Computational Biology - "The Long and Thorny Road to Publication in Quality Journals", in which the author mentioned a very interesting study at 1982. Here is a direct quote:

Indeed, this “experiment” by Peters and Ceci provided empirical evidence 25 years ago that to get a paper accepted for publication can be very difficult for lesser-known scientists from less-recognized institutions. In this study, 12 psychology articles that had already been published by prestigious scientists from prestigious institutions were resubmitted to the journals that had accepted and printed the papers in the first place. Data presentation remained almost unaltered, but fictitious names and not-well-known institutions replaced the original ones. Only three of the resubmissions were identified as such, and of the other nine manuscripts, eight were rejected, mainly for methodological reasons. The Peters and Ceci study was widely discussed, and one interpretation for their observations was that work from lesser-known researchers may be subjected to a more critical peer review than material submitted by well-known investigators in institutions with a long track record. To exemplify this notion, 1977 Nobel Laureate Rosalyn Yalow commented on the article by Peters and Ceci “. . . . I am in full sympathy with rejecting papers from unknown authors working in unknown institutions. How does one know that the data are not fabricated? . . . on the average, the work of established investigators in good institutions is more likely to have had prior review from competent peers and associates even before reaching the journal”

I think this experiment is difficult to be re-done nowadays since papers are not that difficult to be accessed as 80s. However, I do believe the same "problem" is still there. Names of authors and institutes without any doubt have impacts to the peer-review. Hide this information during the reviewing process might be one way to improve it. However, it cannot be denied what Rosalyn Yalow said is also somehow true. It is just tough to climb up while you are in a low position.

Here I can add another cliche at the end as the conclusion, to the current peer-review system - although it is not perfect, the biggest problem is, however, we cannot find another better system to replace it.

Is that true?

--
Reading extension:

Peters DP, Ceci SJ (1982) Peer-review practices of psychological journals: The fate of published articles, submitted again. Behav Brain Sci 5: 187–255.
Yalow RS (1982) Competency testing for reviewers and editors. Behav Brain Sci 5: 244–245.

戰利品

逛了一下玩具部門，天哪，連這邊都被 Peyton Manning 染指了。Manning 你簽了六年 98 millions 的合約後，真的還這麼缺錢嗎？

跟你說，#18 不行啦，#12 才是最強的四分衛啦！

還有當然，我們是不可能會浪費錢買這種東西的。


凡凡這次的戰利品，小小 monster truck 一台。一共有四款，當初各拿一台放在地上讓凡凡挑選，一開始凡凡想全部抱起來帶走，說只能挑一輛後，足足左挑右選，每一台都玩玩看，花了快十分鐘才總算選定一台最喜歡的車款帶回家。


要離開時還擺出了 Puss in boots 的招牌表情。

Target Trip

這週日天氣終於好轉變暖和，帶著好久沒有出門的凡凡出們逛逛，討論之後決定慢慢散步推著凡凡到 Target 買小孩子用的馬桶，想說也該是時候訓練凡凡自己大小便了。



大概天氣太好一路上搖呀搖地太舒服，等走到了 Target 凡凡早已睡沉， 還伴隨著規律又響亮的打呼聲音。




不過等逛到了玩具部門，凡凡就醒了，開始四處尋找有趣的玩具把玩。這次凡凡最喜歡玩的，我不知道中文叫做甚麼，就是那種很多細棍子排列整齊，在一側按壓可以讓那些細棍在另一側顯示出形狀。凡凡很開心地就一直在上面壓出他的小手形狀。

手腳並用

凡凡早上剛睡醒，大概是不太想動，或說是懶，連撿個玩具都不想花力氣起身來撿，非得用雙腳在那夾呀夾的，手腳並用，勾起來再用手拿。弄到褲管鬆脫還得把腳伸直拉一下褲腳。

只不過，這樣真的有比較省力嗎？

蓋被子

這陣子天冷，前幾天還有過晚上到華氏零度以下的情況，大概因為這樣，凡凡也知道在床上躺平時要記得蓋被子。

很久之前凡凡就曉得看到媽媽睡覺時沒有蓋被子，會主動把棉被拉去蓋在媽媽身上，讓凡凡媽媽感動得不得了。現在自己也會幫自己蓋被子了。小朋友長大了。

First TGIF Poster in 2008

TGIF, again, poster time!



This one is from microbiology department. They usually call their TGIF as microbeer hour. One time they ever made numerous beer aliquot in 1.5ml eppendorf tubes for people coming to their happy hour.

The Way to Review Papers

Days ago, Tim emailed me a manuscript from Nature which he is reviewing right now, and asked my thoughts on it.

This morning, I asked Chris if Tim showed her this manuscript. Chris said Tim mentioned but she has not read it yet.

Then Chris continued, "Tim is very scary for reviewing paper, you know?"

"Why?" I asked.

Answered, "Because he never reads it. Tim will read the abstract first to get a general idea, and then go to the figures directly. He doesn't reads text. But usually he is right on his comments."

"It is scary..."

So, remember making beautiful figures, if you want to put Tim's name on your suggesting reviewer list.

A Few of Our Favorite Things

In my A-log. The most popular articles in ScienceNow of 2007. Most of them are very interesting. I like it, especially the way they describe it, for instance,

#5 Something in the Way She Moves?

In one of our more provocative stories this year, researchers found that lap dancers earn bigger tips when they're ovulating. Don't pretend you didn't read the article it was one of our most popular items.

Take a look if you have time.

Christmas and New Year Surprise ?

I submitted my manuscript on 11/21 and got the response from the journal on Christmas Eve. My editor is R. Heald in Berkeley.

There were only two reviewers. Reviewer #1 thinks it is a little bit short for making a significant advance to match the high standard of the journal, and also suggests lots of live-imaging work.

In contrast, Reviewer #2 feels enthusiastic about the work and believes it is well suited for publication, no additional experiment is required, with suggestion rewriting to make certain points more clear.

Heald, as an editor, is ambiguous but seems to take a position closer to Reviewer #1, asking us to address the questions from Reviewer #1. However, the problem is, even we finish all suggested experiments, which provide no further "ADVANCED" information at all from our view, very likely we'll get same comments from Reviewer #1 after the revision.

After discussion with Tim on 12/28, we emailed Heald first asking what the bottom line is, and then to decide if it's worthy doing those time-costing experiments, or simply send our paper to somewhere else.

Today, the first working day after the New Year's Day, I received the reply from Heald. The Reviewer #3 just came in, and made a similar comments as Reviewer #2, that is, no more experiments need to be done, but suggests to rewrite the paper and make it more concise. This time, Heald took a totally opposed position compared with her first E-mail, said she thinks we will not require additinoal experiments, just rewrite the manuscript as reviwer #2 & #3 suggested.

Seems to be a big relief, although to cut the manuscript down is not an easy job, at least I can spend my time on something new.