Interesting

100 Best First Lines of Novels

http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0934311.html

Shawarma-licious

For those who do not know what shawarmas are, imagine donair meat, but instead of the sweet sauce replace with a garlic-tahini sauce. Add many vegetables, onions, pickled purple things, and it's grand. Yesterday I was thinking about supper, and decided I wanted a shawarma. I've not seen them outside Ontario yet, so it was decided that I would make one instead of hitchhiking to Ottawa to pick one up.
A quick Google gave me this site. Unfortunately, of all those ingredients for the sauce, we only had less than 1/2-cup tahini. So it was time to improvise:

Owen's Patented Trademarked Copyrighted Peanutty Shawarma Sauce Recipe

• Fill a 1/2-cup measure about 2/3s full with tahini
• Top up with natural, non-sweetened peanut butter (This is essential. Sweetened will really weird it up. Crunchy PB works well)
• Put in bowl. Add 1 tbsp yogurt. (We only had vanilla yogurt, not plain. It didn't actually affect it that much)
• Add ~1/2 tsp garlic powder (Real garlic, although possible, will be very, very strong)
• Add juice of 1/2 of a lime
• Mix all up. Add olive oil to decent sauce/paste-like consistency

It may sound a little strange, but it was quite good, approved by the whole family there. It's pretty healthy (I think) and mostly natural.

I'm now 2/3 of the way through my French course, and have finished setting up the next set of experiments. I'll be spending the next couple of days cleaning the lab and sorting all my samples. Also, I'll possibly be gathering new samples.

It's been a while

It has. And Happy Easter (Monday) all!

So, I've been spending most of my online moments at The Comics Curmudgeon. I've gone back two years into the archive. I went home for Easter, took out some of the cartoon collections we have around the house, and realized that I've started viewing them in an appreciative and critical way. I'm enjoying the viewpoint too. I understand why Calvin & Hobbes was so good. I always liked it, but now seeing the expression in the drawings, the pacing of the panels, the grip of language. It's fantastic.

Random overheard question: Can having your house too hot cause your brain to scramble?

Back to the topic of what I've been doing. I'm taking a French course through Acadia. I'm mostly bilingual, but it's a credit, and I'm learning new things about grammar (rather, things I'd forgotten). I'll be wrapping it up soon. In more news, I may be staying here for a little while longer. I'll be in the Maritimes till at least the Grad date, so I might as well earn a little cash doing so. My boss has offered me the chance to do so.

I've been interrupted twice during this post, and am calling it a night. More to follow. Eventually.

Sweet Zombie Feynman!

I love Mythbusters.

http://xkcd.com/397/

Make sure to read the roll-over text:
"Last week, we busted the myth that electroweak gauge symmetry is broken by the Higgs mechanism. We'll also examine the existence of God and whether true love exists."

Conference

I did it!

I aced that presentation! Lots of people coming up afterwards saying I did a good job, lots of people asking questions about my work.

In case you didn't know (and maybe I didn't tell you) last night I gave a presentation on my research at the Northeast Potato Technology Forum called "Survey of post-harvest potato pathogens in Canada and their sensitivity to chemical treatments." For those so inclined, here is the abstract

Post-harvest diseases cause significant annual losses in potato yield and quality in Canada. Thiabendazole (TBZ) has been available for post-harvest application to potatoes in Canada for many years, but resistant strains of Fusarium sambucinum and Helminthosporium solani have been recovered since the mid-1990s. More recently, resistance to fludioxonil (FDL), a common seed-piece treatment, has been reported in some Fusarium spp. Azoxystrobin (AZO) has shown some promise as a post-harvest fungicide, but is not yet registered for this use in Canada. Dry rot, silver scurf and black dot (caused by Fusarium spp., Helminthosporium solani and Colletotrichum coccodes, respectively) were diseases under investigation as part of a national survey conducted in 2007 and 2008. Samples of tubers were collected from several provinces and sent to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Charlottetown. The identity of the predominant causal agents of disease was determined using morphological and molecular means. As well, the sensitivity of these pathogens to TBZ, FDL and AZO was ascertained using an amended agar assay. As these experiments are ongoing, only preliminary results will be presented.

If you're still here, you probably found it interesting. Post comments and questions-- I'd be glad to answer them.

This is not a retraction.

I'm still mad.

Last night, when I first pounded out the previous message, I had walked in on a television show with a popular preacher condemning homosexuality. The people on the couch were watching and listening without question.

I posted with the intention to stir things up. I wrote my feelings out, siphoned some RealLivePreacher, edited, revised and sent away for approval from some of my nearest and dearest. I posted, and do not regret it.
To prepare myself for the onslaught that I felt was for sure to come, I went back to the Bible. I went to the Internet. I researched, I examined, I prayed.

I do not think that God hates homosexuals, nor do I believe that homosexuals should be forced to change. The idea that men in love with another man, or women in love with another woman, are not allowed to consummate their relationship the same, natural way that husbands and wives can seems cruel.
I've been taught by my family, by my school and by my experiences that if something doesn't seem right, to question it. Question authority. Question the government. Question your professors. Ask why- it's essential for learning. Get your answers. Maybe you won't like them, but at least you have them.
I can't question God the same way I question those above me. The most I can do, like a two-year-old child, is ask why. And like a two-year-old child, I usually don't stop. If I see something I don't like, I ask Him until I'm satisfied. Sometimes it's instant, sometimes it's a long, long time before I get a glimpse of the big picture.
When I pray, I ask "why?" Before I pray, I run to His Word to see if He wrote it down somewhere first.

"Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

Matthew 19:11-12

The common clobber verse, the one that usually came to me during my research was in Romans.

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Romans 1:21-32

The research I did falls into two categories, one very conservative, the other liberal. The conservative stance was that no matter how you slice it, these acts are perversions.

The more liberal viewpoint, and the one I agree with, looks at the context. Paul was writing about the local idol worshiping and temple prostitution happening in the city that he was writing from.

It's late, and I'm tired and I'm hungry. I have been reading and researching for over three hours now.

From my faith that God is Love, we cannot judge lest we be judged, and that God made us all, I cannot let another attack be made against my brother, against those like him, nor against those he loves.

Enough already.

Alright.

You say I'm wrong because I think it's possible for all people to go to Heaven? Fine. It's a theological-heavy argument, one that I'm not comfortable with, and I'll deal with on my own terms.

You say I'm wrong because I think the Universe is 14 billion years old and that Earth, in its current state, came to be through the beautiful process known as Evolution? Fine; I'll beat you in a scientific arena any day of the week.

You say I'm wrong because I'm perfectly alright with the idea of gay marriage, and that I don't consider homosexuality an abomination? No. Sit down. Sit down and just be quiet.
The words you want to use against me have nothing. Throw the Bible at me. Throw the Letter of the Law at me. I'll stand firm in my faith.

I'll start: Those people, especially the leaders, are using the Bible to justify their own personal, homophobic opinions about homosexuality. If the passages they bring up weren't there, they'd find some others that they could twist to suit their meanings. The fact that these leaders, that these shepherds and these policy-makers are using the Word of God to suit their own agendas makes me sick. I know I'm supposed to be slow to anger, but boy, this has been stewing for a long time. It angers me how many have fallen into their fold too. I used to accuse all religions of simply being brainwashing operations. In some sects, I'm not sure I was wrong.

Don't yell at me. Don't use the same tired attacks that have always been used against them and us who love them. I'll say this once (It's text, feel free to re-read it):
It's not a choice
It's not a lifestyle decision
It's not a phase
They've met the right person. That person also happens to be of the same sex.

I'm not gay. I can testify to this last section, but you're going to have to get out of your narrow-minded world and learn from someone who is gay. Don't worry: you can't catch it. Talk to them, you'll find out how ridiculous these arguments are.

The next time you hear about "scared straight" or "re-alignment camps" or Ted Haggard's ridiculous claims of being "cured" please realize that this is all bullshit. What's worse is the theories, practices and operations behind them. Enough to, well, scare you.

Isn't it easier to believe and accept that God has made each of us? It's easier than trying to reconcile the idea that God made some men attracted to other men and then set up specific laws that prohibited that. There's no childhood trauma in their history, nothing that "switched" their minds. We are all human and all God's beloved children.


God love us all,
Owen the Biologist

PS. Don't say you have no problem with gay people, in fact some of your best friends/family are gay. It makes you sound defensive and scared.

Finally, despite some examples to the contrary, we'd all (yes, as in every mature person on the planet) like to be known by something other than the label of what we do in the bedroom. There's some straight people out there that lead far kinkier lives than one would imagine. I'm sure they would not appreciate being known as "gimp-o-sexual"

It's 8:30 on a Friday night...

...and I'm sitting and enjoying an episode of Friends.

And now just realizing that this episode is about them getting ready to go out.

I'm sitting alone in a house watching a TV show about people who have friends who have plans on a Friday night.

No, this isn't a little sad at all.

I never watched Friends during its run. I've been catching episodes here and there in syndication, and enjoying them.

In summary: I just signed onto a website on a Friday night to post on a blog that I'm watching a TV episode about friends doing something on a Friday night.

...
No. I don't want your pity.


Cool link of the day: Scientists create a black hole

Yay for results!

I'm back in Charlottetown, after a fun weekend at home. I had two choices: PEI shuttle or Acadian Lines. The timing of the shuttle was more convenient and cheaper, but it's rather a tight squeeze (four astride in the back of a van). The bus, on the other hand, has lousy timing but is a much more comfortable ride. Unless, like me, you're stranded in Amherst for an hour while another bus came back from the Island.

I had no idea how my experiments turned out. I was wondering if the results were inconclusive.

Turns out they're not! I've got some exciting things to present. By the way, I'm presenting at the Northeast Potato Technology Forum on the 13th of March. It's my first formal presentation to other scientists, and I'm both excited and nervous.