New Music

I haven't been keeping up with music at all until lately; I think when I tried listening to new music a couple months ago I didn't find anything good in the little amount of time I gave it. Anyway, some neat things I've discovered recently:


Passion Pit - Sleepyhead:




Emiliana Torrini - Birds



She's Icelandic.


The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction





I also really like Passion Pit - I've Got Your Number. And I also recently got into the Shout Out Louds. =P

Summit in the News

MIT News Office wrote an article about the summit. Actually, it sounds kind of lame. Perhaps that is telling of what people got from the summit, at least from an outsider's perspective, and we need to think about stuff like that for next time. I mean, we should think about what we want an article reviewing the summit to say.

Bankrupt Chrysler

anyone surprised?

Edumacation

I think that schools should teach kids more about recent history and civic engagement, and give a more honest description of history (not hiding all the ugly parts, maybe some though if its bad for kids or something).

And I've been thinking about what I'd really want to be involved with, and I think it is advocacy of some kind... Sort of like lobbying legislators or else community organizing, or else marketing. I think marketing for bills and causes is a really good idea, and should be more commonplace than it is. Then again, I'm not sure how crowded the media would get. Schools should also teach general life skills, like taxes and finance (insurance, etc.).

Oh yeah, and just for fun... Green up your sex life! Use organic, paraben-free, glycerin-free lube. Here's why.

University

I wish universities were already like this.

Place I Lost

Found online!!!

Bonobo's Restaurant in Madison Square Garden in NYC. I stumbled upon it once early in college, and I keep trying to find it and failing. Finally, today it occured to me that I could look it up online and actually get the address...

Ooo, I should go with Alicia sometime.

Energy Education Initiative

Obama is launching various programs geared at encouraging and supporting energy research in research labs and universities. Whoo!! It will be great to get someone to talk about this next year for the summit or perhaps even sooner.

David MacKay

One thing that is really needed in order to make progress on sustainability is comprehensive measuring of energy usage and comparisons.

David MacKay has made some progress on that in his book Without Hot Air. He refuses to fly since he claims airtravel is the single biggest individual contributor. It could be interesting to try to get him via video-chat for next year.

I would of course maintain some skepticism towards his findings, but this is definitely the kind of work that we need more of.

Speedy Reading

I need to read faster...perhaps with the help of the third edition of Speed Reading, I will.

I am seriously considering changing careers to policy and publicity, promoting ideas and programs I like. I'm not sure but I think I really like identifying priorities and developing strategies for accomodating the needs of multiple groups of people. It seems that I already have a good grasp of big picture issues if the relevant information is told to me, but if I'm to be actually effective in policy as a career, I need to be able to do my own research and that means being able to absorb a much higher volume of material.

Moderators for Next Year

maybe we should try to get NPR people to moderate some panels.

Asian Lady Skills

My mom is visiting. Today we went to dimsum and she passed on the ancient secret of how to shell a shrimp in your mouth. It took quite a few tries, some wasted meat, lots of swallowed shells, and one shrimp bit in my lap before I did it properly (and then still she said I obviously didn't chew the head properly to get all the juice out since the eyes were still intact). Conclusion: not really worth all the effort. But, as she also pointed out, this valuable skill could save me from having to use dirty swine-flu infected fingers to shell my shrimp. Oh joy!

success!

The summit is a hit. At least, we are going to make sure to follow up with publicity and pump it up. I was really encouraged by what Ed Carvale said, which is that he feels it could be the future for the Energy Conference, that it really takes the discussion in a new direction.

Also, I asked Michael Shellenberger for career advice, and he recommended reading Now Discover Your Strengths. and taking the survey to see what kind of career does the kind of things I'm interested in. That is really exciting. I kind of wish I mingled more, but I was really too tired. Oh well.

Sustainability Summit

going well

need to watch the videos to take notes for buzzwords

progressive

costa rica - case study

Nose Picking Jokes

i think it's a chinese people joke.

Student asks: Teacher, why do women feel so great while having sex?
Teacher: This…is like picking your nose…the one that feels great is your nose.
Student: If it feels great, then why do women resist when they are being QJ?
Teacher: If someone else’s finger came to help pick your nose, would you feel great?
Student: Then why can a woman not have sex when her period comes?
Teacher: When you have a bloody nose, would you pick your nose?

MIT Budget Cuts

no more Varsity gymnastics, pistol, and some other stuff.

Sustainability Summit Tomorrow!! ZOMG!!!!!

whooo!!!!

Dreams

昨天晚上我做了很多梦. 一个梦里我带一个小姐去一个银行看热带的动物.

块菌 - kuai4jun1 - truffle

Boston Companies of Interest

CEE seems like the kind of policy place I'd like to work at whenever I'm done with engineering...

Citizenre Corp

i'm trying to go through the companies on this list. last time i did a job search, i was not very thorough. the next time, it will be.

Chinese Jokes

狗熊掰棒子 - "bear picking corn" - if you say someone is like a bear picking corn, it implies that they pick one with one arm and put it under the armpit, and then they reach out with that arm, dropping that ear of corn, to pick another corn so that they can only have one corn at a time.

狗吐不出象牙 - "a dog can't spit out an elephant's tooth" - someone who is a jerk is unable to say anything except garbage

笨鸟先飞 - "stupid bird flying first" - it's kind of like the tortoise and hare story. if you don't work hard to keep ahead, stupid people will catch up to you because they work harder.

Jim Carrey Can Dance

whooo!!!!

Tax

上个星期田了税表。 这个星期政府给我还了钱。 我很高兴。 还有，这个星期是我和我的男朋友两月纪念。 他给我买了花和晚饭，虽说我们去的参观不是很高级, 只是很方便.

How Prescient

On NPR, they were talking about this book, Too Big to Fail from Planet Money.

I like what they say about needing to make a system so that banks know they will not get bailed out and thus risk is priced appropriately.

triangle

from npr

the interview is pretty great, with quotes such as

"Triangles have been important to mankind for a long time, ever since Pythagoras and the great pyramids, and cave paintings have triangles on them," Justus says. "Triangles are a big part of our humanity and our culture."

Ramen Production

I been eating a lot of ramen lately, trying new brands from the Japanese supermarket. They're sooooo awesome!!!!

I was curious how they make ramen and how it's different from normal dried noodles. I guess it just cooks faster and is less healthy. haha

decoupage

been thinking about playing with decoupage - sticking pretty papers together...

as a way of decorating my cheap furniture (cheap!)

but that means i have to collect pretty pictures

buying photos

that's what photoshopping sounds like

Energy Event at Harvard on Saturday

I'm going to go. Whooo. Perhaps I will network.

Update: oh man, I did not go. Oh well.

Castro and the USA

some members of the black caucus went to visit Castro at his house. weird. they were saying all these nice things about each other. what is going on? time to make nice with cuba finally?

Chronic Kidney Disease

At lab meeting today, a collaborator presented her work to us. She is working on treatments for chronic kidney disease. Before using our lab's vaults, she showed that this RGD-peptide (just a small, 4 amino-acid protein) could help reduce damaging fibronectin growth in the kidney, alleviating some of the tissue damage of chronic kidney disease. And then she made a new vault with the RGD-peptide encapsulated. The vault can open and close, and since everything in the blood passes through the kidney, the vaults will no doubt encounter the Integrin receptor, which is the target receptor for the RGD-peptide. Integrin receptor is a receptor found going from inside the cell to far outside, and it is one way for the cell to attach itself to other things, such as extracellular matrix compounds, mainly fibronectin. So the vault encapsulated RGD-peptide makes its way to the kidney cells, where things get exchanged between blood cell and kidney cell. And the vault "breathes" and opens up to release the RGD-peptide, which finds itself near the Integrin receptor, competing with fibronectin to bind. So RGD-peptide binds to Integrin, ousting fibronectin. Therefore, you reduce the amount of fibronectin stuck on the kidney cells and reduce the amount of tissue damage as a consequence of it. She also did mice studies where they treated mice that had chronic kidney disease with varying amounts of the RGD-peptide, and showed improvements in renal tissue damage.

Woohoo Vaults as a drug delivery vehicle!

YEah I might as well talk about that a little.

So one of the problems in medicine is drug delivery vehicles. How can you find a drug delivery vehicle that satisfies these requirements?

1. doesn't cause an immune response
2. will be taken up by cells
3. can protect the drug
4. can be targeted to specific cells

Since vaults are endogenous and not a synthetic nanocapsule, they instantly fit the most difficult for synthetic kinds: #1, making them an easy choice for drug delivery. They consist of two half-barrels, which can open and close. The half-barrels themselves are sort of cut up into petals that they think can open and close. There is some good evidence for the two half-barrels opening and closing (breathing, yes, we melodramatic scientists).

Lawmakers' Reliable Expertise

Model School?

cool article from wbur on a school that is doing well for low-income kids.

Noam Chomsky Free Market Fantasies

I listened to a talk Noam Chomsky gave in 1999, and it was about domestic policy and how we should stop pretending we really abide by free-market principles in the US.

A lot of things are just interesting because he provides some evidence for things I already agree with. But there were some interesting new points.

1. States having more power actually makes it easier for corporations to exert influence. This is a subtle interaction, and to some extent it is certainly true, but I wonder if the benefits can outweigh the harm it causes, and if so, under what circumstances.

2. Publicly funded projects benefit businesses and economic growth. However, when businesses fail, the public again is called upon to bail them out. Interesting that Noam mentions this so early on.

Good looking Pics for Publicity

Who knows if it's relevant.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeangoff/2129982856/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevineddy/2130710549/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/275671257/

Thumbs Up

Today, Smark and I went to Petit Robert Bistro for dinner. It was amazing. I had rack of lamb, and Smark had swordfish. We also had a proscuitto and hearts of palm appetizer.

Last night we went to Garden at the Cellar. It was good, too, but not as good as Petit Robert Bistro, but we did run into Smark's friend there, and we ran into some friends in Harvard Square.

Yumyum!!!

Buy Electronics

mpja for power supplies and other things

community building

I heard this on npr yesterday. I think this is the closest I've seen to what I mean when I tell people I want to start a commune. Not closing off from society, but still consciously working to live within a shared community. Silly that I haven't thought enough about just starting one where I am and inviting whoever is around. I guess that's kinda the idea behind the weekly dinners, but only for people I know (and like). Maybe that's where communism really goes wrong - when you include people you don't like. I hope this becomes a bigger thing, where it's common for new developments to try to attract people who are interested in living communally. Hopefully more thoughts on this later, with something to be implemented when I get a real job, maybe in Boston this summer! Who wants in on my commune?

here's the official site

ps.. i'm not the only one slacking.. the neighbors are home too! yay lazy friday :]

How Romantic

I was reading about Bonnie and Clyde today at work. They were outlaws during the Great Depression. They look very much in love in their pictures.

CSW

Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire.

HAHAHA

updated poster!

whooo, spiffed up by sheeshee

I guess I'm an April Fool

Everyone's been playing tricks on me today. Oh well.

I been spooning sweet condensed milk. yum!!!!!!! better than candy.

Rock flowers

Alicia has a friend who grows Lithops