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The First Monthly Biopinionated Quote-Fest

In Uncategorized on December 19, 2008 at 9:51 am

post to news.thinkgene.com

1. In a comment on this blog by Andrew Yates of Think Gene:.

……………..educated people don’t have children

2. From this friendfeed discussion:

“I agree. I don’t think too many people from the news industry will read this piece, and those that do will immediately jump to explaining it, why it’s wrong, or what I need to understand, or something else. On the other hand I don’t too many other people will read it either. I’m basically writing this for myself so if I come back here by chance in a couple of years and want to know what I was thinking about, here it will be. If experience is a guide, however, I won’t come back and re-read it. So the real reason I write stuff like this is that it helps my thinking process, having written this I am now ready to move on to the next step or thing or level or what-have-you.” – Dave Winer

“perfect explanation for why we blog!” – Bora Zivkovic

3.  From another friendfeed discussion:

any legal or scientific definition will be arbitrary because the development of of a fertilized egg into a human body/brain/person is a gradual process. atheists have a problem here, I wish they’d admit it. – Christopher Harris

4.  Ian Mulvany – Twitter

“MS office suite must have retarded human evolution by at least several million man years”

5. Another two from Andrew Yates (I know, ….I’m a fan)  in this post:

(The coolest thing about genetics is that leftist don’t believe race exists and rightists don’t believe evolution exists, so if you’re into genetics, you can antagonize your family in the heartland and your friends on the coasts! Science sure is fun.)

6. and this post:

Contrary to the hallmark of every critical journalistic piece about genetics, the future of inequality needs no neo-Hitler concocting blonde-hair, blue-eyed super genius babies in sterile reproductive camps. It only needs to increasingly make raising more successful children more expensive. I’m not aware of any significant counteracting trend.

7. George Dvorsky in this post on his blog:

What is it about sex selection that gives cause to such rejection?

For me this is a no-brainer. Couples in the developed world, where gender discrimination and biases are less prominent, should be allowed to use gender selection for family balancing purposes. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that this is still not a right in some countries, including Canada where couples and their doctors face the threat of large fines and jail terms.

8. Daniel MacArthur of Genetic future in a comment to Steve Murphy of GeneSherpas on this post:

By the way, I didn’t say that you should be embarrassed by your post – I’ve been reading your blog too long to expect you to be introspective about anything you write. I meant that I was embarrassed by reading it.




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Quantifying (Scientific) Journalism Quality

In Uncategorized on December 16, 2008 at 11:10 am

post to news.thinkgene.com

My father is a journalist, he has been so his whole life. He has taught journalist-students and written books on journalism and he is quite objectively, a wise man. I’ll prove that to you by presenting one of his key journalistic concepts – the journalistic equation (slightly modified by me):

J = KP x S(o) x S(k)

Journalism=Knowledge x Presentation x Sources x Skill. The short explanation of (my understanding) of the parameters are: knowledge (K) is the necessary prior information one needs before writing starts, presentation (P) is your ability to reach your target audience, sources (S(o)) represents the sources you have used and skill (S(k)) represents your ability to critically review and balance the information from these sources.

The equation was written to help journalist-students understand some journalism basics (surprisingly many fail in these basic skills). His main point has always been that a score of zero in any of these factors would give you a score of zero for journalism. And, this is adequate I guess, in many settings.

But, since it comes natural to a son to try and outcompete his father or (as a less aggressive alternative) to build further on his work, I’ll try and expand on his formula by putting numbers on it. I believe the formula in this way can be put to good use for us common readers of news, now as a reviewing tool rather than an educational one. Although, hopefully there is something to be learned (for journalists) by being reviewed as well.

J=1 would mean excellent journalism, no flaws, and J=0 would mean completely flawed. All factors get a score between 0 and 1.

As an example, a professor in protein structure biochemistry would get a “K=1” for writing a piece on the crystal structure of a protein and he would probably score “S(o)=1″ on sources. But, the professor could easily score less than one on his ability to scrutinize the sources (S(k)=0,85) and quite possibly get a “P=0,5” for presentation. This would give his news piece a J=0,425. The nature of the equation makes it very hard to achieve a score close to 1, and even with numbers close to 1 for each parameter, J will probably be closer to 0,5 than1. That’s intentional, – a perfect news piece is rare, and most are flawed to a larger or lesser extent.

To complete this project of numerical assessment I need to put together a calculator, and I will. But, for now anyone can still use the equation, – after all it’s just multiplying numbers between zero and one and get a value out. I propose to call it the  J-value (although as a tribute to my father, I may be calling it a “Reinton-value” ).

My small contribution to try and make (science) journalism better…..is from now on to put a Reinton-value on any news piece I comment on.

I hope many others will use this tool too – Reinton-value=J = KP x S(o) x S(k) – remember, power lies in the numbers.

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Anti-abortionists can “save” millions of lives whithout stopping abortion

In Uncategorized on December 11, 2008 at 10:10 am

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Blastocyst, labeled in English

Image via Wikipedia

Fact: Fertilization of a human egg by a sperm leads (step by step) to a blastocyst. Blastocyts must attach to the uterus (implantation) for the embryo to complete it’s development and a pregnancy to be established. However, 30 % – 60 % of blastocysts do not attach (more info can be found in this post).

Question: How can one utilize this fact to “save” millions of lives ?

Answer: By doing research into why blastocysts do not implant, and subsequently aim for medical treatments that allow all of these blastocyst-stage embryos to develop into established pregnancies.

This failure to implant is nature’s major embryo-sorting method. It is therefore not regarded neither as a disease nor as human sorting as such. The common view is that something was not right in the first place and that this malfunction lead to implant-failure. But, since non-viable or otherwise malfunctioning embryos are being sorted out, in its essence, failure to implant is just as “cruel” as embryo-sorting in vitro.

Consequently, if the argument that life starts at conception holds true, then millions of lives can potentially be saved by a cure for implant-failure. Probably more than any vaccination or food-aid program .

Just thought I’d mention this since it seems to have been overlooked by most anti-abortionists. Now that they know, they can turn their focus towards research and away from (sometimes harmful) politicized activism.

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By this certificate I am certifiably decision-certified

In Uncategorized on December 9, 2008 at 11:40 am

Christmas came early this year. Thank you Andrew of ThinkGene:

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Anniversary, refurbish and rename

In Uncategorized on December 8, 2008 at 8:54 am

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The SciPhu Weblog is changing name and morphs into:


BIOpinionated


Unpublished opinions mean nothing, so also for BIO-Sciences: BIOlogy, BIOtechnology, BIOmedicine, BIOchemistry and molecular BIOlogy.

You can read Bi-opinionated (with a sexual reference) if you want to, but you’ll be disappointed. The content will stay similar to what it was on The SciPhu Weblog, hopefully with a slightly sharper edge. The new name combines my continuous effort to view any issue from both sides with my professional interest in matters of human biology.

Old links and feeds should work, but changing them is the safest bet.

This change is a 1 year anniversary present to myself, my first post was published on 7/12-07.

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Quote of the month December 08

In Uncategorized on December 3, 2008 at 9:31 am

A tweet friendfeeded by Laura:

we don’t have a plan so nothing can go wrong

Man, my life would float along so smoothly if this was true, – in fact it sort of is, – shhh…don’t tell anyone and…-knock on wood.

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World AIDS Day 2008: Down Low Women

In Uncategorized on December 1, 2008 at 9:03 am

post to news.thinkgene.com

This post is an update from this previous posting and published as a part of Bloggers Unite World AIDS Day effort.

I recently attended a meeting on sexually transmitted infections (STI) and a talk that I learned a lot from, and that touched upon some very important issues, was

Down Low Women – by J.Risser University of Texas

Did you know that in poor areas of Houston US there’s a 2,5 % incidence rate of HIV. Did you know that women in these areas expose themselves to extremely high risk because having multiple boyfriends provides them, not with necessities like food and clothes, but with cell phones or money for a professional hair-do.

I ask them to help me with my wants; my needs I can take care of myself.

They’re not prostitutes as such I guess, but still, in order to possess (in my opinion) meaningless status-items, they are having unprotected sex with multiple sex-partners (more partners = more perks). And like prostitutes, they are putting themselves at very high risk of HIV and other STI’s. A reason for not using condoms is

fear of exposing the boyfriends to each other

Appalling facts, – absolutely appalling. No wonder sexually transmitted disease is hard to fight when even in our developed society where basic needs are covered, the hunt for status-icons drives people to such extreme risk behavior.

I encourage everyone to look into Dr. Rissers research. Because, even though the facts are sad, the issues are fascinating, and doing things to change this behaviour (in the first instance by encouraging condom use) can make a difference.

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What Ubuntu really means: a business model perhaps

In Uncategorized on November 27, 2008 at 12:23 pm

I know Ubuntu as a Linux distribution, but it is also an African expression. Until recently I only vaguely knew what it meant. Now I know more, it means:

kindness: humanity, compassion, and goodness, regarded as fundamental to the way Africans approach life (MSN Encarta dictionary)

The reason I found out was a commentary in a local news-paper which made a point that resounded well with me: in modern western society, a common belief is that you need to make yourself happy to be able to make others happy, – but in reality it is the other way around.

A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not address themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve? (Nelson Mandela via Wikipedia)

A truth long known maybe, but forgotten in our self-indulging way of life.

Now, It occurred to me that if self-help coaches and therapists around the western world would use such an ubuntu approach, a lot could potentially change. Life-style advice would be to help others and through these actions achieve personal development.

Business idea then: Ubuntu self-help-others coaching. Get rich helping “lost their way” wealthy people and make the world a better place at the same time. Win-win-win.

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A follow up on DNA Dynasty and the logo

In Uncategorized on November 25, 2008 at 3:37 pm

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If you go here you’ll find this statement:

To our friends from THE DNA NETWORK, we sincerely apologize for borrowing your logo without your prior permission.  We meant no offence nor do we have any intention to steal your assets.  We already have our official company logo (As seen on the top left corner).  During our initial design process, we needed some pictures to fill up the empty spaces to present the site to our management and design team for brain storming.  The beta site was meant for internal circulation only.  It was not meant for public viewing. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, it became very popular in the search engine.  This was unintentional.

We have gone through some of the blogs written by THE DNA NETWORK community and understood that there are many strong opinions about our products, specifically Kids Innate Talent test.  DNA Dynasty Group is just a marketing company appointed by Shanghai Biochip Co., Ltd (SBC), a government funded National Engineering Centre of Biochip, to market their products.  If anyone would like to verify the validity of such test and the research thereof, you are most welcome to contact SBC directly for verification.

To be fair, I thought I’d mention this, especially to those of you that are network members since this is addressed to you.

For the record: I still think their products are misleading crap, government funding makes it worse if anything, and being “just a marketing company” is no excuse.

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Project: Distilling efficiency out of useless meetings

In Uncategorized on November 24, 2008 at 8:53 pm

Sick and tired of inefficient unnecessary meetings, I am trying to figure out how to (di)s(e)cretely minimize time-waste. This post is the beginning of a project which hopefully will result in less frustration. The final goal is that when a meeting turns boring, I’ll be happy.

Project aim

A comprehensive collection of discrete activities in meetings where:

a) Things you already know are being presented

b) Things that are irrelevant are being presented or discussed

c) Some idiot terrorizes the meeting with idiot-questions, and the speaker feels compelled to respond.

Inclusion criteria

Activities that the other meeting attendees (and the speaker) will not notice.

Exclusion criteria

1) Bringing a laptop could be the ideal solution, but not an option (in smaller meetings a handheld is a possible electronic substitute):

Dilbert.com

2) Activities solely for entertainment purposes.

Activities to be tested (first draft):

1. Lists, ideas

Method: Bring a blank piece of paper and a pencil/pen.

a) Make list of thoughts and ideas (work/career related).

b) Make to do lists for work projects or shopping (daily groceries, vacation trips, refurbishing project).

Comment: Approach been tested for a while, but not systematically. Risk of exposure seems to be low.  Systematic testing will have to include quality control of random thoughts and lists. Also need to design experiment to test the feasibility of working on the same lists in consecutive meetings.

2. Discrete physical exercise

Method: limb/whole body movement either unaided or with the help of various objects.

a) Muscle flexing and stretching. Possible muscle groups include upper and lower arms, legs, abs and pecs. Facial muscles not recommended until visibility measurements (see below) are concluded upon.

Comment: Flexing while involved in other activities was as far as I can remember first proposed by the great Jean-Claude van Damme on the Tonight show some 15 years back. Need to validate physical benefit. Also, need to measure visibility of activity, -specific parameters: “over the table” and “under the table”.

b) Balance training. Sitting down – mostly arms and hands. Standing up – in theory any limb.

Comment: Sitting down – i) no object: place both hands palm down between upper part of thighs and chair. Extend arms until thighs are suspended and balance for as long as possible. Repeat and record suspension period. ii) With object: balance any object at hand – pencil, coffee cup, biscuits, cake, pastry – start with palm of hand (palm up, down, sideways – combinations) , then all fingers, then 4 fingers, then three and so on. Time your balancing skills and record them. Note: payoff unknown, exposure risk – high.

c) Visual training. Detail perception exercises ? To be updated.

d) Meditation. Eyes open, mantra, silent, To be updated.

Further reading and resources on the topic:

Bullshit Bingo, Solutions similar to mine, A top 20 list, ….

Project description to be continuously updated. External input most welcome.

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