Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Random old photo from HJC! :)
Small Joke:
When a panel of doctors was asked to vote on adding a new wing to their hospital, the Allergists voted to scratch it and the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, and the Obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception.
The Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted; the Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body", while the Paediatricians said, "Oh, Grow up!"
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the Radiologists could see right through it, and the Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The Internists thought it a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water.
The Anaesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas and the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end, the Proctologists left the decision up to some asshole in administration.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
CRAP CRAP CRAP!
the damned maxtor 500gb harddisk i bought to back up all my photos DIED less then 48 hours after its purchase - taking down ALL MY PHOTOS from the last 7 years. its 300 gigs of photos, 10 gigs of research articles, another gig or two of really precious stuff to me that are gone.
hopefully a data recovery service can do something about it.
*sobs*
the irony is that i bought the damn drive to prevent precisely this. the catastrophic loss of everything!
wedding photos, trips overseas... oh hell im depressed indeed.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Another wall relief.
Taken with the Canon 850 IS - which is proving to be a very capable performer. Im impressed by the output actually.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Pick up a Penguin (BBC article)
Pick up a penguin
Penguins are turning to prostitution. But instead of doing it for money, Antarctic dolly-birds are turning tricks to get rocks off their menfolk.
Stones are essential for penguins to build their nests. A shortage has led to the unorthodox tactics.
"Stones are the valuable currency in penguin terms," said Dr Fiona Hunter, a researcher in the Zoology Department at Cambridge University, who has spent five years observing the birds' mating patterns.
Prostitution is described as the world's oldest profession. But Dr Hunter is convinced it is the first time it has been seen in animals.
Penguin partners
All of the female penguins Dr Hunter observed trading sex for stones had partners.
Penguins stick to the same mate, she said, but none of the males twigged what was happening.
"There was no suspicion on the part of the males. Females quite often go off on their own to collect stones, so as far as the males are concerned there is no reason to suspect."
She added: "It tends to be females targeting single males, otherwise the partner female would beat the intruder up."
Dr Hunter and Dr Lloyd Davis of the University of Otago watched the penguins at work on Ross Island, about 800 miles from the South Pole as part of a Antarctica New Zealand programme.
Tricking their prey
On some occasions the prostitute penguins trick the males. They carry out the elaborate courtship ritual, which usually leads to mating.
Having bagged their stone, they would then run off.
"The courtship display is a head-bowing display," Dr Hunter said. "It usually starts with the male, who bows his head and looks out the corner of his eye."
She said she does not think the female penguins are doing it just for the stones.
"The female only takes one or two stones," she said. "It takes hundreds to build the nest to get their eggs off the ground.
"I think what they are doing is having copulation for another reason and just taking the stones as well. We don't know exactly why, but they are using the males."
She said the female penguins could also be testing potential future mates, in case their existing partner died before the next mating period.
The single male penguins appeared to have only their own pleasure as a motive.
The action takes place during a three-week mating period starting in late October.
The most stones Dr Hunter saw a single female taking was 62, although she said she suspects her final total was higher.
The number of prostitute penguins is quite low, she said.
"It's probably only a few percent," she said. "I was watching opportunistically, so I can't give an exact figure of how common it really is."
Other animals have been seen trading food for sexual favours but only within a partnership.
ROFLOL. this is what i call news. :)
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Extremely bulky gene chip analyser.
Something that i would like to use someday. but have no idea how im gonna justify it for my project. haha. i envision the following scenario:
me: "uh prof, can i use the genechip machine?"
prof: "err. okay.... why?"
me: "it looks cool. and.... err we could run studies on gene expression"
prof :" *frowns* how exactly do you want to link this to you project....?"
me: "oh. nevermind"
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