Ivy

Is ivy immortal?

Ivy has long been identified with immortality. Because it's always green and clings tenaciously to life, it is often used as a symbol of eternal life in Christian art.

http://www.arcamax.com/trivia/s-431577-400883

... it has been shown to kill breast cancer cells as well. ... (Wikipedia, D. J. Metcalfe (2005). "Hedera helix". Journal of Ecology 93: 632–648. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2005.01021.x.)

(not related to "Poison-Ivy" order Sapindales, Ivy's order is Apiales)

Puffer fish

Tetraodon nigroviridis aka Puffer fish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraodon_nigroviridis

Tetraodon nigroviridis also has some degree of value as a lab animal, in particular in the field of genetics, because it has the same number of genes as human beings but in a genome about one-tenth the size

excarbate

ex⋅ac⋅er⋅bate

   /ɪgˈzæsərˌbeɪt, ɛkˈsæs-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ig-zas-er-beyt, ek-sas-] Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object), -bat⋅ed, -bat⋅ing.

1.	to increase the severity, bitterness, or violence of (disease, ill feeling, etc.); aggravate.

2.	to embitter the feelings of (a person); irritate; exasperate.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=exacerbate

Squash

Played my first game of squash today, it's a pretty fun game, you hit, then you dodge the ball and you repeat. Oh and one more thing that's interesting about the game is the aspect of angles (or bouncing the ball off the wall). Fun stuff. Got to get a raquet soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_(sport)

Sepsis

Sepsis is a serious medical condition characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state (called a systemic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS) caused by infection.^[1][2] The body may develop this inflammatory response to microbes in the blood. The related layman's term is blood poisoning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepsis

Korean music/ost/mv

Korean music/ost/mv
For your Korean music/ost/mv needs
http://asianosts.cjb.net/index.php?showforum=2

Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=korean+love+song

url incrementer firefox extension

So I go watch stuff at Viikii.net and noticed that I kept on having to go back a page, click on the next part of the episode and do it all over again. So then I thought, since the video id seems to increase by 1 for each part (for the most part, not always the case), why don't I create a Firefox extension that will do this for me? This way, it'll save me from clicking back and remembering which part I just saw (since I have a very very short term memory).

Here's some links I used for my development:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Getting_started_with_extension_development
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Building_an_Extension
• http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/extensionwiz/
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Working_with_windows_in_chrome_code#Accessing_content_documents
• http://www.viikii.net/videos/watch/2061
• http://www.viikii.net/viewer/viikiiplayer2.swf?video_id=994
• https://developer.mozilla.org/En/DOM/Window

I would recommend starting off with the extensionwiz link to create the stubs for you, then modify the icon.png and overlay.js to suit your needs. Took me about 1.5 days to learn it and get it up and running.

By the way, you put the link file in the profile folder that looks something like (Linux):
~/.mozilla/firefox/17jmqswm.default/extensions

Tried to upload the file, no luck and I'm too lazy to put it elsewhere :(

but here's the code

var newURL = content.document.URL;
var separator = "=";
var urlArray = newURL.split(separator);
var isFirstURL = (urlArray.length == 2) ? true : false;
var vidId = urlArray[urlArray.length-1];
var isFound = /^-?\d+$/.test(vidId);
if (isFound) {
++vidId;

// build the new URL, case 2
newURL = "";
for (var i = 0; i <>
newURL += urlArray[i] + separator;
}
newURL += vidId;
//promptService.alert(window, this.strings.getString("errorTitle"),"url="+newURL);

var strWindowFeatures = "toolbar=yes,menubar=yes,location=yes,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,fullscreen=yes";
var windowObjectReference = window.open(newURL, "Viikii.net " + vidId, strWindowFeatures);
window.close();
} else {
promptService.alert(window, this.strings.getString("errorTitle"),
this.strings.getString("errorMessage") +
" '" + newURL + "' ");
}

viikii and youtube embed

Just testing out embed codes from Viikii.net (doesn't seem to work :( ) ...


... and from youtube

mencoder stuff

# copy first 100 seconds
$ ffmpeg -i input.avi output.avi -t 100

http://forum.videohelp.com/topic329701.html

http://videotranscoding.wikispaces.com/mencoder

slower but with better quality and slightly better compression
$ mencoder ./in.MOV -o ./out.avi -oac pcm -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=740:par=pal43:qpel -vf scale=480:360,tfields -mc 0 -vf harddup

$ mencoder vid.wmv -o vid.avi -oac mp3lame -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=3000:pass=1 -vf scale=640:480

$ mencoder -ovc lavc -oac pcm -of lavf -lavfopts format=av ./input.MOV -o ./output.avi

Split
mencoder -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=740:par=pal43:qpel -vf scale=480:360,tfields -fps 50 -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=1:cbr:aq=1:br=192 -mc 0 -vf harddup -ss 01:00:00 0 -endpos 02:00:00 -oac copy -ovc copy movie.avi -o second_half.avi

This will grab the segment between the first and second hour marks of the video.

-ss indicates where you want to start the encoding (1 hr from the start of the video 00:00:00).

-endpos indicates where you want to end (duration of 2 hours from -ss).


http://ubuntuliving.blogspot.com/2008/03/splitting-avi-file-into-smaller-parts.html


Convert
#!/bin/bash

#w=640; h=480; br=1600
w=320; h=240; br=800
#r="-vop mirror,rotate=x" [x=0..3]
#-ffourcc DX50 $r -o "$1".new "$1"

for i in 1 2
do
mencoder -vf scale=$w:$h -ofps 30000/1001 -channels 1 -srate 11025 -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=3:abr:br=16 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:vbitrate=$br:vpass=$i -ffourcc DX50 -o "$1".new "$1"
done

Got the code from the link below and customized it a bit. Converted a 700mb wmv 640x480 file to 500mb mpg 320x480 with this script. Couldn't hear anything from the source wmv though.

http://marc.merlins.org/linux/technotes/mencoder_camera_encoding/README.html

RM to FLV
mencoder input.rm -o output.flv -of lavf -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=56 -srate 22050 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:vbitrate=500:mbd=2:mv0:trell:v4mv:cbp:last_pred=3


-----------

ext='avi'

mkdir flv_dir

for i in `ls *.$ext`
do
echo $i
ofile=`basename $i $ext`flv
mencoder -o $ofile "$i" -of lavf -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=56 -srate 22050 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:vbitrate=500:mbd=1:mv0:trell:v4mv:cbp:last_pred=3 -mc 0 -vf harddup > out.log 2> err.log
mv $ofile flv_dir
done

intrepid = brave

intrepid
in·trep·id (n-trpd) adj.
Resolutely courageous; fearless. See Synonyms at brave.

Came from Ubuntu's Intrepid Ibex (8.10) Alpha 1 release :D (successor of Hardy Heron, 8.04)

Ibex pic taken from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Capra_ibex_ibex_%E2%80%93_04.jpg

Bayesian Statistics

Bayesian inference uses aspects of the scientific method, which involves collecting evidence that is meant to be consistent or inconsistent with a given hypothesis. As evidence accumulates, the degree of belief in a hypothesis ought to change.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_inference

P(H | E) is called the posterior probability of H given E.

(H = hypothesis, E = evidence) so given evidence E, what are the chances that hypothesis H is true? I've seen Bayesian satistics used a lot in bioinformatics, from homology modelling to protein-protein interaction predictions.


Thomas Bayes

Genome Database Will Link Genes, Traits in Public View

"Perfect can be the enemy of the very good," Church said. "Just like when you go out and buy a car. You don't wait until they have a perfectly safe car. You say, 'Okay, 30,000 people die per year in the United States from car accidents. I'm going to roll the dice.' "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/17/AR2008101703345_3.html?referrer=emailarticle&sid=ST2008101703449&s_pos=

Basicly, Chruch and 9 other people make up the PGP-10, where they volunteer to get their DNA sequenced and made public. Pros are to advance research and provide therapies. On the flip side, increased insurance cost, eugenics manipulating evolution somewhat by eliminated undesirable traits.

Google and bioinformatics

Semantic web sounds like a nice way of retrieving biological data by asking questions ... http://www.io-informatics.com/ Putting semantic web ideas to work
http://mndoci.com/blog/2007/07/13/what-is-a-google-for-bioinformatics/

Google Does Bioinformatics Venture Deal
This should be controversial: Google announced in a filing at the close today that it has invested $3.9-million into a bioinformatics startup called 23andMe. The company's co-founder is Ann Wojcicki, Google co-founder Sergey Brin's new spouse. According to the filing, Ann's company helps consumers understand and browse their genome.
https://www.23andme.com/

Google jobs
http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=students.html&sid=resume
https://tbe.taleo.net/NA2/ats/careers/searchResults.jsp?org=TWENTYTHREEANDME&cws=1

Too lazy to start a new post, so I'm adding a great Cytoscape plugin called MiMI (Michigan Molecular Interactions) http://www.eecs.umich.edu/db/mimi/ In a nutshell, MiMI integrates major protein-protein interactions (ppi) databases like MIPS, MINT, BioGRID, HPRD and DIP into one so users like me don't have to scavange around each database to find data :D ...
Jayapandian M, Chapman A, Tarcea VG, Yu C, Elkiss A, Ianni A, Liu B, Nandi A,
Santos C, Andrews P, Athey B, States D, Jagadish HV.
Michigan Molecular Interactions (MiMI): putting the jigsaw puzzle together.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2006 Nov 27; [Epub ahead of print]

Word(s) of the day

mu·rine (myrn)
adj.
1. Of or relating to a rodent of the family Muridae or subfamily Murinae, including rats and mice.
2. Caused, transmitted, or affected by such a rodent: a murine plague.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/murine


prow·ess (prous)
n.
1. Superior skill or ability.
2. Superior strength, courage, or daring, especially in battle.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prowess

Josh Groban

Josh Groban To Where You Are
Celine dion and Josh groban live - the prayer
Don't Give Up, You Are Loved
per te

Youtube Chinese Female Artists

Janice - Xin Luan Ru Ma
janice 衛蘭 - 大哥
Janice 衛蘭 - 無所謂MV NEW!!!!

mv,stephanie,sun,yi,guang
Yu Tian - Stephanie Sun

they sing pretty nice and they're pretty too :D

Origami

I learned how to do these from the origami club, the dog (chiuaua?) took longer than the flower (chrysanthium flower), I learned the flower from someone, didn't get her name, but she seems passionate about flowers, not so much with animals :D

yellow Chrysanthemum (looks like a sunflower but the pollen in the middle is smaller), often called 'mums'

In some countries of Europe (e.g., France, Poland, Croatia), in Korea and in Japan, white chrysanthemums are symbolic of death and are only used for funerals or on graves - similarly, in China, white chrysanthemums are symbolic of lamentation and/or grief. In some other countries, it represents honesty.[2] In the United States, the flower is usually regarded as positive and cheerful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysanthemum

Smartcar Fortwo

http://www.compucars.co.uk/carpics/thumb617886.jpg

Nice wheels. Read this from 24, nice pickup line :D
I like the environment almost as much as I like you.

Sad Love Songs

korea sad MV "Shoes" by see-ya part 2-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU2UH6Cq4Nc






korea sad MV "crazy love song" by see-ya part 2-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zic494CE8mw

Random quotes

When you do not understand what a person is saying do not grasp for every word. Give up your efforts. Become silent inside and listen with your deepest self
- Heider, Tao of Leadership

Setback is a setup for a comeback
- Unknown

Compromising what you do can be very helpful; compromising what you value may be the least helpful of all responses.
- http://japan.coop.apsc.ubc.ca/students/culturecommunication.php