The Four-eyed Journal

I know the movie Patch Adams was first released in 1998. But it has become one of my most favorite movies of all time. Since my creative juices were drowned by dumplings and vodka while waiting for the break of the New Year, I spent the last hours of 2007 watching this Robin Williams classic [...]

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Despite the pricey ink cartridges, I am a solid HP fan. Their printers are among the best in terms of print quality, if not printer reliability. In terms of usability, HP printers are also among the easiest to setup, install and use. HP printers may have been the subject of criticism because of the health hazards [...]

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Personalized DNA? You can bet a monkey’s butt on it. Which is not really surprising when one would consider that we humans are among the most dispersed organisms in the planet. We inhabit almost every terrain on Earth and continue to expand our territories, often with harmful effects to other species. This also justifies the difference between ethnic groups and help us understand how they adapted to their specific environments; e.g. Why Asians have a smaller body build compared to their European cousins and why our African brothers are more resistant to HIV infections compared to our South American cousins and so forth.

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I bravely answered with a matching facial expression, "Growing old and all wrinkled up." We all broke out into laughter and when the laughing subsided, everyone listened in to hear the second half of my answer. "Growing really old quite scares me because I'll loose my hair, teeth and my skin would shrivel like a raisin or a loose bag or something. Looking at my grandparents today, I wouldn't want to end up looking exactly like them." Laughters resume coupled with a few cheers and jokes. I quickly quipped to wrap up my turn with a punch line. "Besides, I want look good and young when I get buried."

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As I scratch my nose in between the keystrokes of writing this piece, memories and thoughts about noses run through my mind. (Qui-Gon Jinn was right, "your focus determines your reality".) I remember a classmate of mine back in my freshman highschool days who was brave (foolish really) enough to stand up and get himself into a brawl with a senior. Things got ugly, his face, rather his nose got really ugly. It recieved a kick from the senior he picked a tussle with and the result was a broken, nearly deformed nasal bridge, preceeded by massive bleeding of course. He was rushed to the hospital and was discharged after a few stiches. He fully recovered but not the shape of his nose. It stands out and simply attracts quite an attention from anyone who happens to sees it. To illustrate what I am driving at, one must simply look at Owen Wilson's nose and I'm sure you'll get the picture.

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Because of the huge number of PCs in the world, volunteer computing can (and does) supply more computing power to science than does any other type of computing. This computing power enables scientific research that could not be done otherwise. This advantage will increase over time, because the laws of economics dictate that consumer electronics (PCs and game consoles) will advance faster than more specialized products, and that there will simply be more of them. Volunteer computing power can’t be bought; it must be earned. A research project that has limited funding but large public appeal (such as SETI@home) can get huge computing power. In contrast, traditional supercomputers are extremely expensive, and are available only for applications that can afford them (for example, nuclear weapon design and espionage). Volunteer computing encourages public interest in science, and provides the public with voice in determining the directions of scientific research.

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They used pregnant lab mice and exposed the embryos, or baby mice inside, to high doses of ultrasound at long periods of time. The results were quite disturbing as it turned out that the ultrasound had disrupted the embryo’s brain development and caused some abnormalities. More studies are needed to confirm or know if the same thing could happen to human embryos. So far, there has been no documented case of using ultrasound as having bad effects on human embryos. Still, the study is just a reminder that every medical tool or technique should be used responsibly and with great care. Meanwhile, the most recent research news I’ve come across about the good medical use of the substance is a study that "Found Nicotine To Protect Against Parkinson’s-like Brain Damage." Don’t rejoice yet and start puffing tobaccos, cigars and cigarettes because smoking is still dangerous to your health as illustrated by Jam in Filipino Health Issues and Problems.

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