You can vote however you like!

Thanks to Hannah for finding this awesome video from the students of the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta.

Message: GO VOTE! If for anything, do it for the kids.

Happy October

Yes, it is my birthday, and yes, my recent time has been consumed by Spore and studying for the final exam in Molecular and Cellular Basis of Medicine, which means studying lots of complex enzymes, pathways, and acronyms while using a computer game to create and evolve creatures in complete contradiction to the rules of nature and molecular and cellular biology. Ironic? Probably.

On the plus side, I am heading to New York this weekend!

No, I am not trying to neglect the blog--I am trying to write content that is useful and memorable. Some entries in the works that may or may not come to fruition:

• Docs on the Interwebs
• Death and All His Friends
• MFO's
• Healthcare for All
• The Origin of Weird Disease Names

Achieving your Childhood Dreams

While avoiding the tropical storm this weekend, I was cruising on iTunes U and found a video that I had heard/read about that is a lecture given by Randy Pausch, a professor from Carnegie Mellon University. Not giving away many details, he is young but terminally ill with pancreatic cancer, and his lecture recounts his own childhood dreams and how they came to fruition during his short life. Describing it like that, I feel that it may come across as sad and/or vain, but in fact the lecture is humorous and insightful, humane and relevant.

As a student myself on the cusp of a new future, I find it inspiring to hear about his experiences about finding his passion and making a palpable difference. I hope that you'll take the 75 minutes or so to watch it in its entirety.




As a postscript, this lecture was given almost exactly a year ago on September 17, 2007. Dr. Pausch passed away in July 2008. Also, not to plug Apple too much, but iTunes U is a gigantic collection of free lectures and documentaries from universities and institutions around the world. You can get to it directly from a link on the regular iTunes page. Check it out.

Song for the Salmon

Vancouver Island

I don't much like to dissect poetry, but here is a poem that we were presented with on our last day of orientation. I hope that all of you who are embarking (or traversing already) the great journey of post-undergraduate life find some comfort and inspiration here.

Song For the Salmon
By David Whyte

For too many nights now I have not written of the sea,
Nor the rivers, nor the shifting currents
We find between the islands.

For too many night now I have not imagined the salmon
Threading the dark streams of reflected stars,
Nor have I dreamt of his longing
Nor the lithe swing of his tail toward dawn.

I have not given myself to the depth to which he goes,
To the cargoes of crystal water, cold with salt,
Nor the enormous plains of ocean swaying beneath the moon.

I have not felt the lifted arms of the ocean
Opening its white hands on the seashore,
Nor the salted wind, whole and healthy
Filling the chest with living air.

I have not heard those waves
Fallen out of heaven onto earth,
Nor the tumult of sound and the satisfaction
Of a thousand miles of ocean
Giving up its strength on the sand.

But now I have spoken of that great sea,
The ocean of longing shifts through me,
The blessed inner star of navigation
Moves in the dark sky above
And I am ready like the young salmon
To leave his river, blessed with hunger
For a great journey on the drawing tide.

What is an RSS feed?

One of the best ways I have found to stay up-to-date with news and website, and blogs is through the use of RSS feeds. Feeds work like an email inbox that becomes filled with news items from websites to which you subscribe. Websites where this feature is available are denoted by the orange icon pictured either on the site itself or in the address bar of your internet browser. Subscribing can be as easy as clicking on the orange icon.

In order to receive these updates, you do need to use a program that checks and displays the feeds. It can be built into your browser (Firefox and Safari) or you can use Google Reader (which is my preference). The best thing about RSS feeds is that you no longer need to continually check websites and blogs for updates, and you can easily share interesting articles like I have in the "Scut List" in the right sidebar.

Some of my favorite RSS feeds:

• Facebook:
  http://www.new.facebook.com/help.php?page=23
  
• NY Times (various sections like Health, Science):
  http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.html
  
• Apple Movie Trailers:
  http://www.apple.com/trailers/
• The Lancet (A British Medical and Public Health Journal, requires free registration):
  http://www.thelancet.com/rss

Curious to learn more? Wikipedia is always a good place to continue, and don't forget to subscribe to my own blog :)

Happy Reading!