Academic Lab Safety

I love research.


Hmm, the blog has been getting dusty. I'll see about keeping it updated a bit more frequently, eh?

I'm a sucker for accordions

Anyone know of the group The Animators?

I recently ran into this video of theirs, and I was oddly captivated. Kinda reminiscent of Radiohead - but with an accordion. I'm curious if anyone else has listened to their stuff. Should I buy an album, or were they only moderately good?

Wow, now we're getting serious

So, as some of my readers may know, my girlfriend and I have been dating for a couple of years now. Much of this time has been long distance, and we've spent quite a ridiculous amount of cell phone minutes (all thankfully free, as we have the same carrier).

Recently, we realized that we both (a) need new phones, (b) are almost done with our mandatory 2-year plans, and (c) might save some money by purchasing a 'family' plan. Amusingly, though, we've both been a little bit nervous about going ahead with this. After all, sharing a cell plan is commitment.

I find it interesting how the world's standards of relationship status have changed so quickly. Are you dating on facebook? Do you share passwords? How often do you text each other? But sharing a cell plan... well, that's practically marriage.

We actually don't know if it's worth it monetarily to do so, but I just find it amusing that the idea gave us so much pause.

My fame precedes me

I'm finally back from studying from my oral qualifiers, and I'll inaugurate resumed blogging with a guest column over at To Whom It May Concern, one of the most amusing blogs I read.

Enjoy! And now when you read my blog, you'll be reading from a PhD Candidate instead of a mere PhD student. Can't you tell the difference?

Just call me Jack Bauer

Have you ever had a dream that was incredibly detailed and recurrent? I've had one off and on for some time... it comes when I least expect it, leaves me incredibly confused as to the details and logic thereof, and every time I have the strongest feeling of deja vu.

What bothers me, though, is that I haven't a clue about whether this dream actually is one that repeats itself, or whether I just think so. The details of the dream fade with wakefulness, and leave me wondering if I just imagined everything.

Well, that, and that I spend the entire dream trying to save the world from some horrible but unspecified calamity. That's pretty weird for someone who spends his life as a student researcher, not an action hero.

*scratches head* Makes you wonder about memory and perception. If I think something has happened before, does that mean that I'm remembering it, or my brain is just playing tricks on me? Confusing. So, a challenge: has anyone run across any credible research (anything from cognitive science to neurology to engineering) that can actually prove whether we are remembering things or just thinking we're remembering them? I imagine it's possible, at least with some sort of fMRI... but I don't know. I recall that deja vu has been attributed to one part of the brain, but is this also tied into recall?

Hmm. Things like this make me curious.

They almost had me fooled. Actually, no, they didn't.

I posted a few months back about my opinions on Israeli 'confidence building measures' toward the PA in the light of its intransigence, continued support of terrorism, etc... and the utter illogicality of rewarding Palestinian misbehavior with further concessions. These included $100 million in withheld tax revenue that Israel transferred to Abbas a few months ago, despite the presence of a terrorist group in charge of the PA government and little knowledge of how it would be spent other than vague 'humanitarian' arguments.

Now Ha'aretz reports that it went to pay the salaries of terrorists.

Hamas: Our forces paid from tax revenue transferred by Israel
By Reuters

A Hamas source said Tuesday that part of the $100 million in tax revenues transferred by Israel to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas went to pay security services, including members of a Hamas-led force.

"The [Hamas] Executive Force was a part of the security services which received part of their salaries, just like the other forces," the source said.

During his meeting with Abbas on Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked him to account for how the revenues had been spent.

Israel opposed using the money to pay salaries, particularly to members of Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, government officials said.
...
"This flies in the face on what was agreed upon," said an Israeli government official.

Under U.S. pressure, Israel transferred the $100 million to Abbas's office in January.

Israeli officials said at the time that the money would be earmarked for humanitarian needs and programs to strengthen Abbas's guard, and not to pay salaries.
...
Western powers have also frozen direct aid to the Hamas-led government, conditioning a resumption of funds on recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and an agreement to abide by previous peace deals. Hamas has rejected these terms.

I rest my case.

Comic books are for dorks

Webcomics, on the other hand...*

So, you have a friend who's always raving about how awesome the comic(s) she reads are. Maybe she makes obscure jokes that have her cracking up while everyone else is just kind of smiling and nodding? Have no fear, wiggin is here to give you recommendations of the all-time best webcomics out there. I'm not going to give you a list of every one I read, just the ones that are consistently worthwhile. You, too, can make hilarious obscure jokes that leave your compatriots in the dark.

In no particular order, because they're all so awesome (WARNING: most of these include naughty words. Put more precisely, they are incredibly crude. If you are easily offended (which, given that you read my blog, isn't bloody likely), get off the internet and read something wholesome):

XKCD

This guy, with pencil-drawn stick figures, is more amusing than a barrelful of monkeys being delivered to Martha Stewart's door. (I need to work on my analogies.) In fact, he is so good to have caused the capitulation of another amazing webcomic out of sheer admiration. The author is a physicist who used to work for NASA, and now makes crude drawings and math jokes for a living.

What draws me most to his work is that he's so unabashedly a dork yet at the same time amazingly clever with minimal illustration and text. His mouse-over text for each comic are always worth the look.

A selection of his best work:
Pi Equals, Angular Momentum, Pillow Talk, Kepler, Valentine Heart (I thought about trying this on my girlfriend; a story for another time), Science (look up the COBE mission and this year's Nobel in Physics if you don't get it), and more. The archives are so full of goodness. I can't recommend this comic enough.

Penny Arcade

This is a comic that XKCD is in awe of (albeit kinda creepily). It is the Godfather of comics, garnering hideous amounts of traffic every day, and probably the most successful financially. It's a gaming comic, so many of the jokes go over my head (though if you read through Tycho's news post, you'll get an idea of what they're getting at)... nonetheless, it's beyond hilarious. They've gotten a lot more sophisticated over the years, both in terms of artwork and writing... but it's still worth it to go through the archives.

Best PA comic ever? This one. You can't buy that kind of humor.

Something Positive

This comic is beyond wrong. It takes 'evil sense of humor' to new levels. The Devil probably takes notes from Randy's comic. Nonetheless, it is funny beyond belief. Downsides are a somewhat erratic (though fairly regular) update schedule, and the fact that to get half of the plot, you need to start at the beginning. Then again, given this kind of beginning, who could resist reading the rest?

Toothpaste For Dinner

You know what I said about XKCD and stick figures? Well, at least he tries to draw. TFD has the worst 'artwork' I have ever seen... but he manages to pack a nice punch into his single-panel strips. Because he has a strict daily schedule, some of his jokes are less than worth it... but there are enough gems like this one to keep me coming back.

Questionable Content

This, like SP, is unusual to my tastes, as it actually has a plot, and is remarkably drama-ish. Nonetheless, the jokes are great: just this past Valentine's Day, he had a comic on necrophilia and having sex with comatose ICU patients. Now that's romance. This comic would be of particular interest to any people who are into music (particularly of the indie variety), but it's worth it for everyone. If nothing else, the protagonist has a violent and amoral pet robot; what could be better? Rarely does the drama interfere with the jokes. I can't really choose one 'representative' strip that makes it awesome, but feel free to post your own favorites.

Bunny

This is the comic that I previously said has capitulated to XKCD, which shows his excellent taste, if nothing else. The comics are generally fairly esoteric, and about a third of the time, I don't spend the time to get the jokes... but when I do know what he's talking about, it's definitely worth it. One of my favorites is buried deep in his archies: Giant Moon Laser. Give it a look!

A Softer World

I've been saving this for a strong finish. A Softer World is incredibly clever. It's a collaboration between a photographer and a writer; each comic is three panels of photographs with pseudo-types words overlaid. The humor is generally summed up in the third panel, at sharp contrast to the pictures or the previous wording. The mouseovers are an important bit to read, too.

Best comic? This one. Best T-shirt? "When I play doctor, I play to win."

So there you have it. The all-time best comics I've read. Any other suggestions are welcome, but if it's famous I probably read it or have tried it. Happy reading!

* Yes, yes, I know, comic books are the new cool thing, and 'graphic novels' are art, blah blah blah. I just never found them worthwhile. Nonetheless, I'm aware that perfectly cool people read comic books. I mean, some of my best friends read comic books. Heh.

Death tolls, civil wars, and stability

I apologize for my relative lack of posting in the last month; I've got quite a number of ideas that should be posted over the next few weeks, time permitting.

I'd like to discuss the ongoing civil war between Fatah and Hamas, occurring mainly in the Gaza Strip. For the last month, I've been following the stories about Fatah-Hamas ceasefires that last for hours, about endless unity government talks that go nowhere, and about the general escalation of violence between the two sides: kidnappings, assassinations, ambushes, overrunning enemy posts, weapons buildup, etc. It is clear to me that no amount of Egyptian mediation or Israeli restraint is going to settle these issues; Fatah and Hamas are going to keep duking it out in the absence of a serious external threat (Israel has wisely refrained from Gaza operations). One of the two will eventually establish a sort of control (though a bloody one), and that will be that. Hamas has greater strength in Gaza (and is being bankrolled much more effectively by Iran), but Fatah has overall numbers, the aura of Western legitimacy, etc.

What struck me, though, was that the world doesn't seem to care much about Palestinian casualties when they're doing it to themselves. Oh, the papers mention it, but over twenty people were just killed (including 4bona fide kids) in about 36 hours, just days after the beginning of a 'cease fire' (clearly, they are using the Palestinian definition of a cease fire). In the past year, 660 Palestinians died due to Israeli action (roughly; the figures are somewhat disputed). That means for ALL of the territories, this averages to less than two fatalities per day.

These fatalities are reported on endlessly and with a great deal of fanfare - and justifiably so, that's a fairly high level of 'background' violence, even including the Gaza offensive after the Shalit abduction in June. Yet when the Palestinians are killing each other at a rate five times that (and the last 36 hours is hardly unique; every time the cease fire fails, violence like this breaks out), it seems like most of the world doesn't care. (I find the contrast striking, though, as Israeli weapons and training are far more sophisticated than Palestinian ones. It suggests that Israeli violence against Palestinians is highly restrained and focused, despite the unfortunate levels of unwanted casualties.)

To be honest, I understand - I don't really care, either. I find this troubling. Yes, I understand that both Fatah and Hamas are full of nasty pieces of work, and I'd prefer they be killing each other (and that it's them killing their own civilians, and not us) rather than aiming at Israel. Yet I still find it troubling. Don't the residents of Gaza deserve some peace and quiet? When they support terrorist attacks on Israel, they will unfortunately bear some of the burden for the response. But this is just ridiculous.

Does this violence somehow presage what a new Palestinian state will look like? Let's
imagine that Israel does pull out most of the West Bank and establishes a land swap/etc. for the rest. They'll remove their control of the Palestinian borders, and recognize Palestinian sovereignty. Does this mean that Palestinian suffering will end?

I think not. I think the state will fall apart in internecine strife between religious and nationalist elements; I think this will eventually lead to the nuts (ie Islamic Jihad, parts of Hamas, etc.) being able to successfully carry out terrorist attacks on Israel, necessitating a Palestinian-Israeli war (rather than an internal conflict, which has been the case until now).

So, for this post, I challenge you to suggest how to establish Palestinian stability and peace. Let's ignore the issue of Israeli security for now; assuming that is assured, how can the Palestinians make a government that will make their lives better?

I'm at a loss on this one.

Haikus for the researcher

the lab is empty
machines humming quietly
today I can work

negative results
they say the data is right
fuck you too, liars

Come up with your own!

Tikkunim revisited

I've noticed a number of people have come to my site looking for recommendations for a good tikkun, due to my previous post some months ago in search of one myself.

I have since looked at a ridiculous number of tikkunim in my search for the 'best' (quite subjectively, based on my criteria mentioned in the previous post). I ended up buying one, and will probably buy three more to round out my collection.

Thus, my official recommendations:

1) "Tikkun Kor'im Hameduyak" from the Ish Matzliach, published by "Machon HaRav Mazliach". This is the tikkun I use for most of my preparation.

Pluses:
- It's very large (a plus for when I'm tired and my eyes aren't focusing well)
- Very clear typesetting; the font is quite readable, words are well-spaced, and nikkud and te'amim are distinct and carefully placed.
- The text seems to be fairly good. It differs in some places from the Koren edition, but in those cases almost always agrees with Breuer.
- There is very little 'clutter'. A few abnormal notes or bits of nikkud are carefully footnoted (generally 1-3 per page), but other than that there are *no* extraneous marks... IMHO, a great plus over the Tikkun Simanim. The footnotes also give a few leyning tips - generally when a commentator specifies that it should be read with a conscious pause to emphasize the correct meaning (most of the time being in line with the te'amim).
- Abnormal syllables are marked (ie, mil'ra when one would have expected mil'eil or vice versa). The mark is inline with the right-hand text (as are k'ri/k'tiv differences), which seems confusing but one quickly adapts to.
- Shva nah/nach are labelled, as are kamatz katan/gadol and dagesh kal/dagesh chazak. The symbols are fairly intuitive and relatively subtle, so a quick reading can ignore the differences and focus on the words.
- Weekday aliyot are marked.
- There are short overviews of hilchot k'riat hatorah, hilchot sefer torah (ie when to tell if a word is pasul or not), and k'lalei hadikduk. The text is fairly clear, though could use a few more figures.

Minuses:
- It's a Sefaradi tikkun, so aliyah breaks can sometimes be a little bit skewed from an Ashkenazi tradition. Sometimes this is marked in a footnote; other times it is not. Haftarot have both Sefaradi and Ashkenazi versions, however, so all one needs to do is check the aliyah length to confirm it matches with one's tradition.
- The tikkun only has Megillat Esther and no other megillot.
- Haftarah sections only have one column; this can be an issue if one is learning to leyn from a scroll.
- It's awfully big, which can be a pain to lug around and keep on the bimah. (Yes, I also listed this as a plus. So sue me.)


2) "Tikkun Simanim", the most popular tikkun in use today. I only looked carefully at the Ashkenazi version, but the Sefaradi version seems to be comparable, with only minor differences. I don't own this yet (though I have bought it for another leyner), but expect I'll buy it relatively soon and keep it as a reference, perhaps as one run through to check everything.

Pluses:
- It's got every possible bell and whistle - every bit of nikkud is marked, weird te'amim/pronunciations are footnoted some ridiculously number of different ways, and they even have little marks for parallel structure to make learning easier.
- Importantly, it has the Minchat Shai along the side, which is one of the major authorities on differing manuscripts and the 'correct' masoretic version. Generally, the tikkun follows the Minchat Shai.
- It comes in three different sizes, which is nice as it allows one to prepare with a larger size, but to bring the smaller one along for shul or traveling.
- All five megillot are there (IIRC), and haftarot have two columns (again, IIRC, I don't have it in front of me; I'll edit it if this is incorrect)
- There's a very nice introduction to nikkud and te'amim with lots of examples and figures.
- Nice, but occasionally annoying: it differentiates between things like Pashta and Kadma (even though anyone who looks at the word should be able to tell) and between P'sik and Munach l'garmeh (useful, though again not too exciting).

Minuses:
- The page is too busy. There's footnotes, random other pronunciation guides, etc. all over the page.
- This was the killer for me: On the left hand side are 'shaded' phrases that show parallel structure, with footnotes to explanations on how best to learn the section. It may be useful for some people, but when I want to learn on the left-hand side, I want it to look exactly like in the scroll... and not with any helpful hints.
- Because of all of the information crammed into each page, the typeset is fairly small, which can be a pain in poor lighting or when one is tired.

In short: it's the most complete tikkun out there, and it's a great reference book, but not one I would use for the bulk of my preparation.

3) The Tikkun put out by the Koren chaps. I won't give pluses or minuses for this, but just discuss it. As most of my readers who have gotten this far in the post will know, the Koren edition of the Tanach was for a long time the authoritative version, and it is still a highly respected edition. They put out a fairly frill-free Tanach that has a few nice features - the tikkun shows places where one can break for extra aliyot (or where one shouldn't), and has a very large, clearly readable typeset. The version I saw was not in the classical column format of most tikkunim, but I believe there is one out there that looks more 'tikkun-like'. One other complaint: the version I saw only had Megillat Esther, and not other megillot.

In short, it's a good idea to practice against the Koren edition at least once in prepping for a parsha, so it's a useful tikkun to have, but nowhere near essential if one has other copies of the Koren. The aliyah break suggestions are a nice touch, though.

4) This last tikkun is one I have only seen once and am planning on buying as soon as I can get my grubby paws on another copy. It was a tikkun put out by the Choreiv (Horeb) publishers, using the Breuer edition of the Tanach, based directly off of the Keter Aram Tzova/Aleppo Codex (those parts that survived). This text has IMHO superceded the Koren text as the authoritative Masoretic text, and I also try to use the Breuer Tanach in resolving differences between texts. Most of the differences are fairly minor (stuff like shvas vs. t'nuot chatufot), but I wouldn't be a leyner if I wasn't anal retentive.

It was an odd edition - very thick but kind of short. Facing pages corresponded to the 'marked' and 'unmarked' columns of a typical tikkun. IIRC, it only had Megillat Esther, and had next to no other marking/help that characterize the Ish Matzliach and Simanim tikkunim. The column format is nice in that if the scroll one is reading from has an unusual format (some do), the Breuer will prepare one very well for switching column formats without a hitch.

When I find this tikkun, I plan on using it as my 'bimah' tikkun. The typeset is large, there are *no* confusing extraneous marks, and the text is the best out there. I will probably prep with the Ish Matzliach, use the Simanim to look up specific words and phrases, and run through once with the Breuer to confirm all of my words are correct. The Koren will be pulled out for leyning at big simchahs where you've got half a dozen extra aliyot to squeeze in, or to adjudicate disputes between Tikkunim (in addition to the Breuer).

So, there you have it: my recommendations as a nearly professional leyner. I'd recommend that beginners get the Simanim tikkun just because it really holds your hand for everything... though you should make sure to do at least some prep with another tikkun! More advanced leyners should use the Ish Matzliach in conjuction with Breuer's (if you can find it).

I'm welcome any thoughts that visitors have on other tikkunim they use. I looked at another half-dozen or so, but these were the ones I felt were the best out there.

Enjoy, and happy leyning!

Oh, by the way. People who are looking to find copies of Rav Breuer's "Ta'amei Hamikra Bekaf-aleph Sefarim Uv'sifrei Eme"t" are going to have some trouble. My girlfriend's family scoured bookstores in Israel for days before they found one old copy buried somewhere. My advice would be to find a leyner who has it and borrow the book - either that, or get a kick-ass girlfriend. I'll try to write a review after I complete it to let you know if there's any information there that you can't find elsewhere. I certainly consider Breuer the authority regarding this kind of thing. Good luck!

Alternatively, the Simanim people put out a book called 'Tuv Ta'am' which seems to have a lot of the basic information. I plan on buying it sometime, but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's probably a good replacement for Breuer's book, though not straight from the horse's mouth.