Tropical breakfast

Somebody shoot me. Yesterday was a full 24 hours of travel with nothing but intermittent naps, and of course I wake up this morning at my usual time of 6am after only 3 hours of sleep. And I seem to have acquired a chest cold. Or pneumonia. Or Ecuadorian Lung Rot, or something. I’m hoping that at some imminent time point, after I’ve taken care of a few chores, my physiology will allow me to get some sleep.

Until then, let’s look back in time, to a morning a whole week ago, when I would regularly awaken to a whole grand morning feast of exotic tropical fruits, and I’d feel like eating them all. This is my taste test of a granadillo, a weird fruit with a horrible color (gray) and an unappetizing texture (watery mucus) and a fine sweet flavor.

O PZ of times past, who could awaken in fine fettle and a zest for adventure, please reincarnate in this body soon.

Usher syndrome, part III: the plot thickens

Guest Blogger Danio:

The time has come to delve into the retinal component of Usher syndrome. In Part II, I briefly described the results of protein localization studies, in which most members of the Usher cohort were found at the connecting cilium of the photoreceptor and at the photoreceptor synapse. The following diagram summarizes these findings:

i-f557da3d7b1e6a28ff9f4af66e859d95-reiners06prcschematic.jpg
Usher protein localization in photoreceptor cells. From Reiners, et al. 2006

So, as we saw in the ear, proteins with the equipment for physically interacting with one another are gathering in specific places, and thus multi-protein complexes are likely being formed at these locations. The cluster of Usher proteins around the connecting cilium has been the focus of most of the current retinal studies, and to understand the potential importance of an Usher complex at that subcellular location we must address the importance of the connecting cilium itself.
[Read more…]

An ‘atheist rock’ genre?

I got a request from a reader that I’ll just pass on directly to any musically-inclined readers here…

Any chance Pharyngula readers can help? I have been writing and posting songs under the band name Natural Wastage on Soundclick.com (a sort of music version of myspace/facebook, I guess) for a while, and whilst re-installing some songs last month, I was struck by the number of Christian related genres available. Therefore, in mid July I emailed Soundclick and asked

“Looking through the categories I note that while there is Christian Rock, Country and Rap, Contemporary Christian pop and Pop and Urban Gospel, there is no category for atheist music. Can I ask you, initially, to create ‘Atheist Rock’ as a sub-genre of Rock. This is the category that most of my recent and current music writing falls into”. The reply was I got was

“At this time there has not been enough requests for this genre to be added, so we will not be adding it. Thank you for your suggestion though.”
Best Regards,
Ally Byrd
SoundClick Staff
[email protected]

What I’d like to ask is whether there are any song writers or performers reading Pharyngula who feel as I do, and if so, would they be prepared to contact Soundclick with a request that they add an Atheist Rock, or Atheist Folk, or whatever, to their list of genres. Please note that I would NOT suggest a blanket, mass emailing by large numbers of people UNLESS, AND ONLY IF they are genuinely prompted by an individual unfulfilled, unrequited need to listen to, or write for, these particular genres. There is absolutely NO reason to suppose Sounclick’s response is anything but honest. So let’s be honest ourselves.

Hmmm. I can think of a few bands with an atheist sensibility (maybe readers can name more here!), but most of their music, with some exceptions, simply doesn’t say anything about gods or jebus or magic spirits dwelling in the trees or whatever. There probably is a dearth of explicitly atheist songs because most are about real subjects, rather than not-real subjects…and you can’t just say that any song that doesn’t mention a god is an atheist song, or you’d have to call the Beach Boys an atheist band.

But hey, maybe there’s a thriving genre out there that I’m missing. If so, let us know about it and try to show Soundclick the light.

I didn’t do it!

Although I was actually in Guayaquil the day before brave heroes despoiled another cracker&hellip:

In response to criticisms by the nation’s Catholic bishops regarding pro-abortion and anti-family language in Ecuador’s new proposed Constitution, a group of people entered a chapel in Guayaquil, grabbed the Eucharistic host that was exposed for adoration, tore it apart, spat on it, and stepped on it, according to ACI Prensa.

…I was actually a thousand kilometers away on the island of Santa Cruz when the action went down. Clenched fist salute, anyway!

Note that the quote is from the crazy anti-choice site, LifeSite, and that the “anti-family language” is actually pro-family planning language, and is a generally good thing unless you you’ve been infected with a fanatical hatred of contraception and abortion by a nominally celibate man in a dress.

Party in Oklahoma!

All sensible people want to get rid of the shrill kook and raging homophobe Sally Kern from the Oklahoma government — and she has some competition in the coming election. Get out there and party with Ron Marlett at the end of this month, and raise a little money for his campaign!

From Ron Marlett, Democratic candidate

to remove Sally Kern from the public payroll

Dear Friends,

I wanted to let you all know of the “Rock Your Freedom” concert and rally we have scheduled for Saturday, August 30th from noon to whenever the last band hits its last power chord. It will be held at Eldon Lyon Park which is just west of Rockwell Avenue on NW 36th.

For friends living outside of Oklahoma, I offer an opportunity to experience famous Oklahoma hospitiality. Bring sun shade, lawn chairs and kick back and celebrate the freedom of music. We’ll also be raisng our voices to let Sally Kern know that her brand of neo-conservative tyranny will no longer be the rule of this state.

Hope to see you there,

Ron Marlett

If you can’t attend secure contributions can be made from Ron Marlett’s web site. Look for the blue button in the upper right corner. Posted and expanded by Jim Nimmo on his own initiative.

Take me back to the Galapagos

I’ve been gone for 11 days now, and I’m not having a happy re-entry. Trying to get out of Quito this morning was a nightmare — we were up at 3:30am to catch a 4:00am shuttle to the airport for a 6:30am flight, and in order to leave Ecuador they make you stand in line for over 2 hours. Do the math, and you’ll note that we barely made it. Then our destination was Miami. There’s some storm on the way here, the airport is packed with people trying to flee, and our flight is not until 8:30pm…so we’re just stuck in an airport concourse all day, hoping our flight will get us out of here tonight.

I made the mistake of actually looking at the news last night before going to sleep. What? John Edwards imploded over yet another peccadillo that is no business to the electorate? And worse, Obama pandered to the religious lunatics by groveling before the vapid and cheerfully toxic RIck Warren of the Saddleback Church? I saw a few clips of that sorry spectacle, and once again Obama is making me regret having to vote for him this year. Please, please, let’s not ever nominate a spineless quisling to run for the presidency, OK? At least Barry Lynn offers exactly the right criticism of this move, which cheered me a little bit.

Maybe Lynn should run in the next election…

Anyway, I’m ready to go back to the islands with virtually no internet connection and limited news access.