Nerdy Science Blog

I just saw this video clip from Mashable featuring humorist John Hodgman giving a speech during the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner. John Hodgman analyze the difference between jocks, nerds, and geeks. Vulcan salute!

Frankly, I love looking at horoscope and Chinese zodiac.  Although they don’t have any proof and illogical, you can’t deny they are really entertaining.  Recently I found that another useful way of using Chinese zodiac to know the age of others.  Like horoscope, Chinese zodiac has twelve signs.  Unlike horoscope, each sign in Chinese zodiac is one year but not month.  Everyone born at different year has different sign and each cycle is twelve years.  So as long as you know the zodiac sign of another person, you can know exactly how old one.  It’s a maths thing.

My Chinese zodiac is Rabbit.  According to Chinese Astrology Online, below is my fortune for 2009.

Rabbit people have a Moon Star connected with business in 2009. Therefore the career development of Rabbit people will be solid, stable, but limited in the Cow year. A Love Star also appears in the same time. That’s a good sign for Rabbit people who already have long-term love relationship with their companions or partners. However, many Unlucky Stars are coming around and only a couples of lucky stars show in 2009. That means Rabbit people cannot get too much help from friends, relatives or supporters. Under the circumstances, Rabbit people will easily get sick this year. They need to pay attention on their health. They need energy to stay alert and focus on the issue. The health is the important factor for them to face the coming challenge in the year of the Cow.

Career: Since no strong Lucky Star, you will get less supporting in your job position. You will encounter the trouble and spend more times to finish tasks. Therefore you don’t credits in the job performance. But you still need to work hard, stay focus, pay attention on your words or behavior. Otherwise, your mistake might cause to be scolding or punishing, even get a lawsuit. Therefore, you need to keep your profile low and avoid argument with others in the company. Then you will be safe in your career future.

Money: Because of the troubles and obstacles in career, you don’t expect you will have good achievement in money area. You should be happy, if you can reach the same financial goal as in 2008. Because there is no Lucky Money Star coming to you, you must not do the risky investment or gambling. Don’t be greedy in the short term return, you will lose all and regret in the end.

Love: If you are married, you might have some quarrel with your spouse about your children or family expense. If you are in love, you will spend less time with your lover. Unless you and your lover have been together for many years, your relationship might be turn cold after some disagreement. If you are single, you have the chance to meet the new friend, but the relationship won’t last too long.

Health: Many Unlucky Stars are unfavorable to your health and your family members. You should pay more attention not only on your health, but also on the the seniors in your family. You need to prevent yourself from not only getting sick, but also get injury at work and at home.

Fortune: The luck of Rabbit people in the year of Cow is not that good. So you don’t expect you will have good job performance or good financial return. But you shouldn’t give up, you need to persist your determination, learn the experience and knowledge from the trouble. When your good luck comes, then all career investment will return and the wealth will increase after. Poor health could cause your mental and physical problems. You can spend more time with your family to relax yourself and take care the health of family members. Make sure no one get hurt by any accident in the year 2009.

For your information, Chinese New Year starts on 26th January, 2009.  It’s not Ox year now, but after that.

There is also 2009 Chinese astrology for Barack Obama, the new president of the United States.

Please note astrology is only for entertainment purposes.

Can you imagine Obama in nano size?  I bet you can’t, but it is real.

John Hart. Sameh Tawfick, Michael De Volder and Will Walker used 150 million tiny carbon nanotubes to construct each face.

Original letter of endorsement:

An Open Letter to the American People
September 25, 2008
This year’s presidential election is among the most significant in our nation’s history. The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate change, security, and economic competitiveness.

We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him.

During the administration of George W. Bush, vital parts of our country’s scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government’s scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations. As a result, our once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk. We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy.

We have watched Senator Obama’s approach to these issues with admiration. We especially applaud his emphasis during the campaign on the power of science and technology to enhance our nation’s competitiveness. In particular, we support the measures he plans to take – through new initiatives in education and training, expanded research funding, an unbiased process for obtaining scientific advice, and an appropriate balance of basic and applied research – to meet the nation’s and the world’s most urgent needs.

Senator Obama understands that Presidential leadership and federal investments in science and technology are crucial elements in successful governance of the world’s leading country. We hope you will join us as we work together to ensure his election in November.

Signed,

Alexei Abrikosov Physics 2003
Roger Guillemin Medicine 1977
Peter Agre Chemistry 2003
John L. Hall Physics 2005
Sidney Altman Chemistry 1989
Leland H. Hartwell Medicine 2001
Philip W. Anderson Physics 1977
Dudley Herschbach Chemistry 1986
Richard Axel Medicine 2004
Roald Hoffmann Chemistry 1981
David Baltimore Medicine 1975
H. Robert Horvitz Medicine 2002
Baruj Benacerraf Medicine 1980
Louis Ignarro Medicine 1998
Paul Berg Chemistry 1980
Eric R. Kandel Medicine 2000
J. Michael Bishop Medicine 1989
Walter Kohn Chemistry 1998
N. Bloembergen Physics 1981
Roger Kornberg Chemistry 2006
Michael S. Brown Medicine 1985
Leon M. Lederman Physics 1988
Linda B. Buck Medicine 2004
Craig C. Mello Medicine 2006
Mario R. Capecchi Medicine 2007
Marshall Nirenberg Medicine 1968
Stanley Cohen Medicine 1986
Douglas D. Osheroff Physics 1996
Leon Cooper Physics 1972
Stanley B. Prusiner Medicine 1997
James W. Cronin Physics 1980
Norman F. Ramsey Physics 1989
Robert F. Curl Chemistry 1996
Robert Richardson Physics 1996
Johann Diesenhofer Chemistry 1988
Burton Richter Physics 1976
John B. Fenn Chemistry 2002
Sherwood Rowland Chemistry 1995
Edmond H. Fischer Medicine 1992
Oliver Smithies Medicine 2007
Val Fitch Physics 1980
Richard R Schrock Chemistry 2005
Jerome I. Friedman Physics 1990
Joseph H. Taylor Jr. Physics 1993
Riccardo Giacconi Physics 2002
E. Donnall Thomas Medicine 1990
Walter Gilbert Chemistry 1980
Charles H. Townes Physics 1964
Alfred G. Gilman Medicine 1994
Daniel C.Tsui Physics 1998
Donald A. Glaser Physics 1960 Harold
Varmus Medicine 1989
Sheldon L. Glashow Physics 1979
James D. Watson Medicine 1962
Joseph Goldstein Medicine 1985
Eric Wieschaus Medicine 1995
Paul Greengard Medicine 2000
Frank Wilczek Physics 2004
David Gross Physics 2004 Robert
W. Wilson Physics 1978
Robert H. Grubbs Chemistry 2005

The views expressed in this letter represent those of the signers acting as individual citizens. They do not necessarily represent the views of the institutions with which they are affiliated. The Medicine award is for “Physiology or Medicine.”

Even though James D. Watson said that blacks are genetically dumber than whites, he still support Obama.

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Today is Chinese New Year’s eve. In Chinese culture, family members got to be together on the New Year’s eve.

Tomorrow, which will be 7th February 2008, will be the first day of Chinese calendar. Tomorrow will be Chinese New Year, which is also known as Spring Festival, and it will last for 15 days. Tomorrow is the beginning of the year of rat, and it’s really special. Why is it special? There are twelve Chinese zodiacs, and each zodiac represents one Chinese year. The twelve zodiacs (in order) are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (or goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Rat is the first zodiac among the twelves, which means it’s another new cycle of years (twelve years).

There was a tale explains how the animals sequence were assigned. Once upon a time, there were actually thirteen animals fought over the precedence to be listed in the zodiac list. They argued for a long time but there was no solution of how to determine the order. So the Chinese God thought of a smart-ass way. He held a contest by giving these animals task of getting to the opposite shore on the second day. The order of the zodiacs was given on the first come first basis.

The night before, the cat asked the rat to wake it up in the morning, and the rat promised. On the second day, the ox is the most hardworking animal, but it moved slow. So the ox woke up the earliest, and started his journey to the shore. Then the rat woke up and saw the cat was still sleeping soundly. Due to its selfishness, it decided not to wake up the cat. It started to complete the task as well. On the way to the ending, the rat saw the ox. Then its small brain started thinking, “Hmm… It’s a long way to the ending, why should I spend so much energy just to run to the ending.” The rat then told the ox that he was so tiny, and he wished the ox could gave him a ride. The ox was so kind and he agreed to let the rat climbed on its back since it was so light and tiny. When they came to the ending, the rat quickly jumped over the head of the ox and became the first winner. Pig was listed at the last simply because it was the last in the race. Then the cat woke up late and couldn’t make it to the list of twelve zodiacs. This is why cats hate rats forever.

So if you see any of your Chinese friends, please say “Gong Xi Fa Cai” to them. That means “congratulates for earning wealth”.

Although I’m not American, I would like to see Barack Obama wins the Decromats presidential election. Everywhere in the world (except in United States) would like to see Obama win the election. Reason? He looks like a president. Hillary Clinton looks like a robot, talks like a robot, and acts like a robot.

p/s Be gentle to your lab rats in 2008.

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