Surprise! Scientists lie too.

As you may have heard, the British Medical Journal is publishing an investigative series looking into the 1998 study that originally connected vaccines with autism. On top of the first author Andrew Wakefield being concurrently involved in a lawsuit against vaccine companies (helloooo conflict of interest) there is also evidence of his team completely misrepresenting data in the results. Despite this and the fact that the original publisher retracted the paper last May, the National Autism Association has issued a press release stating that the BMJ investigation is "Yet Another Attempt to Thwart Vaccine Safety Research." So there's that.

Even though I empathize with the confused public (and worried parents), my first reaction is to point out Hey, maybe this is what happens when you listen to A PLAYBOY BUNNY ON OPRAH over SCIENTISTS. But don't worry, my second reaction kicks in quickly enough: if it weren't for certain scientists lying in the first place, this wouldn't even be an issue. Ugh. Moral of the story, kids: Trust no one.
In the immortal words of Michael Crichton:

"Fraud in science is not rare, and it's not limited to fringe players. The most respected researchers and institutions have been caught with faked data. Even Francis Collins, the head of NIH's Human Genome Project, was listed as co-author on five faked papers that had to be withdrawn.

The ultimate lesson is that science isn't special- at least not anymore. Maybe back when Einstein talked to Niels Bohr, and there were only a few dozen important workers in every field. But there are now three million researchers in America. It's no longer a calling, it's a career. Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other. Its practitioners aren't saints, they're human beings, and they do what human beings do- lie, cheat, steal from one another, sue, hide data, fake data, overstate their own importance, and denigrate opposing views unfairly. That's human nature. It isn't going to change."

Well said, my love.
So what can we learn from this ongoing scandal? Every perspective deserves a healthy dose of skepticism. Not to say that conspiracy theories are the only answer. I still wholeheartedly believe that following the standardized procedure of the scientific method is an effective way to observe and speculate on environmental truth. But it's not perfect and never will be.
... womp womp.

Post-script siderant:
Call it a side-effect of too much academia, Wikipedia or I don't know, the pursuit of truth, but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with all these Major. News. Outlets. not including an easy access to references (links go to relevant articles from CNN, USAToday and NPR.org, respectively). Example: How can USA Today even be allowed to write the sentence "The study has long since been debunked and dismissed by the scientific community, which points to 14 independent studies that have failed to find any link between vaccines and autism." without actually citing these 14 studies?! Seriously? Come on, guys. You don't even have to go through the immeasurable trouble it must take you to find a link, just give me plaintext citation--information you should already have-- so that I, the eager-to-be-informed reader can look it up myself. Thanks.


[Top image from here]
[Crichton excerpt lifted from his novel Next / borrowed from an old xanga post,  emphasis mine.]
[GodDAMN I rock at citations. Seriously, every one of these links is useful (except this one). Take that, NEWS]

Come with me if you want to live

The Super n00b Guide to Fixing Your Computer or: Safe Mode is No Way to Live, My Friend

It's no secret that I live life on the edge *wink* . When it comes to the great, dark expanses of the internet I tend to pass my time stomping along the thin line separating safe-but-foolish and well-now-you're-just-being-reckless. Of course given my risky life choices, I've come to terms with the fact that I have to put up with the occasional infection *doublewink*. I don't get them often, and usually the symptoms are easily treated with good ol' system restore back to a safe point. However, for some reason, the last two great meltdowns of my computer have refused me that option. So, I thought I'd put together a little guide for Future Me (and Potential Readers) so that I can remember what to do when the first line of attack fails. Note to all of my computer savvy friends: PLEASE don't hesitate to correct me if (...when) I say something stupid.

The last three or so problems I've had with my computer have been the sudden appearance of "Antivirus" applications insisting that I use them cure my computer of its contracted afflictions. Obviously, do not click or in any way acknowledge these programs. How do you know if it's fake? You should know what security programs you have installed and hopefully a) They know how to properly spell words and b) you can recognize the application on sight (is it bad that I won't trust something completely written in Verdana?) Again, assuming you can't system restore, boot in Safe mode (with networking) and get ready to strike.

First, GOOGLE THAT SHIT. Chances are, there are other people in the world that have been affected by this same virus/spyware/adware/whathaveyou. Which means someone smarter and more capable may have already fixed it. Word. This should go unsaid, but be cautious whose advice you listen to- people telling you to download suspicious software to fix something probably don't have your best interest in mind.

Second, go into msconfig and look through the programs that are starting up with your computer. Disable anything that looks sketchy (within reason). Unfortunately, this became very frustrating for me since the location listed for said sketchtastic files didn't actually exist in my computer (searching with windows explorer OR command prompt). But hey, disable away.

Third, gather your battalions. The champion of this round was Malwarebytes. It was the final, deadly blow to those sneaky trojans. But before that, I used Spybot-Search and Destroy, which also found infected files (possibly other latent problems. You're welcome, Future Me). For whatever reason, this most recent infection rendered Trend Micro, Avast! and AVG completely useless. But multiple lines of attack are always a good idea. So see whatever works for you (Ooo Frittata, that's cure-a-licious!) Though, do note that if you have a lot of pirated software *cough* don't use Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool because uhm... I've heard it does bad things to your entire workflow. And life in general.

Fourth, pester your IT friends. I put this one last because no one likes being "THAT GUY/gal" that everyone turns to for help. But you never know, sometimes they have the human insight that Google lacks (...for now). Start off with "Yes, I have tried turning it on and off again , and here is a detailed explanation of what I have done so far." Then, no matter the result, buy them a beer (I owe you a keg, Mister Kyle, mostly for listening to me complain so much. But also for helping a sistah out.)

There. Hooray for regaining sound! and a resolution better than 800x600! Plus now Me-in-6-Months will have a compilation of fun links to turn to when the self-aware Skynet sends another brigade of trojans to infect my innocent system. That's how you get viruses, right? Definitely not through porn or pirated software. Nope.

Music Festivals, Schmusic Schmestivals

I still can't decide whether to spend my recently-earned kidney-money on Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, or ACL. I even made up an excel document to help me quantify pros and cons, but I'm still torn...

So, as a part of my hourly routine of procrastination (wow, I'm optimistic) I decided to put together my ideal lineups for the three festivals. (PS they're all free) 

Austin City Limits

Lollapalooza

Bonnaroo

Unfortunately, I cannot take all of the credit for the awesomeness of these "wrdlz":

First saw it @thiswebsite, 

got my lastfm info all text-ed up @thiswebsite, 

and had wordle do the rest of the work.

However, I can take all of the credit for the awesomeness in my music taste. haHA!

(My lastfm overall top artist's, 6 month rolling, and this week's music chart, respectively) 

Anyhow, there's always 2010, amirite? Get on it, music fest peeps!

update: yes, I expect Jimi to be there. Somehow.

I did it!

an excerpt from America by Jean Baudrillard 

with completely unrelated linkz

"The slogan of a new form of advertising activity... a pure and empty form , a challenge to ones own self that has replaced the Promethean ecstasy of competition, effort, and success. 

The New York marathon has become a sort of international symbol of such fetishistic performance, of the mania for an empty victory , the joy engendered by a feat that is of no consequence.

I ran the New York marathon: "I did it!"

I conquered Annapurna: "I did it!"

I finally got a Twitter account: "I did it!"

The moon landing is the same kind of thing: "We did it!" The event was ultimately not really so surprising; it was an event pre-programmed into the course of science and progress. We did it. But it has not revived the millenarian dream of conquering space. In a sense, it has exhausted it. 

Carrying out any kind of programme produces the same sense of futility that comes from doing anything merely to prove to yourself that you can do it: having a child, climbing a mountain, making some sexual conquest, committing suicide. 

The marathon is a form of demonstrative suicide, suicide as advertising: it is running to show you are capable of getting every last drop of energy out of yourself, to prove it... to prove what? That you are capable of finishing.  Graffiti carry the same message. They simply say: I'm so-and-so and I exist! They are free publicity for existence.

Do we continually have to prove to ourselves that we exist? A strange sign of weakness, harbinger of a new fanaticism for a faceless performance, endlessly self evident."

Nothing like a good ol' postmodern critique of society to start off your day. 

In other news:

Kanye West gets free fishsticks! @Kanye'sblog

Tricky (of Massive Attack) shares his musical wisdom. @Wired.com

wut up FOOLZ

Fun fact: I was never a big fan of April Fool's as a kid. I wasn't creative enough to think up pranks or prepared enough to carry them out. Usually I'd just end up lying to people- but this isn't as fun or easy as it sounds. It has to be timed perfectly if you want to yell APRILFOOLZ before they burst into tears or punch you in the face, so honestly, it's not even worth the trouble. Thankfully for people like me, when real-life is fail, there's always somewhere to turn. The Internet. Where 4pr1L f00Ls is fucking AWESOME.
So, for anyone who missed the foolery, here's a nice little compilation:


Gmail
Gmail turned 5 years old today, hooray! To celebrate, they released Autopilot an automatic message-answering service powered by their artificial intelligence bot, CADIE (Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity). Apparently, CADIE even has its own blog, so you can feel safe that it sufficiently comprehends human emotions and insight.
edit: damnit, the link is broken now, I'm out looking for a screenshot. WANT PANDAS BACK.
edit2: CADIE HAS A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!!

Google Mobil
Has created Brainsearch, which is basically a way to ctrl+f your brain, you know for when you just can't think of the right ... er... damn I lost it.

Gizmodo:
In honor of the Conficker worm, Gizmodo was taken over virus. Each post was flooded with spam-tastic images and nonsense numbers that perfectly capture the eloquence and artistic expression of typical junk mail. They continued this for the whole day and even sent out an apology message for readers that were annoyed by teh ne3w layoutz.

Lifehacker:
Since we all know how much Microsoft loves Google, Lifehacker posted a code that allows them to unite! Better Windows Live is a Greasemonkey script that reinterprets any Windows Live webpages as the Google counterpart. (Absolutely genius! Too bad I already use Google for everything...)

Team Fortress 2
The Sniper introduced a new weapon- JARATE! First seen in Sniper promo, these jars of pee (karate in a jar!) "wreak havoc on your opponent's mental state, psychological well-being and trust in the inherent goodness of his fellow man." Sweeeeet.

Xbox
Xbox is coming out with a new interactive music game Alpine Legend. One player yodels, the other plays an alphorn. WANT.

FilmDrunk
So apparently, George Clooney and your mom made a porno. Yeah, YOUR mom. (via Variety)


Youtube
To enhance the viewing experience, Youtube flipped its videos. Now people from Australia can finally understand what's going on! Surprisingly, Chemical Brothers videos still hurt your head.

The Guardian
Staying ahead in media distribution, the Guardian will stop printing newspapers and instead publish every story on it's twitter page. After all, "experts say any story can be told in 140 characters." Soon the entire archive will be translated, says journalist/tweeter Rio Palof.

Others I don't feel like writing about:
Wii fit is cute, Google Chrome in 3D, Picasa adds red eye, BMW's Magnetic Tow Technology, Macetech's Stealth CapsLocker...

If you saw some good ones I don't have: leave a comment with the link, your name, bank account number, and mother's maiden name so I can add them to the post!

Let them eat crack.

This week's edition of Mild Obsessions is brought to you by British badass BANKSY:
a somewhat anonymous Graffiti artist from Bristol who specializes in satirical street art and drawing rats. Visit his site for more sTuFf: outdoor stencils, indoor installations, a video, a "gift shop" of downloadable images. Saweeeet.

"Pissing Guard"

"Artiste"

"Media" (My favorite)
"Let them eat crack."
You shouldn't mess with graffiti writers...

And just so it's out there: Houston has a pretty kickass street-art scene as well.
CHECK IT @ Marco From Houston's Flickr

The Sounds of Soulwax

Today's musical obsession: Soulwax.
I know I'm jumping between musical infatuations pretty quickly, but I have a feeling that this one might even last a few days. Maybe even a week. (who knows?!) Not only does this dynamic duo manage to capture everything I love about the electronic, remix/mash-up, and rock genres, they also tend to wear tight black outfits during photoshoots. Definitely a sign we were meant to be.

Remember "E talking" on Erol Alkan's remix album? Yup. That was Soulwax. However, I first noticed them last week during my Justice-binge. Justice remixed Soulwax's NY Excuse, and Soulwax remixed Justice's Phantom Pt. II. (Electronic incest, I love it.)

The best thing about Soulwax is their mastery of such different genres. In the album Any Minute Now (right), they are an alt-rock-indie band who's style is slightly reminiscent of QOTSA, with maybe a bit o' early Beck. (Incidentally, their lead singer sounds like he could have been the lovechild of Josh Homme and Beck. Ohgodthat'shot.) But here is where the personality splits completely... under the name "2 Many DJ's", they made 2 discs of crazy good electro-dance remixes (left). What makes the remix album so extraordinary (beyond the fact that each song is phenomenal) is it's cohesiveness. It isn't just a jumbled compilation of various artists and beats- there are many recurring clips spread throughout the disc connecting the different songs via musical deja vu.

Good stuff.

[Sidenote: Apologies about this post being ALLOVERDAPLACE. This music makes me really excited. That and I drank two cups of coffee this morning to make sure I'd survive the workday. You know, it's one of those days where you spend more time at work than you did sleeping in your own bed the night before (oh wait, that's every night... NEED MOAR coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee)]



SeeqPod - Playable Search
Seeqpod Tracklist
Originals: E talking, Compute, Miserable Girl,
ReMiXeS: E talking (Soulwax remix), Miserable Girl (Soulwax Remix), LCD System- Daft Punk is Playing at My House (Soulwax remix), Muse- Muscle Museum (Soulwax remix), The Gossip- Standing in the Way of Control (Soulwax Remix)

Intro... AIRPLANE!... Campus Tour... Strobe lights, Samurai Swords, Alcoholic Piñatas... and assorted asides

DAY ONE

.
So I know you've been wondering why.
Why California? Why now? Oh dear god, why has she left me for so long, WHY?!
Background info: my grandma likes to travel in the summer, and she was just lonely enough to ask me to come with her this year. Originally she wanted to go to Mexico or Spain, but unfortunately, the (people we were staying with realized that I would be coming along and) plans fell through. California was the next best choice because we have family out here: the 2nd daughter of five lives in Bakersfield and her two children, my cousins, live in Novato (near-ish Berkeley or Oakland).
But I actually left just because I hate you. Yes, you.

And this is where my photo-blog of a journey begins.
[WARNING: I'm going to list out the things I do each day as if I were some attention starved blogger addict (as if!), so for those of that you don't actually care about what I do, don't waste your time reading. Scan the titles and pictures and you'll be good to go. I tend to get obnoxiously meticulous when I document my life, which is why I don't usually make the posts public. But enough about me. Back to me.]

.
I was super excited for the plane ride since I haven't flown anywhere since I was a rising senior in high school. (Wow. Please ignore the extent to which saying that makes me sound like a spoiled brat.) I love plane rides, especially really long ones. It's a freebie break from life to just sit, chill, readabook, stare at clouds, gain two hours of life, and accept free drinks from strangers. Really, my idea of the perfect outing. Oh yea, and the best part about airplane rides is when you get off the plane you ARE VERY FAR AWAY FROM HOME. That's always pretty cool. Did I mention that airports/planes are also perfect people-watching terrain? Mostly because everyone too preoccupied wandering around trying to find where they are supposed to be to notice some passersby happen to be staring at them and jotting down detailed notes about their various facial expressions. Though I also mean it in the warm&fuzzy sense. Maybe.

Landed. Drove home. Passed the fuck out.

.
.
GOOD MORNING, California!
Started the day off by driving my older cousin to work at Hamilton Field so that I could steal his car for the day. Bought some 4.50$/gal gas and then set off for UCBerkeley, where my younger cousin is a student. I got a nice tour of the university and took some pretty brochure-worthy pictures, if I may say so myself. (This is the part where I off-handedly mention that I've decided to drop out of Rice and move to California. There are so many trees here. I am powerless to their call!) After exploring the surrounding area a bit, we went out for Thai food, (I think I ruptured my stomach. It was so worth it) and then we drove home and made dinner. Huzzah (If anything binds the family together, it's gotta be our joint obsession with food. Mmmm fooooood.)
And that was my DAY. (And that is my mango ice cream from the restaurant. It's so much more satisfying to see your food smile at you before I eat it... Take that as you will. )

.
As for my NIGHT...
I went out with my older cousin to a friend of a friend's birthday party. It was a pretty cute get-together slightly reminiscent of our first-semester-freshman-year-parties, back when alcohol abuse was a novelty. At the same time, the party seemed to be a premonition of future parties to come: a group of young adults meeting up at a friend's house to escape the drudgery of their jobs and desperately cling onto the last remnants of the "college experience" still acceptable for their age group. There were some sloppy (aka n00b) games of beer pong, a vodka-watermelon (which was DISGUSTING, by the way. I recommended next time they try oranges ), and a pirate ship piñata. This was the BEST PART. Get this- to open the piñata, the birthday boy turned on a strobe light and sliced it open with a samurai sword (I assure you, it was a real fucking sword.) It was the classiest and most responsible thing that I have ever seen (to top it off, the piñata was filled with an assortment of tiny liqueurs, condoms, and fake mustaches.) Moral of the story: people never grow up. Thank god.

(The fire pic was from grillin' dinner. Not that I needed an excuse. Fires are kickass.)

[Guilty. A lot of this post is a redux copypasta of messages I send people. This is because I'm a lazy piece of shit. And really, there's only so much you can say about what you did in a day. So anyway, to those people, if you even read this: I'm going to continue to be a lazy piece of shit and recycle messages here as the days go by. It's also because I care about the environment, okay? California does that to you.]

Stuff White People Like #134:

BASEBALL.
(so maybe it isn't on the website yet, but you know it should be)

The last on-campus Rice Baseball game was today and as expected, it was amazing. Not just because we won (but since you asked, yes, we did slaughter UofH 12-6),
there is something so undeniably refreshing about going to baseball games. Maybe it's contagious excitement of the rabid fans. Maybe it's because I'm cheering on people that I actually know in real life (as opposed just during the games, which are obviously a part of an alternate reality) Maybe it's the way the bright green field contrasts the immaculately white (and deliciously tight) uniforms. Maybe it's the resonating sound the ball makes when it hits the catcher's glove justright. I mean, I played t-ball, so I can feign some general knowledge and affinity for the game itself, but I know that my obsession with Rice Baseball games goes much deeper than that. I'm addicted to the whole experience.

On a slightly unrelated note, I think the same goes cigarettes, which I have conditioned myself to associate with pauses in homework spent sitting outside and listening to the rustle of leaves from my balcony. Or even my addiction to running the outer loop. God knows I'm don't actually like running, it's just the 30 minute brain-off, upbeatmusic-on break from life that I get to pass surrounded by the outer-loop's gorgeous live oaks. I'm addicted to environment.

Hm. Or maybe it's the nicotine, dumbass.