Monday, October 31, 2011
Check out my new blog design!
Thanks to my very talented friend Don, of Adeline's Daddy blog, Sometimes Sweet has a brand new look! I am so, so in love with it, and have to thank Don for coming up with the entire concept, design, etc. etc. He's amazing.
If you need a blog redesign, Don is the man to do it! He's extremely creative, talented, and professional. I can't say enough good things about this guy and the work he does. There's something about a new blog design that is so inspiring and really gets me excited about blogging (it's kind of like giving your home a makeover!), and with the new year approaching, there's no time like the present to change things up. I encourage all of you who are considering freshening up your blog to get in contact with Don. His rates are super reasonable and like I said above, he's wonderful to work with!
I hope you all enjoy the new look- I know I do! We'll be tweaking little things here and there but feel free to grab my new button if you'd like, and thanks again for stopping by! I'll be back tomorrow with a million pictures from our Halloween night- we had the best time.
And thanks again, Don, for making my blog so beautiful!
this past week via Instagram
This past week...
I wore a lot of fall colors,
took Henry to our public library's storytime,
played games and sang Halloween songs with him,
treated myself to a delicious breakfast,
visited baby Zelia and her proud parents (mama Mary not pictured),
made up my own concoction of sea-salt dark chocolate raspberries,
laughed at my toothy, goofy boy and took a lot of walks in the cool mornings,
went to a dinner party at The Molines...
enjoyed homemade soup,
got in some Adie time,
Hank cooked us a delicious vegan meal,
we snapped lots of family photos,
enjoyed the gorgeous fall days,
had an apple slice dipping bar + Hocus Pocus night at our house,
and we bought our Christmas tree! Although we won't be putting it up quite yet!
How about you? Did you do anything fun this past week?
xoxo
Then & Now: Happy Halloween!
It's amazing how much changes in a year. Last October we were anxiously awaiting Henry's arrival, putting up Halloween decorations and daydreaming about that next year when we'd be able to take our almost one-year old son trick-or-treating. Fast forward 12 months and Henry is here, and tonight we're taking him trick-or-treating. Looking back like this never ceases to amaze me with how quickly time goes by, but also how wonderful it is that in a year's time, life can become so much better than we'd ever imagined. Thinking like this makes me excited for next year, and wondering what will be happening then as I look back at this year and Henry's first Halloween.
Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope you have the most magical night full of spookiness, candy and fun. We'll be heading out with our little monster later tonight.
xoxo
Rachel Bilson Photoshoot for NYLON November
Rachel Bilson Photoshoot for NYLON
Rachel Bilson Photoshoot for NYLON
Rachel Bilson Photoshoot for NYLON
Repost: Eddie Graces Egghead's Shoulder
For Halloween, I felt like re-posting a piece that appeared here back in November 2009. To date, this tattoo is in my Top 10 that has appeared on Tattoosday. Enjoy! And have a safe, happy Halloween!
I recently met a gentleman from England, along with his wife, as they were milling about outside of Madison Square Garden.
He referred to himself as "Egghead," I'm guessing due to his bald head. I first noticed the logo for the band Slayer on the back of his calf, along with several other interesting looking tattoos. He estimated he has about a dozen tattoos.
But, like the best Tattoosday stories, he shared this amazing tattoo on his right shoulder, hidden under a sweatshirt, which he pulled off so I could see it properly:
That's a phenomenal piece, courtesy of his artist Ben Boston at The Tattoo Studio in Bristol, England.
The tattoo is a likeness of Eddie, mascot for the band Iron Maiden, one of the premiere metal bands that came out of England in the late 1970's/early 1980's. I won't bore the reader with the catalog of my Iron Maiden fandom, but it certainly made the tattoo even that more wonderful for me.
I even had a nice chat with Egghead and his wife about concerts we had attended.
I thank Egghead for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!
I recently met a gentleman from England, along with his wife, as they were milling about outside of Madison Square Garden.
He referred to himself as "Egghead," I'm guessing due to his bald head. I first noticed the logo for the band Slayer on the back of his calf, along with several other interesting looking tattoos. He estimated he has about a dozen tattoos.
But, like the best Tattoosday stories, he shared this amazing tattoo on his right shoulder, hidden under a sweatshirt, which he pulled off so I could see it properly:
That's a phenomenal piece, courtesy of his artist Ben Boston at The Tattoo Studio in Bristol, England.
The tattoo is a likeness of Eddie, mascot for the band Iron Maiden, one of the premiere metal bands that came out of England in the late 1970's/early 1980's. I won't bore the reader with the catalog of my Iron Maiden fandom, but it certainly made the tattoo even that more wonderful for me.
I even had a nice chat with Egghead and his wife about concerts we had attended.
I thank Egghead for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!
This entry is ©2009, 2011 Tattoosday.
If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.
>Beautiful Angel Tattoo Design For Arms
>
Beautiful Angel Tattoo Design For Arms
RANDOM TATTOO QUOTES:
Not one great country can be named, from the polar regions in the north to New Zealand in the south, in which the aborigines do not tattoo themselves. ----� Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871
I think I have enough tattoos for now. If I get any others, I'll probably do my kids initials. ---- Niki Taylor
You think it, I ink it. ~Saying of tattooists
Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past. ~Jack London
Pain nourishes courage. You can�t be brave if you�ve only had wonderful things happen to you.
Tattoos are like stories - they're symbolic of the important moments in your life. Sitting down, talking about where you got each tattoo and what it symbolizes, is really beautiful. ----Pamela Anderson
Angel Tatttoo on Guys Arm Picture
 |
| Beautiful Angel Tattoo Design For Arms |
RANDOM TATTOO QUOTES:
Not one great country can be named, from the polar regions in the north to New Zealand in the south, in which the aborigines do not tattoo themselves. ----� Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871
I think I have enough tattoos for now. If I get any others, I'll probably do my kids initials. ---- Niki Taylor
You think it, I ink it. ~Saying of tattooists
Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past. ~Jack London
Pain nourishes courage. You can�t be brave if you�ve only had wonderful things happen to you.
Tattoos are like stories - they're symbolic of the important moments in your life. Sitting down, talking about where you got each tattoo and what it symbolizes, is really beautiful. ----Pamela Anderson
Fun with a $1300 3D printer - featuring @ryneches in my lab
Just a quick one here. I am posting some links to videos and blog posts about efforts by a student in my lab - Russell Neches - to use 3D printing to help with carrying out high throughput studies of microbial diversity. Basically the idea is that we can use new very cheap 3D printer technologies to help with normalizing sample volumes by printing in essence micro titer dishes with variable well depth. For more on this see some of the links/videos/etc below:
From Russell's blog:
Some of Russell's videos
Aggie TV news story about Russell's work on this:
From Russell's blog:
Some of Russell's videos
Aggie TV news story about Russell's work on this:
Further proof of the ascendancy of microbes: 2011 NSF "biodiversity" grants mostly focused on microbes
As if the readers of this blog needing any more proof of the ascendancy of microbes and microbiology. Well, regardless, here is more. The NSF Announced recipients of the 2011 grants on "Dimensions of Biodiversity" - see The National Science Foundation (NSF) News Diversity of Life on Earth: NSF Awards Grants for Study of Dimensions of Biodiversity
And the recipients are strongly biased towards microbes relative to the general past patterns at many funding agencies.
Microbial focused awards:
Title: Pattern and process in marine bacterial, archaeal, and protistan biodiversity, and effects of human impacts
PI (Principal investigator): Jed Fuhrman, University of Southern California
Summary: Very little about marine microbial systems is understood, despite the fact that these diverse groups dominate cycling of elements in the oceans. Fuhrman and colleagues will compare heavily affected harbor regions with relatively pristine ocean habitat in the Los Angeles basin to understand patterns and relationships in marine microbial communities.
PI (Principal investigator): Jed Fuhrman, University of Southern California
Summary: Very little about marine microbial systems is understood, despite the fact that these diverse groups dominate cycling of elements in the oceans. Fuhrman and colleagues will compare heavily affected harbor regions with relatively pristine ocean habitat in the Los Angeles basin to understand patterns and relationships in marine microbial communities.
Title: Diversity and symbiosis: Examining the taxonomic, genetic, and functional diversity of amphibian skin microbiota
PI: Lisa Belden, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Summary: All animals host internal and external symbiotic microbes; most cause no harm and many are beneficial. This study seeks to understand the regulation of microbial communities on the skin of amphibian species, and how they may limit infection by a chytrid fungus that has decimated many amphibian populations around the globe.
PI: Lisa Belden, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Summary: All animals host internal and external symbiotic microbes; most cause no harm and many are beneficial. This study seeks to understand the regulation of microbial communities on the skin of amphibian species, and how they may limit infection by a chytrid fungus that has decimated many amphibian populations around the globe.
Title: Lake Baikal responses to global change: The role of genetic, functional and taxonomic diversity in the planktonPI: Elena Litchman, Michigan State University
Summary: Microscopic plant- and animal-like plankton are the first links in aquatic food chains. This project will study the planktonic food web of the world's largest, oldest, and most biologically diverse lake--Lake Baikal in Siberia--to predict how native vs. non-native plankton in this ecosystem will respond to accelerating environmental change
Summary: Microscopic plant- and animal-like plankton are the first links in aquatic food chains. This project will study the planktonic food web of the world's largest, oldest, and most biologically diverse lake--Lake Baikal in Siberia--to predict how native vs. non-native plankton in this ecosystem will respond to accelerating environmental change
Title: Functional diversity of microbial trophic guilds defined using stable isotope ratios of proteinsPI: Ann Pearson, Harvard University
Summary: Studying the ecological interactions among microbes is difficult given their immense diversity and the scale of observation. This project will use isotopic ratios of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and sulfur produced during microbial metabolism to link microbes to their roles in biogeochemical and ecosystem processes. This novel approach will contribute to an understanding of what maintains diversity in microbes and, by extension, the roles microbes play in ecosystems.
Title: An integrated study of energy metabolism, carbon fixation, and colonization mechanisms in chemosynthetic microbial communities at deep-sea ventsPI: Stefan Sievert, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Summary: The 1977 discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems that obtain energy not through photosynthesis, but via inorganic chemical reactions greatly expanded the perception of life on Earth. However, there has been limited progress since then in understanding their underlying microbiology and biogeochemistry. This project will establish an international research program to better understand these deep-sea ecosystems and to place them in a global context.
Summary: The 1977 discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems that obtain energy not through photosynthesis, but via inorganic chemical reactions greatly expanded the perception of life on Earth. However, there has been limited progress since then in understanding their underlying microbiology and biogeochemistry. This project will establish an international research program to better understand these deep-sea ecosystems and to place them in a global context.
Title: Functional diversity of marine eukaryotic phytoplankton and their contributions to carbon and nitrogen cyclingPI: Bess Ward, Princeton University
Summary: Marine phytoplankton form the base of food webs in the ocean's surface layers, and thus represent the first incorporation of biologically important chemicals. This project will study two north Atlantic sites in two seasons to link the genetic diversity and species composition of phytoplankton communities to the carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry of the surface ocean.
Summary: Marine phytoplankton form the base of food webs in the ocean's surface layers, and thus represent the first incorporation of biologically important chemicals. This project will study two north Atlantic sites in two seasons to link the genetic diversity and species composition of phytoplankton communities to the carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry of the surface ocean.
Title: IRCN (International Research Coordination Network): A Research Coordination Network for Biodiversity of CiliatesPI: John Clamp, North Carolina Central University
Summary: Ciliates are abundant, widespread protists found in all aquatic systems on Earth. However, it is estimated that science has described only 25 percent of these ubiquitous microorganisms, mainly in western European and eastern North American waters. This cooperative project is partially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China, and will establish an International Research Coordination Network for Biodiversity of Ciliates (RCN-BC; including researchers from the United States, China, the United Kingdom and Brazil) to broaden exploration of these important protists.
Summary: Ciliates are abundant, widespread protists found in all aquatic systems on Earth. However, it is estimated that science has described only 25 percent of these ubiquitous microorganisms, mainly in western European and eastern North American waters. This cooperative project is partially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China, and will establish an International Research Coordination Network for Biodiversity of Ciliates (RCN-BC; including researchers from the United States, China, the United Kingdom and Brazil) to broaden exploration of these important protists.
Amazingly, there are only three awards not focused on microbes:
Title: The climate cascade: Functional and evolutionary consequences of climatic change on species, trait, and genetic diversity in a temperate ant communityPI: Nathan Sanders, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Summary: Sanders and colleagues will help us understand what mechanisms allow some species to adapt to shifts in climate, rather than migrating or going extinct. This project will reconstruct past adaptations to climate change in a foraging ant common in forests throughout the Eastern United States and sample ant nests introduced to outdoor experimental warming chambers to determine the ant's capacity to adapt to heat stress.
Summary: Sanders and colleagues will help us understand what mechanisms allow some species to adapt to shifts in climate, rather than migrating or going extinct. This project will reconstruct past adaptations to climate change in a foraging ant common in forests throughout the Eastern United States and sample ant nests introduced to outdoor experimental warming chambers to determine the ant's capacity to adapt to heat stress.
Title: Integrating genetic, taxonomic, and functional diversity of tetrapods across the Americas and through extinction risk
PI: Thomas Brooks, NatureServe
Summary: Most large-scale efforts to assess biodiversity have focused on genetic, taxonomic and functional dimensions individually; it is unknown how these dimensions relate to each other. Brooks and colleagues are using a database of the 13,000 land vertebrates in the Americas to determine how changes in one dimension of biodiversity influence changes in others. Understanding how species composition influences the diversity of certain traits, for example, will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of conservation actions.
PI: Thomas Brooks, NatureServe
Summary: Most large-scale efforts to assess biodiversity have focused on genetic, taxonomic and functional dimensions individually; it is unknown how these dimensions relate to each other. Brooks and colleagues are using a database of the 13,000 land vertebrates in the Americas to determine how changes in one dimension of biodiversity influence changes in others. Understanding how species composition influences the diversity of certain traits, for example, will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of conservation actions.
Title: Integrating dimensions of Solanumbiodiversity: Leveraging comparative and experimental transcriptomics to understand functional responses to environmental change
PI: Leonie Moyle, Indiana University
Summary: This research will highlight the role of drought and herbivore defense in driving the remarkable diversity of wild tomato species. With the economic importance of tomatoes and their relatives (such as peppers and potatoes), this study will help prepare society for the future challenges facing global food security.
PI: Leonie Moyle, Indiana University
Summary: This research will highlight the role of drought and herbivore defense in driving the remarkable diversity of wild tomato species. With the economic importance of tomatoes and their relatives (such as peppers and potatoes), this study will help prepare society for the future challenges facing global food security.
And if the PIs of these grants have any sense, they will likely include some microbial studies as part of their projects. Of course, in the end all ecosystems include a diversity of kinds of organisms, and focusing on microbes over other organisms is also a biased approach. But we (that is, "Science") have spent so many years ignoring the dark matter of the biological universe (the term I now use to refer to microbial diversity) that we have to focus on microbes because there is a lot of catching up to do there.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Our Town's Halloween Festival
This weekend was full of family time and Autumn fun! Saturday we headed downtown to our town's Halloween Festival and checked out all of the fun costumes, fall holiday booths, and spooky games. It's so small town and so, so cute. Henry was wide-eyed the entire time and we had a great time looking at all of the older kids and all of the super creative outfits everyone had on. I can't wait until next year when Henry will be walking and talking with the best of 'em. Exciting.
This year Henry is a monster, and he pretty much hates wearing the hat of his costume (as shown below!). Tomorrow we are going trick-or-treating, so I'm going to attempt to somehow grab a photo of his whole outfit, but if yesterday was an indication the odds are not in our favor. We shall see though!
Here are some photos of our fun day:
This year Henry is a monster, and he pretty much hates wearing the hat of his costume (as shown below!). Tomorrow we are going trick-or-treating, so I'm going to attempt to somehow grab a photo of his whole outfit, but if yesterday was an indication the odds are not in our favor. We shall see though!
Here are some photos of our fun day:
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