It's a little cold today, ~25 degrees Fahrenheit, and on the Metro ride in I ended up walking behing someone who had apparently taken a bath in cologne. The first thing that popped into my head was "How is that even volatile under these conditions?", followed closely by "I'm really glad I won't be around that guy when he's in a warm building."
I think maybe I need to get out more and do some non-science things.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
that's the key 2
After the mild debacle the other morning, I wasn't too surprised to find yet another problem on the way home. Apparently the taillight doesn't come on when the run circuit is jumped, and nothing else. This little tidbit was conveyed to me by a nice motorist who took the time to tell me on my way home at night. I wish I had known that before dark, but at least there were no issues due to it.
I did a small bit of research, and found I just needed to jump four of the five wires in the starter. Conveniently two of those wires come from one being split after the ignition connector that I was jumping already, so I just needed to connect the two pairs at the junction connector. Instead of making two different wire jumpers, like the little piece of shit I was already using, I cut the Molex type connector off of the old broken ignition, soldered the ends together, and after some heat shrink I had my new key.
Which should last me until the weekend when I have time to actually work on the ignition switch. I even cut the tooth off of the connector so it doesn't lock in place, and I can remove it in only several minutes of dicking with it in the parking lot.
Pretty swank, huh?
If I'm not mistaken, I now have the key to a great number of motorcycles out there. Just proves to me how important it is to lock the bike down to something.
I did a small bit of research, and found I just needed to jump four of the five wires in the starter. Conveniently two of those wires come from one being split after the ignition connector that I was jumping already, so I just needed to connect the two pairs at the junction connector. Instead of making two different wire jumpers, like the little piece of shit I was already using, I cut the Molex type connector off of the old broken ignition, soldered the ends together, and after some heat shrink I had my new key.
Which should last me until the weekend when I have time to actually work on the ignition switch. I even cut the tooth off of the connector so it doesn't lock in place, and I can remove it in only several minutes of dicking with it in the parking lot.
Pretty swank, huh?
If I'm not mistaken, I now have the key to a great number of motorcycles out there. Just proves to me how important it is to lock the bike down to something.
Monday, January 11, 2010
that's the key
My motorcycle was stolen this last summer, and miraculously found and returned two months later. I was going to write about the repair process, but after I started I figured no one would give a shit but me. However, today something funny happened related to all of that, so I'm going to share.
The thieves apparently kept the bike and rode it themselves, as opposed to stripping and selling it. To bypass the ignition, they simply removed it and wired in a standard style wall mount light switch from a house; inelegant, but effective. Motorcycles are expensive to repair, and parts from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) are often overpriced, and occasionally underquality, versus aftermarket parts. I did most of the repairs myself to save money, but I did have some parts ordered from Suzuki and put on by a good local shop. One of those parts was a new ignition.
The new ignition started to act up shortly after installing it and then it getting rained on a few times. I blew it off, since I had had the old ignition in the same configuration for several years with no problems. Now, after getting snowed on and not being used for most of a month it doesn't seem to work at all. Yesterday I thought I would be clever and put a switch on in a similar fashion to the thieves, but actually do a good job. I ran to Radio Shack, got some parts, and went home and cobbled something together. Preliminary tests were ok, and I left it for today's morning commute all based on this switch:
Now if it had worked fine, I would obviously not be writing this. It worked well for a while then died in a somewhat dramatic sputtering fashion while zipping along today. Luckily there was a bit of notice, so no big surprises came. I stopped (of course), and since it was ~30 degrees out, I wanted a quick fix to get on my way. A moment or two's poking and prodding confirmed that my switch installation job was probably shoddy, and I made the simplest shortcut I could with the parts at hand:
behold - my new key
Oddly, it occurs to me that this is probably about as secure as a real key, due to the ease with which one can roll off or hotwire a motorcycle anyway. Someone who recognized what was missing and what to do about it would not be slowed at all by the most complicated ignition system, however everyone else should be confused as shit by the current set up.
The thieves apparently kept the bike and rode it themselves, as opposed to stripping and selling it. To bypass the ignition, they simply removed it and wired in a standard style wall mount light switch from a house; inelegant, but effective. Motorcycles are expensive to repair, and parts from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) are often overpriced, and occasionally underquality, versus aftermarket parts. I did most of the repairs myself to save money, but I did have some parts ordered from Suzuki and put on by a good local shop. One of those parts was a new ignition.
The new ignition started to act up shortly after installing it and then it getting rained on a few times. I blew it off, since I had had the old ignition in the same configuration for several years with no problems. Now, after getting snowed on and not being used for most of a month it doesn't seem to work at all. Yesterday I thought I would be clever and put a switch on in a similar fashion to the thieves, but actually do a good job. I ran to Radio Shack, got some parts, and went home and cobbled something together. Preliminary tests were ok, and I left it for today's morning commute all based on this switch:
Now if it had worked fine, I would obviously not be writing this. It worked well for a while then died in a somewhat dramatic sputtering fashion while zipping along today. Luckily there was a bit of notice, so no big surprises came. I stopped (of course), and since it was ~30 degrees out, I wanted a quick fix to get on my way. A moment or two's poking and prodding confirmed that my switch installation job was probably shoddy, and I made the simplest shortcut I could with the parts at hand:
behold - my new keyOddly, it occurs to me that this is probably about as secure as a real key, due to the ease with which one can roll off or hotwire a motorcycle anyway. Someone who recognized what was missing and what to do about it would not be slowed at all by the most complicated ignition system, however everyone else should be confused as shit by the current set up.
Friday, January 8, 2010
what kind of horseshit is this?
I was reading my ASAPs today and happened upon K. N. Houk and N. K. Garg talking about indoles. I've had a couple of projects about them, and I'm always interested to see what people have to say about installing things at the 4-position. It's a difficult position to access, and a lot of drugs and natural products are functionalized there. The first table dealt with just that:
They didn't label which isomer was preferred in the yield column, so I assumed that it was left number to left product, and right number to right product. It also makes sense since the C-5 substitutions are almost always preferred over the C-4. My eyes drifted to the "C-5 preferred" in the far right column before I had read what the column actually was. I was confused, since C-5 is generally preferred, and it seemed like every other case showed C-5 preference. Momentarily excited I thought that maybe all the other cases were C-4 specific, and this was the lone C-5 in a very poorly labeled table! I saw the superscript b , looked to the bottom of the table to see what it denoted, and wonder of wonders it says "Attack at C-5 is favored (see the SI)." That amount of unneeded and uninformative redundancy is among the stupidest things I've seen lately.
Nowhere else does it give any real information about the reactions, or what the table really means, however ti does say to look at the "SI" elsewhere. Two superscript references to the same thing. How efficient, and vacuous.
I got the "SI", which I assumed was the supporting information, and found the following jewel:
What the fuck is that? Why would you even do that? How hard would it have been to put it in anyways? Why wouldn't you just put the number for the reference right in table as opposed to the completely uninformative "b"? The reference is already mentioned in the paper and wouldn't have even needed any additional text.
Weak.
edit: Forgot to put Garg's name in the initial link to spread the blame.
They didn't label which isomer was preferred in the yield column, so I assumed that it was left number to left product, and right number to right product. It also makes sense since the C-5 substitutions are almost always preferred over the C-4. My eyes drifted to the "C-5 preferred" in the far right column before I had read what the column actually was. I was confused, since C-5 is generally preferred, and it seemed like every other case showed C-5 preference. Momentarily excited I thought that maybe all the other cases were C-4 specific, and this was the lone C-5 in a very poorly labeled table! I saw the superscript b , looked to the bottom of the table to see what it denoted, and wonder of wonders it says "Attack at C-5 is favored (see the SI)." That amount of unneeded and uninformative redundancy is among the stupidest things I've seen lately.
Nowhere else does it give any real information about the reactions, or what the table really means, however ti does say to look at the "SI" elsewhere. Two superscript references to the same thing. How efficient, and vacuous.
I got the "SI", which I assumed was the supporting information, and found the following jewel:
What the fuck is that? Why would you even do that? How hard would it have been to put it in anyways? Why wouldn't you just put the number for the reference right in table as opposed to the completely uninformative "b"? The reference is already mentioned in the paper and wouldn't have even needed any additional text.
Weak.
edit: Forgot to put Garg's name in the initial link to spread the blame.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
things I've learned recently
I've had a run of less than optimal luck recently when it comes to health issues. Everything is fine now, but I think I've learned (or re-learned in some cases) some useful things.
Flu:
If you're feeling a bit under the weather and don't know if you should go to work or not, here's a clue, don't. You're just going to cough on your hand, use a doorknob, and get someone like me sick who will curse you for being such an asshole.
It's a good idea to have things on hand in the pantry for times of sickness. I forgot this cardinal rule and was totally out of Gatorade or any of its generic knockoffs, and was subsequently too sick to go out and get some. Rehydration is of the utmost importance when you're pissing out your ass every 15 minutes, and the human body is quite bad at absorbing pure water. By accessing the sodium channels in the GI tract, water is absorbed much more readily.
Canned chicken broth is like a magic fucking bullet, and has an extended shelf life. After a few days of not being able to hold anything down, including water, a warm cup of this poultry flavored brine is the most sublime dinner treat ever. And, of course, the salt helps to rehydrate.
Rabies:
Rabies is a deadly disease, everyone knows this, but by the time you show symptoms you're fucked. If you actually show symptoms of having rabies the chances of dying are greater than 99.99%. If you take the vaccine prior to that the chances of survival are very good.
The modern vaccine is no where near as bad as old vaccine with the multitude of injections in the abdomen, however it is much more expensive at ~$1500. These days only five shots are needed: immunoglobin, and four rabies vaccine shots over two weeks (days 1, 3, 7, and 14). All are intramuscular (IM), and the the immunoglobin, the "first shot" is 6 x 2 mL vials for someone ~195 lbs. As a reference a typical vaccine booster shot is in the neighborhood of 1 mL in the arm. This shot is actually 3 or 4 big-ass, deep tissue shots (e.g. thigh or buttocks).
If you get bitten by a dog take the time right then to find out if the dog has had its shots. Don't assume that just because it's a healthy looking poodle-like dog in one of the richest neighborhoods in the US that everything is fine, and he/she must be healthy.
There are several ways to test for rabies in humans, but no individual test is sufficient by itself. One of the tests involves spinal fluid. I'll let your imagination run wild with that one.
If for some reason you get bitten and are stupid enough not to get the necessary information right then, and need to go back and find the dog more than two weeks later do it regardless of how unlikely the possibility of success seems. The kindness of strangers can be truly surprising sometimes.
If a dog were to have rabies such that its saliva were infectious the life expectancy for the animal is less than five days. Quarantine guidlines for animals is ten days, just to be sure. Therefore just getting to see the furry bastard walking around two weeks later is sufficient to clear a bite victim of being used as a pin cushion.
Flu:
If you're feeling a bit under the weather and don't know if you should go to work or not, here's a clue, don't. You're just going to cough on your hand, use a doorknob, and get someone like me sick who will curse you for being such an asshole.
It's a good idea to have things on hand in the pantry for times of sickness. I forgot this cardinal rule and was totally out of Gatorade or any of its generic knockoffs, and was subsequently too sick to go out and get some. Rehydration is of the utmost importance when you're pissing out your ass every 15 minutes, and the human body is quite bad at absorbing pure water. By accessing the sodium channels in the GI tract, water is absorbed much more readily.
Canned chicken broth is like a magic fucking bullet, and has an extended shelf life. After a few days of not being able to hold anything down, including water, a warm cup of this poultry flavored brine is the most sublime dinner treat ever. And, of course, the salt helps to rehydrate.
Rabies:
Rabies is a deadly disease, everyone knows this, but by the time you show symptoms you're fucked. If you actually show symptoms of having rabies the chances of dying are greater than 99.99%. If you take the vaccine prior to that the chances of survival are very good.
The modern vaccine is no where near as bad as old vaccine with the multitude of injections in the abdomen, however it is much more expensive at ~$1500. These days only five shots are needed: immunoglobin, and four rabies vaccine shots over two weeks (days 1, 3, 7, and 14). All are intramuscular (IM), and the the immunoglobin, the "first shot" is 6 x 2 mL vials for someone ~195 lbs. As a reference a typical vaccine booster shot is in the neighborhood of 1 mL in the arm. This shot is actually 3 or 4 big-ass, deep tissue shots (e.g. thigh or buttocks).
If you get bitten by a dog take the time right then to find out if the dog has had its shots. Don't assume that just because it's a healthy looking poodle-like dog in one of the richest neighborhoods in the US that everything is fine, and he/she must be healthy.
There are several ways to test for rabies in humans, but no individual test is sufficient by itself. One of the tests involves spinal fluid. I'll let your imagination run wild with that one.
If for some reason you get bitten and are stupid enough not to get the necessary information right then, and need to go back and find the dog more than two weeks later do it regardless of how unlikely the possibility of success seems. The kindness of strangers can be truly surprising sometimes.
If a dog were to have rabies such that its saliva were infectious the life expectancy for the animal is less than five days. Quarantine guidlines for animals is ten days, just to be sure. Therefore just getting to see the furry bastard walking around two weeks later is sufficient to clear a bite victim of being used as a pin cushion.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
nice simple method
Saw this today in the JOC ASAPs.
I'm a fan of any new method, or method improvement that is simple, efficient, straightforward, and useful. While I haven't ever made a sulfonamide that wasn't a protecting group, they are handy for other things, and pop up in drugs as well. These guys got the reaction to work with one set of conditions on electron rich and poor aromatic thiols, a few aliphatic as well, and it appears to be selective and mild as well.
In fact the only things I can negatively comment on at all are that I would have liked to see more aliphatic examples, and acetonitrile is an expensive solvent. However, I bet that within the next year or so people will be buying cars in stupid numbers again, and acetonitrile will come back down in price.
Edit: I somehow gave the wrong journal title, but the right link. Thanks to Dr. Miller for pointing it out.
I'm a fan of any new method, or method improvement that is simple, efficient, straightforward, and useful. While I haven't ever made a sulfonamide that wasn't a protecting group, they are handy for other things, and pop up in drugs as well. These guys got the reaction to work with one set of conditions on electron rich and poor aromatic thiols, a few aliphatic as well, and it appears to be selective and mild as well.
In fact the only things I can negatively comment on at all are that I would have liked to see more aliphatic examples, and acetonitrile is an expensive solvent. However, I bet that within the next year or so people will be buying cars in stupid numbers again, and acetonitrile will come back down in price.
Edit: I somehow gave the wrong journal title, but the right link. Thanks to Dr. Miller for pointing it out.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
great idea
Yesterday our lab and another had the privilege to go have lunch with Philip S. Portoghese and see him give a seminar later. During lunch we were talking about journals and the state of the business of journals, he's been the editor of J. Med. Chem. for 37 years, and ACS's new headache inducing paper journal format where they have two pages of material per page of paper came up. I mentioned that it felt like I was reading a girlie magazine whenever I turned it sideways to flip through the issue, and someone else in attendance remarked that we should have a centerfold with a reaction or compound of the month. What an awesome idea! People would be vying for the cover with pretty pictures, but others would be competing to get the centerfold with great science! Truly an idea who's time has come!
edit:
I said something stupid, and would like to clarify. You usually get the cover by publishing good work, but the cover itself is something pretty that is related to the work, and usually not the work itself.
The centerfold could be pure, unadulterated, awesome science.
edit:
I said something stupid, and would like to clarify. You usually get the cover by publishing good work, but the cover itself is something pretty that is related to the work, and usually not the work itself.
The centerfold could be pure, unadulterated, awesome science.
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