Make aLord Golbez wrote:It's a pretty mean thing to say that on April Fool's Day, then.Damien wrote:I'm thinking of closing SG, and this time it's not actually an April Fools joke
Will you at least give me abefore you close it down?
Post?Cybernetic Empire wrote:If you close SG I can't do this.
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- Lord Golbez
- Pokémony

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- Lord Golbez
- Pokémony

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- Mitsurugi CP
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- Mitsurugi CP
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- Lord Golbez
- Pokémony

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- Lord Golbez
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It's a lab technician job for one of the labs at Vanderbilt med school.
The lab tech is pretty much responsible for everything that goes on in the lab. That includes purchasing materials, equipment, and supplies, writing grants and research articles, developing experiments and protocols, training other people who join the lab, and basically maintaining everything in the lab. Being in a biology lab, that can include viruses, bacteria, animals, etc.
This lab does research on a condition called atherosclerosis, which is a hardening of the arteries caused by cholesterol accumulation. The lab I may end up in used to do research using mice, but has since moved on to "cell culture."
When I tell people I use "cell cultures" many people don't understand what I'm talking about, so I'll elaborate. Doing research on animals is a very expensive and complicated endeavor, and they're not practical when you're only interested in doing research on a particular area of that animal, say the kidneys or the heart, or if you're interested in researching abnormal cells, such as cancerous cells (also radical animal rights groups don't like it, and try to sabotage our labs, or in very rare circumstances, assault or murder the researchers).
Instead, scientists collect a sample of cells from the part of the body of an animal we are interested in, and we attempt to grow those cells independently of the animal we collected them from by putting them in a sterile container and providing them with a liquid media, basically food that is specially made for those particular kind of cells.
Some cell cultures may only last for a few weeks before they lose their ability to grow, we call these "primary cell lines", because they came straight out of a living organism. However, there are others that are called "immortalized" cell cultures. These are cells that are able to grow nearly indefinitely such as stem cells, cancer cells, and various other cells that naturally grow and divide. These cell cultures can last for decades, so they get special names and designations, so when a scientist receives some of these cells, they will know what specific animal and organ they came from, who started the culture, when it was started, and how they generally behave. To give you an idea of how long these cells can persist, I have worked with a cell line of human cervical cancer cells, called HeLa. The original line was started using cells taken from a biopsy of a woman named "Henrietta Lacks" sometime in the late 1940's. Ever since the first cells started growing, they've been living on a steady diet of cell media for almost 60 years.
Anyway, scientists often do research on cell lines first, especially when developing various treatments or pharmaceuticals. When we discover something that works in the cell lines, then we move to testing on whole animals, usually mice. If it works in mice, then it goes through testing in several other animal models (monkeys, cows, dogs, etc.) and finally, if it passes muster there, whatever drug or treatment may be tested on humans.
The lab I may be working in doesn't develop treatments or drugs or anything like that; it's focused on finding the underlying nature of the disease they're researching. Based on the discoveries made in that lab, others may take the results and apply them to new therapies and treatments.
EDIT: Next time you're watching the news or a TV show talking about biology stuff, and you see a clip of a researcher putting a pink liquid into a large, clear plastic container like a petri dish or a flask, chances are, they're showing you a video of someone who is in the process of feeding cells. It's the cellular version of sprinkling fish flakes in an aquarium.
The lab tech is pretty much responsible for everything that goes on in the lab. That includes purchasing materials, equipment, and supplies, writing grants and research articles, developing experiments and protocols, training other people who join the lab, and basically maintaining everything in the lab. Being in a biology lab, that can include viruses, bacteria, animals, etc.
This lab does research on a condition called atherosclerosis, which is a hardening of the arteries caused by cholesterol accumulation. The lab I may end up in used to do research using mice, but has since moved on to "cell culture."
When I tell people I use "cell cultures" many people don't understand what I'm talking about, so I'll elaborate. Doing research on animals is a very expensive and complicated endeavor, and they're not practical when you're only interested in doing research on a particular area of that animal, say the kidneys or the heart, or if you're interested in researching abnormal cells, such as cancerous cells (also radical animal rights groups don't like it, and try to sabotage our labs, or in very rare circumstances, assault or murder the researchers).
Instead, scientists collect a sample of cells from the part of the body of an animal we are interested in, and we attempt to grow those cells independently of the animal we collected them from by putting them in a sterile container and providing them with a liquid media, basically food that is specially made for those particular kind of cells.
Some cell cultures may only last for a few weeks before they lose their ability to grow, we call these "primary cell lines", because they came straight out of a living organism. However, there are others that are called "immortalized" cell cultures. These are cells that are able to grow nearly indefinitely such as stem cells, cancer cells, and various other cells that naturally grow and divide. These cell cultures can last for decades, so they get special names and designations, so when a scientist receives some of these cells, they will know what specific animal and organ they came from, who started the culture, when it was started, and how they generally behave. To give you an idea of how long these cells can persist, I have worked with a cell line of human cervical cancer cells, called HeLa. The original line was started using cells taken from a biopsy of a woman named "Henrietta Lacks" sometime in the late 1940's. Ever since the first cells started growing, they've been living on a steady diet of cell media for almost 60 years.
Anyway, scientists often do research on cell lines first, especially when developing various treatments or pharmaceuticals. When we discover something that works in the cell lines, then we move to testing on whole animals, usually mice. If it works in mice, then it goes through testing in several other animal models (monkeys, cows, dogs, etc.) and finally, if it passes muster there, whatever drug or treatment may be tested on humans.
The lab I may be working in doesn't develop treatments or drugs or anything like that; it's focused on finding the underlying nature of the disease they're researching. Based on the discoveries made in that lab, others may take the results and apply them to new therapies and treatments.
EDIT: Next time you're watching the news or a TV show talking about biology stuff, and you see a clip of a researcher putting a pink liquid into a large, clear plastic container like a petri dish or a flask, chances are, they're showing you a video of someone who is in the process of feeding cells. It's the cellular version of sprinkling fish flakes in an aquarium.
- Lord Golbez
- Pokémony

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Yes! Everytime I went into a building I'd come out in a completely new part of the place complete with its own statues, monements and fountain.
I live in Lincoln, which can be traversed in about an hour. I spent 7 hours there walking around and hardly saw much of it (Well, 40 minutes of it I spent in Gamestation discussing how much Nintendo fail with one of the employees)
I live in Lincoln, which can be traversed in about an hour. I spent 7 hours there walking around and hardly saw much of it (Well, 40 minutes of it I spent in Gamestation discussing how much Nintendo fail with one of the employees)
monsieur et madame, la parade monstrueuse!
- Lord Golbez
- Pokémony

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Maybe. It kind of is, but here's how I think of it: you have your cup of tea and everything seems great, but then you get some bad news (SG closing, for example). You raise your tea cup to cheer the news, but then it dawns on you that this is not happy news, so you get a sad face while raising your tea cup. 
The TBB offers you tea and biscuits. 
- Lord Golbez
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- Lord Golbez
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- Mitsurugi CP
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- Mitsurugi CP
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I got a Glock as a birthday gift, and I haven't turned into a gun nut.My housemate has bought a pink iPod and is afraid he might now be gay.
If he gets the urge to grab other guys' crotches, and not in a "turn your head and cough" way, then he might be gay.
Nah, you're just a technophile.I have both an iPod and an iPhone. Should I too be questioning my sexuality?
- Lord Golbez
- Pokémony

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It was a postscript, dude. Totally ignorable. That would be like saying a parenthetical comment is going to change the direction of a conversation.Mitsurugi CP wrote:Are we going back to that now? I was enjoying the meandering, seemingly unpredictable direction of the conversation.
The TBB offers you tea and biscuits. 
Yeah, I've told him he's an idiot (for thinking it makes him gay AND just for buying an iPod) but reason and logic rarely permeate his skull.
In other news, I've just ordered a GBA cartridge with a gameboy music synthesizer on it, because I suddenly have an urge to make Gameboy music.
I also bought a ticket to Download festival so I can pretend for a weekend that I like rock music.
In other news, I've just ordered a GBA cartridge with a gameboy music synthesizer on it, because I suddenly have an urge to make Gameboy music.
I also bought a ticket to Download festival so I can pretend for a weekend that I like rock music.
monsieur et madame, la parade monstrueuse!
- Mitsurugi CP
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Have you heard of a program called ModPlug? My brother does a lot of stuff with that program, which according to him, is a lot more robust than the gameboy, which is bizarre, considering it uses so few resources when running.
These are some of the songs he's sent me and incessantly harassed me to listen to until I acknowledged their existence.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/yddhmjhta ... talgia.mp3
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jzm2tkjo2 ... rridor.mp3
http://www.mediafire.com/?tndfm2oittd
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mtt5munnj ... onhead.mp3
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ndzytaykz ... dy_Orz.mp3
Some of them are pretty good, and I'd probably enjoy them more if I wasn't listening to them under penalty of unending irritation.
These are some of the songs he's sent me and incessantly harassed me to listen to until I acknowledged their existence.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/yddhmjhta ... talgia.mp3
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jzm2tkjo2 ... rridor.mp3
http://www.mediafire.com/?tndfm2oittd
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mtt5munnj ... onhead.mp3
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ndzytaykz ... dy_Orz.mp3
Some of them are pretty good, and I'd probably enjoy them more if I wasn't listening to them under penalty of unending irritation.
Well I don't really need anything more robust than a gameboy as I've already got a synth, a sequencer and a PC sequencer also.
So I reckon with enough practise with all four I could manage perfectly well. The PC seq also has a built in keyboard of old Atari wavelengths too, so I can play with two ancient console sounds!
So I reckon with enough practise with all four I could manage perfectly well. The PC seq also has a built in keyboard of old Atari wavelengths too, so I can play with two ancient console sounds!
monsieur et madame, la parade monstrueuse!
- Mitsurugi CP
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- Lord Golbez
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/m ... 0_1974.jpg
I was driving home with some moving boxes, and found this dog wandering down the road. She's really emaciated. I'll be taking her to a shelter tomorrow (I'm moving in a week; I can't take care of her) and hopefully they'll be able to bring her back to health.
Gave her some bread and water, and she's kept it all down, which is good. I might try giving her a little puppy formula tomorrow, but I don't want her just vomiting it all up.
EDIT: Found the dog's owners. She's OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD (19 years). That's why she's so thin. Crisis averted.
I was driving home with some moving boxes, and found this dog wandering down the road. She's really emaciated. I'll be taking her to a shelter tomorrow (I'm moving in a week; I can't take care of her) and hopefully they'll be able to bring her back to health.
Gave her some bread and water, and she's kept it all down, which is good. I might try giving her a little puppy formula tomorrow, but I don't want her just vomiting it all up.
EDIT: Found the dog's owners. She's OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD (19 years). That's why she's so thin. Crisis averted.
Last edited by Mitsurugi CP on Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.








