What Jon Roger says

Monday, January 21, 2013

Benefits of moving South

So today the temperature in Columbus is 21 degrees. It's definitely cold and a change from the warm 40s of the weekend but it certainly doesn't compare to the -10 degrees it is in St. Anthony Minnesota at the moment. These "freezing" Ohio winters other students were trying to tell me about must not be too bad.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Called it!

49ers vs Ravens in two weeks. You heard it here. I had a few friends over from the program to watch the game/ play FIFA and it was a very enjoyable Sunday off. Tomorrow I have lots of homework to do but I will only have to stop by lab for a few minutes so tomorrow will not be too strenuous as well. I will potentially return to predict the Superbowl if I am confident in my picks.

Superbowl predictions

Today I predict the San Francisco 49ers will win their game. The other game is a bit of a toss-up but at the very least New England's 9.5 spread is absurd so either the Ravens will win or they will lose by a touchdown or less. I predict the Ravens win after their gutsy win last week and we have a 49ers vs Ravens Superbowl. You heard it here folks

Friday, January 18, 2013

Some cool photos

So I've been following the facebook page "I #$%@%^# love science". Profanity aside they have some pretty cool posts on there. Here are a few of the cool photos.

Cool little story

Is winning all that counts? Are you absolutely sure about that?

Very little has been said about this…..On December 2, Basque athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre. He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai - bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics. As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner - the certain winner of the race - mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line.

Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai's mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first.

Ivan Fernandez Anaya, a Basque runner of 24 years who is considered an athlete with a big future (champion of Spain of 5,000 meters in promise category two years ago) said after the test:
"But even if they had told me that winning would have earned me a place in the Spanish team for the European championships, I wouldn't have done it either. I also think that I have earned more of a name having done what I did than if I had won. And that is very important, because today, with the way things are in all circles, in soccer, in society, in politics, where it seems anything goes, a gesture of honesty goes down well."

He said at the beginning: unfortunately, very little has been said of the gesture. And it's a shame. In my opinion, it would be nice to explain to children, so they do not think that sport is only what they see on TV: violent kicks in abundance, posh statements, fingers in the eyes of the enemy ...

Modern Art

So today's science lesson is about a technique called a Western blot that we often do in lab. The technique is used to test a cell culture for a certain protein by using a molecule (antibody) to attach to it and give off a fluorescent signal so you can see it. You run it down a charge gel to sort by size and then pour the antibody on it and take a picture. It's called a Southern blot because the original idea was from a guy named Edwin Southern probing for DNA. Then there's the Northern blot for RNA, Western for protein, Eastern for fatty acids, and over 10 more variations (South by Southwest, reverse Southern, far Eastern, etc...)....This is what one is supposed to look like....

This is what mine looked like.....

I'm not really sure what happened but needless to say I had to redo the experiment. I have deemed it to be "Modern Art" and have printed off and signed several copies for people on the floor. Better luck next time!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Scandals

While everyone seems to be talking about the Manti Te'o scandal this is all I can think about
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/story-man-outsourced-china-could-135701981.html

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Australian Open

Keeping along the line of sports, the Australian Open started this week. Obviously for me it's a big deal being one of the 4 Major tennis tournaments of the year but with the time change it's difficult to watch. Last night I caught a little when I got home from work/study around 10 last night for a half hour or so and hope to watch a little more as the week goes along. Definitely a good unwinding activity for me. Still undecided whether the new time zone is better, worse, or not a factor for watching this tournament.

Pep to Bayern Munich?

So this is significant only to people who follow soccer but Barcelona's legendary coach, Pep Guardiola, has come out of retirement and signed for a new team. This is cool news because Bayern Munich is super talented and I'm curious to see how the future will change for them. That is all for notable news today.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/laliga/id/336?cc=5901

Monday, January 14, 2013

Bittersweet Day

So today marks the beginning of the Kohawk tennis season and for the first time in 4 years I will not be there to participate. Don't get my wrong, the first few weeks of practice are miserable. The days are long and repetitive, the conditioning is tough, the challenge matches test all of your nerves and after it's all done you have to go do your homework. But through all the hard work during the season and plenty in the off season I eventually got to experience a few remarkable moments and so I've decided to put a few photos together from my career for old times sake.