Check it out
i love the voices
it is only 6 months away.....
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Am I Caving to the MAN and HIS Ways?
Question of the night: I decided to go to the Director of Grad Studies breakfast tomorrow (late of course because it starts at 8:30 am and I'll still be carting kids around) to accept my "award". My question is, does this mean I've now become ONE of the THEM, you know the ivory tower, 'ata boy' types? Double thinking my decision - don't want to be a sellout!
Saturday, April 21, 2007
A Blog Question
OK - now that I'm officially a "blog addict" I have a question for you all. How do you get that thing where you can let people sign up to get email alerts when there is a new post? Thanks for your help - I'm trying to get my blog up in running (yes, I've jumped on the bandwagon). If you want the check it out, here's the link: http://peckedtodeath.blogspot.com/.
Hope all is well in the land of Liscum:)
Renee
Hope all is well in the land of Liscum:)
Renee
Friday, April 20, 2007
Liscum Lab Continues its WINNING streak
For the fifth year running the Liscum Lab brought home a prize from MU's annual Life Sciences Week poster competition. This year Ullas was the big winner taking a 2nd Place in the Molecular Structure & Function panel - $500 prize and a plaque.
A big congrats to Ullas. On a related note rumor has it that Brandon and Jen just missed the award cut in their category, Cellular Function.
Da Boss is proud!!
A big congrats to Ullas. On a related note rumor has it that Brandon and Jen just missed the award cut in their category, Cellular Function.
Da Boss is proud!!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Super Glue - a cure!!
Have you ever accidentally (or on purpose) gotten SuperGlue on your fingers and had to wait a week for that dead-numb sensation (caused by the dead flesh) to wear off? Well I have a qucik fix - medium grain wood sandpaper. This may be an obvious one that's out there but I accidently got SuperGlue on multiple fingers tonight (honestly, I was attempting to glue the suction cup back on one of Bubba's 'suction cup bullets' for a tommy gun that Grampa got him for his birthday, when the damn glue container broke - I can hear the collective, "OH SHIT!!!") and had to find some way to get that stuff off. Turns out that by sanding the hell out of ones fingertips (maybe a good way to remove or at least blemish, ones fingerprints too) the SuperGlue does come off - with off course all the skin to witch it is permenantly bonded - but that dead skin numb feeling is gone, and my fingers are more sensitive now (removing 3-4 layers of skin will do that).
SuperGlue on skin - solution, sandpaper!
SuperGlue on skin - solution, sandpaper!
BIG Congrats!!!
Hey all, in case you hadn't heard Dr. Bethany Stone (former Liscum lab student and postdoc - and first PhD rotation student) was awarded the 2007 Provost Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award!!! This is a HUGE deal and says a lot about Bethany's teaching qualities and dedication. Give her a BIG congrats the next time you see her.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
An now for something completely different....
OK, I've done three "movie" review posts, time for some science as this IS a LAB blog page.
Check out this new Nature paper from one of our collaborators, Ning Zheng, and long-time colleague Mark Estelle - this is a truly AMAZING paper. Few papers are as solid and of such HIGH IMPACT.
TIR1-auxin-Aux/IAA crystal structure
Check out this new Nature paper from one of our collaborators, Ning Zheng, and long-time colleague Mark Estelle - this is a truly AMAZING paper. Few papers are as solid and of such HIGH IMPACT.
TIR1-auxin-Aux/IAA crystal structure
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Easter movie ritual
Alright just to keep with Renee's expectations of the Liscum Lab Blog becoming Mannie's personal movie blog, here's another movie review: Every year at Easter time I sit down for ~4 hrs and watch Ben-Hur.
This is a classic Hollywood epic by William Wyler, made when epics were commonplace, but Ben-Hur is not a commonplace movie. Based on the book by Gen. Lew Wallace (Federal soldier in the US Civil War) titled, "Ben-Hur: A Story of the Christ", this 1959 screen adaptation features Charlton Heston in the lead role of Judah Ben-Hur. We follow the life of Judah from XXVI AD until the death of Christ. The Hur family is 'nobility' in Jerusalem of the day and Judah is a respected member of the Jewish community then under the yoke of the Roman Empire. Confronted with the challenge of his boyhood Roman friend, Massala and now (XXVI AD) Tribune of Jeruselum (aptly played by Stephen Boyd) to use his influence to help the Romans quell discontent, Judah spuns friendship over love for 'his people'. When a tile falls from the roof of the Hur family complex and nearly kills the new Governor of Judea, Massala seizes his chance at revenge and imprisons Judah's mother and sister and sends Judah to die in the Roman galleys. Now comes the first of Judah's 'close encounters' with the carpenter's son - while on his own personal Battan death march from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean, Judah, parched from walking in the desert is given water by a strange hippy-looking man - one who scares the scat out of the rough and tumble Roman guard by simply looking his way.
Now jump ahead ~3.5 years, Judah has lived below deck in a number of Roman warships - 'row[ing] to live' - when a great battle commences and drawn once again by fate, he saves the life of Roman council Quintus Arrius (played by Jack Hawkins - also had a small but important role in William Holden's "Bridge Over the River Kwai"). When it turns out the Roman's won the great battle, despite the flag ship going down, Arrius is grateful to Judah and takes him to Rome where Caesar gives Judah to Arrius as 'his slave' rather then sending him back to the galley's. Judah is then adopted by Quintus Arrius and becomes 'young Quintus Arrius' so when he returns to Jerusalem to seek revenge on Massala he surprising him by entering as Quintus Arrius the younger, rather than Judah Ben-Hur. Of course this is not what Massala wanted or expected. Judah only wants to rescue his family members but it turns out that they are 'dead', or at least that's what the love interest of Judah (Esther) tells him when she finds out from mom and sister that they are now lepers (Massala sends his cronies to find them and the jailer finds them as lepers and casts them outside the city walls). Now Judah is REALLY pissed...he befriends Sheik Ilderim who owns a 'magnificent' set of Arabian chariot horses with an eye to beat the Roman Tribune - Massala of course - in the circus in Jerusalem. Judah sees his chance - helped of course by the pointed comment of the Sheik that 'anything can happen in the circus...men die".
Now the action scene to match all action scenes - the great chariot race - this is worth the price of admission, but only in widescreen. If you watch Ben-Hur in pan-and-scan you are getting took. Too much happens during the chariot race to waste your time with pan-and-scan - black bars be damned (I don't actually mind them but many do) - watch ONLY the WIDESCREEN version of this movie. Of course Judah wins the chariot race and Massal dies a nasty death (sorry if I spoiled anything - it's a full 3 hrs into the movie though so you'll probably forget I told you). On his death bed Massala gets the last 'laugh' when he tells Judah the 'race is not over' and his mother and sister are alive in the Valley of the Lepers.
Judah then searches out his mother and sister and when bringing them home from the Valley of the Lepers runs into the carpenter's son for the second time (actually he sees him from a distance once other time before the chariot race) as the latter is 'the Dead man Walking' - Judah returns the favor of giving the Hippy guy water and is of course forever changed by the experience (you can almost hear the chorus of Hallelujahs). Upon he crucifixion and rain storm that follows Judah's mother and sister are 'cured' from runoff of the cross....from here on out (another 15 minutes or so) the movie is a bit anticlimactic, but hey we can forgive it since we've already sat through 3.5 hrs of spectacular.
I fully love this movie, have since I was a kid - of course the chariot race was the only thing I cared a lot for as a kid. As an adult I can now more fully appreciate the nuances of the story line. I highly recommend this movie if you've never seen it. Of the 'Biblical' movies this is one of the best - I rank it equal to, if not better than, the Ten Commandments (again with Heston, but backed by a more high power supporting cast including Yul Brenner and Edward G. Robinson). Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards and deservedly so.
(alright enough I guess since it took me 2 hrs to write this and 2 hrs for you to read it!!!)
This is a classic Hollywood epic by William Wyler, made when epics were commonplace, but Ben-Hur is not a commonplace movie. Based on the book by Gen. Lew Wallace (Federal soldier in the US Civil War) titled, "Ben-Hur: A Story of the Christ", this 1959 screen adaptation features Charlton Heston in the lead role of Judah Ben-Hur. We follow the life of Judah from XXVI AD until the death of Christ. The Hur family is 'nobility' in Jerusalem of the day and Judah is a respected member of the Jewish community then under the yoke of the Roman Empire. Confronted with the challenge of his boyhood Roman friend, Massala and now (XXVI AD) Tribune of Jeruselum (aptly played by Stephen Boyd) to use his influence to help the Romans quell discontent, Judah spuns friendship over love for 'his people'. When a tile falls from the roof of the Hur family complex and nearly kills the new Governor of Judea, Massala seizes his chance at revenge and imprisons Judah's mother and sister and sends Judah to die in the Roman galleys. Now comes the first of Judah's 'close encounters' with the carpenter's son - while on his own personal Battan death march from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean, Judah, parched from walking in the desert is given water by a strange hippy-looking man - one who scares the scat out of the rough and tumble Roman guard by simply looking his way.
Now jump ahead ~3.5 years, Judah has lived below deck in a number of Roman warships - 'row[ing] to live' - when a great battle commences and drawn once again by fate, he saves the life of Roman council Quintus Arrius (played by Jack Hawkins - also had a small but important role in William Holden's "Bridge Over the River Kwai"). When it turns out the Roman's won the great battle, despite the flag ship going down, Arrius is grateful to Judah and takes him to Rome where Caesar gives Judah to Arrius as 'his slave' rather then sending him back to the galley's. Judah is then adopted by Quintus Arrius and becomes 'young Quintus Arrius' so when he returns to Jerusalem to seek revenge on Massala he surprising him by entering as Quintus Arrius the younger, rather than Judah Ben-Hur. Of course this is not what Massala wanted or expected. Judah only wants to rescue his family members but it turns out that they are 'dead', or at least that's what the love interest of Judah (Esther) tells him when she finds out from mom and sister that they are now lepers (Massala sends his cronies to find them and the jailer finds them as lepers and casts them outside the city walls). Now Judah is REALLY pissed...he befriends Sheik Ilderim who owns a 'magnificent' set of Arabian chariot horses with an eye to beat the Roman Tribune - Massala of course - in the circus in Jerusalem. Judah sees his chance - helped of course by the pointed comment of the Sheik that 'anything can happen in the circus...men die".
Now the action scene to match all action scenes - the great chariot race - this is worth the price of admission, but only in widescreen. If you watch Ben-Hur in pan-and-scan you are getting took. Too much happens during the chariot race to waste your time with pan-and-scan - black bars be damned (I don't actually mind them but many do) - watch ONLY the WIDESCREEN version of this movie. Of course Judah wins the chariot race and Massal dies a nasty death (sorry if I spoiled anything - it's a full 3 hrs into the movie though so you'll probably forget I told you). On his death bed Massala gets the last 'laugh' when he tells Judah the 'race is not over' and his mother and sister are alive in the Valley of the Lepers.
Judah then searches out his mother and sister and when bringing them home from the Valley of the Lepers runs into the carpenter's son for the second time (actually he sees him from a distance once other time before the chariot race) as the latter is 'the Dead man Walking' - Judah returns the favor of giving the Hippy guy water and is of course forever changed by the experience (you can almost hear the chorus of Hallelujahs). Upon he crucifixion and rain storm that follows Judah's mother and sister are 'cured' from runoff of the cross....from here on out (another 15 minutes or so) the movie is a bit anticlimactic, but hey we can forgive it since we've already sat through 3.5 hrs of spectacular.
I fully love this movie, have since I was a kid - of course the chariot race was the only thing I cared a lot for as a kid. As an adult I can now more fully appreciate the nuances of the story line. I highly recommend this movie if you've never seen it. Of the 'Biblical' movies this is one of the best - I rank it equal to, if not better than, the Ten Commandments (again with Heston, but backed by a more high power supporting cast including Yul Brenner and Edward G. Robinson). Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards and deservedly so.
(alright enough I guess since it took me 2 hrs to write this and 2 hrs for you to read it!!!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)