terrasig

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June 14, 2010
As launched with yesterday's post, we'll be spending this week presenting my impressions of a symposium held on June 3-4, 2010, entitled, "Setting the Agenda for Historically Black Colleges and Universities." Sponsored by North Carolina Central University, one of five HBCUs in the University of…
June 13, 2010
On June 3rd and 4th, I had the pleasure of attending a fabulous program on the modern role and future sustainability of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States. The HBCU Symposium: Setting the Agenda for Historically Black Colleges and Universities was the…
June 11, 2010
I just want to say thank you to Len Webb aka 'Cruze' and his posse for having me on their weekly, two-hour online radio show, The REC, this past Wednesday night at G-Town Radio in Philadelphia. It was nice to open my e-mailbox Wednesday morning with his note. I've read your blog on the case of…
June 11, 2010
For our readers in the Lower Keys anticipating full landfall of the BP oil plume, Florida Keys Community College is continuing with their leadership in preparing concerned citizens for the inevitable impact on the ecosystem. From today's oil spill update page of the Key West Citizen newspaper:…
June 10, 2010
Homer alert. The title pretty much covers three of some of my favorite things about living in Durham, NC. From the Pharmboy mailbox and Durham Magazine website: Catherine Clabby - former reporter extraordinaire for The News & Observer, current editor extraordinaire for American Scientist…
June 7, 2010
On the heels of the recruitment of Deborah Blum to ScienceBlogs, I am happy to welcome journalist Maryn McKenna to our neck of the ether. Her inaugural post can be read here. McKenna's blog is called Superbug, reflecting the title of her most recent book, SUPERBUG: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, and her…
June 7, 2010
As you begin your week, I was hoping that I might impose upon you for some suggestions or examples from your neck of the woods. Working with my talented and forward-thinking university Web Services colleague, Damond Nollan, I have the opportunity to craft from scratch a website for an academic…
June 6, 2010
I just commented over at DrugMonkey's on a question he re-posed on behalf of a question posed by blogger, Lorax: However, I am concerned about message. I do not want the interesting and important science to be diluted (to some potential readers) by the fact that I am an opinionated bastard. So, I…
June 5, 2010
This is not your father's North Carolina. On my trip last weekend to southern Virginia, I passed by this business park in Roxboro, NC in Person County. The county sits immediately north of Durham County, home of the Research Triangle Park, and runs to the Virginia border. This is a microcosm of…
June 2, 2010
Just the other day, I wrote about how DrugMonkey and I have experienced unprecedented and sustained blog traffic for posts we wrote in February on K2 Spice, one of a couple of marijuana-like "incense" products still sold legally in the United States. Every morning, I dial up my SiteMeter blog…
May 31, 2010
In addition to my own photos herein, Tom McLaughlin posted a nice slide show of the day at his South Boston News & Record. Despite two trees that snapped and fell in my driveway within six feet of my car in an impressive thunderstorm Friday evening, I drove on Saturday morning to Clover,…
May 26, 2010
Regular readers know that I hold equivocal views of the broad area of dietary supplements, particularly botanical supplements. On one hand, I have seen some great new compounds come from the systematic investigation of herbal and fungal concoctions to the point that 25% of prescription drugs are…
May 25, 2010
Just a quick post this morning as I am performing my professional responsibility to our nation's health research agency. In yesterday's issue of USA Today (which I only read on the iPhone app or when staying at a hotel that gives it to us free), Donna Leinwand wrote about a currently legal…
May 23, 2010
Men. Check. White. Check. Grey. Mostly. That dude must use color. Beards. Only two. Maybe three. Aw, hell, Church's makes up for the rest. Article here. Ed Yong (Asian-British, man, young, dark hair, no beard) also lists a great wrap-up of the week's commentary on the work.
May 19, 2010
The leadership team and all the staff here at Terra Sigillata world headquarters was taken aback yesterday when reports surfaced about the appearance of tar balls on the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park and Bahia Honda State Park, the closest long beach to Key West, Florida. A Coast Guard…
May 14, 2010
Dichloroacetate or DCA is a small molecule that has been in the press over the last four years due to its potential to inhibit aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells. The cells from each of us usually produce energy in the form of ATP from a variety of nutrient sources plus oxygen using a very…
May 10, 2010
This is going to be a quick welcome to Deborah Blum (@deborahblum) who has just moved her blog, Speakeasy Science, to ScienceBlogs. Why quick? Because I am only 22 pages away from finishing her latest book, The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.…
May 10, 2010
I did not turn on the computer yesterday (yes, it was glorious) so I missed Mother's Day coverage in our local newspaper. When we returned home, I was happy to see that on the front page of the print copy the dean of Duke School of Medicine, Nancy Andrews, MD, PhD, was featured with her daughter…
May 6, 2010
Let me just say at the outset that I generally pay extra to purchase brand name medications, prescription or over-the-counter (OTC), because of concerns I have about federal oversight of generic drug manufacturers. However. On April 30, McNeil Consumer Products issued a voluntary recall of a litany…
May 4, 2010
Wow. I really don't deserve this but I truly appreciate your concern, advice, and best wishes sent over the last few days following my post on losing, and slowly regaining, my voice. I didn't know anyone was still reading but some of you must have seen my RSS feed pop up under the cobwebs on your…
May 1, 2010
. . .because my voice has also been absent from the offline world. Yes, the final gift to me from LungMutiny2010 is a case of inhaled corticosteroid dysphonia - and another opportunity to cultivate compassion for those with chronic illnesses and permanent loss of physiological functioning. Here's a…
April 25, 2010
So you ran any number of 5K charity races yesterday or went on the Piedmont Farm Tour. But it's a rainy Sunday in the Southeast and you're wondering what to do with a house full of cooped-up kids, especially if it's too soggy to do day two of the farm tour. Let me suggest that you get to Durham,…
April 23, 2010
KFC and Komen? BucketsfortheCure.com? Why don't they just put a pink ribbon on a pack of cigarettes?
April 19, 2010
The 101st Annual Meeting of my primary professional society, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), convened in Washington, DC, on Saturday and will run through Wednesday, April 21. The theme for this year's meeting is "Conquering Cancer Through Discovery Research," and focuses…
April 17, 2010
I've often remarked that the beauty of this blog is that more people read here every day than I would reach in even the largest class I teach. Moreover, far more people read this blog than will ever read my peer-reviewed scientific publications. And that's even considering that we have very modest…
April 14, 2010
Down on the left sidebar you'll see a little gizmo for SiteMeter, a service that measures one's blog traffic and gives all sorts of tidbits about how readers got to the blog and a very general idea of where they are coming from. Most bloggers pay attention to the numbers of visitors but I have…
April 12, 2010
If you've never heard of Mark Fiore, you should. And will. Mark Fiore of the San Francisco Chronicle was recognized today with the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. For a distinguished cartoon or portfolio of cartoons characterized by originality, editorial effectiveness, quality of…
April 11, 2010
Last Monday marked 17 years since Eric Young led off the first Colorado Rockies baseball game with a home run that triggered a collective, mile-high orgasm for the 80,227 spectators gathered in the old Denver football stadium. The advent of the expansion Rockies also launched a Pharmboy laboratory…
April 10, 2010
Last July we wrote about the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and spoke of Buzz Aldrin's autobiography about his battle with alcoholism in the years following. The post drew a comment from a reader who I've renamed "Anon." Thank you so much for this post. I am a recovering drug…
April 8, 2010
Today at the University of California at Los Angeles, a rally is planned to raise awareness about the value of responsible animal research and to denounce acts of terrorism toward animal researchers and their families. The highlight of the Pro-Test rally will be the presentation to legislators and…