Ok, just a quick post here to verbalize something that bothers me (and everybody else, I suspect).. The issue of poor documentation of software.. Even ‘well’ documented programs have huge issues.. For instance, I am working with edgeR a lot lately.. The documentation is pretty good (link), but there is a lot still left up […]
A mostly frustrating day in the field: I had more success in the mouse department, but they were VERY cold, and they didn’t want to eat/drink.. this part of the plan was critical.. Sleep– yes, eat, not so much.. To make sure the mice dont get so cold tonight, I bought some pillow stuffing, and filled […]
We drove a long 9 hour drive on Wednesday, through the LA basin, then east to the Inland Empire– the Southern California Deserts. As I mentioned in the last post, I am really excited for this trip, as I am collecting a bunch of interesting and important data. I have been watching the weather, and […]
I’m heading to the field in a couple of days– super excited! Busy today trying to wrap up a few things on campus, and pack up supplies. This should be a great trip, and I have plans to collect some really interesting stuff.. In particular, I’m really excited about trying out the hand-held refractometer that […]
As some of you likely know, I’ve been applying for tenure track faculty jobs. I’ve learned a ton, and trying to market myself has been a really useful endeavor… People always told me that the search was brutal, and more specifically the rejection is brutal, but I didn’t quite know the depth of the suckiness.. […]
OK, so a slight update on the tick issue: I have some better pics, and have send some specimens to an Acarologist– he thinks these are ticks of the genus Echinonyssus (family Hirstionyssidae s.s. or Laelapidae s. lat.). Im set to profile the metegenomic (e.g the bad shit ticks send to your way when they […]
As many of you know, I am working on a project involving desert rodents, and have come across a Acari (ticks and mites) species that I would love to identify. Please help! The animals is specific to a single rodent species, Chaetodipus spinatus, which is found in the Southern California deserts. I find 5-10 of […]
I have long drooled over the Illumina 150bp read length… Once, a long time ago, soon after they were originally released, I got a single 150PE dataset– and was very dissapointed with the quality. With standard adapter read trimming (to PHRED=15), I trimmed almost every read down to 100bp- huge bummer as I have high […]
I went to the circus (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey) last night with the kids… OK, so one of the more unpleasant things about the circus is wading through the PETA and animal right people all with signs about how the elephants are mistreated. The thing is, that they’ve had the same 3 pictures of elephants […]
Of late, there has been a lot of discussion on the use of preprint servers (here, here, here), and the pros and potential cons of posting manuscripts pre-acceptance. For me, the pros are obvious, the dissemination of research as widely and freely as possible. Cons, well, having ideas or research stolen. I guess we all […]