Friday, March 27, 2009

Dilbert moment

Can't help laughing at this email from $coworker. Spooky similarity to far too many of my own emails recently. :)
I don't know who needs to coordinate the work or who needs to do what so if whoever needs to lead the charge can coordinate with whoever needs to do whatever else, I would appreciate it.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

How Death Lost Its Fear

How Death Lost Its Fear
By Jack Marinchek Platinum Quality Author


Guess what? I found out the answer to the mystery of death. The problem is I don't have any way of verifying the answer. But so what? The road to wisdom and knowledge often times doesn't lead to all answers. Right?

I may get a lot of people mad at me when I publish this article. "So what", I say. For sure the Grim Reaper is mad at me. Probably some religious people that believe they have all of the answers, also. I can live with that.

Let me explain quickly why I have chosen the subject of death to write about. During the last two years I have had three life threatening major surgeries. Honest. Don't misjudge me. Prior to this, I have never really been sick in my life.

The docs say the effects of smoking don't normally catch up to someone until he hits his 70's. I smoked two packs a day for thirty five years. So, you figure it out.

Well anyway, I had a ruptured appendix, cancer in the appendix and colon, life threatening radiation poisoning, (part of the cancer treatment), and carotid artery blockage (90%). With all of that stuff behind me, I now feel fit as a fiddle.

I work out six days a week. I am a 2nd Degree Black Belt (Tae Kwon Do). You can't hold me down. I will turn 72 years of age this December. Like I got energy to burn.

I have become a very relaxed and easy going person. I love and relish life. Each day is very exciting for me. Why? One reason is because I keep getting answers to all of the questions I have been asking myself for the last seventy years.

You know, simple down to earth questions we all ask ourselves. Things about life and living. "What's it all about Alphie?"

Now that I have a genuine appreciation of my mortality, I can't help but wonder what happens when death arrives? I have always been very comfortable with the concept of dying. Actually, it's no longer a theoretical concept for me. No sir. It's a forthcoming and shadowing reality.

Well, I am an oft and on church goer. I am religious in a spiritual sense. I don't drive myself nuts about "dotting the I's and crossing the T's" of religious doctrine. "Live and let live" is my model.

Maybe you would like to know where I am coming from? I'll give you a hint. I am a student of world religions and I am a big fan of Huston Smith, "The World Religions". With this in mind, you can appreciate the fact that I have a hard time with the concept of One True Religion. From my viewpoint, all of the World Religions are the True Religion.

Where does this leave us regarding the discussion of death. In terms of possibility thinking, I believe the Ultimate Reality can be no reality. In another words, "you get oblivion...nothing."

On the other hand, according to the Myths and Theologies, you may get your "heaven", whatever that may be. Frankly I am not worried about it.

Who knows? Maybe "hell" will work its way into this ultimate reality. You never know for sure, right? Come on Mr. Death.

Here's what I think happens when we meet death. We get exactly what we think we will get or "expect". Why not? This law of expectation seems to be operating quite perfectly on this planet Earth. Just check out the power of Belief, positive thinking, miracles, you know, the whole package of "the Secret".

For that matter, let's keep it simple. Just look at the phenomenon of medical testing. Scientists have given research objects fake and real drugs. Some of these pills have medical healing effects and others have zero healing effects in them.

In most cases, people who take the empty pills feel "healed" or better just like the people who take the real "McCoy". The point being, the power of belief and expectation can knock your socks off.

Two world celebrated religious Leaders, Jesus and Buddah, were known to have exhorted people on how to get what they want out of life. Jesus, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

Let's not forget His Reverence, the Buddah, "A monk who is skilled in concentration can cut the Himalayas in two."

Scientists have proven how the power of thoughts can effect human beings and physical matter thousands of miles away from the person who is sending "the positive thought". God help us, it can also be a negative thought. But anyway, I think you get the picture.

We get in life exactly what we believe. Unfortunately many people don't know how to work with the powerhouse dynamite SubConscious Mind that we all possess. I really don't know either, for that matter. At least not in perfect sense. Joseph Murphy, " the Power of Your Subconscious Mind", will give you a good idea for starters.

We can't knock religious people. If it works why not use it? Again, the medical community has proven that religious people have a high tolerance for sickness and frustration. In another words, as group, religious people seem to be less affected by the normal calamities of living. Maybe it's because we get what we expect.

Maybe the key to living life the best we can, is to have honest to goodness dynamic positive expectations. Like the "street reality" language of "money talks and bs walks".

Maybe, the Ultimate Reality is much simpler then we think. Scientists have proven with special photography that things, animate and inanimate, that die don't disappear. Their "energy" force continues to exist. This is measured by different colors this energy emits. Check out Kirlian photography.

Ok. We have had our discussion on death and the power of expectation and belief. Many years ago, I was in the hospital room of my dying father. He was dying from Hodgkin's disease. He was a regular church going guy. And, he took his religion seriously.

Anyway, when my dad was dying, I remember him saying to me, "Those streets are beautifully lined with gold." You see, he saw heaven just like it was told to him in his Bible. God love him, he believed it. He died right after that. There was no fear of death for this guy.

So, in conclusion, I believe we all get what we expect to get, both in this life and very possibly in the Next. Goodbye Mr. Fear. And, so long Mr. Death. We are no longer partners.

p.s. Kiss off Grim Reaper.

Jack Marinchek is the publisher of the site, http://standforyourgreatness.com/, which features- inspirational information on life improvement, getting jobs and income, travel, and real estate relocation

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jack_Marinchek

SICI (Search for IntraCellular Intelligence)

Much like SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), I spent all day yesterday searching protein sequences for periodicity using chemical property filters, entropy, Fourier transformations, and R.

None of the ~80 graphs I generated looked like an old dude with a beard...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

deafferret on Twitter

Anyone following this blog might also want to keep up with me as deafferret on Twitter. That's my micro-blog. (Each post 140 characters or less, posts more frequent than this blog.)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Genome center information management

Awesome.

More awesome: I actually understand what he's talking about and why nowadays. I've come so far. :)

Monday, March 2, 2009

A carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms

Spent all of Sunday tying DNA methylation data into my JCVI project. Another classic battle inside my brain:

I'm fascinated by everything we (humanity) knows about this process, and the fact that sitting in Omaha, NE on my laptop, my mentor and I can harness that information, creating millions of data points in a database of my design using software I wrote. What a wondrous time we live in, flush with opportunity to explore the universe.

I'm repulsed by the ambiguity of the datasets we work with. How can we not know what's actually happening? What's the point of me gathering a million possibilities? How is drowning in maybes helpful? My brain panics! Call me when we can know something!

Science seems to be about spotting and exploring trends in noisy data. My computer programmer brain likes on and off, black and white. Trends are tough for me to swallow. This recurring theme convinces me that I make a good scientist's side-kick, and a lousy scientist. :)