A Free Man

I’m quite pleased to host this month’s Mendel’s Garden - a blog carnival featuring the best genetics writing on the internets for the last month. Since it’s my party, I’ve picked out a few of my favorite topics to feature. But in the way of introduction for the neophytes in the crowd, let’s define our terms. The first question I ask my students on their first exam is “What is a gene and how is it regulated?”. I’m looking for them to talk about Mendel’s description of units of inheritance and the modern DNA based definition. Well, RPM of Evolgen thinks that it’s time to expand our definition or throw the word out entirely. He makes a solid argument, based on the fact that a lot of things that are transcribed in the genome wouldn’t be considered ‘genes’ by most of us. But if we trash the word, what would geneticists call themselves?

For a perfect example of the beautiful complexity of genetics illustrated, check out this father-son photo from Not Afraid To Use It. About says it all. Without further ado, a few of my favorite things genetical:

I found a couple of great posts about the genetics of autism. Now, to clarify, I’m not a big fan of autism per se, but I got embroiled (in a minor way) in the controversy with this post on the autism-MMR vaccine sham. Since then, I’ve followed the new research on autism with some interest. A post over at Highlight Health describes two genome-wide genetic analyses that identified five genetic loci that contribute to autism susceptibility, lending more support to the argument that autism is largely a heritable disorder. Kristina Chew, of AutismVox, thinks that geneticists sometimes go a bit far, however. Her response to a “sweeping” new theory that an evolutionary tug-of-war between parental genetic contributions is astutely skeptical. And of course, As is the case with any genetic disorder, there is an environmental component to consider. Reviewing an odd study out of Cornell, the Great Beyond details an assertion that autism rates are higher in rainy parts of the world. Take of it what you will, folks.

I’ve become increasingly fascinated with human evolution and in the genomic era research into our roots is just burgeoning. This month, Daniel McArthur at Genetic Future writes about one of the new tools available to evolutionary geneticists and gives an example of its use to look at positive selection at certain human genetic loci. One of the more interesting stories from this field is of the pair of skeletons found in a mass grave in Germany locked in an intimate embrace. The Great Beyond describes the DNA analysis that revealed that the 4600 year old remains were of a parent and child  and appear, with fractured skulls and an arrowhead in the spine, to have been unfortunate victims of humanity’s penchant for genocide. Of course, none of this may matter according to UCL’s Steve Jones (as reported on Dick Dawkins dot net) who says that human evolution is done due to a dearth of older fathers. Jones argues that genetic variation comes, in part, from mutations that men accumulateas they get older. Don’t worry, Steve, I think there are plenty of toxins about to keep us mutating.

Speaking of junk science,  there was some new junk on junk DNA released as a press release from the Genome Institute of Singapore. As Bayblab points out, this is a new and disturbing way of publishing your results - skip all the hassle of peer review and editing and just throw it out there to the mainstream press. Shame really, because this is my third topic of choice - epigenetics. Yann Klimentidis, on his blog, recounts some recent research looking at epigenetic changes in utero brought on by environmental stress. Zamp Bionews has more about epigenetic control of offspring fertility, which in this case is regulated by small RNAs apparently passed on maternally. Alex at The Daily Transcript has RNA, if not epigenetic, regulation in his post describing how each RNA binding protein in yeast tends to associate with mRNAs of a particular type. He hypothesizes that the expression of entire classes of genes may be subject to coordinated regulation at the level of mRNA metabolism.

And finally this month, a technical brief for those of you doing the hard work of science rather than just writing about it.  Sandra, who blogs at Discovering Biology in a Digital World, tells us about a new BLAST feature that allows users to create a custom database. Sandra goes through a step-by-step tut and generates a viral phylogeny. For those Ph.D. students out there in the “Nothing Works Doldrums”, Nick at Bite Size Bio has some reassuring words for you - sometimes things just don’t work. That’s biology.

Next month’s Mendel’s Garden will be hosted by Another Blasted Weblog. If you’re interested in submitting, you can do so here.

 

 R.E.M. - "Gardening At Night (Alternative Radio Sampler Version) [4:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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…but these things don’t.

1. Recycling, South Australia style.

2. History podcasts. Two of my favorites are Dan Carlin’s “Hardcore History” and Mike Duncan’s “The History of Rome”. The latter is up and running again after a hiatus that went on far too long. Check out my interview with Duncan from a few months ago and look forward, hopefully, to one with Carlin in the not to distant future. These guys tell history the way it should be told.

3. This weekend, while driving through the beige plains of South Australia, I had an epiphany: the music that I enjoy the most, the stuff that always turns my crank when it pops up on the iPod, is Americana. Call it Country & Western, alt*country, hick licks, whatever - if it’s got a bit of twang, strong songwriting and a loping beat, I dig it the most. Runaway Dorothy is a Tarheel quartet that ticks all the right boxes for A Free Man. They were kind enough to send me their debut LP, “The Arc”, a while back and the more I listen to it, the more I like it. They’re unsigned and blogger friendly, so check out the track below and if you like what you hear buy the record!

4. Saxondale. A new Free Man commenter (and old friend) introduced me to this BBC comedy starring the incomparable Steve Coogan a couple of years ago. Watching Season 1 again on my iPod has been making my commute shorter for the last couple of weeks. Got Season 2 Captain Sensible?

5. To rip off Time Magazine - you. For inexplicable reasons, your underwhelming correspondent has been the recipient of a flurry of blog awards lately. Thanks to Father Muskrat, Strange Scottish Girl, My Boyfriend Is A Pirate, Mongolian Girl, and Trooper Thorn (though his was misguided). Thanks a lot to these guys and all of you that take some time out of your day to waste it with me.

6. A day off with this monkey.

That’s not Timmins, Boy Z.

Back with you properly soon, I’ve got all sorts of good things planned for you. Why, oh why, did I give them essay questions on their exam?

 

 Runaway Dorothy - "Abilene": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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A Free Man is taking the day off from the internets to do some of that tedious work stuff, but I didn’t want to leave my gentle readers high and dry. Some of you may remember that Chris of Formerly Fun was kind enough to give me the day off last week with her guest post. Well, she somehow coerced me into a discussion of a topic that I typically avoid like Somali pirates - female body image. Check out my self-immolation over at Formerly Fun’s place.

I’ll be back here later for the last Deep South Smack Talk of the season - the Clean, Old Fashioned Hate edition.

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I have no idea what Canadian artist Richard Marchand’s illustration “Gone Fishin’” has to do with fishing, but it seemed dead appropriate for my guest post today.

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Just a wee break in the 90’s flashbacks this week, stay tuned for more…

It rained yesterday - Australian drought my ass. It rained on A Free Man and Boy Party Day, which meant that we were house bound for the bulk of the day. Boy Z has risen to toddlerhood proper and I just want to say that I now have sympathy for all you stay-at-home-parents. The boy is an insubordinate destructicon (he gets it from his Mother). Here’s hoping that this mythological Australian summer kicks in soon or I may go back to working five days a week.

My sanity was preserved by  the arrival of two overseas packages yesterda. First, in the morning mail, was a box of Georgia schwag from Just Jessie containing more paraphenalia to make Boy Z the best dressed Little Dawg in the Southern Hemisphere. Even better, though, was DVDs of the first four games of the year - back when we still thought we were good. Watching the Bulldogs run all over Georgia Southern kept Boy Z quiet for a good two minutes.

With the afternoon post, my sanity was at a breaking point - the terrorist was on the verge of winning.  Then my hardworking postman rang the bell again, this time with a box full of Obama paraphernalia kindly shipped my way by Alice of 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera - her campaign leftovers. It was a veritable treasure trove of all things Obama, including some t-shirts, stickers, buttons, posters (one of which is my favorite campaign image) and even Democratic mints. There was a notable shortage of Obama gear in Oz, so Alice’s package was a great treat for a fervent supporter of the president-elect. Plus, the stickers and pins distracted Boy Z for a fair few minutes. Although, I suspect that I’ll be finding Obama-Biden stickers stuck about the place for a few days.

My most heartfelt thanks to both Jessie and Alice!

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In lieu of an accompanying track, I’d like to point you to the Aquarium Drunkard who has a whole album of a show played by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash in 1969. Two of my favorite artists of all time - magical. Check it out here.

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One of my favorite things about blogging is that I can get inspiration from fellow bloggers. Some days, the creative juices just don’t flow and a read of a great post by someone else can give me the kick start I need to get my own fingers working. Since I saw Florida Girl In Sydney’s dodgy old photo and the dodgy love story that accompanied it, I’ve been looking for an excuse to break out some of my photo archives. I found a vehicle for that desire in Arizaphale’s recent NaBlowSomethingorOther posts featuring excerpts from her diaries of the mid 90’s.

Regrettably, I’ve got some diaries from the mid-90’s as well, but while Arizaphale was cooking up a beautiful baby girl in Britain, I was wandering the streets of Seattle pretty much aimlessly. I pulled out one of my diaries from the Spring of ‘95 just to have a little trip down memory lane. Let me set the stage for you. I was 23 years old, in the previous winter my life had taken an ugly turn. My brief and unfortunate marriage (one day I’ll give y’all the goods on this) had fallen apart sending me into a spiral of self-pity, self-destruction and substance abuse. I had quit a stable, but boring, job to pursue a “career” as a freelance photographer.

Things start off inauspiciously…

27 March 1995

…I guess what I’m trying to do is come to terms with what is either the long awaited achievement of happiness and success that I’ve been striving for or the complete loss of touch with reality that I’ve expected for years…

(Spoiler: It’s the latter)

30 March 1995

I think that the last 48 hours have been some of the happiest of my life - beginning Wenesday morning - woke up early - downtown to drop of film with KK at 11 - got a little work through him. Ran into NW in Westlake Park and sat in the sun with him for a while - watched women and talked shit… 

(I’ll spare you the details - booze, drugs, work, women, delusions of grandeur. And then, two days later…)

1 April - Bauhaus*

Trying to stay up while things are falling apart around me. Money - there is none - work - there is little. I’ve got to stay on it somehow - I’m not sure how to stay sane?

And then…

2 April -Bauhaus

Seattle is gray and drizzly - still short(er) of money - survival in question I’m not unhappy - frightened, unhappy and somehow depressed - a general disdain for people again - the unadulterated adoration for life has, not surprisingly, disappeared. God is dead and noone cares. 

So, we’ve learned that I was an unstable, self-important yet self-loathing, misanthropic dickhead. Let’s see what else we can glean from the lost diaries of A Free Man*. What was a typical day like in the Spring of ‘95?

4 June 1995

Another fucking hangover - smoke to cure it - went out last night with P and M - drank shitloads of beer at Linda’ - talked shit about philosophy and literature - Henry Miller, suicide, bullshit. We drank way to much at Linda’s and then more at Beatnix later on. Blew a shitload of money. Ate ecstasy, which did not work - went to the Re-bar for a while - took half a tab of acid which did work. I spotted a waitress who was just a dream, slicked back hair, collar, translucent clothes - so I tore my ad out of The Stranger and said “Hi. My name is Chris. This is who I am. I’d like to take you out for a drink.” She, of course, didn’t jump on the Chris-wagon (cringe) but she told me her name and to come back and see her. On the way somewhere, I found half a bottle of Jim Beam which we drank in the bushes near City Market with a drunken Indian bum. We needed food and went up to Broadway - M bought Taco Bell…

The glamorous life of the American hipster. There are days and days of entries like this, recollections of nights of drinking, drugs and failing to pick up women. It should come as no surprise, then, that there are nearly an equal number of entries like this:

6 June 95 - #7 Bus

Just when I think my life might be under control, I am even further gone - more bounced checks - head in space. M wants to go to NYC, I may go with him. I think that it’s definitely time to get out of Seattle. Things are closing in around me - a noose of sorts (drama queen). Escape seems the only option. At the studio, things began to deteriorate - cancelled shoot, someone who was supposed to pick up some prints and pay didn’t. K broke my lamp. God damn. God damn. I’m plastic I’m a smokescreen. I need to be saved. I’m shaking like a speed freak. I’m at fucking Bauhaus of all goddamned places. I’m not in control of my life.

And repeat. Repeatedly. Every now and again, there are moments of surprising clarity:

3 May ‘95 - Volunteer Park

…the practical purpose of this journal is an effective surrogate memory. Something I can refer to in the future that will define this period of my life - I know that change is inevitable - I feel it all around me all the time - I don’t know, however, if the change is going to be good…I think I may have already forgotten some of the lessons I’ve learned. That is what I need to remember - what I learn. Right now I’m learning:

1.  Pot and bourbon are bad for motivation.
2. I treat women badly.
3. Money is the most destructive, consuming factor for my soul.
4. What feels good is not always what is best for you.

Not particularly groundbreaking, but surprisingly clearheaded. Of course, the following day:

…bought more pot, got drunk with rednecks in Tukwila on a Friday night, blew off the only woman I’ve had sex with in a while…

I’ll spare you the rest of the gory details. But let’s take a look at how it ends, the last entry:

23 June 95 - Bauhaus

Is new hope, renewed hope, the key to my survival, my evolution, my success? I don’t know. Three months ago: “I’m excited to see where things lead…” two days ago “no more now.”

I guess what needs to happen is salvation. But salvation tends to not come when you call it. Have to work for it. Salvation lies within oneself. I want to find it. I’m going to find it.

I’m going to go home. Listen to Jane’s Addiction. Work.

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It didn’t quite work that way. It took me another decade to find what I was looking for and it wasn’t within me.

When I write a post like I did the other day, I’m still flabbergasted that they are my words. I spent so much of my teens and twenties being erratic, depressed, manic, drunk, high and, above all, unhappy. Sometimes I wish I could go back to Seattle in 1995 and smack my 23 year old self in the head and say, “It’s not that hard, dumb ass. You put one foot in front of the other and get the hell on with it. Live in the day.”

I will take one piece of advice from a 1995 not-so-free man. I’m going to listen to Jane’s Addiction and do some work.

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*I apparently spent an incredible amount of time in this Capitol Hill coffee shop.

** With apologies to Sue Townsend.

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With the erratically enforced no major label music here, I thought that Chris Smither’s cover of the song that inspired this post’s title was a better choice. Smither is a Florida born finger pickin’ folkie and this Dylan cover is nearly as good as the original. Buy his latest, “Leaving the Light On” here.

 

 Chris Smither - "Visions of Johanna" [5:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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• The latest edition of Tangled Bank, another science blogging carnival, is up at Submitted to a Candid World. Science with a political
• Nichole alerted me to a contest at Grosgrain in which you can win a water color portrait of your progeny. Bad luck for Nichole as I am totally going to win.

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Damn it. As I got off the bus on the way into work earlier this week, Rundle Mall (the main shopping street in Adelaide) was bedecked with plastic snowmen, Christmas bulbs and chubby Santas - in the first week of November. Nooooooooooooo! Are you seriously expecting me to be festive for two months, for one-sixth of the year?

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with Christmas. Well, that’s not entirely true, it’s more just the latter. In recent years, I’ve learned to tolerate the holiday and with the arrival of Boy Z last year almost relished the season. But not this year. This year, I’m going Grinch.

It’s largely because of the seasonal reversal here in the Southern Hemisphere. Christmas Down Under is in midsummer, but the Australians have maintained most of the traditions of their felonious progenitors (turkey, stuffing and sedition). I just can not get my head around eating a full Christmas dinner when it’s 40C (104F) outside. The Christmas trappings here are the same as they are in cooler climes: Fur draped Santas who must bog down the local ERs with heat stroke complaints during the holidays, spheroid snowmen in a part of the world that hasn’t seen snow since the Mesozoic. Come on Aussies, after 220 years of baking Christmases, couldn’t you have come up with some climate appropriate Christmas icons? A Santa in board shorts driving a surfboard pulled by a team of kangaroos? Eucalyptus trees trimmed with jingle-bell adorned koalas? Willy the White-nosed Wombat? Something?

I think I may have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. But I fear that this is going to be a Joni Mitchell kind of Christmas.

It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
But it don’t snow here
It stays pretty green

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Nothing better to cheer one up, though, than a nice word or two about one’s self. The Noble Savage, a fellow expat blogger, gave me the much coveted I Heart Your Blog award. I blush.

The best thing about the award, well beyond the stroke to my ego, is I get to pass it on to seven writers worthier than myself. I’m always up for working on my blogging karma. I’ve discovered a few new blogs (and have been relishing some old ones) in the past few weeks that I would strongly recommend. I would go so far as to say I heart them:

1. My first two awardees are a couple of ladies with whom I have a lot more in common than just the blogging. Mongolian Girl is a Misery based commie who brags about disrobing in front of presidential candidates among other things. I would describe her site, The Cusp, as gonzo blogging. A must.
2. I found the Indisputable Topcat whilst searching for bloggers to hold down the Auburn end of next week’s Smack Talk. I still don’t know how she came up in a search for “Auburn Tigers” but I’m glad she did. Australian, husky owner and a smashing writer.
3. One of my oldest blogging buddies has said she’s quitting the blogosphere. I hope she changes her mind, but if not, I’d like to give Just Jessie this award posthumously. Maybe if we all go over and beg her to stay she’ll reconsider.
4. Everyone and their Great-Aunt Siobhan blogged about the election, self included. But Matt and April really nailed it with their post-election posts. Fantastic, well thought-out politics at The Bauer Confidential.
5. As we’re into another weekend of college football, I’ve got to direct some hearts in the direction of A Bulldog in Exile. The Dean is a Georgia Bulldog in King Corn’s Court and is doing some fantastic ‘Dawg blogging up among the unwashed Midwesterners.
6. I find it difficult to explain why I like Carrie’s blog Reconstructing Fossils, but I’m well hooked. I think it’s the kind of “Truman Show” quality of it, she doesn’t use a lot of words but I warn you there’s something addictive about her photographic diary.
7. One of my consistently favorite reads is Malfeasance. But Courtney lives up to her blogging pseudonym: she is evil incarnate and, I believe, single handedly caused my beloved alma mater’s humiliation in Jacksonville last weekend. So, rather than rewarding evil doers, I will offer this award to her better half who blogs at The Prettiest Denny’s Waitress. All the writing chops of Malfeasance with 50% less evil.

Have a Christmas free weekend, gentle readers.
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I was too depressed to take my own photo, so had to nick this photo of the Rundle Mall Xmas decorations from here.

If you don’t own Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” then you really should. It is available from and Amazon or your local independent record store.

 

 Joni Mitchell - "River" [4:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it? But whether her life’s worthy of a country song or not, the Coal Miner’s Granddaughter provided the latest moment of joy in what has been a joyful week for your underwhelming correspondent. A bag chock full of Georgia Bulldogs paraphenelia swag chugged/steamed/flew its way from North Georgia to South Australia  just in time for the homecoming game on Saturday. We’ve got flash new gear for the game against an annoyingly decent Vanderbilt team. We’ve got onesies, a track suit*, board books and even a calendar for yours truly. It is a bountiful Bulldog bonanza. Boy Z is now, without a doubt, the biggest and best dressed Dawg fan in Oz.

A Free Man, Boy Z and the entire Bulldog Nation would like to offer our most delectable thanks to the Coalminer’s Granddaughter.

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“Loretta Lynn: All Time Greatest Hits” is available from .

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* She even got our upside down seasons right!

 

 Loretta Lynn - "Coal Miner's Daughter" [3:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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It’s an excited free man coming to you from the bottom of the globe today. I’ve been racking my brain since my undeserved windfall yesterday to come up with the best use of a year of sponsored free time. I’m leaning towards adding some tools to me personal toolbox. My university isn’t the best academic institution in South Australia, but it’s definitely the most vocationally oriented. They offer a wide range of one year graduate certificates that are targeted to people like me. What I’m trying to work out is what would be my best bet for enhancing my career opportunities  - a certificate in secondary education to give me more teaching opportunities? Should I learn to write properly and do some communications course work? What about a business certificate so I can put that suit to good use? Or should I consider my geography and get some environmental engineering or water management know how?

A lot of you, my readers, are clever people. If you were given a chance to retool your career, what would you focus on? What careers are  going to be in demand in the next decade or so? Any economic Nostradami out there? Australian opinions are particularly welcome.

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Speaking of paying the bills, you may have noticed some changes up at the top of my sidebar. Now, I’ve never been a big fan of advertising or sponsored posting or any of the money making ploys that some folks employ. But a self-hosted site isn’t free and while I’m not blogging to be a millionaire, I’d like to at least not lose money in this gig. So, I’m grateful to BlogHer (and Nichole for pointing me there), the community for women who blog, for taking me on despite being demonstrably not a woman. Says so on the box, in fact. Once we get the code sorted out, there will be a likely pretty garish ad dominating the top of my side bar. Beyond having to scroll a bit further down the page to get to recent comments (which Dr. O’C has already given me an earful about) nothing else will change here at A Free Man.  So don’t call me an ad whore or I’ll put my dog on you.

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Now, I typically don’t get into the whole blog award game, but having just gotten a golden egg laid on my lap I figure it’s time to start paying back some of that karmic debt. I found this present from Bluestreak this morning on her site. I don’t speak Spanish, but I’m pretty sure that this means I am now queen of butterflies that land on toilet paper rolls. My first order of business as Lepidoptera Queen is to secure some knights of the loo roll realm. So, here are eight bloggers who have written posts recently that earned them a tap with our royal scepter:

1. Bobbie at The Right Blue for her post on photosynthetic nudibranches.
2. Maggie at Okay, Fine, Dammit on her encounter with a 10 year old me.
3. Boyhowdy at Cover Lay Down for his most recent edition of kidfolk. If you’ve got kids and like music, this is for you.
4. Doug at Hey Jenny Slater for outstanding college football coverage.
5. Matthew at Pop Songs 07-08 who managed to score a series of guest posts by Michael Stipe.
6. Strange Scottish Girl at Wake Up It’s Tuesday has been on lately.
7. I’ve been stalking Breaking The Ice lately and it’s time to out myself.
8. Finally, appropriate to the karmic theme, fellow expat Ian from Letters Home posted a bit of Buddhism for bloggers.

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The Beastie Boys’ “The Sounds of Science” is available from .

Image credits:

Up is down

The Whore of Babylon

 

 The Beastie Boys - "Skills To Pay The Bills" [3:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Your underwhelming correspondent is slowly spreading his tentacles around the interweb.

Check out my guest post on America’s game over at esmon dot net. And I’m delighted to have one of my science posts picked up by  Tangled Bank, a biweekly blog carnival featuring the best science and medicine posts in the blogosphere. See which one they chose here at Evolved and Rational.

“Behold, I can make fire from a little box.”

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