Free Lantern

Moving to Wordpress!

2008-02-24T14:19:34Z

The reason I'm not updating my blog are two:
First reason is that I've been too busy with work during the last weeks, even now that is Sunday I've spent it at work all day!
The second and maybe the main reason is that I've been trying to set up everything to move my blog to WordPress. I decided to move to wordpress because it is an OpenSource and on the other hand my webhost supports it better.
Movable Type is a great management system but unfortunately when you have the personal free version there is no support for it and also I had problems with some of the features in my host so I thought would be a good Idea to move to wordPress and also move the weblog to the root of FreeLantern so if you are linking to my weblog please correct your links to Free Lantern.
I've also set up a Persian blog for myself, so I'll be also writing from time to time in Persian.

Every Human has Rights

2008-02-09T18:07:53Z

2008 is the 60^th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human rights.The Elders say that the government have been signing this declaration for the past 60 years but now you have the chance to sign it in Every Human Has Rights website. You can read a plain language version of the declaration in this homepage and be one of those who sign and join this campaign.
The Hub, the media site specialized for human rights, is also working with Every Human Has Rights campaign to build a global digital databank of human rights stories, in text, audio and video.

Obama: "Yes we can" by Will.I.Am

2008-02-04T23:03:55Z

I saw this video in Britt Bravo's blog, it is a music video created by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas based on Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech. As today is an important day I thought I'd share it here with you. Watch the video:

Inside a Cell

2008-02-03T12:20:23Z

When I was doing my B.Sc. and M.Sc. I can say the only resource of learning we had were books. Nowadays there are so many scientific resources available online most of which are free (at least for educational and research purposes), that can make learning easier for students. I came across this award winning animation by BioVision at Harvard which is graphically reproduction of some of the important phenomena's inside the cell. It is called The Inner Life of a Cell. I'm sure this short version with the amazing music you see bellow, anyone can enjoy even if you're not a biologist. As a biologist/Molecular biologist I suggest that after watching the short form also watch the complete version with the explanation on their homepage. I love the part showing the Motor protein carrying a vesicle along the microtubules.
I also use this opportunity to introduce this valuable webpage: MolecularMovies is an amazing collection of cell and molecular animations, you can surf through them and enjoy.

I wanna be a POPStar

2008-01-30T10:36:33Z

This video really made me laugh! It is a parody of I wanna be a rockstar from Nickelback.

War with Iran?

2008-01-29T09:58:44Z

While surfing, I found this web page, check it out: www.AREWEATWARWITHIRAN.com?

On the other hand Craig has written in Deep Sea News, it seems that killing Whales is at the moment on the top agenda for Bush administration!

PCR Song!

2008-01-25T09:05:36Z

Those of you who have something to do with biology know the importance of PCR in molecular biology today, for those of you who don't know what Polymerase Chain Reaction is (or don't care), in short one can say PCR did the same thing to Molecular Biology research that Transistor did to electronics! This is a video-song called PCR song, watching it you can also know a bit more what PCR can do! The song was made as an advertisement for Bio-Rad PCR machines and similar to USA for Africa song! In the rest of this post I also attach the Lyrics. Here you can find the original video and download it. I like it when at the end one of the guys is dancing with a PCR machine! ;))

]]> The PCR Song
There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.
Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.
Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases, too.
Denaturing, annealing, and extending.
Well it’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.

PCR, when you need to detect mutations.
PCR, when you need to recombine.
PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.
PCR, when you need to solve a crime.
(repeat chorus)

Kary Mullis, the one who developed PCR
Polymerase Chain Reaction in Wikipedia

Stem Cell

2008-01-20T20:42:04Z

Interesting news in Stem Cell Research: Nature News, A California company has brought human cloning research to a new level with efficient production of cloned human blastocysts. If you want to be updated about stem cell research news, Nature Reports Stem Cells is a valuable resource.
I saw this amazing video of Dolphins playing with air bubbles in Pharyngula, thought I'll share it here too.

Bomb Iran?

2008-01-17T22:42:04Z

McCain in this video starts singing Bomb Iran! I think as a video online with comic of Bush this might have been funny but singing it as a US presidential candidate, I don't know what you can call it!

Happy Birthday "King"

2008-01-15T16:55:13Z

Today is the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His life and his words are very inspiring to me so I thought I'll share a few quotes from him:

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

]]>

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963

Open Source living

2008-01-14T15:24:39Z

I just want to introduce this website:
Open Source Living is an archive of the Web's best Open Source software, applications and references. I'm sure Linux lovers-geeks like my good friend Jadi are gonna love this page!

DNA

2008-01-13T12:23:07Z

One of the great advantages of the growth of internet especially for scientists is the amount of freely available resources that one can find. Many of these resources are freely available for non commercial and educational purposes, like the valuable power point goldmine I introduced here!
When I was doing my bachelor so many online resources were not available and I do remember that even an important database like Medline was not freely available (you could buy them on CD's) as it is now in PubMed. I'll share the useful pages I find or I'm using in this weblog so that the friends and colleagues can also use them. If you find them useful or know other resources please leave a comment.

DNA Interactive is a page with valuable information for students and teachers. I'm sure you'll enjoy going through the pages. You can go to the players section to watch interviews with scientists in each research area.
DNA from the beginning is another useful page for students and those want to learn about DNA.

Sixth "anniversary" of Guantanamo

2008-01-11T16:03:38Z

Amnesty marks sixth 'anniversary' of Guantanamo with prison cell protest outside US embassy
Today was the sixth "anniversary" of Guantanamo prison opening, Amnesty International organized protests in London, Belfast in front of the US embassy to call for closure of this prison.

They Can Detain Anyone for Anything

2008-01-08T14:35:08Z

The Iranian government is relying on its broadly worded “security laws” to suppress virtually any public expression of dissent, Human Rights Watch said in a report released yesterday.
This 51-page report which is titled: “‘You Can Detain Anyone for Anything’: Iran’s Broadening Clampdown on Independent Activism,” documents the expansion in scope and number of the individuals and activities persecuted by the Iranian government over the last two years.
To read this report you can see here (PDF) or in Persian PDF.

Happy hollidays!!

2007-12-22T15:45:53Z

This is so true so I also say:

Happy make-your-kids-into-greedy-little-materialistic-consumption-addicts Day!

I'm on holidays!

Cheers