Artiscence

This is what Hurricane Sandy did to parts of New York City and New Jersey.  Although precautions were taken as expected, the storm was a little more aggressive and vigorous than anticipated. Most of the states on the East Coast were battered mercilessly by Sandy, including North Carolina and Connecticut. Funny, I was just in NC last week. New York City after Sandy. Posted by a friend on Facebook   New York City during Sandy Subways in NYC are flooded and the One World Trade Center renovation site had a massive flood. This whole unfortunate even is made even more dramatic because these are states not used to hurricanes or hurricane-related events. Some places in NYC, Queens experienced fires along with Sandy. One World Trade Center Renovation Site flooded by hurricane Sandy  Thankfully, not everywhere was completely disastrous. I, for one feel like I am lucky. Although the power went out for a full day and trees fell in my neighborhood and power o...

No doubt, being in graduate school in and of itself is a daunting task. If you are the type that borders on paranoia, you will forever be looking over your shoulder mentally thinking everyone is out to get you. And if you are the type that's complacent, well, let's just say by the time you realize what time it is, you will be "forced" to graduate. Needless, to say, being a graduate student is an experience best lived or better yet, left alone. One of the most crucial decision made in graduate school - apart from choosing a mentor/lab -  is choosing a committee member. I wrote some suggested criteria to choosing committee members that you can access here . After choosing committee members, you will want to set up what I call the "first meeting". 1 . This first meeting is important in starting you off on the right foot. Some of the members of your committee might not know each other, so having them in the same room is essential in  getting them to know eac...

One of the most crucial decisions made early on graduate school is the decision of choosing committee members. This is very important in Bio-med programs and I suppose equally important in other STEM departments as well. So who is a committee member? A committee member is someone who provides guidance, direction and monitors the progress of a graduate student. The committee members are involved in the decision of passing you after your qualifying exam (prelims, generals e.t.c.). They are involved in your passing the dissertation (thesis defense). They play a crucial part in the progression of your thesis research and can make or mar your graduate school journey. With all these essential duties of a committee member, it is important to choose wisely and with foresight.  In choosing committee members: 1 . Look for someone knowledgeable in the area of research you are interested in. This does not necessarily mean you look for the veteran in your program, nor does it necessarily ...

One of the best things about graduate school (in my opinion) is the conferences. I get to travel to different conferences in different locations and present my research to fellow graduate students and faculty. It's a very good way to receive feedback and questions that I haven't thought about yet. Sometimes, as a graduate student, I can get very subjective about my research and going to these conferences helps me regain objectivity. Since it's just me working on it day in day out, I sometimes overlook something crucial like a control group or a treatment group or even a minor error of some sort and by presenting my work to others, they can easily see the things that I might have miss, thereby making my project stronger. Conference in Phoenix AZ . 2009  Another reason attending conferences is good is because I get to see other students and colleagues, which reminds me that there are other people out there doing something similar to what I do. Someone using the same ...

No, this is not about the movie or related to the movie  salmon fishing in the yemen . This is about me going fishing and swimming with friends/lab mates after passing my quals . After studying for months, having tense muscles from trying not to think negative and going to sleep with my mind still riotously wide awake, I had a bit of relieve when the post-doc in the lab invited us (by us I mean myself and the summer student who is now actually a part-time member of the lab) to come fishing and swimming with him. We said sure. You see, working in the lab in a place like Woods Hole is not a big deal in the winter. In the summer, it's almost torture to look out the window and see the water spread as far as your eyes can see, sail boats, speed boats and yes canoes, bopping up and down the blue water. But you can't really go out as you wish, because you are in the lab, working on a planned experiment. Yes, you can walk by the harbor after lunch, or sit by the park and watc...

The centre de promotion de l'artisanat is a place in Cotonou that showcases art and craft in different forms. Specifically, drawings, carvings and paintings. An artisanat is a place where skilled craftsmen (and women) create interesting objects and pieces. This got me a little confused in the definition of art and craft. Art is expressive, think literature, music, paintings and sculptures. Craft, on the other hand, isn't. A craft can be decorative art, like vases, small decorative paintings and so on. But then again, I suppose a craft that is expressive enough can be described as an art.  (o_O)? Can you see the name in the distance, atop the blue canopy? At any rate, in this little quaint place in Cotonou, the main attractions were carvings and drawings. By driving slowly around the center, we were able to see most of the drawings, sculptures, drums and other artistic elements carved from wood. There were also unique yards of colorful clothing, known as ankara and on...

After spending a couple of days in Porto Novo, we moved on to Cotonou. Cotonou, although not the capital of Republic of Benin, is the financial, government and economic center of the country. All the major ports (both national and international), government houses, embassies, airport and central religious houses (i.e. the national mosque) are in Cotonou. To get into Cotonou, we crossed a bridge and overlooking the bridge into the far distance is the Oueme River. The river flows into the Atlantic Ocean. There are small fishery and local merchants trading around the river. There are stories of erosion of nearby lands into the Oueme River and off into the Atlantic (don't know how true that is). While crossing the bridge, our driver said if we look closely, real closely, we can see Badagry, a small town between Lagos and Republic of Benin, in the distance (don't know how true this is either). Entering Cotonou Upon entering into Cotonou, we had lunch ...