Random thoughts

@NIH Working on protein function prediction. Need postdoc+new cluster. Send $0.7M for 2009-2012. Prev pubs: http://is.gd/vnPN kthxbi - Iddo

Friendfeed: Ignore it and Be Ignored?!

Prediction: The effort required to outsource a task involving the manipulation of data of any kind will continue to decrease until it will be faster and cheaper to outsource just about anything than it will be to use in-house talent. What will you do today to ensure your prosperity when that happens?

(…) we are to be TRUSTED to determine the direction of our own research entirely on our own. We have to defend our judgement and our intrinsic motivation. We are devotees of truth and need no FORCE (or behaviorist manipulation) to be doing our very best to seek for it.

Science is subject to great uncertainty: we cannot be confident now which efforts will ultimately yield worthwhile achievements. However, the current system abdicates to a small number of intermediates an authoritative prescience to anticipate a highly unpredictable future

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. George Bernard Shaw

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Does @neilfws really exist?

Science is the testing of ideas. That’s all. Every technicality I can think of is avoided so long as the person doing the science is honest. Create fair and objective tests, try not to fool yourself or anyone else, don’t be wedded to your hypothesis, basic things like that. Be dishonest and I doubt there’s a definition in the world that some sufficiently clever pseudoscientist can’t wriggle out of. Test your ideas and be honest about it. That’s about it.