February 2008
26 posts
KompoZer - Easy web authoring →
Free Open Source WYSIWYG HTML and CSS editor (derived from Nvu) for Linux, Macintosh OS X and Windows.
InstantShot! →
Free screen capture software for Mac OS X.
PodSafe Audio →
This site aims to provide a location where musicians can upload music under the Creative Commons license for use in Podcasts, Mashups, Shoutcasts, Webcasts and every other kind of ‘casting’ that exists on the net.
Filtering my network →
I’ve never been a political animal, and when the whole social network thing took off a couple of years ago, I was initially uninterested. As ever, I was slow on the uptake, and as ever, I eventually found one site which finally brought home to me what I was missing (that, and reading The Wisdom of Crowds). For me, that site wasn’t Facebook or Twitter, but del.icio.us. And since I...
Negative sense RNA viruses →
The genomes of all cellular organisms, from bacteria to humans, consist of double-stranded DNA. But in viruses, there is tremendous diversity of virus genomes: double stranded or single-stranded, DNA or RNA, positive- or negative-sense, but only viruses have RNA genomes.
In terms of virus genomes, “negative sense” means that a single-stranded nucleic acid molecule has the opposite sequence to...
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy →
Philosophy
The Internet Undersea World →
For Sale, UK Only →
Adult male Phelsuma klemmeri:
I had a pair of P. klemmeri hatched in July 2006. They have mated and laid eggs several times. The eggs were fertile (contained embryos) but I never managed to get any of them to hatch. The female died on 23rd January, so I’m left with the male I need to rehome. Buyer collects, Leicester, UK. Also:
Dendrobates tinctorius Patricia: 3-6 months old, currently...
What is Second Life for? →
A spot of casual adultery? Is that all? Howard Rheingold’s implementation of virual reality makes sense to me (video):
Who wouldn’t rather sit in his garden and watch the flowers bloom, the leaves fall, the seasons come and go? The issue I have is how to translate the clunky Second Life interface into a mass medium which has some utility for RL students. And I haven’t seen any...
Newts halt work on Leicestershire bypass →
Work on the Earl Shilton bypass in Leicestershire has been held up because great crested newt have been found in the construction area.
Thou Shalt Always Mashup →
RSS subscribers - visit site to watch the video
Credits: Stephen Fry, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
Deliver us from Microsoft: Stephen Fry →
The Asus EEE PC on my knee combines Linux software with an Intel Celeron Mobile Processor to produce an extraordinary laptop which weighs less than 1 kg, starts up in 12 seconds and shuts down in five.
How Wordpress.com makes money with Adsense -... →
If you’re a regular reader, cookies prevent you from seeing ads. However, if you land there by accident after a Google search, things are different.
Advertising or Education? Sometimes It's Hard To... →
The more a person needs the information being presented, the less appropriate it is to offer advertising in place of education.
Liam Green-Hughes on the Asus eeePC →
VoiceThread →
Flash-based video annotation and commenting.
LinuxCommand.org: Learning the shell →
Linux terminal commands
Reduced pdf file size in Mac OS X Preview →
Saturday Cinema: Cyanobacteria →
Cyanobacteria are the oldest bacteria, having evolved around 3.8 billion years ago. The ability of cyanobacteria to perform oxygenic photosynthesis is thought to have converted the early reducing atmosphere into an oxidizing environment which dramatically changed the life forms on Earth and provoked an explosion of biodiversity. And they’re still here:
Video Credit: WLanier
MicroHoo →
Absolutely Del.icio.us Tools Collection →
Lots of ‘em.
Microsoft bids $44.6bn for Yahoo →
Latest salvo in the MS v Google war: http://tinyurl.com/2yyach
Just my luck! →
RSS subscribers - visit site to watch the video
MeBeam video chat rooms →
Step 1: Type in the name of a video room. Step 2: Tell your friends to meet you in that room.
RealPlayer is Evil →
We recommend that users do not install the versions of RealPlayer software that we tested, as distributed through channels such as Mozilla Firefox’s ‘Missing Plug-in’ feature and the BBC Radio website.
Leaf Litter Magazine →
The latest issue of TWI’s magazine Leaf Litter magazine is now available. The purpose of Leaf Litter is not only to inform, but also encourage discussion and action regarding: captive amphibian husbandry
trips and expeditions to native amphibian habitat
issues and projects concerning amphibian conservation
Contents in this issue include: Urban Wetlands
Adapting Quarantine Practices to...
Interferons and Viruses →
The interferon (IFN) system is an extremely powerful antiviral response that is capable of controlling most, if not all, virus infections in the absence of adaptive immunity. However, viruses can still replicate and cause disease in vivo, because they have some strategy for at least partially circumventing the IFN response. A great deal has been discovered about the molecular mechanisms of the...
January 2008
196 posts
Breastfeeding, breast milk and viruses →
There is seemingly consistent and compelling evidence that there is no association between breastfeeding and breast cancer. We challenge the assumption follows that milk borne viruses cannot be associated with human breast cancer.
Transspecies transmissions of retroviruses →
Transspecies transmission is common among retroviruses, although the consequences of the transmission are very different.
The evolution of human erythrovirus B19 in Brazil. →
To understand the evolutionary dynamics of human parvovirus B19, we analyzed VP1 and VP2 gene sequences of B19…
SARS enters host cells via lipid rafts →
The SARS Coronavirus invades cells using cholesterol-enriched “lipid rafts” in the cell membrane.
SceneMaker.net →
SceneMaker lets you to select a portion of a video off of YouTube, etc and share just that portion of the video without having to show the entire original video.
Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and... →
If access to higher education is a necessary element in expanding economic prosperity and improving the quality of life, then we need to address the problem of the growing global demand for education. Compounding this challenge of demand from college-age students is the fact that the world is changing at an ever-faster pace. Few of us today will have a fixed, single career; instead, we are likely...
Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and... →
John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler
EDUCAUSE Review 2008, 43: 16–32.
How amantadine blocks the influenza M2 protein →
Structure of an important influenza drug target.
The Rise of Twitter as a Platform for Serious... →
Why Twitter works, and some hurdles.
Dynamics of picornavirus RNA replication →
Replication of many picornaviruses is inhibited by low concentrations of guanidine. Guanidine-resistant mutants are readily isolated and the mutations map to the coding region for the 2C protein. Using in vitro replication assays it has been determined previously that guanidine blocks the initiation of negative-strand synthesis. This paper examines the dynamics of RNA replication, measured by...
Instructions for adding del.icio.us buttons to... →
Works at the University of Leicester! See also: http://del.icio.us/help/
Is Yahoo dying, and if it is, what does that mean... →
Google Finance UK →
Share prices, unit trusts, financial news, blogs, and charts, all with added RSS!
ReadBurner →
ReadBurner aggragates items that are shared on the Google Reader.
Speedlinking 300108 →
Twitter for Academia 13 ways to use Twitter in academia. UK university students offered free web hosting This deal aims to provide students with web space free from the restrictions of the university, 500MB of web space and a bandwidth allocation of 2GB per month. Never understood what net neutrality means? The shift from locking down content to locking down the network. On “The Twitterialization”...
Twitter for Academia →
13 ways to use Twitter in academia.
How Campylobacter jejuni survives within cells →
Campylobacter jejuni is one of the major causes of infectious diarrhoea world-wide, although relatively little is know about its mechanisms of pathogenicity. After infection through the oral route, this bacterium invades the cells of the intestinal epithelium, a property that is important for its ability to cause disease. Usually, bacteria and other material entering the cell are moved to...
UK university students offered free web hosting →
The deal aims to provide students with web space free from the restrictions of the university, 500MB of webspace and a bandwidth allocation of 2GB per month.
Never understood what net neutrality means? →
Read this: the shift from locking down content to locking down the network.
BBC iPlayer on a Linux computer →
Installing RealPlayer in Ubuntu.
Do you want fries with that? →
Ok, so I’m the last edublogger in the UK to mention that McDonald’s has won approval to offer courses which could form part of a qualification at the standard of A-levels or advanced diplomas. Does it bother me that BigMac is about to become an education provider? Nope. Lifelong learning. I’m all for it. What bothers me is the the UK higher education system is so f****d-up that...
Completely round the bend →
£59,000,000.
That’s how much Leicester City Council has spent on The Curve, the daft building with the daft name which replaces a perfectly good provincial theatre in Leicester (The Haymarket). With more than a passing interest in education in Leicester, it almost makes me cry when I think of what £59,000,000 could have done if spent on education in this city. My prediction (based on the...
Pollocks! →