Mason Bee biology project.

I have a Certified Wildlife habitat for my yard.  Other than gophers in my day lillies, almost anything is welcome to live in my yard.  I saw some mason bees at my nursery the other year, but they were mighty expensive.  My former spouse got some in Tennessee, and kindly sent me a package over the winter.  Now that the fruit tree buds are starting to color, I decided to put them out.  I read on the internet how to make tubes out of parchment paper for new nests, and looked at pictures of expensive nest boxes.  For bees?  Really?  Surely cardboard should be cosy enough.  I need to get some chicken wire and cover this so the birds don't mess with it, I read, but otherwise, it is ready for spring.  So, we shall see what happens.  I'll let you know. 

Seen in the heartland

Across highway 40 from Lambert-St. Louis airport was a billboard with signage from a local church:  "Face-to-Face Visits with Jesus".  I was in a taxi, so I couldn't go around the block to get a snap.  Sorry to disappoint. 

Up the Mississippi

Stopover between business trips to visit Mom.  We drove the Great River Road north to Alton IL.  On this part of the river are bluffs on the Illinois riverbank, where the ceaseless prairie winds blow east and drop the soil load onto the bluffs that arise from Vicksville MS and up north past here.  In the winter, the bald eagles fly south to stay on the bluffs and fish on Ole Man River.  Didn't really expect to see any eagles, as it is a bit warm here and the river up north is not frozen.  But there was one, a black dot at 11 o'clock in the sky. I pointed it out to Mom and we both watched, entranced, as it dove down, did a back flip with wings extended, and smoothly entered the water.  Could not see if it got lucky from the car, but we sure did get lucky to see such a skillful dive. 

an owl!

G was gently snoring, which is usually reassuring, but was keeping me awake last night.  I swaddled myself in a fleece pullover and a down throw, and sat in the rocking chair looking at the lights over the edge of the deck.  We can see from San Jose up past Mountainview to the north, a continuous sea of lights.  Since it has been raining the air is quite clear and the lights crisp.  From the house below me, there was suddenly an enormous shadow rising up past my window and over my roof.  Wings wide, outspread, and the head in perfect silhouette.  I could see the outlined feather edges on the wings and tail.  A few summers ago I identified the call of a great horned owl, and the size looked to match that species.  Wow.

It's as good as it gets

I'm here at CFSAN (Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, a part of the US FDA) and at NIH this week for some lab work, a Disease Outbreak Detection meeting, and oh, right, Health and Human Services Secretary Sibelius's announcement of the HHSInnovates award.  Yes, Agilent Technologies, CFSAN and UCDavis and the 100K Pathogen Genome Project is the Secretary's Pick.  There will be photos and of course, something to hang on the wall.  24 of us associated with the project celebrated with house wine and spaghetti at a local restaurant, and a jolly time was had by all.  Since I know weI won't be winning a Nobel or even a Lasker award any time soon, it's as good as it gets, we all agreed at the bar afterwards. 

By the way, if you hold a foreign passport, please be aware they won't let you in the building without 5 days to check you out.   Here is Steffen, enjoying the HHS lobby!

Wow! It's like stuffing the ballot box for the All-Stars Game!

I have been working on this initiative all year. The 100K Pathogen Genome Project is a joint collaboration between Agilent Technologies, UC Davis and the FDA to collect and sequence 100,000 pathogen genomes and get the data into a public database. Acquiring this information will allow the rapid molecular identification of food-borne pathogens to vastly improve the security of the food supply, instead of using traditional microbiological methods almost a century old. We are a finalist for the Health and Human Services Innovation award. If you click on the link below, you get to the voting page for People’s choice award. Ours is the center bottom rectangle that says 100K Genome Project. Please go, look around, and if you are impressed, we will take your 5-star vote.


Thanks. It has been a fun ride. I’ll be at the ceremony Sept. 24. Wish us luck!

http://www.hhs.gov/open/initiatives/hhsinnovates/index.html

about those safety door latches on hotel doors

You know, those things that are supposed to catch the door from being opened.  My normal hotel was booked, so I was staying at a Best Western I have not used before.  I was laying on the bed completely immersed in a book.  Still dressed, thank heavens.  There was a sound at the door, then the door opened and the latch caught it from coming open into the room.  I shrieked, and the door hastily closed.  In a bit I peeked out the curtain to see a man looking back at me.  Poor guys were probably (almost) as freaked out as I was.  Stupid clerk gave them room keys to 236, since she recorded that I was in 238.  Well, I wasn't in 238, was I?  Hrumph.