Anthology of Interest I: Geordie History and the faux-faux-Football

In the inaugural edition of Anthology of Interest, my two fantasy football (nerd alert) teams are called the "Geordie Billycocks" and the "Pons Aelius Sharkpies" ...

Incidentally, those are both references to Newcastle, UK as the people of Newcastle are known as Geordies (and the 'dialect' of English that they speak is also called Geordie) apparently because during an attempted takeover by the Scots, the people held off an attack and legend has it that some bloke chose to make their warcry "We're Geordies!" or something to that effect as a means of swearing fealty to King George, the Protestant King. Pons Aelius is actually the name of the Roman settlement that was the precursor to Newcastle, the capital of the Kingdom of Northumbria. The team mascots "Billycocks" and "Sharkpies" also reference elements of the Newcastle culture. "Billycock" hats (also known as Bowler hats) were and still are popular in the region. The Newcastle football team, Newcastle United is often referred to as the "Magpies" in reference to their jersey colors, and since my second football league is called "Geordie Football Hell" I thought it appropriate to look for an image that would be something to the effect of a zombie magpie. The closest image I found via Google Search was a shark-pidgeon, which I dubbed a Sharkpie for my devious purposes ...

In the interest of wrapping things up, this was a thoroughly useless post, but I hope that some Geordie history has been roughly maintained.

Space Ponies and Legos

Just a brief glimpse into my sense of humor - this is something I posted in response to a photo of my friend Charlotte (my swing dancing partner and very dear friend) holding a lego space ship in one hand and a "my little pony" in the other:

"Sir, our squadron is UNDER ATTACK! ... but I've never seen anything like this before ... first of all it has NO pegs in it, so I have no idea how it holds itself together ... we might be dealing with a multi-dimensional being or an alternate type of matter. Either way, that horseshoe shaped hole in the hull of my ship probably means I'm BLOCKed ...

ZOINKS?! IT'S A SPACE PONY?!?!? Oh, we're definited BLOCKed ..."

In case you didn't catch on (yes you, Mr. Seagull), "BLOCKed" is my own lego euphemism for "boned", "screwed" or something to that effect.

The whims of flies ...

First of all, I never noticed that whims and whimsical are derived from the same root word before (I'll have to OED that tomorrow) until I was filling in the title of this post ... this has very little to do with the other whimsical notions that I feel the need to post about ... I suppose this itself is a whimsical thought, a random rambling, but I digress ...

As I was leaving work around midnight an odd thought crossed my mind - my entire work schedule revolves around the life cycles of flies (common pests for most people, and probably even more so for fly technicians) and more importantly (and oddly) my labor schedule is most drastically affected by the age of consent for flies. It's known in Drosophila melanogaster that 3-4 hours is a "safe" amount of time to assume that females have retained their virginity. That would make some age around 5-6 hours old the "age of consent" at which point the female flies might have been contaminated with the sperm of their siblings, fathers, uncles and possibly even males with a 2 generation gap (grandfathers and granduncles). Such is that way of maintaining an fly "line" where inbreeding is unavoidable and in some cases intentional. It's disgusting to think about in a human context, but it allows us, in some cases, to have almost entirely genetically identical siblings, and families, allowing us to collect lots of data about a "single fly" genome.

In my case, I've taken advantage of these breeding capabilities to compare nutrition, enzyme kinetics, innate immunity and chromosomal segregation and will eventually get to perform artificial selection experiments on both individual lines (each line essentially representing 1 fly genome) as well as intentionally crossed lines and population cages (where we have a mixture of crosses of sequenced lines so we know all the possible alleles at all the loci, but any individual fly could have any mixture of said alleles if linkage disequilibrium is low (which it should be in such populations based on how I'll breed them)). In particular the thought of selection population cages where we know all the possible outcomes is fascinating because it allows us to "observe" the process of genome optimization in a population cage where there is theoretically a very low inbreeding coefficient and low LD due to the effective high population size (I could list off a number of other population genetics terms that can more aptly explain the point I'm trying to make, but at some point it wouldn't make a difference to the one seagull reading this post so I won't bother).

Either way, especially in experiments like the population cage selection, I'm subject to the whims of flies (drying out food, age of consent (i.e. female virginity), sticky wings, etc.). It's a damn good time.

Somehow when I thought of "The whims of flies" I imagined it as a metaphor for our own lives, where the people occupying the world around us (known and unknown) are the flies. It's not a complete thought yet (I supposed very few things are), but there's something there. In the end, we all eat, breed and live in our own mess, with very little impact on the flies in the next vial over or the bigger laboratory around us.

Yeah, that sounds kind of corny ... but it's a start, I suppose. I think I'm looking at it too close from the wrong perspective. Anyways, the idea that we live mostly on whims (as opposed to constantly direct and intentional actions) seems on the surface to be very true. While many of our "whims" could be very intentional actions planned and executed by each of our own subconscious, it seems to me that most of our actions are quite arbitrary (e.g. how far to move left or right to avoid colliding with oncoming traffic, when to notice and react to an itch, how much to rotate our heads versus just shifting our eyes). Many of these are trained in behaviors that we have corrected consciously and unconsciously throughout our lives, but that so called "judgment" that enables us to make seemingly arbitrary decisions.

I guess I'm coming at this idea of whims from multiple directions. In one way, I'm saying that whims are mindless, random thoughts. But under the surface, one might argue that there are no such things as true whims. Every seemingly arbitrary behavior is decided by an unfathomably complex algorithm processed by our brains to decide our every action. In many ways, it takes the fun out of the concept of "free will" to say that our every whim, a momentary passing thought that may or may not be put into action in some way, is in fact pre-determined in that instant when a choice much be made (discrete or continuous) by all the events that preceded it.

This idea that all the previous events together combine to make our current decisions is a universal concept. Many literary concepts, such as Glinda's "Great Book of Records" (which I've explained in more detail in a currently unfinished blog post about Oz), which magically lists every event in history as it occurs, utilize this idea that we are the sum of the events of the past to determine what will happen or make sense of current events.

It is in this way ironic that this train of thought leads to pre-determination. In spite of taking the argument that our whims are determined by a gigantic algorithm (rather than a so-far unmentioned "soul"), it seems to me like true free will is unlikely. Obviously, this does not prevent us from retaining apparent free will. That is to say, that since we are not consciously aware of how every circumstance in existence together affects our actions, we can operate under apparent free will to make our conscious minds feel like there is meaning to our actions.

I suppose there are several ideas here that I'd like to write more about in the future, but in regards to how all these ideas apply to "the whims of flies" it becomes more clear to me that the phrase is almost an oxymoron. From everything I've described, flies appear mechanical to us, lacking even the appearance of "whims," and even in supposedly more complex organisms, our "whims" are nothing more than a product of previous events. So to say "the whims of flies" to me is to imply free will (or arbitrary behavior) where there is none.

The future use of such a phrase in my lexicon is still unclear, but at least roughly, "being subjected to the whims of flies" would apparently be to voluntarily or involuntarily forgo your own apparent free will to someone else or even the world itself, all of which also lack true free will. In other words, it means that you are conscious giving up your claim to free will, or in even other words, you're giving up and becoming truly mechanical.

Publicity happenings ...

My favorite quote of the day comes from an article about FlixQ, a video sharing website co-founded by my friend Ryan Peterson that reads: "After about a year of operation, FlixQ hosts several thousand videos, ranging from parades to Cornell Glee Club doings to a cat washing its face" (http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-video-site-quality-barrier.html). The website focuses on high resolution video sharing, so it's worth taking a look.

In separate, but also interesting news, the Hangovers tour to the UK in 3 weeks is starting to get some attention: http://cornellclubnyc.com/events/the-cornell-club-welcomes-the-hangovers

I've had kind of a split focus organizing that tour, but it's still coming together with a lot of fun events to look forward to, including a gig for two Cornell alumni societies (Hotel School and Business School) in London (venue TBA). Now if I could just lock down inexpensive transport to Scotland ...

Salmon Tortellini in a Reduced Wild Mushroom Sauce, served with mixed, spiced vegetables

Appetizer

Mixed grilled, spiced vegetables (White/Button Mushrooms, Bell Peppers, Snapped Peas, Green Beans (or French Beans) ==> blackening spices (try a rub), garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, black pepper

Instructions:

Put a few drops of olive oil in the pan and heat. Add the veggies (chopped) with a little big of water as needed. Grill until they release water and then add spices to taste - lots of garlic powder, 1-2 tbsp of the balsamic vingegar and then salt and black pepper. Add some basil if you'd like too.

Spinach Tortellini:

6 cups of wheat flour

6 large eggs

1/2 cup chopped spinach

Water as needed (for moistening)

Salt to taste

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

Instructions:

Add the flour, oregano, and basil to a mixing bowl before mixing and then adding the spinach. Then break and add the eggs, slowly mixing all the ingredients as they're added. If after some time the mixture looks too dry, add water as needed to moisten the dough. Once everything is mixed well, knead the dough ball by hand and then refrigerate for 30 minutes. Afterwards, flatten the dough using either a pasta make or rolling pin dried with a little bit of flour. Using an inverted glass, cut circles in the flattened dough and keep the circles while kneading and flattening the rest of the dough until all of it has been used. Now, see filling recipe below.

Wild Mushroom Sauce:

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig marjoram, plus more for garnish

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp of dried thyme

1/2 pound assorted wild mushrooms (golden chanterelle, shiitake, cremini, oyster, porcini, etc.), trimmed and sliced

1 cup mushroom stock (see below)

1 cup light cream + additional skim milk as needed

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Grated Parmesan (for serving)

Instructions:

In a large saute pan, over high heat, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute, just until browning begins. Add the marjoram and saute 1 more minute. Add the mushrooms and saute until they begin to brown and release their liquid, after about 5 minutes. Add the mushroom stock and reduce for 5 minutes. Add the cream and reduce about 5 minutes, or until the sauce begins to thicken. If the reduced solution looks too watery, add some skim milk and reduce it a little more. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Keep simmering until the tortellini is ready.

Mushroom Stock (vegetarian):

1/2 cup of mushroom trimmings

2 cups of water

Salt and Garlic Powder to Taste

Instructions:

Add the water to a pot, put in the mushroom trimmings, salt and garlic powder and stir. Let this slowly boil until it has reduced to about 1 cup of solution. Strain the solution and toss out the trimmings.

Salmon Tortellini filling:

2 pounds of skinned and de-boned salmon filets

2 cups ricotta cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup chopped spinach

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Using a knife, finely chop salmon to the consistency of ground meat. In a food processor, combine remaining ingredients and process completely to a purée consistency. Remove cheese mixture from processor and mix thoroughly by hand with the finely chopped salmon. Set aside in the refrigerator while making the pasta dough.

Generously fill each piece of tortellini. Place filled tortellini into boiling water and cook until ravioli floats to the top.

Drain and serve with the wild mushroom sauce poured over the tortellini. Top it all off with grated parmesan cheese and a sprig of majorum.

Wasted Days ...

The best part of keeping a blog (especially one that no one reads), is that I still feel bad when I think I want to write something down, but don't think I have enough to say at that point to make it worthwhile. It's bizarre, really, but apparently I feel like I'm letting myself down. Oh well ...

Anyways, today was what I'd classify as a productive, wasted day by all accounts. Eating the leftover salmon tortellini stuffing spread on toast 2 nights ago for a late dinner came back to bite me starting yesterday evening and I still went to Whiskey 101 at Stellas (a Whiskey tasting "course" every Tuesday night at my favorite local haunt on College Ave). I then followed that up by eating a big dinner with a slice of deep dish pizza with artichoke hearts, feta cheese and spinach and a less delicious 4th topping of broccoli (it just didn't mesh with the textures and flavors of the rest) with about 1/3rd of a pitcher of Cascazilla beer.

Probably not the best decisions, but it was all in support of local business for what it was worth. The Whiskey 101 tasting this week was hosted by Brian McKenzie of the Finger Lakes Distilling Company, an up-and-coming local distillery about 30 minutes from Ithaca on the east-end of Seneca Lake. He brought an unfinished 1-year-old whiskey which had potential, followed by an off-the-market wheat whiskey, a rye and a bourbon. The McKenzie Rye was by far my favorite, but that's not surprising. The sweet spicy mixture of a good rye, I often liken to a good curry or a sweet chili sauce, depending on the rye. The experience was pretty positive on the whole and my friend Ryan and I make a soft resolution to visit and taste at the distillery at some point. The bar manager Greg, who I've become friends with through these tastings, was also quite pleased. As a grad student in the Plant Sciences department, he seems to have a good rapport with the lab-types who often frequent the bar.

Regardless, it left me exhausted and still suffering from what was probably mild food poisoning when I woke up this morning. Instead of forcing myself to work, since my car was up on the Hill, I stayed in bed since it was a balmy -5 when I woke up at 6:45am. The result was that I tried to force myself back to to sleep until I woke up at 10:00am and saw my research professor's email about a 10:00am meeting to discuss the usage of our fresh off the sequencers genomic data for some D. melanogaster lines that I have been managing. Since I was still feeling ill, I didn't bother even trying to shower and race to campus (showing up late to the meeting might have just been awkward) so I just gave up and made it up in time to meet with my sister for lunch at 12pm where we discussed her interview for her two interviews this week - at Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup. After that I met with my housemate April to go over her speech for VP of the Cornell Chorus, which just inspired me to get back into Glee Club work.

First I started by remembering my desire to commission a "Chariot" song for the Glee Club. A Chariot song is a song sung at Glee Club "Chariot Nights" on Wednesday nights after 7:30-9:30pm rehearsals. The name Chariot is a reference to a bar called the Chariot that used to allow the Glee Club to occupy the space every Wednesday, located at the T-intersection of Eddy Street and Dryden Road. The events are a quintessential part of the Glee Club experience, in my opinion, and different iterations of the weekly tradition have gone back decades in CUGC history. At the event, we usually sing classic Glee Club songs, traditional Cornell songs, but also 3 "Chariot Songs" which are affectionately called "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "The Freshmen Up at Yale" and "Fireman." The former two make fun of the other Ivies, while the latter is a drawn out innuendo to make fun of a Glee Clubber who has a sister. For a few years that has been me (on and off) since my sister has been at Cornell for the past 2.5 years including a semester in the Chorus. While these songs usually cross a line in vulgarity, the spirit of them is a raucous college spirit that I'd love to capture in a new song. My thought is that it is definitely time for such an event, so I contacted the current Assistant Director of the Glee Club, Jesse Jones - a graduate student in music composition at Cornell University to see if he'd be interested. I'm waiting to hear on that ...

But that was just the beginning. I then drew out a long e-mail with my plans for the use of the photos and musical recordings of the Glee Club to put on the website and make available to our alumni. I've started getting some positive responses from the several alumni I emailed about the topic, so hopefully that will get going. For now I've got to make a proper photo album for the tour.

I then took care of some Hangovers tour things - I've still got to send out an $11,000 check to American Airlines for our flights and then pay for a few things in the UK, but things are shaping up well.

I contacted my old HS, New Trier to ask about a concert there for the Glee Club next January and also discovered something cool - my old newspaper sponsor, Tim Dohrer, had become Principal, which I suppose could help our cause for bringing the CUGC to New Trier - one of my many unrealized goals for the CUGC so far.

I also sent a long e-mail about Glee Club tour to John Nicolls, a particularly stern power-alumnus who I've had an up-and-down relationship with, depending on the context (Glee Club vs. Hangovers). I expressed a pretty strong interest in helping with the Midwestern Tour next year and cited my outreach to New Trier, as well as my outreach to the CSO (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) with the hopes of getting a rental rate. The rate itself was too high and the 2000+ seats too large, but the idea of going for a high-profile venue was made clear and I also apologized again on behalf for the Hangovers - something I had little to do with, but was being roped into by affiliation. Despite the significant improvement, the negative sides of being the Hangovers have been made clear to me again (then again I've enjoyed many of the benefits, so I can't complain too much).

After that, I finally was contacted by the *new* Outreach Coordinator for the IHA who contacted me back about organizing fundraising for their organization, after the old outreach coordinator Betsye had been somewhat difficult to meet with. And we may have now just set a meeting time.

All in all, a productive day out of a wasted one, but I should be careful with old fish, even old fish I've made ... even if it was part of a delicious Salmon Tortellini with a Wild Mushroom Sauce, served with mixed, spiced vegetables. I'll put up a recipe for that at some point ...

[And look at that, not such a short post after all]

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream from Go Fish in Napa Valley

When I organized the Cornell University Glee Club's Wine Tour in Napa Valley, we ate at a restaurant called Go Fish. Great food, but more importantly, the Milk Chocolate Ice Cream was divine. Honestly, this is some of the best ice cream I've ever had. I e-mailed the owner who I had been in touch with and she convinced the chef to give me the recipe. I highly recommend it as well as the restaurant Go Fish if you are ever in Napa Valley, CA. I saw it rated as the top fish restaurant in the area.

Without further ado:

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream- 1qt

230g Milk Chocolate

1.5C Heavy Cream

1.5C Whole Milk

150g Sugar

Pinch of Salt

4 Egg yolks

2t Brandy

Combine milk chocolate and cream in bowl set over simmering water. Stir until melted, then pour into container and set a strainer over top.

Warm milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan.

In a separate bowl, whisk yolks until combined. Temper with warm milk, then pour back into saucepan.

Stir constantly over medium heat until nappe (170 degrees).

Pour through strainer into chocolate. Add brandy. Stir to combine then chill.