Month: January 2013

Friday, 11 January 2013

07:36 – Things aren’t going very well with Barbara’s dad.

The phone rang at 2:30 this morning. It was Barbara’s dad calling from the hospital, saying that he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for two days and demanding that she come and get him and take him home. Barbara told him that it was 2:30 in the morning and that she’d visited him yesterday afternoon and he’d eaten dinner then. She then called the nurses’ station. The nurse on duty told her that her dad had been acting that way since she came on shift at 19:00.

Just to make things a little worse, it looks as though Barbara’s mom may have pneumonia. Barbara is taking her to the doctor today, and possibly for a chest X-ray. Then she’ll head over to the hospital to pick up her dad and take him home.

At least Barbara got a chance to relax a bit yesterday evening. We were about to start watching the next episode of World Without End on Netflix streaming when I mentioned all of the horrible reviews it had gotten. Barbara said she thought I liked it. I told her that I thought it was terrible. So did she. She was watching it because she thought I liked it, and I was watching it because I thought she liked it. So we bagged it, rated it one star, and removed it from our Netflix queue. We instead watched the first episode of Rough Diamond, starring David Jason from Frost.


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Thursday, 10 January 2013

07:41 – Barbara’s dad may be released from the hospital today. He isn’t fully recovered by any means, but at this point there may not be much the hospital can do for him that couldn’t be done by the home-health nurses at home. I’m concerned that Barbara’s mom may not be able to deal with his behavior, which Barbara has described as “uncooperative”, “grumpy” and “nasty”. Barbara said she’d laid down the law to him, telling him that he’d better cooperate or they’ll pack him off to a nursing home. Maybe that’ll convince him to behave, or so we hope. I asked Barbara yesterday if she thought her dad’s behavior was caused by mental decline or simply frustration at being hospitalized. She said the latter, so perhaps being home will help.

Work on science kits continues.


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Wednesday, 9 January 2013

07:53 – Barbara’s dad is still in the hospital. The news isn’t good, exactly, but it’s about the best that could be expected. Barbara’s hoping he’ll be released tomorrow or Friday and can go home. She and her sister are resigned to the fact that their dad’s congestive heart failure is chronic, and it’s likely that he’ll have repeat episodes every month or two indefinitely.

This episode hasn’t been much easier for Barbara and her sister than previous ones. The one bright point is that they don’t have to worry about their mom now that she’s in the retirement village rather than by herself at home. They’re trying to keep their mom away from the hospital as much as possible, particularly because of the nasty flu strain that’s going around. At her age and with her long-standing lung problems, a hospital is a very dangerous place for their mom to be. The retirement village staff is keeping a close eye on their mom, which is one less thing for Barbara and Frances to worry about.


10:01 – Yesterday while I was out with Colin, I ran into Paula, who lives across the street, walking her dog, Max. Max is almost 15 years old and on his last legs, literally.

Paula asked about Barbara’s dad. She went through the same thing with her dad a few years ago, and now she’s going through it with Max. Now, as then, she feels completely helpless to stop the downward slide, which of course she is. Paula is enraged about aging and death, and the fact that no one can do anything about it. I agree with her. Something needs to be done.

Biologically, of course, senescence and death are just a part of life. The old have to die to make room for the younger generations. Or do they? Some organisms are immortal for all intents and purposes. Individual examples of these organisms do not senesce, nor die from natural causes. Lazarus Long has real analogs in the natural world.

Scientifically, there’s no reason why normal human lifespans couldn’t be nearer a millennium than a century, or even ten or a hundred millennia. Nor is there any reason why humans couldn’t spend the vast majority of that extended lifespan in their prime rather than becoming increasingly decrepit as they age.

The real reason that so little work is being done on this has nothing to do with the science. It’s purely a matter of politics. Unless everyone can have it, no one can have it. And, unfortunately, even if we already knew how to extend lifespans by an order or orders of magnitude, the only people who would have access would be exactly the ones that shouldn’t: politicians. Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss, literally.

Even if we can’t (yet) arbitrarily extend human lifespans, there’s another alternative. While work continues on genetic engineering, we can at least clone those humans whose genomes are worth preserving. And if politics prevents that for the time being, we can at least collect and preserve DNA specimens from our geniuses in all fields. We do it now for plant seeds; there’s no reason we shouldn’t do it for humans. Eventually, although it may be centuries before it happens, we can use that DNA as seed material to create artificial human genomes that preserve all of the good things and eliminate all of the bad. As a matter of fact, I think I may start collecting cheek swab DNA samples from my genius friends.


11:24 – Hmmm. I’m running low on glass bottles (I still have plenty of plastic ones), so I just ordered a case of 10 mL amber glass bottles and seven cases of 30 mL amber glass bottles. At checkout, I was given a choice of one of two shipping methods. Next-day air cost $816.20. UPS ground cost $0.00. I dithered for all of a nanosecond before choosing the free shipping option.

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Tuesday, 8 January 2013

07:41 – Science kit sales are running much faster than expected. In the first week of 2013, we sold more kits than in all of January 2012. This may be an anomaly. If not, we’ll not just meet our goal of 500 kits for 2013, we’ll blow through it.

We’re low on stock of all the science kits right now. Barbara and I are working on new batches of 90 chemistry kits, 60 biology kits, and 30 forensic science kits. For the time being, the life science kit is taking a back seat. I just don’t have time to work on it at the moment.


11:45 – I just finished bagging eight sets of chemicals for the CK01A chemistry kits. That was the most I could make with what we had on hand. There are 38 different chemical bottles in a CK01A kit. Current stock status on each of those ranges from (mostly) zero to maybe 60 bottles, so we need to get to work on labeling and filling 60 more sets. Not to mention making up the chemical solutions we need to fill them.

We’re in a bit better shape on biology kits. I have 15 sets of the regulated chemical bags already made up for the BK01 biology kits, and sufficient bottled chemicals to make up 15 sets of the non-regulated chemical bags. Until yesterday, we had four FK01 forensic science kits in stock. They’re still sitting there on the shelf, but they’re spoken for via a pro-forma invoice I issued yesterday to a major New England university. Those four forensic science kits ship as soon as the check arrives. Fortunately, I have enough chemical sets made up to assemble another 15 FK01 kits pretty quickly.

What we lack right now is small parts bags. We have four of those in stock for the chemistry kits, none for the biology kits, and none for the forensic science kits. Fortunately, we have everything we need in stock to build batches of each of those, which we’ll work on over the next few days.

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Monday, 7 January 2013

08:04 – Barbara’s dad is doing well, all things considered. They admitted him to the hospital late yesterday afternoon. At first, they tried to release him, but Barbara wasn’t having any. He has pneumonia. She pointed out that the last time he was in the hospital, it was for MRSA pneumonia, and that may well be the problem now. So they agreed to admit him. He’ll be there for at least three days.

We’ve started watching World Without End on Netflix streaming. It’s the sequel to Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, and it’s not bad unless you’ve read the book. If you have, you quickly realize that this mini-series is the Readers’ Digest Condensed Books version. It’s simply not possible to compress a large book into eight hours of video. Doing it properly would have required more like 40 to 50 hours of video, so this mini-series is just hitting the high points.

The amusing part is how they’ve literally cleaned things up to suit modern sensibilities. The series is set in the mid-14th century, but all of the actors look as squeaky clean as if they’d just gotten out of the shower. The real 1300’s in Europe were characterized by filth and squalor. Most people, including the wealthy, bathed once a year, if that. The dialog also reflects modern sensibilities. Women argue with men, and peasants with nobles. In real 14th century Europe, women and peasants were just one small step above livestock. I take it back. They were one step below livestock. Livestock was valuable; women and peasants weren’t. Women and peasants who were foolish enough to argue with their superiors had very short life expectancies. That famous scene from History of the World: Part I where Mel Brooks as King Louis was shooting skeet with the peasant as the clay more accurately reflected the relative importance of peasants and the upper classes.


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Sunday, 6 January 2012

08:28 – We replaced our old den ceiling fan yesterday. I expected it to take an hour or less, but it ended up taking several hours. But it’s finished, and Barbara is happy with the new one.

There was a front-page article in the newspaper this morning about Mt. Airy, the town of about 11,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Winston-Salem that’s most famous as the setting for the The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry RFD. During the 20th century, that town’s economy was based on the North Carolina Big Three: tobacco, textiles, and furniture. Tobacco and textiles disappeared years ago, and they’ve just announced that the last remaining furniture plant is closing. In a town of 11,000 people, they’ve lost 4,600 manufacturing jobs over the last 15 years. That pretty much sums up small-town North Carolina.


Barbara’s sister just called to tell her that their dad was on his way to the hospital again because his legs were badly swollen and he was out of his head. Barbara dropped everything to head for the hospital. As she was getting dressed, her sister called again to tell her that he wasn’t on his way to the hospital but her mom was panicking, so Barbara just left to meet her sister at their parents’ apartment.

I suggested that it might be a good idea for them just to drive their dad to the emergency room, to avoid a middle-of-the-night surprise. Barbara said they’d sworn off taking him to the emergency room themselves because he’d just have to sit there for hours, where he could die before he was seen by a doctor. If he needs to be hospitalized, they’ll call 911, because patients delivered by ambulance get immediate treatment.


09:03 – Barbara just called from her parents’ apartment. The ambulance is there, getting ready to haul her dad to the emergency room. He suffers from congestive heart failure. She said his lips were blue, he was having trouble breathing, his legs were badly swollen, and he was confused. Her mom has calmed down a bit, although she’s still afraid they’re going to be thrown out of the retirement village because of Dutch’s frequent medical emergencies. Barbara and Frances have explained to her that that’s not how it works, but her mom is a worrier. If the hospital admits Dutch, which I suspect it will, Barbara’s going to come home this afternoon. Frances will stay with her mom.


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Saturday, 5 January 2013

09:58 – I expected kit sales to be slow in the January through March period. They are, relative to the autumn peak, but we’re still shipping many more kits than I expected for this time of year. If this rate holds up, we won’t have any problems meeting our 500 kit goal for 2013.

As usual for a Saturday, I’m doing laundry. Barbara is also working downstairs to clean out and organize the unfinished side of the basement. She just left to haul off a load of stuff to Goodwill and the cardboard recycling place.

We also need to assemble batches of small parts bags for the biology, chemistry, and forensic science kits. Stock on all of those is getting low. And sometime this weekend I’d like to at least start on getting my lab cleaned out and better organized.


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Friday, 4 January 2013

08:26 – The bottle-top dispenser (auto-burette) arrived yesterday. I’m looking forward to trying it. It’s basically just a calibrated pump that sits on top of a one-liter reservoir bottle, kind of like the pumps they use in ice-cream stores to dispense syrups. It can be set to dispense 2.5 mL to 30 mL per pump, in 0.5 mL increments.

Using it should make filling chemical bottles for the kits much faster, particularly the 15 mL bottles. Oddly, it actually takes longer to fill 15 mL bottles manually than 30 mL bottles, because the 15 mL bottles have smaller mouths. Barbara and I will set up a mini-production line, with me filling bottles while she caps them.


08:57 – Congratulations to our friend, Brian Bilbrey, who decided to go back to school and get his degree. Way to go, Brian. (I often mistype Brian’s name “Brain”, which is actually appropriate.)

Degree: Bachelor of Science
Confer Date: 12/30/2012
Degree GPA: 4.000
Degree Honors: Summa Cum Laude
Plan: Computer Information Technology

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Thursday, 3 January 2012

09:45 – I’ve been dithering about whether or not to include a mixed bacteria culture in the Life Science kits. Well, not literally a culture, because a culture is by definition reproducing. Such cultures are provided in a nutrient broth or on a nutrient agar slant, and require special handling, often including refrigeration. They’re normally shipped next-day air and must be opened and used within a couple days after they arrive. Even allowing the culture to sit undisturbed over a weekend can cause problems. The problem is that cultures continue reproducing until they run out of nutrients and become senescent. Mutations occur, and eventually the culture becomes useless.

Other than freeze-drying a culture, there are two ways to avoid that. First, one can reculture every few days to every few weeks, transferring a small amount of the culture to fresh media, and then repeating the reculturing as necessary to maintain a robust culture. That’s obviously not practical for pre-packaged science kits. Option two is to put the bacteria into stasis (essentially, hibernation) by inoculating either a sterile saline solution or a sterile PBS (phosphate-buffered saline) solution with the bacteria. The saline/PBS contains no nutrients, so the bacteria don’t reproduce. Stored in the dark at room temperature, such saline/PBS specimens may remain viable for anything from a few years to many decades, depending on the particular bacterial species and other factors.

The problem is that I don’t have years to decades to find out which species are suited to stasis, and there’s not a whole lot in the literature other than for pathogens. I’d like to provide a mixed group of non-pathogenic bacteria that encompass the three basic morphologies as well as examples of Gram-positive and Gram-negative species. It’d also be nice to have an example of a species that is a facultative anaerobe. On that basis, I’ve tentatively chosen Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus, and Rhodospirillum rubrum.

So, here’s what I think I’m going to do. Make up and autoclave a liter of saline or (probably) PBS. Using aseptic procedures, transfer about 5 mL of a robust mixed culture of those three species in nutrient broth to the 1 L of sterile saline, mix, and then fill 200 sterile 15 mL polypropylene centrifuge tubes to 5 mL each. Recap and tape each of the tubes, label them, and store them in the dark at room temperature.

Worst case, at least a few individuals of each species should survive statis, so reculturing in nutrient broth or on a nutrient agar slant or plate should produce colonies of each of the three species. Of course, I may be expecting too much of 7th or 8th grade students, not many of whom are very skilled in aseptic procedures. I suspect many, even most, of the tubes will end up contaminated with environmental bacteria, but I’ll have done what I can do.


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Wednesday, 2 January 2012

07:59 – Wow, that’s a relief. After going all of 2013 without a single science kit order, we finally got the first one yesterday evening.

And I have to remember that as of yesterday Barbara is in charge of the paperwork. I suspect that’ll work out a lot better. In the past, I’d issue a purchase order and put a printed copy in one of the random stacks of paper in my office. Then, when the order arrived, I’d check off the contents against the packing list. I’d put the packing list in some other random stack, because I wouldn’t want to take the time to find the PO it went with. Then, when the invoice arrived, I’d pay it and put the paid invoice in yet another stack. Or maybe in one of the original stacks. Barbara will keep things much more organized. She uses these things called “file folders”. I did order a bunch of those originally, but I’ve never really figured out how to use them.


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