Quote from Ray Bradbury

Ideas are cheap.

Zach Holman on remote work. Tech companies need to start accepting remote workers, or they're going to have more trouble finding people. To use remote workers successfully, you have to put priority on asynchronous communication for everyone. Otherwise, the remote people get left out of the loop.

Jon Udell on pros and cons of remote work.

But they're okay with it...... ??? They seem to just accept the fact that these are the working conditions and it's "a part of the job"..

I remind myself of this when I get stuck not wanting to do something because it appears like it has already been done, especially when it looks like it was done and it failed. The use of “we” seems particularly significant, and inspiring.

Winnik and Manners et. al. used Karstedt's catalysts to cross-link polyisoprene in order to create micelles of varying morphologies. They were able to apply this technique for the development of noncentrosymmetric micelles.

Prior to this article, despite the usefulness of CDSA, many of the structures synthesized were centrosymmetric since growth can happen from both ends of the micelle core. This article presents the development of a method to overcome this limitation.

After the discovery of CDSA, the synthetic strategy has been used with a range polymers including conducting, biocompatible, metal-containing, etc.

Previous Work: During CDSA, the crystalline core of the micelle is partially "exposed" to the solvent. When unimers are added to the micelle solution, they are able to grow on existing micelle. However, if the chemical structure of the core prevents crystallization/is not a lattice match, then micelle growth will not happen. This technique has been widely used with a variety of materials such as diblock polymers and nanotubes to create unique self-assemblies.

This technique was first introduced in 2007 by Winnik and Manners et. al. where they discovered a "living" form of micellization. The term "living" in this scenario is derived from the phase "living polymerization" where monomers form long chains by continuous addition to the reactive chain ends, without termination. In the same way, certain micelles specifically those that had crystalline cores exhibited the ability to elongate when additional block copolymers are added to the micelle solution.


Previous study demonstrated that HDAC6 has the capacity to bind both polyubiquitinated misfolded proteins and dynein motors, thereby acting to recruit misfolded protein cargo to dynein motors for transport to aggresomes.

Cells deficient in HDAC6 fail to clear misfolded protein aggregates from the cytoplasm, cannot form aggresomes properly, and are hypersensitive to the accumulation of misfolded proteins.

This study reported the design and synthesis of a potent and selective HDAC6 inhibitor.

In a previous work, scientists investigated whether ubiquitin chain binding affects HDAC6 activity. To generate a ubiquitin-chain binding deficient mutant of HDAC6, they mutated several residues in the BUZ finger that were predicted to make contacts with ubiquitin. It was found that W1182A point mutation markedly disrupted the ability of HDAC6 to bind free ubiquitin chains.

In a previous work, scientists investigated whether ubiquitin chain binding affects HDAC6 activity. To generate a ubiquitin-chain binding deficient mutant of HDAC6, they mutated several residues in the BUZ finger that were predicted to make contacts with ubiquitin. It was found that W1182A point mutation markedly disrupted the ability of HDAC6 to bind free ubiquitin chains.

In a previous work, the authors found the histone deacetylase 8 was required for centrosome cohesion and influenza A virus entry.

Previously, the DNA analysis of the genome of prehistoric wolves and dogs support the idea of a two-step domestication process. The first one was the evolution of wolves through a mutually beneficial relationship with humans, sharing food and space. The second one was the active breeding of dogs by humans in order to select dogs which were adapted to the current needs (hunting, tracking, pet).

Furthermore, there are two main hypotheses to explain the first domestication step (http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/early-canid-domestication-the-farm-fox-experiment):

1) “Self-domestication” by the wolves: Some wolves lived in the vicinity of the camps of the nomadic hunter-gatherers to eat the garbage left by the prehistoric people. Those that were less anxious thrived and continued to follow the humans, generation after generation, and gradually the first dogs emerged from this group.

2) The prehistoric people actively selected wolf pups and let only the most docile ones reproduce. After several generations, the first dogs emerged. This hypothesis has been being tested in Novosibirsk since 1959, where foxes are being bred for “tamability.”

In ref. 5, a genome-wide array of SNP between dogs and wolves suggest that dogs originate from Middle East.

However, ref. 6, the comparison between dog and wolf mitochondrial DNA suggests East Asia as the center of dog origin.

The authors collected the mtDNA sequences previously published by other teams in order to get more data to analyze and a larger diversity of samples.

Some of the phenotypic adaptation can be observed, such as: shorter fangs and claws alteration of some brain areas.

By comparing the DNA of phenotypically domesticated canids and actual dogs and identifying the genes which are responsible of the domesticate phenotype, it is possible to understand which genes have been altered by domestication and when they have been altered.

In ref. 5, a genome-wide array of SNP between dogs and wolves suggest that dogs originate from Middle East.

However, ref. 6, the comparison between dog and wolf mitochondrial DNA suggests East Asia as the center of dog origin.

I don't fully understand this but it was the most intriguing sentence in the piece for me. Are our social media services doing the care work of attending to our need for in-control socialization? Are they our new safe spaces that replace the therapist's office? I also wonder about whether people who work in a caring capacity have a unique relationship with social media.

an objective set for the Sprint that can be met through the implementation of Product Backlog. It provides guidance to the Development Team on why it is building the Increment. It is created during the Sprint Planning meeting. The Sprint Goal gives the Development Team some flexibility regarding the functionality implemented within the Sprint. The selected Product Backlog items deliver one coherent function, which can be the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Goal can be any other coherence that causes the Development Team to work together rather than on separate initiatives.

It's almost as if they saw this as a job.