The Chronicles of Farmer J

A couple of weeks ago I was driving to the farm and I got stuck behind this beast (minus the row head which was on a truck):



The picture below is to give you a sense of how big this thing is. The wheels were as tall as our Chrysler Pacifica and this combine can mow down 12 rows of corn at a time like it's nobody's business. FYI, it also comes equipped with a GPS system that tells it exactly where the rows are (also used for precision planting) and a computer for keeping track of yield, seed moisture, etc.



After watching this thing maneuver around mile marker posts at 40mph (yes, they can go that fast) because the road wasn't wide enough, I started getting the itch to drive a combine. So, this morning I hopped onto this combine:



It's not quite as big as the John Deere 9870 STS Corn Combine, but it's still pretty intimidating when you're sitting in the cab watching it chew through three rows at a time and watching it convert 7-foot tall corn plants to mulch (as seen in the picture below).



After this morning I'm amazed at the extent to which technology facilitates agriculture. The field that got harvested this morning would have easily taken four people 2-3 days to harvest plus 3-4 days to shell.

As a final thought, I was driving home from the field on Friday afternoon and passing field after field of corn and soybeans and realized that I am a long way from where I thought would be 5 years ago...and I'm okay with that. Besides, I kind of like being called Farmer J.

Another one bites the dust

A few weeks ago in one of those freak April snow storms that we frequently have in Utah, I slipped down some stairs and landed on my laptop. I was alright but sadly, the laptop was not. The screen broke and the body cracked. Since I am in a Population Genetics class that relies very heavily on a host of computer software packages, it was critical that I purchase a new laptop fast. However, for those of you who know me, I can't pay full price for anything. So I started searching the web for great deals. Along the way I came across a website called Deals2buy.com. It posts great deals being offered by a host of stores. I was able to pick up a Gateway Intel Core 2 duo 2.0 GHz, 4GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, laptop from Office Max for $550!

The old, broken laptop

The new, zippy laptop

If you are in the market for electronics, I highly recommend this website. Another website I'd highly recommend is 1saleaday.com which features one item a day at a ridiculously low price (the current item is a rechargeable battery station with batteries for $8 or a bluetooth headset for $8). If you're looking for some great deals these are great places to go.

P.S. I also posted here about some other cheap websites a while back. Enjoy!

March Madness 2009!!

I've setup a March Madness Tournament on espn.com. If you'd like to join go to http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/group?groupID=5528 and search for The Man Blog under 'group.' The password is 'manblog' Feel free to invite any other friends. Good luck!

Fantasy Baseball 2009

Alright everyone, it's time for another exciting year of Fantasy Baseball! This year's league will be on ESPN.com. Schedules will be submitted at the beginning of each week, just like last year. If you would like to join, post a comment with your email address and I'll send you an invite for the league. The draft will be an autodraft on April 1st. You'll need to have your draft order ready by then. In the meantime, enjoy the World Baseball Classic. Go Team USA!!

A Political Halloween

As both Halloween and election day are quickly approaching I thought this cartoon was somewhat applicable. Enjoy!

Fantasy Basketball - Updated

Now that baseball is wrapping up and football is well underway it's time to start thinking about Fantasy Basketball!! But before I give you the information about how to sign up let's have a recap of the Man Blog's Fantasy Baseball Season.

Our inaugural season had six teams which were fairly well balanced. The genetics lab I work in was represented by Michael Salmans and his team, the Renegades of Funk. Michael had a great season and was definitely the team to beat. He ended the season in first place, leading the league in runs and stolen bases, but was eliminated in the semi-final round of playoffs by the He-Man Woman Haters (owned by me) in a 9-1 loss. Tyler Sasser and Jacob Smith both represented the BYU 85th Ward with their teams, The Denominators and The Numerators, respectively. The Denominators were in first place for part of the season and were always a tough team to play. Then numerators also played very well and held on to a 3rd place finish in the regular season. Both teams were eliminated by the Scrappy Squirrels in the playoffs. Neil Crapo, a BYU 85th Ward alumni, and his team, Red Blooded, did well but ended the season in 5th place after a late season surge by the He-Man Woman Haters. The good ole' Arvada 5th ward, my hometown ward in Colorado, was represented by Aaron Hassell and his Scrappy Squirrels. While Aaron struggled the first half of the season and was even the subject of league mutany, he pulled his season together and the Scrappy Squirrels ended up taking home the big enchilada and winning the Championship even though they finished last place in the regular season. I had a lot of fun and I can't wait for next year's league.

The Fantasy Football League is also underway with 10 teams which makes for a lot of fun and although two teams are dominating, the other teams continue to improve. We'll give an update later in the season.

Now on to Fantasy Basketball!! Previously we've used FoxSports for our Fantasy Leagues. While they've been great sites and very user-friendly, they've been somewhat unreliable, and they don't have Fantasy Basketball. We will therefore begin using ESPN.com for our Fantasy Basketball League. To sign up, begin by going to ESPN.com and clicking "register" at the top of the screen or by clicking here. Once you have registered, email me at pballguru@hotmail.com and I'll send you an invite to the league. That's all you have to do! We still need at least four teams to join. The league is setup so that you submit your roster once a week so it shouldn't be too time-consuming. See you on the court!

I've got to do something about this root beer belly!

Guys, I'm sure you've noticed those extra pounds have slowly tacked on as you've gotten married, gotten a desk job, gone to college, or just gotten old. Well, thanks to some smart scientists, and a next generation sequencing method from 454 Life Sciences, we now understand a little more about obesity and how to control it. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri have identified several types of bacteria in the human gut that favor obesity.

Before diving in further, a little bit of background is necessary. First, let's do a brief review of Biology 100. DNA is in every cell of your body and is essentially a blue-print of your body. This means that every cell has the information for every gene in your body, but only certain genes are "turned on" in certain cells. The "turning on" of genes is usually manifested as RNA, a copy of a specific segment of DNA that then codes for a specific protein that the cell is supposed to produce.

Next, sequencing is the process of identifying the order of nucleotides in a segment of RNA or DNA. Simply put, sequencing is a way to figure out exactly what the blue-print says.
A 454 sequencer is a machine that will sequence up to 500 million bases in segments of 400-500 bases (the letters that make up DNA or RNA). To give you an idea of how amazing a feat this, when the human genome project began we could only sequence 20,000 bases at a time and two years ago we could only sequence 100 million bases. Also, to give you a benchmark you can compare this with, the human genome consists of approximately 6 billion bases.

Finally, in addition to the genes that are expressed in the human gut, bacteria also express their own genes that in turn greatly affect our metabolic processes. The expression of genes from bacteria in a host is referred to as a biome. The paper I'll discuss is studying the human gut microbiome or the expression of genes from bacteria and how they interact with our bodies. Now onto the papers!

Researchers in Missouri began by taking fecal samples from obese and lean mice and sequencing the DNA found in the sample. After a classification process, they found that 94% of the DNA in the samples was bacterial DNA (that should make you feel warm and fuzzy). When comparing the obese sample to the lean sample they found that Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes, two families of bacteria, varied between the samples. In the obese mouse they saw an increased ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteriodetes compared to the lean mouse. They then looked at the sequences in Firmicutes and saw that its products are involved in KEGG pathways which control the digestion of many carbohydrates. This meant that the obese mice were obese because Firmicutes bacteria was breaking food down better and allowing the mouse to get more calories from its food than the lean mouse.

To verify their findings, the researchers then analyzed the mouse feces and found that it had less energy remaining in the obese mouse than the lean mouse. They further tested this by transplanting the microbiome of obese and lean mice into germ free mice. The mice with the obese microbiome transplanted into them became showed greatly increased weight after only two weeks than the mice with the lean transplanted microbiome. The mice ate the same amount of food and water and started with the same wieghts and body fat. The only thing that changed was the transplanted microbiome.

Researchers in Shanghai have continued this work by looking at the same bacterial differences in humans. They have looked at Chinese and American lean and obese individuals and have found the same phenomenon happening in humans. They did find that a diet low in carbohydrates and fats decreases the amount of Firmicutes in the gut microbiome. This in turn would decrease an individuals ability to get more energy out of food, a beneficial attribute if you would like to lose weight.

In conclusion, there is hope for those with a root beer belly you'd like to lose. Further research into this field will probably yield drugs that will help regulate the amount of Firmicutes in the gut which will reduce energy uptake and decrease obesity. But until then, if you don't eat as many carbs or fats you'll decrease the amount of Firmicutes naturally which should also decrease obesity. Personally, I'm holding out for the drug!

Here are the references for the two papers I used for this article if you're interested:
Ley, R.E., et al, (2006). "Microbial ecology: Human gut microbes associated with obesity." Nature 444: 1022-1023.
Li, M., et al. (2008). "Symbiotic gut microbes modulate human metabolic phenotypes." PNAS 105 (6): 2117-2122.

Pictures taken at just the right angle.

Alright, I know I've been seriously slacking in my postings but with school starting up and all of the work that accompanies my graduate project I've been pretty busy. I promise I'll post something this weekend. In the meantime, here's something that will wet your appetite. I thought some of these pictures were pretty great. Enjoy!

To drill or not to drill

Today during lunch I was watching the Colbert Report and came across this clip where Stephen discusses the pros and cons of offshore drilling with himself. I thought it was hilarious. I hope you enjoy!

A paper a day keeps brain rot away

When I first started my graduate program in Genetics my adviser wisely counseled me to read one scientific paper each day. This would not only help me become comfortable with scientific literature or build a knowledge base about subjects pertaining to my project, but would create a habit of life learning and allow me to understand and be able to discuss the cutting edge aspects of my field. The problem is, I've been busy enough that I let it slip through the cracks. In an effort to improve my track record as an avid journal reader, I will begin posting once a week about an interesting or otherwise noteworthy piece of scientific news. Admittedly, this is a selfish endeavor but hopefully we'll all learn some interesting stuff along the way (at least I will, even if nobody chooses to read it).

You can do it!!!!

Football season is fast approaching and registration has begun for the Fox Fantasy Football League. Anyone interested is invited to join. First make an account on Fox Sports. Once you have an account, follow this link. The League ID is 75921 and the password is 'manblog'. Once you've created a team you can set up your draft order. The draft is set for Wednesday, September 3rd. Everyone is welcome!



In honor of the inauguration of the Man Blog League, I've selected some interesting football quotesfor your enjoyment.

Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
- Vince Lombardi

Football isn't a contact sport, it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.
- Duffy Daugherty

I wouldn't ever set out to hurt anyone deliberately unless it was, you know, important -like a league game or something.
- Dick Butkus

Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.
- Joe Theismann

Football is, after all, a wonderful way to get rid of your aggressions without going to jail for it.
- Heywood Hale Broun

American football makes rugby look like a Tupperware party.
- Sue Lawley

College football is a sport that bears the same relation to education that bullfighting does to agriculture.
- Elbert Hubbard

Let's face it, you have to have a slightly recessive gene that has a little something to do with the brain to go out on the football field and beat your head against other human beings on a daily basis.
-Tim Green

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.
-Erma Bombeck

Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?
-Jim Bouton

When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team.
-George Raveling

The reason women don't play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public.
-Phyllis Diller

There are several differences between a football game and a revolution. For one thing, a football game usually lasts longer and the participants wear uniforms. Also, there are usually more casualties in a football game. The object of the game is to move a ball past the other team's goal line. This counts as six points. No points are given for lacerations, contusions, or abrasions, but then no points are deducted, either. Kicking is very important in football. In fact, some of the more enthusiastic players even kick the ball, occasionally.
-Alfred Hitchcock

For more quotes follow this link.

Paintball Game Tuesday, July 15th

On Tuesday, July 15th we'll be playing paintball at a field by the Provo Airport (see pic). The address is 810 South 3110 West. People start playing at 5pm but I won't be there until 6:15 (in case anyone wants to carpool). It is free to play and you can bring your own equipment and paint. There will also be air if you need to refill and paint available for purchase. If you don't have a gun but still want to play you can rent a gun at JTPaintball Rentals in Provo ($10 for gun, mask, and tank) and they'll bring it to the field for you. Just call the a day or two in advance. The phone number is 801-376-5276. I also have a gun if anyone wants to borrow it (you'll need to rent a mask for $2). If you have any other questions feel free to post a comment or email me. See you there!

Steep and Cheap

In the spirit of summer fun and outdoor enjoyment, I wanted to share a website my brother-in-law told me about called Steep and Cheap. It has massive quantities of one item which allows them so sell the item very cheap (usually 60-70% off). Once that item is sold another is posted. Items sold includecycling gear, hiking gear, camping gear, backpacks, etc. They even have an add-on to Internet Explorer and Firefox that allows you to see what item is being sold, very convenient if you don't want to keep checking their site throughout the day.

There is also a website that is exclusively for bike gear called chainlove.com which has some pretty good deals.

Other websites similar to this include WhiskeyMilitia.com, GearEngine.com, and woot.com

If you know of any other websites like this feel free to post a comment to let everyone else know. Have some fun this summer!

I love paintball!

This week has been pretty exciting. I was able to buy a new paintball gun and took it out for a spin yesterday. The gun is an Autococker select fire with all kinds of upgrades including a black magic regulator, new bolt, drop forward and clamping feedneck (see pic). I also got a high pressure air system to keep up with the rapid fire and I had an electronic hopper to feed paintballs to the gun faster. The guns shoots amazing too. Even in semi-auto mode it shoots very fast and is pretty accurate. I'd like to buy a new barrel that is a little more quiet and accurate. It was a lot of fun playing though.

There is a new paintball company in Provo now called JT Paintball Rentals. They have pretty good prices for rental guns (as cheap as $10/day) and the owner organizes FREE paintball games and has on-site air fills. Every other Tuesday he hosts a free game across the street from the Provo Airport. It starts at 5:30pm and we usually play until about 8:00pm. The next time we play is July 1st, anyone who wants to play is invited. The owner will also help us host a game if we can get a group together.

If you are interested in playing on Tuesday's or want to set up a group game on a Saturday, post a comment and I'll let you know when we have something set up. Also, if you want to be added to an email list of local games you can email the owner at jtpaintballrentals@gmail.com and he’ll email you when games are planned. If you haven’t played paintball, give it a try. If nothing else, you’ll have some fun war stories to tell.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...

As the Queen song, "Bicycle Race," says, I want to ride my bicycle. The weather is perfect for some biking and it's time to wipe the dust off your bike, oil up the chain, and get on a trail. This week I began biking season by going to the local shop for a bike tune-up. I was surprised to find out that the wait was a week long and they were not taking reservations. Plus, it cost $40. Fortunately, I ran into a friend that was willing to help me out with the tune-up. for those of you who don't have a bike-loving friend or relative, there are still a few options.

The first option is to do the work yourself using a Do-It-Yourself site. The BikeWebsite is a great web page with instructions on how to tune or repair just about anything. You'll have to buy parts but they will walk you through the process and the instructions are pretty straight-forward.

The second option is to buy a new bike. This option should be excercised if you can't even get the pedals rotating or can't go more than a block without the chain falling off. Buying a new bike can be a dizzying prospect. The first question you need to ask yourself is what type of bike you want. Mountain bikes tend to be the best commuter bike since they are much less expensive than a road bike. If you're serious about riding 30-40 miles a day, a road bike is the only way to go. As far as price, if you have the money someone makes a bike to match your budget. You can buy an inexpensive Mens Roadmaster from Walmart for $68. It's not the kind of mountain bike you'd want to ride off a cliff, but it'll get you from point A to point B (most of the time). On the other extreme, you could buy the Gary Fisher HiFi Carbon Pro (see pic below) which features an ultralite carbon frame, HiFi suspension, and every other gadget or upgrade known to man. All yours for only $5,719.99 (or 143 payments of 39.99). And road bikes can cost as much as $15,000!! So the take-home message is this: set your budget and then find the best bike that meets your budget.


Once you buy the Gary Fisher HiFi Carbon Pro you'll certainly need some place to ride it (not just to and from school). If you live in Utah, a great place to find biking paths is Utah.com. Here you can look at popular destinations or you can search a particular city and see a description and rating of trails in the area. Utah Mountain Bike Trails also has a large list of trails. If you don't live in Utah you can do a google search for trails in your state.

Hopefully this has been helpful and if not helpful, at least interesting. Whether you're looking for an enjoyable way to commute or an exciting outdoor activity, you can't go wrong with a bicycle.

The Office

The Office is currently one of my favorite TV shows. With it's dry humor and interesting characters there are bound to be some excellent one-liners. Here are a few from my favorite episodes.

Michael: Today, I'm headed over to the job fair at Valley View High School to find some new interns, to get some fresh blood—um, euthanize this place.

(Discussing an accident where Michael hit an employee with his car)
Ryan: Did this happen on company property?
Michael: Yes. It was on company property, with company property, so double jeopardy. We are fine.
Ryan: I don't think you understand how jeopardy works.
Michael: Oh, right, I'm sorry. What is "we're fine"?

Michael: I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon- sue me- and since I don't have a butler, I have to do it myself. So most nights before I go to bed I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious. It's good for me. It's the perfect way to start the day. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot. That's it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that!

Andy: I am a great interviewee. Why? Because I have something no one else has...my brain. Which I use to my advantage when advantageous.

Dwight: Welcome to the Hotel Hell. Check in time now. Check out time is never.
Jim: Does my room have cable?
Dwight: No, and the sheets are made of fire!
Jim: Can I change rooms?
Dwight: No, we're all booked up. Hell convention in town!
Jim: Can I have a late check out?
Dwight: I'll have to talk to the manager.
Jim: You're not the manager...even in your own fantasy?
Dwight: I'm the owner....the co-owner. With Satan!
Jim: Okay, just so I understand it... in your wildest fantasy, you are in hell. And you are co-running a bed and breakfast with the devil.
Dwight: But I haven't told you my salary.
Jim: Go.
Dwight: Eighty thousand dollars a year!

(Michael in confessional)
Michael: It takes a big man to admit his mistake and that’s what I did. The important thing is I learned something. I don’t want somebody sucking up to me because they think I’m going to help their career. I want them sucking up to me because they genuinely love me. (smiles at the camera) Hmm.

If you're new to The Office, go here for a synopsis of the show as well as episode descriptions and other Office related information. Also, NBC has started letting people download episodes of The Office so you can catch up!

If you're also a fan of the office post some of your favorite quotes and Office moments in the comments section. The season finale is this week, Toby is leaving Dunder Mifflin and Michael is throwing a party to celebrate. Enjoy!

It's time to play some Halo

To celebrate the end of finals and a challenging semester, I will be hosting an online Halo multi-player game and am inviting anyone and everyone to come and play. You don't even have to own the game. The Halo demo version has a multi-player game that can connect people online. Just download the demo here (it's about 130 MB so be prepared) and install it. Once you have the game open go into the multi-player menu and choose "Internet" under the "Join a Game" category. From there a list of games will appear. My game will appropriately be named "manblog" and the password to join will be "jason." Right now I'm planning on hosting the game at 7:30pm on Wednesday, but if a better time works for those who want to play, we can change it. Post a comment here if you plan on playing and if a better time would work and I'll coordinate it.

Get used to the controls by playing the demo level and then jump into a multi-player game and have some fun. Then come on Wednesday and see if you can beat me! You probably can but I'm sure there will be a couple of challenging people. Happy end of the semester!!

What's a ligre?

I'm sure that all of you Napoleon Dynamite fans remember this conversation between Napoleon and Deb.

Deb: What are you drawing?
Napoleon: A ligre.
Deb: What's a ligre?
Napoleon: It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic.

Today we are here to find out if Napoleon really knows his hybrids. A ligre is in fact a combination of a lion and a tiger and it does in fact exist (see picture below), although for those of you seeking to improve you capacity for magic, I would not recommend buying one. A ligre is when a female lion mates with a male tiger (the female is always first).


Hybrids are formed when two species that are reproductively seperated pre-zygotically (geographic or behavioral isolation) but that , under the right circumstances, and form offspring. When the mood is right, you can end up with a Tigon, Yalkalo, Wolphin, Geep, Beefalo, or Zonkey, to name a few. When this occurs, some pretty interesting outcomes can occur. For some great hybrid pictures follow this link.


So the next time you are watching Napoleon Dynamite, remember hybrids and the amazing things that nature can produce when the circumstances are right.

The Colbert Report

One of the funniest political shows I've seen in years is The Colbert Report. It airs on Comedy Central Monday through Thursday. You can also view episodes on comedycentral.com. I've put on a couple of videos to give you an idea of what the show is like. Enjoy!

MP3 Fiesta!!!

I'll start off this post by saying that I've never really liked iTunes. I think the site is good for browsing or finding music but the format is a pain, especially if you don't own an iPod, and, for a college student, it is a little expensive. Hence, I was really happy when I found this new site called mp3fiesta.com. It is a site with a great selection of music and you can download songs for 10 cents and albums for a dollar! The sound quality is great and I've had only great things to say about it since I started using it. The songs are in mp3 format so you can add them to an iPod or any other mp3 player and they aren't protected so you can put them on multiple computers or mp3 players and listen to them without needing a password. I thought it was a good find and wanted to share the information with everyone else. Enjoy!