MTA Named America's Best Transit System

Bwahahahahahaha!

*inhale*

Bwahahahahahahaha*choke*cough*cough*

Dude, if I were New York or DC or, hell, even Boston, I'd be scratching my head right now...

Next X-Prize: 100 Genomes in 10 Days

Neat! The next X-Prize challenge was announced recently: a $10 million prize for the first team to decode 100 human genomes in 10 days.

I remember seeing a call for grant applications to develop similar rapid genome sequencing technology a few years ago. It will be interesting to see how quickly we get to this point. I predict a nice mini-revolution in sequencing of smaller genomes from model organisms, as was done before the first human genome... bacteria, yeast, etc.

The article also mentions that this might spur Congress to complete passage of the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, currently stalled in the House of Representatives. That'd be a nice side benefit, too.

Shed a tear for our bitter friend

Oh, man! I've seen around the internets (Boing Boing and NPR, even) that a 40,000 square foot warehouse in Yakima valley, Washington state burned down yesterday.

What was it storing? 4% of the US supply of hops.

Hopefully this doesn't raise the price of homebrewing, let alone commercial beer, too much :(

When there's no more room in hell, the dead will eat your cheese and drink your wine

Here's another sign that there is sometimes too much to do in Los Angeles. Jen and I only recently went to a Forever Hollywood movie screening, this past Saturday at the invite of a classmate of hers. This is an outdoor film series in a Hollywood cemetary. Thankfully, the screening is on a lawn free of tombstones, because that night's film was the original 1978 Dawn of the Dead. I hadn't seen this version before... it's decidedly superior to the 2004 remake.

And, you can picnic! I am definitely from Puritanland, because I was nervous about bringing beer with us right until we saw all the cases in the hands of the people in line in front of us.

Sadly, Dawn of the Dead was the last film of this season (because it gets too cold in Southern California's October for outdoor screenings?). We will have to ...return.