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b_b  ·  644 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: June 22, 2022

What a weird, shitty week last week.

On Thursday I was notified that a longtime friend and scientific collaborator finally died after spending months in the hospital. Poor bastard had an endoscopy back in February to check for pancreatic cancer. The good news is that he was cancer-free. The bad news was that they may have nicked a duct, because he ended up with pancreatitis...which led to sepsis...which led to a bowel obstruction...which led to a feeding tube, fluid on the lungs, etc, etc. Last Sunday he decided that enough was enough and chose hospice over another round of surgeries. Nothing is guaranteed when it involves even a minor procedure. Dude was 58, and just an all around good scientist, husband, father, and grandfather.

Fast forward a day. Was supposed to get drinks with an old friend who I get together with once every month or two. She sent me an email Friday morning that simply said "News" in the subject line and read something like, "Can't make it today. What's your phone number?" So you may think that someone you've been close friends with for over 15 years would have your phone number, but you would be wrong if that person had a psychotic, drug-addled, alcoholic, abusive, deadbeat, low-life husband. Anyway this dude had never met me and nonetheless hated my guts, because he saw some texts between me and his wife years ago that said salacious things like, "You have any lunch plans tomorrow?" I'm intentionally using past tense in the previous sentence, because she called me after I replied to her email to tell me he died...also on Thursday...also at aged 58 (she is 47 and a good cautionary tale about why you don't get together long-term with the handsome older dude who has a cool van when you're 19--hit it and quit it, folks). They were going through a divorce, which had been driving him to ever more erratic behavior and ever more erratic drug use. So while I don't know how he died, I am 99% sure it was fentanyl-related.

It's funny because the last time I saw her I suggested to her that instead of the half million dollars it was going to take to get him to fuck off, maybe she just figures out how to get ahold of his dealer and spots him a $10k credit or something. Quick, painless, and orders of magnitude cheaper. We both laughed about it, but I don't think either of us thought that was a viable option. It's weird, because even though it came to pass, I don't feel bad. I feel only joy for her. Sure her kids will have some rough emotions, but they'll get it in time. I've never personally had the feeling of elation when hearing of the premature death of another human. Indifference, maybe, but not happiness. It makes you feel a little like a monster, but there's absolutely no question that this is a good outcome for all parties. (As an aside, and just to prove I'm not crazy, I called a mutual friend to tell her the news, and she said she hadn't been this happy about a death since Bin Laden--we're talking about a guy who threatened to kill my good friend on multiple occasions, so even filing for divorce was an act of courage.)

Just crazy coincidences. Two guys the same age meeting untimely ends, one a great guy with bad luck, and the other a bottom-feeder with fantastic luck to have lived as long and as well as he had. Really put me in a bad mood altogether over the weekend. Thanks for listening. I'll stop now.

b_b  ·  952 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: August 18, 2021  ·  

Today is my 10 year anniversary of being a Hubski member. Long time. A lot has happened in that time. I have easily spent more time on this website than any other over that stretch. Big ups to mk for making this place. I had the good fortune to help out in a rotating group of 4 or 5 of us who used to try to help keep the lights on here. Met a lot of good people that way, including some intense relationships that are and were very meaningful to me outside of the internet, some of which faded away and some of which were soured by my sometimes inept social abilities. Though I regret that the activity on the site isn't what it once was, it's a great community nonetheless.

b_b  ·  931 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: September 8, 2021

Fun weekend project. I've had this bass since I graduated high school in 2000, and I recently bought a vintage Modulus to replace it. So I decided to turn it fretless. My local luthier wanted $400, and I thought that was too expensive. I couldn't buy an off-the-shelf P-Bass fretless neck, because this Japanese made "Lyte" model was discontinued in the early 2000s and the neck pocket is 1/8" narrower than a standard P-Bass (and anyway they cost ~$250 plus you still need to do a set-up). So I decided to do it myself.

Here's the before:

Took the neck off, ripped the frets out, and gave it a rough sand:

Glued some thin strips of maple veneer into the fret slots (I chose maple so the lines would really pop against the rosewood):

Trimmed and sanded the fretboard with 150 up to 2500 grit:

Finished it with linseed oil:

And then bolted it back on with a new set of flatwound strings, no set-up required:

Plays beautifully, and only cost me about $80 ($50 in supplies plus $30 for a heat gun and a pair of flush cut pliers).

b_b  ·  938 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: September 1, 2021

The best advice I ever received for giving talks is don't assume your audience knows a lot about your topic. Any academic field has minutiae that you come to forget is minutiae when you live it every day. Even someone in a closely related field may be totally oblivious to concepts that you see as mundane. So while I'm not suggesting you dumb anything down, I am suggesting that background and an emphasis on what you're talking about means are to be encouraged.

My former boss, who gives dozens of invited lectures per year (at least before covid), used to always crib the marketing strategy of tell them what you're gonna tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. Everyone in attendance, from the undergrads to the emeriti, will gladly trade a few minutes of review of things they already know for actually understanding what the fuck you're talking about.

b_b  ·  1246 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: October 28, 2020

Last week I posted about some scientific fraud I discovered while doing research for a drug company. I must have made an impression at the company, because their COO called me yesterday to offer me a job. Although I have some reservations, I think I'm going to take it. I've been with my current company for 14 years, which is a long time. And while I basically like my job, I can see a the benefit of not having to hustle for government grants all the time. I had a great opportunity there to try to move my research into human use. It was awesome, even though it ultimately failed, so I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to accomplish. What I don't want to do is to just keep plugging away for the next great idea that may never come, trying to squeeze papers and grants out of uninteresting projects in the interim. It's scary thinking about doing something else when you've been doing the same thing for so long. But I know I'll be well-paid, enjoy the work, be good at it, and have a chance to make an impact on the field. The only real downside is that I won't be working on my ideas anymore, which is a big downside, but it's possible I've reached a dead end there anyway.

b_b  ·  1255 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: PSA: We are no longer in the midst of an experiment.

I think goobster's movie post is a good indication that there are eyes on the site who are happy to engage. Haven't seen that much excitement about a single post in a long time. Ok, it's not a long form discussion of economics or politics, but it at least shows that the users out there want to talk to each other. That's gotta be something to build off.

b_b  ·  1211 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: HUBSKIVERSARY

2020, 2016, and 2012 were leap years, so I think you have to make it to 3653 to be officially a decade.

Edit: not to be that guy. But you know I'm always that guy.

b_b  ·  1253 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: October 21, 2020

Had an interesting situation come up the other day. Some of you who have been on the site a while might know that I'm in the medicine buzz, as in creating new medicines. One of the things I do on the side for extra cash is to help some Wall Street types decide if they should put money into developing some molecule that a company is looking to develop (if I have a superpower, it's smelling bullshit).

Another thing I'm known for in some circles is being very cynical about science. I think the "reproducibility crisis" isn't due to a bunch of complicated factors, but to the simple factor that people publish bullshit way more often than not. I think most of the bullshit is biased data moreso than fraudulent data (soft vs hard corruption, say).

But yesterday, as I was reviewing a diligence package on a company I found a figure that looked familiar to me, but not entirely. So I cross reffed the recent papers from the scientist whose lab the work came from, and there it was: the figure in the paper had actual manipulated data... Not something like the results of one molecular test that an underling could have messed up, but a complete misrepresentation of the work that was done.

Needless to say I called my people and said, this guy's a liar and don't ever talk to him again. But there's a bigger issue here, too, which is that the knowledge I have could ruin this guy's career (he's a decently well known guy in the field, though not like a really famous scientist). But if NIH knew what I know he would be black listed from getting a grant for a long time, maybe forever. I'm bound by an NDA not to blab, and I won't, because my career matters more to me than the satisfaction I'd get out of blasting this dude. But man, it's gonna weigh on me for a while.

Science can't proceed by fraud. And yet there's so much suspected fraud in the field, so you want to help when you can. But I'm powerless here. Really interesting situation for me (but probably nobody else!).

b_b  ·  1255 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Funski: A goofy bit of fun with movie descriptions

Man replaces a damaged rug.