The Gum Tree for 2004 August 18

Today was spent at the lab again. I read some papers and figured out the concentrations that I need for a botox experiment tomorrow. A team of us are trying to get some good data for a conference that will be held febuary at Long Beach, CA. It would be nice if I could contribute to that. Louise went DI Shopping today (thrift). She took the Credit Card and boy did she go wild. (If anybody knows Louise, you would know how thrifty she is :) You know, I really am lucky that she is so responsible with money. She helps me to not be so spendy. We also had a lively conversation about who were the most influential people of all time. A friend of mine has this book by Robert Hart, and we used the website http://www.adherents.com/adh_influ.html to fuel the debate. My biggest beef was that he put JFK in the top 80's of the list, and while I support that he was a good president he certainly wasn't as influential as Lincoln (not on the list) or FDR or even Truman who dropped the A-Bomb. These were presidents who were influential for good or bad. You also have to read his criteria for ranking the people. Hitler was in the top 40's for example. Mohommad was #1, and we had a pretty good debate over that. No blood was shed, and we are still on talking terms so a little vigorous conversation did us some good.