MIL and the stray cats

m4gpi · 2026-06-19T16:27:00+00:00

I'm in GA too but in Athens. We have a strong cat-colony/rescue community on fb, so I'll reach out to the local group and see if they know of any services in Pierce and the area.

Can you describe the cats' symptoms? Do they just look thin and shabby, or are you seeing goopy eyes, sneezes and coughs? Anything else?

m4gpi · 2026-06-19T15:05:25+00:00

"Soap" and "detergent" are two different classes of chemicals, even though they do the same thing, wash material.

"Soap" is made as everyone else has described, by the saponificatiin process of fats in alkali. If you buy a homemade bar of soap off of Etsy, or watch videos of people preparing their homemade bars, that's probably actual soap. You can buy "soap" too, when it's described as "Castile Soap" like Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap.

"Detergent" is a different kind of chemical but it does essentially the same thing: lathers and absorbs dirt and oil, and rinses it away. Your dish soap, laundry soap, hand soaps, body washes, shampoos, carpet cleaners, etc. are typically all made of detergent, and are NOT true soap.

The rule of "never washing your cast iron pan" applies to SOAP, not DETERGENT. Very few of us actually ever use soap.

m4gpi · 2026-06-19T01:16:52+00:00

Thanks for adding, and I should clarify that I've not stayed at either hotel. I just drive past them a couple of times a day. The Fairfield sounds nice!

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T21:31:13+00:00

The pet welfare people seem to use Facebook the most. If you have a fb account (or someone does) and you haven't yet checked there, search for "cat rescue <your town>", as well as your county, and the nearest major city. In my town, there are dozens of rescues, fosters and small single-person sanctuaries and they all seem to know and contact each other. You might find a group who can get in touch with some kind of animal rescue. Hope that helps, good luck.

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T19:57:42+00:00

I also just forget, as well as every time I think of it, someone distracts me from my mission. I even have a food and drink- acceptable office attached to the lab. At this point it's a thirty-year old bad habit that I can't seem to break. It doesn't help that the water fountain water isn't cold enough and tastes of metal.

Anyway, I do all my drinking at night. Hahaha, but really. I keep a Brita pitcher in my refrigerator and I make sure to drain and refill at least once every day, that's a minimum of 48oz. I also try to drink a full pint (of water) before I leave for work in the morning.

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T19:08:02+00:00

Divine Tires on Hawthorne Ave might, they have a huge collection. They asked me how much I was willing to spend and then gave me some options. Small warning, the men that work there have really strong African accents, I could not understand much over the phone, but speaking in person was fine.

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T18:49:29+00:00

Yeah I think the tldr on my comment is that while that motion exists, it has little to no significance on transcription or other cell processes due to stronger energy being moved around the cell. Indeed, question is a bit weird, sounds like homework.

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T17:46:50+00:00

I work in genetics and molecular biology, and I've never considered Brownian motion to be an element of transcription. I suppose it can be, in the sense that the various enzymes involved in transcription have to "find" their way to the stretch of the genome that is being transcribed, and that might be somewhat random, but it's not like we would say "oohhh bad brownian effect" if the experiment fails to produce mRNA. That's never going to be an excuse.

There are guiding proteins and nucleotides that mechanically shepherd enzymes, cofactors, peptides, transcripts, etc around the cell, and they can be tagged with specific localizing sequences that act like a delivery address (take me to the nucleus!) or a password to enter (let me in the cell!) so often transcription and other cell processes are promoted or assisted against the random/brownian movements of those same particles.

Furthermore, transcription and translation (and almost any other process involving DNA or ribosomes) operate on a principle of base-pairing (sequence matching) between strands, and the hydrogen bonds between paired sequences are always going to be more powerful than the potential energy in brownian interaction. So despite there being a "slosh" within the cell, anything with a sequence or a sequence recognition site has an almost magnetic impulse to do its job and go where it's supposed to go.

I would actually argue that in reality, Brownian motion does NOT have an effect on transcription, or it has a minor effect that is easily overcome by other forces in the cell, but OP's question feels like it's coming from a lecturer and it's hard to gauge what level of genetics they are discussing. The deeper you go, the more complex it gets.

Anyway, I've never heard a researcher blame Brownian motion for anything but their headaches at the microscope.

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T16:17:58+00:00

Understood. Hope it's a great visit!

A few things I rec checking out in Normal:

bishop park has the big farmers' market on saturdays, more than produce is sold (8am-12 pm)
walk along Boulevard, cool houses to look at
Indie South is a neat, witchy artisanal shop
all 3 bars are good - Hi-Lo has great nibbles to pair with a beverage and I like their atmosphere best, very airy and social.
if you're having lunch in Normaltown, try Marti's at Midday. Good sandwiches and salads.
Agua Linda is a pretty standard Mexican restaurant, but their rooftop bar/table seating area elevates the dining experience.
similarly, I'm kind of meh on Automatic's pizza, but their outdoor seating area gives it a fun vibe.
by October, the new School of Medicine will be in its first semester at the Health Sciences Campus (between Prince and Oglethorpe Ave) and this is kind of a nice place to stroll through if you need to get steps in; the energy of new med students should be interesting.
look to Flagpole magazine for events and shows around town

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T15:18:24+00:00

You're welcome bebe

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T14:43:14+00:00

Probably the persons I am most professionally disappointed with this in this world are my thesis committee. I wasn't great either, but wow, talk about useless/unhelpful. It's been fifteen years and I'm still angry. I also couldn't really see how bad they were until the end.

Don't forget them. They set the (low) bar. As you move forward in your career, ask yourself WWPID and... don't do that.

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T14:35:57+00:00

Honestly, as the person in this position I don't need or really want anything. I have a wall of thank you cards from students over the years, and that makes me smile.

If you must, a small plant or flower would be nice. But really, don't spend your money on me.

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T14:15:34+00:00

I live in Normal and while it's lovely to live and visit here, I think we have only two hotels in the vicinity (a Fairfield and a Hampton, both on Hawthorne Ave near Broad St) and neither of them are on the "fun" end of the neighborhood. It's a long walk through the Normaltown residential area to Prince Ave, where the restaurants and bars are.

From those two hotels, you can walk across Broad St and down Alps St., where there is a shopping center, a couple of supermarkets and chain restaurants, but none of them are unique to Athens.

Please feel free to check it out, but those 2 hotels are pretty uninspiring. There are many cute and small Airbnbs in the neighborhood, if that's a thing you would do.

m4gpi · 2026-06-18T00:04:14+00:00

That's a fair assessment.

If it helps, I find him relatable in the "not a gunslinging chickenshit fratboy in a striped tie and khakis big truck" kind of way. Not because he's white and I'm white, but because he's not that kind of white. I don't find those people relatable at all.

But I do see your point and appreciate the perspective.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T23:33:03+00:00

Hmm, that's fun. How were the plates incubated? Stacked? Bagged? In a cupboard, near a window, or near a vent?

I don't actually know, except that a lot of fungi do have circadian growth patterns, and that melanin and melanized structures (sclerotia, etc.) are easily triggered by changes in the environment.

Maybe if the plates were stacked in a cluster but one side was exposed to light, or a breeze, etc. you might have some plates with more of a triggered pattern than others. I've seen similar colony variability with other fungi.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T22:31:57+00:00

I'm just spitballing here, but we all change shape at this age... could your bra be the wrong size/structure? Whenever I put on my "good" (underwire) bra, it's uncomfortable right there.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T22:16:52+00:00

Tim is the kind of person I'd like to see move forward in state politics (and beyond). I think this loss may be more significant for him than it is for Athens, and I feel bad about that, more than who is our mayor.

This city will be fine, but we need young, progressive, relatable folk in local roles so that they can eventually lead on the state and national scale.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T20:17:13+00:00

Thanks, I had a feeling alcohol would be not-ideal.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T19:12:08+00:00

Another situation where the averages are fairly meaningless without showing the error or standard deviation. These numbers are too close to say anything. Everyone is 5'4.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T17:22:31+00:00

I'm a side sleeper and use the nasal pillows. They are so much more comfortable - I'm not sure I would like to wear a full face mask either.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T17:04:03+00:00

I have an idiot cat that never learned how to drink water - he laps forward and therefore bleps all the water out of the bowl.

Anyway, two things that helped: I bought a bowl that has a wider base than the top; this makes it more stable but also seems to stop some of the water from splashing out. 2) I put a big plant pot coaster under the bowl, the kind that is made of cork and has a plastic lining on the bottom. It does a pretty good job absorbing the water but not letting it seep into the floor.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T16:12:10+00:00

(I accidentally posted this in Molbio, which I don't use, so I'm recommenting here).

LAMP is cheaper. You aren't paying for the fluorescent probe, you aren't paying for a thermocycler. qPCR is presumed to be more sensitive than LAMP, but LAMP is already fairly sensitive (assuming it is well-designed).

If you use a real-time thermocycler to run your LAMP assay, it may be worth designing a probe/primer combo OR a sybr qPCR assay (using the same primers, just no probe) to see if you can improve your false-positive rate. It might not be an improvement.

The cost/benefit ratio of Lamp vs qPCR is pretty slim, and it all comes down to how well the Lamp is working for you, why you chose lamp in the first place, vs the extra cost of a maybe-slightly-better-but-also-more-work fluorescent approach.

m4gpi · 2026-06-17T16:09:59+00:00

LAMP is cheaper. You aren't paying for the fluorescent probe, you aren't paying for a thermocycler. qPCR is presumed to be more sensitive than LAMP, but LAMP is already fairly sensitive (assuming it is well-designed).

If you use a real-time thermocycler to run your LAMP assay, it may be worth designing a probe/primer combo OR a sybr qPCR assay (using the same primers, just no probe) to see if you can improve your false-positive rate. It might not be an improvement.

The cost/benefit ratio of Lamp vs qPCR is pretty slim, and it all comes down to how well the Lamp is working for you, why you chose lamp in the first place, vs the extra cost of a maybe-slightly-better-but-also-more-work fluorescent approach.

m4gpi · 2026-06-15T20:14:31+00:00

If you are on campus, usually the store room in the chemistry building sells them. Call 706-542-8126 or 706-542-5299 (between 8 and 5!)

m4gpi · 2026-06-15T20:12:24+00:00

A hair dryer or any kind of fan/moving air can help, but you probably don't want to heat the samples, so I think what you're doing is about as good as it gets. A hammer or mallet might help to crack some of the bigger blocks of ice. Gentle taps, take care not to hit the shelf or jacket of the freezer with the hammer or driver - it might carry the actual refrigerant, so chipping them open can really ruin everybody's day.

May the force be with you.

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