learned last friday that genetic alleles can now be tested for about the price of a plate of fried rice. well, expensive fried rice, but not the really expensive kind with lobster and XO sauce and each rice grain individually coated with egg. this was a rather pleasant surprise, except that i now get to go bananas with what i get to assay and run into all sorts of lovely multiple comparisons problems and spend sleepless nights inventing post-hoc rationalizations to justify my criminal behavior.

i will say (again) that worrying about budgets is something i'd really rather leave to other people. money in research is such an ugly thing: oil and water. i maintain that we need to bring back real patrons, the kind with endlessly deep pockets and a real eye for ability, and throw budgets out of the window. then -- real honesty, none of this hedging ones bets and praying to random deities for data to reach significance. no scrambling desperately for alternate explanations and splitting datasets into a billion infinitesimal pieces in an attempt to publish them all. look at me: 30 years old, and still an idealist. maybe one day soon i'll leave never never land.