Life: Winter break 2019

December is going fast. Today was the last day for official working day for 2019, and the institute will be closed until 1/2/2020.

I was making backup files, then taking online training course for Institutional Review Board (IRB), which would be required for upcoming human cancer sample procurement from Surgery department for the lab. 

With total 17 modules, the online course came with so much reading materials. I was spending almost all day on the course, yet it would take another day to complete remaining 6 modules. 

Some of my working time goes to preparation. Good things do not just happen unless I make them happen. And to make something good happen, I need planning and preparation, as well as deciding what to do and what not to do.

Winter break is a good time for that; planning, preparation, and deciding what to do and not to do, for 2020.


Another decade will be starting. May it be a great time.

Dance: mini milonga marathon in Dallas, Dec. 2019

There was three consecutive milongas in three days in Dallas (12/6 Fri,7 Sat and 8 Sun). 

It turned out that they have monthly evening milonga on 1st Saturday, and monthly Sunday afternoon milonga on 2nd Sunday. This month, the 1st Saturday and 2nd Sunday fall in the same weekend. Combining a Friday evening milonga, they set up this three milonga weekend and dubbed as "mini milonga marathon".

For us out of towners, the setting is convenient. So I drove to Dallas on Saturday, had two parties, and came back on Sunday. 

The Saturday milonga had a crowd of decent size. I counted about 25 couples dancing on the floor at one time. There were seven people from Oklahoma. The Dallas people were welcoming and I had good dances. I appreciate it. 


I also enjoyed watching as well. Milonga is like Sushi train. While I sit, couples come dancing, allowing me to observe up close, then move away. Some may be more interesting than others, but each couple is unique.

There are many different points you can watch. Each dancer's skill level, how they manage to cooperate, interesting moves and musical interpretations, body usage, pattern habits, style match-up, simply appreciating good dancers, ...etc. While watching I'd pick up interesting moves, or figure out dancers' habits so that later I can lead informed. 

Since I am from out of town, speculating bunch of things by just watching was also fun.


For Sunday afternoon milonga, the dress suggestion was white ("Winter White"). The crowd was mostly white, including myself.

There was a kid (teen?) in the afternoon milonga. I danced a couple of Tandas with her. Kids are lighter, so it takes extra care to place her in the right spot with good axis. No rush. Once adjustment was done, it was nice and easy dance. The kid was dancing fine and catching on quick. Fast progress is also a kid thing that I like. Hope she'd enjoy dancing many good Tangos.


But there was a sad realization also. In Oklahoma Tango communities, we do not have kids.

Starting young can give you some edge in any dancing. Some dance professionals I know started very young. I've seen some kids in Swing dance club, ballroom parties, Salsa studios, hip hop class, etc. Yet, I don't recall kids in Tango parties. 

(...is it because of wine? Maybe.)


Anyhow, it was a nice weekend excursion. They'll have these mini marathon again in May and in November in 2020. I'll keep an eye on the calendar.




PS.  On the Sunday the journal office sent me their decision; another revision. They gave me two weeks. I'm on it. Tomorrow we''ll have Holiday lunch for our lab. Year end is going quickly.

Dance: Upcoming. Mini milonga marathon 12/6-8/2019, Studio22, Dallas.

This may be interesting. This weekend 12/6,7,8. Studio22, Dallas.

Facebook event link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/453978985258250/


Quote:*******************************************************

Get your Argentine Tango fix with weekend full of dancing, hosted by Jairelbhi George Furlong!
.
Milongas on December 6th, 7th, & 8th
🎟️ Price per Milonga: $12/person; $10/Studio 22 Members -OR-
✨ Get the 𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗦 (through December 5th) and save 10% off admission to all 3 parties! ✨
.
🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹
.
🌟 FRIDAY, December 6th 🌟
𝗨𝗚𝗟𝗬 𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗔
9:00 PM - 1:00 AM

• Social dancing all evening!
• BYOB (no red wine, please)
• Soft drinks & small snacks provided
• Attire: wear your favorite ugly holiday sweater/leggings/etc.
• DJ: Effie Quattrociocchi
.
🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹
.
🌟 SATURDAY, December 7th 🌟
𝗘𝗩𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗢 𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗔
8:00 PM - 1:00 AM
.
• Social dancing all evening!
• Bring your own beverage (no red wine, please)
• Soft drinks & small snacks provided
• Attire: dressy casual holiday
• DJ: George Furlong
.
🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹
.
🌟 SUNDAY, December 8th 🌟
𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗔 𝗗𝗘𝗟 𝗦𝗢𝗟-WINTER WHITE
MIMOSA TIME!!!!
3:00 - 7:00 PM
.
• Social dancing all afternoon, with music from present-day orquestras & musicians
• Coffee, soft drinks & small snacks provided
• BYOB (no red wine, please)
• Attire: white
• DJ: Sandy Flippo
.
.
#argentinetango #dancing #studio22dallas #fridaynight #saturdaynight #sundayfunday #nightlife #funkyfridaymilonga #evolutiontango #milonga #sundaymimosas

(Attendees must be 18+ years old for all events.)

Life: how to replace blurry parking assist (back up) camera in CTS 2008-2013

I drive 2nd gen (2008-2013) Cadillac CTS sedan. About a week ago, the parking assist/back up camera got blurry and foggy.

First thing first. Wipe clean the lens. 

It didn't help.

Apparently some water got inside the camera. I decided to replace it.


(0) preparation

Replacement parts: Dorman OE solutions 590-956 Park Assist camera   (approx. $84)

Tools: minus screwdriver
          toolset with rachet,  with 10mm and 3/8 inch (? [forgot exact size]) screw sockets

Time: 15-30 min


(1) remove liner of trunk lid

The liner is fixed by several push tabs, two rubber knobs, a plastic cover for trunk ratch, and a plastic part with a handle.

Pull and remove push tabs. Slide, pull and remove rubber knobs. Pry, pull and remove ratch cover. The handle part has two doors that hide screws. Pry open the doors, and unscrew the hidden two 3/8 inch (?) screws. Then you can remove trunk lid liner.


(2) loosen chrome bar that houses back-up camera and license plate lights

There are four screws and two push-tabs that hold this part in place. Unscrew two 10mm screws from inside trunk lid. Then look at two license plate lights. Slide and remove these two license plate light housings. Then you can access to two hidden 3/8 inch (?) screws. Unscrew and remove them.

From inside trunk lid, you can see two plastic tabs with "minus" head. Push them with a minus screwdriver.

Now you should be able to pull away the chrome bar a bit (2-3 inches) from the trunk lid. There are cables and wiring inside the chrome bar; that is why you want to just loosen it. Don't risk damaging the cables by yanking the chrome bar off.


(3) remove old camera

The camera is connected to cables with a connector on your left. Disconnect the connector of the camera. Then check the camera part. There are two tabs that are holding the camera part in place. Use minus screwdriver to push these two tabs on the right and left sides. Pull the camera part toward outside and remove it.



(4) install new camera

Send the connector part in through the square window, then push the camera part in. Connect the connector to the cable. Secure wiring in place.


(5) Put back the chrome bar and test the new camera

Push back the chrome bar, while adjusting position of its water-resistant lining. Once the bar is in place, put back and tighten the four screws. Put license plate light housings back in.

Then, close the trunk lid, get in the car, turn on the engine and shift the lever to "back". Check the image on the rear-view mirror and its quality. (my car is non-navi, and backup camera image appears on OEM on-star rear-view mirror. Your setting may be different.) 

It should be good as new, or maybe even better than OEM camera. 


(6) Put back the trunk lid liner and you are done.



I searched this "how to install/replace back-up camera, Cadillac CTS 2008-2013 2nd gen sedan". There was no detailed DIY report or video. So here it is. For my own record and for 2nd gen CTS drivers who need to replace the camera.

Hope this helps.

[Old OEM camera]

If you are clueless about minor DIY on your car, BestBuy's Geek squad can install back-up camera for you. Or, just ask your dealership.

          

Science: Juggling projects in holiday season

11/11  sent out a revised manuscript.

11/12  wrote productivity report for 7/1/2018-6/30/2019 academic year. Updated CV.

11/13-18  preparing for a grant.

11/18  sent the grant package to internal routing and review; Productivity report evaluation meeting. preparing for a seminar.

upcoming:

11/19  230-400 program meeting.

11/20  Thanksgiving/Diwali lunch party.

.......

There are a bunch of ongoing projects. But I feel fine. According to a textbook for project management, a project has a goal and a deadline. You manage progress of the process, tasks, team and cost. All these for achieving the goal by the deadline without overspending and without killing the team. And only completed "project" counts. 

My ongoing projects do come with goals and deadlines. As long as we keep meeting them, the projects will be completed, and I feel good about it.

What I don't like is unfinished, suspended projects. Like unfinished books, when they pile up, they start emitting pressure. Yikes.


Upcoming holiday season is a good time to review all these projects and the status of each.


  ...well I sound like some kind of workaholic. Maybe I am. Haha.

Dance: Wear Tux or Adidas pants to check your leg lines

A tip for dancing practice.

Dance people are fussy about lines your body create. They want the lines to be long, nicely flowing and stretching, without bent, squeezed or crooked.

To know what I am talking here, you need a large mirror, and to wear tuxedo pants or Adidas pants. ...those pants with lines on the outer sides.

These pants really help you to see your leg lines in the mirror. 

Give this trick a try.




Revising the review manuscript is almost over. I sent the revised manuscript to our institutional editor, and awaiting her to weed out grammatical errors and funny sentences. Original plan was to send it back in 4-6 weeks. I'll make it.

Life: Kakkonto, an oriental medicine, for early "chilly" cold

This past Saturday I woke up with sore throat and headache (yikes). Passing of a cold front and rainy cold weather was on forecast. I decided to stay put and warm for the weekend to fix my cold. No Halloween Parties.

For that I took some oriental medicine.

Oriental medicine uses somewhat different thinking for cold care from Western medicine that are good to kill symptoms. One notable difference is that oriental medicine try to customize the care and medications according to symptoms, type of the cold, and patient's body type.

A cold is not a cold. Beginning cold and full-on running cold are different. Chilly cold and high fever "hot" cold are different. A patient with "chubby and solid"-body type may receive different medication from a patient with "thin and pale" one.


I took a popular over-the-counter med called Kakkonto (Ge Gen Tang). The med is said to be good for early phase of cold and should be taken when you are feeling chilly, but not when having a fever.

Kakkonto is said to be a med that warms you up, which is helpful for you to ward off early cold by activating immune system. When you have a fever, it is a sign of your immune system working hard.

The herbal pill did have a warming up effect on me. I started sweating a little, like after having a spicy food. Interesting.

It worked great this time. The cold was gone by Monday.



Following oriental medicine approach, I choose my self-medication. For a high fever and inflammatory-type cold (like a flu), I'd pick Isatis root tea (Ban lan gen). They say it is anti-inflammatory and reduce fever.

Although not oriental medicine, Elderberry syrup is fine, too. 

I don't mind if my cold med is low-tech or high tech, as long as it works. I like things that work. That is the bottom line.

[Ge Gen Tang Wan (Kakkonto pill) found in US Amazon]

I have no financial relations to the med maker. A disclaimer just in case.

Dance: Thoughts on local dance "Community"

On Friday I went to Tango milonga. On Saturday I went to West Coast Swing dance party. 

I'm going to dance parties like going to gym. I usually get good dances in social parties. When I get good partners (i.e., technically efficient dancers), I get great dances.


Dancers are a type of musicians. They are a part of the music, with their bodies and their partners as instruments. Naturally, there are few Stradivarius and, well, many violins in the making.


On Saturday party, two professional ballroom dancers and a visiting fusion dance instructor from Dallas for workshops showed up. I enjoyed great dances with them. Lucky me and thank you.


Each of these professionals is owning (or belonging to) her studio. In other words, they are central figures for their dance in their cities and their dance "communities".


That led me think of what dance "community" is.

Following is some of my observation mainly in OKC from past 20 years.


Especially in small cities or towns, "building dance community" is listed as a central goal, or an ideal, by the people who is involved.

In OKC, West Coast Swing dance community was built mainly by then-director Paul and his volunteering students in OKC swing dance club since 80's. Paul retired and passed. Although I see "aging" in the community, which is concerning, there are still parties with good turnout.


Tango community in OKC has been small. International dance studio's Hazel started having regular classed around 2005, for which people came and went. Later, a group of people held their own house milonga for a while, rotating 3 host houses. It died down some years ago, due to passing of some people and due to losing hosts. 

Martha and David Wells came to the OKC Tango scene about 5 years ago. They are now based on south part of the city, holding their classes and working to increase the size of the community. 


(There are Salsa/party Latin communities and Ballroom communities, along with small group of Lindy dancers. I'll skip explanation here.)


Common to these "communities" is that they have (a) a central place (studio, house, university, etc), (b) a host, who is usually a teacher, and (c) regular parties to which community members can attend and enjoy the dance. Only then, you may see a group of people who dance the dance. In rare cases, (d) a sponsor (like college faculty with passion and some budget/time or art grant) may exist.

Most of the community members are not professionals. Each of them is at their own skill level. Even for "professionals", they come in many levels as a dancer. Just think if your "professionals" can dance on Broadway. Simply put, great majority of social dance-based communities are amateurs.

Few people, who host and/or teach, are usually the center of the community. When they are gone for whatever reason (passing, graduation, moving, loss of interest, etc), the community may dissolve.

Hosts are, primarily, teachers. They may not necessarily be show dancers or performers, although some are. From business standpoint, classes and party revenue are main income, which are usually meager for a budding community in a small city. 


Here is a little conflict of interests. From members' standpoint, classes may not hold as much importance as hosts/teachers want it to be. They want fun, and not all can draw fun from learning process. They may not prioritize classes and may not regularly show up.

(In truth, there are a few students of different type. Beginning students who will become good dancers will find place and materials to practice no matter what. Work outside of classes is actually a better indicator for how good they will be. ..I digress.)

From host/teachers' standpoint, large class attendance and big parties are great. Yet, students have their own reasons to attend or not to attend regular classes.


People come and go. If you see it as a school business, it is natural turnover. Hosts and teachers may need to have both a little dose of resignation and a lot of hope. Then pour your passion. You are irrigating a desert, with a vision and a hope of green field. Yet, sometimes you may need to define success in your own terms.


There are traveling teachers who can provide great demos and customized advice to individual student (private lesson). In my opinion, they are like doctors. You can use their help when you need it and when they are here. (Of course, you can take privates for experience purpose. Learning something from the best can be a memorable event.)

How much they can help in building community from ground up? ...I'm not sure. Their performances may be inspiring and their classes may be fun. Their visit can serve as planting seeds. Yet, if they can catalyze any immediate change,.....it is up to your preparation and luck, and probably not up to them.


Personally I am wot working hard to build a dance community at this moment. There should be other, more willing people. I'd be enjoying myself as an individual dancer for the rest of 2019 at least. I'll plan for next year later.

Science: "Major revision" for a manuscript

I did a research project this past summer, wrote up a review manuscript on the subject, and sent the manuscript to a journal late August.

The editorial office did not reject the manuscript outright (a success). They did send the manuscript to reviewers. Today together with reviewers' comments, I got editors' decision; "Major revision".


In my opinion, "major revision" is not bad at all. 

"Accepted" is great, but "major revision" or "minor revision" are fine. We are given an opportunity to improve the manuscript, and we can even borrow knowledge and wisdom from the reviewers to do so.

The reviewers' comments were quite constructive. Some comments really saw through our backstage. Although at a glance these comments may look like there is a lot of work for us to do, in fact they are quite workable. It is a little early for Thanksgiving, but I do appreciate such constructive comments. 

I am very happy to (or even excited to) work on the manuscript. I can discuss the contents after the improved manuscript is accepted.




For the great majority of people who do not work in science, here is the scientific publishing process in general;

We authors decide which journal to send our manuscript, considering many factors. When we send a manuscript to a journal, the journal's editors (usually scientists themselves) determine whether they send the manuscript to reviewers/referees, who are knowledgeable scientists working in the field. Based on the reviewers' comments, the editors decide whether they would reject the manuscript, request revision (major or minor) to authors, or accept the manuscript for publication.

Scientists in a field review their peer's works. That is scientific "peer review" system. Reviewers are anonymous, meaning we authors do not and cannot know the identity of the reviewers. That should help maintaining fairness and honesty, and reducing chances of someone holding grudges.

Reviewing is voluntary. Reviewers are not even paid to review a manuscript. Yet, to maintain integrity of this system, when reviewing is solicited, we try our best to provide constructive comments to improve quality of science.

In a broad sense, reviewing is reciprocal. Today someone reviewed my manuscript. Tomorrow I may be reviewing that someone's manuscript without knowing. We know the world is small.





Tomorrow I'll be giving a presentation, then we'll be collecting samples for a project at the collaborator's lab. There are a few collaborative projects going on in our institute this fall. Looking forward to see the results.

Dance: Upcoming in October in Tulsa (10/11-12), Dallas (10/25-27)

Checking calendar for this month of October 2019.

For dance events,

10/11-12 Tulsa: (West Coast Swing)


Tulsa Fall Fling with Taletha Jouzdani 2019

"West Coast Swing Workshop Weekend in Tulsa! 5+ workshops and 2 dances"

http://tulsafallfling.com/?fbclid=IwAR1Vzqd3P3Bxw5X59Mpi28ED0wDGQPEXb4xGd1NA1fT0c7QPq_RFN9dGh6o




10/25-27 Dallas: (Argentine Tango)


3rd. CELINA & HUGO TEN HOUR TANGO INTENSIVE 2019

https://www.facebook.com/events/640246309821656/
"We are already more than halfway through the year and we wanted to invite you to a special event we will be hosting the fourth weekend of October, 25th to 27th 2019. Our 3rd 10-Hour Tango Intensive of 2019!!

This event will comprise of a weekend long Argentine Tango Intensive. The intent of the ten hour weekend is to focus on our participants dance and technique needs. The content will be entirely dancer driven, with a fun and informative give and take between teacher and student! We have been approached by many people to put on events like this and we are happy to deliver. We are very excited to offer this intensive weekend showcasing this particular style of teaching!

In addition to classes, we will also host a Saturday night Milonga with a performance by us and with a special guest Dj, Phyllis Williams. We are honored to have the opportunity to continue to give back to the World Tango community through events like this.

Space is limited for up to 20 couples, and Celina and I think that this could be a great opportunity for you! We are extending this invitation and special pricing to our dedicated students throughout North America before opening it up to the public so take advantage, and don’t miss this opportunity. Individuals need not register as couples. Single followers/leaders will be paired up and/or asked to rotate throughout the weekend.

For those interested in taking private lessons, Celina and Hugo will be available the week prior to the intensive. Many out-of-town students are already taking advantage of this opportunity so be sure to reserve your space before they’re all gone!

Please see below for the full weekend schedule, pricing, and nearby hotel information for out-of-town participants. We hope to make everything from class registration to hotel booking suggestions, and the weekend itself, as convenient as possible as we want the focus to be on a fun experience. Please let us know if we can do anything towards this end.

We are so looking forward to sharing this weekend with you!

Besos,


Celina and Hugo

P.S. We will finish out the weekend with a celebratory dinner together at Amigos Restaurant Comida Casera on Sunday evening…just a few steps from the studio"

PS

Tulsa milonga and dinner at Casa Tango (9/29 Sun)

Quote: "Room For You. The Tulsa tango community is a small but very dedicated group of dancers. Some have been with us for a few weeks and others a few years. We dance at all levels from casual to dedicated improver. But tango is not our only skill. Our potluck skills are second to none (thanks to Faud and everyone that contributed)! " by Walt Warner

Dance: Where do you find yourself in this "six steps of learning Tango"? (and dance and talent)

There are many ways people learn Tango and make progress toward being decent Tango dancers.

But Tango is also like riding a bicycle. You can ride a bicycle or you cannot. There is a point where you show you can dance Tango. Before you reach the point you cannot or do not, although you may not want to admit it.


Here I propose six steps of learning Tango toward decent social Tango dancers.


Everyone is a beginner at first. Nobody can dance Tango at the beginning.


Step (1): Learn six basics (standing on an axis [+pivot +embellishments +gaze], walking, front ocho, back ocho, cross, and giro) and axis-based step-by-step lead-follow 

  These are the basics of Argentine Tango that were covered in my "Beginning Argentine Tango" book. Although I do think they should be fine to get a beginner started, actually, there is still a long way to go. At this point it is like using third wheel for bicycle. Few can really dance Tango.


Step (2): Practice the basics in front of a mirror and make your moves smooth

  How they are done makes huge difference.


Step (3): Learn patterns.

  Tango has 100+ years of history and has many recognized patterns that make Tango dancing look like Tango. Each pattern is made of 6-12 count moves. These many patterns include; Sacada, back sacada, chain step, parada, barrida, same-axis spin, gancho, enganche, entanglement .... you can find plenty of patterns online and in workshops. Take your time. Your knowledge on Tango is important, too. 

  You'd know these patterns are mostly made of modules of basics. For example, a back sacada uses "a step-in, pivot, and step backward" motion, which is a part of basic giro. Once you can see these, you can catch on the patterns quicker.


Step (4): Learn to dance the patterns slow and precise, with good-looking posture.

  Use mirror or filming. This is a minimum requirement to be an instructor who needs to demonstrate moves while looking good. Teacher/provider and student/consumer see things very differently. Try to have the teacher's viewpoint.


Step (5): Learn to dance the patterns fast, also with precision and good-looking posture.

  Use mirror or filming. Once step (5) is learned, you should be able to use "energy" lead/follow. You are cultivating your muscle memory/subconscious dance response.

  However, muscle memory alone is notorious among professional musicians. Pros know that muscle memory alone is unreliable and can crumble under pressure, as in a solo concert situation. Musical interpretation, a brain work, needs to be combined to grow good and usable muscle memory. This slow/fast learning exercise is to get your brain involved and get you prepared for step (6).


Step (6): Learn to break down the patterns to smaller segments, and combine fast and slow, not only doing all slow or all fast as in steps (4) and (5).

 With this, you'll improve phrasing of your movements, and practice musical interpretation. You'll know the switching requires adequate deceleration and acceleration (brake and gas). Parada(stop) is the brake move used to change energy flow.




By this time you should look to be a decent social Tango dancer. Carry on.



Your innate talent can be defined by the (shorter) time to go through these steps. The shorter the time, the more talented you are. It is like speed of downloading Tango is much faster for some people. "Talented" people show results fast. They have good "hunch". 

I do like political correctness, but some harsh reality do exist in athletic events that include Tango dancing.

Around step (2) or (3), some of "talented" people start showing their promise. That is also the time they start demonstrating that they "can" dance Tango.

To be honest, not everyone is cut out for Tango dancing. However, learning something new is a part of knowing yourself. If Tango is not cut out for you, ... you can still stick around if you like it, or you can try something else. It's your call.


Steps (1)-(6) can be done by yourself (and it is a lot....there is a lot of things you can do by yourself for Tango). If you are aiming at stage tango dancing, this much should serve well as your basis. But if you want to go further, it is a good idea to get some help from established Tango coach/instructor from this point on.


So, where do you find yourself in this "steps of learning Tango, from step (1) to (6)"?

Dance: John Lindo West Coast Swing workshops and party (9/14/2019)

John Lindo is a "big guy" in West Coast Swing dance world. He has many contributions to the WCS community.

He showed up in Oklahoma City last Saturday (9/14/2019) and gave workshops. His workshops were popular. A participant told me that "he was a fun guy and I really liked it". In following social dance party, he was a solid lead and seemed to bring good dance out of his partners, which is an essential character of great social dancers.


I did a little research with YouTube on popular West Coast Swing video, and surprised. 

It was not Jordan & Tatiana's 2009 Moscow performance (1.3M views). Not Benji & Heidi's 2005 US open (3.8M views). Not my favorite, Kyle & Sarah's Jonny B Goode (141k views).

I can tell you, these WCS routine performances are by most respected champion dancers. I doubt any knowledgeable WCS dancers would say otherwise. No doubt they got over millions or hundred thousand views.

However,...

The most viewed video was none other than John Lindo's 2008 Jack and Jill (8.9M views as of today). Second most viewed video was also John's (6M).

[Phoenix 2008 Champions! John Lindo and Stephanie Batista]

Now, you can watch his dance yourself, and you know that he is a champion.

When we talk about dance champions, we may think of ballet company dancers, circus performers (Cirque du soleil), professional ballroom dancers (like the ones in Blackpool), or Broadway style shows. Television shows do bring amazing dancers (e.g., the world of dance) as well.

These dancers are amazing. But at the same time, it is glaringly clear. They are elites and for 99.9999% of people, their levels of dances are unattainable.

Here I'd have to say something obvious. John's body does not look like that of these elite dancers. Instead of radiating sense of awe, he gives us hope.

Somewhat like early Argentine Tango shows surprised us with "old" masters, not only by young up-and-coming dancers, there is a niche in people's viewing pleasure; a Hope.

In this era of all kind of videos and view counts metrics, John emerged as a champion of the niche.

People don't really care how WCS dance world is organized or run or who is respected or the history. Much like I personally don't care about these things in Ballet or competitive ballroom dance. (Certainly I do like great dancers and their videos, and see nothing wrong about them for getting high view counts, though.)

In such an era, hitting people's fancies is a right way for entertainer professionals.

There was an advice by a famous Tango teacher to her students; "think how you would stand out".

John stands out, in his way. That is admirable.

Science: Your diet affect your stem cells in intestine

During Summer, we have been skipping our journal club in the lab. We are going to resume it, and I was searching for a suitable paper.


One of my candidate picks is this.

"Ketone Body Signaling Mediates Intestinal Stem Cell Homeostasis and Adaptation to Diet"

Published recently (8/22/2019) in a prestigious journal Cell by a group in MIT.

Link to the Summary:  https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30848-7

For the background, ...

(a) In the past 10-20 years, cancer stem cell hypothesis emerged, which states that cancer is developed from stem-like tumor-initiating cells. Consistently, cancer itself carries cell population that are like stem cells.

(b) Also in the past 10-20 years, our knowledge on stem cell-based tissue/organ homeostasis has advanced much. Normal organs, like brain, liver, lung, skin, intestine, etc, all use organ-specific stem cells to replenish the organ.

It has become important for us cancer researchers to understand the mechanism of stem cell-based organ replenishment, in order to understand mechanism of cancer development.

That is the reason of my picking up this paper.


Another background is that diet impacts metabolic pattern of cells. Especially, the differences between ketogenic diet and glucose-rich diet on the cellular metabolism have come to our attention.

That said, the paper reports that ketogenic diet can instruct intestinal stem cells toward self renewal, while glucose-rich diet can induce more differentiation.

In other words, stem cell-based tissue/organ homeostasis can be impacted by diet in intestine.

They identified a key enzyme, a major effector, and its target pathway, which add to the paper's novelty.

They are discussing whether this has an impact on cancer, as future research issue. In fact, diet is a major environmental factor for intestinal cells (in addition to microorganisms). It has been known that omega-6 fatty acid-rich western style diet increases colon cancer risk. Wonder how this new paper would merge with existing knowledge.


A little industry trivia. Scientific journals form a hierarchy for each field. Currently, impact factor (a metric indicating how many times the paper is cited by other researchers) is a determinant of a journal's position in the hierarchy. Like it or not, it is how this contemporary academic medical research industry has become.

And on top of the hierarchy, there are three commercial scientific journals; "Cell", "Nature", and "Science". They boast 30-40 impact factor. To put it in a perspective, top-ranked field-specific journals carry up to 10-12 impact factor (e.g., "Cancer Research" from American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Impact factor=9.13). Impact factor over 5 is usually considered decent.


This is a Cell paper. For us professionals, that means that we should read it at least to keep up with what is going on.  

For us, that also means, there are many figures (6 big panels plus 6 supplementary panels that are also big). Cell papers usually are longer than Nature or Science papers. The text is written in rather straightforward manner, but it also includes segments apparently added to respond to reviewers' comments.

In some cases, a long paper with many figures is easier to talk about, because it has covered all the basis (supposedly) and is more convincing. I am hoping it is the case here.

I'll read it more critically to prepare for journal club, tomorrow.

[Graphic Abstract]

I made this Labor day weekend a nice and quiet weekend. Eyeglasses shopping, reading, stretching, washing cat, etc.

Book: "The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success" by Albert-László Barabási

This book is about "success". But it is not another common "success book" that either (a) so-called successful person tells his secret, or (b) a writer, consultant or analyst interviews bunch of successful people and extract the rules and science of success.


The author is a scientist who studies network science and is an expert of big data analysis (that is how I figured).

In this book, he tells you about the results of a series of their projects on "success", with unique approach of quantifying "success" with mining measurable data. Their approach revealed five laws of success, he says.


But "success" is a hard-to-define event. Just try to define success in general. You may have your success, but how do you measure and compare it among all others?

They tackle this tricky definition of success in many different fields from something easier (tennis and golf by contest scores, science measured by impact) to trickier ones (art). Some "success" are creatively defined, like how many google access the subject gets (=fame), or like in how many languages the wikipedia article appears (=outreach of the fame).


The five laws they extracted from their findings are;


1. Performance drives success, but when performance can't be measured, networks drive success.
2. Performance is bounded, but success is unbounded.
3. Previous success x fitness [high potential]= future success.
4. While team success requires diversity and balance, a single individual will receive credit for the group's achievements.
5. With persistence success can come at any time.

Interested? Then I suggest you to read this book. 

I find the laws highly relevant to scientists. As a scientist myself, I did think the performance of scientists is similar to that of professional athletes. Like Einstein published his famous paper in age 26, high performance is achieved while young, and quality of the work diminish over age....that was what I thought, even with discounting the fact that theoretical fields of math and physics may quite be different from more physical fields of chemistry and biology. 


But the law #5 refutes the notion, saying that a paper published later in life can be the "best one" for the scientist, which is personally quite encouraging. 


In fact, all their analysis is done in an "in retrospect" manner (naturally), while we live our lives as ongoing events. 

We do not always see ongoing event from a higher, "in retrospect" standpoint. 

For example, my publication list currently shows 26 published papers. I have personal memories for each. But I don't really dwell on them. I just sent 27th manuscript and working on 28th. 

I cannot tell which paper will be my "best" yet. I am actually thinking the 27th one I just sent (or the 28th in preparation) may become the best. Or perhaps, my 33rd paper would be a breakthrough?    ...I guess I would have to keep going on to know that. Years later, in retrospect, an answer would emerge.


Greatest merit of such laws is that we can practice them. The law#5 kindly states that it may not be too late even if you are in some point of late in life.


This book may be interesting to you all, if you are interested in the subject of "success in life". It may take some thinking to apply the laws to your chosen field, though.

Dance: Play rock, paper, scissors with your foot (body mapping 101)

There is a technique called body mapping. It is useful for dancers, actors, musicians,... all physical performers.

When you use the technique, 

(a) you pay attention to your anatomical body part (hand, elbow, foot, knee, spine,....etc), 
(b) recognize its precise location, 
(c) learn its structure,
(d) understand how it works,
(e) move it, and reconnect your sensation to actual motion of the body part.

So that you'll know your body as instrument much better. This technique can improve your body usage.

Body mapping is not exactly an Adrenalin-filled hard training with sweat-kind of thing. It is reprogramming, re-calibration, of fine-tuning type of technique. It should be quite amusing, with full of discoveries.


That said, what are you supposed to do?


Let's take a foot.


First, know its anatomy and bone structure. (Google it)

[from wikipedia]

Foot is terribly important for dance. You support your entire body weight on such a small structure. It is amazing.

Next, recognize there are three arches in a foot. Each arch allows you to balance and to move. Three together, they work like a tripod.

Move your foot (like, lift inside/big toe, lift outside/pinky side, lift all fingers, rotate clockwise, counterclockwise, etc). 

Recognize the motion and connect your sensation to your command. You'll notice some exercises are easy for you, but others are difficult or un-smooth.


Playing rock, paper, scissors with your foot is one of these exercises.



A dancer's primary instrument is his/her own body. Much like a violinist knows about violin, you should know how your body works, and study it to use it efficiently.


There are many techniques for dancers. Body mapping is one of them. This kind of techniques separate professional opera singers and recreational Thursday Karaoke people, or separate serious dancers and dance enthusiasts. You can tell.

Beauty is in the details....details that are made by techniques. 


One of my summer projects was to collect these techniques.