Life: Back from Japan

I was visiting Japan from 5/12/2015 to 5/28/2015.

The main purpose was to set up a better support system for my mother who got sick a few months ago. She has recovered. But it was about time to review and improve entire support system.

Another purpose was my science business. I gave a talk at a University where a colleague's group is working.

And the other purpose was my vacation. I took my mother to hot springs and nice restaurants. Have you tried Suppon (Soft shell turtle)? It's a delicacy. 

         

          [Fresh seafood dinner at the seaside hot springs. Can you see live abalone?]

[Famous "Turtle blood" mixed with Sake.]  

I even went to a milonga in a neighboring city Nagoya, organized by Yuko Ono. I'd never attended a milonga in Japan before. They had a decent milonga there.

Life throws events. Some events we tend to call bad, and other events we tend to call good. But a great deal of the good-bad evaluation is subjective. My mother's sickness may sound bad. But thanks to that I decided to make the trip. The trip was good, and I had a great time with my family in Japan. Such time is precious, and I am very happy to have had the trip.

[Did I have a good time? Sure, I did.]

Science: Authorship rules and a (long) time to write a paper

There had been a volunteer student in the lab. He had been helping my work for about 9 months. He is leaving the lab for a medical school, so last Friday we had a farewell presentation by him. I am very thankful for his help.



When he joined the lab, my work was having a "harvest season", luckily for him. I have been busy writing manuscripts to get the results out. He contributed in generating data for the majority of the analytic work, and as a result he's earned authorship in two recent publications and two pending manuscripts. People in this industry would agree that his case (3-4 authored papers in 9 months) is quite an exception.


There is a widespread misconception among misinformed undergraduates that you work in a lab for a month or two and you get authorship. No, it's a wishful thinking and usually authorship is not that easy to earn.

I give authorship only to someone who made significant contribution. Intellectual contribution is important. I also give authorship to the person who generated critical data that become a part of the figures in final publication. There may be occasions that student's "future" is considered as well, but his/her contribution or involvement should be defensibly significant.

[This general rule excludes data from core facility or outsourced company. Contribution by staff and other collaborators is judged case by case].

Also, timing weighs heavily in your "luck". I used a metaphor of "harvest season". Before harvest, there was a long incubation time for the project to grow and bear fruits. It is especially true in animal-based research I am involved.

In hypothesis-driven medical science, a lot of seeds (hypotheses) die before bearing fruits. They may go unsupported by experiments and turn out to be untrue. Then the whole work can be very hard to publish. Generally, negative or neutral results are a lot harder to publish.

We usually assign students to projects with reasonable expectation of future publication. But publication may not happen in the most convenient time frame for students.


A lab is like a small (tiny) company. As to authorship decision, there are general rules and guidelines in the research field and in the journals. But how it is actually done depends on each PI's management decision. Writing a paper is not a one-month process. It can take years including the incubation and testing steps. What a student thinks it is or it should be can be different from actual and reasonable process, and knowing all these is an important part of learning as well.

There is a saying about time estimate for a project; "Triple the time of a students's estimate, and double the time of a postdoc's". Empirically that saying sounds about right.

Dance: Look good instantly

We tend to believe that to look good in dancing, it takes years of training and practice.

If we are talking about those "natural" or "professional" guys who stand out on the dance floor, that's right. I am not going to lie to you. They usually have had long hours of practice and serious training.


However,...

.... you can look much better in the matter of days (even minutes), if not weeks. At least temporarily. Maybe it is a little bit of "cheat" method. But it works.

How do you do it?

It is simple three step process.

(1) Watch good dancers and find dancers you like.

If your body type is similar to them, it makes the following work easier.


(2) Choose one (or more) as your virtual mentor, and faithfully imitate his/her postures.

Focus on his/her posture. Copy the mentor-dancer's posture in a static manner. Take your time to be accurate. Use mirror or have you videotaped to make sure your posture is accurate and looks good. 

Do you know animation is made by a series of static pictures? You move from a good looking posture to another good looking posture, and you will always look good.

Do it slow. I call it the "Tai chi" method. It will improve your coordination as well.


(3) Practice.

Practice makes your good posture permanent. At first, your "good postures" will not feel good, right, or natural to you. That's because you did not know how to assume good-looking posture and never done that before. You got to re-train your body.


Do you have doubts?

When I dance social ballroom waltz, most partners casually stand there at the beginning of the dance. But a few assume her waltz frame; left elbow pointing, chest expands, arms form a good frame, her head turns to left and spine makes a long line connected to left leg. Even if I have never danced with her or know nothing about her, I'd assume she took her time to train and knows what she is doing.

Alternatively, I bet you can guess dancer's level just from pictures. In the case, what are you looking at? Posture.

Even though we know nothing about the dancers, and even though these are just pictures, we do make our judgement.

[Why do they look good or trained, even though we don't see them dance?]

The real trick is, not-so-good-looking dancers can take the same postures as good-looking dancers in about a minute by directing or "choreographing". In the example of waltz, a total beginner can take the same posture as serious dancer in one minute instruction.

Now, we can say "both look good", at least in the static picture.

Maintaining the good-looking posture and dance with it is whole another game and another step. But you can take the first step by knowing, learning and practicing what postures look good.



Another very important part to look good in dancing is how you move. I'll write how to improve your motion later. It is a little harder than imitating postures (can't be helped......shrug).

Dance: How do you teach WCS to a beginning follower in 3 minutes?

I went to a social dance party last weekend. There were visiting salsa professionals in the party. Dancing with them reminded me that it had been a while since I danced with real salsa dancers (read: serious and well-trained dancers whose main dance is salsa) last time.

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The title question is not a joke or anything. The situation happens all the time in a social party. There is a party, and she doesn't know WCS. She is willing to learn. Now what?


Frankly, I hate to see some guy "teaching" some made-up random dance or choreographing his own moves that no one else can follow. I'd say, leaders, you got to teach solid basics she can use. If you teach salsa basic steps to her, she can have fun afterwards with other guys with the universal basic steps all night long. Why can't WCS be like that?

Anyone can be a beginner if she has never done the particular dance before. She can be a great salsa dancer/performer/teacher, yet she can still be a beginner for WCS.


So here is how usually I teach her in 3 minutes.

"Listen to this song. Do you like this song? Good. Now, listen to the downbeat. 1-2-3-4-5-6.....You are supposed to step with the down beats. Okay?"

"WCS is a slotted dance, meaning you travel on a straight line, from here to there"

"I'll teach you 6 count basics first. Stand on your left leg. That's your ready position."

"Now, the basic steps are 1-2, triple step, triple step. 1-2 is walk two steps straight forward."

"When I pull your hand, you start 1-2,then triple, triple, traveling on the straight line from here to there (the other end of the slot)."

[so I am teaching the basic 6 count sidepass or underarm pass. I'd dance only the basics for a while, making sure it feels right. Usually two-hands connection works better.]

Then I'd add some other details, like;

"You keep looking at your partner, and your chest is facing to your partner"

"I lead you with this hand connection. I'll keep my hand steady so you can follow it. You keep it steady, too."

"It's a "swing" dance. Do you know what swing is? That one in the park. Remember the motion. You start slow, then fast, and slow, you swiiieeeeeeng. You'd feel the slow-fast-slow flow of motion in this dance."

[This is "swing"]

"Last triple 5-6 is usually called anchoring triple."


If she has quick feet, add spins in 3-4. If she is a well-trained dancer, I can keep her spinning for 3-4-5-6-7-8-...for a little challenge.


Probably this much takes about 3 minutes. The song would be over.



I need to use or teach compression to teach push steps. She may not have good arm frame, and it's going to take a little more explanation, so usually I don't teach push steps in the first 3 minutes.

If she is ready, I could go on to add more 6 count variations, like tuck in turn.

Or, (if she is ready) I'd just use 8 count basic whip with some stretchy exaggeration in the contrast in "1-2" and "3-and-4", and tell her that there are two basic count patterns and steps; 6-count basics and 8-count basics. 

If she is ready for all this, then I'd say that you can take the patterns apart, and recombine them to make it more improvisational.


Overall, I'd just teach basic 6 count, sidepass and underarm pass in the first 3 minutes. I'll focus on making the dance comfortable and done correctly. 

Correctly done WCS basics feel smooth, flowing and comfortable. I can have fun and a good time just doing nice basics. I don't mind teaching. Don't be shy and give WCS a try.



I guess this entry is technical enough already. This entry is for consideration for fellow WCS leaders who's got a willing partner who wants to try WCS for the first time.