A poll released Monday in Spacetoday.net suggests that the American public continues to support NASA and the space shuttle program [spacetoday.net]. 68% agree that the shuttle should continue to fly with a higher number yet agreeing that we should continue to send humans into space. Yes, there have been two horrific accidents in the shuttle's history, but most people realize that there will always be risks in space flight. We're a long ways from Star Trek. The investigation into the Columbia accident will result in significant safety changes, and indeed it will be safer. But even if NASA and all the top engineers and scientists in the world think they've carefully assessed every risk, there's always the chance that something, the unexpected, will be missed. We're not where we are by not taking risks.

I've always been a sucker for space flight in general, ever since the Mercury days. The Right Stuff is one of my all time favorite books and movies. I still remember where I was when Armstrong and Aldrin set down on the moon. I've been to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC three times--and it's the same exhibit!

I'm trying out NetNewsWire as an RSS newsreader, blogging tool, etc. This should contain my first link from it.

There's a blog at MacDevCenter regarding the success of Apple's iTunes. You can read about it here: [MacDevCenter]. What's interesting to me is how so many other would-be providers of on-line music are now jumping in to the fray with their versions, once they saw the success of the iTunes music store. However, for a while anyway, I think they'll continue to screw it up [iTunes Bandwagon, CNET].

Today I met with the Scientific Coordinator of the UW Center for Genome Sciences. They're interested in entering into a collaboration with us, but it would be strictly on the sequencing side of the project. They haven't built the kind of automated annotation tools that IG has been offering. Yet, because they are a not-for-profit University cost center, this part of the proposal might end up quite a bit cheaper. We'd then have to either complete the annotation manually, (a lot of BLAST searches!), or subcontract this part out, again with a company like IG. I'm very interested in getting a budget proposal from them.

A few hours later, a bid came from the former IG associates that are now part of what they call the FIG (I won't write what that stands for as I'm not sure they're public yet). Good solid proposal, but higher than what IG came in at. All in all, while I would like the idea of the sequencing taking place a 15 minute walk away from work, IG with its one-stop shopping (we think) may still be the best way to go. In a long conversaton with G today, one thing we wish is to visit the company to be convinced that they are not going to close up shop. We have one shot to get this right!

Another thing that's been going on the past few days. My collaborator on the genome grant and I have just enough of a funny feeling about our potential industry partner to think about looking around for an alternative. There's something about being responsible for that much money, but to also realize that it is a finite number. On this subcontract there can be no cost overruns!

After contacting my former grad school mentor, I've got a few leads on companies and organizations that might be interested in tackling such a project and be able to meet the goals we've set out in the original grant proposal (and in the two year time frame). Next week should be interesting as I meet or talk with some of these other groups.

Last week I listened in on an agency conference call, watched the streaming web feed, and followed along using the powerpoint presentation, on the new agency planning and budgeting process. Fascinating stuff :) and it goes along with the matrix team management style.

We will comply.

Then today my DD told me that starting in FY04, all of our base budgeting will be compared to our annual spending plan...monthly! This includes all categories, including travel and training. In other words, we will need to match our spending plans with our programs (so far so good), but the difficulty arises in trying to come up with and then match monthly spending plans. Come on, this is research and it's so difficult to project the myriad of things that can go right, as well as go wrong, in any project that involves uncertainty (after all, if we knew the answers, it wouldn't be called research!). So, what do we do? Take a deep breath and just do it. Oh, by the way...this is due by COB next Tuesday!!!

So, will I have time to think about anything else? Is this now going to be the life of a program manager? As usual, we'll see how it all pans out.

Somebody made a comment to me this morning regarding US AG John Ashcroft's visit to Seattle, to which I flippantly responded,

"It's funny how important and powerful he's become even after he lost a Senate seat to a dead guy."

My colleague laughed, so I guess this struck him as funny. But really, when you look back at the last couple of years, there's been some profound changes in our country. And most of us, me included, don't always pay attention when we should. And it's often not very funny.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be working with my collaborators to prepare the final budget for our genome sequencing grant. It's amazing how much the cost has come down in the past few years. The original submitted proposal was at ~$0.10 / base pair. Since the funding is actually about 17% less than what was requested (somewhat typical and I'm not complaining), I was able to get the company who'll actually perform the sequencing to cut that about 15%. This will include training in house (Chicago) on their gene annotation software, which in itself will be interesting to write about here. It's time to start exploring how many of the genetic analysis tools have been ported to Mac OS X, besides BLAST.

This is a new blog where I'll try to come up with something thoughtful once in awhile related to my work as a long-time scientist (molecular biologist/microbiologist), a beginning manager in government, my experiences with technology and computers, and whatever else comes to mind.

Just like the millions of other blogs out there.

if you've come here looking for that other blog, I've moved it. You'll have to ask where...