Henry using a pipette to experiment with mouse DNA.
Yesterday, we brought the students from Cody out to Ann Arbor for a visit to the University of Michigan. Deb Berman (Customer Experience Manager at DE) lined up an action packed day for the kids where they would get to meet up with a familiar face, Brandon Lucas, and make some new friends as well.
We started at Dr. Shannon Davis’ lab for a hands-on lesson on genetics. Dr. Davis works with mice to isolate and identify genes that cause developmental deformities. His studies can then be used to help recognize and prevent those same deformities in humans.
The kids started out in the lab. They learned to use pipettes to measure precise amounts of liquid down to the micro liter. Then they each got to “pipette” small amounts of mouse DNA into a gel solution for an experiment. After each “well” was filled with DNA, the container was closed and an electric current was run through the gel. Dr. Davis explained how the current would pull the DNA a certain distance through the gel depending on which dominant and recessive genes were present. The goal was to identify the gene for dwarfism.
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How changes in piracy policies might affect how you use the web.
It seems like just yesterday SOPA and PIPA were threatening to end the internet as we know it. General public outrage seems to have squashed those bills and they are currently dead in the water. But that doesn’t mean the Internet isn’t destined to change. An international pact called ACTA is still pending in the U.S. and could be more restrictive than the two aforementioned bills.
But did you know that an alternative to those bills, The Copyright Alert System, is already in place?
As a country, our main “product” is information, and the “Wild West” days of free information are nearly over. The proposed SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA are the equivalent of military police. The new “Copyright Alert System” is more like an elementary school principal. The main difference is this new system is bypassing the Government all together.
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There’s only a year-and-a-half left until we have to say Good-Bye to Windows XP for good. Are you ready?
For many businesses, upgrades are on the horizon– whether they like it or not. Microsoft plans to discontinue support for Windows XP (and Office 2003) in 2014.
Why are we bothering to tell you this now? Planning is in order. Many businesses are still running Windows XP. In many cases, other software they use is also outdated and not compatible with Windows 7. Now, they’re faced with upgrading not only Windows and Office, but also their CRM, other expensive applications, and even the physical computers as well.
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One person runs on a treadmill for an hour while another runs down the street for an hour. At the end of that hour, both are dripping sweat, but the first runner is standing in the exact spot he started. The second runner made it all the way to the market.
This example is the difference between Activity and Productivity.
A lot of us work hard and get sweaty at work, but at the end of the day, we are standing in the same spot we were at 8am—no closer to our goals.
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Seeing 120 unread messages in your inbox can be overwhelming. How would you like to get that number down to about 70 without reading or even opening a single message?
In the last Outlook blog, we showed you how to eliminate 40 distractions per day by turning Outlook off. The next step in attaining full productivity is getting all the messages you don’t need to respond to out of your Inbox altogether.
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App Review: RedLaser – Barcode and QR Code Scanner
Works with: iPhone, Android, Windows Phone
This is the most popular bar code and QR code scanning app on both the Android Market and the iPhone App Store — and for good reason. It is one of the few apps on my phone that I use regularly and actually provides me benefits other than mind numbing repetitive entertainment (fruit ninja?).
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