My life while the world spins madly on...

Thoughts arising while working as a scientist or just randomly spinning from my brain.

I don't give a damn, I'm happy as a clam, nobody knows me at all

[This and the section title borrowed from the Weepies - great lyrics.]

Everything here is just what I think and does not represent opinion of my employer or anybody else. See the Impressum.

Friday 13 June 2014

Meeting in Hinxton

On my way to a meeting at the Sanger Institute in Hinxton, near _Cambridge_. Promissing to be a great meeting with a lot of interesting talks. This is the last trip with people from my old lab (as my ex-boss retired) and all 4(!) of us are going - #cool.

Will present a poster in the evolution of #sex and also give a talk on the evolutionary origin of nematodes (the ur-nematode).

Arrived...

 

Saturday 7 June 2014

Summer is finally here

First really, really hot day of the year. Real nice - although spent the most of it working and watching #GameOfThrones season 3 at the side.

 

Need to do some #sports tomorrow, as I guess the #NZLvsENG #rugger this morning doesn't really count...

 

Teaching #Genomology and #Unix

So the last week (and part of the week before) I have been teaching in my first own Master module. With my students I am delving into computational analysis of evolutionary biology. Therefore most of the students had first to get accustomed with Linux/Unix based computer system. I am very surprised (and pleased to see) how much effort they are putting into this, some virtually starting at zero. In between we do have talks and discussions about evolutionary biology, which are also a lot of fun. Have to say: I like teaching this motivated group.

However, now that it is the weeking, I am also happy to take a break. As there is a holiday next week, I can use the time to get on with some paper writing, poster designing, talk preparations, ah, well and science...

To get my head clear for that, I just watched Riddick. ;-)

 

Sunday 6 April 2014

Amzon Prime Instant Video - wo liegt der Sinn???

Ein Brief an Amazon:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

ich verstehe nicht, warum ich trotz Mitgliedschaft bei Amazon Prime im Instant Video Angebot viele Serien und Filme nicht umsonst streamen kann. Als Beispiel die 1. Staffel von Game of Thrones. Dazu scheint es mir, dass Filme und Serien in der OV generell nicht kostenfrei sind.
Dies scheint mir dem Sinn von Prime Instant Video zu widersprechen, ich zahle ja eine (jetzt höhere!) Jahresgebühr, eben damit ich die Filme und Serien kostenfrei sehen kann. Sonst kann ich mir die Medien auch wieder bei iTunes kaufen.

Mit freunlichen Grüßen

Philipp Schiffer

Saturday 11 January 2014

Moved to a new #lab; #Opera #Wagner #Lohengrin

Although I am cetainly not an expert (actually far from that) the thing with Wagner is, he is out there to kill. I mean I think Mozart is a playful geneious kind of and Verdi has some sweet pieces, but music like in #Lohengrin just explodes on the inside of your head. There is no kidding with Wagner.



On an un-related note, I am in a different lab now. Joined Thomas Wiehe's group, which is working on population genetics using bioinformatics approaches. While my work will still center on broad evolutionary questions and #genomology, I do hope to learn a lot about #popgen.