The zeitgeist movement

I just watched this documentary last night, the best one since the long "Loose change" film on 9/11. It illustrates how the monetary system is outdated and even cumbersome today. It also advocates how humanity can work together towards building a sustainable future for everyone.

What's really interesting is how it clearly depicts capitalism and the monetary system, pointing out that the US' debt-based economy is approaching its theoretical limit; an assertion that is emphasized by the current global economic meltdown (the documentary was made prior to this). 

You can watch the original film and its follow-up (embedded below) at the official website for free by clicking here.

De retour !

Ouh la, mais qu'est-ce qu'il fait frette dans ce pays ! Je suis revenu au Quebec mardi matin vers les 0:15 apres un bon 22h sur 4 avions (37 si on compte les aeroports et le traffic sur la 20). Si personne etait au courrant de ce retour festif precoce, c'est que je voulait surprendre Celine lors de sa soutenance. 

BRAVO DRe DEFFRASNES !!!

Je sors maintenant avec une docteure, ca fait un peu intimidant... Sa soutenance c'est tres bien passee, malgre que le voyage Mtl-Qc en 5h30 m'a empeche de voir sa presentation. Elle a domine les questions !

Mon depart de Brisbane fut un peu derniere minute, j'ai du faire visiter la ville a Nadine et Jay qui etaient de passage. On s'est bien ammuses! 

We went to the beach on saturday, then to the LonePine Koala sanctuary on Sunday morning, and the beach again Sunday pm. We accidently stumbled upon the Maroochydore fish market on the way back Saturday, picked up a nice fillet of Barramundi and some fresh tiger prawns. DELICIOUS !

To our surprise, all the koalas were dead!! Turns out these cuties are lazier than me on a hangover! The eukalyptus they eat is in fact toxic so they spend most of the day digesting. 

Not very exciting but fun to look at. 

By the way, my PICASA PHOTO GALLERY can be viewed by clicking on the image in the top right of this page. I will add some more pics shortly.

The kangaroos were a little more fun to play with, they let you come up and touch them and all! They also had a collection of other animals like wallabies, wombats, cockatoos, cockatiels, kookaburras, reptiles (including the most venomous snake in the world). All in all, a good 21$ visit!

Patience...

Sorry I haven't posted anything recently.
I will have internet at home sometime this week.

Recent news:
- New used car !
- Paper rejected but reconsidered after complaint to editor.
- Damn it's getting hot here !

Les tempêtes sub-tropicales et les ordinateurs.

La semaine passée, il y a eu une vague de tempêtes sub-tropicales de catégorie cyclonesque. On parle de vents au dessus de 140 Km/h, orages électriques et pluies dilluviennes. Il y eu des quartiers sinistrés et la ville a dû faire venir l'armée. Parmi tous ces intempérés, la rivière (qui est contrôlée par un barrage en amont) faisait des rapides malgré sa bonne profondeure. Le CityCat a même été fermé jusqu'à mardi a cause de tous les débris dans la rivière.

Our apartment is not close to any tall trees. Consequently, we did not have much to fear. The rain doesn't always fall from the sky here down-under; it sometimes comes horizontally. It usually never rains in my room with the window open. Last Thursday, I arrived home only to find my laptop computer, which I had left on the ground in the middle of the room, soaking in a puddle of rain water. It's dead :'( ... Maybe I can get it fixed, but I doubt the guarantee covers rain-damage. You can imagine my sorrow! What's more, our internet was finally installed last night, ironically. 

Je suis allé au Parc National Lamington hier faire de la randonnée. C'était bien beau, une "rainforest" sub-tropicale membre d'UNESCO. J'ai vu mon premier goanna. Ensuite nous sommes allé souper à Surfer's Paradise, possiblement la ville la plus plastique du monde. Sans y avoir pensé, c'était la fête de fin d'année de tous les étudiants du secondaire et d'université. On est pas resté très lontemps !

 

La petite pluie a la fin s'est avérée être la pire tempête en 25 ans à Brisbane.. On manqué de courrant pendant 12h!!! Une chance qu'on était dans le train pendant le pire

Vamos a la playa !

Bon il est temps de faire des jaloux au Quebec. Hier soir j'ai bu une bonne bouteille de sauvignon blanc néo-zélandaise, et ce matin ca fesse pas mal ! Il fait chaud, 30 degrés, et c'est collant. Je me paie le 2h de train/bus et je vais me coucher sur la plage avec des articles :)
Je vous montre des photos bientot !

Cheers!

ADD ME ON SKYPE ! --> MartQC
my account is linked to my cell phone, feel free to call anytime (remember the 15h time difference from Eastern North America please!)

NY Times article

Here is a little article that came out in the New-York Times today which recaps some major principles of my PhD thesis (and refers to my supervisor). 

I just received news concerning my most recent (not really recent anymore...) submission to BMC genomics... after a second review, the reviewers opinion on its merits differed substantially therefore the manuscript is under a 3rd independent round of revision after editorial discussions. Sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo no ? Hopefully, it will be accepted before Jan 1st.  

Its getting there...

Well I am currently watching the Habs game on the net for free (besides the internet cafe fees!). ENFIN !!!
Almost 100% installed, all that remains is a car, internet @ home, some wall decoratiions and I'm set.

Le doctorat avance, je suis entrain de me familiriser avec le human genome browser. C'est fou comment il y a beaucoup d'outils bioinformatiques en place deja. Mes collegues sont vraiment sympas aussi, on fait une belle equipe.

I will be looking to get time on super-computer some time in the future. There is a 9 month waiting list for the Australian super computer, and I just missed the proposal submission deadline. I will try running some smaller datasets on a few local compute clusters in the meantime, although I doubt they will be efficient enough.

N'hesitez a me donner des nouvelles !

Australia Rocks !

G'day mates! Sorry I haven't been keeping you up to par more than I promised. As you can immagine, I have been quite busy in the past few weeks. Settling in, starting the PhD, visiting Brisbane, making new friends... it's quite exhausting! Also, I'm still pirating some neighbours wireless, which makes for short web sessions and crappy uploads. Broadband is quite expensive here, but I'm working on it! Got a new mountain bike (thx dad), and will be buying a decent car from a labmate soon so I can go to the coast and woods on week-ends :)

Bon, suite à la demande, je vais correspondre en francais quelque peu! Je porte présentement mon costume d'Halloween (chandail du canadien!). Je suis entrain de manquer une saison de fou de hockey et ça me manque! Malheureusement, je n'ai pas trouvé de sattellite dans cet hémisphère qui redistribue les matchs du canadien (du moins, pas régulièrement). Je crois que je serai obligé de m'abonner a NHL center ice (120$!!!).

Bon, j'ai croisé 2 iguanes a date (dont ce petit qui se sentait plutot aventureux a sortir la tête sur une piste cyclable!). Il y des geckos partout qui croassent la nuit. Des scinques aussi. J'ai hate de m'aventurer un peu plus dans le coin, c'est vraiment un climat formidable! Par contre, au risque de perdre quelques amis (mes condoléances pour la neige), il fait vraiment chaud ici! A 9h30, le soleil et haut dans le ciel et on cherche deja l'ombre. On sue profondement en marchant! Mais ca rafraichit vite, vers 18h le soleil est couché et il vente un peu, ca mets sur les 'pines' meme pour un canadien.

Le labo est vraiment fomidable. Enfin je suis vraiment stimulé, et pas juste parce que mes voisins de cublicule m'offrent de la bière au labo régulièrement! En fait, j'ai meme bcp de misère a suivre ce que les post-docs et autres etudiants font. C'est un méchant changement d'environement passer de la génomique de parasites uncellulaires a la génomique de métazoaires évolués. Il y a beaucoup plus de données et bcp plus d'outils informatiques. Je crois que je vais vraiment m'éclater a tous les niveaux.

En passant, félicitations David pour ton entrevue. Man, tu es du même calibre médiatique que mon ancienne superviseure de recherche (ou presque! voir section quebec scientifique, c.f. Barbara Papadoupoulou).

Bon, je dois y aller, ya un party d'halloween chez une canadienne et mes amis de couch-surfing viennent me chercher.

En passant, ya vraiment des criss de bibittes fuckées (pardonnez mon francais). Ya tellement de nouveaux bruits c'est comme être téléporté dans un autre monde. Ah oui! A l'aube ici, la premiere étoile qu'on voit c'est Jupiter (techniquement un planete). C'est aussi clair que la lune !

Cheers mates !

Some news from Oz

Howdy folks ! Sorry I haven't been feeding you much news recently, the fact is I don't have internet at home yet (and I am not too keen on spending much personal internet time at the lab).
So I am pretty much settled in my new appartment. It is in Toowong, which is between the city center and the University. It's a pretty cool place, I am next to a shopping center, giant liquor store, and other shops. The citycat ferry is about a 4 minute walk from my appartment and there is a large park and rugby field in front. Our place is quite small but clean and recent (plus we have a dishwasher!). We have a small yard with a garden and a garage. There is a mom and baby brushtail possum camping in our garage, but they aren't fussy roomates :)

Last week I was awarded the best australian scholarship for overseas students, the University of Queensland Research Scholarship and the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship. Basically, its the same amount for the living stipend as the Institute for Molecular Bioscience's scholarship but paid by the University instead of the Institute. Also, the government is paying my tuition fees instead of my boss, who has had all his grants approved last week (Bling!).

With the risk of hypocrisy, I am wary to inform you that I will most likely be the owner of a Mac book pro. Although I still strongly disapprove of Mac's capitalistic perversion, their most recent lineup of macbooks are quite impressive from technical, functional, and design viewpoints. Also, the fact that 80% of people in the lab use one in conjunction with their UNIX-based operating system is quite appealing (especially since it runs many PC-based programs and even games now). The 2.8 GHz Macbook Pro retails aroung 4500$ here.

Cocerning life in Brisbane, it freaking rocks. It's going to be hard leaving this city. I went on a "hike" up the second tallest Glass House mountain this week-end; it was more of a mild rock climbing trip than hiking. Some bits would have been safer with a rope, but it was an aweosme workout.
The Aussie dollar is really low these days, which was fun for my arrival as I was using Canadian funds. However things will get tricky once I get paid in Aussie funds :S

Cheers mates, hope to hear from you soon!
(I will try and post the best pictures from each month on Picasa or something, to be continued...)

Week 1

Oh yea, the El Camino! Or YEUTS as they call em here... It appears that this type of car is quite popular in Brisbane. Anyhow, I've been staying at a labmate's house for the pat few days, its a really cool place. The housemates are somewhat younger Uni students, but everyone is super friendly. I've found a small place to stay between the city and the Uni. The appartment is a 2 bdrm unit shared with a pharmacy student named Andrew. He seems like a cool kid, and the appartment is modest yet clean and modern.

Yesterday was my first day at the lab. The institute is HUGE ! Everything is top-notch and modern. I had a 2.5 hour induction, it appears that Australian labs are much more regulated, organized, and meticulous than canadian ones. Got to meet 90% of my colleagues (although my supervisor is in Europe for 3 months) and they seem very cool (at least WAY cooler than my previous lab colleagues.... BUUUURN!!! ).

The city-cat (i.e. the river ferry) freaking rocks ! two 600 hp engines that run at 450 hp power the boats so they are quite fast. Gets you pretty much everywhere.

I have to get going, but I will try to post some pictures taken with my new camera shortly.
I also have a cell phone (finally). Feel free to call me with skype or YAK :
011 61 411 068 339 (corrected)

Cheers !

Finally in Brisbane !

G'day from down-under mates! I finally made it to Brisbane, and what a beautiful city it is. The craziest birds just went loco right next to me (magpies I think). The weather is amazing, nice and warm in the day, coll in the night. Plenty of beautiful trees with all sorts of colorful flowers. Parrots, geckos, ravens the size of cats, truly a wonderful city (at least, where I am now).

As you can imagine, I am quite sick of flying. After a 2 hour delay in Sydney, I got off at the wrong train station but finally made it to my lab partner Selene's house. 6 people live here plus the occasional couch-surfers. I bought the most expensive 6-pack of my life yesterday, 20$ !!!

Today I shop for a cell-phone carrier, a camera, and an apartment and hopefully get lost only a few times :)

cheers!

Vancouver

Here I am in Vancouver waiting for my 15 hour flight to Sydney at midnight, local time. The Montreal-Vancouver flight was delightful, as they promoted me to first-class (even though 3 seats were still open!). The Vancouver Whitecaps pro soccer team was on the flight (they lost 0-1 to the Impact on Friday!).

I will be leaving Canada at 3am Eastern, arriving in Sydney arround 7pm Eastern (9 am local). I guess I should shop for a Sydney-Brisbane ticket now :)

Cheers !

Na na na-na, Na na naa-naaa...

Les bons amis, ça dure une vie

Mon premier post en français, juste pour vous chers amis. Pensant partir cette semaine, j'avais planifié quelques soirées pour tous(ou presque) vous voir avant de partir. Franchement, c'était émouvant. Je me suis vraiment fait beaucoup de plaisir cette dernière semaine, et je tenais à mentionner que je me considère chanceux de vous connaître et de vous avoir dans ma vie.

Bon, ça suffit les quétaineries! Je devrais partir dans une ou deux semaines au plus tard. Les rapports medicaux ont été recus et sont présentement traités. On me dit que les résultats ont été référés (en Australie?). J'use de la patience...
Voici quelques photos (seulement des partys à Quebec)! Il y en aura plus sur Facebook.

get a clue !

Just stumbled upon this on youtube. It's a few interviews on gene regulation that focus on the implication of RNA: a peep into my doctorate project from my supervisor himself (and others).

So, when am I leaving ?

The last and final step before I fly off to Brisbane is my medical examination and chest X-ray. All visitors to Australia must undergo such tests when staying more than a year or so. Makes sense, since Australia is one of the few countries in the world with 0 cases of tuberculosis year-round.

My appointment is this thursday, and next tuesday for the X-rays. My visa application is submitted and now awaits the medical results. I expect to have the visa anywhere between Sept 7th and Sept 19th, with higher confidence towards the earlier dates. I will most likely be in Montreal after Sept 6th (SUPER PARTY!) as I await my departure.

So there is only one doctor affiliated with the australian imigration office in Quebec City. Their website has it in Outremont (but with a Quebec City address ??), and they only accept cash ! Talk about sketchy... I just hope he only makes me cough once!

Last Thursday was my going away party at the Lab. It really made my departure sink-in. We had a blast (especially me!). Everyone chipped-in and they gave me a wicked sick custom Habs jersey. BIG THANKS!! Will wear it proudly in Brisbane next April when they win....

They also gave me a nice picture book with personnal messages and some Oz bucks! Merci beaucoup tout le monde!

Departure imminent

The university just sent me an acceptance letter and a confirmation of enrolment. This was the limiting step for my visa application, which should take 5 to 10 business days.

Expect a goodbye party towards the beginning of September!

What lies above us

Just starting watching this unbelievable documentary on UFOs. Most of us associate the acronym to crazy people, flying saucers, and aliens. Very few people actually investigate particular sightings and phenomena. Even if your a sceptic, watch this relatively short film. Either download the torrent of watch it on youtube in multiple parts:
UFOS: The Greatest Story ever Denied

State of OZ-fairs, Prt 3

I am pleased to inform you that my departure now only depends on my student visa. My advisors finally sent off their recommendations for the IPRS scolarship and tuition fee waiver.
My (future) principal advisor and the IMB have decided to cover my tuition fees if my application is not retained (and I am not granted a tuition fee waiver). The University of Queensland will thus send a confirmation to the department of immigration, hence completing my visa requirements !!
Wooohooou ! They mentioned October 1st as an official starting date, so that means I will have a good 3-4 weeks to visit and get installed :D

State of OZ-fairs, Prt 2

Got an email early morning yesterday concerning my move to Brisbane. It appears the federal international research scholarship (IPRS) is in the process of becoming a continuous year-round award. My tuition fee waiver will be processed at the same time as my IPRS application. I have been advised from the postgraduate coordinator at the IMB that there may be delays concerning my tuition fee waiver application as a consequence.
I was also told that if I planned on commencing soon (YES!), the institute thinks they can work around this shortcoming by August 15th. I have no idea as to how they will request permission from the University for my enrollment/visa approval. Perhaps the IMB will 'hire' me in the meanwhile, all I know is that they don't just hand out merit-based scholarships to overseas applicants like candy on Halloween.

Apple's capitalistic derision

I respect Apple for their contribution to developing mainframe personal computers and their subsequent impact on society (also for their promotion of open source programs). If you're a die-hard Microsoft/PC fan, heck even an Apple enthusiast, check out this movie. As you may agree, the iPod, MacBook Air, and iPhone are practical, sleek, and stylish, which makes them indisputably popular consumer commodities. However, the corporation's mistreatment of consumers through rampant publicity and suave propaganda, not to mention their environmental exploitation, has soured their image.

This article is an epic example of Apple's avaricious contribution to the stultification of modern economy and perhaps even a good slap in the face for capitalism. How many people in developing countries do you think 1000$ can feed? Promoting such blatant misuse of occidental wealth is one reason why this guy won't be buying anything with an Apple, besides the fruit.

State of OZ-fairs, pt.1

For those who aren't aware, I plan on pressing the snooze button of life by pursuing my studies at the doctoral level. The research projects I undertook got me stoked on bioinformatics, in particular on RNA. After scoping out the coolest labs, 3 or 4 really withheld my attention. This one group in Brisbane, Australia seemed like the best initial choice based on location, research interests and scientific environment. Call it fate or what have you, as the principle investigator, Prof John Mattick, was flying to Montreal for a meeting with Genome Canada last December. I met him for an interview after which he accepted to supervise my Ph.D. (following consultation with my previous research advisors).

So off I go! We planned on starting towards late March. How naïve of a young graduate student to suppose commencing a Ph.D. overseas can be done so quickly! Long story short, I finally got an unconditional letter of offer for Ph.D. at the University of Queensland late June. I also received an institutional scholarship from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB).
For those of you who aren't already dozing off, the title of my preliminary research proposal is "the sequence-based portrayal of non-coding RNA regulatory networks". Right now, all that remains before I take an Air Canada B767 jet to Oztralia is a student visa. What's the hick you ask? Well in order to get the visa, I need the University to send the Department of Immigration an electronic confirmation of enrolment. And to be enrolled, I need either $15000 Australian bucks, or a tuition fee waiver. The latter is in process, as I have been granted a merit-based award that should speed things up considerably.

I'm expecting a response any day now, and will most definitely let you know as soon as possible ! Thanks for reading.

Welcome !

I decided to create one of them there "BLOG" thingers on the inter-web. This way, everyone can be informed of what's going on in Mart-land. I guess it's also a pretty good way for you to keep in touch (and procrastinate on the net).