Fake IPL Player

So there is a fake IPL player amongst them players in SA. Yeah and s/he is watching you day in and day out. So beware before you booze off with that babe into the night after loosing the match; And accepting that "fee" for "performing" in the next match will be definite foolishness. Nothing escapes our Fake IPL Player's notice... The Games Have Begun (Already)!!!

I came to know about the Fake IPL Player today when i read it in the papers... so i checked out the blog. My blog, in turn, dissects this IPL ANONYMOUS.

I don't know what inspired this person to start such a blog, but it was a brilliant idea. What makes it so popular? I think the media has hyped it a bit now plus the blog is slanderous, its filled with finger pointing, "inside scoops", inside gossip. And the public in general loves this kind of shit... in fact this kind of shit is exactly why series like Roadies, Splitsvilla and BigBrother turn out to be such TRP winners. What is surprising is that IPL ANONYMOUS has categorically stated in a disclaimer that whatever s/he writes is fictitious. And still i know for a fact that this is gonna be a hit till the end.

But dishing out shit isn't enough for me to get hooked. What makes this blog really interesting to me is that this person has written his accounts really well, the English is cool, groovy, filled with slang, the fake names given are funny and make you think of some character in IPL. Reading the blog makes you feel that the author is really out there in SA, sitting on benches, handing Gatorade to players, listening in, being there, doing that!!

Initially this started out as just some time pass activity i feel, but soon it got bigger and bigger, this is when our IPL ANONYMOUS got scared (read PI**ED in his pants). So s/he put up the disclaimer. Now our IPL ANON is enjoying the attention.

Well i have a few requests to make/advise to give to IPL ANON:
1) Start advertising on you blog and make money dude!! don't be a dud!!

2) Don't reveal your identity till the end, this secret is the only thing which keeps this blog alive, but come out in the open (through you now very famous blog) after your very last entry, cause otherwise you'll never be famous, always remain anonymous!!

And keep it up buddy, you are doing a damn good job out there, better than most at least!!!

M.Sc. Bioinformatics

The following question was given in one of our practical sessions for the subject Immunoinformatics. I wrote the text while i was doing the practicals - in Real Time. Nothing has been changed from the original text (though this text wasn't submitted for evaluation). This is just to give you guys a glimpse of bioinformatics and how I go about doing my pracs. DISCLAIMER: I very rarely resort to the following protocol for doing my pracs, very rarely.

Welcome to the World of Bioinformatics guys...

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Q. Select a viral pathogen. Search the literature database to identify the known antigenic protein(s). Search the sequence/genome databases and compile the dataset of viral protein(s) from various strains/isolates. We will be using this dataset for studying the extent of variations (in the next practical) as well as for prediction of epitopes in due course of time. Document the references using the standard style acceptable for publication of papers in the journal Nucleic Acids Research (see instructions to authors).


Ans. The Hepatitis B Virus was selected as the pathogen of choice to build the sequence database because its replication cycle is weird and consequently damn interesting and i am supposed to take the hepatitis vaccine sometime in this week and because its as good a virus as any other to do this stupid activity.
The antigenic proteins of this virus were identified using the most useful website in the world viz. en.wikipedia.org, since sites such as PubMed weren't of much help. And please don't give me crap like u-don't-know-how-to-search... cause the search string - "Hepatitis B Virus" in wiki led me to its genome map and the antigenic proteins while it had led me to more than 30000 "HITS" in PubMed, what shit is that???

NEways... the antigenic proteins are:

HBsAg
HBcAg
HBeAg

So now to get their sequence i move on over to one of my other fav site called : SwissProt...
First search: HBsAg and i get hits for loads of strains: those infecting squirrel, monkey then one of genotype D,A2,B and etc etc. I guess these 5 strains are good enuff and so i stop and move on to the next Ag - HBcAg......done...Sweet. Need i say more...That's why i like SwissProt. I finish HBeAg in record time.

Well there might be more antigenic proteins in HBV after all that are not listed in Wiki... But then the dratted "Literature database" doesn't want to tell me anything either...its "hitting" on me and so its d good ol' wiki.

But just to be sure i run a google search. This time it does not throw up any new antigens and besides i am happy with the 15 seq from 5 strains that i have in hand to do my analysis.

So now i turn my attention to the documenting and ahem' referencing part. Well wiki even though its a jewel of a site isn't exactly acceptable by the folks here who evaluate me and gimme marks.

So... i try "Hepatitis B Virus [AND] Antigen protein" in PubMed and i get 9232 hits... too many so i try "Hepatitis B Virus [AND] Antigenic proteins" mark (only) the extra (3 letters) 'ic' and 's' and my hits reduce from 9232 to 320... Much better but not good enuff but then i make the same search this time only for reviews and i get 25 hits...voila!!! Perfect...
What these 25 reviews have to say is that HBV has got a few antigenic proteins some of which are HBsAg, HBcAg and HBeAg...(Isn't that what wikipedia was trying to say all along!!??) Only 1 review is of note from among these 25: "Hepatitis B surface antigen variation and protective immunity". So at least the search part is taken care of.
What "NAR: instructions to authors" link has to say on the subject of accession numbers is : "Accession numbers may be cited either within the text or in the form of a reference". Well my accession numbers (from SwissProt) are there in the file names of FASTA format itself for anyone and everyone to see so no worries for me. With this i let references be.

Which leaves the documentation part in "Standard Style" (refer the last line of question). The above text is enough documentation for me in a style which btw is so good that it ought to BE the Standard Style followed universally!!! (This Author takes a bow and acknowledges the appalause!!!)

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This post is published in the blog: www.apna-gang-blog.blogspot.com

Thats My Girl!!

My Honda Eterno turns 3 today. It was delivered to us 3 years back one afternoon all shiny and new, without any identity. And while she's just a tad bit less shiny, she's better than new. Her tacho displays 13832. Seen a lot of this world. A punctured tire on top of a flyover has been the worst of it. No accidents, no mishaps. Only loads of memories.

My thoughts are a whirlwind filled with adrenalin, calm, shock, ecstasy, fear, happiness, frustration, bliss, speed, guilt, life... everything that happened with the road flying beneath me. My Eterno now has her own identity, she has a soul. She'll never betray or desert me, nor ever break my trust. Yes I always wanted a bike. But this scooter showed that its better than any, in many respects.

Its a pleasure simply revving it up and listening to its silent purr. No growl or roar, just a silent vibe of raw power, nothing flashy about her, but watch out for her on the road; cause at 90kmph she is the most silent machine on the asphalt, you will never hear her footsteps then!!! Polishing her smooth contours i own her.

Thousands of kilometers still to span, new roads to discover together, many destinations remain. But with my Eterno it will always be the journey that counts.