Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Apamin-sensitive K+ channels mediate an endotheliumdependent hyperpolarization in rabbit mesenteric arteries


In other words, I did not contribute to this season's NPR pledge drive. I was asked, repeatedly, to imagine a world without NPR-- a world where the government did not fund public radio. I was asked to give money so it wouldn't matter if the GOP made those cuts.

I decided to take NPR up on that-- to imagine a world without it. I will not turn it on. Not in the morning while I have coffee. Not on the drive to work. Not on the drive home or while I chop seasonally appropriate vegetables. I will not listen to hosts murder phrases, like "Big Fat" Tuesday instead of Big "Fat Tuesday." The pause is slight but very meaningful. Padgett Powell might agree with me.

He also happens to like buffalo:

"I like them because they seem gently wild, as opposed to violently wild, and they have the huge rump-like hump, the giant head, the eyeball the size of a billiard ball. What is not to like? We killed them all."

The man also knows his dogs.