The Watussi (or Watusi) was a popular dance craze in the early 1960’s, in addition being the historical name for the Tutsi ethnic group in East Africa. ‘Watussi’ was also the lead track on the seminal offering (Musik von Harmonia) by those legends of Krautrock Michael Rother, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Möbius (Harmonia). As I […]

Imagine that you are the owner of a small factory that makes replacement windows. Normally, your ordering department does a pretty good job of things and the supply of the constituent parts necessary to make a decent replacement window (one assumes these to be things like glass, vinyl, aluminum, hardware, etc.) arrive punctually and in […]

A quodlibet is a piece of music combining several different melodies, usually popular tunes, in counterpoint and often a light-hearted, humorous manner. The term is Latin, meaning “whatever” or literally, “what pleases.” Quodlibet (QUOD) is a suite of network creation, editing and querying software I am currenty developing. QUOD is a software application that displays […]

M ost people can get their heads wrapped around the idea that genetic variation can occur by virtue of the presence (or lack) of a particular gene. And no doubt some of you understand the basis of the simple mutations that can influence gene function, such as point deletions (which would make you blood group […]

Salacia is a genus of plants in the family Celastraceae. One species in particular, Salacia oblonga, used for thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicine, is increasingly becoming the subject of considerable medical interest: in particular for it’s potential as an anti-diabetic agent.