Wildflowers near my lab

On the properties of the two abandoned houses near the Pitt genomics core lab on Forbes between Halket and Craft, I found:

a) Chicorium intybus. Chicory! The same chicory that's used as a coffee additive/alternative!

b) Oxalis stricta. Yellow woodsorrel. It's much too beautiful and fragile a plant to be named ox-anything!

c) Achillea mellifolium. Yarrow. I've been reading about this for a while and its medicinal properties are stupendous. It can be used as a pain reliever, to stop bleeding, and as an insect repellent. I need to grow some in the garden!

d) Taraxacum officinale. Dandelions! Yet another flower whose scientific name woefully falls short of describing the flower. Who doesn't know dandelions? 

e) Many more whose names I haven't yet figured out.

Oh my F-ing God

I want to be able to make a circular heat map. Like this:

To do this, I need to install a software called Circos, which runs on Perl.
But thankfully, for Perl-morons like me, there are detailed instructions on how to use the thing.

First thing to do, obviously, is to download and install the thing. So I try doing that, and I get an error like this:


*** REQUIRED MODULE IS MISSING ***

You are missing the Perl module Clone. Use CPAN to install it as described in this tutorial

http://www.circos.ca/documentation/tutorials/configuration/perl_and_modules

Okay, I think. Let me get this Clone then.

So I get the module and try to install that, only to get an error message like this:

bash: make: command not found

I try to find this "make". I try > man make and >which make and >locate make, all to no avail.

Fine. I think I can circumvent make and go directly to CPAN and install the thing. I do so, and I get the message


Going to write /Users/shridharv2/.cpan/Metadata
Clone is up to date (0.37).

Hurray! NOW maybe I can get cracking. But no:


*** REQUIRED MODULE IS MISSING ***

You are missing the Perl module Clone. Use CPAN to install it as described in this tutorial

Okay...I go back to the Circos troubleshooting page and hunt this out:

So get this: To install any software that runs on Perl (and I assume there must be tons of those softwares, since Perl has been around for a gazillion years), you need some component. But the software which has the component itself messes up Perl.

Crazy shit. Why can't these software developers get their acts together? Is it SO freaking difficult to put a "make" command where I can find the damn thing without having to pull my hair out?

And why in the world would ANYbody think it's a good idea to remove "make"? Doesn't the name itself sound like it might be something important?

**************************************************************
Update: to get "make", you have to create yourself an ID claiming you're an Apple developer, then hunt out and download the right version of X-code command line, to install which you require admin permission. Then, you can get hold of "Make" and install Clone.

But does that mean you can finally use Circos? No! Because now your Mac OS Lion 10.x has a bug that doesn't allow your permission to use the main program, for which you now have to go to each individual file and change the permission settings.

**************************************************************
Update 2: Still haven't been able to use Circos because of the above-mentioned permission problems. Am waiting for some bright spark of inspiration to strike me soon...

Blech!

So, some time ago, I had bumped into JY at the salad bar in the cafeteria and she was looking for the balsamic vinaigrette. JY is one of my role models: she's a mom with two kids, a kick-ass scientist and very straight-forward and very friendly. I gave her the one I normally use, which is in one of those big plastic bottles next to Ranch, Italian etc. She literally shuddered and said, "Oh God, I am morally opposed to any dressing that has sugar and high fructose corn syrup. I'm looking for the smaller glass bottle". 

I'd been pondering this for a while and so yesterday I thought I too should be ultra-healthy (forget the fact that I'm eating a salad for lunch! Instead of French fries!), and shunned the plastic bottle and hunted for the small glass bottle which just has vinegar with some grape juice in it. I liberally doused my salad in the stuff and with a feeling of extreme virtue, tried to eat it. 

It was AWFUL! Oh. My. God! My whole lunch was spoiled because of that excessively healthy nonsense. 

I'm going to stick with the unhealthy dressing from now on.