Newspaper Banned My Comic and Audience's Reaction

After publishing two of my comic stripes, the Daily Cardinal, a student-run newspaper, made a sudden decision that they could not publish Molecules I Have Known and Loved. The release of MIHKAL ended without receiving reader complaints or objection. Several people expressed their disappointment or anger after hearing my apology that MIHKAL was banned.

The Daily Cardinal staff said they were very concerned about depicting dangerous drugs, such as Speed, as cartoon characters. I was very excited to see my works published, but I understand that not all people can tolerate drug-related topics. My comical depiction can be easily interpreted by some people as advocacy for drugs. Here I'm saying again that the intention of my comic is neither promoting nor against recreational drugs. I'm more frustrated with the editors' inconsistency - granting me the opportunity then taking it away within a month.

Professor W. noted that there is always phobia of drugs in the society. He saw the outcome as discouraging but understandable. My lab professor did not see a good potential in MIHKAL as a comic series, but said it surprised him that the Daily Cardinal, well-known on campus for their liberal and undaunting attitude, turned it away.

Other people deemed the newspaper editors' decision as narrow-minded. They understood that MIHKAL is meant to be a humorous take-on of the subject. My current classmate S. K. thought newspapers should publish controversial materials to promote the diversity and freedom of expression. A post doc in philosophy and a physics faculty said it was "ridiculous", because Speed whom was blamed is just a comic character. People who do drugs would have done them anyways, regardless if they read my comic. The faculty said with disbelief that the Daily Cardinal, which publishes offensive and controversial things all the time, including articles that teach people how to have sex, would reject such funny and artistic work.

Some faculties felt sorry for losing an opportunity to educate the public. C. D., a research fellow  specialized in sedative-hypnotics, wrote in a message that "they clearly did not get the scope of [the] comic" and that people just can't make rational judgement on certain topics. The physics faculty imagined MIHKAL would be very informative, which could potentially help reduce drug-related problems in the society. "The problem is we don't talk about it," she said.

A few people thought the newspaper should never publish such material. Perhaps with some misunderstanding, Professor G. said, not unhappily, "[The comic] suggests that you [the author] took and enjoyed those drugs. I was surprised that the newspaper agreed to publish it."

Despite people's divergent opinions, they agreed that the quality of my art is good. I've got a feeling that this is not the end of this incident. The Daily Cardinal staff said they still hoped my art to be a part of their paper and wanted to discuss with me, though with hesitation and possibly denial. Two of my friends eagerly wanted to see MIHKAL published on paper and volunteered to show my online samples to the city-based newspaper office.

So far I'm happy with just doing a web-based comic series and sharing it with my dear friends and professors. It should be a work enjoyed by people who do drugs as well as people who don't. In fact, I've received positive responses from both kinds of people. I'm also getting prepared to be notorious if I'm determined to deal with this subject in long-term. This is definitely not the end of MIHKAL. It just got started.

Standardization of production and purification of Manduca hemolymph JHBP (Abstract)

The abstract of my research project for applying the Hilldale award (my project hasn't have a result and conclusion). Many students have attempted on this project and didn't work out a desirable yield of rJHBP. If my future work is anything useful, the results will contribute to the scientific community. It's kind of hard to believe I'm doing it.

The hemolymph juvenile hormone binding protein (hJHBP) is a specific Lepidopteran protein that binds and transports juvenile hormone (JH). JH plays a number of crucial roles in the regulation of insect development and reproduction. This project will employ a transformed E. coli cell line to express recombinant JHBP (rJHBP). Immunological analysis, cell preparation, and protein purification will be explored to produce and purify rJHBP of optimal quantity and quality. Binding studies will confirm the functionality of rJHBP. The results will provide a stable supply of JHBP for future studies on the binding and target cell docking mechanisms and contribute to increasing our knowledge of insect physiology and pest control.

History Professor

Just thought of how long I haven't been doodling in class. My history of science professor.

好幸福之火腿蛋炒飯

這禮拜每天睡眠不足，上統計學課一直打瞌睡。我想可能是拿到$3000的獎學金的希望讓我撐著，哈！
在Facebook上看到以前的一個高中同學居然晚餐吃電鍋蒸一整顆花菜加三粒魚丸和白飯加鹽；據她本人說不是人吃的。回家做了高麗菜火腿蛋炒飯，把冰箱裡放了一星期快凍成冰米磚的飯用掉，果然飯(美國米比較乾)炒一炒又復活了。一邊吃著這道簡單的家常菜一邊覺得自己好幸福。
今天在廁所撿到某人遺失的學生證和駕照。在用iPad通信的幫助之下，兩小時內順利將證件交還給主人。我想她一定很著急，幫助同學找回遺失的東西感覺真好。
話說學校報社的漫畫版編輯姓Moriarty，每次他寄信來，寄件者都是Moriarty。雖然前面的名字不一樣，我每次看到還是很想笑。

Student Organizations

I'm excited! There are some student organizations that sound very interesting. Some of them are old; some are new. I'll try my best to see which ones I could continue participating.

Besides continuing going to AHA and oSTEM, there's a new group called electronic music production. The group leader is a DJ and people there are all EDM lovers, who may or may not know how to produce music on a computer. Though the majority are male. I don't know how much time I could actually devote into trying the sound manipulation software, but I go there to make friends (lots of dubstep, house, and trance-lovers), and at least learn about the terminology, so I can understand people's conversation on electronic music production.

There is another group that doesn't have meetings, but the leader will arrange you to pair up with a woman in Kenya. Those women are poor people who are learning sewing as a living and English as the second language. Their English might be good or very elementary. If just writing a letter to a person once every few days or few weeks is helping a poor person with limited resources to learn, that sounds like something I'd love to do.

I visited the International Socialist Organization's meeting today. I was curious, and people there seemed to have some interesting ideas and debates. They were friendly too. I might stop by some time during the semester.

There's a Cheese Club that meets every three weeks. They teach you about cheese varieties and let you taste samples. Sadly it conflicts with my other meetings. Oh and the Cyclist Club. It sounds awesome to ride bike with people around Madison for the sake of exercising and relaxing. I could get to know some other parts of Madison too. Of course, we'll have to wait until the weather gets better.

Crazy Start

It's the second week of school. I already have homework piled up and a bunch of books to read. Isn't that crazy? I slept too less last night, spent the free period between classes to read The Origin of Species, got back home and insisted not to sleep until midnight.

I'm happy with the history of science and philosophy biology classes I chose. Although they require more readings than straight science classes, the content is interesting and the instructors are knowledgeable and friendly. I've got an official reason to read The Origin of Species.

I haven't got exercise so I'm stiff, but I'm so tired that I don't feel anything. I want ice-cream and going to sleep. A paper is due after tomorrow. At least I have ice-cream now.

(Surprisingly, it has been raining heavily at night in Madison in the past two days. The snow has melted because of the rain.)

The Opioids

I thought I was going to draw more psychedelic molecules during the vacation, but ended up finishing the four opium analgesic molecules I planned to draw.

Morphine and Heroin are in that position because they were lying in the original pictures.
I thought depressants would be boring but the opioids were not so bad.
The original drawings and their bios can be found on my deviantART website.

I don't know when I'll have time to draw again. I have to apply for research funding before the mid-February and adjusting into school life again will keep me busy. Right before the vacation ended I completed a two-paged comic involving LSD and DMT, my male protagonists:
I Hallucinate Therefore I Am Page 1
I Hallucinate Therefore I Am Page 2

The Passport

I thought my passport was totally okay, but the people of the Customs, both in Taiwan and in the US,  stopped me to examine my passport. Because there were some wrinkles on it, they thought it was fake and kept asking if I was the person in the picture. They asked me to offer another ID. The Taiwanese Customs never heard of UW-Madison, so they didn't find my student ID useful. Eventually they let me pass but it was very annoying. Well, what should I do?

賣腳酸

我去查了Mescaline的中文譯名是什麼：仙人球毒。Mescaline英文明明聽起來很帥，為什麼中文名字就那麼蠢？

我在搜尋上打LSD的中文譯名，麥角酸二乙胺，輸入法自動選字居然給我拼成「賣腳酸」，笑死我了！

Ded Moroz

Ded Moroz, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. SO COOL!