I was getting ready to write something* to replace Biopython's SwissProt module today as it can't parse Uniprot entries yet. Just as I was starting to do so, I found BioServices, which appears to plug some of the holes in Biopython with regards to services like Uniprot and KEGG. These services all have REST APIs so they aren't difficult to retrieve individual entries from. Writing a new parser for each service, though, is tedious and I'm glad there's an off-the-shelf solution.

One caveat: the Uniprot search function is billed as "a bit unstable". I haven't been able to get it to complete any searches successfully. BioServices may be more useful if a list of accession IDs is already available, though that defeats the purpose for me.

Additional caveat: the REST API does most of the work already in accessing Uniprot, so if you're willing to get your hands dirty then you can access the database contents easily with BeautifulSoup and the right urls. A simple proteome query may look like this:

"http://www.uniprot.org/proteomes/?query=" + your_query_here + "&fil=reference%3Ayes&sort=score"

*And in the end, I wrote it myself anyway.

Overcome thoroughly the manner of working like extinguishing fire

Not a catchy slogan but free recipes are always nice.

I read this BBC magazine piece about North Korean propaganda slogans this evening. It triggered two questions:
1. Where's the inflection point between "North Korea as convenient source of surreal entertainment" and "North Korea as source of genuine misery and an extant totalitarian state"?

2. Wouldn't propaganda slogans serve as excellent candidates for Markov tomfoolery?

I only have an answer for the second question. The answer is, of course, Yes.

I started off using the BBC's translated list of NK slogans and generated new ones in a very basic fashion. A few examples follow:

Let the whole nation join efforts to open up a broad avenue to independent reunification in this year that marks the 70th anniversaries of national resurrection and legendary hero of the proclivity to imports and ensure domestic production of coal and cement to the death!

Let us fiercely raise the sports wind across the Party Central Committee headed by the Moranbong Band to bring about a great golden age of construction by thoroughly applying the spirit of the office of the dignified powerful Paektusan nation.

Let us glorify the Kumsusan Palace of the Songun revolution and the 25th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea as the buglers of the country prospers; the less books we read, the later the country in all aspects as the major fronts of building a thriving socialist country.

OK, so these are virtually indistinguishable from the original slogans. It isn't a large text sample, but perhaps more importantly, there's noticeable consistency (about a third of the ~300 slogans begin with "Let us").  It isn't surprising: propaganda is intended to be simple, inspirational, and accessible. It doesn't usually vary from the basic idea of inspiration plus action equals solidarity.

With that it mind, I should add additional slogans to the training set. They should ideally include material from a variety of movements and political entities. This means that the final product will make less contextual sense, but hey, the goal here is to generate content in the absence of context.

Here's one more option for generating plots in R: plotrix.

It can create some novel things like nested bar graphs and can search for empty space in plots.

There are a number of examples here. The 3D plots are probably best avoided but many of these examples include features not present in ggplot2.

Continuing the music adventure from yesterday, today's genre is Crossover Jazz.
Spotify doesn't use this genre annotation for any specific artist but Wikipedia tells me the term could apply to everyone from Al Jarreau to Spyro Gyra. In some ways, it's an early or more moderate form of Smooth Jazz (as in Kenny G, though he's a crossover jazz musician as well).

I'm going to start off with Gerald Albright and Chuck Loeb, then go from there.

How is it making me feel?
Most of the time I feel like I'm on the Weather Channel during a calm day. Even when it's improvisational, this music tends to feel restrained and commercial, like it's trying to avoid being obtrusive. This effect leaves me feeling restless.

What was memorable?
Gerald Albright - Slam Dunk was one of the few tracks I've heard so far today which sounded like the Wikipedia genre description.

It's easy to build habits when it comes to media consumption. How can we expand our horizons when we become increasingly content with the same thing? This quandary is one reason why I've enjoyed the emergence of streaming music services. Musical horizon-broadening is frictionless.

So, how do we start? Randomly, of course. I wrote a small script to provide lists of artists from randomly-chosen music genres available on Spotify. The spotipy library was very helpful. Today, I'll delve into the history of a single genre, depending upon what the script tells me to listen to.

That genre is: Merengue!

Peaks. Yes, I know what the difference is. From Tamorlan on Wikimedia Commons.

Spotify tells me I should start with Juan Luis Guerra, so he's first. Then it's Frank Reyes and Antony Santos. After them, it'll be some Toño Rosario and, in an effort to find some historical context, Wilfredo Vargas.

Observations:
How did I feel?
Fairly happy - even the more downtempo songs have a steady pace (which makes sense as this is dance music, after all). It's easy to work with it in the background as I know just enough Spanish to understand the lyrics but not enough to follow the lyrical context. It usually seems to be something about dancing or grandmothers.

What was memorable?
El Baile del Perrito.
Antony Santos - Me Quiero Morir (With that title, I guess it's actually merengue bachata)