Claudia vs. Her Educational Path (round 147)
Sigh.
Okay.
Here we go again.
Last week I met with Victoria and she told me that due to my grad academic standing/undergrad GPA/publications, I’m 90% guaranteed to get funding for the PhD program up here (which is apparently pretty rockin’ odds). Still though, there’s a chance I won’t get funding, especially if the amount of total funding for the department continues to decrease. So it’s common for advisors to encourage their students to apply to other PhD programs, just in case.
Herein lies yet another “oh crap, I have to make an academic decision, whatever should I do?” moment. So common in my life, eh?
www.philosophicalgourmet.com has UBC ranked for their Philosophy of Science PhD program, which is something I’m really into. I’m pretty sure I could get into it, as GRE scores are not required and I think I have all the classes required to skip the MA. The only problem I foresee is that of the three philosophy professors I feel that could write me recommendation letters, only one is still at the U of I. And as sexy as Dr. O’Rourke is, I don’t know if they’d allow one sexy professor’s letter to count for three.
I could totally get a Census job with an MA in quant, and I’d love to teach philosophy if the opportunity were to arise, so…
So.
Who knows.
Blah, ignore this. Why must my two passions be so incompatible?
Today’s song: Throwing Fire by Ronald Jenkees
This Week’s Science Blog: Geothermal Massacre 2: This Time it’s OUR Fault
HA! Get it??
Over the past few days I’ve come across two different articles (randomly) with somewhat conflicting views.
Article 1 says: “geothermal drilling does not cause earthquakes”
Article 2 says: “oh crap, geothermal drilling’s going to cause California to become Earthquake City!”
According to article 1, geothermal drilling sometimes involves the deliberate fracturing of deep rock to provide a steady supply of heat to the earth. This is obviously different than an earthquake, which is the shaking caused by a shift in rock along a fault. However, seismic-similar incidents can be caused “whenever rocks are fractured.”
Article 2 notes the concerns of many Californians who are situated near a new geothermal drilling operation by AltaRock that will be starting up soon. This article also cites a geothermal operation in Switzerland that apparently triggered a 3.4 magnitude earthquake.
Article 1 responds to this alleged drilling-earthquake correlation by stating that yes, so-called “microearthquakes” can occur and are usually around or less than magnitude 3 and aren’t usually felt or considered dangerous.
So I guess the conclusion is that yes, geothermal drilling can cause earthquakes, but they’re small enough to not cause harm? It’s an interesting “conclusion,” but if I were a Californian near one of these sites, I’d probably still be a bit worried, considering how earthquake-prone the whole West Coast is.
Hmm.
Today’s song: Hey There Mr. by Leisure Alaska
Three Things
ONE!
I love this more than I probably should:
TWO!
Same with this. I need to do something with his data, but I don’t know what yet.
THREE!
Anything named Sexy Hotness is something we should all own.
Sorry, it’s been a slow day.
Today’s song: Melodic Wings by Sean Gordon
A STATELY CHALLENGE
Holy crap, it’s a blog not posted at 1 AM!
So while I was doing research today (read: “as R was working hard running my code and I was just sitting there”), I decided to see if I could draw the US and all the continental states from memory. First I made a sketch to see if I could even get close, then I made an actual drawing with ink so you could see all my little screw ups (aka, the entire eastern seaboard).
Rough sketch = epic fail.
Apparently, in my mind, the Midwest is an even bigger expanse of nothing than it is in real life, the Great Lakes are a palm tree, West Virginia is a scribble, and New England is experiencing severe continental drift along the state border lines.
So I tried again, using just my rough sketch for reference, and I think this is substantially better:
The proportions (and some locations) really start to suck east of the Mississippi River, but at least I didn’t miss anything. Indiana and Ohio look crappy ‘cause I screwed up that general area and just went with it. The rest look crappy ‘cause I don’t know what they look like…in particular, I couldn’t for the life of me remember how the hell West Virginia is shaped, so I just kinda threw it on there where there was a gap in the states yet and called it good. Hahaha, Wisconsin is so deformed, but I got the Great Lakes right (edit: I also just realized I forgot to put the tail on the “g” so it looks like I wrote “Lake Michican.” You’d be surprised how often I forget to complete letters before moving on to the next one. Or maybe you wouldn’t, it is me, after all).
I’d try to draw Canada, but pfft. I know the names of the provinces and territories, I know where BC, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia are, but that’s about the extent of my Canadian geography knowledge.
I also have no idea when it was the last time I looked at a US map, Canadian map…or a map of anything aside from the bus routes, for that matter.
So there you go.
Conclusion: I like square states.
Dear Bra Manufacturers:
(Or Wal-Mart, I can’t tell whose fault this is):
This may come as a surprise to you, but there are ladies today who have tiny boobies. I know the average breast size has increased over the past 15 years or so, but the itty bitty titties are still out there.
Just like larger-cupped ladies, we need to buy new bras every once in awhile. It would be super awesome for us to have close to as many options as women with C- and D-cups. Actually, it would be super awesome to have more options than:
1) exercise bras, or
2) bras that have enough padding in them to qualify as already containing boobs.
If I have to go to the last rack of bras in Wal-Mart to even FIND A-cup bras, and then have to feel up 4 different styles to find one that doesn’t have a metric ton of “your boobs aren’t adequate so here’s some help” padding, there’s a problem.
Plus they were all white.
Plain white.
If the larger cups get fancy fabric, lace, colors, and lasers* to decorate their baby feeders, A-cups should, too.
I miss ShopKo. ShopKo knew how to stock a good amount of styles in all sizes.
That is all.
*This needs to happen
Today’s song: Push Me to the Floor by the Parlotones
Appropriately, my summer begins today
Sort of. I’m still technically “enrolled” in my thesis, so I still should be doing research.
Which I am.
What joy.
But at least there are no more classes until September, so I’m FREE FROM CAMPUS! I’m coming back to Moscow on Sunday. Be prepared.
I also had an exceptionally strange dream last night. I can’t really say much about it except for the fact that it involved a lot of whipped cream, nudity, and swimming pools.
That is all.
Today’s song: Jukebox (Radio Edit) [Feat. Nicco] by WaWa
Dr. Survey prescribes himself
LOOK WHAT I DID.
Give me a break, I feel like crap.
Ultimate Survey (I’VE SEEN LONGER, OH YES I HAVE)
time started: 11:51 PM.
full name: Dr. Farty McFartFart.
nickname(s): Steve.
birthday: February 2.
where were you born: Moscow.
zodiac sign: Aquarius.
height: I will beat the crap out of you.
weight: I have no idea. I had a scale at the beginning of the year, but I dissected it to see how it worked.
hair color: BLACKER THAN THE BLACKEST BLACK TIMES INFINITY
eye color: Greenish hazel
shoe size: 6
ring size: 7? I dunno, I don’t wear rings.
skin type (freckles, tan, albino, etc.): White as hell.
blood type: O-
grade: Um…second year MA?
GPA: Somewhere between a 3.98 and a 4.0 (too lazy to recalculate since grad school grades have happened)
siblings: NEGATORY
tattoos: NEGATORY
piercings: OVER 9,000
hobbies: statistics, philosophy, living in the twisted little world in my head, drawing, thinking, blogging, answering surveys in all caps
color: ORANGE (see?)
food: Pasta
candy: M&M’s
type of cheese: Feta
pizza topping: Olives
salad dressing: Caesar
sandwich: tuna from Subway!
cereal: Cinnamon Toast Crunch!
fruit: Apples?
vegetable: Broccoli or carrots.
berry: Raspberry
cake: German chocolate
book: The Caine Mutiny is still holding top spot.
movie: Apollo 13 rocks.
magazine: Mental Floss is pretty rad.
newspaper: BAH.
tv show: Metalocalypse!
website: Wiki is fantastic.
radio station: I listened to the Vancouver opera station when I studied for calc…
font: Times New Motherfucking ROMAN.
cartoon character: Tough one…
artist (painter): Escher
actor: Don’t have one.
actress: Don’t have one.
cd: I haven’t bought an entire CD in a LONG time…though I can listen to Deep Forest’s CDs straight through with no problem.
song: If you people don’t know the answer to this one, you don’t pay attention when I talk.
music group: Battles is great, just because they’re snazzy.
music type: Electronica
day of the week: Tuesday
month: Not October. Fuck October.
season: Summer.
holiday: Christmas
shampoo: Herbal Essence
conditioner: See above.
number: 11
phrase: “Oh crap!”
store: Goodwill. I MISS Goodwill.
weather: Anything but rain. Seriously.
restaurant: Shari’s. I MISS Shari’s.
channel: I don’t have cable.
teacher: DR. O’ROURKE! Oh yes.
weekend activity: Lately it’s been studying for calculus, but now I don’t know what it will be.
hangout: My apartment?
house color: Orange never fails.
sport to watch: PFFT.
sport to play: Again, I say “PFFT.”
animal: Elephants are snazzy.
flower: Sunflowers? I’m not much of a flower person.
board game: Scrabble.
party game: Hahaha, Apples to Apples.
story from childhood: A Fly Went By!
body part: Stomach. :D
HAVE YOU EVER:
been on a train: Indeed.
been on a plane: Ahoy.
been in a car accident: A small one.
caused a car accident: Nope.
run into a wall: Probably.
burned a potato chip: I don’t like potato chips
almost burned the house down: Hahaha, yeah.
smoked: Nope
been drunk: Nah.
broken the law: Nudity is NATURAL and SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY CONGRESS
kissed someone of the opposite sex: Indeed.
kissed someone of the same sex: Nnnnno? I don’t think so.
made out: Hahaha, I miss that.
gotten engaged: Pfft, like that will ever happen.
had an online relationship: Nope.
been rejected by a crush: Welcome to my universe.
loved: Very much so.
made yourself cry to get out of trouble: People think I do this, but I don’t mean to cry all the time.
cried in public: Do you know me?
cried over a movie: Maybe a little.
fallen asleep in a movie theater: Nope.
given someone a bath: No.
been to a boarding school: I almost did for high school.
been home-schooled: Nope.
lost a valuable item: I hope that bastard that stole the iPod I got from my mom got bitch-slapped by Karma.
bungee jumped: No and I wouldn’t.
skied: Nope.
met the president: No, but my flight from LA was delayed by like half an hour ‘cause Air Force One was taking off and apparently needed all the runways to do so.
met a celebrity: I met Dan O’Brien, does he count?
gotten a cavity: Nope.
shopped at abercrombie & fitch: Haha, no.
made a prank call: Nope.
skipped school: Nope.
faked sick to get out of school: I did that on Valentine’s Day once. I was an emo little thing.
climbed a tree: Yes indeed.
fallen from a tree: Surprisingly not.
broken a bone: Nope.
sprained anything: Nope.
passed out: Haha, yup.
made yourself pass out: No
been to disney world: No
been to a theme park (not disney): No?
said i love you and meant it (not to a relative): Indeed.
made a model volcano (working model): Haha, that was the same night I almost burned the house down.
made a clover leaf with your tongue: Say what?
PAST
what did you do yesterday: Took my calc final and had a panic attack. Unfortunately, these were not mutually exclusive incidents.
memory you miss the most: There are a few.
memory you want to forget: My entire time going out with Rob.
something you regretted after it was done: Hahahaha, see above. I regret how it ended more, though, for reasons that will remain unsaid.
THE LAST
song you heard: Blow Up by Gooseflesh is playing right now.
cd you bought: Hell if I know.
thing you said: “Goodnight.”
time you cried: Yesterday night.
movie seen in a theater: Watchmen?
thing you ate: A Rice Krispy square.
person who called: My mom.
nail polish shade worn: TEAL! Surprising, eh?
time you showered: about six hours ago.
person who complimented you: Pfft.
AT THIS MOMENT
what are you listening to: Music
what are you wearing: Too many clothes for this hour.
what are you thinking: “Who wants some FUCKING NESQUIK!?”
what are you scared of most: Failure. My mental state.
how many people are on your buddy list: Like MSN? 36, though I talk to about 4 of them.
future
occupation: Statistician!!!! Oh please, oh please…
marriage site: Not planning on marrying anyone.
honeymoon: Flatland.
place to live: Antarctica? Can I be a statistician in Antarctica? CRAZIER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED.
kids: Kids suck.
car: I like VWs.
what are you doing tomorrow: Going to campus, attempt to be sane.
will there be a WWIII: Likely.
will politics ever be truthful: Unlikely.
will humanity snuff itself out: We can only hope.
can the gov. be changed: I’m in Canada. I don’t know a thing about their government except they like taxing stuff.
FRIENDS
best friend: I have a few.
closest friend: Physically? I actually think I live closest to Michael.
funniest: Nick.
silliest: Nick.
loudest: Sean’s pretty loud.
quietest: Kharah?
craziest: Aaron, holy crap.
calmest: I don’t think any of my friends are particularly calm.
skinniest: Meanne?
best secret keeper: No idea.
worst secret keeper: Again…
smartest: They’re all smart in their weird little ways.
hottest: Oh, we all know the answer to this one…
weirdest: Hahaha, Lanky.
biggest pervert: Can I just say the Marching Band?
DO YOU BELIEVE IN
heaven: Nah
hell: Nope
angels: No
devil: Negatory
god: Nope
buddha: I believe the Buddha existed…
aliens: Sure
ghosts: Why not?
spirit (soul): These questions are reminding me that I’m across the street from a giant cemetery.
soulmates: Meh.
reincarnation: Sorta
love at first sight: Nah
karma: Yes
love in general: Sure
luck: Sorta
yourself: BAH
CRUSH
who and when was your first crush: That bastard of a fart, Patrick. That all started back in 5th grade.
any now: Nope.
a celebrity crush: LEIBNIZ TOTALLY COUNTS
who do you want to be with right now: My psycho awesome friends in Moscow.
whos number do you want: No one’s, phones suck.
who do you want to kiss: :D
what is something you dont understand about the opposite sex: Why do they have to wear pants?
if you could go on a date with anybody, who would it be: Leibniz. I mean, come ON.
on scale of one to ten, how romantic are you: 7? I’m shy.
first thing noticed about the opposite sex: Probably hair.
what do you look for personality-wise: People who aren’t assholes. So essentially the anti-Robs.
biggest turn on: Open-mindedness. Or pudginess, if we’re going for the physical.
biggest turn off: People who are too judgmental. Everybody’s different, so shut the hell up.
something they wear that turns you on: Nothing. ;)
something they wear that turns you off: Nothing I can think of.
the most romantic thing you want to happen to you: Haha, I am not sure.
the most romantic thing that has happened to you: Aaron was super romantic a few times.
what do you wear on a coffee date: haha, I only went on one “coffee date,” and I didn’t drink any coffee, and Sean laughed at me. I don’t remember what I wore.
is cyber cheating: Only if it’s not on Omegle.
are eyes the passageway to the soul: I thought the butt was?
who would you like to take to the prom: Prom sucked.
do you want to hug somebody right now: Oh yes.
do you know what an aphrodisiac is: Indeed.
DESCRIBE
mellow: Yellow
melancholy: I used to think this was a disease.
the perfect date: We’ll see when it happens.
the perfect mate: Someone with whom the conversation never dulls (and when it does, we take our clothes off and dance around), someone who will let me take care of them, someone who will be themselves, someone who won’t be jealous of my Leibniz obsession. Bonus points if they know R.
why manhole covers are round: ‘Cause they can’t fall in the hole that way.
ONE OR THE OTHER
coke/pepsi: NEITHER
sprite/7-up: Ew
boxers/briefs: Briefs
gold/silver: Silver
vanilla/chocolate: Vanilla
flowers/candy: CANDAY
book/magazine: Book
tv/radio: TV
glass half empty/half full: Philosophy!
democrat/republican: Dem
colored pencils/markers: Colored pencils
coffee/tea: Tea, but only green tea
sun/moon: Sun
day/night: Day
hot/cold: Hot
dog/cat: Cat
button/zipper: Button
cotton/feather pillow: Cotton
blue/purple: Blue
plumber/trashman: Trashman
jeans/shorts: Ew, neither
long distance relationship/none: Long distance
mechanical/regular pencil: Regular
romantic comedy/thriller: Thriller
nsync/bsb: Nsync, bitches!
peanut butter/jelly: Peanut butter
waffles/pancakes: Waffles
letter/email: Email
florida/california: California
pizza/burgers: Depends on what type
hat/visor: Hat
football/rugby: Rugby
iceskating/blading: Iceskating
FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU HEAR:
yellow: Submarine
red lipstick: BOOBIES
socks: Sexy
cowtipping: Hahaha, high school
moulin rouge: Que?
greenland: Iceland
iceland: OH SHIT! GREENLAND!
harry potter: Blah
red: Ruby
blackberry: Blueberry
rose: Posey
rooster: chickens!
taxes: Refund
bill clinton: Sax (no, not sex…)
whipped cream: SEXY PARTY TIME!
george w. bush: Oh god
lollipops: Mika
dreams: REM
love: Happies
boy bands: Haha, childhood
penguins: Macaroni
thong: Ew
death: Dark
spoons: Spooning
junk mail: Delete
dairy: Awesome
your father: Drew Carey
pizza: Yay
vitamin: B12!
are you
happy: Sometimes
sad: Sometimes
religious: Nope
crazy: Probably
messy: Negatory
mad: I probably get more mad than sad nowadays
slacker: In some respects
nerd: Probably
bookworm: Oh yes
jock: Nope
preppy: Nope
selfish: Sometimes, unfortunately
giving: I certainly try
obsessive: Hahaha
violent: No
calm: Pfft.
peaceful: Rarely
mellow: These words are getting anti-Claudia
eccentric: Oh wait, never mind.
caring: I try to be
untrustworthy: Maybe?
loyal: I try
patriotic: Yup. I miss the States
perverted: Hahaha
colorful: HAHAHA
artistic: I wish
miscellaneous
what color is your jacket: Black and powder blue
do you shave: Indeed
where: MANLY PLACES
what color is your razor: Pink
what size is your bed: Twin
what color crayon would you be: Radical Carrot
what are the last four digits of you phone number: Hell if I know
feelings on abortion: Pro choice
how long does it take you to shower: 10 minutes?
what does your screenname mean: On MySpace? It’s my name.
is cussing a necessity in life: I quite enjoy it.
how about coffee: Ew.
is the world screwed: Probably
what something you cant live without: My fantasy world.
what time did you fall asleep: Like 3 AM
can you live without a microwave: I use it to steam broccoli.
what do think about death: Hi, death!
where and when do you want to be married: No marriage for Claudia
do you want to drop out of school: God yes
why is the sky blue: “Why does the shun come up? Are the starsh just pinholesh in the curtain of night? Who knows, highlander?” (random RAB reference is necessary for this survey to count).
what is a good trait about yourself: I have none of these
what do you always think about: You would probably be surprised.
what is wrong with your school: This double tuition thing is pissing me off. I JUST WANT MY STATS CLASSES
what is right with your school: It’s not the U of I.
how do you react to change: I use it to do laundry!
do you talk to yourself: Oh god, do you know me?
what is your opinion on love: It’s all you need if you’re a Beatle.
can you afford to lose weight: Probably
what color would you dye your hair: I’d dye it orange, but I’m scared of hair dye now.
best thing anyone’s told you: God, I don’t know
does being psycho appeal to you: I refuse to answer this.
if you wrote a book, what would it be about: Butts.
what would you change your name to: Butts McGee.
longest crush lasted how long: 8 years. Good lord.
time finished: 1:52 AM (shut up, I got distracted by The Sims)
Today’s song: American Slang by The Gaslight Anthem
Eine Kleine Nachtfieber
God, today was a shit storm. FUCK YOU, test anxiety, and your ability to turn my near-automatic calculus abilities into “what’s a multiplication sign? I’ve never seen that before.” I can do that stuff in my sleep (quite literally), and you know it. I don’t know why you only do this with math tests. It was like a direct repeat of my final for Math 160.
Seriously. Fuck you.
Ugh.
The ONLY GOOD THING that happened today was going to see Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” First opera experience. Won’t be the last.
Today’s song: Cooler Than Me by Mike Posner
Run for your life, it’s a blog!
More artsy fartsy crap. I can’t decide if I like this one or not.
Also, this is freaking awesome. I loved the Xbox logo. And the Vaio logo, just because it’s Vaio.
Today’s song: Sleepyhead (DCDJ Remix) originally by Passion Pit (THE MADNESS NEVER STOPS)
This Week’s Science Blog: Water Stalagmites
My mom bought me this snazzy little silicon ice cube tray (ice flower tray, actually) from IKEA when she was up here, and I finally got around to filling it with water a few days ago. Today I opened the freezer to get something else, and got a strange little surprise from my ice cube tray:
Ice spikes! I don’t know about you guys, but I pretty much never make/use ice cubes, so this was a new phenomenon to me. So I thought, “hey, water’s weirder than hell, this probably has something to do with its special freezing properties.”*
So I Googled “Ice spikes” and what do you know—that’s actually what they’re called. Usually they’re a lot bigger and more impressive, but conditions in which they form are usually more favorable than “Claudia’s freezer.”
They form when conditions are just below freezing and arise due to a fact we all know: water expands when it freezes. When conditions are appropriate, a thin layer of ice can forms over the surface of the water. However, if the integrity of the ice layer is compromised in a certain place, the water beneath it, still in the process of freezing, can be forced up through the opening in the upper ice layer as it continues to expand. This can also happen if there’s a bubble trapped in the water.
Me being me, I’d like to see a comparison of the average size of ice spikes formed in ice cube trays made of non-expandable material (hard plastics) versus those formed in ice cube trays made of more flexible (and possibly expandable?) material like silicon.
Yeah.
*This thought was shortly followed by, “SCIENCE BLOG!”
Today’s song: UPular by Pogo
Waiter! There’s a dead and alive cat in my box!
HOLY CRAP, so I was screwing around on StumbleUpon this afternoon and I came across some random page of NASA’s. Multiple clicks later and I came to this.
I had totally forgotten that we’d attempted to do this in fifth grade. I say “attempted” because at 4 days prior to the competition we realized that we were short a motor (we foolish children and our lack of inventory-taking skills!) and thus were forced to withdraw. No, I don’t know how exactly we had the majority of our rover finished before we realized “hey, we kinda need a third motor,” but we did. Probably because one of our members had to quit because he failed like 5 reading quizzes in a row and he was the one in charge of our Lego kit. We would have won, too, ‘cause my transmission was killer and Daniel built an exceptionally awesome rock scooper (that’s a highly technical NASA term).
So yeah. Nostalgia.
I also found a random flash drive this afternoon that had this previously un-blogged-about album cover contained on it:
Also, I need to get super hyper again in time for my calc final. I don’t remember a single damn thing I wrote on my test on Monday, but I did pretty well.
So there.
Today’s song: Hemvägen (Live Nyhetsmorgon 2007) by Detektivbyrån
“You’re so blind your hindsight needed Lasik before it was 20/20”
I wish I was as good at screwing with sounds as this guy is:
That is all.
Today’s song: Gardyn by Pogo
My new position at the PepsiCo factory isn’t the greatest job in the world, but I’m making Dew
Haven’t had a crappy pun title in awhile now.
Polymathy and Knowledge in the 21st Century (or, “The Crazy Ramblings of a Super-Hyper Person, Feel Free to Disregard This Whole Blog”)
I don’t remember when or where I read this, but somewhere a few years ago I came across the idea that the polymath in its truest form is not really something that’s accomplishable nowadays, as there is so much more things to know today than there where back in the time of the polymath. From either the same source or a different one there was the mention of the fact that “back in the day” much more time was given to pure thinking—that is, people devoted solid blocks of time to working on their ideas and inventions, something that we with our daily time-consuming jobs (and school) rarely do. So I suppose they were trying to say that idea of a polymath exists as an anachronistic ideal; the “all knowing man” is something that today seems unobtainable.
Think about it. Think about the birth of the Age of Enlightenment, when there was this sudden boom of yearning for knowledge (in Europe, at least). There was this ability back then, perhaps due to different lifestyle or some ideal balance between what was known and what was unknown (or perhaps due to both) that allowed for polymathy to develop. There was this beautiful merging of everything creative and scientific (obviously not mutually exclusive categories) that gave rise to this insanely productive, inspired time. It makes you wonder what it was about this specific period in time, in that specific geographic area, that caused such a wonderful explosion of knowledge. It also makes you wonder why that’s not going on right now.
If you look at psychological development books you’ll see in almost every one something called the “critical period” for such developmental milestones as language learning, walking, and some other stuff I don’t remember because hell if I paid attention in Infancy class. Language is probably the best example, as it has the most incidents documented wherein an individual fails to either be exposed to language entirely or fails to be exposed to enough of it within this critical time frame, and thus fails to fully develop language to the extent the majority of people do.
I think analogous critical periods exist for a lot of different human endeavors (I just spelled that with the extra “u” before backspacing, kill me now). There has to be some sort of ideal balance between lifestyle, existing knowledge, and knowledge yet to be discovered for periods like the Age of Enlightenment to happen. The drive that spurs people on to create may not dissipate or change significantly from generation to generation, but other things are apt to (and do) change.
For instance, think about how much busier our lives are now. Think of how we’ve managed to pack our existences with this meaningless dribble just so we can “survive” in modern society. We don’t allow ourselves to stop and just think. We don’t allow significant time for mulling over of ideas (unless we do so at our jobs/on the bus/during class, in which cases I think it’s much less productive than just mulling outright) to bring them into fruition, or to even develop significant ideas. I’m not necessarily talking individually here, but when you look at it from a larger scope, I think that there’s a significantly smaller percentage of pure “thinking” that exists in our society today than there was, for example, back during the beginnings of the Age of Enlightenment. In short, we’re too busy to delve, but too focused in our specific school work/job/what-have-to-you gain breadth. That’s a problem.
Now think about how the balance between known and unknown has changed since the Age of Enlightenment. We know SO MUCH MORE than we did at the beginning of that shift in information, but we’re also equipped with far more tools to delve deeper into our universe. What’s stopping us today from having the same strides in discoveries, expansion, and overall innovation that were found then? I don’t think we’re running out of things to discover. I don’t think we’ll ever run out of things to discover. What I do think, though, is that there’s been some sort of fundamental change over the last several centuries in what is left to discover that we’re unable to reach previously set records of leaps and bounds in knowledge due to the way we’ve been approaching what’s left to discover.
We’re all yocto- and yotta- and gamma wave now, we’re past a large amount of those things that can be seen with the naked eye here on this planet and have moved on to the microscopic, macroscopic, and invisible (for a small but good example of this, just look at the SI prefixes and the change in dates from the mid-range prefixes to the very large and very small ones). Time that was before spent on envisioning, creating, and fine-tuning the machines whose purposes were to get to these other worlds is now being spent actually utilizing these machines, searching for what we think is out there because we finally can. And I think one of our problems is that we’re going about things with that old mindset, not with any new way of thinking about things.
It’s hard to explicitly explain what I mean by this…it’s like we haven’t done anything to refine our technique to help us reach past this “eye level” of invention, creation, and discovery, and therefore are having difficulty reaching out into these new and different areas. It’s like if you were a master fisherman—all you’ve ever done is fish—and suddenly there are no more fish in the sea so you have to utilize your technique elsewhere in order to procure food. So you look up at the sky, realize there are birds up there you can catch, and so you start casting your line into the air with the intent to catch these birds. Now you may be a master fisherman, you may cast your line better than anyone else, you may have the technique perfected, but you’re still casting it into the sky. You can be as perfect as you like, you’re not going to hook any birds. So what you have to do is redefine your technique—tweak it to fit the new circumstances. I don’t think we’ve managed to do that yet with how we look at things in terms of discovery.
So why don’t I think there’s another Age of Enlightenment going on now, when we’re fully equipped with all these wonderful scientists and wonderful machines to help us along our journey of discovery? We’re too busy, we’re too set in our ways of methodology, and we seems to be unable to break free of either of these things, at least anytime soon.
There was a whole lot more I was going to say on this, but I’ve discovered my secret stash of Pocky and have found one of the coolest songs ever, so I’m going to try and calm this hyperness down so I can hopefully sleep tonight.
Today’s song: Kärlekens Alla Färjor by Detektivbyrån (it’s FANTASTIC)
Automatic Toilets: A (random) Rant
I hate automatic toilets.
I hate them with a passion.
Here’s why.
1) They’re louder than hell. What is it about the difference between the manual flush mechanism and the automatic one that requires an additional 100 dB for the latter to operate properly? I don’t know if it’s because I have sensitive hearing or what, but I hate going to the bathroom where automatic toilets are equipped, because it means I’ll have to be ready to plug my ears at any time. This is because…
2) They go off randomly no reason. It’s like some sort of chaos theory in toilet form. I thought people wanted control over their lives? How do passive-aggressive automatic toilets help with this?
3) They waste water. Related strongly to the second point. Whatever premature flushing disorder these toilets have cause them to flush at least once too many times per use (if you’re lucky). And that’s totally what we need.
4) The reason they even exist pisses me off immensely. I’m sure you all know about the anti antibacterial soap argument, and I think society’s germ-phobic tendencies are getting a bit out of hand regarding other things as well. Oh no, GERMS! We can’t have contact with any of THOSE! Oh, how much our lives would be improved if we had some sort of IMMUNE SYSTEM TO HELP PROTECT US! Have people not read the literature on exposure to germs in early childhood leading to stronger immune systems?* I’m not saying go into the bathroom and lick the toilet seat or anything, I’m saying that the fact that we’re so paranoid as to not be willing to press a metal handle for about 2 seconds in order to flush a toilet in order to avoid germs is pretty freaking pathetic. Disagree? Okay, fine. But still, aren’t those sinks in the bathroom there so we can wash our hands after we use the facilities? I’m assuming people generally wash their hands AFTER they flush, so…
What’s the point of automatic flushing toilets, then?
Gr.
Sorry, rant over.
*Exposure to foreign bodies throughout one’s life strengthens the immune system too, I think.
Today’s song: Bolero as conducted by Andre Rieu
Social interaction? WHAT
Yay, first actual social interaction since finals (Boston doesn’t count; I was sitting in the corner doing calculus the whole time).
And Michael and I reconciled our differences (we had a bit of an argument regarding who invented calculus. It was pretty great). We didn’t agree on the fact that LEIBNIZ was first, but we did have a nice little conversation extolling R and bootstrapping, so we decided that counts.
Yay.
And this is pretty great; it gets more impressive as the video goes on. The tweezers part is my favorite.
Today’s song: Love Struck by V Factory
This Week’s Science Blog: Google Sun (or, “Oh Crap, the Google Boys Have a Big Lens”)
I remember the “lenses” part of my high school physics class being one of the things I was really interested in in that class (the Rube Goldberg project was a sore spot for me, and the cardboard chair project was designed so that only about 1/3 of the class was able to get enough cardboard from the recycling center).
The “Will It Lens?” blog obviously shows the dark side of the Google guys. They have our internet, and now they’re harnessing our sun. Scary, huh? One guy’s blog elaborates on their burning projects, which is pretty interesting.
Fresnel lenses are probably something with which everyone who reads my blogs is familiar, but I still think they’re cool. Common uses include headlights, lighthouses, and tools for sun-loving pyromaniacs.
More. Another guy makes a huge focus dish out of an old satellite dish. Ah, the wonders of Craigslist…
Fun trivia fact: Baruch Spinoza (one of the three main Continental Rationalists along with Descartes and Leibniz) died as a direct result from being a lens grinder in his early life.
Today’s song: Take it Home by The White Tie Affair
I’ll be your particle if you’ll be my accelerator
So apparently some chick I went to high school with is engaged to Ludacris now. I don’t remember her AT ALL, and I don’t think she was in my year. Still though, small world.
Anyway. Interesting article.
Sorry, slow day.
Today’s song: Explosive by Bond
1,500
Blog #1,500, yay! That’s about 1,450 more than I thought I’d ever do back when all this insanity started. And because I did a Wordle of my actual blog for the 4 year anniversary, I felt it only fitting to do one for the titles:
I like how “damn” and “MySpace” are in such close conjunction there.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I don’t have much to say today. So I bring you this. The fact that there are four more articles concerning this topic listed under “PREVIOUSLY” made me laugh. All the comments are pretty great, too.
Claudia’s blogs: bringing you the strange and obscure parts of the internet since 2006.
I also calculated that I’ll hit 5,000 (!!) blogs on January 8, 2020, assuming I’m still alive then. Distant and pointless goals are what I live off of (hell, that’s why I’m in grad school, after all), so don’t think I won’t go for it.
Today’s song: On My Mind by Damone
Blog 1,499: MySpace Hates My Blogs
So I totally forgot that I got a free webspace with my ISP up here, so I spent all night trying to figure out what to put on it. This is all I’ve got so far.
My intro to R guide’s on the “Statistics Stuff” page, if anyone who ever reads this is interested (doubtful).
Hm. I’d write more but my mind is elsewhere.
Today’s song: Apologize by OneRepublic
If night falls in a forest and a tree is still standing, does it cast a shadow?
Oh goodness, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is hilarious. It’s putting me in the mood for NaNo, which is both good and bad, ‘cause right now I have far too much calculus to do to have any free time to write, which is bad, but it’s also making me think of new ideas, which is good.
Yeah.
Anyway.
So here is a list of things we need to do while I’m back in Moscow:
- Rock Band party
- Drunken party of insane fun (you all know what I’m talking about) in my basement. This time you’ll all need to stay the night, ‘cause I want to drink, too. This could be combined with Rock Band party easily.
- Go on a mini road trip. Because mini road trips are great.
- Screw around in the park.
- Screw around in Shari’s.
- Get naked (could be combined with any/all of the above).
- Drag show (I’m assuming I’ll be there for Pride).
Sound fun? I think so. I miss you weirdos.
Today’s song: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Santa Esmeralda
Gives new meaning to “dropping a few kilos”
I’m thinking of having a weekly science-related blog, how does that sound for everyone? Such a plan will probably only last a month or so at most, but I like plans, so deal with it.
In the spirit of this new installation. (Edit: apparently the LA Times hates direct links to their articles; sometimes this link works and sometimes it just goes to a list of articles. If it does this, just ctrl + F “kilo,” that should bring you there. It’s a worthwhile article to read).
When I get a new cat (because it’s inevitable at some point in my life, though I don’t dare let another living feline in the same house with Annabelle), I’m naming him Kilogram 20.
“…at least six copies of the kilogram have been lost or damaged over the years from war, clumsiness or other reasons.” That’s insanely funny. Haha, I guess on the bright side we can say the SI is “losing weight.”
Today’s song: So Rich, So Pretty by Mickey Avalon
Short and sweet (the blog, not me)
I had some real trouble with that third one, but overall:
Fun times.
Today’s song: Alla Som Inte Dansar by Maskinen
Eigenblogger 