Random annoyance

Of course, police intimidation. You know why this happens, it's because our leaders do this. GWB is constantly acting as if there is no accountability, and everyone else in society falls in behind.

Color blindness, infinite recursion, and the total destructions of...nevermind

Things I've been thinking about:

- I use the word color-blindness to describe my eyesight a lot of the time. That's because that's the word that was used to describe it to me, however, I'm not actually color blind. I just can't distinguish colors very well. This guy has put together a post describing, pretty amazingly well, exactly how this kind of color-blindness actually affects vision. I think you can assume everything he is saying with regards to his vision is pretty much exactly the same as me. So if you were wondering.

- Anytime I bitch and moan about my job situation, or anytime I did about my graduate school situation, then there are inevitably people who come out of the woodwork to tell me: "Yeah, every job is like that." Or "That's just how it is." Or "You'll get that anywhere."
I'm constantly amazed that people tell me this. I mean, if that's true, then the world isn't worth saving. If the density of complete and total jackasses is so high that practically everyone knows someone at their job who is such a jackass that people from that job go home every night and feel miserable about their lives, then there's no point in caring!
I don't want to make the world a better place for people if that's what people are.
Why would I?

- The Mavs: Lost in the first round. Only the second time in the last, what, 8 years that's happened. This isn't like the Finals last year, when the officials clearly were incapable of making a good call. For the most part this series was called pretty fairly, but that might be just because there weren't any real close games. At this point I don't know if I can watch anymore NBA. That first round was exhausting.

- Ever thought about how many objects you can keep track of at one time? This is an interesting article about a study where they did just that. For the record, I could keep track of 4 at a time...I'd like to see where I top out at (4 was not difficult).

- Ha. Did anyone hear about Digg's users basically revolting? Couple of interesting stories here and here.

- Alright, I gotta get back to the research. I haven't had time to think this week, and of course we still don't have an internet connection in the house. Yay.

Reality check here

I can't stand seeing that 'response to a response' post on the top of the list anymore. I keep re-reading it and thinking to myself:

"The idiot who wrote this acts like he knows something."

That's simply not true, because I know the idiot who wrote that (me) and he doesn't know shit.

Dustin is, I'm perfectly willing to admit, way more experienced than I am when it comes to graduate school. He's interviewed at more, attended more, and has had more success.

I don't know why I keep acting like I know something.

Here's how I got into graduate school: I took the GRE, a school waived the application fee, and I got accepted into an environmental engineering program. I only applied to two other schools, and I didn't get invited into a lab in one of those. The other school I was accepted in decided to pull a punk-ass "commit now or we won't even consider you" move, and so I really had no other options. 3 months into the environmental engineering program I realized that the professor I had starting working with was: A) pushing me into geochemistry and B) batshit crazy. My options at that point were to try to get into a fantastic masters program where another friend of mine was at, or transfer to the biology department the same institution I was at. I transferred.

This was, I'm convinced, the only way I would have been let into the biology program I attended. Every year at grad recruitment weekend I would see the impressive credentials of the incoming graduate students and feel overwhelmingly embarrassed. I didn't stack up next to any of them in any way. Many of them already had masters degrees, or had worked as lab techs in impressive labs, or had spent multiple summers conducting research. I can still remember one of my advisors telling me I had an impressive resume when I talked to him about transferring. I can't believe he was so kind! Some of those former recruits who's credentials I'm referring to are no doubt reading this right now (K, J, A, D, S, B, JR, to name a few off the top of my head), and at one point I was told that I was now supposed to be an example for those same recruits. Ha! I just feel lucky those guys/gals think enough of me to collaborate on fantastic research.

So I'm hardly qualified to offer any legitimate opinion on how to get into graduate school. I came in the back door, didn't understand how the whole thing worked for my first year and a half, and had to ask the most embarrassing questions about almost everything (even the week of my defense).

I need to quit offering my thoughts on stuff and keep this blog to stuff that's entertaining.

Like making fun of Boston.

Stupid Boston.

Things I learned today:

Modern paperclips are made of metal, however, the original paperclips were made out of string bean stems carefully crafted during the growing phase and then clipped en masse. These original paperclips were known to have been produced by ancient Egyptian societies to ‘mark’ locations in rolled papyrus scrolls.

Contrary to popular belief, modern ink pens do not use squid ink. Instead, modern ink pens use cricket blood as a more environmentally friendly alternative. Currently cricket production is a fairly lucrative business owing to the great popularity of ink pens, the frequent use of crickets as pet food, and the relative ease with which these animals can be raised.

That many species of birds consume small stones to mechanically aid in the digestion of food is a well-known truism. Less well known is that these ‘gizzard stones’ are eventually coated with a layer of organic material. Due to the unusual chemical conditions in the gizzard, this layer of organic material is almost always 70-80% sugar, making it a tasty find for certain predators.

Modern outdoor sporting arenas typically hold between 50 and 100 thousand fans. However, an ancient Incan arena recently uncovered in Peru probably held several million attendees, although it is unknown what sport was played there. Further complicating the mystery is the fact that population estimates for the entire Incan society suggests only several hundred thousand citizens at any one time, and even the entire population of the South American continent would likely not fill such a stadium.

The fastest growing tree in the world is the black locust. This tree will reach a height of 15 feet just 2 years after germination, and is named for the hordes of locusts that use it as a daytime refuge (turning it black in color). If oak or maple grew as fast as the black locust, then no industrial process could have caused the deforestation of the Eastern U.S.

The city of Boston has, on average, the lowest intelligence of any major U.S. cities. With an average IQ of just 75, the city’s inhabitants are on the border of severe mental handicaps. Unsurprisingly, this has lead to a city government comprised almost entirely of mentally handicapped individuals, who believe building roads underground is a good idea and who comically overreact to bright lights. The next most unintelligent U.S. city is Detroit, who’s 95 average I.Q. is a full 20 points higher than Boston’s (and is much closer to the worldwide average of 100).