Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson - I suppose one could say this is an amusing read although I thought the biographer was putting on a too positive spin on the American icon who supposedly winks at us in humor. Sure Franklin was inquisitive and helped paved the way for electricity to be viewed as a science instead of something supernatural. Sure he was practical and rational in various pseudonymous guises like Poor Richard. And of course he was shrewd in various political dealings, all of which can be found in any comprehensive history textbook. But he was also a womanizer (there's no proof that he actually had affairs aside from the one that produced his illegitimate son William, but he maintained many flirtatious relationships with young women) and emotionally cold toward his family (his letters to his wife and children were exceedingly practical, filled with advice and admonition). Perhaps most people with a superficial knowledge about Franklin would consider him a sage-like historical figure, but he was a complex character who often broke his own plain rules for living.
There are some people who are always in lab, from seven in the morning to midnight, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's impressive that they can stay so focused without going mad. And it makes the rest of us look bad for wanting to take Christmas off.
In some ways, I feel like kicking myself because I'm not working as hard as they are, but I realize that I'm not a machine. Perhaps I would be accused of being a dabbler for not thinking about science all the time. But is it a weakness to go home during the weekend to think and do something else? At the very least shouldn't people take time off to do household chores and call on some friends? Or maybe some people think being "normal" isn't important.
The other TAs and I decided to test a hypothesis. Normally, we sit in the back of the lecture hall and notice that all the seats around us are empty. Our theory was that the undergrads were avoiding us because we were TAs.
So today before lecture started, we sat in the middle of the room. If our hypothesis was correct, then we would be surrounded by empty seats as the undergrads tried to avoid us. We would be creating a zone of inhibition just as antibiotic spotted on a plate with a lawn of bacteria creates a clearing where the bacteria refuse to grow.
Our hypothesis wasn't entirely correct. As the students trickled in to class, they first chose seats away from us. But when the lecture hall became more full and the students had to choose between a seat at the back or one more closer to the front and nearer to the TAs, they chose the seats around us.
I guess they made a wise decision because the prof's microphone died in the middle of lecture.
TA #1: Hey, did you know he [the student] turned 21 yesterday?
Me: Wow that's great!
Student: Yeah, well, it's not that great. I feel old now.
Me: Wait a minute. You're old? What does that make me?
Student: Over the hill.
* * *
Encyclopedia of Waxes. I stumbled onto this while trying to look for a definitive web source on molds. Google needs to shape up their algorithm!
Harmonia Macrocosmica. "Harmonia Macrocosmica, by Andreas Cellarius, is part of the Marriott Library's Rare Book Collection. Printed in 1661, it is an atlas of the heavens as seen by the astronomers of the times: Copernicus, Ptolemy, Brahe, and Aratus."
Amulet Archive. Actually, you can make an amulet out of anything, including your dirty socks.
Onesome- The happiest day: Tell us about the happiest day of your life.
I'm not that young, but I'm not that old either. If I already had a "happiest day in my life" I would have nothing to look forward to and you might as well kill me now.
Twosome- The happiest hour: What’s your favourite time of the day, and why?
Probably around 3 AM. That's when I'm usually asleep and oblivious to the world. Unless I'm having a nightmare. Then I'll have to say noon or whenever I'm having lunch. (It's not that I don't like the other hours, but what I do during those particular hours vary quite a lot.)
Threesome- Mine eyes shall see: What’s the one thing/place you would really like to see in your life?
I guess I can talk about it now since the profs in charge of the course have informed all the students about the exam.
Apparently, the key to the exam instead of the exam itself got copied and handed out before anyone realized what happened. Some (or maybe most?) of the students looked at the first pages before the key was recalled. But of course, no one can control for such things and I'm positive at least one person smuggled out the key.
The students took the test anyway but the exam is not going to count toward their final grade. As one of the profs told me, "No one's going to be penalized, but no one's going to benefit either." So the undergrads breathe a sigh of relief after a fiasco.
As for the TAs, well, we have to grade the dang thing anyway so the students will have feedback on how well they would have done and how we will grade it. Over 130 exams. And there are essay questions. I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it.
I wasn't there to hand out the exam but from what I heard this morning, something horrible happened. I don't think the honor code will be able to fix it and make the test "fair". If anything, a new exam should be rescheduled. But what do I know, I'm just a TA.
Addendum: If you happen to be a student taking this course (and even if you're not a student taking this course) and you've stumbled onto this website by accident, I can't tell you anything else. Maybe after the term has ended. And if you're a prof and you're reading this, you can probably guess what happened.
So I was wondering how much time we spent in the bathroom all our lives. Well, assuming that on average, we're in the bathroom 30 minutes each day and the average lifespan is 75 years...that's over a year and a half spent in the bathroom.
* * *
Another Note
Don't you notice that when someone unhinged comes along (or if someone among your usually level-headed acquaintences becomes unhinged) it throws a monkey wrench into your entire routine?
* * *
Linkage
The Non-Expert: IKEA. I would totally play this (well, maybe play isn't the right word, maybe laugh at) if it actually was made into an IF game.
Mouse Odometer. Cool toy, but to be honest, I wouldn't want this on my computer in case someone looked over my shoulder and saw the numbers (which would be high).
RateMyTeachers.com and RateMyProfessors.com. (via Monkeyfilter) I find these things sort of creepy. I mean, the comments are fairly accurate (I looked up my high school and the university I did my undergrad at) but still...anyways, I also looked up my current college and the only professor listed that I recognized was the one I'm TA-ing for. Somebody had voted him as "hot" which I thought was a joke until it was pointed out to me that he bore an uncanny resemblance to one of those guys in the Yahoo! personal ads.
Brave New Babies. Actually now that I think about it, the concept isn't exactly new. This technique only allows people with money to choose the sex of their offspring more easily. But people have been influencing the sex of their children for a long time--via abortion and infantcide.
World 66. Make your own map of where you've traveled.
I arrived at Dartmouth Hall approximately one hour before the debate is supposed to start since I figured perhaps there would be tons of people trying to see it on remote viewing and I wanted to get a seat. But I was actually the second person here. The first person is another nerd with a laptop.
On my way here, (Dartmouth Hall is one of the buildings ringing the Green, a wide and right now frozen field in the middle of campus), I noticed a news truck with a huge satellite dish in front of the Hanover Inn (the inn is right across the Green), a bus painted with blue stripes and stars with the ABC news logo next to it, and another truck with satellite dish at the intersection to the Hopkins Center (the Hopkins Center is right next to the Hanover Inn). Many people with various signs were waving and chanting in front of the Hopkins Center.
The debate which is taking place in the Moore Theater at the Hopkins Center is titled "Every Woman Counts" which I assume will be quizzing the various candidates on their stances on various women's issues. It's going to be moderated by Claire Shipman, an ABC News correspondent.
Well, more later.
[originally posted at 3:37 PM]
Okay, so the camera is showing Moore Theater which is now mostly full. As for Dartmouth Hall, there is probably around 20-30 people even though this can seat 150. Perhaps more people will show up at the last minute.
Oh, and if you don't want to read my live blog posts on the debate, you can actually watch it on Dartmouth TV now. It'll be broadcast to the rest of the country on ABC, CNN, etc. tomorrow.
[originally posted at 4:24 PM]
Oh crap.
Dartmouth Hall is now empty because somebody was handing out the last tickets to actually go to Moore Theater. I now curse myself for being too slow.
[originally posted at 4:28 PM]
(very brief notes, may be misspelled, summarized, i.e. I can't type that fast)
personal comment: the reception is really bad (purposely?), correction it's Kucinich and not Edwards - I find them hard to tell apart
70% undecided voters in NH are women
domestic violence
breast cancer
affordable health care
half have not heard candidates on these issues
candidates: Dean, Lieberman, Kucinich
Q (moderator): Why should women vote for you?
candidates introduce wives in audience
Dean: because what done for [Vermont] (citing statistics), minimal wage, child care subsidized
Lieberman: do better job than Bush, give US fresh start, women suffer under current leadership, tax cuts to people who don't need them
Kucinich: a story - statue of woman with arm outstretched to protect child in House, Iraq (?!), education of children - universal program with 50% cut in Pentagon, health care
[originally posted at 4:48 PM]
Q (Emily, a gynecologist): Affordable childcare?
D: Citing what he has done in Vermont, universal childcare, subsidizing, 20% bonus for home childcare, educational component, president's proposal for welfare is "ridiculous". Calls it "Anti-child-supervision" bill. President doesn't have any idea because old white men with pot-bellies signed bill.
L: need childcare because now more single parent household, check website for details, Bush is trying to screw low income families for healthcare, increase tax credit so low income people could get childcare, childcare training, repeal Bush's tax cut on high income.
K: Talking about when he was growing up, mother took care of kids but now mothers working and most money goes to childcare--create educational program (60 billion dollars), pay for by 15% reduction of Pentagon
(somebody in Dartmouth Hall is clapping after K's speech, strange)
D: damage to kids before age 3, changes at that critical time
[originally posted at 5:01 PM]
Q (Carson, a Dartmouth student from California): What will you do about violence against women?
L: epidemic against women, terrible effects on next generation, speak out, encourage women to speak out, criminalize violation of restraining orders, national network for safeplace homes, train courts and police to deal with this problem, raising sons, consequences of today's entertainment, ex. Grand Theft Auto
K: how much change do we want? notes his vote on a bill on domestic violence and schools--teach peace-giving to help men understand violence against women is wrong, too late if at emergency room or safe house, intl department of peace [personal note: what the hell is he talking about?]
[that same guy is clapping]
D: many programs already done at state level, make sure enough money to keep this running, male role models, drug and alcohol abuse also needs to be addressed.
[originally posted at 5:09 PM]
Q (McClain, a female resident in Hanover): What will you do for nominations in Supreme court?
K: Roe vs. Wade, needs someone with courage and not afraid to help America with expanded view, stand up to corporations, intelligent, heartful, spiritual, dedicated, seek to overturn Patriot Act
D: in Vermont 50% appointees are women, hardworking, not looking for party, treat women with respect (not Scalia), uphold and not rewrite Constitution, role model Ginsburg and somebody from Vermont [I missed the name], current court is too far right
L: don't want one that decides national election (audience laughter), need impartial, don't like Bush's litmus tests, filibuster presidential nominations, don't pack court with ideological, good example: David Suiter
[originally posted at 5:18 PM]
Q (Margaret, a chairperson in some women's organization): What would you do to close gap in salary between women and men?
D: (missed first two reasons), need affirmative action, everybody tends to hire people like themselves not because everyone is sexist or racist,
L: needs to be addressed on legislative level, everybody's rights, move toward equality
K: (another notable pause) talking about his own staff, raise up wages so that they were equal, executive order that every govt contract abide by equality and opportunity, women and social security, return retirement back to 65 so people can get more income at an earlier age
[personal note: K's not taking into account baby boomers]
[originally posted at 5:36 PM]
Q (moderator): When will we see a woman president?
D: 2012, Hillary
L: 2012, Braseau (sp?)
K: blabbing about feminine perspective in oval office and don't need to wait whether 2008 or 2012...(moderator cuts him off)
Q (a woman from Newport who was first woman in city council): Which women would you appoint to cabinet and why?
L: Need experienced women.
K: as mayor of Cleveland made sure women were in staff, ex. director in EPA
D: floating names will be foolish, somebody from Atlanta, Ann Richards
L: need women in defense and treasury
Q (from audience, missed her organization): Sex discrimination in education, etc?
K: sign executive orders to enforce it, too much emphasis on men's sports
D: Title IX, story about women's basketball
L: in favor of enforcement of Title IX
[originally posted at 5:38 PM]
Q (network against domestic violence): More specific on ending domestic violence? Systemic solutions?
D: Funding is critical issue, programs in state (Vermont), women testifying, education
L: reactivation and expansion of existing legislation, continued funding of progs in federal govt, courts and police
K: look at attitudes of men and boys and deal with that, want women to feel protected, make sure if crime committed that treated seriously by courts
Q (continued): programs are very underfunded
K: supports that
Q (moderator): economy and jobs?
L: grave and national matter needs to be addressed
Moderator: last question, thanks for coming
[originally posted at 5:42 PM]
Summary of my thoughts on the debate:
Dean mostly referred to what he had done as governor in Vermont.
Lieberman talked about what he has done as senator, against Bush's policies, what's good for America in general.
Kucinich paused a lot of times before he spoke about what should be done (in a very generalized way). I had the feeling that he bs-ed a lot of stuff.
[originally posted at 5:45 PM]
Additional remarks: Addressing women's issues? Pfft! One hour is way too short to probe any candidate's stance on the questions being asked. I didn't get a feel for anything, especially since the answers were being limited to one minute each. Answers were too general and repetitive and I came away being more annoyed than enlightened.
Addendum: This guy actually got a ticket to go see the debate but gave it up for somebody who is a real democratic enthusiast. I would have just gone for the experience (I don't side with any party) but hey, to each his own.
Before this, I have never read a self-help book. I see it as desperate optimism--there's nothing wrong with reading such books, but I don't see myself as someone needing self-help. I think I'm doing okay. I don't throw temper tantrums or get angry. I'm not depressed and I'm not annoyed that often. But I set about procuring a copy of The Art of Happiness. Bud had recommended it and I figured there must be something in it if someone liked it.
The book itself was quite elusive for the past couple of months. (Is this trying to tell me something, that happiness is hard to find?) After putting a request at the college library, a librarian e-mailed me back informing me that it was stolen. The copies at the public library were perpetually checked out until last week when the large print one became available. So I snatched it (along with the new biography on Ben Franklin, but that's another story).
To say the least, I was disappointed. Perhaps the Dalai Lama really is an enlightened and wise person, but I'll never know as the book itself was really written by Cutler who is a Western psychiatrist. Most of it was interviews interspersed with Cutler's commentary and anecdotes of his own which I just found bizarre. The interviews themselves seemed guided and forced as if Cutler had selective hearing as well as thinking.
The Art of Happiness is basically a book on common sense for people who've forgotten there's such a thing. If something bad happens, remember that things could be worse. One shouldn't confuse happiness and pleasure. Loneliness can be combated by realizing that one shouldn't follow society's ideals about what a real relationship is. People add to their own suffering by focusing too narrowly on certain things. Extremism of any sort is bad. Getting angry doesn't bode well for yourself as well as the people around you.
So maybe it's useful--as a jumping off point to particular philosophical subjects--but I wouldn't say it's brilliant or life-changing. Otherwise, I'd say Cutler should stick to his psychiatric practice and let a better writer interview the Dalai Lama.
Oh well, I lost the lottery to get a ticket for this. It would have been really cool if I had the chance to see the debate live (and it would have been extra cool if I could blog the thing at the same time). I guess I'll end up going to one of those remote viewing sites.
And it'll be great if one of you (my readers) let me know if the debate is going to be broadcast on TV (since I don't have a TV). They say it's going to be closed circuit but if it's not, then it'll be pointless to bring my laptop for some live blogging.
I compared notes with the other TAs again. Apparently one of the TAs experienced a mutiny in one of his lab sections. After hearing that, I'm extremely thankful that all of my students behave like responsible adults and not spoiled children.
Some people think I'm crazy for going to graduate school for who knows how many years. Well, I might be crazy, but one thing's for sure--their priorities are different than mine.
Last Chinese New Year, I was off on a random outing to Boston. This year, I'm not starting the year being so random--probably being more industrious (since it is the year of the monkey), but I definitely don't feel like it. Everything feels so ghost-like, but that's what you get for coming to lab at 6 AM.
Onesome: Out-- Are you getting out and about lately? ...or is school/the weather/work/illness keeping you cooped up inside?
Well, I get to walk across campus at least four times each week due to the class I'm TA-ing.
Twosome: of the-- Blue? Does the Winter season 'get to you'? ...or do you handle it as well as you do Summer?
I'm doing okay although I often feel as if I'm putting in more hours but getting less done.
Threesome: Loop-- Hey, Spring is coming (and Winter is still here for some); do you have a loop you drive or walk to check out the scenery? What do you see when you're out and about?
Spring? Spring?! Are you kidding? Up here, the snow doesn't thaw out until April and maybe not even then.
"I must be doing something wrong." That's what I tell myself every time things run more smoothly than expected. I must be forgetting something. Comparing notes with the other TAs, I'm the only one who has not been getting questions by e-mail from students. Yes, that may mean less work, but it definitely sets me wondering. Do they think that I won't know the answer? Am I an off-putting person; are they too scared to ask me? Do they think I'll be too critical or too mean when I'm answering a question? Or is it another reason altogether?
Why would anyone do this? It may sound all technical with marketing jargon, but it's degrading, nonetheless. Women will be making themselves into brands, i.e. objects. So if people don't like me without the push-up bra, I don't think getting one will help.
I rarely read biographies and to say the least, I was quite intimidated when Gina recommended John Adams, a rather hefty tome and winner of the 2002 Pulitzer. As someone who hasn't taken many humanities classes in college, I had the preconceived notion that this was going to be quite dry and, well, boring--Pulitzer or no. The only thing I knew about John Adams was from high school history and that musical, 1776, and I had a hard time imagining how much a biographer could flesh out someone who lived so long ago and now elevated to some historical and abstract icon.
To my surprise (and relief), John Adams read just like a novel and I learned quite a lot. The biographer was able to really get into Adams' head because he had a vast number of resources available to him--particularly the extensive correspondence between Adams and everyone he came in contact with. The letters between John Adams and his wife Abigail show that not only were they deeply devoted to each other, but that Abigail was just as interested in politics and had a profound effect on Adams' decisions.
Also surprisingly was the fact that Adams had been an extensive traveler. As one of the architects of the Declaration of Independence, he set out to Europe to procure allies and support for the Revolution as well as to serve as an ambassador to England after the war. When he came back, he became the first Vice President and then the second President--however, his term was plagued by the fracturing of the government into two parties (the Federalists and the Republicans), the machinations of the former Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton who had aspirations to positions of power, and the mudslinging press who derided him as an insane old man.
The most interesting relationship John Adams had was with Thomas Jefferson who was much more reserved yet was a seething mess of contradictions--contrary to New England farmer John Adams, Jefferson was an aristocratic Virginian although in theory for thriftiness and freedom of all people, still kept slaves and spent money recklessly. They were friends until political differences (primarily the breakup into the party system) halted communication between them. It was only after eleven years of silence did Adams resume his remarkable correspondence with Jefferson.
But despite the vindictive against Adams during his time as a public figure--he was fondly remembered when he and Jefferson passed away on July 4, fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Recently I attended a science writing seminar which, I thought, was fairly helpful--not just for people who want to go into science writing for a living but for those who want to communicate their science more effectively. A looming question that people got worked up about was: Why aren't there more humanities in the sciences?
One big problem I see is that the two different disciplines (humanities and science) rarely mesh with each other. It's not that they are fundamentally incompatible but that the individuals in each of those disciplines don't go out of their way to cross the "border", i.e. to go to the other side in an attempt to understand others' thinking or to try to make themselves understood to a wider variety of people. Many science people think of the humanities as a joke, whereas people from the humanities (or the lay public for any matter) completely tune out the science lecture wondering what the entire point of it is. Albert Einstein and George Elliot? One might as well start blubbering gibberish.
Another obstacle for science writing is the stigma of writing itself among parts of the science community. Oh look at him, they'd whisper. He's not doing science anymore. He's a writer now. It's as if being a writer was something tainted, something that makes the scientist akin to an Untouchable in the Indian caste system. Ah, if only people could understand that one could do science and write--there is such a thing called "time management" that would solve the problem.
So why should scientists care about communicating their work to the public? Well, I'm sure people want to know what research their money is going toward, after all, they're not paying taxes just for your intellectual edification. The funding of modern science no longer resembles that of the past; scientists these days aren't rich lords with money to burn or sycophants who come under the patronage of monarchs or rich families.
Scientists also have a duty to inform the public. Some ill-trained journalists may make the latest findings sound like proclamations from God just because someone with a Ph.D. said so--but science isn't some far removed religion that one takes statements on faith. Science is rooted in culture, in society, our everyday lives--from plastic surgery to transportation to growing crops--and people have every right to question it.
And finally, there is the freedom implied in such writing. What purpose does it serve to keep most people ignorant? Science writing fosters the attitude to ask questions and be more open which can spill over into other areas of life. And openness will inevitably lead to progress.
I've been hearing rumors about a televised debate being held at Dartmouth between the Democratic candidates. Of course, it won't be a "debate" per se--a cynic described it as "completely scripted." The front audience (the people that the camera will depict) will all be wearing flannel or whatever it is that "typical" New Hampshire-ians are supposed to wear and the candidates will be given questions ahead of time. Actually, it has been rumored that people can submit questions ahead of time and the actual questions being used will be selected by lottery.
Maybe I'll contact PR today and see if I can get a ticket to see the debate. I'll ask about the question lottery too--maybe you, the blog readers who really care about this stuff, might want to ask a question in the comments and I'll try to see it to that lottery thing.
The Lab Animal. A thought-provoking piece about desperate and/or unscrupulous coaches and athletes appropriating research in order to win a game. I find it ethically murky that people are so willing to be guinea pigs on themselves by using drugs in untested ways. But then, as the implication goes, money is at the root of it.
Is this a coming of age story of a fifteen-year-old geek of everything except academics? Perhaps on the surface it is, or maybe you'd be laughing too hard to care--but I don't see it simply as the trials and tribulations of a teenager with plenty of gags thrown in. Rushmore is about the confusion of different types of love.
Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is that fifteen-year-old geek who attends Rushmore, an elite prep school for the children of the rich. Max's father, however, is simply a barber and Max was only accepted into Rushmore on an academic scholarship due to his playwriting skills in second grade. Max still loves to put on plays, but his obsession with extracurricular activities are tempered with his dismal grades in academics.
Max has a strange relationship with Herman Blume (Bill Murray) a millionaire and father to twins who go to Rushmore. The seemingly odd pairing works because both of these characters are exact mirrors to each other--both used to getting their own way. Things get complicated when Max tracks down the writer of a Jacques Cousteau quote in a textbook--Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams) who is a first grade teacher--and both Max and Blume promptly become infatuated with her.
The confusion comes in when Max mistakes loving a person with loving a thing (such as extracurricular activities and playwriting) and begins to pursue Ms. Cross with the single-mindedness that strays dangerously into stalkerdom. When Ms. Cross rejects him because, after all, he is only fifteen, Max interprets this as a rejection from everything and attempts to self-destruct by becoming a dull nobody.
Of course, things do end happily, but one must wonder if Max really did learn how to compromise or not--the public school he ends up at allowed him to put on a play with fires and explosives on stage.
At the bookstore, I saw a bunch of older women (the stereotypical reader of Oprah book club novels) fawning over copies of LOTR. It must have been the picture of Viggo Mortensen on the cover making them all goggly and incoherent.
* * *
Linkage:
Website Mixmaster. This little application will help generate a website of your creation, primarily one with the layout of one but the content of another.
2003 Words of the Year. I liked some of the words under "Most Creative" such as freegan, tanorexia, or (and this makes me giggle) manscaping.
How to wrap your friend's apartment in tin foil: a love story. This reminds me of a prank that happened to one of my neighbors back when I was an undergrad. While he was away on vacation, his roommate filled the entire dorm room with packing peanuts. So when he got back and opened the door, the packing peanuts came pouring out over him and into the hallway. His roommate must have loved him very much.
The bestselling author, Dan Brown, who wrote The Da Vinci Code used to go to Dartmouth. The profs here gave him C's and didn't like his short stories. (Before The Da Vinci Code came out, I noticed that the Dartmouth bookstore had relegated all of his novels to the bargain bin.)
Nicholas Sparks who wrote Message in a Bottle and other mainstream love stories apparently is a professor here teaching people how to write bestsellers.
For the record, I have not read anything by any of these authors.
Why is it a bad idea to leave a bunch of pessimistic and tired TAs in an empty room? They start musing that the professors think that the TAs are as ignorant as the undergraduates.
Heh. Actually, I find lecturing kind of fun. I didn't memorize anything and I didn't feel too nervous. (But then again, the "kids" in the class aren't that much younger than I am.) I felt pretty informal, but I didn't make jokes up on the fly. I'm not good at jokes. However, I am good at anecdotes. I think I made some of the students paranoid after some of my horror stories. But better paranoid at the lab than totally lackadaisical, eh?
* * *
Links:
Chemists crack secrets of nature's super glue. "Researchers have discovered that iron in seawater is the key binding agent in the super-strong glues of the common blue mussel, Mytilus edulis. This is the first time researchers have determined that a metal such as iron is critical to forming an amorphous, biological material."
Nobel Prize Winners Hate School. "One of the most laughable defenses of the government-operated school system, sure to come from the keyboard of hundreds of people who participate in on-line discussion of education policy, is the notion that Nobel Prize winners and other eminent persons prove the effectiveness of our school system." Comment: I'm not sure that it'll be all that great if we eliminate school altogether--after all, some people won't be geniuses no matter what you do. And the educational institution does have some uses.
Blog Survey. From a graduate student at MIT. Seems like everyone is working on weblogs for their thesis except me.
Worsening spam epidemic chokes the net. For the past week I've just been getting Nigerian scam spam e-mail. And for the past couple of months, I've been noticing that the same kind of spam always arrives together. One week it may be Viagra and its associated ilk, another it might be Paris Hilton videos, and maybe another week it would be playing cards. Who knows what next week will be?
I don't exactly like grading. Right now, it's just assignments, but a lot of little things can add up to a lot of inconvenience. I'm not one of those "trigger happy" graders who take off points whenever I feel like it--I always explain my point deductions. For one, I know how frustrating it is to get something back with "-5" and nothing else. Because then I ask, what did I get wrong and why the five points? It's much easier all around if it's explained at the onset.
And then there are the assignments themselves. Some people have horrible handwriting to the point of illegibility. Others like to write everything in one big, squished chunk with no paragraph breaks. And yet others will write their assignment out in red. Well, I'm not going to let my grading blend into their work. I'm not even going to use the usual blue or black pen which would be practical. No, I'm breaking out my green pen. It's a small thing, but I take my amusement where I can get it.
But even the handwriting problem alone makes me grimace whenever I think about the profs putting in essay questions on the exams. If only penmanship had been stressed more in grade school or keyboards provided for everyone.
Well, yesterday was interesting although by the end of the day my feet were killing me. Another TA and I were "team teaching" two laboratory sections in the afternoon and evening--each four hours. The morning had been taken up with a lecture by one of the profs for the course.
The prof for the lab section of the course was supposed to stay around for at least the entire afternoon section to supervise teaching (as a TA, you have to sign up for a course called "Supervised Teaching") but she got ill and had to go home early leaving me and my partner pretty much on our own.
Teaching a lab (so far) isn't hard, but it is draining. I think most of that comes from trying to be vigilant. I circulate around the lab and make sure no one is doing something egregiously wrong (since this is somewhat a beginner lab, I caught quite a few people attempting bad pippetting technique) and answer questions.
At any rate, I'd say the first "real" day teaching was a success considering no one caught on fire or spilled acid on themselves.
I've mentioned before that I rarely get hits from weblog directories. After musing about that, I visited those directories (or at least the ones that I remembered I had submitted to) and realized that some of them have a little feature where people can rate your site. Not surprisingly, my scores are pretty low. My online persona isn't terribly interesting (let alone my real life persona)--I don't have any wild and revealing stories to tell and even if I did, I wouldn't be writing them here. My site design isn't innovative or particularly clever. It's sparse and not exactly pretty. So if anyone was grading on aesthetics, I might as well get a zero.
Or, people could just hate it. "It's just another blog by a stupid college student!" they might say. Although I might argue that the statement makes it mediocre rather than singularly detestable.
But then again it would be totally boring and not exactly challenging, wouldn't it, if everyone liked your website?
Some time last week I saw an old black and white documentary which I think was titled "The Race for the Double Helix with Isaac Asimov" with, of course, Isaac Asimov as the narrator/host. What I want to know is if the documentary can be accessed by anybody or are all the copies locked up in academic institutions? I've been trying to find some mention of it in Google but have so far come up empty.
In many ways, this old documentary is way better than that other movie with Jeff Goldblum (a.k.a. the chaos scientist in Jurassic Park). I mean, this has Isaac Asimov--who can go wrong with that? And there are also interviews with Jim Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Linus Pauling. I believe Asimov was narrating the film from Cold Spring Harbor.
The highlight of the film was when Watson totally went off about an incident stemming from receiving Pauling's manuscript on the structure of DNA. In his eagerness to prove Pauling wrong, he rushed off to Rosalind Franklin's lab to try to foist the manuscript on her so she could compare Pauling's ideas with her x-ray crystallography photographs. Franklin refused to read the manuscript and Watson claimed that Franklin was even going to hit him. Wilkins and Crick, on the other hand, were a bit more cautious about describing the incident.
The Shushing of the Symphony. Reminds me of the time when I used to live at this really nice dorm but people would come by and tell me I was playing my classical music too loud. Well, the people next door were playing rock at maximum volume on huge speakers so why didn't they complain to them?
The Decline of Fashion Photography. I'd have to agree. Older photographs are art. Some modern photography just looks like the "artist" in his drunken stupor, grabbed a cheap camera lying about and accidently pushed the button for taking the picture.
Cosmopolitan covers from 1970-2003. (via Scrubbles.net) If anyone wants an example of what isn't fashion photography, one needn't look further than these particular magazine covers. They're more like ads with sex appeal--designed to get the consumer to buy the magazine instead of the clothes.
2004 New Hampshire Democratic Tracking. Interesting, although I'm not quite sure how significant the percentage changes are. Anyways, I've noticed that the signs supporting the candidates are getting larger in size (sometimes taking up an entire front yard or two) and more people are outside (regardless of the insane cold) to wave those aforementioned signs.
I've been pondering the phenomenon of "greasy graduate student" again. I had the chance of discussing this with other graduate students and it's not only the undergraduates who think this is creepy. Feminists at women studies are outraged, some people (like me) shudder in revulsion, and the rest--even though they don't say anything--think these greasy grads are cuckoo.
What makes them more weird than eccentrics and ultimately cringe-worthy? Greasy grads are typically males who date younger undergraduate women. Is it because of the age difference? Probably not, the age difference isn't that large. I think the main thing that bothers me is the whole "serial dating" game they play. There's a different girl on their arm every week, treated as no more than a commodity and eventually discarded like a used paper towel.
Where's the respect and consideration? They're nowhere as far as I can see. And sometimes I have the impression that they dazzled the girls with their elevated position in order to get into a liaison. I suppose one could be bullied into doing something when already flustered with the prospect that someone who is going to be a doctor is interested in them.
Well let me tell you something--some would-be doctors aren't as sterling as stereotype would have them to be. Brilliance and impressive credentials are no indications of niceness.
Vermont town wants to secede, join New Hampshire. This just makes me want to giggle. I've been to Killington a couple times before, primarily for the molecular cell biology retreat held every year. There are good hiking trails, if you happen to be in the area.
* * *
My So-Called Blog. Although the article was akin to reading someone's viewpoint on all of classical music based solely on Beethoven (while ignoring Bach and Wagner and Philip Glass and everyone else), one statement struck me as true for a majority of online chroniclers:
And while there are exceptions, many journal writers exhibit a surprising lack of curiosity about the journals of true strangers. They're too busy writing posts to browse.
When I first started this blog, no one visited me just for the heck of it. Sure, you can increase exposure by submitting to various weblog search engines and directories but very little traffic comes from those sources (with the exception of Google). To get anyone's attention in the blogosphere, you have to first go to them and read and comment on their site. As a result, everything favors the people who are more aggressive, or at least it makes one more aggressive if you're not already.
But that statement is true for me in a way--I rarely read the types of online journals mentioned in the article. In my case, it's more of my matter of interest, actually. I would rather read about science, news, social concerns, politics, philosophy--anything that would deal with fact, opinion, or random personal rumination than the minutiae of someone else's personal social life. I currently have about 180 weblogs in my bookmarks, but none of them are confessional diaries. Perhaps it would help broaden my horizons if I chose one randomly for a regular read, even if I didn't like reading it.
Another update on that NOVA Mars program: NOVA e-mailed asking me to test their fixed program. I don't know if it'll be online by Monday, but I do know it works in Quicktime.
One downside of going to school during winter term is, well, the weather. It was -30 something Fahrenheit (with wind chill) in the morning and one of my fellow TAs had frost accumulate on her collar from her breath as we lugged lab manuals across campus.
Of course, the problem of frost accumulation would have been avoided altogether if the lecture part of the course was held in one of the biology buildings instead of one of the humanities buildings, but none of the lecture halls in the biology buildings are big enough to accommodate all of the undergrads. I liked one of the suggestions by another TA who remarked that instead of hiking across campus all the time, we could get one of those go-carts with beeping lights that airports use to transport the handicapped from gate to gate. Unfortunately, we have no idea how to obtain one. Oh well.
The actual lab part of the class won't begin until next week, but the TAs had to do a "lab prep" today--which meant that we had to do the exact experiments that the undergrads would have to do. I guess it's good to have the practice so we could troubleshoot anything in the actual class. But it also meant that we were doing the lab with a "lab partner" (in this case, one of the other TAs) and we all sort of felt weird sharing stuff. I mean, as graduate students, we have our own benches and materials and projects. We've gotten used to being independent.
Anyways, we'll see how it goes--as I'm one of the TAs teaching the very first section.
I was really looking forward to watching the NOVA program on Mars over the Internet since I don't have a television but when I clicked on the links, it told me that it wasn't available to me because I was not in the United States!
Geez, I'm using a university connection which the last time I checked was definitely in the United States. Yes, I know New Hampshire is right next to Canada but that doesn't mean that it is Canada.
Update: Now, apparently, the program won't be online until the 12th. Maybe they took the complaint I sent them to heart.
Onesome: Top-- Now that things have calmed down, what's at the top of your list to take care of? School? The garden? Shoveling the snow?
School.
Twosome: Dead-- ...and then again, what got so dead and buried in the holiday fluff that you may not be able to get it restarted? That weight loss thing? Reading? Relaxing???
Possibly reading, or more accurately, reading for fun.
Threesome: Center-- Yeah, relaxing! What are you doing to try to keep yourself centered this year? Some serious down time? Yoga? Long walks in the country?
I need more sleep. I think I've already accumulated a sleeping deficit this week.
It's interesting how real life problems mirror stuff I've read (sorry, couldn't get a hold of the complete article for those of you who don't have a subscription). Basically, the researchers are trying to say that once an organism adapts to a niche, it becomes extremely hard to go back, to diversify. Today, I've realized that my roommates have very different perceptions of loudness in relation to each other and to me. At the moment, I'm not sure who will yield and adapt or stay their course. As for me, I've effectively taken myself out of the noise debate a long time ago. I have an extremely high tolerance to noise as well as an infinitesimally small noise output.
2004 Color Forecast. Some helpful hints if you're trying to come up with a nice color scheme.
Fanfic: Is it right to write? I suppose it's all right to do as long as you don't try to profit from someone else's creation. However I have a hard time understanding why people would want to use someone else's "world" since I'm one of those writers who prefer to use something I've made up myself rather than a pre-existing setting even if I'm a big fan of it.
What You Can't Say. There's some good ideas in this piece on how to really be open-minded.
Reed Elsevier at risk as MPs look into science publishing market. Some American universities (Cornell comes immediately to mind) that have already culled science journals from their subscriptions because of the expensive and constantly rising fees from particular publishers. I think that knowledge should be free and all this publishing business could be a lot cheaper (as well more easily accessed) if they put all the papers online instead of churning out the dead tree presses as well.
At the moment, I'm sitting at the library (the stacks, specifically) taking a break from familiarizing myself with the lab manual that the undergraduates will be using and getting annoyed with the nearby light that is apparently hooked up to a motion detector. Every time I shift in my seat, the light blinks on and then turns off after 30 seconds. So far the first lab looks pretty easy--a transformation protocol that I could do in my sleep--and probably the worst thing I would have to watch out for would be a careless student spilling hydrochloric acid over himself.
In a sexual harassment seminar that I had to attend during my first year, graduate students were told not to have any relationships with any undergraduate that had even a remote chance of taking a class that we were TA-ing. We were also told that dating a professor was strongly discouraged (especially if the prof has any say in your graduation!) and that even starting a relationship with a fellow student in the same lab was risky business.
Of course, all of these dire warnings don't stop some students from gossiping about which prof is "hot" or not. Even this sort of stuff creeps me out. It's not so much the generational differences or even the oil and water combination of academia and sex that bother me but the inherent power imbalance. Who would want an emotionally-invested person to be in charge of your grades? Grades aren't supposed to be about emotions.
I'm not sure if whether an institution is either educational or regulatory about these policies are really solutions at all. People will still have those raging hormones and whatever the policy is, they should have the common sense to exert self-control and practicality into the situation.
*Why do some college students feel that people who can't afford to buy clothes from a retail chain that has a bad history of hiring minorities and claims to be representative of Americans shouldn't go to an Ivy League institution?
*Why is the student population divided into two groups: the rich ditzy kids, and the kids who work hard?
*Why do all the undergraduates at Dartmouth dress like they're extras in a Gap commercial? Doesn't anyone around here have the guts to be a non-conformist? My neon orange bookbag and I can't do the job by ourselves, you know.
*Why do some would-be academics use big words when a smaller one would suffice?
*Why do people turn college into a giant extension of high school?
*Why does everyone think that their lives have to go through predictable stages like every generation before them? Are they just too chicken to pave their own way?
*Why does everyone around me think that being alone is a bad thing? Yes, I know this is a tired old question but somebody brought it up again in a rather random conversation I was having. Are they never letting this fixation go? They're never going to understand my argument against it if they keep up their desperate searches for significant others.
The first day of school started with snow. In all, it wasn't too bad. This is the first time I've sat in a class and didn't have the compulsion to write down notes even though I will have to do the problem sets and take the exams (ahead of time, of course) that the undergraduates will be doing. The professors in charge of the course say that if the TAs do the work, then they can give feedback on whether or not the exams are too long or the questions are too complicated for the scope of the course. I'm not sure if that's the sole reason.
I am also pondering the seeming impossibility of picking up nematodes with fishing line rather than the standard platinum pick--because that's required of the students in one set of laboratory practicals.
Happily ever after. A.S. Byatt talks about the fairy tale and remarks on its appeal despite the form's overall "flatness".
In Medical Mystery, A Hint of Smallpox. A librarian finds an envelope with smallpox scabs in an old book. I would have immediately sent it off to the CDC instead of contacting the museum first even if I were a librarian and not merely an ex-librarian.
Quirkyalone. (via Belicove) "Your score was 81. Somewhat quirkyalone (otherwise known as quirkytogether): You are probably part of a mysterious group of people, the quirkytogethers. You share many of our quirky qualities, but you manage to find yourself, on a regular basis, in a coupled situation. Interesting."
One thing I'm dreading tomorrow is the time I have to wake up--really early--and it isn't for my own edification. Because tomorrow, I'm going to be a TA and despite what other cocky graduate students tell me, I'm nervous as hell. I'm still young enough to remember how angry undergrads felt when a TA didn't come up to snuff.
I also remember that in first grade, I had wanted to be a teacher. Now I'm just wondering, what on earth was I thinking? I've given presentations in front of people before, but I've never really taught anyone. I don't think I'm very charismatic in front of a classroom and my enthusiasm at this point is, well, less than ideal.
Since this TA-ing business is nearly upon me, I'm having those same skeptical feelings when snooty people ask me if I'm going to be a medical doctor--that it's somehow wrong, that people are trying once again to metaphorically shove a square peg into a round hole. Let the people who truly want to be teachers teach. I'm not ruling out the possibility that I will actually like being a TA, but I'm not ignoring my gut feelings either.
Blogs of the Year. This is one man's opinion which is, unfortunately, predictable. All of these are well-known weblogs that have supposedly made some sort of difference.
2004 List of Banished Words. I've lamented about these particular words at some point last year although I would go one step further and decry all AOL-speak.
BlogMadness. I've been thinking about submitting an entry, but what's the point of it anyway except as a desperate plot to gain more readers?
Blog Tree Map. You know, if this catches on, it'll start appearing on the science portion of the ACT. As for my own gut reaction when seeing this mess, it's ridiculous trying to cram in so much information into something graphical. Give me the raw numbers any day.
Caltech Michelin Lecture by Michael Crichton. It is not for tinfoil activists as the title would at first lead you to believe.
Email etiquette. No matter how many etiquette lists are available too bad angry people have easy access to communication tools rather than a bucket of cold water.
I found it odd, amusing, and somewhat unbelievable that someone posted on their about page that they "healed emotionally." What exactly does that mean? Did they have some sort of childhood trauma and after time or therapy or both now they've gotten over it--that they can look back without other disturbing thoughts hampering their thinking?
The biggest quibble I have with it is the term itself. "Emotional healing." What sort of phrase is that anyway? Maybe it sounds perfectly fine to you, but to me, it sounds like a five year old randomly picked words out a dictionary and put them together.
Or perhaps what struck me was that someone wrote about being aware that they changed. Most people talk about what they were and what they are. The stuff in between is too nebulous to quantify. The best analogy I can compare it to is the writing technique of showing and not telling. Instead of telling me that you "healed emotionally" at a particular point in your life, show me what you did.
