Archive for June, 2010
Human progress
From Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog: Say what you want, do what you will with all those fine speeches on evolution, civilization and a ton of other “-tion” words, mankind has not progressed very far from its origins: people still believe they’re not here by chance, and that there are gods, kindly for […]
Choosing a lab for graduate school
I’ve officially started my search for a graduate school. Because of my migraines, I need to live somewhere with relatively constant barometric pressure. Slow changes are ok, dinosaur teeth in the pressure plot are not. The best places in the US and Canada for my migraines seem to be the Pacific Northwest, Southern California and […]
What I’ve Noticed
The existence of god in general might be difficult to disprove (as is the existence of invisible flying purple elephants), but the existence of a specific gods is all to easy to debunk. For example, the Bible story and Jewish genetics don’t match at all. Israel is doing a great job of getting on everyone’s […]
Yellow Shoes
I’ve mentioned my love of yellow shoes before, but I still only have one pair, and they don’t really count since they’re Keens that I appreciate more for their comfort than attractiveness. I’ve found that truly lovely yellow shoes tend to be pretty expensive, like these shoes by Taryn Rose that are still $100 after […]
Berry Go Round
The 28th Berry Go Round is a few days old now, but definitely still worth visiting. Some of my favorites from this edition were Mary Farmer’s post on the relationship between a stunning tropical tree and extinct megafauna and a brief, but very good, article on terrestrial plant evolution. Want to submit to next month’s […]
Lilacs!?!
This picture of a budding lilac is from May 17th. I’ve lived on this cold, dry mountain for four years now and this is the first year I’ve seen blooming lilacs. Lilacs are in the olive family, which Phytophactor ruminated on a few weeks ago. I love lilacs and this particular bush is on my […]
Move Number One Completed!
Last week I made the first of two moves I’m making this summer. It took two afternoons, many more trips than I expected, and four other people. I’m trying not to think about how soon I have to do it all again. At least nearly everything will already be packed next time. The day after […]