Posts filed under “Uncategorized”
Conspiracy of low grad student pay
My roommate, a graduate student, on the abysmal pay of grad students: One of the reasons grad students are paid like shit is because they need to hate their lives enough to get the hell out of here.
Tweeple & Some Exciting News (For Me, Not You)
I had grand plans of posting lots of substantial, thought provoking posts this week. But then one of the people I want to work with for grad school emailed me back and wants to meet via Skype (yay tech savvy potential advisors!) to talk about potential projects. So, instead of writing blog posts that are […]
One River
Image via Wikipedia I read Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice when I was 14. I loved it. Mark Plotkin‘s recounting of the years he spent in the rainforest talking to indigenous people and learning what plants cured what diseases made me want to run off to the rainforest and do the same thing. Then I […]
What I’ve Noticed
Another reason not to use PayPal: they froze the WikiLeaks account. Natural disasters are pretty expensive for insurance companies. With climate change, you can bet your premium is going to go up faster and faster. And so is the cost of food. Yes, rich people are paying more in taxes. Because they’re getting richer. What […]
(Warm) December Femme and University Website Improvements
I’ve emailed everyone on my list of potential graduate advisors. Most of them aren’t taking graduate students next fall, so I’m casting my net a bit further. One of the things that makes the search much more difficult is that many of the universities have really awful websites – at least from the perspective of […]
Scientific and traditional knowledge
The Amazonian flora contains literally tens of thousands of species. How had the Indians learned to identify and combine in this sophisticated manner these morphologically dissimilar plants that possessed such unique and complementary chemical properties? The standard scientific explanation was trial and error – a reasonable term that may well account for certain innovations – […]
Sacred food
From One River, by Wade Davis: “They believe,” Tim explained, “that as you move from one valley to the next, you must thank the mountain guardians for their protection. Every time they cross over a divide, they place a quid of coca on the rock cairns that mark the high passes and blow prayers into […]