07.13.08
Posted in Adventure, Biology, Critters, Hug a tree, Not just a theorist, behind the curtain at 8:18 pm by CMonster
Earlier this afternoon, I came home from grocery shopping to find a frog hopping across my living room.
By itself, that’s pretty bizarre, even if I do live on the first floor-it’s pretty hard to get even a housefly by my cats, much less anything larger.
Then I realized two things, in quick succession:
1. The frog was furry. (Problematic)
2. Come to think of it, that squat, hopping shape near my pantry was actually a bat- albeit one with the wings folded under the body.
For a pet owner, finding a bat inside your home is a pretty scary thing- there’s always the fear of rabies, and with such small teeth, it’s not always clear when your pet has been bitten. Given that my cats regard bats as “Mice with wings” (aka, the greatest toy EVER), the risk of contact is… somewhat higher.
As for what to do? The good news is that the county I live in offers a free rabies-testing service, and I’ll know in a few days just how much a concern this will be.
The bad news is that my cats (lovable purrballs that they are) are somewhat at the far edge of the timeframe for a rabies shot to be effective- and a quick survey of cat owners I know has suggested that I’m not the only one who’s been slow to renew vaccinations. As I’m now finding out, just keeping the cats indoors isn’t any guarantee of protection. So if you’re reading this, go forth! Make sure your pets are up to date on their medical visits, even if they seem healthy now.
The other aspect of this situation that bothers me is that the actual rabies test is not, in fact, particularly humane- even if I did bring the bat to the humane society for testing. Essentially, it involves examining labeled brain tissue under a fluorescent microscope– and so merely because it wandered into my living room, I found myself owning and signing away the rights to euthanize and test the furry frog.
It’s upsetting on many levels, but as a chemist, I know that there have been some fantastic recent advances in non-lethal sampling and identification of substances in the brain. I’ll have to ask around, but there has to be a better way to do this- executing something just to find out if it has rabies feels too much like the modern equivalent of a witch dunking. And that’s not sitting well with me tonight.
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07.10.08
Posted in Not just a theorist, behind the curtain at 4:07 am by CMonster
Another late night of experiments. Tedious, but I’ve found that you can learn all sorts of things once you pass a certain point of sleep deprivation.
For example: I’ve got a bit of a lisp, but it’s one that I’ve had for years (much to the annoyance of speech therapists everywhere). It’s not something I even realize anymore… until I went to execute another experiment tonight, and realized that I was suddenly thinking with a lisp.
It’s really pretty irritating. I’m supposed to arign the waser? What’s that supposed to mean?
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06.30.08
Posted in Not just a theorist, behind the curtain at 1:33 am by CMonster
It’s been a hectic few weeks, including a trip to Kansas last week for a funeral.
I can’t say that I ever enjoy these things, but in a way, my labmate’s family did a good job of making it more about a memorial for his life than about the fact of his death. I realize that black clothes and tears are traditional, yet at the same time, they often seem out of sync with the person being mourned… by contrast, his family wore comfortable, brightly colored clothes and invited his labmates over to swap memories over mexican food (J’s favorite). As strange as this may sound, this was perhaps the most respectful funeral imaginable: a final memory that captured the spirit of who he was.
That said, it’s also remarkable in a broader sense: it’s very rare to see all the aspects of someone’s life in one place that way, as I’ve noticed that many people compartmentalize their lives to present different sides to different people.
In the end, there were stories that surprised me, but all were things that (in retrospect) fit perfectly with the person I’d known all along. After two years of working together, and even after knowing someone well enough to read their next response from a simple gesture- it’s easy to think that seeing someone every day equates to knowing them well. But that’s not always the case.
A sad occasion for many reasons, but in the end, I’m glad I was able to make it there.
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06.06.08
Posted in Not just a theorist, Turtles all the way down at 2:50 am by CMonster
I like Flickr. It’s a wonderful photo hosting service, and a few of the semi-pro photographers that I know use it to show off their latest work.
One of the features that the site offers, unfortunately, is a way to prevent people from saving a picture (for example, if you’re planning to sell your photos, and want to keep people from stealing).
That sounds like a good thing, but it’s really pretty awful, because it lulls people into a false sense of security. Just as Flickr warns their users, the web was designed to be open: you can download any “protected” flickr photo in less than ten seconds. Here’s how: (Directions are for people using the Firefox web browser)
First, you should know that the web was designed so that any time you look at a web site, it’s easy to find all the parts that make it up. That’s not a good start for locking something down, especially when you’re dangling the item in question in front of someone!
So to get at that protected photo:
1. Click the “view” menu, and select the option near the bottom (”Page source”)
2. A new window full of gibberish comes up. Search for the word “reflect“- this will come at the end of a chunk of text enclosed in < > symbols. In that same block is a bit labeled “src=http://site.flickr.com/URLofthephoto”- copy the part starting with http into your browser address bar.
3. There’s the photo! Save it as you normally would.
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06.05.08
Posted in Looking Snazzy, Not just a theorist, technology at 10:40 pm by CMonster
I’ve always had fun with sites like the CIA world factbook, which has all sorts of interesting tidbits about different countries.
(For example, did you know that Aruba has no military? Someday, I’m going to conquer the world- and it’s places like that where I’ll look to start. Thanks, CIA!)
On the other hand, collections of statistics aren’t the best way to visualize complex things at one go. While looking at the new “firefox download campaign” (a bid to set a world record for the most downloads of a program in one day), I noticed the map of pledges by region. It’s early in the campaign, but already really instructive: if you assume that more pledges = more tech-savvy users with computers and free time, it’s pretty clear which countries are better off financially. Africa was particularly stunning- more people from South Africa have pledged to download than in their closest dozen neighbors combined.
It’s one thing to hear about the difference in wealth in abstract terms, but I work in a place that’s saturated with information technology- sometimes it helps to be reminded of the things I take for granted.
For even more fun with graphics, the NY Times ran a fantastic graphic last month on where our money goes. I eyeballed the little slices on the chart, and found some unexpected differences:
- Gasoline makes up more of consumer spending than car purchases
- So does eating out
- More money is spent on phone service or cable television than on water, sewage, and garbage collection combined- this is especially relevant, given that water treatment and recycling are often vetoed for reasons of cost. Instead, we prefer to tear through dwindling supplies of scarce resources.
- More money is spent on carbonated drinks than on fresh fruit and vegetables
The common link for all these discrepancies? The items that surprised me were all things that came in small increments, but they add up fast. It says something about the power of instant gratification (chocolate- now!), and also explains why so many charities and organizations pitch their pleas in terms of a daily amount… if we looked at the cost of something like recycling the same way we treated cable, it might be a very different world.
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05.01.08
Posted in Looking Snazzy, Not just a theorist, Such People, Turtles all the way down at 4:39 pm by CMonster
Today is May Day, a holiday sometimes celebrated with marches and speeches in communist countries. (It’s also known as international worker’s day or labor day in some places)
There’s plenty of other things to celebrate. Some examples of sharing and caring today include:
- Our local bus line is offering free rides to anyone in town.
- The first program written in BASIC was run on this day in 1964- a time when computers were large, expensive mainframes staffed by experts. It was designed to make computing more accessible, and variants of the language are still in use even today.
- I’m told that Britain is holding elections today. (England? The U.K? Beats me.)
- Lab cleanup day (a strictly private celebration, of course!)
I’ve mostly been slaving away at the last one- my desk is once again visible, thanks in part to 50+ person hours of cleaning today. Whoo!
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04.23.08
Posted in Cooking, Not just a theorist, Tools at 5:57 am by CMonster
I’m working all day on experiments today- so while this is a bit of a cop-out on my plans to post something new every day, here’s a repost from my personal blog, dated about a year ago.
Imagine that you’ve just purchased a new kitchen gadget. It’s simple, yet the experts promise that it can do anything you’ll ever need.
Now imagine that you’re a nerd. I think that we can all see where this is going.
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