Jenny started this list last Friday, and Caity gave hers, so a week later, here is my list of things I've been digging lately.
1. DCOE book club! We have a winner, everybody. The first selection will be Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. If you want to participate, you have until next Friday to acquire a copy.
2. Poland Spring Sparkling Water (Lime Flavor). I haven't been drinking much soda lately, and sometimes plain water gets a little boring. I recently discovered citrus flavored sparkling water, and I love it! However, I'm trying to cut down on my use of plastics, so I've been only buying it as a rare treat.
3. Boston sports. For obvious reasons.
4. My new hairdryer. I bought a new Conair on sale at Marshalls, and it's so much better than my wussy old one. So maybe now my hair won't look like shit all the time.
Old way of blowdrying hair: bbbbbrrrrrrzzzzztttt..... God, this is taking forever.. ....bbbbbrrrrrrzzzzztttt.. .my hair's still soaked... .(10 minutes later)bbbbbrrrrrrzzzzztttt... ..fuck it, I give up.
New way of blowdrying hair: WHRRRRRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZRRRT. Done!
5. Science! Graduate school has its ups and downs, and a lot more downs than ups: failed experiments, confusing data, disastrous thesis committee meetings. I've had a pretty good week- got some information that should help me with a new experiment that I've been struggling with lately, and I attended a couple of interesting talks that made me feel enthusiastic about research again. In somewhat related news, here's a pretty good article on the Presidential candidates and evolution. The author makes a couple of good points- it matters what the candidates think because we don't live in a theocracy, and also because shouldn't we want a President who has demonstrated the ability to analyze data? The article does flub a couple of points though- the author pegs the Democratic candidates as "theistic evolutionists," which is incorrect. Believing in God and accepting evolution as fact does not mean that one believes that "God has somehow guided the process of evolution." For example, I that tides are caused by a gravitational interaction between the Earth and the moon, but I am not a theistic tidist who thinks that God guides the process.
He also failed to mention the biggest reason why our President's belief on evolution matters: The United States has the best biomedical science in the world. The best funding, the best equipment, and most of the best people. Yes, there are some good labs in Europe, Asia, and Australia, but overall, the U.S. is where it's at. On my floor at work, there are scientists from Japan, China, Brazil, India, Colombia, Georgia (as in former USSR Georgia), and Canada, and that's just scratching the surface. Do you know why they're all here? Because the best science happens in the United States, and everybody knows it. Can you imagine electing a leader whose policies will impact the NIH budget (the major source of funding for research on cancer, diabetes, and infectious disease) who openly rejects the fundamental tenet of biology? I hope not.
3 comments:
The Mister is a *freak* for that Poland Spring water, going through at least a bottle a day. Of course, I can only get it at Trader Joe's around here, so I'll ask him if I can get him anything from the grocery, and he'll say "Some of my Pollack waters" (channeling the big diabetic pre-gastric bypass guy from Supersize Me who would talk about drinking 2L of "soda waters" a day) and I'll say, I'm not going to TJ's I'm going to the *grocery...*"
Of course, when I do make it to TJ's, I'll try to buy a case of bottles to save a trip, and on more than one occasion I've almost accidentally asked for a case of "that lime Polla- ... I mean Poland Spring water."
Oops.
So, if we have until next Friday to acquire a copy, how long do we have to read it? I am not *formally* committing to the club, but somehow have deluded myself into thinking that I might be able to tag along. My only saving grace is that I am a speed reader extraordinaire!
Beth, I was thinking of dividing the book into either two or three sections- I have to pick up a copy and see how long it is. So, we start on Friday and evevryone will have a week to read the first section. In total, it will be either two or three weeks, depending on how I end up dividing the pages. Plenty of time, so you should do it!
Brigita- I bought a liter of Poland Springs Lime Flavored Liquid Crack yesterday, thinking that the big size would last me for a day or two. I drank the whole thing in a sitting. It's official- I'm hooked.
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