Is name calling bad?

After reading my previous post, written with quite a bit of anger, I asked myself "Does this continue the downward slide of political discourse?" Actually, I don't think there is a downward slide, political discourse has been wallowing in the muck since time began. But does the type of ranting that I gave before make the world a worse place? I don't know, but it sure feels good.

Medieval Irrationality

In a last-minute blitz by superstitious fundamentalists, the stem cell bond issue was defeated yesterday in the New Jersey elections. The assault came from two fronts. The first, which I can understand, feels that it was not a good use of limited state resources. Indeed, the Garden State does have considerable debt and $450 million is quite a lot of money. My opinion, however, is that it is an unusually wise use of funds that fills a gap that the federal government has created. High quality jobs could have been created and our reputation bettered by such an investment.

The other front against the initiative came from the backwards-looking Roman Catholic Church and other religious groups. They played on voters' fears of cloning and misunderstanding of stem cell research. First of all, human cloning is, and would have remained, illegal. Secondly, stem cell research does not involve the creation of a person who will be destroyed for the sake of research. A zygote is not a person. A zygote is as much as person as a single cell from my body is a person. A zygote is not a potential person, because there is no ability for every zygote in existence to come to term as a new person. Most naturally-derived zygotes spontaneously abort. Most artificially-created zygotes (form invitro fertilization) do not become people because it is a difficult task.

Claiming that a zygote is a potential person and deserves all the rights of a person presents some very interesting ethical dilemmas. If every potential person deserves the same rights as every current person, I would be an accessory to murder by allowing IVF to continue. I would be an accessory to murder by not inseminating every woman I met on the street... "Hey, you have a potential human life inside of you, all it needs is a little kick start!"

Ok, my tirade is over. In other news, the White House mocked attempts to bring articles of impeachment against Cheney. Also, how can Bush still have any credibility left? He's vetoing plans to bring health care to sick children. Plans that have been paid for. It really sounds like a caricature of a conservative robber-barron from the 19th century. I thought the claims that we live in a right-wing fundamentalist state were overstated. I wonder what will happen in 08.

Trials and tribble-ations

So far, Ubuntu is sexy, responsive, and clean; everything I love in both women and operating systems. Where XP used to go berserk every time I opened my old notebook, Ubuntu is, so far, amazingly agile on my machine. Admittedly, I am comparing a windows machine with years of bloat on it (though it was constantly checked with anti-virus and anit-adware programs) to a brand-new linux OS installation, I can never remember this machine acting so quickly- it was a bargain purchase 5 years ago.

The downside is an environment with so much potential power under the hood that simple tasks can become insane if I stray from the beaten path, or if I don't know the right path to follow. Case in point, I spent quite a bit of my afternoon trying to install SETI at home, only to discover that I had installed the non-GUI (graphic user interface, you know, windows and such) program that could only be run through the terminal. I finally found the idiot-proof program and was helping to discover extra-terrestrial intelligence by the time I left campus.

Ubuntu for me!

In my quest to purge windows from my life, I have installed linux on my old hp laptop. It's been sitting in my closet for about 2 years now and has no real function other than waiting for the trash heap, so I thought that I'd finally try out a nerd's paradise. Installation is going fine so far, I'll report back when I have more of a feel for the system, and whether or not it can breath new life into an old clunker.

So I saw March of the Penguins last evening. In the melodious baritone of Morgan Freeman, it "is a story about one thing: love." The personification only got worse from there... at one point he claimed that the evil winter would try everything in its power to kill the young penguin chicks in the months to come.

Though interesting, I would recommend anyone who rents March of the Penguins to skip the movie and go right to the extra included film "Of Penguins and Men," which documents the film making process and is actually much more interesting than the feature film. It's narrated by the film maker Luc Jacquet and includes every bit as much information about the penguins and considerably more side story. "Of Penguins and Men" is not told quite as eloquently as in the feature film, but is nevertheless the better of the two films for including human drama alongside that of the penguins in a slightly less overly-dramatic way.

David: 1, World: 0

Thank you to Poppy for bringing this image to my attention. It combines my two passions: LOL katz and Star Trek II, the Wrath of Khan.

Also in the news today, I taught the gen bio pre lab this week while Kate, the head TA, was off on a trip. I was quite nervous beforehand, but everything went smoothly enough and I think everyone learned what they needed in a reasonable length of time.

Pages and EndNote

You may not care, but I do not like using Microsoft Word on the Mac. It just doesn't work well, looks even worse, and makes me cringe every time I open it. However, I am stuck with Word because Apple won't release development tools for it's word processor, Pages, and I can therefore not use an essential application, EndNote. I've fallen in love with this program that tracks all the papers I need to reference when doing most of the writing I've done in grad school. Going back to doing all my references manually is not an option as my reference list gets longer and thus I am ironically stuck with an inferior word processor in order to avoid an even bigger headache.

But, with your help there is hope. You can tell Apple to release development tools for Pages in order to allow wonderful applications like EndNote to do their magic. It is seriously the only thing that is keeping me from buying the elegant and affordable new iWork programs.

Saturday on campus

I'm having a productive day on campus today, writing my prelim proposal and trying to be a good grad student. I like it when Cami works on the weekends because it's easier to get stuff done with fewer people around in Blake. It's not exactly like Animal House over here, it's even quieter than ENR is usually, where most of the graduate program has offices.

I purchased a Targus laptop stand the other day to reduce neck strain when I have my laptop at home. It folds into a angled stand that is not pictured on that page. It is the same model as one my mom gave me a few months back that I use in my office. Unfortunately, Targus changed their design and made the stand much flimsier than it was before, so that even a light touch of the hand makes then entire setup wobble. I feel very ripped off... $20 for a piece of plastic that probably cost less than the indestructible plastic the item came in. Oh well..

Isaac Asimov still amazes me

I just read a great short story by Isaac Asimov, the Last Question, and I was reminded how much I loved Asimov as a kid and every time I read or re-read one of his books or short stories I'm continually pleased.

I remember my first Asimov book: I, Robot, which a librarian recommended to me after I asked her for a good sci fi book in elementary school. I can't be certain, but I think it was at a public library in a mall- my memory may be failing me on that last point. Anyway, I wish there was some way to go back and thank her.

Speaking of failing memory, I'm always amazed at the plastic nature of memory. I'm pretty certain that I was introduced to Asimov in the manner that I described above, but the memory is faint enough that I can't discount the possibility that I am full of b.s. In my high school AP psych class, we read about a study done in the 80s (?) where false memories were implanted in kids' heads after their family members created short episodes and told it to the children around the kitchen table- such as a time when the child was left by himself in the mall. The false memories were quickly absorbed by the subjects and often resulted in new details being added to the false story. I don't know if this has been done in adults- maybe kids are more susceptible to this, but I would not be surprised to find this is more generally true for everyone.

Johnson Park wildlife

On a post-dinner walk through Johnson Park this evening, Cami and I saw one rabbit, one katydid, one Black-crowned Night heron, and several bats. Overall, it was a successful walk, except for the photo of the Night heron.

Welcome.

I had an interesting visit this morning. As I was reading the paper in my underwear, I heard a soft knock on the door. I pulled on some clothes and answered the door, finding two elderly ladies. They said that they were visiting their neighbors. Confused, I greeted them. The one closest to me then opened the Bible she had in her hands to Hebrews 3:4, “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God” (according to the NRSV) and then touched the door frame and said “You know that this house is here and that someone built it, likewise, don’t you think that the Universe must have been created by someone, that it was intelligently designed by a Creator?” I was a bit stunned, to say the least, and considered my options. I could have simply said no, but I did not want to seem rude or open up any argument that I could not surmount against two old ladies. However, I didn’t want to just say yes, that seemed like it would invite more Bible thumping.

In retrospect, I think a polite no would have been best, but I settled on the middle road and said that I’m not really sure. I think that response encouraged them, for now I was not adverse to religion, but certainly in need of saving. They went on to show me several packets and magazines, demonstrating how great the universe was and how much God loves me. I smiled and was polite. I made sure to tell them that I’m not usually around this time of day when they left, after which they added as they were leaving: “Oh, weekends are better for you, then?”

The entire encounter lasted only a few minutes, and I wasn’t upset by it at all, though I ended up feeling spineless as I closed the door. Why couldn’t I just tell them what I thought? Is it nicer for them to feel like they’re saving a soul, or am I just wasting everybody’s time? If they come back, should I tell them as much? Should I invite them in? I don’t think they would get angry, and I think they might enjoy the feeling of engaging with a heretic. I’ll think about it a little more and let you know if anything noteworthy happens in the near future.