Our Inner Fish

I just finished Shubin's "Your inner fish: A journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body." I thought the book was a great introduction into many of the traits that we share with our relatives and obtained from our ancestors and I loved the story of our evolution. Furthermore, Shubin did a great job of explaining the historical context in which we made many of these discoveries, as well as relating his own personal academic upbringing. The biggest weakness of the book was that at the end of each section, I was left wanting for more. Each short chapter ended right when I felt he had given the reader just enough information to really dive into the material. It made the book exceptionally readable, and if he had given much more I think he would have lost or frustrated most of his audience. I guess it's up to me to use my newfound outline to learn more about the topics that I found most interesting. I think I would make this a recommended reading for a high school AP biology class or an undergraduate evolutionary biology class for non-majors.

The Millionaire Next Door

From Hawk Mountain

Stanley and Danko's book makes for a great, quick read as one browses through B&N on a Wednesday night. The theme of their work is that millionaires become wealthy not by earning so much more than the median income, but by spending less and saving more. It's possible I'm being duped by the statistics they show, but they make a convincing case that people who are worth around $10 million never earn too much more than people who are worth less than $.5 million, but that they are just that much better at saving over 3 to 4 decades. According to the patterns they report, Cami and I seem to be on the right track, though we may need to purchase some more disability insurance in case one of use can't work for a few months in the coming years.

Breaking news!

I still find it hard to believe that about one in four Americans still approve of the job that Bush is doing in the White House. What would it take to change their minds? Please comment on 1) what W could do to lose that last bit of approval and 2) what the Democrats will do to blow it in November.

On it goes...

Two months ago I agonized on who I would vote for and only decided on Obama in the hours before I voted. Now that Clinton has won PA, I feel the same sinking feeling I felt when Kerry lost in 04. What happened? Trivers talks a lot about the effect of self deception once a decision has been made, is that happening to me now? Am I blocking out all that Clinton has going for her simply because I have made my decision and don't want to expend the mental energy to give her a second look? In her defense, I still cringe when I hear people, more often Democrats now than Republicans, criticize her ambition and life choices.

Another heartening point is how Clinton has survived despite so much talk about Obama's momentum and the vast number of endorsements and editorials in his favor. Every one of PA's newspapers endorsed him over Clinton and every celebrity and political endorsement in the past several days and weeks have been for followed the same path, but the voters still went for Clinton. I'm glad that people do not appear to be the sheep that I sometimes feel they are.

Resolutions.

Next time you see me, ask me: what have you read today? what have you written today? and what science have you done today? Also, ask me the last time I ran.

Oh the references!

So I have been very annoyed over the past few weeks ever since I installed the newest version of Office on my Mac machine. I had spent about $50 on the newest version of Endnote to manage my citations last year and had collected a nice list of references that I use on a semi-regular basis. The best part was how well integrated it was with Office. Once I opened up Word, all I had to do was open up Endnote and a nice icon would pop up so I could cite a source while I wrote. The newest version of Word, however, did not support this integration and I was saddened because I did not want to go back to the older Word that did not work as well with the newest Mac hardware.

Fast forward to last week, and I finally found a new feature in Word, their own version of a citation manager. So far, it seems to work just as well, though I rue the deeper attachment this will form between me to Microsoft. With every reference I add in this new library, it will make changing to a future, better word processor all the more difficult. Apple's word processor, Pages, has a pitiful solution to the citations issue, as it mearly will add a pre-formated "works cited" section and not embed the reference into the article.

Finally, for any PA voters out there, please go out and vote! I am too anxious to wait for the results!