Author: andy

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The Varieties of Scientific Experience

So, I know it’s crazy, but I’m reading a book: The Varieties of Scientific Experience, by Carl Sagan. The book is edited by his wife, Ann Druyan, who ran across the transcripts of some lectures he gave in 1985 in Scotland (he passed away in December, 1996). The subtitle to the book is “A personal view of the search for God,” which is what drew me to reading it… There have been plenty of books out there trying to reconcile or compare “science” and “God,” but I figured that Carl Sagan, of all people, would yield an interesting take on the ideas.

I’m already half-way through and I wanted to quote a few excerpts from the book here.

On the origins of life on Earth:

“They say it is no more likely that the origin of life could occur spontaneously by molecular interaction in the primitive ocean than that a Boeing 747 would be spontaneously assembled when a whirlwind passed over a junkyard. That’s a vivid image. It’s also a very useful image, because, of course, the Boeing 747 did not spring full-blown into the world of aviation; it is the end product of a long evolutionary sequence, which, as you know, goes back to the DC-3 and so on until you get to the Wright bi-plane. Now, the Wright biplane does look as if it were spontaneously assembled by a whirlwind in a junkyard. And while I don’t mean to criticize the brilliant achievement of the Wright brothers, as long as you remember that there is this evolutionary history, it’s a lot easier to understand the origin of the first example.”

On science in general:

“My deeply held belief is that if a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, then our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a god. We would be unappreciative of those gifts if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves. On the other hand, if such a traditional god does not exist, then our curiosity and our intelligence are the essential tools for managing our survival in an extremely dangerous time. In either case, the enterprise of knowledge is consistent surely with science; it should be with religion, and it is essential for the welfare of the human species.”

Indeed…

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Busy, busy…

The past few weeks have been rather hectic… I start up class (finally…) this coming Monday, so I’ve been trying to get quite a few experiments done between Xmas and now… On the plus side, we’re going to be learning some hardcore neuroscience in the last half of the semester, and I’m all about that…

The rather frightening part is that I’ve reached a point in my career thus far where I don’t want to go to class…not because I don’t want to learn, but because I’d rather spend time in the lab working on new science. I really don’t mind going to class, but it takes two hours out of my day, four days a week…time that could be better spent starting an experiment that has a six hour incubation time… I still see the need to learn more, in order to become a better physiologist, but at the same time, I guess I’d rather investigate my own avenues and interest…

I guess it’s just kinda weird having experienced true lab work over the past few months, and wanting to continue it, rather than go to class…as opposed to sitting on my ass watching TV, rather than go to class…

I hate growing up…sigh…

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Chekov for Majority Whip!

From tonight’s episode of “The Daily Show”:

“This President has listened to some people, the so-called “Vulcans” in the White House, the ideologues. But you know, unlike the Vulcans of Star Trek who made decisions based on logic and fact, these guys make it based on ideology. These aren’t Vulcans; there are Klingons in the White House…But unlike the real Klingons of Star Trek, these Klingons have never fought a battle of their own. Don’t let faux Klingons send real Americans to war!”

— Rep. David Wu, (D) – Oregon

You know, I very much enjoy Star Trek analogies, but seriously…this is the floor of the House of Representatives. Even I wouldn’t try that…and to come from a Democrat, no less…not helping us keep the majority, yo…

For the record, Jon Stewart then followed up the blurb by interviewing Leonard Nimoy (“Spock”) and George Takei (“Sulu”) about it, and it was quite hilarious…

You can watch the video here!

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MLK for today’s world…and for whom?

So, I regularly listen to the On Point radio broadcast on NPR (yeah, I’m that dorky…) via podcast, and yesterday, they were talking about Martin Luther King, Jr…  More specifically, they were discussing whether he would be with today’s Republicans or today’s Democrats.  From the summary:

“King personified Christian activism in politics, they say — and so do we. King said judge not by the color of skin but by the quality of character, they say — when they oppose affirmative action. King did not speak up for gay marriage, they say — and conservatives don’t either.  Progressives are appalled”

The idea is that both sides want to claim him for themselves.  For example, the Conservatives say that because King was a preacher, he’d be against gay marriage.  Liberals say that because he was for equality in all things, he would be more sympathetic to their cause.  The Conservatives also use his classic “I Have A Dream” speech to say that King wanted full equality in the workplace, so he would be against Affirmative Action (because that entire program goes against equality), while the Liberals say that sure, King was for equality, but he would want Affirmative Action to stay in place until equality was assured (which it obviously isn’t, yet).

At the link above, you can find quotes from the show from the people interviewed, as well as a recording of the 40 min. broadcast.  Rather interesting to hear…

The thing that really got me, though, is the parallels I see with Christianity in general.  These people were basing arguments on his singular speech.  What do we, as Christians, do with Jesus?  Don’t we try to fit our faiths, no matter what they are, on reported events and sayings from 2000 years ago?  I mean, Dr. King died less than a century ago and people are already claiming that he believed things to suit their needs!

Perhaps we need to step back and take a different perspective on fitting our idols into a proverbial “box.”  If we can’t figure out what a person would believe in today’s context, when they’ve only been gone for 50 years, how can we fit something from 2000 years ago into today’s world?

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MLK for today's world…and for whom?

So, I regularly listen to the On Point radio broadcast on NPR (yeah, I’m that dorky…) via podcast, and yesterday, they were talking about Martin Luther King, Jr…  More specifically, they were discussing whether he would be with today’s Republicans or today’s Democrats.  From the summary:

“King personified Christian activism in politics, they say — and so do we. King said judge not by the color of skin but by the quality of character, they say — when they oppose affirmative action. King did not speak up for gay marriage, they say — and conservatives don’t either.  Progressives are appalled”

The idea is that both sides want to claim him for themselves.  For example, the Conservatives say that because King was a preacher, he’d be against gay marriage.  Liberals say that because he was for equality in all things, he would be more sympathetic to their cause.  The Conservatives also use his classic “I Have A Dream” speech to say that King wanted full equality in the workplace, so he would be against Affirmative Action (because that entire program goes against equality), while the Liberals say that sure, King was for equality, but he would want Affirmative Action to stay in place until equality was assured (which it obviously isn’t, yet).

At the link above, you can find quotes from the show from the people interviewed, as well as a recording of the 40 min. broadcast.  Rather interesting to hear…

The thing that really got me, though, is the parallels I see with Christianity in general.  These people were basing arguments on his singular speech.  What do we, as Christians, do with Jesus?  Don’t we try to fit our faiths, no matter what they are, on reported events and sayings from 2000 years ago?  I mean, Dr. King died less than a century ago and people are already claiming that he believed things to suit their needs!

Perhaps we need to step back and take a different perspective on fitting our idols into a proverbial “box.”  If we can’t figure out what a person would believe in today’s context, when they’ve only been gone for 50 years, how can we fit something from 2000 years ago into today’s world?

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The “Gap” of grocery stores…

Brooke and I visited Whole Foods for the first time last night… I’ve done my best to avoid this place since we first heard about it, largely because I’m generally against the idea (and fad…) of buying organic food products… Anyway, the prices at Whole Foods weren’t quite as bad as I thought they’d be in all products, but there were some items that were a bit more than expected… For example, wines and most produce weren’t much higher than the Shop ‘n Save variety (except for organic varieties), but cans of vegetables ranged from $1 to $1.50, and I saw organic olive oil for $16… However, as Brooke pointed out, they had a heck of a lot of bulk foods available, and they had stuff that Shop ‘n Save, Dierberg’s and Schnuck’s don’t carry (lentils, for example…multiple varieties of barley…etc.).

Overall, the experience wasn’t terrible, but I still can’t justify the cost increases when averaged out across all products. Are the cans of corn that Whole Foods sells for $1.50 better than the cans we get from Aldi for $0.29? Maybe… But are the cans really $1.21 better than the Aldi cans? Absolutely not! Actually, even beer was $2 more expensive than Shop ‘n Save… As Brooke pointed out, the prices at Whole Foods are comparable with buying name-brand products at Schnucks or Hy-Vee…but since we never do that, it just seemed rather expensive…’cause there’s no off-brand offered…

On another note, many things around the place were deliberately misleading. For example, there was a sign in the produce section saying how Whole Foods supports local farmers. I’m sure to an extent that they do…but find me someone in Missouri growing corn right now…or peas…or oranges… Obviously, all of that produce is coming from somewhere else, likely another continent (i.e. South America). So by the time the food makes it up here, being all organic and not including preservatives, it’ll go bad within a day of getting it to your table, thus increasing the consumer prices because the food that isn’t sold is thrown out within days of arriving…

I especially liked their “educational materials” that can be found near the checkout lanes. I picked up a few pamphlets, on irradiated foods and genetically engineered foods, specifically, the latter of which is particularly intriguing… The pamphlet states that Whole Foods as a company wants to inform their consumers of foods that are from genetically engineered sources (while using wording that makes you think that genetically engineered foods are bad for you). Of course, practically every form of produce they sell is “genetically engineered” through generations upon generations of specific breeding and growing, only selecting seeds from good stocks and not planting seeds from the bad ones. That’s still genetic engineering, folks… They go on within the “food irradiation” literature to discuss the idea of irradiating produce to kill things like E. coli and Salmonella, and how irradiating foods can also destroy some nutrients within the food. Again, the literature states that all they want is to have federal guidelines whereby growers need to disclose whether the food has been irradiated or not, while including language in the pamphlet that really makes you think that irradiation is a bad thing… Maybe when they get sick from eating infected food, they’ll come around…

So yeah, while the food wasn’t quite as expensive as I thought it’d be (although close…), I was more disturbed by the yuppie “our store is better than your store” sentiment Whole Foods left on me. I’m not against educational materials for shoppers. I’m not completely against the idea of organic foods (…though mostly against…). Frankly, we were asked if we needed any help 2 or 3 times while we were walking around, which is more than I can say of my neighborhood Shop ‘n Save, Aldi and Schnucks…however, I can’t say I like the place… If I can save $20 a trip buying food that’s just as good from another store, and instead buy a DVD or donate it to help cure AIDS, I’m all about it…

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The "Gap" of grocery stores…

Brooke and I visited Whole Foods for the first time last night… I’ve done my best to avoid this place since we first heard about it, largely because I’m generally against the idea (and fad…) of buying organic food products… Anyway, the prices at Whole Foods weren’t quite as bad as I thought they’d be in all products, but there were some items that were a bit more than expected… For example, wines and most produce weren’t much higher than the Shop ‘n Save variety (except for organic varieties), but cans of vegetables ranged from $1 to $1.50, and I saw organic olive oil for $16… However, as Brooke pointed out, they had a heck of a lot of bulk foods available, and they had stuff that Shop ‘n Save, Dierberg’s and Schnuck’s don’t carry (lentils, for example…multiple varieties of barley…etc.).

Overall, the experience wasn’t terrible, but I still can’t justify the cost increases when averaged out across all products. Are the cans of corn that Whole Foods sells for $1.50 better than the cans we get from Aldi for $0.29? Maybe… But are the cans really $1.21 better than the Aldi cans? Absolutely not! Actually, even beer was $2 more expensive than Shop ‘n Save… As Brooke pointed out, the prices at Whole Foods are comparable with buying name-brand products at Schnucks or Hy-Vee…but since we never do that, it just seemed rather expensive…’cause there’s no off-brand offered…

On another note, many things around the place were deliberately misleading. For example, there was a sign in the produce section saying how Whole Foods supports local farmers. I’m sure to an extent that they do…but find me someone in Missouri growing corn right now…or peas…or oranges… Obviously, all of that produce is coming from somewhere else, likely another continent (i.e. South America). So by the time the food makes it up here, being all organic and not including preservatives, it’ll go bad within a day of getting it to your table, thus increasing the consumer prices because the food that isn’t sold is thrown out within days of arriving…

I especially liked their “educational materials” that can be found near the checkout lanes. I picked up a few pamphlets, on irradiated foods and genetically engineered foods, specifically, the latter of which is particularly intriguing… The pamphlet states that Whole Foods as a company wants to inform their consumers of foods that are from genetically engineered sources (while using wording that makes you think that genetically engineered foods are bad for you). Of course, practically every form of produce they sell is “genetically engineered” through generations upon generations of specific breeding and growing, only selecting seeds from good stocks and not planting seeds from the bad ones. That’s still genetic engineering, folks… They go on within the “food irradiation” literature to discuss the idea of irradiating produce to kill things like E. coli and Salmonella, and how irradiating foods can also destroy some nutrients within the food. Again, the literature states that all they want is to have federal guidelines whereby growers need to disclose whether the food has been irradiated or not, while including language in the pamphlet that really makes you think that irradiation is a bad thing… Maybe when they get sick from eating infected food, they’ll come around…

So yeah, while the food wasn’t quite as expensive as I thought it’d be (although close…), I was more disturbed by the yuppie “our store is better than your store” sentiment Whole Foods left on me. I’m not against educational materials for shoppers. I’m not completely against the idea of organic foods (…though mostly against…). Frankly, we were asked if we needed any help 2 or 3 times while we were walking around, which is more than I can say of my neighborhood Shop ‘n Save, Aldi and Schnucks…however, I can’t say I like the place… If I can save $20 a trip buying food that’s just as good from another store, and instead buy a DVD or donate it to help cure AIDS, I’m all about it…

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Wal-Mart…saving the world again…

Who’d have thought it? As some of you may have noticed when buying light bulbs at Wal-Mart recently, they’re starting to make a big push to sell more compact fluorescent bulbs (linked from a New York Times article…you may need to log in…). From the article:

“A compact fluorescent has clear advantages over the widely used incandescent light — it uses 75 percent less electricity, lasts 10 times longer, produces 450 pounds fewer greenhouse gases from power plants and saves consumers $30 over the life of each bulb. But it is eight times as expensive as a traditional bulb, gives off a harsher light and has a peculiar appearance.

“As a result, the bulbs have languished on store shelves for a quarter century; only 6 percent of households use the bulbs today.

“Which is what makes Wal-Mart’s goal so wildly ambitious. If it succeeds in selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008, total sales of the bulbs in the United States would increase by 50 percent, saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes.”

Now that Brooke and I have moved to a new apartment, and since AmerenUE is trying to hike electricity rates in Missouri, we’re going to try using compact fluorescent bulbs wherever we can. We got a set of 10 from Sam’s Club a few months ago for $15 (give or take…) and, personally, that seems like a pretty reasonable price to me. That, and I don’t really see much of a difference in the light emitted from them.

Anyway, if you’ve never used the bulbs before, you ought to give them a try. While I generally dislike Wal-Mart, they are certainly a “force of nature” when it comes to retail, so hopefully this push of theirs will result in more people using the bulbs and maybe make some kind of difference in global warming. As the article goes on to discuss, Wal-Mart basically told their suppliers “we’re going ahead with this, so come along or be left behind”…a few of those companies were very much against changing their manufacturing to make more of these “more expensive” bulbs. Maybe if we all start buying these bulbs, such manufacturers will get the idea, eh (cue light bulb going off above their respective heads)?

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Merry Christmas

Well, it’s been a long two weeks, yo… Quick recap:

a). I took a 5.5 hour final two weeks ago. I found out this week that we all passed. Therefore, I don’t have to take it again in a few weeks… 😛 Therefore, I don’t have class until January 29th and I’ll be trying to get some work done in the lab while I don’t have studying to deal with…

b). We are almost moved in to our new place in Soulard (just south of downtown St. Louis) and we’re very excited about it! There are plenty of restaurants/bars in the area, we have much more room now, and we have a washer/dryer so we don’t have to go through quarters nearly as quickly. Our lease is up at the old place on the 31st, so we’re just trying to get things cleaned up over there, but almost everything is out. Anyway, come visit sometime… For New Years’ Eve, perhaps? We’ll have pics up of the new place once we get everything settled in their proper places…it’s still kinda a mess right now, but we’re making it…

c). Arie, Jeff and I went to Jason Mallory’s wedding in Louisville, KY over the past few days. Check out a few pictures here.

d). I’m planning on chilling in Columbia this week between Wednesday and Friday. If you’re around, gimme a call (although, my cell phone has been acting up recently, so be patient if you don’t get through…).

I guess that’s about it. Anyway, it’s been nuts for the past few weeks. I’m looking forward to a break soon, yo…

Regardless, merry Christmas and happy New Year…or whatever you celebrate this time of year!

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Well, that was interesting…

So, the few of you who check this blog occasionally may have noticed that it wasn’t there for a few days… Here’s the story:

I had Xgl/Compiz installed on my Linux box. When it’s running, it gives Unreal Tournament 2k4 graphics problems, so I decided to remove it. While removing it, I ran into various issues such that I figured it’d just be easier to reinstall Linux, instead of fight with the removal of the program… So, I back up the WordPress database(s) to my laptop, move over the pertinent files to a different hard drive on my desktop, and begin the format. No big deal. Done it many times before.

I walk out to the living room and look at my laptop. It has lovely colored bars running up and down the screen. This isn’t normal, of course… It actually happened earlier in the day, again while I wasn’t looking at it and not really doing anything…but earlier, it restarted and worked fine…this time, not so much… I don’t know if the screen saver somehow triggered the problem (unlikely…) or what, but it went nuts…

Anyway, I tried turning it off and on…no help…  It wouldn’t even show the BIOS screen, let alone get to Windows… I tried plugging it in to my desktop’s monitor to see if it’s just the laptop LCD. No dice. Soooooooooooo…that didn’t sound good…and to make matters worse, some of my music library wasn’t backed up to my Linux box (the music from iTunes) and the most recent WordPress databases for the website(s) were on it as well. Not cool.

So, I pull the hard drive out of the laptop, only to find that it doesn’t have a standard IDE connection…thus, I can’t just open ‘er up on the Linux box and pull files off. Thankfully, there are adaptors that exist to convert a 2.5″ laptop hard drive to a 3.5″ desktop hard drive. I ordered one from Newegg, got it working, and pulled the files off. (Note: that also rules out the hard drive as being a problem for the laptop).

Soooooooooooooooooooooo, to make a long story short(er), the laptop has some issues but I’ve got all the data off of it and my desktop works just fine. Thankfully, the laptop still has a year left on its warranty (w00t!), so I’m going to take it by a repair place tomorrow and will hopefully have it back by Christmas. If it isn’t the LCD screen and isn’t the hard drive, then I’m afraid the problem lies somewhere on the motherboard…and that could take awhile to fix…who knows…

At least it’s under warranty…  If you’re in the market for a laptop that’s worth anywhere near $1000, please get a warranty!!!  It’s worth it!!