Friday, April 27, 2007

From Somewhere in the Median

LIFE WITH KIDS IS CHALLENGING AND WONDERFUL. Oddly, life without kids would be wonderfully challenging would it knnaughhtttt? ( Sorry, tongue stuck in cheek.)

Those are Trichomes

Yes, that is a leaf of Glycine max L. Merr seen at about 200x photographed by yours truly in 2004 for a plant anatomy course at UIUC that was tedious but very educational. Feel free to use it as a visual aid to illustrate trichomes, leaf vasculature, or even waxy cuticle if you have any reason to be speaking about any of these things.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Least aware republicans

http://www.editorandpublisher.com
/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003571876

I recently heard that more and more students from accredited college campuses were "turning off" middle of the road democrats with their angry rhetoric. The gist of this radio news report was that middle class working voters had a harder time aligning themselves politically with war protesters and environmental chicken-littles, and there was thus hope for a centrist led Republican surge in 2007-08. The problem I have with that supposition is that it seems most politically savvy television viewers are watching The Daily Show and PBS's Lehrer News Hour (See Above) both left of center by a few inches to say the least. The same pew survey reports that while the upper echelons of those polled for the survey (otherwise known as the politically aware) were composed equally of Republicans and Democrats the bottom third was predominantly republican. Radical leftists aside, why are the average folk of this country unwilling to ally themselves with the clerisy? Is it still uncool to be informed and intelligent? I thought that sentiment died in the 80's.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Liberal Doses of Consevative media

I listen to NPR alot and interestingly I also have to listen to some conservative pundits from time to time as well.I find that the best reports about world news that come from independent media sources usually have one thing in common. That is they usually try to present a balanced or agenda-free perspective. It is more complicated than simply providing two experts with divergent opinions. It comes down to a balanced presentation. This is particularly difficult to achieve in unedited formats but frequently not achieved in the editing room either.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Random encounters

If it is indeed true that random encounters between people are less likely to generate epiphany, then it must be concluded that the majority of profound human interaction will occur within family groups. I find this difficult to believe. My assertion would be that all encounters are equally likely to produce moments of profound shifts in perspective and the variable most likely to influence the level of insight is duration and not familiarity. Does anyone study this? Your input would be appreciated.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

I blog u blog

It is difficult to imagine a more interesting time to be a scientist.