Sam's L33t Journal

Last weekend, we went to see the caterpillar lab at Arnold Arboretum on Saturday. That was pretty cool, more interesting than I expected. The most interesting sight was watching a hickory horned devil caterpillar pupate into a regal moth pupa live under magnification. Metamorphosis is a really interesting adaptation, the tradeoffs involved are so extreme. To undergo metamorphosis means dedicating a huge amount of resources and being vulnerable for some time. But the advantage of being able to adapt to particular parts of the life-cycle with radical changes in morphology is apparently worth it.

Last Sunday, we had brunch with my cousins Amy and Josh, at their (relatively) new place in Watertown. Was very nice to see them again, their new home is lovely.

Friday, I saw The Matrix in its 20th anniversary theatrical re-release. Thought it was definitely worth seeing on the big screen, and the effects, stunt choreography, and cinematography hold up really well. Amazing how well-crafted the movie is, and it's really striking just how influential it's been on action cinema and popular culture in general. (Plus after running a game based on this bit of a Nobilis meets The Matrix story, the parallels are all the more striking. The cultural influence of The Matrix is not to be underestimated.)

Yesterday, I took Eris to the park in the afternoon. We chalked on the sidewalk and she practiced dropping down from the monkey bars, among many other things. She's very active, keeping up with her is quite a workout.

She's been interested in ballet lately. Picked out this book from the bookstore. Apparently she's been very influenced by one of her daycare peers who is sharing some of what they learned in ballet class. (Probably got some of that interest from her cousin Emilia, too?)

Tomorrow, have the day off, will take Eris to the museum? Or something.

Aside from that... well, do things happen not on the weekends? Work happens. Tabletop gaming group (still playing Glitch) continues to be good and interesting.

I mostly talk about the good times here, but I'm still exhausted. Eris is very high-energy. I knew getting into parenting that I'd have to deal with a lot of poop and screaming (a synecdoche in both cases), but the screaming is definitely way worse. Kids are loud, and for someone with some degree of sensitivity to that, it's a lot to deal with day after day. (Also, toilet training is happening (has been happening, has largely happened), and there are definitely some aspects of that which make things temporarily (for fairly large values of "temporary") more chaotic.)

Eristic improvements: Dropping from the high bar, climbing, more self-management, more independent imaginative play, more capability when helping with chores.

A while ago, I sent a DNA sample to a lab for analysis (because that seemed like an interesting thing to do and they were offering their complete edition test at a steep discount for DNA Day). Here are a few interesting things I learned:

• I'm in maternal haplogroup K1a1b1a (centering around Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East c. 500 years ago), paternal haplogroup J2 (centering around southern Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and western Asia c. 500 years ago).
• My genes put me at a higher risk for a few conditions, including colon cancer (would have predicted from family history), age-related macular degenearion (would have predicted from other info about my eyes), and restless leg syndrome (would not have predicted).
• My genes put me a lower than average risk for a lot of autoimmune conditions.
• My genes put me at average risk of obesity, which is good for the future prospects of my exercise program. I'm also lacking a gene that preliminary studies suggest causes difficulty in weight-loss despite diet and exercise.
• I'm not a carrier for any of the terrible-but-recessive genetic conditions that they tested for, which is good to know.
• My previous lactose intolerance was likely caused by genetic factors.
• My body favoring muscle strength over muscle endurance is also genetic.
• I've got the male pattern baldness gene. If I had to guess (based on my mom's dad's and brothers' hair), I'd say that my mom probably has only one copy of the gene, giving me and my brother a 50% chance of greatly reduced balding odds, but luck was not with me on that one.

The internets have informed me that the Large Hadron Collider has yet to destroy the world. I am most relieved. (I have also been informed that it is not currently Christmas, and that Barack Obama is not a Muslim.)

Fortunately, the good folks at reddit have made sure that CERN is well equipped for the worst-case scenario.

From peristaltor comes this excellent entry on Dennis M. Bushnell of NASA, Peter Ward's Under a Green Sky, and the implications of rising atmospheric CO₂ beyond the greenhouse effect.

More books for my list.

Is it possible to make a wind-powered vehicle that moves directly downwind faster than the wind speed? Or is this a hoax? (The wheels of the vehicle in the video are connected by a drive train to the propeller / sail. Any force that accelerates the vehicle keeps the propeller going, too.)

( Do the physics work out? )

What do you think?

A few things, in no particular order:

• The show at anime club on Friday was Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice, and it was better than I expected. The world is pretty creative, and the animation is really well done. (As a side note, they actually pronounce the main character's name as "Alice" so as to really hit the viewers over the head with the literary reference, which, as the main character literally falls into a magic world, is quite apt.)
• Barnes and Noble University is having a class on Dungeons and Dragons. Amusing.
• The Red Cross is considering a new emblem.
• Check out this site on the Stanford prison experiment. It's one of the more interesting studies that's been done in the field of social psychology.
• "Back in my day, our quantum computers were measured in qubits. A qubyte was some kind of newfangled experiment."
• Finally, this infuriating blog entry on homelessness. Actually, the entry isn't that bad (it discusses a news special where panhandlers seem reluctant to work for money), although its analysis of the situation is weak (it neglects that a lot of homeless people are mentally ill and it neglects the sketchiness of the whole situation (as one Anon puts it: "... imagine you have no social support, no one who'd notice if you're missing, and no cell phone. A stranger pulls up and asks you to get in his car for $20. Do you really think this is a wise decision?")). It's the comments that are infuriating. Apparently, quite a few people think the homeless should be enslaved or slaughtered, and many more seem to think that people have a right to never interact with those they find unpleasant.
• Finally, check out this excellent parody piece on intelligent design and language. (Of course, as is often the case with good parody, reality beats it to the punch.)

Last night was awesome!

The falafel was great, and a professional dancer came to perform and teach. She demonstrated both Israeli folk dancing and belly dancing. I won't say anything about the latter item, except that the SCA guild has a long way to go! :-P The dancing was a lot of fun, and I was really hyper. (So hyper that I spent the time between dinner and dancing running around the square in the middle of the village.)

Today, I start on a new program in the lab (locating a sample within a larger image). In the afternoon there is a lecture titled "Forgetting to Remember or Remembering to Forget," which I plan to attend even though I have no idea what it is about. In the evening, some students will be giving lectures on topics of their choice.

I haven't been telling you the topics for lectures I've heard, so here's a list:
The Power of Asymmetry (Particle Physics)
Correlation Between Lung Cancer, Smoking, and DNA Repair (Medical Biology)
Experimental Demonstrations (Basic Physics, Science Education)

Also, despite my total incompetence, I managed to do my laundry yesterday (without ruining any of my clothes).

Tomorrow, we depart for Eilat.


And now for something completely random:
(>'.')> <('.'<)
Dancing Kirby smilies!


Public Service Announcement:

Marriage is love.

Honestly, is anyone's marriage going to be ruined if marriage is not the exclusive right of heterosexuals?

I can imagine:
Conservative Person: "I knew my marriage had something special. I used to think it was love. Or possibly commitment. Maybe partnership. Or family. But when gay marriage was legalized, I realized that the only thing special about it was that only heterosexuals, like me, had it."

And conservatives are always talking about the "sanctity of marriage."
Stop complaining, n00b5!

In related news: "The DMA is DOA"
Quoted from tdj (origional post)