Uncategorized « An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles

July 12, 2010

Waxing and waning

Hey y’all, just a heads up–I may be posting even more erratically than usual for the next month. I’ve got some spare time on my hands right now, being underemployed, and I decided to play with my zombie story, NaNoWriMo style. Since I doubt/hope I won’t have this kind of time come November, I’m gonna try and do it now, starting this evening. My deadline is 50,000 words my midnight, August 12. If I don’t make it, feel free to mock me mercilessly.

And really, there’s better than good a chance procrastination will set in, and I’ll post twice as much. Either way, now you know.

Comments (1)

June 23, 2010

Hello, Detroit

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: urban planning — Ethan @ 6:34 pm

I’m in Detroit for the US Social Forum this week. Not much to say–it’s fabulous and I’ve been hella busy–but there’s one thing I wanted to comment on before I pass off the laptop to my lovely traveling companion.

Detroit is really, really empty.

Walking through the center of downtown at rush hour, there was only a light smattering of cars on the wide, major roads. Few pedestrians. It’s hard to tell if a lot of businesses are open, and those that are have few customers and close early.

There are tons of abandoned buildings, vacant lots, streets with only one house left per block.
And there are nice, solid-looking, architecturally interesting abandoned buildings. Art-deco era semi-scyscrapers, giant Victorian houses, stuff like that. Not just ugly shit is vacant.

I was joking earlier that I keep expecting zombies to come out from somewhere.
My partner just said it looks like they already did, got bored, and moved on.

I’m used to urban poverty going hand-in-hand with overpopulation. Cities get full, prices go up, people get squeezed out of their homes or have to crowd more people into each apartment. I had unconsciously assumed it was something of a law of nature.

But this is different. Eerie. And also full of a weird sort of unrealizable potential–I keep thinking, there are so many empty buildings and so many people living on the streets, it seems like at some point someone would have to just say fuck it, and look the other way on urban homesteading.

I’m so accustomed to problems of scarcity, it’s hard to imagine a collapse that brings overabundance of space. And yet, something tells me Detroit is the wave of the future for America.

Comments (2)

June 17, 2010

Short Story

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: strange organisms — Ethan @ 9:57 pm

Right this moment, there’s a firefly buzzing around my head. They’ve been quite scarce the last couple years, and I was worried their population might be permanently declining in this area. This year, though, they’re everywhere again, every evening at dusk. And in my office, it seems.

It reminded me of the time a few years ago, when a firefly got into my house and fell in love with the green, blinking power indicator LED on my laptop. It would wait until I’d gone to bed, and then come out to tentatively circle the computer’s power brink.

Blink blink?

Blink.Blink.Blink.

A little closer every time. This went on for three nights in a row. I tried to catch the poor little guy and release him outside, where he night find a more appropriate love interest. But I never could. He’d go dark and hide, wait until I was back asleep, and then resume courting the power brick.

Comments (5)

June 14, 2010

The Free Market Comes to Academe

Filed under: Government and Policy,Uncategorized — Tags: academe, class issues, government, rants, working conditions — Ethan @ 7:54 pm

Not too long ago, I finished my BS at a Huge Public University. For various reasons (partner working on a master’s, looming student debt, wanting to test-drive some research interests before grad school, needing to get some distance between myself and my GPA), I’ll be staying put and working for a couple of years.

Which should be fine–I worked my way through school doing science-themed drudgery, the Dept of Labor assures me my degree is in high demand, my needs are modest, and there’s an enormous land-grant university right down the street. So landing an entry-level lab tech job should keep me fed, housed and entertained for the foreseeable future, right?

Well, not so much. There are jobs out there for me, which is better than how most of America is doing right now. If and when I get one of those jobs, I will be making much more than I am now, by sheer dent of putting in more hours at a slightly-to-much higher paygrade.

But positions that used to be full time are now hourly. Nearly half the listings are for temps, but they’re not temporary jobs–at an interview recently, the PI told me they have funding and work to do for years to come, but it’s just too hard to get the administration to approve a ‘permanent’ position. They don’t want to pay for benefits. They don’t want to offer job security. And while that PI’s research sounds fascinating, and the people I met there would be great colleagues, I’m not sure I can get by making less than I did last time I was in food service.

Which isn’t a coincidence. Landgrant U is far and away the largest employer in an otherwise poverty-riddled small city. They set the tone for wages in all sectors. It’s easy to see the connection with geeky jobs like mine, but they also hire an army of custodians, cooks, welders, mechanics, office workers and so on. Budget cuts from the statehouse (and oh, how there are budget cuts) don’t just affect those employed by the school, they make sure other employers don’t have to compete. Hell, to the hypercapitalist Republicans running the state, that’s a feature, not a bug.

I’m lucky. I’m an able bodied white guy without any kids or family relying on my paycheck. I’ll be ok. But what the hell will become of my hometown if $10/hr temp work is the best thing out there?

Comments (1)

May 30, 2010

Science Tattoos, Again

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: tattoos — Ethan @ 9:34 pm

I’m still thinking about what I want to get for the commemorative tattoo I was talking about here. Starting to narrow in down, and right now I’m leaning torward an armband featuring a Nepenthes pitcher, or possibly one of the bright red child’s microscope.

I am, after all, technically a botanist. Nepenthes are some of the most striking plants, and I have a deep love for them. I’m already starting to add it to my mental self-image. The biggest question is, which species?

I like the sassy look on this guy

But this one's more shapely

And so on.

I got the microscope for christmas when I was 5. I still have that microscope on my mantle. For a little while, I slept with it under my arm like a teddybear.

Either way, when it’s done, I’ll have to post it to the gallery here. The Science Tattoo Emporium has given me more entertainment than it should.

Comments Off

April 28, 2010

<3

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: math, tattoos — Ethan @ 10:14 pm

I’ve been considering, on and off for a little while, getting another science-themed tattoo to celebrate my (hopeful) transition toward being a Real Grown Up Scientist (for one possible value of ‘grown up’). And because my other tattoos are getting lonely. I just stumbled on this in The Loom’s science tattoo gallery. And whoo boy am I tempted to crib the idea, maybe with a little graph–it’s a fairly simple equation that, when graphed, produces a heart shape. On the other hand, I apperently told a friend who planned to get the equasion for the Fibbonacci sequence on her arm that she’d be explaining it to strangers at the grocery store for the rest of her life. I don’t remember saying that, but she recently told me I was more right than she could have imagined.

The original tattoo-ee’s story is very sweet–she and her siblings all picked out tattoos after their mom was diagnosed with breast cancer (but is doing very well). It’s such a great design. I just had to share.

I <3 this tattoo

Comments Off

April 22, 2010

Georgia Legislature: Embarrassing Us in Front of All the Other States, Again

Filed under: Government and Policy,Uncategorized — Tags: government, propaganda, psudoscientific asshattery — Ethan @ 11:22 pm

So, there’s a bill before the Georgia legislature right now, banning Georgians from non-consensually implanting microchips in each other. Fair enough, I’d figure that would fall under assault or something, but sure. Forcibly implanting something under someone else’s skin is Not Ok.

A few years ago, some friends of mine were doing a study on bats where they were implanting subcutaneous RFIDs about the size of a grain of rice into the animals and releasing them. They got drunk one night and decided they should inject themselves with a chip each, to see what it was like for the bats. Apparently, it hurt more than a little, but less than a fuck ton.

Yet no one is currently running around Georgia like a mad animal-shelter worker, tagging residents with their own home addresses in case they get lost (though that might do my brother some good). Nor do they plan to. As near as anyone can tell, the fine ladies and gentlemen of the Georgia state legislature are pushing SB 235 to protect us all from the Mark of the Beast ™, which they seem to think will take the form of a microchip implant (I think they mean an RFID tag, in this century. But who knows). Despite growing up mostly in the bible belt, I have no real idea of what the hell they’re talking about. I think it has something to do with Satan tagging people to take to hell, or somesuch. I don’t know, my parents are atheists. Form what I’ve pieced together from incoherent billboards and Chick tracts, the Unholy One will kick off the end times with some sort of game of Mafia, where if you get tricked into letting yourself get marked, uh, you lose. For eternity. Until Jesus un-tags you, or you reach base.
But the real question is, why is this matter up for debate in the state legislature? Are they tired of trying to end droughts with prayer? Trying to draw attention away from their massive budget shortfalls, their education cuts, or their refusal to pony up even a little bit of cash for mass transit, even when the federal government is offering to pay for high-speed passenger rail through the state? Getting bad press for trying to sue to stop Georgians from getting healthcare? Probably. But so what if the state falls apart for the next 10, 20, or 50 years? They’re protecting us for eternity. That’s why they can’t be bothered to worry about the trifling details of governing in this world.

Comments Off

April 15, 2010

Another promise-to-post post.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: housekeeping — Ethan @ 10:52 pm

So, when was the last time I posted here? Before the last time I had to pay for the domain? Well, I’m gonna give it another go, here and there. I’m going to give myself a break on the all-science all-the-time format, and throw in some other things here and there. Let’s see how it goes. In the meantime, here’s a story about immortal jellyfish to haunt your dreams.

Comments Off

April 23, 2009

Increased CO2 Fuels Poison Ivy Growth: I Guess We Kinda Had This Coming

Filed under: Government and Policy,Uncategorized — Tags: climate change, environment & ecology, sustainability — Ethan @ 10:56 am

So, when I first learned about global warming in 3rd grade or so, I figured it just meant that everywhere on Earth would get a little hotter. That was bad enough, since I grew up in the southeastern US where summers were already hot enough to make the backs of your hands sweat, and snow was a rare treat.

Of course, it’s not that simple–”Global Warming” got renamed ‘Global Climate Change” for a reason. Rising sea levels, coral reef bleaching, droughts, unusually cold winter storms, bizarre urban tornadoes–there’s a whole cornucopia of ripple effects, many of which are obvious in hindsight, but weren’t at the top of the common-sense list of things global climate change might do.

Now we can add healthier, itchier poison ivy to the shit list:

…carbon dioxide is, basically, plant food. I’m told that rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere affect different plants in different ways, but poison ivy is definitely one of the winners of global warming. For this unpleasant little weed, more CO2 seems to mean more growth.

…not only is poison ivy growing fat and happy on the spoils of our carbon emissions, but that plants getting more CO2 also produce more, and stronger, levels of urushiol—the toxin that makes the ivy so darned appealing to begin with.

All I have to add is: That fucking sucks.

Comments Off

January 12, 2009

When Science meets Drinking

Filed under: Uncategorized,funny — Tags: funny — Ethan @ 6:06 pm

Man, this made me happy. Spagghetilogic got bored over the holidays, and fed a bunch of cocktail recipes into PLYLIP to get a genuine phylogenetic tree, treating each ingredient as a gene or marker. What’s interesting is that there are a couple of cases of convergent evolution, mimicry, and so forth.

To wit:

Note that you can make out several different “kingdoms” of drinks after a close look at the tree. I can make out the Gin kingdom, the Orange Juice kingdom, and the Amaretto kingdom, for starters. Then we have the outliers, like a 110 in the Shade, which nobody in his right mind would drink. These are the platypuses and slime molds of the drink world.

Makes me wan to mix up a bunch of these to study their, err, gross morphology.

Comments (1)

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »