Random Friday thoughts

Yesterday I saw the following on my StatCounter.  111,111 Unique Visitors.  Cool.  Must mean something in the cosmic scheme of things right?  Numerologically, the number 1 is great!  This will be a good day, I can feel it.

Haven't been getting much sleep this week for some reason so I have to watch what I type.  When I get overtired I'm apt to say inappropriate things.  I told my students one of my favorite mnemonics this week - "Kinky People Come Over For Good Sex."  Can you tell what it helps you remember?

Not helping my sleep situation is the fact that we adopted a 5 month old kitten this week.  It's been living in my wife's and my bedroom since it's still skittish of the dog (a very jealous dog since the kitten has been the center of attention).  My wife had the bright idea of getting a collar for the kitten with bells.  Ever try to sleep at 4 am with a jingling kitty racing over your head (literally racing over your head)?

Ugly little beast, isn't he?  Damn thing sleeps during the day when people are out and wants to play in the middle of the night.  If he doesn't watch out, I'll toss him outside and let they coyotes chase him.

Today is the end of the fifth week of classes.  One of my courses has an exam next week and some assignments due (online assignments through a package that come bundled with the textbook).  Assignments that were assigned on the FIRST day of class five weeks ago.  A student sends me an email tonight.  Doesn't have the correct book.  Hasn't done the assignments.  Whatever are they to do?  Ummm.  Let's see.  You completely ignore the course syllabus, handouts given on the first day of class explaining how to access the assignments, web site for the course with copies of all this material, constant reminders about this in class for the past five freakin weeks, you don't talk to me until practically the night before it's due, and I'm supposed to do what?  Give an extension?  Nope, sorry, get the access, do the damn assignments over this three-day weekend, or get a zero.  Real simple (and that's exactly what it says in the course syllabus).  We're not in high school anymore. Right mean bastard, aren't I?  Doing my part to teach the younger generation the value of personal responsibility.

Today I also told a class that I assigned a final paper for their benefit, not mine.  They laughed.  I explained how they need to learn to research (beyond Wikipedia) and write better - do they really think I enjoy reading 30 ten-page papers during finals week?  I could just give them a Scantron multiple choice exam instead and no one would care.  Except my conscience.

Hard to believe I am a past winner of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, isn't it?  Telling my students mnemonics about kinky people having sex, having no sympathy for their textbook mishaps, and mocking their most excellent writing skills.  Easy to believe I have tenure, though.

After driving to Albany and back this afternoon (an hour plus each way), I stopped at Starbucks for a venti skinny caramel macchiato and whipped out my laptop to write up a blog post on a geological topic.  Went to search for an image I needed in Google.  Guess what popped up?  A picture in a post I wrote about this exact same topic in the summer of 2010 on this blog.  A post I had completely forgetten I had written.  The exact same topic.  I would have used the exact same image.  Pathetic.  Sometimes I wonder about early-onset dementia.  Deleted the post I was working on.  Sigh.  The coffee was good though.

Friday - I really look forward to a tall, cold glass of ale.  I have no classes Friday, I get to work on Department Chair administrative bullshit the entire day.  The only time I allow myself adult beverages is Friday after work when I go visit Meghan, my favorite bartender.  I think I'll go for the pint of Sam Adams Winter Lager.  I can taste it now.  Mmmm, beer.  No, I'm not a role model for young impressionable minds.  Never wanted to be one either.  I'm rambling, can you tell?  I do that when I'm overtired as well.  Rambling and saying inappropriate things.  Hell of a combination, isn't it? Gets me into trouble every time.  Hey, am I still typing?  I don't really have anything to say anymore.  Let's see - complaints about students, lust for beer, pretty bartenders, kinky sex - nope, think I have it covered for today.

Happy Friday everyone, enjoy the three-day weekend!

Fibonacci & Phyllotaxis

I love these videos from Vi Hart on YouTube.

Tropical Field Ecology this summer?

A biologist colleague of mine, Dr. David Lemmon, is offering summer field courses to both Pamana (May 21 - June 2, 2012) and the Brazilian Amazon (August 11 - 23, 2012).  For the Amazon trip, you live on an Amazon River boat (shown at left) with excursions into the jungle.

The Amazon trip has been run a dozen times already and the Panama trip is new for this year.  While I've never gone (there are few rocks in the jungle!), I have a number of students who've gone and they've all loved it and told me it was a tremendous learning experience.

There are no academic prerequisites but you have to be in good health, have a valid passport and immunizations, etc.  You don't have to be a student, either, you can audit the course as an interested adult.

Here are a couple of posters with addtional information.  Dr. Lemmon's contact information is on the posters, I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions about the courses.

● Tropical Field Ecology - Amazon

● Tropical Field Ecology - Panama

Tell David I sent you!

Scale of the Universe

I've gotten three links this past week emailed to me about this cool Flash animation.

It's called Scale of the Universe by Cary and Michael Huang.  From 10^-35 meters (Planck length) to 10²⁷ meters (the 93 billion light year scale of the universe), it allows you to zoom in or out while providing examples of objects of various sizes.

 Being egocentric humans, we tend to think the "world" is all that we see around us on a daily basis.  What we see and perceive is only a miniscule part of a much, much, much (62 orders of magnitude from small to large) larger universe.  And, to make it even cooler, things behave it completely bizarre ways (at least to us) and very small (quantum mechanics) and very large (relativity) scales.

Humans can use a little perspective sometimes.  We're less than nothing on a universal scale.

Darwin's Birthday

Happy 203rd birthday to Charles Darwin.

This about sums it up...

...from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

If you haven't read On the Origin of Species, do yourself a favor and do so sometime.  It just makes sense (much more so than stories of gods strolling in gardens and talking snakes).

Grace Hopper

Many geologists, especially field geologists, are familiar with the expression "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission" - especially when trespassing on someone's land to look at their interesting rock outcrops (I first learned of this expression from my first field geology professor, the late Russell Waines of SUNY New Paltz).

Anyway, for reasons I won't explain (you really don't want to know how my mind works), I wanted to determine the source of this quotation and found that it's often attributed to Grace Hopper.  Grace who? you may ask.  I didn't know who she was either (but I'm sure many readers of this blog may have heard of her).  She was an amazing woman.

Go to Wikipedia and read her biography.

Healing rocks?

Bizarre post over at The Geology P.A.G.E. titled "The Healing Power of Rocks" by Bridget Sandorford.  Here's an example of her wisdom when discussing amethyst:

Many people use amethysts to help them recover from an addiction. It is also used to help people who are struggling with insomnia. It can give you an energy boost when you wear it and provide a soothing effect if you are overwrought about something. It has been used to help during pregnancy and to help fight chronic fatigue syndrome.

Amethyst is a relatively common purple variety of quartz (SiO₂).  It's a mineral, by the way, not a rock.

Did you know that the word "amethyst" comes from the Greek roots ἀ ("not") and μέθυστος (methustos or "intoxicated")?  The ancient Greeks and Romans believed amethyst would protect them from getting drunk.  Next Friday, I'll grab some from the lab before heading down to the local tavern after work and see if it helps.

This kind of nonsense has been around for a long time.  It's called sympathetic magic.  Amethyst is purple, wine is made from purple grapes, so amethyst must have some effect with wine (there's my problem, I don't drink wine but rather beer - I need a brown mineral).

Similarly, rusty red hematite (Fe₂O₃) is thought to have some effect on blood ("Hematite is good for any blood disorders...").

Check out the piece of nephrite jade below.  It looks a little like a kidney, hence the name λίθος νεφρίτίκος (lithos nephriticos or "kidney stone" in Greek).

Must be good for kidney ailments!  And, yes, that's what New Age crystal healers still claim.  Any evidence to back up such claims?  Not one fucking iota of evidence.

Want to use stones for healing?  Powder up some limestone when you're having reflux (or pop a Tums, same difference).  I heard cheery yellow orpiment is good for depression...

Just kidding, folks.  If any of you dumbasses try to take orpiment, keep in mind that it's arsenic sulfide (As₂S₃) and not very good for you at all (even though it's all natural).  It will, however, cure your depression.  Permanently.