MIT: “no”. Carnegie Mellon HCI Institute: “no”. Sigh.
Monthly Archive for February, 2004
Woo Hoo! I just heard I got an interview for the UConn Library job I applied for! In terms of convenience, it’s my dream position… it’s 28 hours a week (fits nicely with my Daily Jolt job,) it’s a management position, it should pay much better than the FexEx job it would replace, and it’s good, varied, active, social, technical work. And I *think* it’s short term, though I’m not exactly sure about that. Regardless, I’m very excited. The interview is in the morning on March 5th, so hopefully it will go well and they will hire me.
And then I will have two jobs and be the master of unspeakable wealth. Or something.
I wouldn’t have guessed it, but John Kerry is worth about an order of magnitude more than George W. Bush and at least twice as much as Dick Cheney. According to “The Center for Public Integrity” (not sure how legitimate it is,) Kerry is worth upwards of 200 million. Bush, on the other hand, is worth 20 million at most and Cheney is somewher in the 20 to 80 million range. Edwards is worth about the same as Bush.
Where did it all come from? Edwards won it in court, helping injured people sue doctors and companies. Bush seemed to inherit it, and make it his through failed business deals. Not sure how he managed that. Most of Cheney’s money seems to have come from his time at Haliburton, where (unlike Bush) he was a very successful executive, perhaps because of his many years in congress and the resulting connections and back-room savvy.
Kerry, on the other hand, seems to be a combination of all three. Like Bush, he was born into money; like Edwards he was a successful prosecutor; and like Cheney he was a long-time congressman. But most of his wealth is not his at all–it’s his wife’s. Through Teresa Heinz, widow of Senator John Heinz, he has a giant stake in the Heinz corporation, worth hundreds of millions and growing every year.
I guess the moral is: in the end, the gold digger always wins.
I just added this to my ideas, but I thought I would repost it in my journal, because it’s something I have been thinking about lately:
How do I really understand Christianity? What do I think it means to most people? I think it is a combination of things:
- Mysticism, “A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.”
- A set of general principles for living (love thy neighbor, mostly)
- A set of practices that help people stay in touch with those general principles, which help to create a Dr. Phil style “no-fail” environment (prayer, communion, WWJD bracelets)
- A set of communitity building traditions, like sermon-giving, group prayer (hymns), etc
- A belief that the principles, practices and traditions have a mystical component.
Personally, I don’t have any trouble with (1) and (2). And were (3) and (4) centered around (2), I would have no problem being part of a community which supported them. But in my experience, I can’t see the truth in (5), and I think most, if not all, churches base (3) and (4) in (5). That is, the practices and traditions are important not because of their utility but because of their mystical connection. And I think this is what makes me uncomfortable in church settings.
Still, I am not very sure of my convictions here, and I’m not very certain at all that my characterizations are correct.
I rarely find the comics laugh-out-loud funny, but this quote, from an article on the current Haitian uprising in the “The Americas” section of the paper gave me a chuckle:
A State Department spokesman Sunday night condemned the attack on Cap-Haitien, saying the Bush administration considers change through violence unacceptable.
So, I incurred $17.01 in finance charges for my credit card last month by using checks I though were 0% financing. I think Niamh gets a little frustrated with my second-rate detail-tracking abilities. She’s probably right to.
I read an article in discover magazine a long time ago, about a fellow named David Deamer and his research into how cells could be come to be without other cells pre-existing them.
The basic idea is that simple molecules which were common on earth when life appears to have begun combine to form sugar phosphates and nitrogen bases spontaneously. These are the basic building blocks of RNA, the first self-replicating molecule. Since RNA-like molecules are better able to withstand ultraviolet rays, and complex chains of RNA molecules, known as polymers, are better yet. So an environment of ultraviolet rays would have selected for more and more complex forms of RNA, providing an explanation for how a self-replicating molecule like RNA might be necessitated into existence by natural selection. All of this comes from research by a fellow named Armen Mulkidjanian.
But Mr. Deamer chimes in with an explanation for how a simple cell might form: lipids (fairly simple molecules which occur naturally in water with the right mix of matter) will spontaneously from spherical groupings in water. If I recall correctly, this has to do with certain ends of the molecule being more or less repellant than the other.
But the interesting idea is that on tidal flats, this primitive cells would wash onto shore and be dried out by the sun. Then RNA molecules would form in the ultra-violet light through natural selection. These RNA molecules would eventually come sandwiched between layers of lipids after tidal cycles, and when the tide came back in and the lipids formed into their primitive cell shapes, the RNA would be caught inside, offering it a protected place to replicate.
Of course, as far as I know these are just stories, but much of what I have described can be replicated in the lab. And it all reminds me of the Turvey/Swenson paper I read the other week about how life is an necessary result of the second law of thermodynamics–that because it increases its own internal organization, it represents an maximally entropy producing structure.
All of this work strives to answer the question “why are we here,” and for the most part, it offers an explanation far more compelling to me than genesis: the epigenesis of life.
Maps, by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is the kind of track that wants me to start a mix. Unfortunately, it’s inspiring because it’s new in my ear, and therefore I haven’t yet heard the songs it leads into.
I have some other tracks I started putting together at Niamh’s–Van Morrison’s Jackie Wilson Said, Belle & Sebastian’s Judy And The Dream Of Horses, and Mr. Ben Folds’ Rockstar–things mostly from the collection Alex and Mel left on the computer here. But those were picked before Maps went on the list, and I almost feel like the list should start anew. We’ll see.
A while ago I wrote an entry about Avril Levigne’s song, “I’m With You”. I just wanted to report that it’s been like a year since this teenage pseudo-punk popstress’s overplayed song hit the radio, I’m 22 years old, and I still like it. This is vaguely embarrassing, but it’s the truth. I also really like the movies “Whatever It Takes,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” and “She’s All That.” Sue me.
I spent the weekend at Cornell for the Psychology Department’s recruitment weekend. It was really cool, and now I’m really hoping they make an offer.
There were essentially three other prospectives in the cognitive division who I was in competition with. They were all good enough candidates that I wouldn’t feel robbed if I didn’t get an offer, but I felt fairly competetive. My computer science background helps me stand out, and I think my association with UConn intrigued them as well–who’d have thought?
For better or for worse, I think the two professors I am less likely to work with were more impressed with me. I was significantly more intimidated by the younger guys whose interests were closer to mine. I think I was a little worried about coming off like a fraud. There’s definately a part of me that is unsure where this path will lead me, but that’s less and less of a concern.
It’s really the only school I’ve visited so far, but I really hope they make an offer. I have no idea whether any of my other schools will bite, and I’m trying not to get my hopes up there, but it’s really difficult after visiting not to get my hopes up about Cornell. And to make matters worse, Dr. Field said he thought it might be a while before I would hear back from them.
I am anxious to get started in this new life. And reluctant to get back to the work in front of me. Alas, what must be done must be done. To bed I go.