Decent grades, cool science, depressing politics.

Had a wonderful chat with an older gent while I was on patrol this week. Was given some wisdom:

1. Get the best education you can get.
2. Have the confidence and will to become an expert in your job within six months.
3. Don't be afraid to take well-thought of and responsible risks; you never know how much you can gain.
Best advice I've had in a while. Respect your elders, they're smarter than you.



The rest is grades, whining, and cool articles from the net :D



It's really hard to calculate your grade in a class when the syllabus is unclear and the TA is awful about getting grades up (or handing the assignments back to you, for that matter). I Do know I got an 88% on the third exam. Considering I only studied the weekend before I'm ok with it. Now now, don't look at me like that. The exam makes up 5% of my grade. I should get full participation points (I did all the online stuff, early, and write at length for the in-class prompts (got 100% on both that got posted to the gradesheet), and the TA likes me. IF I somehow lower my grade on the final paper from what the final draft was, say from 95 to 90, and only get an 80 on the final exam, I keep my A with a 91%. Granted, these 'bare minimums' are not my goal, but I like to see what it would take to scrape by. Lessens my panic and I'm more effective. Besides, reducing the time I spent on my WOH allowed me to increase the time spent on Biodiv, which is why I got my 95. That, and because I went so slow when filling in the evil bubbles. :D

Still don't know what I got on my Biopractical, but there were only two that I remember not studying. I put "mid sacral ridge" for "ambulacral ridge" (boo) and couldn't recall the last feature that differentiated humans. I skimmed it because A. I'm a human, it should be easy right? B. There were, like, 15!! Ok ok I know, I deserve to miss the point. I put "highly developed brain" which was one of the 15, but I don't remember if it was 'Top 4' which is what the question wanted. I'm sure I aced it anyway.

My raw 72% on the Chem Exam 3 became an 82%. I'm happy for the boost, but wishing I wasn't so far from an A. We were told the average for the exam, after the curve, was a 60%. Yikes. Makes me feel a little better about my 82, but still. Must figure out what I'm soft on so I can bolster it for the final. I've started going over the questions for each covered chapter to see what I'm flaky on.

I'm done with Bio Lifeline and Bio Lab, which will give me more time for the other classes. Need to whip this Biostats paper into shape pronto. I thought I had a solid topic until the professor told me to dump the data and get a new set. Rather perturbed since the chick behind me has somehow correlated protein content of candy bars and the death rates of the poor. No, really. I KNOW he went over the difference between Correlation and Causation, yet he's back there hmmming and "that's interesting"ing. Bleh. One chick is doing FOOTBALL stats. seriously? He told us it had to be biological data, this IS BIOSTATISTICS. He also mentioned that if she found anything interesting he'd pay her for it. -.- Almost enough to make me wish EYE had big boobs, no brain, and could afford to buy a bachelors with daddy's money. Ok, so I'm bitter. But me and the mathematician are the only people in the class who obviously KNOW how to use the biostats we've been taught. We can look at the data and tell you what it means. I've been very vocal the whole semester, to the point where he'd tell me someone else had to answer because he wanted to make sure the rest are 'getting it'. The mathematician still didn't have data on Friday. Probably because, like me, he wanted REAL data, not candy bars and football. I had to find new data and "find something interesting" within a week. He wants drafts of the paper on Monday, so I'm scrambling to find something. So I did. And it's still got birds. HA. It also has very weak correlations, but at least three of them and I can make a very good story for it. SO, if I do the presentation  (optional) and really push my pseudoscience I might be able to get an A out of it. Though, I only got B- and B+ on the other two. I really want my A, because I know what I'm doing. I'm also bitter that the girl who obviously has no clue how to read a t-test is the only one who got an A on the first paper, and is going to get a good score for candy bars and bad correlation. You know what else correlates? The decline of piracy and the increase of global warming. *raspberry*

Ok, I'm done being catty and bitter. For now. rawr.

Oh, I finally finished season 5 of Bones. Figured I'd tuck that in here so no one notices and asks where I found the time :D GLEEEE!

A couple things interesting on the net this week that I wanted to share.


Disney Family Fiesta 5K featuring the Three Caballeros - Friday, January 6, 2012
If Amazon Wishlist allowed me to put more than physical stuff on it, I'd add this. I have some burning desire to run at Disneyworld. I can't seem make myself GO running though. I'm scared to run in our neighborhood and then I keep telling myself it's such a waste of time to go all the way to the park to run AND that I'm a bad dog-mom because I can't handle Rook well enough to take her with me, resulting in me feeling guilty if I 'force' myself to go do something she'd give her tail to go do. It's a vicious spiral, really.




This is.. wow! :D From the OwlPages.

While I love watching the little owl "Athene Noctua" (really, Little Owl) seem to soak up lovins, don't get any ideas! Raptors are NOT PETS. You can't 'TAME' them. Captivity should be left for injured animals acting as educational tools (most zoos) or as temporary housing during rehab. If it comes back to YOU, find, but don't keep a wild animal against it's will.

Ok, off my soapbox. I particularly love the head massage :D Little brat.

I should present this to the Biology department as a more interesting way to cover Cephalopoda.

"Why an octopus is more awesome than your mom." Teehee.


Mid-Ocean Creatures Control Light to Avoid Becoming Snacks - ScienceDaily
Some tiny octupi (3 inches!) can make themselves transparent. Or rather, they are transparent, and can use their chromatophores to make themselves opaque. The transparency hides them from silhouette-hunting animals below them, but when the headlamp of some creepy underwater fish hits their reflective eyes they use the chromatophores to become an opaque brown-red. They also know the difference between shadows moving around them and actual light that would hit them. Smart critters.

US Congress rules that pizza is a vegetable - The Journal.ie

"Congress voted that anything containing two tablespoons of tomato sauce can be labelled a vegetable, putting pizza into the vegetable category."

Jaw-droppingly stupid.
Btw the way, if you haven't seen Idiocracy, now would be a good time.

Sebastion Millon is an artist I stumbled onto on Facebook. He's a bit rude and there's quite a bit of dismemberment, but I LOVE his Owlies.







The UC Davis Pepper-Spraying of Protesters.

After seeing This Image

I looked up the incident. This shared page shows an officer BRANDISH his pepper spray at the watching crowd like a prize fighter waving his gloves, then proceeds to leisurely spray down the seated protesters. In sweeps he sprays their bowed heads and chests, and even goes back over a couple of them. I guess he thought he missed a spot. He then signals to another officer that he's out, and the other officer comes over with another can and STARTS SPRAYING THEM IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD while the first officer starts physically removing the people. In the end you can see one person come over, try to protect themselves with a hoodie, and lay over some of the sprayed students to try to protect them from more pepper spray. 

I don't even care what they're protesting for. They were doing it as peaceably as you can get. I'm so angry I'm tearing up.

This is the video.

Today, NPR posted a video of the Chancellor walking to her car. Sounds banal until you see the line of students sitting in silent protest, all the way there. Just, staring at her.

This is that video, and the article.

I'm going to keep an eye on it, but I probably won't post more about it. Something about the situation infuriates me.

The intricate dance between air and oceans - Climate NASA
One more cool sciencey bit then I'll go. This article debunks the cute photos of people standing in huge snow drifts and captioning "where's this global warming?" Turns out Global Warming (the warming of the oceans specifically) CAUSES everything from blizzards to droughts. Neat.
 It's like a butterfly effect: warmer oceans disrupt 'normal' ocean air flow and causes subtropical air and water to be forced northward (melting the Greenland ice sheet). Not only does this effect the subpolar ecosystem by dumping fresh cold water into it but it results in "blocking events" which cause the winter "weather system" to be slower, accrue more water and stay/get colder, resulting in Snowmageddon. Savvy? Global Warming = MORE blizzards, not less.