Here are some random thoughts

Well, I think I'll write a little bit.  Interesting thoughts in the past couple months:

Lately, I’m really digging some different podcasts.  Some that have stood out are:

o   Theopologetics

o   Say Hello to My Little Friend (by Dr. Glenn Peoples who I heard about on Theopologetics)

o   Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot

o   Philosophy Bites

o   NPR- Environment

o   Indiefeed: Performance Poetry

Some new Biblical interpretations from Glenn Peoples that I like, but haven’t thought through entirely:

-         -  Non-reductive physicalism, instead of immaterial dualism

-          - Annihilationism, instead of hell/eternal torment

I’m much more comfortable with non-reductive physicalism than dualism, but am not wholly certain what effects this has on Christian texts and interpretations.  From the examples I remember, it fit with the ancient language better and could be applied to readings about ‘spirits’.  I never really thought too much about hell or what it entailed, but annihilationism makes a lot more sense than eternal torment.  In my tearing down of all old philosophy and rebuilding, I’ve been running the gamut in trying to understand people.  Philosophy of mind and issues of consciousness have been big obstacles to understand- especially with so many different ideas in these areas and my limited understanding of philosophical arguments.

Awesome things I learned about today when listening to recent Philosophy Bites episodes

-         

Universal moral grammar (it’s a strong maybe)

-          “Alison Gopnik on the Imagination”

-          Free will, who knows?

Oh man, the piece on imagination was awesome.  She talked about how young kids have huge imaginations that end up as testing ground for reality to figure out how things work and what is possible.  They go through the tons of iterations of what’s not feasible and some eventually become more adult-like and imagine less.  They are scientists in their adventure to figure out what is right and good.  But imagination is the total driver for innovation, and good companies don’t have sweet lounge areas for no reason. 

Apparently, sociologists have done some studies on people where they’ve found people who don’t believe in free will are more anti-social and less functional.  To them, and me, it seems very hard to be positive or motivated if one doesn’t have free will because as a robot, not much matters.  The cognitive neuroscientist on there, who was watching fMRI and other brain scans to predict what people are going to think of doing, before they consciously think about it- given a limited number of options, didn’t think that free will would be proven or disproven my science.  This guy was able to guess with 60% accuracy what someone would think 6-8 sec before they had the though; it’s only 10% more than random, but still impressive if it’s significant.  They said they could be more accurate for different situations depending on what was going to happen and the brain regions that would be involved.

In my mind I might sign up for the Baltimore Marathon.  I’m going to try to follow a training guide for July and if my body cooperates I’ll sign up before the end of the month.  The areas of concern are my right knee and left shoulder blade area.  Today I bought an ipod holder and good running earbuds so I can listen to a bunch more podcasts while running and learn a million things.

Tonight I went in to lab for like 2hr, because I don’t know many people doing non-drinking things on a Sat night.  Sitting at my desk without a computer, I realized how much more often my desk looks without a computer screen- like it’s a real desk!  Also, my productivity while at work will skyrocket without a computer, so no more computer on my desk for me.  If I need something, I’ll go down to the computer lab.

I’m kind of writing this cause I saw Mel updated her blog, and I’m reading it as I write.  Shh don’t tell her (?).  I got a GPS in the mail last night from my parents cause I told them I thought I needed one when I went west on this street, when google said to turn onto ‘W something St’, but really it meant go east on W something st- lame.  Then I spent an extra like 20 min driving around.  But I realized a GPS takes away the most fun part of driving- hollering out the window and asking for directions.  I tried it out last night to find directions to this bike store I wanted to ride from this morning, but it couldn’t find the place and the internet wasn’t working, so I didn’t go biking there this morning.

A couple weeks ago I got an okcupid account.  I was on some other dating site for like 2 weeks, when I was like this is stupid.  I got this one cause a guy in my office has one and I think I remember someone else mentioning having one, and it being decent.  I’ve gone on to answer questions on my opinions on ethics, religion, etc. and I just have no idea what to put down.  There are some weighty issues for just a yes, no, ___, etc.  Also, I’ve been telling myself since January I need to things out about myself first before doing ___ (i.e. applying to medical school).  In this light (not!), I’m hoping (at least for the past week!) to go to India/Southeast Asia after graduation to do stuff related to Dr. Sengupta’s HAIX and arsenic removal, as part of a research project with the Fulbright Fellowship.

I’m sleepy, so I’m going to bed.  For a week I was good about getting up for the sunrise, after hearing that Rabindranath Tagore always watched the sunrise, and he was a badass poet.  But, getting up at 5AM stopped a bit ago, I think I should get back in habit.  In the last 2 weeks I think I’ve gone on STEPS roof like four times to see the sunset/night sky with other civil/environmental engineers .  Also, I need to plan meals better instead of eating random things.  Anyway, gnite.

Fun While Grading Quiz 3

Lots of anthropomorphizing of atoms and elements.  It seems oxygen gets real agitated when heated, so don’t mess!

Same question on gas solubility decrease when temp increases

“When water temperature increases, the level of O2 decreases because combustion occurs and O2 is released in this combustion reaction.  If you think about it as the water temp increases the water molecules become more excited and a gas is released.”

“…the molecules of H2O move faster leaving less room for dissolved oxygen between them.”

“When water temperature increases it becomes more difficult for aquatic organisms to get enough oxygen because the oxygen molecules become smaller.”

Something along the lines of “because as temperature increases water begins solidifying…”

I think it was very common for people who weren’t sure to restate the question in the sentence because that’s what they were taught to do since 2^nd grade.

Circular logic to explain when you heat water the temperature increases… therefore oxygen decreases

Bed Bug Innovations- SABBOTAGE!

**The copy and paste between word and blogger is a bit annoying in the loss of formatting.  I actually can't see what I write about half an inch to the right of the text, so excuse the odd bulleting.**

No, I don't have any, nor have I ever been bitten.  Apparently, they're a big deal in Ohio and lots of other places in the US (NYTimes Bed Bugs,  it's a full Section).  C&EN had a nice review of the subject- where I first started looking.  Their final line is: Bedbugs “are a biological system we were able to live without for about 50 years,” Miller says. Now they are back, and “asking the federal government to step in and stop it is like asking the government to stop the wind.”  HA.  Also, it's amusing to hear everyone desperately wanting the EPA to take decisive action when on the same time wanting their funding cut big time.  Thus far, it's not confirmed bed bugs are a vector for pathogens, so they're really only a nuisance pest.  Anyway, I got distracted looking things up and tried to devise a solution.  Here are some random thoughts on ways to avoid bedbugs, some of these apparently were already mentioned on-line (indicated by *).

- -    -  Cloth/Plastic wrapping all beds, pillows, and mattresses* for 2 years- enough time to hopefully kill bugs inside

-          - Fumagate homes or rooms with CO₂ to choke out bugs*

-          - Wrap beds in sealant and fumigate. Then vacuum out and re-seal.

-          - Customizable furniture wraps to suit different size couches, chairs, etc

-          - Bed bug traps- warm, CO₂ emitting, blood sacks with poison

-          - Have a combo vacuum air jet, to blast bugs out and then vacuum them up

-          - People take their mattresses and furniture outside in winter.  This is really easy, if you are able bodied and plan accordingly to avoid rain, wind, mud, etc.  The problem is that, as one article put it, "the elderly in public housing are getting eaten alive."  Bugs are cold sensitive below 47F and above ~120F

  I really liked my idea of a human-mimic bed bug trap.  I think I had this idea for mosquitoes in the past, and upon checking google shopping saw some  mosquito versions.  

UPDATE: Fiddlesticks!  It looks like some company beat me to the punch with some overpriced $400 gizmo.  But, I think there's still a market for bed bug catchers in the $50-75 range.

Bed bug trap

- -   -  Reusable human scent cartridges. Gotta keep it green

-          - Poisoned "blood" for bugs to suck on, if they get that far

-         - Generate CO2 via combustion Ideally renewable CO₂, but non-renewable propane is most likely.  Combustion also provides heat

-          - Provide things that simulate bedding to trap bugs in sticky stuff/vacuumed out

-          - Needs to be usable indoors- issues with too much CO2 generation

-          - A green alternative to using carbamates, organophosphates, etc. with likely long-term central nervous system (CNS) issues.  FYI Republicans in Ohio were pretty upset with the EPA for banning the use of these pesticides in people's beds.  I'm not knowledgable of pesticide application improvements, but the pesticide companies said their methods have improved greatly and for one item, you'd have to "lick the baseboard 8 hrs a day for 40 years for any effects."  I think if you licked a baseboard that long you'd probably develop other physical and psychological issues irrelevant of what was on the baseboard.

-          - If anyone wants to partner with me in designing a cheap "Sweet Ass Bed Bug catcher..."  aka SABBOTAGE! send me a message.  I think I'll send the idea along to the entrepreneurial group on campus, it'd be a fun system to design for someone.  

           - Yesterday I drove to Toronto, huzah!  Hopefully an update on my mental processes will be forthcoming, but really this is just a distraction from real work I should be doing.

            Love and peace

Random thoughts from 2-14-11->2-15-11

I see many people around me aging.  I saw a picture of Dr. Topoleski, who I haven’t seen in like 2 years, and he looked older.  Although, picture angles and what not can be deceptive.  People in choir are all white (maybe there’s a female minority, but there’s too many females to know) and generally older than 55, many over 70.

I was excited to enter the GSVC, but after contacting them I found out that the executive summary deadline had already passed.  This wasn’t listed on their website.  Way lame.  I was getting excited about this competition, but I found a couple others I can enter- http://www.williamjamesfoundation.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&PageID=905

But the whole business-competition thing feels a bit wrong, not exactly the right word… contrived?  I’m just an anti-capitalist hippie at times.  There’s two others I could do but the events overlap with the EPA activities.

Seeing as how the idea of med school doesn’t currently thrill me out the wazoo, I think I’ll wait another year before submitting an application.  I don’t really have much excitement for anything.  Making a business seems like a cool project.  I think that’s what’s driven me the most “____ seems cool” and then I do that as a short-term project.  At least with regards to most exciting school/service type things I’ve done in the past 4 years.  That was definitely the case for med school for a while, and I nearly applied last May, but the letter of recommendation from UMBC Premed Office stopped up those plans.  Passion, I want passion.  I want excitement.  Tonight, I’ll finish up slides to teach some kids tomorrow, hopefully get to the gym, EPA P3 things, etc.  Exciting *rolls eyes*

The awesomely new building I work on has some HVAC problems.  It's frequently in a vacuum, maybe from all the hoods.  There's a draft through the whole building now.  Kind of hilarious for an 8 month-old building.

Apparently the friendly morning janitor lady's husband is real ill and might not make it.  This is very sad.   She’s one of the nicest people I know at Lehigh.

At the gym I asked why, again.  Tomorrow I’m going to teach kids about coagulation and flocculation.  Maybe one day one of them will get a job somewhere where they help provide clean drinking water from surface water and use coagulation to remove the fine particulate.  If so, I can imagine that I will have helped, in the slightest way, to provide clean water to future generations.  This is a good thing and gives me drive to keep doing what I’m doing (at least for the late hours of tonight).  Without having meaning behind all actions, things don’t matter as much and sometimes you just don’t care about the side effects of your actions.

I’ve seen a girl I TA’d last semester at the gym like 2x in the past 5 days.  I think I weird her out.  I tend to think this is the reaction from most girls I first meet.  I guess I am a bit socially awkward for others, especially in a place like Lehigh.  This probably isn’t going to change anytime soon.

021011

So what’s Mike been up to?

I got a nice break after the proposal to keep pondering the Universe and start to get back in shape.  I’ve been trying that the last couple days and today walking is difficult.  But the hormones are firing much better.  Yeah!  Frequently when in the gym solo towards the end after lifting/running like mad, I really wonder what’s the point.  But my mood the subsequent day is so much more upbeat and energetic versus not lifting/running/biking. 

Recent graduate pursuits:

-          Business plan competition- Global Social Venture Competition http://www.gsvc.org/

-          EPA P3 Phase II Proposal http://www.epa.gov/P3/

Instead of doing research, I write.  I think this is a good thing.  I was always told that writing skills are important to have as an engineer, and mine need improvement.  I’ve never completed a Business Proposal (almost started one) and this will only be my second proposal.

I’m supposed to consider whether or not to apply to medical school, and then start that process.  I have no idea and haven’t put the time into thinking about PhD vs MD.  Talking with my advisor feels useful in the process even though we don’t talk about med school.  I wonder how long has he been driven by the economic component to make projects work.  I think he sees the business side as a tool for change.  He mentioned that he’s ignored possible financial benefits in favor for the wellness of others.  His emphasis that charity and compassion aren’t effective, only science and technology are could must come from experience.  Whether failures of his charity/compassion or seeing the failures of other altruists?  It’s probably a mixed bag, definitely the latter with regards to the arsenic epidemic in Indian subcontinent.

I got kind of excited to go to Atlanta this weekend, possibly, and see a Beluga whale and a Whale shark.  But, that ain’t happening.  Oh well, maybe eventually.

I just got back from a talk on Argentine soccer championships in the 1910’s-1920’s which doesn’t sound too illuminating at first.  It was by Jeffrey Richey, a PhD student at UNC-Chapel Hill who’s nearing completion.  It seems like he’s put in a ton of time and really knows his stuff.  But, it’s very pertinent for understanding the root of current political opinions.  I learned the following:

Back in the 1910’s-1920’s

-          Buenos Aires considered itself to be white and very European.  This also goes for the surrounding regions.  The portenyo (I don’t know where to find “n-yey” in a timely fashion)

-          The interior was predominantly Mestizo-Hispanic in background and darker skinned

-          The age old white-black racial fear, racism, etc. comes into play and Buenos Aires considers the interior to be full of Indian hicks

-          A Santiago team (from NW region) finally won in 1928 after the Buenos Aires’ refs had corrupted a previous couple games and it was huge in the view of Interior citizens as people and just blacks/Indians

-          Later in the 30’s many international stars were imported to Buenos Aires and competition from Interior teams was minimal. 

-          The soccer championships started as a move to boost nationalistic (read: Buenos Aires) pride.  So losing to the lesser people wasn’t the most effective.

Use of sports for history work:

-          He made some great points to the effectiveness of sports to enable open conversation on people’s world/local views.  It helped that Argentina was a fully democratic nation at this point

-          I think this is a great point in assessing the populus’ feelings, esp. letters from the people, watching news trends, buyership, etc.

For me:

-          I’m working with a guy to get water treatment for people in Pastos Chicos (http://www.pastoschicos.blogspot.com/) , Argentina (Jujuy region) in the northwest.  Being way out in the middle of nowhere Andes and predominantly Native, I think I see some biases against this people group.  We’ve had HAIX resin, material for removing arsenic and providing clean water, in customs for who knows how long.  One trip has been delayed because of the delay.

-          He mentioned the lack of gov’t funded development work for the NW region and when I mentioned my project, he said that was a current example.

-          It’s almost a case of human rights or environmental justice violations.  But, the gov’t is currently providing them clean water, so it’s not.  But, it would save the gov’t much money if we’d just install the system.  Go figure.  It’ll eventually happen, just a bit slow. 

I lost my copy of “Did the Ressurection Happen?” at the gym for a day and then got it from Lost and  Found.  I made some overly spicy potato cubes in the oven that ended up burning a bit and creating “pepper spray” for Matt.  They’re kind of rough on the stomach to eat.  Between that, dahl, and cereal my stomach’s been ridiculously fragrant.  The dahl turned out all right, no whole cumin seeds.

I visited the awesome Paul Gallo last weekend in Philly and had a fun night.  With three of his friends we went to a club where Paul and I were rejected because we were wearing boots.  Paul’s looked like high top dress shoes then next pair he wore honestly looked identical.  Mine were meant for hiking the Grand Canyon, so yeah.  But, I’ve never been rejected from a place based on dress because I’ve never been clubbing.  I even got into the upstairs of Brewer’s Art in t-shirt and shorts and felt totally out of place.  So we got back on the train changed and came back 45 min later to find some of his friends getting kicked out for being drunk/tripping over things.  Then we stood around for 45 min trying to harangue ~15 people.  I eventually went with some people to another club/diner, Star/Silo City (?), where I got a yuengling and bowl of soup cause I was starving.  Then it cost $6 for guys and $3 for girls to dance.  It reminded me of a cramped together student council dance, something I haven’t been to in ages.  That was fun enough.  Then some of us walked to a pizza place and I split off to find Paul Gallo in Lucy’s.  There I used the bathroom walked around for about 2 min then left, cause Paul wasn’t there.  That was a dive club that could’ve used much more bass and less treble.  Oh yeah, I split from Paul outside of McFadden’s (the original place) and afterwards eventually found him again.  I guess it’s common in large groups for people to indecisive in trying not to disagree with anyone else’s tastes, but my goodness there was a lot of standing around and wondering what to do that night.  Also, not trying to lose people was difficult.  Silly drunk kids.  Then Paul and I walked back to his place in Center City.  I miss being around a city even though when I was in Baltimore I was yet to join city life because everyone I knew was a couple miles away at UMBC. 

In the morning at Paul’s place I started reading a book by the philosopher Adler on some of the big issues.  I read a bit on religion and love.  I forget the bit on religion but he made a case for, if all parts were known to be true, God would exist.  He couldn’t decide whether all parts are true, but he made the leap to faith anyway stating that he knows it’s not a rational jump.  His bit on love described the three types of friendships: economic (goods and services), desire/pleasure, and admiration/mutual appreciation.  The first is based on practicality.  The second is based on individual pleasure.  But in the last, love can be.  It’s a mutualistic relationship based on appreciation of the other, or something like that- this was a week ago, I forget details mad fast.  But, afterwards I recognized the desires for pleasure the previous night don’t satisfy, and was reminded of the wonder that is falling in love with someone’s mind/spirit. 

I saw this commercial on the gym TV’s the other night while running on a treadmill Samsung Tab (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPfCZC4VHnE) .  That thing is ridiculous.  I forget the words on the commercial but it talks about exploring a new world and new possibilities when the huge, friggin thing totally obstructs the person’s view of the world.  His every interaction in the world is meaningless because he’s staring at a TV 24/7.  From the mini-phone phase to the computer-in-my-pocket phase in 6 years.  Dang.  Scary similarities to Wall-E.  If we can get Google’s auto-pilot cars working faster maybe Wall-E can be real sooner than not!

I’ve seen bits of the struggle for Egyptian democracy and it’s really humbling.  People are there not for themselves but for their friends, family, and future generations.  They understand that their presence puts their life at risk in the moment and the future, if the revolution’s not successful.  I was part of a videoconference where a Cairo University Professor of Political Science has been attending the rally with her kids, and she’s willing to sacrifice what’s needed for the people’s well-being.  I didn’t realize the initial start of the recent unrest has been linked with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Mohamed_Bouazizi).  During his life as a street-salesman he was constantly harassed by corrupt police wanting bribes or taking his goods.  After being humiliated by a female official he lit himself on fire outside a government building.  The importance of that being the huge value of pride and status in culture, and the lesser worth of women.  At this point, I can’t imagine what I’d die for, nor why I would voluntarily die.  The tenacity and lack of fear blows my mind.  George W Bush got a lot of flack during his years in Presidency for many good reasons.  But, if the Afghanistan/Iraqi wars are some of the root causes of successful democratic surges in the Middle East, he will be an unmentioned hero to many.  Although, rhetorically this might be accurate it probably wasn’t his real desire to spread democracy.  Looking back at post-WWII communist fear and modern Islamic dictatorial fear there seems like many parallels could be drawn.  But, I don’t know history.  US’s meek role in wanting not to upset their international military interests is sad.  I’m pretty much ignoring national US politics because it’s going to get real stupid over the next two years of inactivity and argument.  I saw something in Science Daily linking a nation’s well-being to public health.  The international economic decline has made the other international problems intensify. 

Sidenote: the communities that have formed in Tahrir Square are awesome.   There’s been marriages, a full blown wedding, music, poetry, and community.  But, the radical change in relations between Muslims-Christians over shared political vision will be tenuous at best, when the communal reliance dies down.

Alright, I’ve been typing for a while and won’t bring my computer home cause that’s what I’ve been doing lately.  So that’s probably enough for this unfocused update.  Take care cool people :)

Much love,

Mike G

Snowy Grocery Store Walk & Learning to Read

Walked over to Ahart’s and got breakfast.  Along the way a lady asked me for $0.50 and I asked what for and she said food.  I took her with while I was shopping, it was a bit odd getting groceries with her 5 ft behind me.  Their organic stuff’s expensive and limited so I didn’t get much organic, like normal.  I question the environmental benefits of organic versus spending the money on other items.  But, organic foods do taste better and for cost to go down the market supply and demand needs to grow.  She said she couldn’t eat much cause she lost a bunch of teeth and had some loose ones, and she chose Campbell’s creamy tomato soup to go (~8 oz of soup for $1.50).  I got her the generic hearty chicken and rice for $2.15.  But, really if you cook on your own you could make a pot of soup for like $7 that lasts you ~5 meals.  At one point in the store she still asked for money because she needed something at the pharmacy.  Between her lack of teeth, spacey behavior, and desire for money I’m guessing she was using meth.  As I mentioned before, the US should probably make pseudoephedrine prescription only.  When we left I had bought $10 of groceries, $2 for her soup.  I said good bye and it looked like she was confused as to where to go.  I was tired and just continued on my way.  With all the snow lots of people are making money shoveling, apparently $10/hr on campus if you get to the right place at 3-4AM.  But she’s getting SSI for some disability, so maybe she can’t.  I think if I walk more places life would be more interesting and less zombie-like.

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I wonder how common it is for students to writer their own letter of recommendation when someone else is too busy.  Well, it is a bit my fault because of procrastination.  We’ll include this in the list of new things done around this proposal.

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I may just eat a whole box of “Raisin Bran Extra!” today.  Not for any good reason except that I bought it as part of breakfast.

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After re-reading the proposal details my submission won’t count at all because they’re going to review submissions up until Feb 1^st - the date I was going to submit.  Also, I screwed up getting outside recommendations’ and those probably won’t happen.  Holy crap.  After killing myself the last two weeks working on this thing it doesn’t matter because I suck at reading and not skimming.  Well, I figured this would be a lesson in something.  It was a lesson in reading.