Liz's Bloglet - Sunday 18 March 2007

Hugo Schwyzer explains why he's supporting John Edwards for President:
But the truth is that the Gospel says relatively little about the sanctity of marriage. It says relatively little about pre-marital sex. Unless one tortures the text, it says nothing about when life begins. But it does say a heck of a lot about poverty. It does talk about the responsibility to do justice, and the kind of justice Scripture refers to most often is the justice that needs to be done to the poorest and most vulnerable among us. Jesus speaks more about money than about any other topic other than the Kingdom of Heaven itself.
...
I am supporting John Edwards because of all the major candidates, his stance on poverty and justice most closely matches what I believe to be the biblical call to do justice and love mercy. And I am supporting him because I believe that in the end, when we are held to account by our maker, we will be judged less by what we did in our bedrooms and more by how we cared for the poor, the alienated, the frightened and the oppressed. _
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01:06:08 PM, Sunday 18 March 2007

I went to a St. Patrick's Day party at the home of some friends from UGA who now live here (one's a post-doc, one's a professor at a small women's college). It was a lot of fun. They have a really cool house, reasonable size, in an older neighborhood in Durham. And they have nice furniture and walls covered with beautiful art and things they've collected from their travels. It's especially depressing since he started his PhD at the same time that I started my MS, without getting a master's first. _
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10:21:51 PM, Saturday 17 March 2007

An interesting analogy for academia:
There is today a serious mismatch between the nature and purpose of the doctoral degree and the demands and expectations of the academy. Imagine spending years training an athlete to learn the intricacies of playing football, and then once he finishes playing college ball, assuming because he is a well-trained athlete he can immediately be appointed head coach. This is essentially what we do in the academy. --Alvin Kwiram (from FemaleCSGradStudent) _
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10:05:33 PM, Saturday 17 March 2007

The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it! (It's rather like getting tenure.) -- Daniel Dennett, _Consciousness Explained_, p. 177 _
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03:57:39 PM, Friday 16 March 2007

This is amazing. These people seem to be filling a need. _
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06:26:08 PM, Tuesday 13 March 2007

I just discovered that my brain expects all blue things to be Word documents and all green things to be Excel documents. Stupid Microsoft and silly brain. _
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04:57:38 PM, Monday 12 March 2007

First, a chemistry lesson. Atoms join together into molecules in a number of different ways. In ionic bonding, one atom "gives" one or more electrons to another atom so that they both have full outer electron shells and are oppositely charged (which joins them together). This happens in those elements whose outer shells are easily completed. The products of ionic bonding are salts, like NaCl (table salt). This is usually noted with superscripts showing charge: Na⁺Cl^-.

In covalent bonding, atoms "share" one, two, or three electrons so that they both have full electron shells (and are held together by sharing). This happens in molecules of a single element, like N₂, H₂, and O₂, and molecules involving those elements and/or carbon, like water, alcohols and sugars. They are very high strong bonds and require high energy to break. They are usually noted by drawing the bonds: O=O H-O-H.

In free radicals, energy causes one electron in an atom to get excited and move to a new, outer energy shell, breaking any bond the atom might have been in in the process. This excited electron causes the atom to then bond where ever it can. This happens most commonly in the stratosphere (where solar energy is plentiful) and with chlorine, fluorine, etc and oxygen. (You sometimes hear them mentioned in human health, because, basically, wherever they are they tend to disrupt the molecules around them.) It is usually noted by putting a dot next to the atom to signify the electron: O.

The Ozone Layer
The ozone layer is located in, and basically is, the stratosphere. There, it is produced by the dissociation of oxygen molecules (O₂) by ultraviolet energy from the sun causing the creation of a oxygen free radical, which then joins with another oxygen molecule to form O₃. When ultraviolet light hits ozone, it breaks the ozone back into O₂ and an O and they will recombine with their neighbors and form ozone again. This continuous process keeps the stratosphere quite warm and (most importantly for us) prevents a lot of ultraviolet light from reaching the earth's surface.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are anthropogenic ("man-made") organic molecules where some or all of the hydrogens usually attached to the carbons have been replaced with chlorines or fluorines (or less frequently bromine or iodine). Here in the lower part of the atmosphere, they are remarkably stable, even at high temperatures and thus have many useful applications.

Their high stability, however, means that when they escape for their useful applications they remain in the atmosphere a really long time. While chlorine from sea salt frequently ends up in the atmosphere, it usually reacts and falls back to earth long before rising into the stratosphere, becoming a free radical, and reacting with ozone. CFCs, however, are not affected by the processes in the troposphere and thus are able rise quite high while still whole. In the stratosphere, they are bombarded with UV energy just like everything else. There, all those chlorines and fluorines become individual free radicals, breaking down ozone, bonding with oxygen, and slowing/preventing reformation.

Side not: Ozone in the troposphere
You may have heard ozone called a pollutant and been very confused by that. Ozone can be produced by free radical reactions down here where we live and breathe, as well as in the stratosphere. These reactions occur when nitrous oxide, a common by-product of combustion of fossil fuels (and volcanoes, forest fires, and biological processes in streams and wetlands), is broken into free radicals by ultraviolet light. The covalent bonds of NO₂ are lower energy than all of the bonds in CFCs and enough UV reaches us to cause this in the troposphere. On a hot, sunny day in LA (or here in the Triangle) enough free radicals can be made from air pollution to make a whole lot of ozone, which our bodies expect to be regular O₂ but isn't, making asthmatics and such people sick. _
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02:42:50 PM, Monday 12 March 2007

Maybe a lot of people have already seen this, but I need to hang it next to my desk and point at it often.

The worst of it is that extroverts have no idea of the torment they put us through. Sometimes, as we gasp for air amid the fog of their 98-percent-content-free talk, we wonder if extroverts even bother to listen to themselves. Still, we endure stoically, because the etiquette books—written, no doubt, by extroverts—regard declining to banter as rude and gaps in conversation as awkward. We can only dream that someday, when our condition is more widely understood, when perhaps an Introverts' Rights movement has blossomed and borne fruit, it will not be impolite to say "I'm an introvert. You are a wonderful person and I like you. But now please shush." _
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01:43:20 PM, Monday 12 March 2007

You're a kitty! _
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07:15:49 PM, Sunday 11 March 2007

Things I was wrong about in March 2003:
The stinky trees are Bradford pears, the tasty things at the grocery store are Bartlett pears.

I did not vote for Howard Dean in the primary, because he was no longer running by the time the Georgia Democratic primary rolled around. I voted for Edwards, instead, on the off chance that he would beat Kerry in Georgia and slow Kerry's momentum. I was wrong about that, too, and should have followed my foolish impulse to vote for Kucinich.

In retrospect, Equilibrium was only slightly less crappy than The Matrix.

Posting anti-war songs on a blog nobody reads does not prevent war. _
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08:04:35 AM, Saturday 10 March 2007

In addition to destroying the ozone layer, chloroflorocarbons (CFCs) are major greenhouse gases. New research shows that our drastic reduction of CFC release, the Montreal Protocol, means that we have experienced much slower global climate change than we would have if we had continued on that course. This also demonstrates that a global initiative to fight climate change can be effective, and we can all still have fridges and air conditioners and even aerosol deodorant.

I am glad to explain the mechanisms by which CFCs destroy ozone as well as why they're such potent greenhouse gases (10,000 times as much energy trapped as carbon dioxide) if people are actually interested. Because biogeochemistry is important. _
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01:03:25 PM, Thursday 8 March 2007

If you live somewhere other than the US, you know that today is International Women's Day. In honor, the UN brings us a snapshot of the status of women.
* Violence against women is the most common but least punished crime in the world.

* It is estimated that between 113 million and 200 million women are demographically "missing." They have been the victims of infanticide (boys are preferred to girls) or have not received the same amount of food and medical attention as their brothers and fathers.

* The number of women forced or sold into prostitution is estimated worldwide at anywhere between 700,000 and 4,000,000 per year. Profits from sex slavery are estimated at seven to twelve billion US dollars per year.

* Globally, women between the age of fifteen and forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die as a result of male violence than through cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war combined.

* At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Usually, the abuser is a member of her own family or someone known to her. Domestic violence is the largest form of abuse of women worldwide, irrespective of region, culture, ethnicity, education, class and religion.

* It is estimated that more than two million girls are genitally mutilated per year, a rate of one girl every fifteen seconds.

* Systematic rape is used as a weapon of terror in many of the world's conflicts. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women in Rwanda were raped during the 1994 genocide.

* Studies show the increasing links between violence against women and HIV and demonstrate that HIV-infected women are more likely to have experienced violence, and that victims of violence are at higher risk of HIV infection.

Figures taken from:

Secretary-General's in-depth study on violence against women (2006) (A/61/122/Add.1)

Vlachovà, Marie and Biason, Lea, Eds. (2004) Women in an Insecure World: Violence Against Women - Facts, Figures and Analysis. Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces _
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10:59:34 AM, Thursday 8 March 2007

We're singing a setting of this hymn to a new tune. The complete text is much longer than is in most hymnbooks now, and this text really stands out, written by a Catholic Priest in 1854, but the perfect words for the small-minded among us today:
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.
_
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09:34:14 PM, Wednesday 7 March 2007

Conversation this morning:
Remi: Michael Berube is blogging on the weekends at Pandagon now. [it's true and it's awesome] He really likes hockey.
Liz: Yeah, he really does.
Remi: Hockey is really the silliest sport. They have so much equipment.
Liz: They really don't have that much more equipment than football players.
Remi: They've got those pads and helmets which are bigger than football players'. Plus they've got skates with great big blades.
Liz: There's not that much difference between their skates and special football shoes.
Remi: No, the skates have great big blades.
Liz: You're just scared that ice skate blades are going to cut off your finger.
Remi: How did you know that? That's it. Have I told you that before?
Liz: No, I just know you.
Remi: You have to blog this. _
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12:11:56 PM, Monday 5 March 2007

At least we're not descended from monkeys. _
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11:20:15 AM, Monday 5 March 2007

An interesting story about real estate in Athens, GA that might interest people thinking about affordable housing, especially in a college town. _
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11:10:10 AM, Monday 5 March 2007

Until Grad Student Spa comes to fruition, an assortment of Dutch cheeses is a wonderful substitute! Thanks so much, Julia and Moss. They are very tasty. _
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09:49:24 PM, Wednesday 28 February 2007

While reading this book in the bath, I developed a new business someone should open: grad student spa. At regular spas, you spend all day doing nothing but being pampered--being pampered is the activity. But grad students wouldn't stand for that; the whole reason we want to be pampered is so we can get more work done.

So, here's what grad student spa would involve:
really big bath tubs with convenient book shelves
personal trainers and massage therapists
healthy, tasty food cooked by somebody else
cats and dogs there to be sweet and cute (but taken care of by somebody else)
public and private study areas of all shapes and sizes
planned, interesting, fun activities that could be enjoyed as (brief) study breaks

Of course, nobody would get rich off of this business model, since grad students have no money. Maybe we could include it in grants... _
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02:17:54 PM, Saturday 24 February 2007

A really nice story about my friend Lanny (and his dog Catherine), who I used to carpool to choir with, but who now lives in a camper in a churchyard in Luling, LA. _
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01:05:31 PM, Saturday 24 February 2007

A Person Paper on Purity in Language by William Satire _
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12:06:02 PM, Saturday 24 February 2007

I just got asked to buy a Duke Lacrosse t-shirt to support them as their season starts. Unironically. By somebody I really like. I'm afraid I wasn't very nice. I think it's fair to say that at the very least their team culture is one in which drunken stripper parties and racist insults are acceptable and that is not a culture which I support. And I don't see why that should be a controversial opinion. _
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01:07:54 PM, Thursday 22 February 2007

Complete repealing of the estate tax:
# Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune receives $32.7 billion dollar tax break over the next ten years while the proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame are $28 billion.

# Mars family (as in the evil candy corporation that uses child labor to work cocoa farms in places like Cote D'Ivoire) gets $11.7 billion in tax breaks. That's more than three times the amount Bush wants to cut from the VA budget ($3.4 billion) over the same time period.

# Cox family (Cox cable TV) receives $9.7 billion tax break while education would get $1.5 billion in cuts

# Nordstrom family (Nordstrom dept. stores) receives $826.5 million tax break while Community Service Block Grants would be eliminated, a $630 million cut

# Ernest Gallo family (shitty wines) receives a $468.4 million cut while LIHEAP (heating oil to poor) would get a $420 million cut

And thanks to Senator Bernie Saunders for refusing to sit down and shut up. _
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09:05:57 AM, Thursday 22 February 2007

The Truth (via Mirabai) _
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05:36:20 PM, Monday 19 February 2007

So, did anybody else have to throw away their peanut butter this morning? It was a pretty new jar, too, more than 3/4 full. Very sad. _
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06:05:06 PM, Friday 16 February 2007

The best comment I've seen on the internet today:
News flash: John Edwards announced today that Jesus Christ was joining his campaign. Critics immediately questioned the move, citing Jesus' illegitimate birth, lack of credentials, his record of disrupting legitimate temple business, his association with a known prostitute, his apparent endorsement of higher taxes, rumors of homosexuality from his frequenting the company of unmarried sailors and particularly after his having been witnessed kissing another man in a public park, his anti-war statements and his treasonous comments questioning the powers of the government. Other rumors include Jesus having a foot fetish, having engaged in faith healing and in one extreme case claiming to have cast out devils and to have brought a man back from the dead. The critics also showed recent photos of Jesus as favoring long hair and a beard as well as wearing sandals, an apparent holdover from his years as a wandering hippie after his half-hearted attempt at making an honest living doing carpentry.
*
In a later response, the Edwards campaign distanced themselves from the scandal, saying that Jesus was only working as a volunteer and did not in fact have any official capacity with the campaign. _
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04:44:42 PM, Friday 16 February 2007

My office is completely full of chaos today and, as hypothesized when I first saw the series of connected grad student offices with panel doors in between, it is impossible to keep people from walking through. If the panel doors are closed, then it's just noisier when people walk through as they slide them open and closed.

So I went to the library. Duke's library is usually fairly quiet--people tend to turn off their cell phones and there are lots of group study rooms with closeable doors for those who like to chat. But, right now, there are what sound like jack hammers in the library. Apparently the remodeling is not quite complete. So now I am off in search of almost anywhere that lacks my annoying labmates, sliding panel doors, and jackhammers. _
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10:18:30 AM, Thursday 15 February 2007

Chapter 7 of Nancy Gordon's excellent book Stream Hydrology: An Introduction for Ecologists is a review of the basic principles of geomorphology. Section 7.4.2 begins:
The picture presented in the previous section is muddied by the great variability and unpredictability of sediment motion.

muddied!

Yay! _
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09:30:37 AM, Thursday 15 February 2007

Things I am thinking about right now:

The overarching question of my dissertation has become:
What are the underlying factors (structural, hydrologic, biological) of carbon processing in streams and how can we use urban and urban restored streams to better understand them?

It's reciprocal question is obviously there, too:
How can we use our knowledge of the underlying factors of carbon processing in streams to better manage urban streams?

My committee has given two more questions to think about:
How important is the diversity of organisms within a given community (microbes, bugs, fish, or plants) in the restoration of a stream?

How does the evolution of channel shape due to urbanization affect nutrient cycling?

I still have two more committee members from whom to get long difficult things to think about. My official "minor" is in Hydrology and I haven't heard from the hydrologist yet. I also haven't heard from the terrestrial biogeochemist, so I expect a soil question will be added to that (note to self: learn something about soils). (The previous two questions were obviously from the community ecologist and the geomorphologist).

For those keeping score, my prelims are April 20th. _
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02:23:30 PM, Wednesday 14 February 2007

As I was walking home I said to myself, "It sure looks like it's going to snow." As of a couple of minutes ago, AccuWeather agrees with me, saying we might get an inch tonight. It appears that this winter is trying to make up for last winter's utter lack of frozen precipitation. _
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06:52:36 PM, Friday 9 February 2007

There are some great religious jokes here. By great I mean funny and smart and generally the sort of thing we tell at church choir practice. So not at all appropriate for the easily offended Christian fundamentalists. _
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05:25:26 PM, Friday 9 February 2007

Teenage Boys Helpfully Point Out Fat Girl's Shortcomings _
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03:20:12 PM, Friday 9 February 2007

This one's for Matthew (another paper not to present to middle schoolers): Great Tits Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards _
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02:38:40 PM, Friday 9 February 2007

A really interesting article by a Duke law professor (and father of a friend of mine) about the actual legal issues surrounding the ethics charges against District Attorney Nifong. Basically, a compelling case could be made that the part of the DNA report he withheld (that DNA was present that did not belong to the accused) was in keeping with existing rape shield laws. _
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02:23:59 PM, Friday 9 February 2007

For the church music nerd(s) reading this:
Anglican Weather Forecast _
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12:25:27 PM, Wednesday 7 February 2007

...you skipped the not-being-a-jerk-about-it part.

This reminds me of my new argument for how to resolve this debate about ordination of homosexuals without splitting denominations or Nigerian bishops. See, I think being a self-righteous asshole is a sin. I personally would never attend a church with a self-righteous asshole as a pastor. But an awful lot of denominations, and certain churches within mainline denominations, have no trouble ordaining self-righteous assholes, and indeed are completely convinced that it is a virtue, not a sin, to be a self-righteous asshole and that God calls self-righteous assholes all the time. Similarly, I think that is is a virtue, not a sin to be gay and that God calls gay people all the time.

So, I figure, we can all agree that we won't challenge their ordination self-righteous assholes, who are obviously sinners in our eyes, if they won't challenge our ordination of homosexuals, who are obviously sinners in their eyes. Good compromise? _
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10:25:39 AM, Wednesday 7 February 2007

One of my common responses to those who use the brilliant line "evolution is just a theory" is to ask them if they "believe" in the theory of gravity or germ theory. Imagine my horror to find this site for those who don't believe in germ theory

A healthy human body emits a daytime frequency between 62 and 68 MHz. Naturally, a healthy person's frequency will be harmonious and balanced. Cancer's frequency starts at 47, and death at 25. The chaotic, incoherent frequencies of electric machines, fluorescent lights, television, computers and cars clearly disorient us; they lower and scramble our own body frequency. _
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01:02:10 PM, Friday 2 February 2007

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