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October 04, 2004
It's getting cold...
It's getting cold...those around me would probably say it's not too bad for Indiana, but for me it's just getting a bit too nippy for comfort. It'll get into the mid 60s today...perhaps I'm whining, but it just seems a little unfair that the high will reach 83 today at home. That's a striking 18 degree differential! I know the differential will increase as time goes by, which frightens me. We'll see how I hold up with respect to weather...for now I'll just stay sick.
Speaking of which, being sick sucks. This time the sickness has come and gone rather quickly, which is good news because I really want to get back to my exercise and work routine.
I wanted to talk a little about peoples' folk understanding when it comes to scientific issues. I feel that it's a problem throughout our society. For example, when I told each of my parents that I was sick, they were sure it was due to the fact that the weather is a bit colder here. In actuality, I'm sure I just caught some sort of virus in this new environment I'm spending time in. Is sickness caused by weather change? In some cases, yes. In my case, this time, no.
If you don't understand how viruses work, then it is easy to take up a folk science mentality. Likewise, if you don't understand stem cells, you're likely to develop a religious outlook on the subject. Now, I do not want this forum to turn into a place to discuss presidential politics-we all know there are far too many pundits these days anyway-however, I will say that GeeDub is a rather ig'nant mofo when it comes to the topic of stem cell science. Does he not realize that these cells, which come from nearly immediately post-conception fetuses, can become almost any kind of cell in the body? This means that these cells can be used to treat everything from neural deformities to cancer. Awesome, no? YES! Ok, enought politico-science punditry from me.
Ok, I'm going to bail, lots on my plate this week. Big test friday, paper due next tues, programming assignment due next mon. Alright, so there isn't much on my plate this week...but I must prepare for next week at some point!
Current books, in case you care:
Interaction Design to teach to silly undergrads
Interface Culture to learn about the history and future of the interfaces of our lives
Smart Mobs is kinda on the back-burner, but I would like to dive back in when I get some time
Distributed Work ... because a little Social Informatics (formerly DCog in my mind) never hurt 'nobody
learn.perl.org is definitely a must
Posted at October 4, 2004 11:58 AM