"What are you, a plutocrat?"

Approximately 80years old, rotund, and wearing a pair of silver, wire framed glasses, he says to me: ‘nice frames’.

Two days later, he notices that I’m wearing a different pair of glasses and says, ‘what are you, a plutocrat?’

A plutocrat is a person who exercises power by virtue of wealth. And, although in no way was I trying to reign over this man, nor flaunt the few dollars I make each hour, he perceived my two pairs of glasses as both.

But I ask myself, ‘would it be wrong of me to display wealth?’

In a capitalist society such as America, where money is directly correlated with success, and success is a measure of one’s fitness (see: Darwin), purchased objects are merely a means of communicating the following to another: I’ve worked hard, and this is what I have to show for it. Displaying wealth is not wrong.

As for using one’s wealth to control a group of people, of course this is wrong. Power in the hands of the rich. Never good. For, I’d have no power in this world.

proud Saruman

my brother's design for a kid's toy just won 3rd place in a competition. the toy (pictured above) might be chosen to go into production through the Naef company http://naefspiele.ch/home_english.html.

so cool. and i'm so proud.

although, i've already given Andrew shit for making A the repeating design element...

a hypochondriac's guide to becoming disease-free

1. eat the innocuous bacteria from off the agarose gel, pictured above
2. take the class that i will be teaching in two years

Course Description and Goals: The main goal of this course is to understand how and why microbes (bacteria and viruses) cause human disease. In order to obtain this goal, we will first study the microorganisms that infect various parts of the body and how they do so. For example, we will talk about how both pneumococcus and the influenza virus infect the respiratory tract. Although these two microbes are quite different in the way they infect, they both invade the same region of the body. Why? How do they survive in this part of the body, and how does transmission occur given their anatomical niche.
In the second part of the class, students will be asked to research host immune responses to infection and then teach their classmates about the dynamics between microbes and host cells. The interplay between host and microbe is an important determinant for whether or not disease occurs.
Finally, in the last part of the class, we will review case studies as a group. Students will come to class having read over a study that examines disease outbreaks or other microbe related mysteries. We will apply much of the information that we learned in the first parts of the class to problem solving in much the same way that a field scientist would.
This class is designed for undergraduate students interested in learning how to keep the world free of disease - both real and imagined.

My favorite Guppy

I guess what I’m trying to say is that fish die. But they’re not gone. Their bodies decompose and they become the trees, the grass, the slimy pit at the bottom of your cat’s stomach, and maybe even the blockage in your toilet’s plumbing. They’re always around. Just in a different form than they were before.

I look forward to the future with you, Guppy.

by special request...

a COLOR photo of spring

SPRING

makes me smile

vices and foibles

Should we be able to control our vices autonomously or do we need assistance from time to time?


I ate three cupcakes the other night. THREE. I wouldn’t normally do something so potentially detrimental to my figure, but they were available and I was feeling weak. I didn’t want to eat them, I didn’t even enjoy eating them, and I definitely didn’t feel good after eating them.

I usually overcome my moments of weakness by resting my mind in the bubbles of a bath, by watching TV, or by swimming. But the other night, I ate f-ing cupcakes. Damn it.

Would I have indulged so decadently, and so potentially waistsize-hazardously had I not kept the cupcakes on my kitchen counter? Or had someone been regulating how many I ate? Probably not.

...Because accessibility was a major impetus in my impulsive decision, do I think that I should formulate a way of making sure that cupcakes are inaccessible to me at all times? For example, should I insist that a higher power make cupcake sales illegal?

No. And here's why:
a- Just because I can't control my own impulses, it doesn't mean there should be a law prohibiting others from having their cupcake, and eating it too.
b- Guilt. That woozy feeling will prevent me from doing it again.
c- There are already natural deterrents inherent in wrongful deeds. For instance, I will gain weight from the cupcakes.
d- You fill in this blank.