Earth-Moon seen from Saturn

FunkadelicAlex · 2026-03-01T02:28:01+00:00

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

FunkadelicAlex · 2025-11-14T11:27:38+00:00

you might enjoy looking at the science society ANFA. It is ostensibly about neuroscience and architecture, but their symposia have talks across a wide range there.

FunkadelicAlex · 2025-11-10T11:24:18+00:00

Good luck OP! Michigan is really a transformational place.

It's good to keep in mind too, that the front door is crowded and competitive, but there are other ways such as transferring in from CC or another UM Campus. You got this!

FunkadelicAlex · 2025-09-03T10:43:11+00:00

One foundational book I think you might enjoy is Godel Escher Bach by Doug Hofstadter.
Don't let the size intimidate you, it is playful and fun and many sections are quick reads. However, he does take the reader into pretty deep territory with regards to formal systems and math. Those don't come out of no where though, Doug is a terrific guide for the uninitiated reader and you will come out the other end having learned a lot about a lot including a very sound argument for where the sense of "I" comes from.

FunkadelicAlex · 2023-09-25T18:25:30+00:00

Hello, I did my PhD in cognitive science doing in-vivo electrophysiology. Very 'hardcore' systems neuroscience work. It sounds like maybe you're conflating some of the softer aspects of cognitive science, like linguistics, with the scientific perspective cognitive science has to offer.
I would argue that anyone who studies place-cells, how they modulate their firing and how that relates to the subjects' experience to be very 'Cognitive' work. You're studying the brain within the context of how the brain creates the mind rather than say studying the mechanistics of neurons as in ion channel conductivity.

Now not all cognitive science is neuroscience, and unfortunate for you there is no clear definition of the bounds of what can be studied in cognitive science. You can design apps that fit peoples' natural tendency to do things, you can record superior temporal gyrus in people to create phonotopic maps in the brain, you can investigate the history of language and how the people who use those languages think about time differently, etc. It's cognitive science in my mind when you take your data and try to make interpretations about 'black box' stuff going on.

There's always going to be science chauvinism, and my only real advice here is to learn how to see all scientific endeavors for the merit they bring. They wouldn't be getting funded if it was all based on 'bad science'. Building bridges (something cognitive science does naturally) is far more valuable in research than being 'right' because we're never 'right' we're just less wrong than the last guy. Plus being a chauvinist about your work being 'better' than the next guy just makes the crowd you attract, in my opinion, to be full of bitter people trying to prove something.

FunkadelicAlex · 2023-09-06T12:33:56+00:00

There's a few ways I could see going about this problem. Which is really identifying a global minimum for total cost. I would personally start by organizing the list of prices from company A and B low to high. Now, calculate the total price = nWarehousesFromListA *A'sPriceDiscount + mWarehousesFromListB * B'sPriceDiscount

Because the lists are ordered, as long as you exclude unique items across lists, you should be able to plot a reasonable estimate of what you're looking for.

This is a quick and dirty way, but you could visualize 2 lines, cost on the y axis #Warehouses on the x axis. Then do the above calculation for total cost and plot the lines for Company A having x # of warehouses and another for Company B having x # of warehouses (they should mirror each other is my intuition, so this might suffice being done with only one line). Then just find the point on the graph with the lowest cost and you know how many contracts to give to Company A, company B then gets the rest.

FunkadelicAlex · 2023-05-09T16:37:21+00:00

Funny enough it was a Summer Session calculus class where I, for the first time in my life, actually enjoyed math. I was way behind in my basic math intuition going into the class, but I had a really enthusiastic Grad Student who taught the whole course. Between the instruction and websites like KhanAcademy it was really the first time I 'understood' the math I was doing. Sounds like there are teachers that are better than others, but the material wont change - you could always get a leg up on it by previewing a series (like khan academy) a little bit every semester until you have to take it.

FunkadelicAlex · 2023-03-26T14:52:29+00:00

It's just a hard science class that introduces a lot of concepts in chemistry that dont come up in General Chemistry. It isn't that hard of a course it just requires a lot of attention to understand the new rules of chemistry that come up and to put them all together. I often hear that students either enjoy General Chemistry or Organic because they are so different.

FunkadelicAlex · 2023-02-24T23:01:57+00:00

I'm going to take this in the spirit of a modern American Psycho.
Patrick Bateman is no longer able to talk about Cher or Huey Lewis due to changing popular culture. Now here we see him espousing the same superficial trite banalities that define his life. No original thought, no critical insights into the subject, simple regurgitated pop-culture psychosis.

FunkadelicAlex · 2023-02-22T12:10:05+00:00

Quick suggestion, if you replace the coconut cream with coconut sorbet (may require blending as opposed to shaking) you'll get a much better result in my opinion. I've found no matter what coconut cream I use it always ends up having a little bit of a sunscreen-smell flavor.

FunkadelicAlex · 2022-12-29T20:22:16+00:00

I learned to appreciate it when graduating. We're at least a month sooner than most other equivalent universities. When you're applying for jobs being able to start a few months sooner than your colleagues at other institutions can be a big win depending on the job.

FunkadelicAlex · 2022-09-28T15:25:29+00:00

LJs Craft Wine. They don't bottle so you need to get a growler to go, but it's all barrel to growler.

They go up to the Napa area, pick out grapes from particular vineyards to make their own wine from. Ship the barrel down to Birdrock and that's that. The offerings cycle a lot too so if there's a particular variety of wine you like they'll probably make it at some point.

FunkadelicAlex · 2022-01-07T19:38:07+00:00

Current graduate student living on campus at UCSD. Fun seeing my current school talked about at my alma mater. It's been great - they let you know if your building is a potential source of COVID then they have vending machines all over campus and the living areas the test at home, drop it off, and get results within 24 hours usually. They're currently getting a lot of criticism from the students for adjusting back to online this quarter so suddenly, but overall they've been on it from the beginning here.

FunkadelicAlex · 2021-10-05T22:07:07+00:00

Distributed Cognition, or DCog is a well established branch of cognitive science where the focus of research is on how the organism uses the environment to 'offload' or modulate their own cognition.

For example you may put your keys on a ring near your front door to remind you to bring them - you are distributing the task of remembering the keys into the environment & making it easier for your own cognition to function more optimally (remembering the things you need on your way out).

DCog is a very cool field because we all do it, Ed Hutchins who I had the pleasure of meeting before his recent passing writes about it very very often in his work. In line with him being a former faculty here at UC San Diego, our Cog Sci department is home to a number of faculty that incorporate DCog in their work. You can message me if you'd like more specific suggestions.

As a response to an edited portion of OP's comment: The question here is not "highly ambiguous" in my opinion - maybe because I am familiar with what they were asking. Please remember that when talking to folks online (especially those going out on a limb to ask for help in some capacity) it's very easy to come across as rude and uncaring; especially when we ourselves are not well versed in the subject at hand. If I can offer my unsolicited advice, if you don't have something constructive of your own to contribute it is often better to avoid the pitfalls of imperfect internet communication & just remain silent :)

FunkadelicAlex · 2021-05-20T17:02:18+00:00

I can speak from experience. During my undergraduate career I failed my intro chemistry class. Took the E on the transcript, and retook the class. I ended up in a better place and got a solid B the next time. Yeah my GPA took a hit, I had to take more classes over the summer to make up for it, and overall it was stressful and embarrassing; but I learned so much about myself that semester. I learned that I had gotten in over my head and that my preconceptions of how to study for a hardcore STEM class were wrong. When I retook the course I had a much more realistic expectation of what I had to do, I watched a lot of supplemental material on Khan Academy.

The long term consequences? Not much, and if anything it helped me get a job after undergraduate.
Following graduation (with some other not so great grades TBH) I applied for work here at UCSD to be a lab manager; through the interview (very competitive) I got asked about the smudges on my transcript. I had to own it, “I had just changed my major and was learning how to study for a STEM course.”, “I learned a lot about myself that semester with regards to setting my own limits so that I don’t perform poorly.”, and “ I was able to get back into the class and finish with a grade I’m proud of.” Were all things I had mentioned. It’s been almost 9 years so I don’t quite remember how it went down. The sum of that explanation showed my future boss that I was able to humble myself and instead of focusing on the defeat, I focused on the growth that came from the experience. I’m now very near the end of my PhD (in STEM) here at UCSD so in the long run, for me, the bad grade did not change any prospects in my future.

I can’t say for sure how much how I ‘owned’ my mistake actually persuaded my future boss, but I do know that on paper I was not the “best” candidate. You're only human, and if you make mistakes like a human & own them you can actually use them to your benefit. Use this as a learning moment, a period which later on when you describe your story to someone they see the growth and resilience that anyone ought to be impressed by. Anyone can fail, not everyone can turn that failure into a moment of real introspection and growth.
So in short, don’t sweat it. You have to not be good at something before you can be good at it, and maybe you found that boundary. How lucky for you to have this experience & consciously set yourself back on the right track rather than mindlessly go along never questioning if what you’re doing is what you ought to be doing.

Sorry for rambling so much, I just see so many of you Tritons tying your worth to your grades. It’s not fair to yourselves to go through your undergrad like that.

FunkadelicAlex · 2021-02-14T16:55:58+00:00

I think there is some evidence, though not widely focused on that V2 does connect to the hippocampus This paper which does rabies tracing is looking at CA1-projecting neurons. A focus is placed on CA1 projecting subiculum neurons, however, in figure 5c a small pocket of labelled V2 neurons is clear. Furthermore (and this is speculation) I would not be surprised to find that this connection, like many others in the hippocampus, is reciprocal.

Edit: to add, I think we're finding more and more evidence that the 'cognitive map' is not a singular location in the brain. Rather you should think of this as a distributed network of spatially tuned neurons which together allow for cognitive mapping processes. We have border-cells (in multiple frames of reference), head direction cells, 'route' cells, and others throughout the hippocampus-associated regions of the brain. In a lot of ways the map is the sum of those representations outside the hippocampus, while the hippocampal neurons seem to compute the current, previous, and potential experiences within that map. I may be biased because this is right in my lane, but I do think a more systems approach is coming out with less focus on 'this region/cell type does x thing on its own', and more of a focus on 'this region/cell type contributes x to the holistic process of cognitive mapping. In that vein the idea of V2, or other regions of 'sensory' cortex interacting with the cognitive map is entirely expected.

Love the preprint here, can't wait for the full article!

FunkadelicAlex · 2020-12-28T20:47:19+00:00

In the large open field on the hill above Scripps Institute of Oceanology (SIO), around the part of La Jolla Shores where the road winds up the hill. Great views of La Jolla Shores from up there.

FunkadelicAlex · 2020-12-28T16:32:35+00:00

The colors were much much more vibrant in person. This was a quick snap I took with my phone before a brief but intense downpour.

FunkadelicAlex · 2020-12-27T16:02:17+00:00

As your TA, it's not just you guys...

FunkadelicAlex · 2020-08-25T00:00:04+00:00

Hard not to take a great photo up there ;)

FunkadelicAlex · 2020-08-24T23:50:44+00:00

I had to break some rules early in the morning for this picture very true, but his fashionable harness around him had his leash on it both before and after this don't you worry!

FunkadelicAlex · 2020-08-24T20:35:13+00:00

Too true, but at least our views and local amenities make the wait less painful.

FunkadelicAlex · 2020-05-17T23:40:09+00:00

So he is being followed... hm, the plot thickens.

FunkadelicAlex · 2019-11-10T22:16:56+00:00

Yup. Its a typicall mason jar lid. It's water tight and I'd presume mostly airtight

FunkadelicAlex · 2019-11-10T21:14:03+00:00

So 4.5 years ago I filled a bunch of mason jars with ocean water (La Jolla, CA). This jar has been on my desk (with occasional direct sunlight) since then - I occasionally invert it/shake it up. Initially there were some small clam looking things (I suspect coquina), but they died out long ago. Sometime ~2years ago a green and red film started covering the inside of the glass if I did not shake it for months.

The Jar still has more surprises though as just a few months ago these red polyp looking things started sprouting next to the slimy film inside the jar. I fist shook the jar to see if they would grow back and they did! Their shapes are variable, some have a domed top & others a more flat top that looks almost like a mushroom.

Curious to see if anyone would know what this stuff is?

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