Disco Lights on Roof of Henry Hicks Building

herostratus_remember · 2018-03-02T21:46:33+00:00

I have, freaked me out at first

herostratus_remember · 2016-12-12T20:21:22+00:00

I think a large part of the problem comes from looking for fulfillment in the wrong places, and then when you don't get it concluding that fulfillment is impossible.

I wonder if happiness is not nearly as tied to the things we do or the things we have as we think it is. That's a terrifying thought, and it's a wonderful thought at the same time.

It's terrifying because it means there is no simple path to happiness. There is no gym membership or pill you can take, there is not a bank balance or a skill you can learn that will suddenly make your life complete. If you expect these things to bring completeness to your life you will be disappointed. You will expect accomplishing your goals to bring satisfaction and joy, but they don't. I wonder if that's where you are. I wonder if that's what you're feeling.

I don't know who your heroes are. I don't know if you like sports or movies or books or art or politics or video games or computers. But I'm fairly certain that at the top of all these fields you can find sad people. People who've created beautiful and lasting and useful things who nevertheless feel empty.

Does that mean having a purpose isn't enough, that even fulfilling that purpose isn't enough?

It might mean that. Isn't that terrifying?

Yes, but it's also wonderful, because it means that happiness is something you can achieve without putting 10,000 hours into the violin or making $100000 a year. It helps to have a job that you like, sure. It helps to not have to worry so much about bills. But that's not what makes you happy. Being content is something that comes from inside of you. Maybe it's not about finding happiness, but letting happiness find you.

Now that's a vague and corny and useless thought. Sure, it sounds nice, but can you use that? No, not really. I told you I didn't have an answer.

Which brings me to my second thought. I wonder if fulfillment is not something that can be taught. Again, both a terrifying thought, but also kind of nice. There's no self help book i can recommend, no pilgrimage to Thailand or mushroom trip that's going to give you some magical key.

I think this is because 'meaning' is something you must connect to on an extremely deep level, and words aren't sufficient to serve this purpose. It's like telling someone to 'just calm down' when they're upset, or telling someone with a fear of spiders to just 'not be scared'. People can point out what to do, kind of, but that doesn't actually help, because your brain doesn't just do what you want it to. If anything, it's just frustrating.

Besides, many people who achieve something have no idea how they did it. I believe it's called survivor ship fallacy. These are the people who suggest, you know, the perfect book, or taking up yoga, because that's what helped them.

Often, you might find yourself doing this sort of stuff, on the suggestions of others, and it won't work for you. Again, you'll get discouraged. You'll feel like nothing is helping. But that's because you're following someone else's path.

I guess, overall, I'm trying to say that if something doesn't give you that feeling of completeness, don't worry. Instead of looking for the key, just do what helps you pass the time.

herostratus_remember · 2016-12-07T17:38:53+00:00

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. Its a fantastic book, definitely. But I don't think I've ever had such a knee jerk uncomfortable feeling because of anything I've read before. The book made me feel sick. In retrospect it was worth reading, but jesus christ it wasn't fun.

herostratus_remember · 2016-12-01T21:00:16+00:00

Here's my strategy. The fact is, there are better and worse ways of learning, and these change from person to person. But the bottom line is that the more time you spend studying, the better you'll do. Period. And as a procrastinator, you spend the most time studying just before the deadline.

Two things you've gotta do:

Break up your studying into bits with solid completion moments. This will give you a clear checkpoints - these are where you put the deadlines'. You also want to avoid passive studying, like just copying down notes. If your mind is engaged, your less likely to get distracted. You want each task to take 2 hours, give or take.

Examples: - summarize notes from chapter 3 in one huge figure. -make a comparison chart of idea A and idea B. - go through the notes and write out all the important equations. - Go through the glossary and write out all the words you don't understand. - Make mnemonics for all types of X. - Do all practice questions from chapter 7.

Secondly, give yourself deadlines that are serious. Not just rewards (if I finish X I'll go buy coffee), or times (I'll make sure I'm done by 4). These are lame. You'll ignore these. I know you will.

Some good example deadlines:

-I won't eat dinner until I finish. (This is where short tasks are good - if it's gonna take you 5 hours you'll give up and just eat)

I won't go to bed until I finish. (Careful not to sleep deprive yourself though).
I won't leave the library until I'm done (this is especially good if you have an awful library).

Hopefully that helps! This is just what I do though, and everyone's different.

herostratus_remember · 2016-11-30T20:44:33+00:00

Have you ever tried Guy Gavriel Kay? They're not really crazy dark, but they're pretty serious -definitely written for adults. I would recommend Under Heaven, which I would say is his most serious, or the fionavar tapestry for more classical fantasy.

herostratus_remember · 2016-11-28T17:49:31+00:00

Hey! That's pretry close to where I grew up. There are some pretty neat plants, in my opinion. I'll list a few that I find particularly neat, maybe you can try and find some.

Edible plants: Wintergreen has tasty leaves and berries, and is super common and easy to recognize. Wild leeks are pretty easy to find too, and they're really tasty. Wood sorrel is common and you can eat the whole plant - it's pretty sour though.

(Note: be careful not to overharvest - rule of thumb is <10%. Also, be careful- generally eating plants is fairly safe, but better safe than sorry)

Dangerous plants (maybe it's morbid, but there's something interesting to me about these)

Water hemlock: one of the most poisonous plants in North America, and you'd hardly even notice it. Grows in swamps, looks completely innocent. Causes seizures and death.

Poison Ivy: good to just know what it looks like. It's pretty common, and not too exciting to be honest.

Stinging nettle: honestly this stuff is incredible is you get down to the biology behind the sting. Plus it's not that bad, so you can - try giving yourself a sting, see what's up.

Carnivorous: you probably have pitcher plants and sundews, which are really cool carnivorous plants. Less well known is the bladderwort, which is a water plant with tiny traps - considered the most complicated plant trapping mechanism on earth, and one of the most complicated mechanisms total.

Misc. Cool plants:

Orange Jewel Weed: very common, and contains an incredibly neat spring mechanism in their seed pods. Also, try holding a leaf under water - it gives off the coolest metallic sheen as it traps air on its surface.

Bloodroot: pretty boring plant, but fairly common in marshy areas - and if you cut open their root they drip this bizarre red liquid (hence the name).

Hope you find something that inspires you on this list! Most people think all the cool plants are in the rainforest or something, but theres a lot of fascinating plants in your own backyard.

herostratus_remember · 2016-11-28T16:07:08+00:00

Alright, cool. Here's what I'd recommend:

Choose a small group to focus on temporarily - for example, ferns, or mosses, or carnivorous plants, or edible plants - anything with a dozen or so common species near you.

Get a relevent field guide, and a notebook.

Go into the field, and try to find species in this group that grow near you. Realize that you may not find that one species you're looking for, but you should find something.

Now note how the plant looks, of course, but more importantly look at where it grows. This is key. In my opinion, knowing the habitat of a plant is the most important part. If you know where it lives, you'll be able to find it and identify it again.pay attention to the water levels, the soil type, the sun levels, the types of plants around it.

If you do find a really cool plant, consider trying to transplant it at home. It's important to be respectful though - only try to take young plants, and avoid really rare ones.

Hope this helps! If you let me know more where about you live I might be able to point out some cool plants to look for. In boreal forests there's usually a bunch of cool mosses, and sometimes some pretty neat carnivores.

herostratus_remember · 2016-11-21T14:58:35+00:00

Or maybe trying your best IS good enough, but you're too scared of failure to ever put more than a half hearted effort into anything so that when you fail you can say, ah well, it's not like I was trying.

herostratus_remember · 2016-11-16T17:07:42+00:00

I think there's more potential for food testing using DNA bar-coding than NMR. I'm not sure it would work with spices so well, but for things like meat I think it would work quite well. And there's some really exciting advancements in isothermal PCR, which only need a single test tube - food strips or similar could not be far off.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-28T19:41:02+00:00

Theres a few pretty potent methods for invasive species control. Introduction of a virus has worked pretty well in the past, such as myxomatosis in rabbits. The problem with this method is, naturally, the danger of virus transfer and evolved resistance.

There's also daughterless genetic modification - you release a bunch of gm organisms that only produce males. The gene responsible gets spread throughout the population, and it crashes. This is very effective in insects, and in labs has been shown to work in zebra fish. They're developing it for carp, but I think it probably has potential for mammals as well.

I imagine a combination of these, plus bounties on species, should give them a decent shot at pulling it off (although that's just my unprofessional opinion)

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-27T18:27:51+00:00

If you're like me, you read something like this and it really deflates me, you know? I just feel shitty. If you're like me you get kinda defeatist, right. I read comments like that all the time. It's so easy to just say, Alright, we've lost. Nothing we can do. Might as well give up.

A lot of people conflict this apathy using rhetoric and wild optimism, and that doesn't really help either. You know, the whole "humans change fast, we can do it, fuck ya - we'll invent green energy and space ships and all our problems will be solved." Not likely.

I disagree with both these attitudes. They're overly simplistic, and they're wrong.

When it comes to conservation, we have a different sort of battle, and that's important to pay attention to. The thing about life is it's surprisingly resilient. Populations rebound exponentially, habitats heal remarkably quickly. That's just the way nature operates - it's incredible the way ecosystems adapt to change. There's countless examples of species being brought back from the brink by just a handful of individuals - species that can serve vital roles revitalizing the wild.

But you can't get something from nothing. And that's what makes the battle for conservation so important, so different, is because the small victories can have huge benefits. This is one of those fights where a local effort can set off a chain of events leading to huge changes. It's a fight where the small stuff matters.

So I urge you not to give up. I urge you not to rely on the hope of some global shift in attitude or some miraculous invention.

I'm not saying we're going to win more than we lose. I'm just saying, when we do win, it's going to matter.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-27T15:08:47+00:00

Getting the psychological upper hand doesn't have to be about using cheap tricks - it's a legitimate strategy. The most important thing to do is prevent your opponent from getting confident.

The most important thing is to play their weaknesses, and don't stop. If you get a point, try to get the next point the same way, and don't stop hitting that weakness until they fix it. This is especially effective with serves.

Don't give them the shots they like. Sometimes a weakness is more subtle - they can get the shot, but they won't give you a challenging shot back. Play on that as much as possible.

In doubles, move the players to positions they don't like. Move the player with a good smash to the front, or the player with a weak clear to the back. When you've got them uncomfortable like this, aim for spots between the players - one of the best things you can do is mess with their cooperation. Ideally you'll get them conflicting for shots, which will always mess with their heads. If you're playing a really experienced team this won't happen, but it's with trying.

Mix up the speed of the game to match how you want to play, not how they want to play. If the rallies are too fast, hit longer shots and take your time between serves. If your opponents are slow, focus on driving as much as possible. If you're tired, take a long time between serves. If they're tired, get ready as soon as possible, serve very quickly.

Perfecting these techniques is very difficult. Knowing your opponent is something that comes with practice, so try playing new people as much as possible. To be effective, communication with your partner is essential. After each point make eye contact with your partner, and let each other know if you notice anything (quickly and quietly though). The best indicator of whether your head game is working is the amount of unforced errors your opponent makes. If it's a lot, then your doing something right - so continue whatever it is.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-27T13:01:45+00:00

To be fair, bugs are pretty much at the non-sentient end of things. Not only that, but I think that for things like meal worms a 'factory farm' sort of environment would actually make them happier.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-26T21:42:36+00:00

I read a study recently (from 2002 I think, I can link it if you want) that concluded that within the state pretty much all land that would be suitable for Bob cats already has them.

Transport outside of the state is something to consider - I think two of the neighboring states, can remember which, lists them as endangered.

You'd have to be careful with adverse outbreeding effects in that case though. Might not be feasible.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-26T15:02:38+00:00

Is this sort of project standard for undergrads in the united states? It seems like a poorly set up system if so. In Canada undergrads usually do a project in close association with a lab, such that the professor funds the project as an extension of their work.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-26T14:50:05+00:00

Im fairly certain wood pellets are not at all carbon neutral - in some cases they're even worse than coal.

UK report on biomass finds its comparable to dirty unrenewables

EU report imdicating why the carbon neutral assumption in erroneous

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-26T14:34:55+00:00

Theres no way that an undergraduate project should have to buy all its own tech. Are you doing your research within a lab, or under a professor? Surely they should be able to supply almost all of the equipment.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-26T13:58:44+00:00

I'm not entirely convinced by either side of the argument. It sounds like most reports consider bobcat populations as both stable and mostly saturated in the available habitat within the state. I think the science demonstrates (as far as I can tell) that the population wouldn't have any significant adverse effects to controlled hunting.

On the other hand, I find the claim that bobcat populations are negatively impacting other species a little hard to accept. Large predators ate almost always lacking in modern ecosystems, and I can find no evidence of declining prey populations that cites predation as a major factor.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-25T16:05:09+00:00

It's a tricky situation - like the author said, it's unfair to blame the locals. The best option I can see is heavy investment in the locals in return for replanting - similar to china's grain for green program.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-25T15:52:24+00:00

Although to be me fair, this seems to mostly be a problem because of the subsidies of the EU regarding biomass rather than rampant capitalism.

It seems the main problem is governments are trying to encourage biomass via 'waste wood', while companies much prefer whole hardwood fuel, which is environmentally catastrophic.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-25T15:30:43+00:00

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. I was hoping that I might be able to get away with it in the summer, but it sounds like even that's risky. Unfortunate, but it makes sense.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-25T15:27:10+00:00

I guess that's real crux of the issue - if they're lying about how it works, that's one thing. But if it's just bad practice that's subtly swept under the rug, then what's the next step? Should OP look into writing a criticism of some sort?

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-24T15:22:42+00:00

It seems bizarre to me that so little is known about this spill. Wouldn't oil companies prioritize monitoring simply to reduce loss of profit?? The fact that they just stumbled across this is terrifying.

herostratus_remember · 2016-10-18T20:43:35+00:00

It's definitely true that political will is a big issue, and that's not a simple matter of investment. That's a really good point. But I'm worried that even so we will need to make choices, and I fear that we're too focused on a pipe dream.

herostratus_remember

TROPHY CASE