I was going to let this one speak for itself, but it probably is worth saying (especially in relation to the electric face music guy) on its behalf that Asians should spend more time outside.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Bad day for a computer crash
I spent the first 45 minutes of my day today getting my computer running again so I could keep working on my proposal, or at least not lose it completely. Finally got it going, after saving some key files while in safe mode. Now as I type this I'm putting all of my PNG work onto a CD.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Electric face music guy
Wow. I don't really know what to say about this, but I guess describing it would be a start. So this guy attached electrodes to his face and synched them to music to make his face twitch in time to the sounds. Disturbing to watch? You betcha. Cool to watch, though? maybe?
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Job Interview
I just had an interview for a job with ExxonMobil. A couple years ago I would have felt dirty because of that, but these days it doesn't really bother me. Not that I'm looking to work in the oil industry as opposed to working as a professor, or getting a job with the USGS or NOAA or something, but here's why some of the things that might have bothered me before don't now.
1) People hate the oil industry and, by extension, its employees. Its interesting that not liking oil companies dates back pretty much to the beginning of the industry itself. These are huge corporations that make unimaginable amounts of money, and as "Reezy" Freeman puts it "people hate on you when you shinin'." Recently a lot of that hate is over high gas prices, which I find ridiculous. Oil and gas are commodities whose prices reflect demand. We as Americans have chosen to live in a way that demands enormous amounts of these products and now more and more of the world is following suit. The response of oil prices to the recent instability in global markets shows that speculation certainly plays a role in these costs, but putting that aside I heard recently that glodal oil demand was 89 million barrels a day, while production was 86 million barrels a day. Naturally, prices will rise to the point that it discourages the world from using 3 million barrels of oil a day. Unfortunately, there is so much inertia in the system regarding our consumption of oil (for example: homeowners can't decide on a weekly or monthly or even yearly basis to suddenly not live in the suburbs and commute 25 miles each way to work every day. They're stuck with a house in a crappy location for some time and can't just stop driving to work every day. Not to mention that the house itself is probably bigger than they need and thus consumes excess energy.) that it takes a substantial increase in the price of oil to change consumption patterns. Over time prices will come down as people make decisions that allow them to conserve, but at the moment it looks like it costs $68 a barrel to cut consumption by 3 million barrels a day and $68 a barrel is equal to $1.62 a gallon. The last gas station I saw was selling gasoline for about a dollar a gallon more than this, which reflects the total cost of refining the petroleum and transporting it to the station. So the prices make sense. And for the people who say "yeah, but what about when gas was almost $4 a gallon," that was when oil was trading for almost $150 a barrel, or about $3.50 a gallon. So gas was actually being sold for a price much closer to the cost of the raw material then than it is now.
Whew! That was a mouthful. I'll finish this point and get onto the rest of my reasons at some other time.
1) People hate the oil industry and, by extension, its employees. Its interesting that not liking oil companies dates back pretty much to the beginning of the industry itself. These are huge corporations that make unimaginable amounts of money, and as "Reezy" Freeman puts it "people hate on you when you shinin'." Recently a lot of that hate is over high gas prices, which I find ridiculous. Oil and gas are commodities whose prices reflect demand. We as Americans have chosen to live in a way that demands enormous amounts of these products and now more and more of the world is following suit. The response of oil prices to the recent instability in global markets shows that speculation certainly plays a role in these costs, but putting that aside I heard recently that glodal oil demand was 89 million barrels a day, while production was 86 million barrels a day. Naturally, prices will rise to the point that it discourages the world from using 3 million barrels of oil a day. Unfortunately, there is so much inertia in the system regarding our consumption of oil (for example: homeowners can't decide on a weekly or monthly or even yearly basis to suddenly not live in the suburbs and commute 25 miles each way to work every day. They're stuck with a house in a crappy location for some time and can't just stop driving to work every day. Not to mention that the house itself is probably bigger than they need and thus consumes excess energy.) that it takes a substantial increase in the price of oil to change consumption patterns. Over time prices will come down as people make decisions that allow them to conserve, but at the moment it looks like it costs $68 a barrel to cut consumption by 3 million barrels a day and $68 a barrel is equal to $1.62 a gallon. The last gas station I saw was selling gasoline for about a dollar a gallon more than this, which reflects the total cost of refining the petroleum and transporting it to the station. So the prices make sense. And for the people who say "yeah, but what about when gas was almost $4 a gallon," that was when oil was trading for almost $150 a barrel, or about $3.50 a gallon. So gas was actually being sold for a price much closer to the cost of the raw material then than it is now.
Whew! That was a mouthful. I'll finish this point and get onto the rest of my reasons at some other time.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
An intellectual president?
Heavens, no!!! I just read this CNN.com article which describes how the Republican Party has often found electoral success in painting Democratic candidates as overly intellectual. This has to be one of the things, if not the thing, that drives me nuts the most about american politics. Shouldn't we want an intellectual president? Shouldn't we look at the president on TV and think, "gosh, that guy seems smarter and better equipped to handle these serious issues than I am!" I know that intelligence isn't the only thing that should matter for a president, but it does matter.
Otherwise you end up with this:
Otherwise you end up with this:
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Okay, maybe you can imagine....
Well, the fun-quotient in my life is down a bit recently, to the point where those of you out there who see this blog probably could imagine how much fun I'm having. But for the record: in the past two weeks, I've been at school working past midnight 3 times, and have left school before 5 once, which was on a Saturday, so it doesn't really count. But I've been getting a ton of work done in the lab, which puts me closer and closer to getting to see my baby again. Hooray!
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