Girls Rock!

I had fun today, helping Girl Scouts make electric guitars. Each girl got to make her own; it had one string, a hand-wound (by us, painstakingly) pickup, and an amplifying circuit. Plug it into your computer speakers, and rock until your parents take it away! The physics guys mostly made the circuits, which they soldered into card stock instead of circuit board, which I think is infinitely cool. I think it was fun for everyone, and I didn't once feel the need to strangle someone's child. See how I've grown!?!?!? Actually, these were really well behaved kids. Nobody got frustrated or upset, most everyone seemed interested, and they all left with a working physics toy. We had a couple extra guitar strings left after the kids were done, so I even got to make one for myself.

Of course, I've been up since 0630, in a failed attempt to go to the YMCA and exercise this morning. Turns out they aren't open that early. That's probably a good thing, because I was standing or riding my bike from about 0830 to 1700, and I'm so so very sore right now. Zero studying was accomplished today, for the record. Zero. 100% nothing.

Polarized Shirmp Vision

Funky Shrimp Vision helps them get Funky
or as Professor White says, "...for the four fs: feeding, fighting, fleeing and...flirting."
...
The two scientists have shown that shrimp of the species Gonodactylus smithii have eyes that simultaneously measure four linear and two circular polarisations, enabling them to determine both the direction of the oscillation, as well as how polarised the light is.

Blame Leap Day

I've just spent a few hours reading up on The World Calendar and Decimal Time, which are both ideas I very much like.

The World Calendar is great because you'll never have to buy a new wall calendar again, the same one works every single year. Your birthday or anniversary will be on the same day of the week every year. The year ends on Saturday, there's a Holiday day, and then the new year begins on Sunday. Leap Year days are between Saturday and Sunday as well. It is simple. It is tidy. I'm in love with Calendar Reform.

I ran across decimal time because i get really annoyed at time conversions in my physics homework. There's a different conversion each step of the way to from days to hours to minutes to seconds. Yes, it is pretty common sense, but why have another thing to know when we are already learning x10 prefixes for every single other unit of measurement? Dumb. Annoying. Do away with it. In reality, if that happened I know we would be forced to learn how to convert from Wacky Time to Decimal Time, thus adding complexity rather than eliminating complexity. A Geek can dream, okay? I'm willing to bet (or remember) that it is already the case that some science uses decimal time. No, I won't look it up. Who do you think I am?

Then I ran across this selection of funny clocks at Dick and Jane's Fine Woodworking. On the 4th and 5th rows are: Who Cares?, Don't Do Mornings, No Drinking Before 5, Further I Go Behinder I Get. They also have one Decimal Clock.

Pie

Carl Sagan
"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."

I really need to learn to make apple pie, so I can use this quote.

Not Exactly News:

British Literature: A

There was a pretty good meteor shower last night. We went out, but left too early so we were freezing our bums off waiting for the "peak time" to start. We saw quite a few, but decided to come home early.

Holiday Party Happy Hour starts in 3 hours, and I must find shoes.

Just Another Day

The movie review paper was a waste of effort. The last exam came back, and I still had an A in the class. I studied less, if at all really. Also, the paper was graded on the basis of "did you turn it in? and did it fit the technical requirements? I'm pretty sure he didn't even read them. Whatever, I'll take 20 points. So I expect to put no further effort into Govt 2301. Yesterday I was so painfully bored that I got up and left 20 minutes early, just to check the system and make sure he wasn't the one teaching Govt 2302. I was going to drop and register for someone else if not.

Chemistry is getting harder. 2 weeks left in this term. Wish me luck.

Oh, and I put this on the myspace glob the other day, forgot to cross-post:

Perfect Spheres
Apparently the current object being used as a standard for measurement is deteriorating, and that sucks. So, the Australians are making perfect speres of exactly 1kilogram so they can measure it exactly and tell us how many atoms of that material make up 1 kilogram.

So most people wouldn't find this interesting, but I do.

Memorization Help Please

I am having a bit of trouble memorizing Polyatomic Ions. I've been trying flashcards. I can guess the formula from the name most of the time, but getting the name from the formula isn't happening. Is there a trick out there, or is it really as hard as it seems?

Thanks for listening :)

Alexplorer wrote:
I'm rusty on this, but the suffixes and prefixes (preficies and sufficies?*) follow a trend within a series.
[...]
In some cases these forms don't all exist, so you have to know the series already to some extent.

Also, if you have a few molecules in your head already, then you can remember the charge. For example, H2SO4 is sulfuric acid. I always remember SO4 is -2 because of the two hydrogens.

Part of the trick is to treat this as a language in that you have to get to listening for what sounds natural much like matching the appropriately gendered article to an ambiguous word in German or French.

*I don't have my irregular plurals memorized yet, and I've been speaking English all my life.

That's a great way of looking at it, as learning a language. I think I'm starting to get the hang of some of them just because I've heard/read them several times before. I thank science fiction writers and scienceblogs.com for making it really easy for me to memorize most of the element names and symbols already.

Janis wrote:
You poor thing...

This site addresses your problem, it even sympathizes with you about memorizing the dreadful things. Good luck!

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/compounds/polyatomic.shtml

I think this site is exactly what I need, thank you so much. Isn't this the cold hard truth:

"First year students are often asked to memorize lists of polyatomic ions without any context. Mnemonics can be helpful, but they provide an artificial way to organizing what must be memorized. This beginner's guide to polyatomic ions will eventually provide a relevant context for students learning the names and formulas of polyatomic ions"

Mnemonics never work for me because it seems like more work to memorize the mnemonic than the actual information. I swear the only thing I ever learned by mnemonics was the order of the planets, and now that's all messed up with the whole Pluto thing. Nachos I guess it is now.


Thanks to you both.

Random

Confessions of a Failed Mathlete
The first time I ever saw a math question about two trains approaching each other at different speeds, I drew a complete blank. In a white flash of panic I saw my brilliant academic future begin to slip away.
Do I ever know how that feels, we started Related Rates yesterday. Not going so well. Oh well, its not like its going worse than the rest of the term. Damn.

Quarantine
Yes, the government can still enforce quarantine & isolation.
Having a horrible and deadly disease will not get you enough pity for the rest of us to be okay with you giving it to everyone. Sorry.

Scientists have revealed details of the world's only known case of "semi-identical" twins.
They are the result of two sperm cells fertilising a single egg, which then divided to form two embryos - and each sperm contributed genes to each child.
Dude.

Morpho Towers--Two Standing Spirals
The body of the tower was made by a new technique called "ferrofluid sculpture" that enables artists to create dynamic sculptures with fluid materials. This technique uses one electromagnet, and its iron core is extended and sculpted.
You might remember the last ferrofluid image I posted about, a spikey black fluid. This is way way cooler, looks like a black spiral tree and it moves to music. There is video.

I was going to post more, but now I have to pee, and then go back to working on my bungled math work. I probably should've started my homework yesterday. I had a bad day, with a failed attempt at a seperations physical, getting my taxes done, and finding that the bird I've wanted to get has a hurt foot. So instead, I started reading Brother Odd at 4-ish. 8 hours later I was finished, and tired, and slightly happier.

I havn't been to the gym all week. I'm a bad bad girl. Ugh.

Sarah: I owe you an ice cream cake...please come over and eat the rest, before I do. Please.

I Burn Things

Wee Planets slideshow.
If you don't at think at least one of these images are JUST WOW! then I don't really want to know you anymore. Okay kidding. Half-kidding anyway. Maybe less than half. Check out the pictures.

I'm hungry. I tried making pancakes this morning, some Jiffy cornbread pancakes. I just cant keep them from burning with these new pans. I hate these new pans.

Why did I buy the new pans several months ago? Because I wanted to buy a bird, and teflon non-stick coatins are a big no-no for birdies. I still have no bird, because I still haven't filed my state taxes. The little pacific parrotlet we saw at Petco last week apparently died a few days after it arrived there. Sad, he was so spunky. I really like the little slate and blue lineolated parakeet, but they're $500 each and come in pairs, and if I'm going to spend that much on a bird I want the Dusky Pionus. Just one Dusky is cheaper than two linnies. In any case, I still can't cook without burning something most of the time, and I don't want to kill some pretty and expensive bird. Sad.

But then happy, because this should be my last week of work. Final-Out is Friday. Yay!

Bill Nye the Science Guuuyyyy...!

Bill Nye is on MSNBC talking about the massive amounts of lake effect snow piling on right now. This guy is awesome. "It's not confirmed, but it may be caused by the death of Anna Nicole Smith..." He then went on to talk about global warming.

Bill Nye + Beakmans World = Why I've always been such a total geek.

Because you know you want to click it.

Linking through the pain

Depression alters how you taste food.
There's no gender bias in Science, right?

I wrote my research paper about Assisted Reproduction, and part of what I found was that people with non-lethal conditions sometimes use genetic screening to make sure their children will have the same condition. Dwarfism and deafness are two of the biggest examples. "Normal" people might see this as cruel, to choose specifically to have a child with a disease just because you want them to be like you. But I understand where they are coming from, a deaf person might feel they cannot raise a child who speaks. They might also feel that the child doesn't feel like they belong in the parent's culture. Anyway, I just read this blog, which cited a NYTimes article, which acted like this was some new idea. The sources I read for my paper were at least 10 years old. Interesting topic, I think.

Side note, its been 2 1/2 hours and my face is still numb. But I guess the pills are working because my teeth don't hurt now.

Stars

Just got back from a nice refreshing walk with the hubby. *sigh* We hate Texas. Our list of places that would be maybe okay to live? Colorado, D.C area(maybenot), Oregon, Washington. Biggest complaint about Texass? There is not a damn ounce of culture in this place. Also, it smells. Skunks, sewage, skunks, mmm potato wedges *follows nose*...

Only thing I like about this place? The stars, but thats only because this is a medium/small city and this area doesn't have much light pollution. The Orionid meteor shower is this weekend. I slept through best viewing this morning, but maybe there will still be something to see if I stay up tonight. If I had a small backyard telescope, I would catch the comet Swan cruising through. *sigh* No such luck.

In other news? I wish we would go look at more apartments. I wish I was more motivated for school. These and more I would wish upon a shooting star, if I see any tonight.

Space Elevator

Saturn

My desktop background is now an amazing picture of Saturn.
I got it here:
http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=2230&flash=1

Sleepy now, night night.