soapbox

PICARD THE PERVERT.

Oh, and I can’t forget #2, can I?

fyi - Judy said something about the fact that they’re getting rid of the coffee/hot water machine downstairs in the copy room, I thought she said by the end of this week (i.e. today).  Either way, it’s free today, for those interested.

So, being a post-doc pays more than being a grad student, but don’t think it’s that much better. I just got my first paycheck and OUCH there’s a lot of money that gets taken out. FICA and Maryland state taxes yoink $250 per pay period (every 2 weeks) and it looks like they haven’t started pulling money for benefits yet.

Seriously, I made more money on the GAANN fellowship.

Apparently the Mainers had some wild animal tearing up the countryside. Turns out it was only a dog though.

Personally, I’d be much happier with some of the alternate theories. A cat-chasing goat-sheep hybrid or an alien-caused mutation is a lot more fun.

Expert: ‘Hybrid’ creature is just a dog - Yahoo! News

…will the LIES end?!

Here’s an article in The Register about the feasibility of actually combining the same nonexplosive liquids as the accused in the UK were allegedly planning to use. The article sites a chemistry paper on the nature of the reaction that causes the explosion and the correct process needed to have the materials explode in a meaningful way, and not just kill the person doing the mixing or superficially damage the plane.

when i first heard about this yesterday, i questioned the effectiveness of such a strategy. does hezbollah read the LA times? will they say, “oh dear, nicole says we must stop being terrorists, let’s stop being terrorists”. call me crazy but i’m not entirely sure that your average suicide bomber reads the ads in the la times with their morning coffee and crossaint, realises the errors of their ways and decides that maybe they won’t go and blow up some innocent civillians in a holy war and instead renews their daily subscription to the aforementioned newspaper or better yet bumps moulin rouge to the top of their netflix list.

so i did some reading, some thinking and some stewing. and i’m still torn. yes, i agree with the celebraties, terrorism is a bad thing and war is good for nobody. but, i’m cynical, i’m wary that is this simply another publicity stunt to woe the public with ideas already shared by most reasonable people in the west in an effort to maintain their fanbase. or even simply an effort to convince the public that celebrities do in fact have brains (and hearts).

so i agree but i disagree. that ad probably cost an awful lot of money… that perhaps could have been better spent on humanitarian aid for the innocent victims of war. i think it’s a fantastic thing that celebraties can use their high profiles to raise awareness for many charitable causes but i guess in this case i’m not entirely sure how effective a full page ad in the la times can be.

it’s early, perhaps i am over thinking this. at face value i will at least applaud hollywood for realizing that there is more to life than red carpets, papparazzi and scientology.