Death by Powerpoint!

     So I just read an article in the New York Times talking about the over-use of Powerpoint in the military and how it's becoming more of a hindrance than a help. I have to say I agree with them. I see several powerpoint presentations a week, and honestly it's hard to pay attention, or sometimes just to stay awake. Powerpoint is really good for showing pictures or movies, but too often people try to use bullet points to actually convey their information, and usually one of two things happens: (1) they summarize way too much, or (2) they write full paragraphs for each bullet.
     In the first scenario, the presentation becomes useless if you're not actually there to see it. Most of the classes I've taken after high school have used powerpoint extensively, and often teachers will post their presentations after class. Some students try to use these as an alternative to showing up, which obviously doesn't work out well. But even if you show up, and miss a talking point, you can't rely on the presentation to give you the information you need. Now personally I don't think anyone's going to leave with 100% of the information presented every time, whether you're using powerpoint or not, so really it comes down to your ability to sift out the crap and write down what matters, a skill not easily learned. But the problem (at least, in our military it seems) is that some people are trying to use powerpoint presentations as little more than illustrated memos, which seems (obviously) destined to fail.
     If you used powerpoint as described in point (2), you might be able to get away with it. But if you're going to do that, you may as well just write a word document and attach some pictures, which would be much easier and probably more effective. Not only that, but these type 2 presentations are terrible! Usually these are the kind made by people who can't bother to memorize what they're going to say, or simply don't know the subject matter that well. The presentations then are reduced to simply reading the slides aloud in front of a group of people. And if they do actually have a speech written, then your audience ends up trying to read all the text and not listening to what you have to say. More often than not the text is tiny, so people are squinting and having to work harder to read it, further obliterating any attention being paid to the speaker. It sucks.
     The problem here is of course not Powerpoint, but the way people use it. The program itself is pretty awesome if you take the time to learn what features are available. But one thing that was interesting about the article is that throughout the whole thing they have quotes from military personnel demonizing Powerpoint, but then at the end include one sentence saying "No one is suggesting that PowerPoint is to blame for mistakes in the current wars, but..." It seems the problem is the people, not the program. Only a poor craftsman blames his tools. There is one quote, though, that I thought was very appropriate:

"Senior officers say the program does come in handy when the goal is not imparting information, as in briefings for reporters."

It seems pretty pictures help when you're trying to say nothing.

Reporting Live from the Surface of the Moon!

Hey everyone! I am officially back in the blogosphere; I'm sure I've been terribly missed. It's not that I haven't had anything to write about, I simply haven't had the time or the energy. But things are looking up (for now), and so I've decided to start writing again.

So far, this quarter has started off great. I'm in a new lab, doing new work, and I really like what I'm doing. This quarter I've joined a genetics lab, using the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. In English, fruit flies:

This particular lab is focused on neuron development, and we study neurons in fly eyes. It's actually pretty sweet. There's all kinds of little molecular genetic tricks that we can use that allow us to create individual mutant cells surrounded by normal cells. This way, we can directly compare the neurons from the same animal (which is an important consideration in genetics). It also means that we can now look at what effects certain mutations have in just the eye cells, instead of in every cell. This is important because a lot of mutations are lethal, and it's hard to study how an animal develops if it's dead. What this means for me is that I get to spend a bunch of time collecting virgin flies and dissecting brains. And when the whole fly is less than 2 millimeters long, it's nearly impossible to do.




These guys make it look easy, but trust me, it's actually pretty tough. However, I did manage to pull out one intact brain in my morning dissection practice, so hopefully I'll be able to work up to this level of proficiency.

The other thing that's awesome about this quarter (aside from the fact that last quarter is over) is that I'm not taking a class. So really, the only thing I have to do is work and go home. It's making things so much better. Trying to do research work, teach a class, and take a class, on top of all the various other things that pop up during the week, is just a recipe for disaster. It's not the fact that there's so much work to do, it's that everything becomes just another thing on the list. The mentality switches from trying to focus and learn something to just getting everything done. And even though everything did get done, it wasn't done nearly as well as it could have been, so then I feel like I've done bad work, even if I haven't. So yeah, this quarter I'm just doing my fly work, and teaching a class. I'm super stoked.

My First Tattoo!

I finally did it! I got my first tattoo done today. Actually, it's just the line work, I still need to get it shaded in. I think it's going to look really good when it's all finished. It took just under two hours to get it all done. It really only hurt in a couple of spots, near my lats and my lower back, but even then it wasn't painful. Kinda feels like a sunburn now. So yeah, I'm pretty excited about it, but I can't wait until it's completely finished. Hooray!


Update: I've been getting a lot of questions about why I got this particular tattoo. I actually posted about it a while ago, but because of the way Blogger is set up, it's all the way back in October(or some other month). So here is a link to that previous post explaining everything.

The Climate Change Controversy...thing...

     I'm refusing to call it "Climategate." Every time some new government conspiracy (which are never really as bas as they're made out to be) comes to light, the media grabs ahold of it, blows it way out of proportion, and adds "-gate" to the end of it. It's like a new suffix in our language, and it's completely fucking ridiculous. The only one that deserves to end in "-gate" is Watergate, and that's only because that was the name of the place where it happened (okay, that's a simplification, but you get the point). Once again our eagerness to slap easy-to-digest labels on everything rears its ugly head. Ughh!

     Anyway...On to what I really wanted to say on the subject. I was originally going to call this post "Bittersweet Vindication," but then I realized that it was a bit too early to call it vindication. You see, I've never really been too concerned when it comes to the environment. I don't recycle, I don't know how big my "carbon footprint is" (and don't care), and I'm not frightened that the world will be uninhabitable for my children (because it will be fine). I've long considered all the hype surrounding global warming to be a product of simple hysteria and people's desire to do good. So when the news came out about those "hacked" e-mails from climate change scientists pulling mathmatical tricks and hiding declines, I felt pretty good about myself for not giving in to paranoia.

     But, part of being a skeptic is basing your opinions on facts and reason, and this seemed simply too good to be true. I may not believe in global warming, but I don't think it's all a government conspiracy either. What would they possibly stand to gain from having us believe it? Countries around the globe have spent billions of dollars trying to reduce carbon emissions, yet few of them have actually hit their goals, and if the alarmists are to be believed, it hasn't made any difference! Individual politicians have benefitted from our belief by saying that they'll do something about it, but they're simply using this issue like they would any other hot-button issue. There are plenty of others to exploit without needing to drum up fear about global warming. On top of all this, it's actually fucking up our daily lives. There are counsellors out there who specialize in treating "green guilt." Some people feel so badly about global warming that they have given themselves a psychological condition. One of the professors at my school said that he doesn't drive because he "feels bad about spending the carbon." I think this has gotten way out of hand.

     Turns out those e-mails weren't "hacked," they were "leaked," and there's a difference. They were being compiled for a freedom of information act document, to be released to the public. These were going to come out anyway; the only bit of foul-play is that someone released them early, no doubt to coincide with the Copenhagen conference. Now, I will admit the language in them is fairly suggestive (I'll also admit that I haven't read them, only what I've seen on internet videos both for and against the conspiracy idea). When you're telling someone else to delete their e-mails because of sensitive material, that sorta shows that you're trying to hide something. Maybe they are hiding something, but I would be more inclined to believe that they're trying to hide their ignorance on climate change as opposed to it all being made up. I think what happened is that someone raised a red flag, the world panicked, and these guys got so caught up in their newfound positions of respect and authority that they didn't want to say "It's actually not that bad." Again, I have no evidence for this, but I think it's much more likely than any of the other scenarios I've heard.

     What's so bittersweet about this you may ask? It seems to me and many of my new colleagues that the public in general doesn't trust scientists. I don't know exactly why this is, but I have an idea. I think it's because we go into our labs, all secretive and hidden away, and come out with data that's either incomprehensible to the general public, or that contradicts common sense. I want to clarify that bit about it being incomprehensible. I'm not saying that they are incapable of understanding, I'm saying they don't have the background knowledge/vocabulary necessary to make sense of the data. But I think a lot of people see it the other way, that they're too stupid to make sense of it, so they don't even try. I also think that when it contradicts what they've been previously told, they're unwilling to try to understand. So here we are, trying to expand the depths of human knowledge, to further educate everyone, and many people just aren't willing to listen. This is the position we were already in. Now these e-mails come out, and the media/conspiracy theorists/global-warming deniers start screaming about how it's all a lie. You can imagine what sort of effect this has had on the image of scientists in the public eye. Who's going to listen to us now? It's a sorry state of affairs.

     So there it is, my opinion on this whole controversy. Honestly, I don't think it'll have much of an effect outside of further polarizing both sides. The crazies will simply be crazier, on both sides of the issue. Those who can make money off this situation will. And in the end we'll still be spinning our wheels arguing about who's right instead of doing something useful. Such is the human condition.

What I Do All Day

I heard that a few of you are disappointed that I don't talk about myself a little more often, so I figure I'll write a little post about how I'm doing and what my schoolwork is like. The short answer is that I'm doing great. I love being in school. I love it. I feel like this is what I was made for. At first I was really worried about coming back after being out of the game for three years; not just out of school, but not having even thought about science for those years. So I was relieved (and more than a little surprised) when everything came right back to me, as though I'd never left.
They definitely keep me busy around here. I'm only taking one class, but believe me, it's enough. Luckily for me, though, it's a really interesting class. Not only that, but after each lecture I feel like I'm just a little bit closer to the cutting edge of my field. It's a weird feeling. You go to school for years and years, and it seems like there's always more to learn, and now I'm getting to the point where people ask questions and the answer is, "We don't know yet." It's exciting to think that I'll be helping to push the boundaries of human knowledge.
On top of my class, I've been teaching a general chemistry lab class. It's similar to the TA work I did at Eastern, so I'm not too out of my element, but it's definitely more labor intensive. Aside from doing all the grading, I have to actually keep a grade book, prepare short (really short) lectures, and even discipline the class if necessary (I've only had to do this once, thankfully). I'm like a real teacher now; some of them even call me Mr. Lowry, although I try and get them to call me Josh. There is still a bit of a difference, though; I doubt too many high school teachers have students asking for their phone numbers.
And of course there's my research, which is the really exciting part. In fact, I can't wait until I no longer have to take classes so I can spend my time doing my research. I've been working on a few different projects since I showed up this summer, and one of them has yielded some exciting results. What we do is something called RNAi, where we feed our worms this special food that targets one of their genes and shuts it off. Then, we look at one-celled embryos, watch them divide, and see if there's any difference between our mutant and a normal cell. Most of the time there's no difference; I mean, worms have ~30,000 genes, and we're shutting off one. But every once in a while, you get something exciting, and that's what happened to me. Here are some videos I made of this first cell division:



In this one, the DNA and the centrosomes (no, I don't expect you to know what they are) are labeled with a special protein that glows green when you shine a laser on it.


This one shows microtubles labeled in red. These both show the same mutant, just with different cell parts visible. I know they're not in color, but when I look at them under the microscope those are the colors I see. When we process them, they lose their color. Still, it's pretty cool to be able to watch all this happening right in front of you. The first cell division actually takes between 10-15mins, so this is time-lapse video you're watching, but still, this is an actual cell going through an actual division. I think it's cool every time I watch it.

So yeah, that's what I've been doing. It keeps me busy, but I'm loving every minute. And with that, it's back to work for me.

I Just About Pissed Myself...

...because I was laughing so damn hard at this!

Apparently, it's not enough to try and guilt kids into not having sex, to lie to them about the evils of birth control, and to tell them masturbation leads to blindness. Now, kids aren't even supposed to give each other proper hugs. That's right, the "front hug" is now officially sinful. What used to be a simple, innocent gesture of friendship and closeness is now sexually charged and awkward. But don't worry, there's an alternative way to show how much you care, the Christian Side Hug! That's the actual name; I did not add the word Christian to this. You want proof? Here's a little video spelling out the dangers of front hugs (and kissing, but we already knew that was wrong), presented in such a way as to mesh with pop-culture attitudes, so that kids will pay attention.

Speaking of paying attention, keep an ear out for the sounds of sirens, gunshots, and threats of violence in this song. Just like in the Bible, violence is okay, but sex is evil.




I have a feeling this is just the beginning. Pretty soon it'll be the Christian Handshake (not to be confused with the Freemason Handshake, or the Cool Black Guy Handshake), then the Christian Wave From Across the Room, and ending with the Christian Separate Bedroom (for married couples only!). It's an exciting time to be a Christian!

My iPod is Magic

I made a comment on Facebook today about how, up until a year ago, I didn't think anyone actually believed in their religion. This immediately riled some people up. So, I figure I should explain my position on this. Hopefully, it'll make more sense to all of you.

This is the best analogy I can come up with. Let's say I ask an electrical engineer how my iPod works. At first, things will be general and simplified, so I can keep up alright. But then he starts adding on layers of complexity, showing me how particular circuits are put together and why, how they relate to others, etc. Eventually, it will reach a point where I can no longer comprehend his explanation (or am simply too mistified to keep trying). At this point, if he simply said, "It's magic," I'd accept the answer. I wouldn't believe it, but I would accept it, because the details are just too intricate for me to follow(at least not without more education/training/etc). This is where I thought people were with their religious beliefs; they knew that they didn't understand, but needed some sort of answer, so religion fills in the gap. But I didn't think anyone actually believed in it!

I know my iPod doesn't run on magic, but if someone asked me, that's the only answer I could give. It's not true, but because I can't understand it, and I can't explain it to someone else, then it's all I'm left with. What I say is "It's magic," but what I mean is "I don't know." I guess I thought everyone knew that when you're told "God created the earth," what they really mean is "No one knows." I think this is where the big rift between religion and science comes from. Scientists aren't satisfied with being told it's magic, because that means you're giving up on the question, you're accepting that no one knows. Just because no one knows, doesn't mean you can't find out, if you try hard enough.

I think people should disbelieve their religion. There are tons of criticisms I could throw out here, but they're all irrelevant. The main point is this: why give up on the big questions in life? Wondering why our world exists, is there any purpose to our lives, what happens when we die...These questions have so many important ramifications for how we live that we need to have the correct answers. By giving up on these questions, and saying "It's magic," we're leaving behind any possible good that could come from truly understanding them, and possibly opening the door to real harm.

The Cookie Has Spoken!

I just opened up the fortune cookie I got with my lunch, and here's what it said:

"THE RAINBOW'S TREASURES WILL SOON BELONG TO YOU"

So apparently I'm going to turn gay. Sorry hun, nothing I can do about it. The cookie has spoken.

The Original Meaning of Awesome

It's rare that I come across music that can bring a tear to my eye. Occasionally a country song will do it, but it almost never happens. Apparently, pondering the vastness of the universe and the fact that anything exists in the first place can also make this happen. Check this out:



The thoughts and ideas put forth by these people is truly awesome, in the original sense of the word.

Poor Zach...

It seems like kids these days just can't get a break. Like this poor little guy from Delaware. He was so excited about joining the cub scouts that he brought his little combination eating utensil to school to show his friends. His teachers saw it and were so impressed that they decided to send his ass to reform school for 45 days. No one got hurt. No one even got threatened. Nope, he just wanted to show off his cool little gizmo, and now he's in trouble. They even went so far as to have a hearing in front of the school board about this; no joke, his karate instructor and his mother's fiance were his character references.

The logic at work here is completely ridiculous. Apparently, this thing is a combo spoon/fork/knife. Because it has a knife attachment, it was considered a weapon, which is why little Zach is in trouble. The problem is that even if you take away all the actual weapons, there are still plenty of things you can hurt someone with in a school environment. You could cause serious damage to someone's face with a pen or pencil. If you were determined enough, you could probably choke someone to death with an electrical cord. Hell, one good push off the monkey bars could cause serious neck/spinal damage if you landed wrong. My point is this: you can take away the weapons, but you'll never make things completely safe. It's the intent that's the important part. If one kid really wants to hurt one of his classmates, he'll find a way.

Now I'm not saying that we should let kids carry weapons into school either. We don't need gun racks next to the coat racks. But the more you treat schools like prisons, the more the kids are going to act like inmates. You have to treat them with some level of respect, and understand that the vast majority of our children aren't out to hurt one another. Supervise them, of course, but they don't need to be under the camera eye every minute of the day.

I would also say that having police checkpoints at the entrances to our schools doesn't make kids feel safer. I know I don't usually feel safe when I have to go through one of those things. Instead, it makes me feel like I'm in a place where it's more likely I'll get hurt. I would want my kid to feel like school is a safe place, like nothing bad's going to happen there. How can you possibly feel comfortable in an environment where you're constantly being searched, where dogs go through and sniff all the lockers, where you can't even take your backpack to class with you? You can't, and this is going to have a negative effect on your schoolwork, your ability to socialize, etc.

There are so many things wrong with our school system that I can't possibly get into them all here. But this one I think is pretty important. Little Zachary didn't do anything wrong, and he certainly does not deserve to be punished for this. I know nobody wants another Columbine, but at some point the paranoia has to be checked. At some point, someone has to say, "This is ridiculous." And it needs to be the educators saying this, not the parents, not the newspapers. If they can't understand the consequences of their choices, then they have no business educating our children in the first place.