HFCS January 28, 2009

A study in Environmental Health found mercury contamination in high fructose corn syrup from at least 2 processors (who weren’t what we’d call cooperative in this study):

The samples were found to contain levels of mercury ranging from below a detection limit of 0.005 to 0.570 micrograms mercury per gram of high fructose corn syrup. Average daily consumption of high fructose corn syrup is about 50 grams per person in the United States.

So at the highest levels of the average consumption and contamination, 50 grams, and 0.570 micrograms/g of mercury, that’s 0.0285 milligrams of mercury per day.  Children frequently consume much more.

When I was in California, I happened to read the ingredients list on the baby’s formula…first ingredient?  High fructose corn syrup.

What I do during the not-field season January 27, 2009

 On the one hand, I want field season to start up again, like today.  On the other, I still have so many specimens to process, so much data to analyze, so many journal articles to read, I could actually skip spring and summer this year and be busy for the next 12 months.

In the field biology realm, as it takes place in the upper latitudes, you have a field season and a lab season.  Depending on what your organism is and where you are, it could be 3-months and 9-months, or 6-and-6, which is how it is where I am.  For 6 months I’m almost never indoors and I’m cut up, bitten, sunburned, sweaty, stung and weary.  For the other 6 months, I’m rarely outdoors and I’m tunnel visioned, analytic, pasty, caffeinated, restless and nocturnal.

While I’m inside these days, with the sun low and cold and the rain ever present, I’m longing for the bucolic field days of summer.  When I’m traipsing around the back forty with vials tucked into my underwear, chasing my subjects and alternately being chased by them, those winter months sound downright cozy.

Dung beetles and the scarcity of scat January 26, 2009

This is a good review of an article in Neotropical Entomology (Jacobs, 2008 ) about phoresy and poo-diving strategies in dung beetles: How to Find a Turd in the Woods.

“Elsewhere, we hear of a research assistant who “reported that a fecal pellet from a bald-faced saki monkey, with dung beetles attached, fell directly into his shirt pocket as he was observing monkeys in the canopy overhead.” Fieldwork doesn’t get any better than that, y’all.”

True true.  I have a subset of specimens that I unknowingly sat on in the field and later peeled off my jeans – they’re still good specimens.  A bit flat.

Mac Love, part deux January 22, 2009

The Mac continues to knock my socks off with its intuitive ease and quiet efficiency.  I found a citation management program for Mac called Bookends and it is, in two words, the shit: basic database, fast as lightning, logical organization.  You can try it for free and store up to 50 citations before you decide (that you can’t possibly live without it).

I’m going to have to spring for Time Capsule; I’m investing a huge amount of time and PDF storage into this computer and while I trust it completely, well, you know.

For the first time since I have owned a computer – and I started with XTs and DOS thankyou – I have my entire life on a computer and I’m not micromanaging file storage and setup.  I actually use all the applications and bells and whistles.  I didn’t take it out of the box and immediately start trying to delete useless applications and circumnavigate shortcuts and paths I didn’t want.  This computer is smarter than I am, and we both know it.

I’m going to stop going on and on about it now, but I have a little tear in my eye.

Grad school is going okay.  Did I tell you I have a new computer?

 

ps – I’m reading the biography of Stephen Hawking (A Life in Science) and it’s quite good.  Of course I do most of my voracious reading when I’m supposed to be doing something else (likewise knitting).  The biographical bit is good as is the primer on cosmology and quantum physics.  This is a very pleasant way to learn about something I can’t possibly understand.

Trick Chair January 22, 2009

I arrived at my desk in my home office, turned on the computer and sat down. The left back leg of my chair broke off just then, delivering me loudly to the floor, in somewhat slow motion. I didn’t fight it, and when I arrived at my destination, I lied there a moment and took stock. Everything okay.

Quiet hilarity ensued as it was 5:00am and the rest of the house was sleeping. The dogs didn’t even come to check on me.

I used to have this friend who, when she would start to fall, would go totally limp and surrender to gravity. One time the result was an empty barstool with just her feet sticking up over the bar. It made for exquisitely funny sight gags that forced me to concentrate on holding my bladder rather than rush to her aid.

I think I would have done her proud this morning.

Barack Obama January 20, 2009

Makes me want to be a better person.

Favs from the speech:

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”

“…we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

The benediction, with the “brown can stick around…white can do what’s right” had me in stitches.

This is such a proud moment; it doesn’t affect me at all in this moment, not in a practical way, but it has made my day. Week. Four years. Whatever.

Village in Texas, we’re sending your you-know-what back.

BTW, I want to say I was embarrassed that Bush Sr. and Jr. received so little applause on their entrance from those on the platform. I don’t agree with anything Jr. did, but the incivility of it made me uncomfortable; let’s not stoop to his level, shall we?  As for Sr., how can you disrespect a man who asks to be rolled under the table until dinner is over because he doesn’t feel well? Srsly. Props to Sr.

Defection: PC January 10, 2009

I’m in the midst of migrating all of my files from one laptop to the new one; already I am smitten with the intuitive simplicity of the Mac platform.  I thought about the move for a long time, but then the MacBook Pros went on sale for less than half of full retail; meanwhile PCs have been giving me the business in just about every venue where I use them: the decision was made.

This morning I went to set up the internet connection and I plugged in the ethernet cord ready to tell the Mac about the network and all that good stuff, and it said, “I’ve got it – don’t need your help.  Behold!  The intarwebs.”

Everything is so much easier and I’m ready to trust a computer.  I never have before, but I’m feeling more confident in this machine than in any of the 5 computers I’ve owned in the past.  Old Faithful, a lovely Fujitsu Lifebook that weighs 13+ pounds and takes about 15 minutes to boot up: buh bye now.

That’s what they said January 4, 2009

Tomorrow this blog becomes that of a graduate student.  I love grad student blogs, but many of the ones I read are nearing terminal as people move on into post-docs, academia and beyond.  If you know of any good, in progress, grad student blogs, link me!

I want to say a few things about graduate school, based on the tiny base of knowledge I have about it right now.  When I was trying to decide what to do and where to go after undergrad, I did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions.  These are the tidbits that were news to me.

1.  Science majors don’t pay for graduate school (usually).  It probably makes sense to pay for a top tier graduate education, provided you are confident in your ability to earn commensurate with what you’ve spent.  The rule at my university is: we pay you unless we don’t really want you or unless we genuinely have no funding for what you want to do.  There are good reasons besides the obvious to hold out for a graduate assistantship or fellowship or stipend: most importantly (to me), it demonstrates a commitment to you as a student and a researcher.

2.  Choose your program by institution and content, but also by professor.  Make sure you want to work with this person/these people for the forseeable future.  Obviously your mentor will shape your experience, but your lab cohorts will too.  Know your threshold for unsupportive or contentious working conditions and choose accordingly (my threshold is low, and I’ll be working with a harmonious group).  Most labs will have some sort of reputation: know what yours is.

3.  Be prepared to be treated differently than you were as an undergrad.  The shift is subtle at first: your hand shan’t be held, you won’t be stroked very often, you’re expected to excel in all your coursework because your real work is research now.  I was prepared for this early and I’m grateful now that I knew to expect it.

4.  Your graduate research is your first serious job in your field: act accordingly.  The shift in the way you are treated is part of the process of transitioning from a student to a researcher.  Whatever being a professional means to you, start doing it now.

5.  Reading all those subtle shifts and changing dynamics in your cohorts, professors, advisors and industry pros is part of the job.  The expectations are so clear in undergrad, but in my opinion, navigating the unknown is a clear and deliberate part of the graduate school process.  That confidence in your own judgment and clarity about your role that were newly placed in your hand on graduation: no more.  New learning curve.

6.  That said, your own judgment is still to be trusted: it’s not usual for my fellows and I have to diametrically different perceptions of courses, people, and situations.  Intellectual autonomy: you need it.

If you’re thinking about grad school and you’re currently an undergrad, here’s what I can tell you:

1.  Ask for research opportunities.  They are often available but not advertised.  It’s not unheard of for a position to be created for you when you have the interest and ask the right person.  Those experiences open door after door.

2.  In undergrad, your grades are your credibility.  I never knew until I got good grades how many doors it opens and how eager people are to help you.  Obviously a high GPA is important for grad school admissions, but it also conjures money, jobs, and esteem.  Oh, and confidence.

3.  The GRE is negotiable, even when it is a stated requirement.  I didn’t take it, and I’m in good company.

4.  Your undergrad courseload is probably also negotiable.  Ask for subsitutions that cater to your interests and aspirations.

5.  A good relationship with your undergrad advisor is a tremendous asset.  Cultivate this relationship.

Salvia leucantha & Pittosporum tenuifolium January 3, 2009

Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha) is a California staple: colorful and shrubby, it attracts bees and hummingbirds.  This specimen is a bit wild looking, and it’s probably 6-8 plants grouped together.  You can keep it tighter and tidier looking by shearing it back (almost to the ground if you like) right before it starts actively growing in the spring and by planting it in a southern exposure.

Once established, it’s drought tolerant and needs no feeding in moderately rich soils.  In sandy soils, it could benefit from summer water and light feeding.

The silver foliage makes a nice contrast with the brilliant purple flowers, and it goes well with silver foliaged trees:  Melaleuca, Olive, Eucalyptus.  The intensity of color is also good at brightening up a darker area or corner of a garden, but it does best in full sun.  Less sun will result in the somewhat spindly growth seen above and fewer flowers.

(When I first wrote this post, it was titled Saliva leucantha.  Comedy.)

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Search term question: “Can you trim up a Pittosporum teniufolium into a tree?”

Yes you can, but you shouldn’t.

There is one cultivar, ‘Marjorie Channon’, that is very tight and frequently sold as a small plant in a tree form.  However, as they age, they don’t get the trunk girth needed to support a canopy.  You’d have better luck trying to do topiary than attain a good canopy.  IMO, that’s not the best use of these plants.

Half the appeal of a mature Silver Sheen is the contrast between the black stems and the silvery green foliage, so you want to prune to best showcase that play of color.  Thinning from the inside is the best way to keep them open and airy.

If you are determined to keep a P. tenuifolium tight, you can shear them across the top or all the way down – the one I brought with me to the PNW (seen above) will no doubt be coppiced to the ground this spring due to cold damage.  In my experience, if you want a tight shrubby plant you can prune into a small canopy tree, I’d go with a myrtle (Myrtus sp.) or tea tree (Leptospermum sp.)

HTH!

Stash January 2, 2009

Dicentra Designs sock yarn in the delightful shade of Paprika.

I have four projects on the needles right now, and I’m none too taken with any of them.  The first is the alligator scarf from Morehouse Merino.  The increases and bind offs demand your undivided attention, something I just don’t have right now.

The second is another Noro beehive hat in browns and blacks.  The third is using the same Noro colorway in sock weight about 60% through a pair of Jaywalkers – sick of the pattern, sick of the yarn.  The fourth is what I’m actually working on this week, a pullover in a squeaky acrylic boucle.  The needles I’m using are new and without the lanolin of wool, the yarn has it’s own ideas so it’s a bit of an arm wrestle moving the stitches across the needles.  Should have used aluminum needles.  Should have used wool.

I have a $25 card for my LYS, the reward for being a frequent flier at that shop.  This is the third time I’ve cashed out to the reward and I’m embarrassed to tell you how much you have to spend each time (cummulatively) to get the reward.

I’m thinking of using it for a truckload of Dale and starting on Whistler.  I think I’m going to go with black, olive green and light grey.  I was all excited about it until I bought the pattern and saw the needle sizes: I’m sorry, did you say a #2 needle? For a sweater!? It cooled my jets ever so slightly.