Ten discrete thoughts
Dec. 16th, 2004 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirLowell House, on the Feast of Ste. Adelaide
I should be doing my physics problem set and studying for chemistry. But I wanted to jot down a couple of things, some of which I (hopefully) will be able to discuss in more detail after the midterm on Monday.
1. Blockmates and I attended Jack Szostak's lecture on the transition from molecular to Darwinian evolution. Fascinating stuff--most of it was described in last year's Gazette article, but his hypothesis about how to link selection mechanism for vesicles and RNA is worth noting down and discussing. Nobel laureate E.J. Corey was quite cruel and dismissive in his questioning though. (And wow, I sat no more than ten feet away from a Nobel laureate! Even if he seemed like a nasty person.)
2. Roommate and I attended David Harel's lecture on the proposal to build a computer model of a multicellular animal. Hilarious, but more plausible than it initially seemed. (The man quoted Popper! And how could we miss a chance to watch computer scientists pretend they know more about biology than biologists?) Questioning was surprisingly friendly, although cut short, which is ironic in light of what happened to Szostak.
3. I found a published manuscript that translates a Persian text describing two astronomical instruments (one of them is called the Plate of Heavens, I think) built by Kashi, a astronomer-mathematician at the court in Samarkand, at Cabot today. Kashi was apparently quite the mathematician. Am mind-boggled by the mathematical genius required to grasp concepts without the convenience of a systematic notation (that is, like the one we use today). Also am mind-boggled by the mental computing feats required of Samarkand mathematicians. Book included scans of the original text in Arabic script on the left and typewritten line-by-line translations on the right--I had no idea scientific texts could be made to sound so poetic.
4. Was browsing Stephen Jay Gould archive and came across an essay recounting the history of the "Darwin wars". I was amazed to realize that all the major players mentioned in the essay--Gould, Lewontin, Wilson, Pinker--have taught or are teaching at Harvard. (Dawkins of course is not, but the writer only mentioned him in passing.) Lewontin co-authored my genetics textbook last year; now I know why he's famous, not just that he is. If I was born four years earlier and started Harvard in 1999, I would have been able to take the Gould-Lewontin undergrad course on evolution. ::sighs::
5. Corollary to above: now I have even more titles to add to my future reading list. E.O. Wilson's Consilience, Sociobiology: the New Synthesis, On Human Nature. (Have always been somewhat skeptical about sociobiology but now that I understand the full extent of the Gould bias in the way I have been taught biology from high school onward, I need to get more well-rounded.) Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct (after reading The Blank Slate, of course). Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin's "The Spandrels of San Marco". (Now I finally understand what Gould meant by "spandrels" in The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. I think I should start re-reading that from the beginning, now that I have a better knowledge of the Gould opus.) Maybe I should throw Ernst Mayr in there for good measure to finish covering all the Harvard evolutionary theorists. Though at the rate I'm progressing on my future reading list, I don't think I'll even start these books until I graduate.
6. I need to do some basic research on Yi Sunsin for my Korean presentation on Monday. Shall visit Yenching tomorrow. There is currently a historical drama about him being aired on KBS--I caught two episodes of it last Thanksgiving and found it to be really interesting, much better than the previous historical dramas. It suddenly struck me how all the historical dramas use Mandate of Heaven rhetoric and judge the virtue of a leader on his ability to understand and enact the "will of the people" (in the historical drama "Age of Warriors", which aired just before the Yi Sunsin one, the "will of the people" was invoked constantly, usually by solemn Buddhist monks who sternly commanded various generals to overthrow the corrupt government). Language not unlike the rhetoric used constantly in The Three Kingdoms, especially when concerning the eunuchs. In tenth grade, I wrote a long essay comparing historians' opinions on modern China's prospects for democracy and concluded negatively, but I think my conclusion was premature/naive, driven more by process of elimination than by good logic. Want to reconsider by taking an actual class on the revolutionary mindset behind changes of power in China (and by extension, Korea). There actually is a Historical Study Core course called The Chinese Revolutionary Tradition being offered next spring--it only encompasses the last two or three centuries though--but I can't take it because of physics, which is at the same time. I hate the idiots responsible for scheduling physics. Anyway, more uninformed speculations on revolutions and Mandate of Heaven later.
7. I don't know anything about enolates, amines or pericyclic reactions. (I.e. the material being tested on the third chemistry hourly.)
8. The Yule Ball this Saturday (the Lowell winter formal dance) will have actual ballroom dancing, including swing, salsa and waltz. There are even salsa classes for those who know not the art of ballroom dancing. I feel miffed--for the first time in my life, there's a dance that actually has music that I know how to dance to (or can at least try to pretend I know how to dance to), and I don't even have the time to go.
9. Possible Core course choices for spring semester (after I rule out all those that conflict with the three courses that I have to take and all those that I refuse to take out of total disinterest in the subject): Orpheus: Literary, Artistic and Cultural Figurations; European Culture in the Middle Ages; and Charlemagne and the Birth of Medieval Civilization. It's really not fair: there are many courses that I want to take that are simply at the wrong time (why is everything at 10?!) and even more that are at the right time but are not being offered this year. ;_;
10. There is a manga series called Demian Syndrome, and no, the name is no coincidence. Several references made to Hesse so far, although either the mangaka has a completely different interpretation of the book (although the brief summary of it in the dialogue didn't seem too different from how I would describe it) or there really isn't supposed to be any connection at all beyond the distinction conferred by literary allusion. The two main characters don't correspond to Sinclair and Demian at all, so I'm rather confused. It's ostensibly a shounen ai series, but other than the fact that the two main characters are hostile to each other in grand stereotypical fashion, absolutely nothing has happened to mark it as shounen ai at all. The Japanese are weird. (There's also a manga series on the Borgias?! What will they think of next? Finnegan's Wake as the next cyber-punk anime? A Jump series based on Mali salt trade rituals? Mecha wars referencing Simon Bolivar and Latin-American independence? Reworking of Remembrance of Things Past--oh right, Western comic books have covered that one already.)
Yours &c.
I should be doing my physics problem set and studying for chemistry. But I wanted to jot down a couple of things, some of which I (hopefully) will be able to discuss in more detail after the midterm on Monday.
1. Blockmates and I attended Jack Szostak's lecture on the transition from molecular to Darwinian evolution. Fascinating stuff--most of it was described in last year's Gazette article, but his hypothesis about how to link selection mechanism for vesicles and RNA is worth noting down and discussing. Nobel laureate E.J. Corey was quite cruel and dismissive in his questioning though. (And wow, I sat no more than ten feet away from a Nobel laureate! Even if he seemed like a nasty person.)
2. Roommate and I attended David Harel's lecture on the proposal to build a computer model of a multicellular animal. Hilarious, but more plausible than it initially seemed. (The man quoted Popper! And how could we miss a chance to watch computer scientists pretend they know more about biology than biologists?) Questioning was surprisingly friendly, although cut short, which is ironic in light of what happened to Szostak.
3. I found a published manuscript that translates a Persian text describing two astronomical instruments (one of them is called the Plate of Heavens, I think) built by Kashi, a astronomer-mathematician at the court in Samarkand, at Cabot today. Kashi was apparently quite the mathematician. Am mind-boggled by the mathematical genius required to grasp concepts without the convenience of a systematic notation (that is, like the one we use today). Also am mind-boggled by the mental computing feats required of Samarkand mathematicians. Book included scans of the original text in Arabic script on the left and typewritten line-by-line translations on the right--I had no idea scientific texts could be made to sound so poetic.
4. Was browsing Stephen Jay Gould archive and came across an essay recounting the history of the "Darwin wars". I was amazed to realize that all the major players mentioned in the essay--Gould, Lewontin, Wilson, Pinker--have taught or are teaching at Harvard. (Dawkins of course is not, but the writer only mentioned him in passing.) Lewontin co-authored my genetics textbook last year; now I know why he's famous, not just that he is. If I was born four years earlier and started Harvard in 1999, I would have been able to take the Gould-Lewontin undergrad course on evolution. ::sighs::
5. Corollary to above: now I have even more titles to add to my future reading list. E.O. Wilson's Consilience, Sociobiology: the New Synthesis, On Human Nature. (Have always been somewhat skeptical about sociobiology but now that I understand the full extent of the Gould bias in the way I have been taught biology from high school onward, I need to get more well-rounded.) Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct (after reading The Blank Slate, of course). Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin's "The Spandrels of San Marco". (Now I finally understand what Gould meant by "spandrels" in The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. I think I should start re-reading that from the beginning, now that I have a better knowledge of the Gould opus.) Maybe I should throw Ernst Mayr in there for good measure to finish covering all the Harvard evolutionary theorists. Though at the rate I'm progressing on my future reading list, I don't think I'll even start these books until I graduate.
6. I need to do some basic research on Yi Sunsin for my Korean presentation on Monday. Shall visit Yenching tomorrow. There is currently a historical drama about him being aired on KBS--I caught two episodes of it last Thanksgiving and found it to be really interesting, much better than the previous historical dramas. It suddenly struck me how all the historical dramas use Mandate of Heaven rhetoric and judge the virtue of a leader on his ability to understand and enact the "will of the people" (in the historical drama "Age of Warriors", which aired just before the Yi Sunsin one, the "will of the people" was invoked constantly, usually by solemn Buddhist monks who sternly commanded various generals to overthrow the corrupt government). Language not unlike the rhetoric used constantly in The Three Kingdoms, especially when concerning the eunuchs. In tenth grade, I wrote a long essay comparing historians' opinions on modern China's prospects for democracy and concluded negatively, but I think my conclusion was premature/naive, driven more by process of elimination than by good logic. Want to reconsider by taking an actual class on the revolutionary mindset behind changes of power in China (and by extension, Korea). There actually is a Historical Study Core course called The Chinese Revolutionary Tradition being offered next spring--it only encompasses the last two or three centuries though--but I can't take it because of physics, which is at the same time. I hate the idiots responsible for scheduling physics. Anyway, more uninformed speculations on revolutions and Mandate of Heaven later.
7. I don't know anything about enolates, amines or pericyclic reactions. (I.e. the material being tested on the third chemistry hourly.)
8. The Yule Ball this Saturday (the Lowell winter formal dance) will have actual ballroom dancing, including swing, salsa and waltz. There are even salsa classes for those who know not the art of ballroom dancing. I feel miffed--for the first time in my life, there's a dance that actually has music that I know how to dance to (or can at least try to pretend I know how to dance to), and I don't even have the time to go.
9. Possible Core course choices for spring semester (after I rule out all those that conflict with the three courses that I have to take and all those that I refuse to take out of total disinterest in the subject): Orpheus: Literary, Artistic and Cultural Figurations; European Culture in the Middle Ages; and Charlemagne and the Birth of Medieval Civilization. It's really not fair: there are many courses that I want to take that are simply at the wrong time (why is everything at 10?!) and even more that are at the right time but are not being offered this year. ;_;
10. There is a manga series called Demian Syndrome, and no, the name is no coincidence. Several references made to Hesse so far, although either the mangaka has a completely different interpretation of the book (although the brief summary of it in the dialogue didn't seem too different from how I would describe it) or there really isn't supposed to be any connection at all beyond the distinction conferred by literary allusion. The two main characters don't correspond to Sinclair and Demian at all, so I'm rather confused. It's ostensibly a shounen ai series, but other than the fact that the two main characters are hostile to each other in grand stereotypical fashion, absolutely nothing has happened to mark it as shounen ai at all. The Japanese are weird. (There's also a manga series on the Borgias?! What will they think of next? Finnegan's Wake as the next cyber-punk anime? A Jump series based on Mali salt trade rituals? Mecha wars referencing Simon Bolivar and Latin-American independence? Reworking of Remembrance of Things Past--oh right, Western comic books have covered that one already.)
Yours &c.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-16 09:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-17 10:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-17 10:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-17 07:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-17 10:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-17 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-18 01:21 am (UTC)I say you should make the site anyway. ^_^ 'Cause then you can have minor wars going on in the fake fandom about which series is better, kind of like the incessant arguments over which Gundam series is the "true" Gundam series. >_> Okay, I'm evil. Heh.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-18 12:01 am (UTC)And if you want to watch UTENA, I have it. It is teh crack. Teh crack that includes the entire range of sexual behavior.
And any recs on which kind of bogu to get? I mean, is there *that* much of a difference between 5 mm and 3 mm? What about from kendoshop.com as opposed to other places? Which kind is yours? I convinced my mom I need it or I will die otherwise, and I need to get it before my grades come in... >_>
O.o
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-18 01:11 am (UTC)Speaking of bougu, I took a look at the new set today, but the men seems too small...or maybe that's just because I've never had a men that fits correctly. We put it back in the closet because we can't find the himo, and I'm sticking to my current set for now.
We should watch Utena over the break! Esp. if it has Demian references. I wonder if I can pull off another sleepover or something. Maybe I can even ask my parents to let you sleep over at our house. Hm...
I like the schoolboy series too, but Demian Syndrome is just blah. ::shrugs:: Have you read Rin? It's the one about an archery club--I like the art style, and it has a cute plot. I shall squee at you about it over AIM/phone later.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-18 01:19 am (UTC)O.o
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-18 01:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-18 01:26 am (UTC)O.o