Oceanography and "Fork Roulette"

Today was the first day of COSMOS. It was more like orientation than real classes. There was a presentation by the UCSC physics departments, named the Tesslugs. There was a megawatt Tesla coil set up, and the air was electric. The bolts of electricity seared ozone, and a physics teacher, first with a grounded sword, then in a suit of armour, would walk up and touch the tesla coil. It was really cool.

After this event, we went on to our first class of Biological Oceanography. Our teacher is Dr. Baldo. Reasonable person, of course, when I looked at my sheet and asked, what was Baldo, our teacher pointed and said, "It's Dr. Baldo to you."

Lunch was admirable. But it appears with dorm food that 1/3 entrees is really, really weird. Its like Russian Roulette, except with forks.

Then I attended my Physical Oceanography class. We learned about our expectations, and what not to do. The final projects will be based off of our cruises.

There was an awesome enrichment session, where I analyzed and judged the risk factors of a malarial outbreak in Africa. It was interesting, and I enjoyed discussing the dynamics of disease and vector control.

Ben out. Tired and sleeping.

Zombies get Projects

It was day two of COSMOS. The day started out with everybody shuffling around in the morning, groaning like zombies. Breakfast did impact the zombiness though.

First our cluster went to transferable skills course. There, we learned how to use the UCSC Science library and reference system. Mr. McBride gave us several projects to finish this month. One is a presentation about oneself, another on research of a current event, and yet another on concatinating data from counts of plankton and physical ocean charectoristics.

Later, after lunch, our physical oceanography teacher gave a 3 hour lecture on Seawater and properties of water. Intermittently spaced in the lecture was a series of labs on density and graphing of temperatures in water.

My recreation time was spent at the UCSC pool today. And later we either played football or Mafia. I chose Mafia because I personally think flag football sucks.

Tomorrow, I hear that Dr. Baldo will be presenting on Biological Oceanography.

Phytoplankton Facts and Standard Deviation

Today, I woke up slowly. With the usual breakfast roulette, in which this time it was the french toast that killed the butler. I decided to take things slowly, starting with getting to the Discovery lecture at a usual pace. This one was on Areas of research in Science. From Astronomy to Quantum Computing. Ranging from the age of the universe, where open clusters are dated 15 billion years old, and quantum computing, where the results change everytime it is measured.

I gave a presentation of myself, along with heritage, roots, and hobbies. Everyone gave one. This was at the transferable skills course. Then we reviewed Standard Deviation. It was easy, as Mrs. Wendell had helped me learn it during Synopsys 2006 for my science fair project on Spartina (cordgrass) species.

Dr. Baldo gave a lecture on phytoplankton. It was so enlightening. I never knew there were so many types of plankton, especially autotrophs. We are going to be collecting net plankton >20nm. Also, I found out that we'll be using a spectrophotometer-like measurement device to test chlorophyll in the water at different depths and temperatures. I also used a spectrophotometer for my project this year. I really have to thank Mrs. Wendell because she prepared me very well for COSMOS.

After this course, we had an enrichment session. It was really slow, but I learned about the UC college admission system. When I was bored, I collaborated with several other students in writing of a random story. Each person wrote three words, and it became really interesting story about phytoplankton and forests.

Dinner was ok. Dodgeball really sucked. It really should be played in a gym.

Over and out.

How Sharp the Mechanical Pencil Doth Bite

I felt really lousy getting out of bed today. Got to stop writing these entries so late. But then I'd miss vital parts of the day, wouldn't I? Like breakfast, which was good considering the fact that we got up late, and had less than 30 minutes to eat and get ready for transferable skills - a lengthened out version of Graphing 101. It was all review. So much review I fell asleep. And got poked by Stefan Gygax. So then I shifted and fell asleep again. And Alexandra Barbella stuck me with her .05 mechanical pencil. Why .05? I could tell from the feel.

So Mr. McBride had all of us go on a class field trip on the trails to do some stretching exercises. Lets just say I felt awake after that.

Dr. Baldo completed his presentation on Phytoplankton II. And then on Zooplankton...

Zooplankton are really cool, ranging from plankton size to meters long. Then we got to look at a sample of water from the Santa Cruz Wharf that was collected within the hour. Phytoplankton in the sample was really cool. I found loads of penne, long boat shaped phytoplankton with glass shells. Diatoms were really abundant. The Zooplankton in the sample were lively and hard to see, but we all got to see them. My sample had a high concentration of Dinoflaggelates.

Petra finished up her power point on Seawater and started on Atmospheric Circulation. After messing up on Nutrients and Oxygen graphs, I paid extra attention. We graphed the circulation of air and heat within a closed room, complete with radiator and open window.

I talked to Dr. Owens. She was really nice. I got pulled out of my apartment with my roommate by one of our RAs to listen to UCSC graduates talk about UC. It was pretty interesting.

Going on a cruise tomorrow.

Cruising Monterey Bay for Plankton

The alarm rang off at 6:00 am. I groaned, and rolled over in bed. I really did not feel enthusiastic about going on the cruise, to which I affectionately refer as the Chuck Wagon (Actually its the John Martin).

Moving at subwarp speed, I shuffled down to the designated area for us lucky people who get to go on the cruise. The breakfast hall wasn't open. My roommate gets go on the second cruise (heh). The victims, I mean students, climbed into the cars/vans, and we were off to Moss Landing.

Just before we arrived at our destination, we passed over a bridge and lo and behold, an otter was there. Only 13 feet away. Rolling over in the water and enjoying an mussel breakfast, it didn't pause to give us a thought.

I boarded the John Martin. Wearing a life vest, with my back to the waters and my face to the stern. The ride out was bumpy, but I felt not a tinge of sea sickness. Dr. Baldo asked who wanted to climb up to the top of the boat to scan for apex predators, like seabirds, sharks, otters, and whales. I volunteered, and found it really relaxing. There were over 400 seabirds I saw only three miles out from shore. The second group went up there later, after the plankton tow was started.

The plankton tow and results were interesting. There was loads of krill and zooplankton. On the surface, the phytoplankton looked very abundant. For the lower layers, we picked up a few fetal squids and over a dozen jellyfish masses. I watched Dr. Baldo sort out the plankton, pick up the translucent jelly mass with his finger, and drop it in the waves.

When we got back, I moved back to my apartment, fell on the mattress, and just slept. Four hours later, dinner was being served, so I got up and walked over and ate.

Oh, yeah. There was a dance tonite. I stayed for a while, then decided to leave after I got tired of it.

En Taro Adun.

Weekend Relaxation at UCSC COSMOS

Not much happening for the weekend. On Saturday we went to the boardwalk. My roommate and I travelled around, eventually joining up with Cluster 8's group. I spent some time in the arcade, playing Star Trek Voyager: Borg Invasion 3d. But what can I say? It was fun, but there is nothing that stuck out much. I think class is much more variable about surprises.

And on Sunday, it was more of a relax day. There was a small COSMOS carnival, in which I participated in. Most notably, since I slept in too late and missed breakfast, that I competed in the doughnut on a string contest. I didn't win, but the work was tasty in it of itself.

Classes start tomorrow.

At the lab

Blegh. Two words: Mondays suck. At least for the morning. I did get up on time. Got to breakfast, and ate it. I like breakfast the best. I always know what to eat, and most of it is good. The Discovery Lecture for today was on Database Relational Technology. It's all old school info to me. The presenter seemed to switch back and forth in the talk.

It was sample analyzation day! Those who went on the cruise got to go down with Baldo to the Long Marine Lab. His lab was very interesting. The room was similar in size to my dorm room. There were several microscopes set up, with fiber optic lighting. All in all, I thought I would like to work there.

We arrived late for the enrichment session. It was a really interesting forensics talk, explaining all the jobs and methods of forensics investigator. It was really interesting. Especially the identifications for at death injuries and fatalities. Ranging from blunt trauma to gun wounds on the bones, animal damage, to knife wounds and shock wave damage. The methods to determine age and gender were interesting. The pelvis was the best method of determination.

Its really fun here. Aside from my inability to participate in the local SC tournament because of WINE fubaring the lan support, I had fun in coaching Arun in pwning the opponents.

Got to go. Sleep calls, and my right arm answers.

Prof. Petra's Time to Shine

Today was good. My arm was stiff, but I was awake and feeling good. Heading down to the Breakfast Hall, I picked a table at which Cluster 9 was. For the past week, I've been sitting with different clusters. Its really fun, as I get to know people a little better.

We all arrived at the classroom for transferable skills, but the teacher didn't show up. We waited for ~10 minutes before our RA arrived and took us to the Library. Then later on the teacher showed and gave us our assignments to complete. I finished my current event presentation easily. It was really easy later on to pare down the presentation.

Petra gave a very fascinating lecture on the atmosphere, covering convection to coriolis effect. To demonstrate the coriolis effect, we all took a field trip to the local playground, and rolled a spherical object to eachother while on a slowly spinning carousel. It was really fun, and she also demonstrated how the Coriolis effect influences the weather. Though we didn't cover Jet streams, we covered a lot of ground.

On a off note (irrated), I attempted to observe the Yoga class during activities. But one of the RA's kept on insisting that I either join in, or go. Sad thing is that they all were on my floor, and I usually sit in the nexus to think, which is where the overflow fell into. I could not participate. Why? I strained a tendon in my right arm. And I know that in any martial-arts or dojos in general, they want you to observe before commiting. So by observing, I was honoring that practice.

So then I asked to take pictures. The RA: "You can take some. Just ask people's permission to take a picture of them.". Good. I stand up on the best vantage point, scanning the room for the best angles. And a girl complains, "Stop taking pictures of me!" I calmly tell her I am only looking around for the best shots, and that I would respect her wishes. I also said I will ask them when I want to take pictures. After I am done thoroughly explaining in a cool manner, another girl makes the same complaint. *sigh* I take a not so good picture, working with the RA giving express permission. I tried to take a good one, but its hard to take a still picture without flash of moving people, with a digital camera. I am shocked at people getting embarassed over trying something new.

Glowing Bacteria?

Today was an interesting Discovery Lecture. It was a researcher from MBARI presenting on Bioluminenscence. For those who do not know, MBARI is the Monterey Bay Area Research Institute. It was very interesting, as much of the plankton-base life in the deep ocean is very delicate. I remember on our trawl, Dr. Baldo caught some Siphonophores by accident. Well, some species of siphonophores are bioluminscent. Even more interesting is the that some siphonphores will group togther to form a compound colony over forty meters long, with one half devoted purely to propulsion, and another half dangling thousands of lines, all connected up to thousands of stomachs.

After the lecture, Dr. Baldo gave a lecture on Zooplankton II. After giving the groups the data they needed for their respective projects, he proceeded to explain bioluminsance, flouresance, and relfection of light in deep sea animals. One of the interesting adaptations of bioluminascent animals is counter-illumination. By the way light functions deep underwater, the silouettes of the animal are exposed to deeper predators. Counter-illumination is the hiding of the sillouette by producing light to match the ambient lighting of the area.

There was a diversity workshop. It was like challenge day. But zero guilt. It was ok. Can't say much. Had to do with a lot of mixing. I must say diversity is good.

=/\=

Predators of the Deep

Today I got up on time and pulled myself together for breakfast. I find breakfast the best time of day, cause everyone is too tired t pick arguments, and most of the food is good.

Prof. Petra covered the rest of her lecture. Describing the midocean gyres, where the water looks influenced by the wind directly, but in reality, there are several levels of interaction happening. The wind forces the water to concentrate into the center (which is slided over to one side because of the rotation of Earth), and the pressure gradient and Eckman Spiral cause the water to move around with the results of following the wind currents.

Dr. Baldo gave a small lecture on Apex predators and interesting animals in the Bay Area. Ranging from Sharks to Squids, it showed the intense biodiversity of the California coast.

Laptops are fuzzy

Well, I felt really tired today. Prof. Petra covered upwelling today. And the dependencies of it. Dr. Baldo covered Seabirds and Seaturtles. It was interesting.

Racking my head for ideas. Can't think. Hungry.

Theres No Place I'd Rather Be

The beach was dry and hot. The water cold and refreshing. And group B was in action. I moved along the beach, tossing a football between others. I rubbed sun block on, careful to cover all exposed body parts. It was early in the day, the fog still high. Everybody was cautious, reasonably so, of cold water. But as the day wore on, it looked more enticing.

Group A arrived, soaked and.. drained. We asked and asked, but little came out. I, and a few others, were the first to brave the waves. It was cold, but once we got numb enough, it didn't matter. Then lunch arrived. It was pizza, in huge slices. I helped out, and as a result, was allowed to get food easier. It was then I found out that group B, my group, were going in only 30 minutes. Oops.

Bill, our guide, gave us a "crash" course on sea kayaking. Life jackets matter, dont lose your paddle, and stay away from the Wharf. I learned which side of the paddle matters, and to turn left, paddle on your right. Brandy, my partner, was in the front, and I was in the back, providing as much power and steering as possible with my paddle and rudder.

Our boat was launched. I felt the wave slide under us. We were in the sea. But then our course started to deviate towards the wharf. Realizing the weight of crashing into a pier and getting capsized, we paddled backwards. In a backwards zigzag, we backpaddled all the way to the first meeting point. Later, we righted the boat, but that was the most enlightening experience for using a sea kayak.

Calling out the sides of the boat, so Brandy could follow, I navigated around the treacherous Wharf and the entangling fishing lines of Death. Catching none, we caught up to the front of the fleet. I saw huge pelicans, soaring through the sky. A sea otter, which I will mention later on, was seen dozing in the kelp. We even got within thirteen feet, by accident, of two large sealions either in a fight or play. The kelp forest that we piled through was hell. In the end run, short and small strokes won over long, deep strokes, due to heavy seaweed.

The rest of the day was spent diving into the ocean, while group C was out exploring the same way we did. And that ends my weekend, with a sunburn and many wonderful images, with soul, mind, and heart.

Monday

Yay! Monday! The day of the week that sets the stage. The discovery lecture was on the cosmos of the universe. Some more research on quantum computing, and new globular clusters found. There was no transferable skills today. Only Dr. Baldo and Prof. Petra, furthering our education, adding on the vital information for our end of COSMOS projects.

Dr. Baldo headed out the day with a lecture titled "Sea Mammals: Predators or all fluff?". Covering the different classes of seamammals, from cetaceans to otters, he showed all the seamammals that are part of the Monterey Bay ecosystem. Ranging from the magnificent blue whale to the vicious little otter. Vicious otter? Yeah, thats right. These little suckers are vicious, same way a shrew is. Even more than a sea lion, which would rather bite you than let you pet it. Not to mention other phenomena at work. When it came to Orcas, the situation is deadly. Their primary food source was disrupted, so they switched to seals in their diet. When that ran out, they chose to eat the already endangered otters. Keep in mind that otters are a keystone predator in the kelp forests. Without them, marauding armies of Sea Urchins would strip bare entire forests.

Prof. Petra covered the big, global phenomena know as El Nino, and La Nina. El Nino is a reversal or elimination of the Trade Winds, and reversal of pressure gradients across the pacific ocean. The Trade Winds, which cause the upwelling of nutrient rich waters that make the west coast of the Americas so abundant, will stop. The pressure gradients, which are the results of all the warm, nutrient poor water being pushed to the Malaysian areas, backlash. Even after El Nino stops, and the tradewinds come back, it takes a long time to rebuild that high and low pressure zones.

La Nina, to a lesser extend, is the opposite of El Nino. La Nina is a extremity of the "normal" condition. Changing High pressure California into Ultra High, and Low pressure Darwin, Austrilia, to be Extremely Low, this occurs also like El Nino. Just a result of the feedback loop set in place by many events in the weather. However, global warming has disrupted the "normal" weather, making future El Nino's more possible. Thank you fossil fuels! Not.

Oh, and our cluster won the COSMOS improvisization contest. Martise imitated our well known RA, Edwina, during a cluster meeting, yelling at me. It was so hilarious, that we won hands down. Ironic that it actually occurs in our group. Dont get in your minds that Edwina and I fight or dislike each other. We just tend to excarbate nerves with bad timing. Not that I mean to, of course.

Night!

Shh... don't tell...

It's Bacon and Egg's day. I felt more rested today, and ready for Transferable Skills. Greg came out of the residence halls, carrying two laptop bags. I carried one, which contained IBM T-28's. Turned out that one of them had a lousy hard drive, which died later in class. Only two out of four had PowerPoint, which I consider the only good M$ product.

While discussing our final project, Greg gave us a task to visualize what we want for the title slide. Someone in our group had a "Oceanography for dummies" idea. After sketching it out, I set to work on the challenge. Using Martise's awesome laptop, I downloaded The GIMP, and used a path tool the entire time. All of the following image was done by me with only a general look at the "Dummies" line. Used under non-commercial and fair use.

Prof. Petra called in sick today, so Dr. Baldo took over. He covered marine life, from phytoplankton to apex predators. It was more review. It was a very short presentation. However, our assignment was to finalize our method and background information slides. Mine was on the Ekman Spiral, and I spent the entire time writing information, and cross checking my knowledge with Baldo's.

We played Capture the Flag for activities time. I participated in a rush that ended up in capturing the enemy's flag. I felt so tired after that, but we were the green ninja's. I had wristbands, which proved an effective identification.

Checkpoint for Physical group!

Hmm. Today was awesome. Though we didn't cover much in Greg's class, we did review all our projects so far. I found out my Ekman Spiral needs a more complete explanation, and a better graphic.

The Ekman Spiral is when the wind blows over the surface of the water. The water wants to follow the wind, but because the Coriolis effect influences it, the water deviates fourty five degrees to the right in the Northern Hemisphere, and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. The force of the water decreases as energy is lost. The next layer of water feels the current above, and is pulled along by it. But the Coriolis effect influences this layer as well, causing another fourty five degree shift. The next layer tries the same action, and also deviates fourty five degrees. In the end run, with each level deviating and losing energy, the net result of all the vectors is called the Ekman Transport, which is a ninety degree angle to either the right or left, N. and S. Hemisphere respectively.

Prof. Petra arrived today. She was sick yesterday with stomach flu. Because of the flu actively draining her energy, she decided to forego the lecture today. Like Transferable skills today, we devoted the time to critiquing the current work done on the final projects. Once again, I needed a better graphic, and we needed better transitions, and real data. Good thing is that Dr. Baldo emailed me the information I needed for Physical Group.

For Activities time today, we had the four way dodgeball, two front dodgeball, and final game. In four way, I was on the winning team twice. But my best moment was during final game, where I found my skill. The big yellow ball is very squish and very hard to throw. Everyone hated that ball, because it was only good for shielding. Or so they though. Learning from Simon, who I called sensei, I gripped this ball with a judo grip, warping the sides. Spinning around and traveling towards the border, I released this ball. It was deadly, as you could never predict where it'd go. And it made a good shield. But Simon-sensei caught my last throw. The boundary between sensei and student was shown. But I'll get him out next time.

Long Marine Lab

Dr. Baldo took us on a trip to the Long Marine Lab. It was a very interesting experience. We stopped by the Dolphin Research Lab, which housed to middle aged dolphins. The trainer said that they fight once a year. But most of the time they are amiable. We also saw Ryou the Sealion, and she was very energetic. When the trainer yelled "Porpoise!", she swam and leapt around like a dolphin.

At Long Marine Lab, the universal command to open your mouth and stick out your togue is "Yuck". Raised my eyebrows. LML has the longest living elephant seal in captivity. Bernice is a female elephant seal who is unfit to return to the wild. So she spends her days lazing around her paddock.

We also stopped by the Seymour Discovery Lab. It wasn't as interesting as Long Marine Lab, but I noticed this time the octupus was moving around actively. It was very cool to try to located its mouth, to which I had little degree of sucess. The seacucumber on tactile display showed a suicide reaction; at the slightest touch, it would eviserate itself to escape.

Prof. Petra gave a lecture on the effects humans have on the enviroment. Starting out with the amount of water held by the US for fishing purposes, which is over one and a half times the area of the United States. Invasive species cause huge degradation in the genetic pool. For example, a captive population of farmed trout was released during a storm will pollute the native population of trout. The amount of invasive species introductions has increased exponentially. Also, coastal development causes increased run-off, which causes a phytoplankton bloom.

Improv and Aquarium!

It was Monterey Bay Aquarium for me today! I got up at 7:30 today, because the other person in my dorm had to go early for the cruise. After taking a shower, eating a big breakfast, singing "Hard Days Night" and "Help!" with Edgar and Daisun on the way out, I waited with my group.

We drove over, a long wait that felt sleepy. Finding a parking place was impossible. Ok, mostly impossible and improbable. But we got in.

The sharks exhibit was amazing, showing the intimate connection between ancient cultures and the fearsome sharks. I heard that the exhibit will be taken down anytime. Next we covered the Outer Bay exhibit. In the million gallon tank, many tuna, sharks, and perch swam a never ending spiral. One thing of note, though, was a huge sunfish, lazily paddling around. An amazing slow and huge animal, the pure dynamics and shape of it are bizarre.

The Jellies exhibit was next. Though not as impressive mechanically, the bizarre factor skyrocketed. Its amazing how us humans view "life" as needing an obvious compressed form, and here were these thin gelatinous bags of life, pulsating around. Their simplicity is truely "fascinating" (Thank you, Dr. Spock ^_^). Also, on the way, I saw a kid complaining about Jellyfish. Not that its amazing of just that, but he was speaking German, and was complaining about the colors of the jellyfish.

All the octupi were moving around at the kelp forest exhibit. One was brown, another dark red. I don't think they were happy. But two words: "Octopus Dumplings".

Those otters weren't as impressive. Sharp little teeth, and thick fur, they duid nothing but laze. On my way out, I passed by a whale exhibit. It had baleen and krill. I correctly identified and discussed the krill species, and also identified the baleen as "Gray Whale" baleen. Thank you Dr. Baldo.

At COSMOS tonight, we had the talent show. I didn't sign up for it. But wait, thats not all! During the middle of the show, a group needed a lot of time to set up, so the announcer called for a improv show. I ran up with 7 other people. There was a game, like in "Whose Line is it anyways?", where you use props to make it funny. Our group got a microphone stand, while the other got an umbrella. T.K. did an astronomy related joke, using the movable part as a telescope. The other side talked about going to mars. Menu used it like deer hunting. They all ran around, yelling to hold onto the umbrella. My turn. Lightsaber. I straightend the item out, and held it up. "Luke, I am your father!", I yelled, swinging. The other guy grabbed the umbrella and parried. Another of the rival group jumped in. "I'll help you, Qui-gon!"

Improv ended. But later, we were back and in action! This time we covered answering questions. We all lined up, bound only by the requirement we say one word, to contribute to the sentence as the answer. I ended up setting up the next person for an object, which was head, cantelope, and godzilla.

We also played a freeze game, where the "freezer" would yell "Freeze!", replace someone else, and change the situation. I covered cluster meetings, which caused sniggers, and then I caught people later to make a Charlies Angels pose. That was hilarious. I wanted to get a 3 musketeers chant in, but it ended to quickly. I though it was all over.

Throughout the show, I was feeling regret. But my chance for redemption came. Those who wanted to perform were given one last chance. I ran up there. Feeling tension and extreme anxiety, I proceeded on.
"Felis Cattus...", I began. Reciting the poem from memory, but changing a few word orders and lines, I was shaking all over. It took courage. And everyone loved it. All the girls "aww'ed" over it, as I dedicated the poem to my (sisters.. Eh-hum) cat.

That is the end of week 3.

"I feel both ecstasy and uneasiness at being a chosen one." -- Megane, Urusei Yatsura Movie 2

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere...

Today was slower. But it was data interpretation day!

The discovery lecture was full of hot air today. Full of bubble air. The bubble guy came. We spent an hour watching amazing feats with a thin film of soap and water. The elastisity of the bubbles were amazing. They could be stretched over several feet and not break. The only limit was the evaporation of the water inside. As long as it was present, the bubble would not fail, easily. We watched as he sliced bubbles in half using a toy sword covered in solution, made a cube out of bubbles, and covered adventurous people in a huge soap bubbles. It was very interesting. Though I must say, the bioluminescance talk was much more educational.

Half of our class that went on the second cruise were sent down with Dr. Baldo to Long Marine Lab, so they could count and profile zooplankton. My crew had a much more fun job: counting pythoplankton. The samples were amazing though. I found many different species, and would draw them up on the board. Sadly, they got erased later on, but this time the biodiversity was more varied. The penne diatoms were in the hundreds per drop sample. The centric diatoms were layered, and the dinoflaggelates were rare. But sheer numbers and different species and colonies were atounding. There must be something happening.

The pool people gave us hell for about an hour of recreation for today, then let us in. They didn't even apologize for screwing us over for so long. Figures.

We played capture the flag. I was part of the espionage team. It was hard, not being seen. I never got caught. And to help matters, my team won. Through the funniest fluke ever, too. A teammate walked over there, and told them he was going to the jail, not just jail. They misunderstood, and let him pass. Honesty is the best policy afterall.

Global warming or global hell?

Greg didn't teach today. Instead we had all Baldo, all the time. He reviewed with us today the same presentation we saw on the first day. But this time, there was data and sections that we understood, unlike the previous time. The session was more indepth on feeding habits of whales and the lives of plankton. We also covered the data results for the cruises and what could be happening. The remainder of the time was devoted to setting up slides. I explained the Ekman Spiral dozens of times to him, pounding it into my head.

After lunch, Prof. Petra arrived. The topic for today was Global Warming. The results were fascinating. Global warming is natural event, but the current trend is heavily influenced by Man. The trend is the highest in all natural history, but the cause isn't natural. The monsters of oil and industry lead the horde of climate change. Heavy emissions rage through out the Northern Hemisphere. Feedback loops are forming, where the point of no return will be seen. The melting of ice allows for more heat to be absorbed by the green house effect, which then is added, and melts more ice.

Those who scoff at global warming are ignorant. The fact of global warming means the mean global temperature will change. 1 degree celsius in Africa could mean a 10 degree rise in U.S. cities. Already heat waves lay seige to cities of North America, but the increase would already tip an unbalanced situation. California is readily at risk too; the ice caps of the Sierras will melt due to global warming, eliminating California's water supply.

The average family outputs 50 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Car and power costs create 20 tons each. Unplugging appliances can cut down 60% of the current load on the grid, and a hybrid or electric car will reduce or effectively eliminate another 20 tons of carbon. Even buying local food can have an effect. This is voting with your dollar. Stamp out climate change!

Prion: Protien gone bad

Discovery lecture was.. Mad Cow Disease. A real deadly disease. Hidden within a protein, this disease will excarbate your nerves and mind. Many a year ago, a health phenomana called Kuru surfaced to the concern of the World Health Organization. A wasting disease, always fatal, affecting only women and children. The doctor there looked for a viruses. He looked for bacteria.

But he found none. Strangely enough, the protein deposites in the brain tissue were abnormal. The idea was somewhere through contact, this disease was being transmitted. The culprit was the funeral customs. Friends and relatives of a deceased person eat the body in order to preserve the memory of them. The men, getting first dibs, would pick muscle tissue and eat that. The women and children would eat whats left: brain and spinal tissue. Just where the bulk of the disease is. Just stopping the cycle ended the kuru outbreak.

Class was more review. Excel was a beast. I think I said "Aw, hell. I hate excel" a dozen times. The crushing weight of end of COSMOS projects comes. The feeling of an Ekman twist on life spins down, the warping of a coriolis effect, and the compressing feeling of downwelling.

We had a three hour test. It was on forensics investigations. Using the lengths of maggots, the angle of the murder weapon, and the motivation, I establised that the jealous boyfriend killed Mr. Cruz. The heights, dna, and times all match up. It was fun, and really easy. That or my scientific reasoning got better.

Before the End of COSMOS

Its the end of COSMOS. The last two days were packed and action filled. On friday, we had to present to other groups. The marine life cluster presented first. Sadly, I arrived late, and missed half of their presentations. I saw the ones on Otters, Gray Whales, Sea Elephants, and Sea Lions. It was interesting to note that 90% of the Alaskan Otter population is decimated by Orcas. But one thing: Orcas are not supposed to eat otters! Apparently gray whale populations declined so much that Orcas shifted their prey focus to seals. When they finished chewing through the seal population, they started eating lower in the food chain. I suspect that Orca populations are really going to crash..

Our group was called up as the first and foremost representitives of Cluster 5. The Physical group who would lay the foundation for the rest of the cluster. What has happened in the last two weeks of the Monterey Bay is the end of Upwelling and a chaotic shift in climate pattern. Upwelling, for those who dont know or haven't seen "An Inconvenient Truth", is where when cold, nutrient rich water is brought up to the ocean surface, allowing for life to flurish in an area. Because nutrients sink, upwelling is needed to replenish nutrients on the upper layers of the ocean, where most life is. Already you can hop over to MBARI (http://www.mbari.org/oasis/m1/contour.tstring.html) and see the chaotic conditions now. This trend is very chaotic, and I sure hope this is not the tipping point for Global Warming.

There was a dance. It started at 8:00PM and went onto 12:00AM. We had rap, techno, rock, and then some. It was awesome. I met new people, had a great time, and shrugged off the sadness at leaving this wonderful place. Sandstorm was really fun to hear, and I sang anime songs with Rebecca.

Tomorrow shouldn't be too hard.
P.S. I had a fun visit to ER. I injured my shoulder, though right now, its really silent.

To delete or not to delete?

I was reading Slashdot, and an article about Apple Leopard appeared. I read it, and noticed the correlation to Apple's TimeMachine to Microsofts SystemProtection. The Apple fanboys talk about how great the TimeMachine is, but then viciously attack MS's SystemProtection. Not that it matters much, but the fact of both sides calling each other cheaters and theives when the obvious fact of Undelete was concieved in VMS. This is not a new feature.

Also, another item to note is Apple's wowing of the audience with "Places". Places is Apple's implementation of Virtual Desktops, common since ctwm and GNOME/KDE/variants. Virtual Desktops has been around a long time, and Apple calling it "new" is hardly appropriate. Then again, MS doesn't even have virtual desktops.

All I notice is MS doing the usual buy out, evil strategy they always do, while Apple is resorting to cheap marketing. For a company that struts around as having "enlightened" users and market, they sure do muck in human waste.