March 2007 Archives

To take a brief respite of the state of the world as seen by myself, I'd like to do a quick status update. As March winds on, I had become somewhat convinced that I managed to put one over on the old U as I withheld my tuition payment. Not really so much out of malice, but due to my typically cash-strapped nature. No campus thugs showed up to remove me from my classes, and as yet the nastiest thing I have gotten were a few letters reminded me of my overdue status.

However, as one must do when they are missing a few required credits, I logged on tonight to register for a few fall course, only to find that I had been completely blocked out of the registration system due to a hold on my account. “Et tu, Brute?—Then fall Caesar”. Ah yes, they vanquished me. I caved and with a 0% intro APR on a credit card I had snagged for just such a purpose, I cleared my balance. Of course, itś not all roses and honey, I still have to pay that back, but luckily, I have about half of it ready to go when I get my tax refund. The rest, well... Perhaps I'll put up a donation button on this site.

Our wayward hero is continuing on with the rest of the semester with a vengeance. I have 6 chem lab reports all in various stages of completion to be submitted by this Friday, a full lab writeup for another class, a term paper for yet another class, and a midterm all within little more than a week. Thankfully, I have little need for sleep or nourishment in the 21st century, or as least my professors believe that I do not. I defy them, sleeping 5 or so hours a night. Quelle rébellion...

Over the large course of human history, we have generally thought of the world as being a fairly constant, eternal, immutable object, as a whole. And as we have journeyed through the centuries, I believe that has become something of a great misconception. Increasingly we have taken on the responsibilities of gods unto ourselves, terraforming vast swaths of land and seas to suit our fancies. By unlocking the power stored in hundreds of millions of years of the Earth's photosynthetic activity, and harnessing the very power of the sun itself, we have been able to create weapons and machines that surpass any of our ancestors wildest dreams or imaginations, save perhaps that of Jules Verne.

As we have become "gods", we have grown powerful in technique and ability, defying even death itself in our power to heal. This has however not changed who we are fundamentally as a species, and so we use the weapons of terror against each other for idealogical or other needs as we always have, dismissing the fact the consequences have only been magnified. At one point, an emperor had the power to declare dominion over his people, but we now have power to declare dominion over creation itself. Perhaps at once point Rome could have leveled Carthage, destroying its every structure, but now we can make it uninhabitable by any man or beast for tens of thousands of years. And so we have.

Oh yes, our power and appetite for destruction is unrivaled. Witness the devastation of the 20th century in which modernity brought the terror and horror of concepts like genocide, made possible by computers, or atomic weapons made possible advanced physics and engineering. And even now, we witness the change of a climate cycle which has been with us since the dawn of humanity. And storms now wrack our coasts and millions die from droughts. We build our tower of technology to the very heavens and defy God or Earth to intervene.

How long will it take us to realize that we are not gods?

As a friend of mine and I were discussing this morning, I am addicted to coffee. However, I am accepting of that fact at this point, and to wean myself off the habit would cause unnecessary pain and anguish at this point in the semester, and thus, I am pressing on. It's not all bad of course, Tim Horton's annual contest is on right now, and with my sleep schedule, coffee helps keep things somewhat sane. Besides, as any addict worth his salt is aware of, I can quit at any time...

Being at a research university and particularly enrolled in the sciences, keeps me more than informed about scientific issues facing us over the next century. As my mother seems to think, that means I frequently bring tidings of doom and foreboding. Disregarding how unwelcome that is at any given moment, I would like to take a moment to stress that while unpleasant, they are accurate statements.

Specifically, I think we need to take a good, careful look at how we use energy on a daily basis. While I, too, have grown used to and comfortable with the basic amenities in life like cross-continental air travel, using my fridge as a convenient form of air conditioning, and substituting my shower for a hot springs, I think we need to reassess what kind of effect this is having on the environment around us. Most of my faithful readers are aware by now that I am staunchly conservative, and yet I think that this issue needs to be tackled regardless.

Most of the scientific data collected from the world around around us paints a painfully clear picture of where our world is going, and that is certainly not to a Utopian society. I think of it more as a dystopia. Being a biologist, I notice articles in the paper like 70% of bees not returning to their hives and think that we are on a decidedly bad path. As I heard the other day, 10 of the hottest years ever on record were in the last 14 years. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist, or indeed even a biologist, to figure out that there may be a problem with that.

To my friends tired of my constant harping, however necessary I think it to be, I am planning the next set of articles as a general statement of the world as it is at the beginning of the 21st century.

Sheriff: Torso of Mich. woman found (AP)

AP - A fugitive suspected of killing and dismembering his wife fled Saturday to a state park almost 300 miles from their suburban Detroit home, authorities said.

In what is certainly news from the bizarre, apparently there is a massive manhunt in the county I used to vacation in every summer as a kid. Emmet county is pretty rural with farms, acreages, and Petoskey being the only major attractions. I can't imagine that there are too many places for the guy to hide.

As for myself, I am trying to figure out what kind of protein study I want to do for my term paper before Monday afternoon when the outline is due. That, and at some poin, I really need to memorize the material for Chem 213, in which I have a midterm Monday morning. I am not sure I could be busier, really. I am looking forward to Tuesday afternoon when I can fianlyl get my tax return out and maybe watch a little TV to relax.