Mark "Monty" Montague's Journal

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I am Number Six
That is, I am juror number six, unless I get dismissed tomorrow (we're still in the selection process, but I made the first cut).

The LA superior court blocks livejournal and facebook, though, so I won't be liveblogging it.

I like doing my civic duty, but this is a crappy time for it. Sigh.

Overproduction of PhDs and the Cultural Hostility to Academics
As Bioephemera notes (short), This article (long) makes some interesting points about graduate education, academic self-propagation, and related topics. It's a bit dry, but an interesting read... in addition to the point about academic inbreeding leading to this disconnect with the rest of the world, there's also a lot about the fact that we're training lots of specialist PhDs that won't end up working in their fields.

xkcd explained
If you need this you probably shouldn't be reading xkcd in the first place.

cool video on the origin of genes
Maybe a bit slow at first, but good explanation with a result from 2006 I hadn't heard before at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLnr_3J1IT8

I haven't watched the rest of the series, but if this is representative, it's probably pretty good (although the author doesn't credit all the animations he swiped, which is a bit bad form...)

Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween!

CFS virus
virus found somewhat correlated with chronic fatigue syndrome:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5974WC20091008

spider silk tapestry
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113223398

(apologies to facebook for the double-post from livejournal)

peacocks on the roof
In this week's episode of "Mutual of Altadena's Wild Kingdom," we see three peacocks (or, rather, pea-hens, I guess, since they didn't have tail plumage) on our roof. Where did they come from? Why are they here? It's anyone's guess. They honk loudly, though.

fire update
All's quiet on the fire front... I hung out with the neighbors and watched yesterday while the helicopters did an amazing job suppressing the fire at the ridge we could see directly. I'm not positive, but I think my area is out of immediate danger as long as we don't get the fire moving due south... they seem to have blocked its eastward movement completely. I'm still worried, of course, but not so panicked.

My thoughts still are with the people still near the flames, and kudos to the firefighters, who apparently pulled out some amazing defending of the homes in other areas, from what we've heard.

Fire, Fire on the Mountain
The Station Fire is getting frighteningly close to my immediate area. The evacuations now end less than a quarter mile away, and I know people who are even closer. I'm trying to figure out what to load in the car, just in case... I'm obviously planning on taking the cat with me, but aside from that, what? I figure I'll take laptops but leave desktops as far as computers go. I have a few boxes of photos and papers and mementos and such. But I look around the house at shelves full of books and notes, and furniture, and tools, and clothes, and it's got so many memories associated with it. I'm telling myself "it's just stuff," and to some extent being minimalist for packing, but it's really much more disconcerting to be "hurry up and wait" when a disaster is looming.

I have no idea how to judge risk here, either... there is at least one canyon between me and the fire, but there are rumors that there will be downdrafts in the canyons today, so if it spreads to the canyon where my house is, we could be in trouble...

No one seems to be working on fire lines in my immediate neighborhood, which may be a good sign, but also worries me if the winds jump the fire in our direction. Of course, I understand that they're focusing on defending the homes that are immediately threatened, and it's clear we're not one of them.

It's very smoky, too; the wind shifted overnight so we're getting a lot of smoke here.

It's very strange to be on the "endangered" end of things; in the San Diego and Santa Anna fires, I was wishing friends luck in their homes and such, but it's very much different to be on the other end. Both, however, have a sense of helplessness.

Anyway, sorry to be rambling so much, I just needed to get some thoughts out as I wait to hear if I'll be evacuated.

Current Mood: scared

the hills are on fire
The "Station Fire" is now threatening North-West Altadena. Luckily for me, I'm in North-East Altadena, but I'm still rather unnerved (because Altadena's not that big!) I have no idea how to evaluate whether there is a chance this will expand to my area, but it's pretty scary.

Current Mood: worried

TONMOCon III
In the past 3 days, I have watched the dissection of a 3 foot long squid, petted a giant pacific octopus, heard a day of cephalopod-themed lectures, and generally hung out with people who like suckers and tentacles as much as I do. A very awesome weekend! (Yes, I'm kind of a weirdo)

Current Mood: excited