ode to finishing degree requirements in a freshmen class;

scene: sarah's power-lecture
Prof: "What is an ethnic group in the middle east?"
Boy: "Hispanics!"

And speaking of retarded things, there's debate on the Nature site over whether or not Tiktaalik roseae is a missing link (or indeed whether evolution exists or not). Thank you, creationists. That stuff is downright funny at this point (and furthurmore i'm in a good enough mood to see the humour). (NYT article too)

What the creationists apparently still don't get is that evolution is the unifying paradigm in biology. Nothing in biology makes sense without it. As T.S. Kuhn said in 1973 or so, “No natural history can be interpreted in the absence of at least some implicit body of intertwined theoretical and methodological belief that permits selection, evaluation, and criticism." Searching for new fossils would be meaningless without the paradigm; no scientist thinks that the paradigm itself is infallible. The creationist "arguments" are moot and have been well explored*, the pertinent debates in biology are not whether or not evolution happens.

anyway, off of that well-worn subject (until i happen across more hilarity in the wild west of the internet) i have, like, a real thing or two to do today and like 6 hours of library map-folding on the plate instead (have i mentioned that our geological maps of Japan are not in alphabetical order in Japanese or English? or any numerical order? i hate the world!). This summer will be nice. i shall sleep in a lot, drink coffee-mochas in honour to Yemen a lot, make pretty collages, watch Ratchel bite Dave, and maybe even go swimming. And camping with multiple guitars and such.

So i lied. i have more randomness to sound off on within 'debates in science.' GSA recently did a special publication on "Sustainable Minerals Operations in the Developing World." Reading it Tuesday led me to Mines & Communities, a thinktank-sort of org on whether or not mining could be sustainable.

Now, what i don't understand is why biology takes all the heat. Geologists walk the razor's edge; half are environmentalists and half are oil or mining people (Not even the structure people can avoid picking a side at some point). And some are both. Some do both well (which always intrigues me).

Furthurmore, sustainability is much more impacted by whether or not we figure a way out of the oil crisis or not and whether or not growth can continue. It doesn't actually matter to the future of humankind that we're an "end product" of 3 billion years of evolution; it matters to the future of humankind that we live through our destruction of our environment. Geologists both understand this fundamentally and have midwifed dependence on non-renewables. While i hear people everyday 'questioning' Darwin, does anybody ever question Dietz or Edwin Drake?

Obviously, people probably 'debate' bio because it's closer to home, there are recognizable names to pick on and it is, in the end, a simplistic topic. Not that i personally want people to be questioning my paradigms as a geologist (i do that plenty myself, don't you worry) but i'm beginning to think most people are too caught up in little things to see the bigger (acutally pertinent) problems.

kinda like my mom asking me if i miss my cat when i have $12 to last till summer. Yes.

i've been thinking about mining a lot lately. Given that i have only one 'legimate' (read: career-enhancing, father-approved) option for next year, i'm in a pretty bad place if it doesn't come through. My wild card was the fact that i've taken Economic Geology [and did well in it] and that that is a high-paying industry. i talked with my advisor about it a bit; he was less enthusiastic than i had hoped. Basically, i can definitely get a job "depending on what you're willing to do." i'm not sure if he meant i don't seem the mining type (with my northern wisconssin dirty cafe girl thing going on, that would be understandable) or if he remembers my freshman year sounding-off on environmentalism. And i don't know--and so far none of the companies i've looked into are too promising, but it's a real option and i'd really like to be a real geologist for awhile (haven't gotten over the whole can't afford field camp thing at all). And yes, mining is fundamentally unsustainable (but it will be done anyway).

i also registered for graduation today. i don't think i could be less excited about it. i just want to cry everytime i do mention it so i'm not going to talk about it anymore (probably).

Well, who wants to come down for it? Ratchel, dad already said you should come. Dad & Grandma are, and RGE obviously. Yuap.

*from Bates to Gould, et cetera

"The missing link created far more interest than all the chains and explanations of being."--Marshall McLuhan--  ¶ 09:09