Don't think twice, it's alright

Heard this on a Fresh Air interview of Suze Rotalo, Bob Dylan's girlfriend of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963) fame and fell in love with it.



It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you anymore
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But goodbye’s too good a word, babe
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

Red scare, pt. 2

Duf Sundheim was speaking in PoliSci 179 this Wednesday, a class my sister is taking and I am crashing! (Webcast here). Basically he's a big wig in the California Republican Party and presided over it for a few years. He was also a key player in the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and masterminded the election of Schwarzi in his stead. Even more exciting for the crowd of Berkeley undergrads, he is an alumnus of Stanford.

...And yet I found him one of the most reasonable speakers I've heard in that class so far. (I missed a few -- I hear last week's Charles Wiley was awesome). Sundheim talked mostly about education and what's wrong with it in California. I have to admit, I agree that the thought of 80¢ on the dollar spent on education is being paid into pensions for teachers (or professors) who aren't even teaching any more. He mainly stressed the need to conceptualize education in terms of the individual, rather than the institution. I'm not totally clear on what that means, but the idea of focusing more attention on how to get kids what they need out of education, rather than thinking in terms of test scores and The School, seems ok to me. Maybe this is all part of some republican plot for smaller government.

One kid whose parents were teachers mentioned that try as they might, they just couldn't get through to some kids. Is it because they're not good enough at their jobs? Is it the lack of support for education at home? Is it...??? Mr. Sundheim agreed that 80% of the opportunity for education is tied up in a kid's home life. I find the number generous, but the concept not entirely unreasonable. Sure, it makes a big difference if your parents and the people in your life generally value education. I'm more uneasy, though, with the conclusion he draws -- that if a kid doesn't feel inclined to go to college, we should respect that -- craft education around what they actually want to do with their lives. I know we have technical high schools and all that, and I recognize that there are trades and unskilled labor that needs to be done, and we need people able to do them, but the idea of shunting someone that young out of the track to higher education scares me. Am I just biased because that's the way of life I know best? Would classes more immediately useful to employment actually keep them more engaged in school?

I don't know.

Red scare, pt. 1

What was otherwise a pleasant trip to Seattle last week was tainted by a chapter in the Microeconomics textbook I've been reading for this online class which discussed the impact of government intervention in the free market. Let's be clear -- I despise this textbook. I find its conversational tone insulting and its presentation of the material one-sided, but I still feel like it's important to know about this stuff, and I do find it interesting.

So we talked about per-unit taxes, price ceilings and price floors. All the examples in the book are of course very pro-market and pro-globalization, but their discussion of minimum wage really gets me. Looking at minimum wage from a supply and demand point of view, we have this (very simplified) example:


The red line shows the supply of labor available for a given wage; the blue line shows the demand for employees within the same wage range. The grey point is the market price for wages -- the point at which the demand for employees matches the supply of labor -- in this example, $5/hour with 5 people employed. The black line marks the price floor for wages at $6/hour set via government legislation -- in this example, slightly higher than the market price for wages. At $6/hour, the supply of jobs (or demand for employees) drops to 4 jobs because employers can't afford five employees at the new rate. However, for $6/hour, 6 people are now willing to work and are interested in employment. This 'creates' a scarcity of jobs -- the gap between the demand for and supply of jobs, also known as the unemployment rate, marked in green.

The book claims that the potential effects of setting a minimum wage include the following:

1. an increase in unemployment because firms can't afford to hire as many workers at the higher rate


2. worse working conditions and cuts to career-building programs because firms take money from workplace niceities to afford rising labor costs


3. buoying the incomes of middle class teenagers who are not relying on their paychecks for subsistence anyway and therefore are not the primary targets of the increase in minimum wage.

I think the teenager point is total bull crap, and honestly what business that pays their workers minimum wage is actually bankrolling career-building workshops for their employees? The bit about work conditions can be regulated for separately. Even if it causes the cost of goods to go up, I think paying something closer to the true price for things is more sustainable in the long run. I can see concern about the drop in employment (in my example) from 5 jobs to 4 jobs, but saying minimum wage is responsible for the gap between the 6 people looking for work and the 4 jobs available seems unfair.

I guess what I want is an economic defense of minimum wage. I want something that can speak to the points that these no-regulation economists will bring up in relation to this and other issues of intervention without just getting all hot in the collar about it. I get hot in the collar already!

March resolutions

I have been noticing that blog posts have been shall we say few and far between. And I want to change that, so I am setting a new resolution as of this March to try to post a little something to at least one blog each day. May not always be here, but I want to get back in the habit. N'ahm sayin'?

Also,*nerd alert!* the gentleman friend's parents gifted me a snazzy new pedometer, which has inspired me to scientifically track precisely how much exercise I'm getting every day, which is in turn inspiring me to exercise more. Knowledge is power! ... Although I admit much of that extra exercise involves jogging in place while brushing my teeth. Still, I shall work off these extra winter layers by summer!

Not exactly rocket science

Oooo. I just found the best blog.

I think maybe I want to skip grad school and just read this blog all day.

...Or not.

Were you aware of it? vol. 37: Turkish man crashes own funeral

KONYA – Doğan News Agency (DHA) 'Everyone was shocked when they saw me,' says 72-year-old Durmuş Çıplak (pictured). 'Then I learned they had thought I lost my life in an accident. But I am still alive, thanks be to God.' AA photo

'Everyone was shocked when they saw me,' says 72-year-old Durmuş Çıplak (pictured). 'Then I learned they had thought I lost my life in an accident. But I am still alive, thanks be to God.' AA photo

A man returning from a fishing trip in the Central Anatolian province of Konya was surprised to encounter a group of mourners gathering in front of his house for a funeral – his own.

“Everyone was shocked when they saw me,” 72-year-old Durmuş Çıplak told Doğan news agency, or DHA. “Then I learned they had thought I lost my life in an accident. But I am still alive, thanks be to God.”

It was thought that Durmuş Çıplak had died after a cargo truck hit a septuagenarian riding a bike by the side of the road at 10 a.m. on Monday. The person, who was not carrying any identification, was badly wounded and was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

People in the surrounding area told police, who were trying to determine the man’s identity, that the dead bicyclist was Durmuş Çıplak.

Ahmet Çıplak, the man’s son, was then called to the morgue to identify the victim. The son identified the body as his father and began carrying the body home for the funeral ceremony when his neighbor called to say his father had just returned from a fishing trip.

The son then returned the unidentified body to the hospital, just as his father came upon the bereaved mourners gathered in front of his house.

The deceased cyclist was eventually identified as 70-year-old retiree Süleyman Bozer. Durmuş Çıplak attended the funeral.

**Courtesy of Hürriyet Daily News

California love

How is it that time goes by so quickly?? I am just back from Seattle, where it was cold, as in freezing, as in snow. But it was still great place. I miss the coffee shops and the greenery, but I've got to say there's nothing like coming home to California. Hearts.

Still no word about grad school, but I have had good chats with people at just about every school I've applied to at this point. I don't want to jinx my hopes by getting them too far up before official letters come, but no news means no rejections yet, and I'm happy at least about that. Normally I'd be basking in blissful ignorance, but I'm dying to make plans for summer at least.

Otherwise, lots of reading has been done. Lots of tooling about the greenhouse and lab -- for pay! Not as much botanical gardening, but I'm hoping to get back on that bandwagon.

I am trying to re-learn math what with this future math professor I'm dating and all. I tried pitching him the idea of helping me brush up on the math I'm reading about in this ecology textbook, but don't remember from 10+ years ago (or never learned at all), and he seems to think it will even be fun for him. Maybe I'll finally get to have that dating-your-instructor experience...

Seriously, where do all the hours go?!?! I want to have more art and relaxation time. And somehow also more productivity time. If peeps want to get to get some arts and crafts on this month, I am down. Sadly I have hardly been musical at all in ages, but I still have the best intentions.

February is for FREEDOM

I don't think I can muster the enthusiasm to start any more grad school applications.... which means I'm done!

I am slowly starting to realize how mono-minded my little world had become in the past few months, but February is the month to change all that!

February is the blissful month of ignorance in which I put off worrying about where or whether I got into grad schools because I can't know yet. February is when I can pick up my old art projects again. In February, I shall read books! I have plunged whole-heartedly into self-assigned homework so that I might not feel a fool when I'm back in school. I am plugging through the Primer on Ecological Statistics and a thick textbook on Ecology with a gorgeous cover. I'm learning about Microeconomics and I'm signed up for a botanical field trip to the Sonoran Desert. Seemingly unbeknownst to my sister, I am attending her political science lecture in which we are treated to a best-of series of previous guest lecturers. A holiday is in order, possibly to Hawaii, with Matt in the imminent future. I am going to see friends. I am going to do yoga! There is talk of Europe in the summer -- perhaps a jaunt in Portugal? Spain? France? Ireland? The Scottish Highlands? My slim pocketbook is the limit!

The past few months have felt a dim haze compared to the promise of this spring. Curiously, becoming all but caught up in the ebb and flow of the grad student co-op has left me still feeling the odd outsider even now that I've my own official key and am paying for the bit of their food that I eat. The clean, thoughtless distinctions obvious primarily to those on the receiving end remind me of being a contractor at Google. Still, I feel I serve a purpose, and, in my true fashion, I have managed to be up 7.5 workshift hours in just the third week of the semester.

In any case, February. Things are on the up and up.

Were you aware of it? vol. 36: Mama Pterodactyls

Age old rule of attraction: Male pterodactyls used giant head crests to woo the ladies, rare fossil find reveals


When it comes to trying to impress the opposite sex, men are often unable to resist showing off.

A 160 million-year-old fossil dubbed 'Mrs T' has revealed that dinosaurs were just the same.

Male pterodactyls used their spectacular giant head crests to woo the ladies, scientists believe.

While female reptiles had no decorative markings on their heads, the males sported impressive plumes of feathers, sometimes five times the size of their skull, which they used to show off to prospective mates.

It had previously proved impossible to say whether the remains of the reptiles, which lived alongside dinosaurs between 220 and 65 million years ago, were male or female, and 'sexing' them has foxed experts for more than 100 years.

The evidence comes from Mrs T, the nickname given to a female pterosaur preserved together with the egg she was about to lay.

Pterosaurs - favourites of Hollywood filmmakers - were flying reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs, some of which grew as large as light aircraft.

Mrs T was a 160million-year-old Darwinopterus pterosaur whose skeletal remains were uncovered in Liaoning Province, north-east China.


Because she was found with her egg, scientists know that she must have been female.

The pterosaur had relatively large hips to accommodate the passage of eggs, but no head crest.

Other Darwinopterus specimens, now known to be male, have smaller hips and well-developed crests. Scientists believe these were probably used to ward off rivals or attract mates.

Dr David Unwin, from the University of Leicester, whose team describe the find in the journal Science, said: 'Pterosaurs, flying reptiles, also known as pterodactyls, dominated the skies in the Mesozoic Era, the age of dinosaurs, 220 to 65million years ago.

'Many pterosaurs have head crests. In the most spectacular cases these can reach five times the height of the skull.

'Scientists have long suspected that these crests were used for some kind of display or signalling and may have been confined to males, while females were crestless.

'But, in the absence of any direct evidence for gender this idea remained speculative and crested and crestless forms were often separated into completely different species.

'The fossil we have discovered, an individual of Darwinopterus, is preserved together with an egg showing that it must be female. This type of discovery, in which gender can be determined with certainty, is extremely rare in the fossil record, and the first to be reported for pterosaurs.'

Future pterosaur fossil finds in which the skull or hips are preserved can now help scientists to 'sex' the creatures.

Dr Unwin added: 'Gender is one of the most fundamental of biological attributes, but extremely difficult to pinpoint with any certainty in the fossil record.

'Being able to sex pterosaurs is a major step forward. Finally, we have a good explanation for pterosaur head crests, a problem that has puzzled scientists for more than 100 years.

'Now, we can exploit our knowledge of pterosaur gender to research entirely new areas such as population structure and behaviour. We can also play matchmaker for pterosaurs bringing back together long separated males and females in the single species to which they both belong.'

Mrs T is thought to have been laid to rest in the Jurassic mud that preserved her bones by a tragic accident.

She was killed suddenly in a traumatic event that broke her left forearm - perhaps a storm, or one of the volcanic eruptions that were common in northern China at this time.

Unlike those of modern birds, her egg was small with a soft shell.

This was not surprising, since a small, soft egg would require less investment in terms of materials and energy, said Dr Unwin.

Such economy would have offered active pterosaurs an evolutionary advantage and may have been an important factor in the evolution of giant species, like the 32.8ft (10m) wingspan Quetzalcoatlus.

**Courtesy of the Daily Mail.
See also: The original paper published tomorrow in Science.

Suddenly, it is 2011

It was pointed out to me yesterday that I have been absent from the world of excitement for a very long time, or I should clarify that to say -- the world of exciting things beyond grad school applications and the lots of dotting of i's and crossing of t's that comes with it. I will have you know that I did take a little holiday to be present at family functions, and I did have just the best ever jaunt up to Canada where I met the gentleman friend's parents (who are the epitome of darling and lovely) and some extended family (also fabulous people). I was further introduced to the winter highlights of Toronto, Detroit, and that southernmost Canadian city that is at least larger than the other cities slightly further south that for some reason don't count when one is determining which Canadian city is southernmost, Windsor.

In any case, the end is near! In a mere slightly more than two weeks, I shall return to humanity, and, hopefully, to posting more than once per month! Details to follow!

(Pictured above: Point Pelee, which actually is the southernmost point in Canada, although, in truth, this shot isn't the southern most point of it.)