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welcome to my random collection of rants
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
I forgot to post this?
I recently heard that there is some sort of attraction in Seattle that was voted the second germiest attraction in the country.
Maybe it's because I am a scientist, or maybe I'm just stubborn, but whenever I hear claims like that I feel the need to dispute the validity of the argument. Who were these alleged voters? What, specifically constitutes an "attraction"? By the previous definition, is it possible that there might be some "attractions" that people didn't think of, because they weren't aware of them or didn't remember them? Wouldn't it be better to actually quantify the germ level of each place? Why do objects like doorknobs and other pieces of objects (like the tail, and other specific parts) end up on these lists? The doorknob isn't the attraction, though I can certainly see that it'd carry more germs than the rest of it.
Where was I going with this?
Oh yeah... Last year, I threw some seeds into a potted plant, and they recently came up. I was pretty happy, since they were seeds from a tropical fruit that I ate from the grocery store last year. It's weird that they over-wintered like that.
Last year, in the spring maybe, I threw them in to see what would happen. Nothing, of course. A few months later, I put a teabag in the soil to give the plant some extra whatever. The seeds that were still under that teabag eventually started to mold, and now they have sprouted. Bad to breathe (ewwwwwww) but still cool science.
I am literally awestruck by the delicacy that is both the resilience and the fragility of life. It bends my mind in a way, trying to comprehend either side of it. The way that life ends so abruptly sometimes, despite all of our efforts to preserve it is both sad and confusing, and yet I see both a sharp contrast and a strong similarity to it's strange propensity to persevere through seemingly impossible odds...
Maybe it's because I am a scientist, or maybe I'm just stubborn, but whenever I hear claims like that I feel the need to dispute the validity of the argument. Who were these alleged voters? What, specifically constitutes an "attraction"? By the previous definition, is it possible that there might be some "attractions" that people didn't think of, because they weren't aware of them or didn't remember them? Wouldn't it be better to actually quantify the germ level of each place? Why do objects like doorknobs and other pieces of objects (like the tail, and other specific parts) end up on these lists? The doorknob isn't the attraction, though I can certainly see that it'd carry more germs than the rest of it.
Where was I going with this?
Oh yeah... Last year, I threw some seeds into a potted plant, and they recently came up. I was pretty happy, since they were seeds from a tropical fruit that I ate from the grocery store last year. It's weird that they over-wintered like that.
Last year, in the spring maybe, I threw them in to see what would happen. Nothing, of course. A few months later, I put a teabag in the soil to give the plant some extra whatever. The seeds that were still under that teabag eventually started to mold, and now they have sprouted. Bad to breathe (ewwwwwww) but still cool science.
I am literally awestruck by the delicacy that is both the resilience and the fragility of life. It bends my mind in a way, trying to comprehend either side of it. The way that life ends so abruptly sometimes, despite all of our efforts to preserve it is both sad and confusing, and yet I see both a sharp contrast and a strong similarity to it's strange propensity to persevere through seemingly impossible odds...
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