seattle
pontiff | March 23, 2009Sundries.
Warren Buffet is often attributed as saying, "only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked" referring to how a bad economy exposes problems in a business. After reading too many comment sections on New York Times articles on the financial crisis, I think it should be "only when the tide goes out do you discover who's a real communist." (Note, dear reader beginning to flame me in the comments, that I didn't say whether I thought this was good or bad or neither good or bad.) Hard economic times really bring out the daggers in economic ideology. I love to…
sporte | January 12, 2009On a quiet corner in Seattle's Pioneer Square, in the former Cadillac Hotel, sits the Klondike Gold Rush national park. Inside the park, are photographs and exhibits to help visitors learn about the Klondike gold rush of 1987 and the role Seattle played in outfitting the stampeders.
Figure 1. One ton of gold.
I've heard stories about the gold rush for many years and even visited the museum in Fairbanks. Still, there were new things to learn and today's current events give perspective to the happenings of 1897. Before visiting the park, I didn't know much anything about the panic of 1893…
pontiff | November 20, 2008A reminder from Ivan for those who want to attend SqUinTDear SQuInTers,
Please remember that abstract submission for contributed talks and posters are due in one week, Nov. 26.
http://panda.unm.edu/SQuInT/contribute.php
Registration payment deadline -- Dec. 12.
http://panda.unm.edu/SQuInT/register.php
Hotel reservation deadline -- Jan. 19.
http://panda.unm.edu/SQuInT/local.php
pontiff | November 18, 2008Observations on time.
One hour of exercise is much more important for my well being than one hour of sleep.
Why does the physics department at the University of Washington have a sundial on the building? I mean, yes it is very cool, but no there are not many opportunities to use it!
Michael Nielsen blogs about Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers: The Story of Success
and about the 10000 hour rule. Supposedly one needs 10000 hours of practice to truly master a subject. That's over a year in time! That's like seven years straight if I work four hours a day with no breaks. That doesn't…
pontiff | November 10, 2008The 11th Annual SQuInT Conference (dude that makes me feel old) will be held in Seattle this year. Seattle is in the southwest because Southwest airline flies here (quick book the direct flights from Albuquerque!) In conjunction with this there will also be a satellite meeting, the Workshop on Integrated Atomic Systems II.
Invited speakers for this years SqUiNt conference include
Andrew Childs (Waterloo)
Luming Duan (Michigan)
Jack Harris (Yale)
Chris Monroe (Maryland)
Barbara Terhal (IBM)
David Weiss (Penn. State)
Yes, for those of you unawares of the SqUinT tradition, that is a list that…
pontiff | November 5, 2008"Local" politics.
Siskiyou County, CA (on the CA/OR border), where I grew up (population 44301, population density 8 per square mile, median household income $29530), voted 53.6 percent for McCain and 43.7 percent for Obama. That's extremely close for a very red county (2004 it was 60 percent Bush, 37.7 Kerry.) In other local Siskiyou County news a giant Salmon was found just to the south of Siskiyou County in the Sacramento River.
One can tell that Seattle is once again lagging the nationwide economy (yep), since the voters were in a mood to spend money. (Okay well Western Washington…
sporte | October 23, 2008Two interesting events are happening, Monday night, Oct. 27th.
At the UW: Josh Rosenau from the National Center for Science Education will be speaking at 6 pm about Creationist attacks on science education. (Josh is also a Science Blogger).
In Ravenna, at Third Place Pub: Ted White from the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute will be talking at 7 pm about infectious disease.
If you're interested hearing Josh, contact Kristy Brady, kbrady at u.washington.edu.
If you're interested in infectious disease, just show up at the pub.
It would be hard to choose which event to attend, but I won'…
grrlscientist | October 13, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, University District, first things, University of Washington
Seattle, Washington.
Image: GrrlScientist, 26 September 2008 [larger view].
This will be my last photoessay from my Seattle visit. I sincerely hope I will be able to return for more visits, but because my life has gone the way it has, I think of every visit to Seattle (or elsewhere) as my last, so leaving is intensely sad. Of course, this does not mean that I don't also love NYC, because I do, but Seattle is a physical reminder of happier and more successful and hopeful times in my life, of my many…
grrlscientist | October 12, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Biology Department Greenhouse, University of Washington, poison dart frogs, Dendrobates, Dendrobatidae
Captive-bred Dyeing Poison Dart frog, Dendrobates tinctorius, from the Guianas of northeastern South America.
Image: GrrlScientist 29 September 2008 [larger view].
This is part two of my UW Biology Department greenhouse photoessay. In part one, I showed you seedpods and a lot of flowers (some of which need to be identified), but in this, the second and last part, I am focusing on The Surprise I kept telling you about. As you can see, the surprise discovery I…
grrlscientist | October 11, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Biology Department Greenhouse, University of Washington, flowers
Passiflora laurifolia blossom.
Image: GrrlScientist 29 September 2008 [larger view].
I ran into another Seattle pal on my way back from the Montlake Fill to the Zoology department (now subsumed into Biology), where I earned my PhD. As a result, we spent half an hour talking, so I was late, so the office was locked up (as was my laptop). But the day was gorgeous, the weather perfect, so I took the opportunity to do more photography.
Outside the main entrance to the University of Washington's…
grrlscientist | October 10, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Montlake Fill, Union Bay Natural Area, urban wetland, urban nature preserve, University of Washington
Entrance to the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA), more commonly known as the "Montlake Fill".
Image: GrrlScientist 29 September 2008 [larger view].
One of my most favorite places to go birding is the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA), which I have always known as the Montlake Fill. In my opinion, this is one of the finest small- to medium-sized urban birding areas and nature preserves on the west coast.
This area originally started out as a freshwater wetland, but the…
grrlscientist | October 9, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Ballard Farmer's Market, fresh produce, fresh fish, wine, flowers
Dinner at Shannon's,
using fish, produce and wine from the Ballard farmer's market.
Image: GrrlScientist 28 September 2008 [larger view].
"Do you photograph every meal you eat?" Shannon sounded amused as I pointed my camera at the mushrooms in the frying pan.
"Well .. not exactly," I replied, thinking of all the meals that I had photographed, realizing that nearly all of them were meals I had eaten while traveling.
"After photographing parts of the Farmer's Market, it just seems to be the right…
grrlscientist | October 8, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, wine tasting, photoessay
Glassware in the wine bar in Seattle.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 September 2008 [larger view].
When I was in Seattle, several friends and I visited the Ballard Farmer's Market (part one and part two) in the morning and then went wine tasting at a nearby wine bar in the afternoon.
I was so fascinated by the Ballard Farmer's Market that Shannon could barely rip me (and my camera!) away. But the promise of free wine did the trick.
We walked down the street and went into a wine bar where Shannon knows a lot of people, and we sampled their…
grrlscientist | October 7, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Ballard Farmer's Market, photoessay, autumn bounty, harvest
Dahlias.
Ballard Farmer's Market, Seattle, Washington.
Image: GrrlScientist 26 September 2008 [larger view].
When I was in Seattle, I met a couple friends and went to the Ballard Farmer's Market, which is much much larger than when I last lived in Seattle. This is the second and last part of my photoessay of the Ballard Farmer's Market. In part one, I showed you fresh produce, and in part two, I will show you flowers and soaps.
These flowers, which captivated me with their delicacy, pale purple color,…
grrlscientist | October 6, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Ballard Farmer's Market, photoessay, autumn bounty, harvest
Raspberries.
Ballard farmer's Market, Seattle, Washington.
Image: GrrlScientist 26 September 2008 [larger view].
When I was in Seattle, a couple friends and I went to the Ballard Farmer's Market, which is much much larger than when I last lived in Seattle.
The day was bright and warm, the air was lightly scented with seaweed and fish, and the autumn harvest was a photographer's dream! I could have spent days here with my camera. I really liked the contrast between the splotchy colors and curved lines…
sporte | October 6, 2008Okay, watching some of the other movies makes me realize that I've been very negligent in not uploading ours.
Without further ado, here it is.
Can you guess the age of the person who made the movie? I'll give you a hint. It wasn't me.
sporte | September 30, 2008I learned via e-mail yesterday that the biotechnology program, that I taught with for ten years during the 90's, is ending due to low enrollments.
I also learned yesterday, via the Seattle Times, that a resurrected version of ICOS called CMC Icos Biologics is planning a $35M expansion of their biotech manufacturing plant in Bothell and talking about hiring lots of students with two-year degrees.
The irony isn't lost on me.
We struggled with variable enrollments too, when I was at Seattle Central Community College. A couple of years saw way too many students and troubles finding enough…
pontiff | September 25, 2008Reminder that Sandra, Maria, Grrl, and I will be Ozzies this Saturday. Translation: beer! That's Saturday, Sept. 27th at 4 pm in the upstairs mezzanine at Ozzie's. The address is 105 W. Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98119. That's in lower Queen Anne just east west of that gigantic need with a spaceship stuck on top of it.
sporte | September 25, 2008Dave, Maria, Grrl, and I will all be at Ozzie's in Lower Queen Anne on Saturday afternoon.
I've never met the other three bloggers but after checking out Maria's wedding pictures and the liquid nitrogen, I'm really looking forward to this. We'll be upstairs in the mezzanine and we'll have a ScienceBlogs poster.
Relevant details:
Saturday, Sept. 27th at 4 pm in the upstairs mezzanine at Ozzie's.
Address: 105 W. Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98119
pontiff | September 16, 2008Scienceblogs has now passed its millionth comment! In celebration many of us are having our own local Scienceblogs million comment parties. See here for your local party.
What does all that boring writing mean in the last paragraph? No need to read it. Just read this one if you're going to be in Seattle at the end of September:
Join Sandra Porter, Maria Brumm, (hopefully) GrrlScientist, and myself for our millionth comment shin dig at Ozzie's in lower Queen Anne (105 W Mercer St.) That's right: beer, beer beer! At 4pm on September 27th. Considering the themes of three of four of the…