There are many colors in my kitchen! The colors in my cupboards and fridge ranges from green (arugula, kale, zucchini) to blue(berries), pink (chard), yellow (beans), red (beans, fruit), and orange(s). I guess that means I'm staying up on the colors to take care of my whole physical and energetic body! I don't always have blue and purple foods around, and should probably buy more purple yams and cabbage.
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Physics Week 5
My Asymmetrical World:
I like thinking about how the world is actually asymmetrical. I think as humans we often see balance and symmetry as some kind of goal or ideal, when really that's pretty unrealistic and unnatural. I'm thinking about asymmetry when it comes to power and relationships, and how people don't need to be exactly balanced in order to thrive and can achieve harmony through interpersonal support. For example I'm really good at organization, emotional support and keeping track of what needs to be done when, my partner is really good at fixing things when they break and de-escalating conflict, and my housemate/best friend is really good at taking care of our animals and plants and cooking. We don't need to be perfectly symmetrical within ourselves to be part of a functioning whole.
CP violation: I think this is fascinating! I don't exactly know what the implications are, why it happens or what it ultimately means, other than it means that there is more going on than we can comprehend. And I love that! What is the hidden force that led to our current matter-dominant universe? Maybe we're not meant to know.
Chemistry Week 4
: ØDiscover your “Transitional Metal of the Week” and post a brief description ØPost your thoughts on Green Chemistry
Transitional Metal of the Week: Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It is the 9th-most abundant element in the earth's crust and has a silver color, low density, and high strength. Titanium is resistant to corrosion in sea water, aqua regia, and chlorine, making it a favorite for industry. It is often alloyed with iron, aluminum, vanadium, molybdenum and other elements to produce strong, lightweight alloys for aerospace. It is used in medical prosthesis, dental, agriculture, automotive, jewelry, and cellphones. Significant titanium-bearing deposits exist in western Australia, Canada, China, India, Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Ukraine. Nettles contain about 80 parts per million of titanium.
Thoughts on Green Chemistry:
I think the goals of green chemistry are excellent. It would be prudent for these concepts to be incorporated by all manufacturers and businesses working with and creating chemicals. It's funny that many industry-supporting politicians and people wouldn't support these initiatives because they would consider them to be "bad for business", but what's really the worst for business is our planet becoming uninhabitable.
Transitional Metal of the Week: Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It is the 9th-most abundant element in the earth's crust and has a silver color, low density, and high strength. Titanium is resistant to corrosion in sea water, aqua regia, and chlorine, making it a favorite for industry. It is often alloyed with iron, aluminum, vanadium, molybdenum and other elements to produce strong, lightweight alloys for aerospace. It is used in medical prosthesis, dental, agriculture, automotive, jewelry, and cellphones. Significant titanium-bearing deposits exist in western Australia, Canada, China, India, Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Ukraine. Nettles contain about 80 parts per million of titanium.
Thoughts on Green Chemistry:
I think the goals of green chemistry are excellent. It would be prudent for these concepts to be incorporated by all manufacturers and businesses working with and creating chemicals. It's funny that many industry-supporting politicians and people wouldn't support these initiatives because they would consider them to be "bad for business", but what's really the worst for business is our planet becoming uninhabitable.
Physics Week 4
- I'm sure e=mc2 has affected me in many ways that I can't conceptualize. I know the equation explains how matter can be converted to energy and energy can be converted back to mass, which is how nuclear fusion works. From what I can gather, none of the stars or other masses in the universe would exist the way they do without the impact of this equation..so clearly I wouldn't exist either.
-Compare the 4 forces:
- Strong Nuclear force: a force that acts between 2 or more protons and neutrons inside the nucleus of an atom. It is the fastest force and stores a large amount of energy. The strongest force present in nature.
- Weak nuclear force: acts between leptons, is stronger than gravity, is involved in decay, most effective in short distance
- Electromagnetic- is the combination of all electrical and magnetic forces, acts between particles, can attract or repulse.
- Gravity: gravity causes objects to curve towards each other in space-time, such as placing two objects on a stretched out sheet
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Loafing USA
6/21/19: Its my birthday, and I spent time sitting by the bay, alone, watching the birds and touching the plants. I felt grounded, and like it was very easy for me to feel my feelings.
6/22/19: Took a bath, added essential oils and just loafed feeling the warmth and smelling the smells. Coudlve stayed forever if I didn't have plans...
6/23/19: Whoops, I didn't loaf today. Too busy studying...although I did read my book for a bit before bed, maybe that counts?
6/24/19: Reflecting on my year and realizing that I've definitely made some changes in my life to reflect the importance of being in the moment, doing nothing, and relaxing. I changed my relationship with social media: I only go on for 5 minutes every other day, rather than what was sometimes an hour or more of scrolling. I've also put up some barriers around my partner's social media use. They are definitely a social media/phone addict, and reach for their phone pretty much any time they arent actively using their hands for something else. While I don't feel inclined to try to change their behavior (besides shining like the sun, enjoying my freedom and lack of accountability to technological disruptions), I have started implementing "I dont want to know" rules with them after dinner - basically meaning that if they read something after dinner on social media, I don't want to know about it. It's been really helpful bc I'm pretty hopelessly sensitive and I'm learning that I need to have boundaries around my empathy/information processing if I'm going to thrive.
6/25/19: I'm really feeling the call to loaf lately...which doesn't exactly align with the fact that I'm taking 27 credits this semester. But on the other hand maybe this is exactly the right time for me to make sure that I prioritize relaxing and comfortably doing nothing. I've been really enjoying the book I'm currently reading, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:
"In a situation where every waking moment has become the time in which we make our living. and when we submit even our leisure for numerical evaluation via likes on Facebook and Instagram, constantly checking on its performance like one checks a stock, monitoring the ongoing development of our personal brand, time becomes an economic resources that we can no longer justify spending on "nothing""
"The means by which we give over our hours and days are the same with which we assault ourselves with information and misinformation, at a frankly inhuman rate"
"Direct sensuality in all its more-than-human-mystery, remains the sole solid touchstone for an experiential world now inundated with electronically generated vistas and engineered pleasures; only in regular contact with the tangible ground and sky can we learn ho to orient and navigate in multiple dimensions"
"The disturbance of the soul cannot be ended nor true joy created either by the possession of the greatest wealth or by honor and respect in the eyes of the mob or by anything else that is associated with causes of unlimited desire"
"We need distance and time to be functional enough to do or think anything meaningful at all"
"Give yourself the critical break that media cycles and narratives will not, allowing yourself to believe in another world while living in this one"
"As the attention economy works to keep us trapped in a frightful present, it only becomes more important not just to recognize past versions of our predicament but to retain the capacity for an imagination somehow untainted by disappointment"
I think these concepts really align with the loafing assignment, and I wholeheartedly agree with them!
6/22/19: Took a bath, added essential oils and just loafed feeling the warmth and smelling the smells. Coudlve stayed forever if I didn't have plans...
6/23/19: Whoops, I didn't loaf today. Too busy studying...although I did read my book for a bit before bed, maybe that counts?
6/24/19: Reflecting on my year and realizing that I've definitely made some changes in my life to reflect the importance of being in the moment, doing nothing, and relaxing. I changed my relationship with social media: I only go on for 5 minutes every other day, rather than what was sometimes an hour or more of scrolling. I've also put up some barriers around my partner's social media use. They are definitely a social media/phone addict, and reach for their phone pretty much any time they arent actively using their hands for something else. While I don't feel inclined to try to change their behavior (besides shining like the sun, enjoying my freedom and lack of accountability to technological disruptions), I have started implementing "I dont want to know" rules with them after dinner - basically meaning that if they read something after dinner on social media, I don't want to know about it. It's been really helpful bc I'm pretty hopelessly sensitive and I'm learning that I need to have boundaries around my empathy/information processing if I'm going to thrive.
6/25/19: I'm really feeling the call to loaf lately...which doesn't exactly align with the fact that I'm taking 27 credits this semester. But on the other hand maybe this is exactly the right time for me to make sure that I prioritize relaxing and comfortably doing nothing. I've been really enjoying the book I'm currently reading, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:
"In a situation where every waking moment has become the time in which we make our living. and when we submit even our leisure for numerical evaluation via likes on Facebook and Instagram, constantly checking on its performance like one checks a stock, monitoring the ongoing development of our personal brand, time becomes an economic resources that we can no longer justify spending on "nothing""
"The means by which we give over our hours and days are the same with which we assault ourselves with information and misinformation, at a frankly inhuman rate"
"Direct sensuality in all its more-than-human-mystery, remains the sole solid touchstone for an experiential world now inundated with electronically generated vistas and engineered pleasures; only in regular contact with the tangible ground and sky can we learn ho to orient and navigate in multiple dimensions"
"The disturbance of the soul cannot be ended nor true joy created either by the possession of the greatest wealth or by honor and respect in the eyes of the mob or by anything else that is associated with causes of unlimited desire"
"We need distance and time to be functional enough to do or think anything meaningful at all"
"Give yourself the critical break that media cycles and narratives will not, allowing yourself to believe in another world while living in this one"
"As the attention economy works to keep us trapped in a frightful present, it only becomes more important not just to recognize past versions of our predicament but to retain the capacity for an imagination somehow untainted by disappointment"
I think these concepts really align with the loafing assignment, and I wholeheartedly agree with them!
Friday, June 7, 2019
Biology Week 4
Semenya Article:
I'm really glad that Semenya is appealing the unfair, sexist, and racist ruling by CAS. Semenya and her peers with differences in sex development are legally women, and therefore should be allowed to compete in women's sports. Differences in development affect most winning international athletes - it takes much more than hours put in/work ethic/dedication to become a winning olympic athlete. It takes genetic advantage. That's obvious in so many ways, but Semenya is being targeted because she is a Black woman who doesnt fit into the ruling body's standards of femininity. I hope that this case will resolve in a just way, though I don't expect a positive outcome.
Gaia theory:
I definitely think that the earth is a complete, living organism. It's hard for me to understand how and why anyone would think it wasn't, but I know that many people just see it as a random rock to exploit for their petty personal gain.
I'm really glad that Semenya is appealing the unfair, sexist, and racist ruling by CAS. Semenya and her peers with differences in sex development are legally women, and therefore should be allowed to compete in women's sports. Differences in development affect most winning international athletes - it takes much more than hours put in/work ethic/dedication to become a winning olympic athlete. It takes genetic advantage. That's obvious in so many ways, but Semenya is being targeted because she is a Black woman who doesnt fit into the ruling body's standards of femininity. I hope that this case will resolve in a just way, though I don't expect a positive outcome.
Gaia theory:
I definitely think that the earth is a complete, living organism. It's hard for me to understand how and why anyone would think it wasn't, but I know that many people just see it as a random rock to exploit for their petty personal gain.
Chemistry Week 3
Element of the Week: Gold (Au)
Discovered: approximately 3,000 bc.
A soft metal with a characteristic yellow colour. It is chemically unreactive, although it will dissolve in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids). Most mined gold is stored as bullion. It is also, however, used extensively in jewellery, either in its pure form or as an alloy. The term ‘carat’ indicates the amount of gold present in an alloy. 24-carat is pure gold, but it is very soft. 18- and 9-carat gold alloys are commonly used because they are more durable. Dentists sometimes use gold alloys in fillings, and a gold compound is used to treat some cases of arthritis. Gold nanoparticles are increasingly being used as industrial catalysts. Vinyl acetate, which is used to make PVA (for glue, paint and resin), is made using a gold catalyst.
Discovered: approximately 3,000 bc.
A soft metal with a characteristic yellow colour. It is chemically unreactive, although it will dissolve in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids). Most mined gold is stored as bullion. It is also, however, used extensively in jewellery, either in its pure form or as an alloy. The term ‘carat’ indicates the amount of gold present in an alloy. 24-carat is pure gold, but it is very soft. 18- and 9-carat gold alloys are commonly used because they are more durable. Dentists sometimes use gold alloys in fillings, and a gold compound is used to treat some cases of arthritis. Gold nanoparticles are increasingly being used as industrial catalysts. Vinyl acetate, which is used to make PVA (for glue, paint and resin), is made using a gold catalyst.
| Group | 11 | Melting point | 1064.18°C, 1947.52°F, 1337.33 K |
| Period | 6 | Boiling point | 2836°C, 5137°F, 3109 K |
| Block | d | Density (g cm−3) | 19.3 |
| Atomic number | 79 | Relative atomic mass | 196.967 |
Comment on "From Lipstick to Burgers"
This article was majorly depressing. The only good point was the excellent historical framing, and the fact that Monsanto actually lost a case to someone last year and has to pay up. Nearly everyone I love has some form of chronic illness, and I think the fact that we're swimming in a soup of barely-if-ever tested chemicals has a lot to do with our rising rates of chronic disease and cancer. I really can't believe that Roundup is still legal, and hope that it will become illegal in my lifetime.
Comment on "Advancing Green Chemistry" website
This was a heartening place to look after the depression of the above article :) It's good to see that a group of conscientious ppl are putting in a concerted effort to make changes that will protect our future as a planet and a species. I wish that everyone on the path to become a chemist, engineer, or other kind of scientist was required to take a course on green chemistry.
Comment on "Advancing Green Chemistry" website
This was a heartening place to look after the depression of the above article :) It's good to see that a group of conscientious ppl are putting in a concerted effort to make changes that will protect our future as a planet and a species. I wish that everyone on the path to become a chemist, engineer, or other kind of scientist was required to take a course on green chemistry.
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