Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Welsh geologic term of the day
Welsh geologic term of the day: llosgfynydd - volcano (literally, scorched mountain)
Monday, August 1, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Faith and Science, part 1
Once, a recruiter from the Christian Science Church called me about web developer position. They had a really good medical plan. No, seriously, they did.
There was a catch, though. Since they are a religious organization, they are allowed to ask about my beliefs--they wanted someone that not only believes in a higher power, but also one that can support their "mission". Discordian seemed entirely too difficult to explain, so I decided to go with Druid.
A couple days later, an engineer from the Christian Science Church called to evaluate my knowledge of Perl, Apache, and various web standards. He also wanted to know why, since we worship trees, we would build Stonehenge.
I thought that maybe somehow I could respect, or at least look the other way, at their anti-medical stance. I thought that I could be cynical enough to shrug my shoulders at someone's suffering when a cure was in their reach. I do respect their choices and their faith, but I realized that it would be immoral and unethical to encourage or legitimize such ideas. It was sort of a shame, really; they had a fantastic benefits package and I really needed a job.
There was a catch, though. Since they are a religious organization, they are allowed to ask about my beliefs--they wanted someone that not only believes in a higher power, but also one that can support their "mission". Discordian seemed entirely too difficult to explain, so I decided to go with Druid.
A couple days later, an engineer from the Christian Science Church called to evaluate my knowledge of Perl, Apache, and various web standards. He also wanted to know why, since we worship trees, we would build Stonehenge.
I thought that maybe somehow I could respect, or at least look the other way, at their anti-medical stance. I thought that I could be cynical enough to shrug my shoulders at someone's suffering when a cure was in their reach. I do respect their choices and their faith, but I realized that it would be immoral and unethical to encourage or legitimize such ideas. It was sort of a shame, really; they had a fantastic benefits package and I really needed a job.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Beginnings, endings, and endings of beginnings.
My first semester is nearly over. I'd like to say that so far I've learned more about myself than any topic I've studied...well, no, I don't want to say that, it's just too, um, emotionally squishy.
I've always been a bit of a science nerd (and by bit, I mean completely), but of all the sciences, biology didn't appeal to me as much as the other branches. So naturally, I initially declared my major as biology. I came to my senses about half-way through and switched to geology. Geology was probably my earliest love--pockets were meant to put rocks into. I tell people that I'm studying environmental geology, but in reality I'm studying paleontology. They are pretty much the same thing, really; just on a different timescale.
I'm also far too tired to punctuate correctly.
I've always been a bit of a science nerd (and by bit, I mean completely), but of all the sciences, biology didn't appeal to me as much as the other branches. So naturally, I initially declared my major as biology. I came to my senses about half-way through and switched to geology. Geology was probably my earliest love--pockets were meant to put rocks into. I tell people that I'm studying environmental geology, but in reality I'm studying paleontology. They are pretty much the same thing, really; just on a different timescale.
I'm also far too tired to punctuate correctly.
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