Dyssing ID
Read a blog post today that referred to "Dysney" instead of "Disney". I think the misspelling was unintentional, but it seems entirely appropriate considering the tendency of Disney to present us with its skewed utopian visions, in effect a Disneyesque brand of dystopia where fathers are well-meaning but foolish, mothers are evil, and only precocious children and fuzzy animals can save the world. A quick Google suggests that Dysney has not been used in that way, at least on-line, so I'm going to grab credit for it right now :) (ObDisclaimer: I actually like many Disney movies, esp. Bambi, whose father was definitely not foolish, and Lady and the Tramp, which is one of the most romantic movies ever made and caused me to have a tiny crush on a cartoon dog)

Topic on my mind these days is the intelligent design debate. Read excellent articles by Paul Krugman in the NY Times and Jerry Coyne in the New Republic. I feel that I must prepare myself against the inevitable questions an evolutionary biologist will face. The temptation is to hear creationist drivel and just laugh, but it's wrong of me to take actions that widen the gap between the scientific community and the general public. I'm told often that it's my responsibility to help bridge that gap and to enhance scientific learning among all people, and I'm trying very hard to learn how to do that. It's difficult, though; it's one thing to say that science is important for everyone, and another thing entirely to operationalize that.

First meeting with professor for whom I'm TAing is in an hour. Must exude confidence! Must not confess I don't know where the copier is! (actually, not true - I figured that out yesterday. but I have yet to master the stapling function.)

Weather has cooled off to sunny 75-ish days and I'm in heaven. The summer heat was really dragging me down. There's a definite pattern here - I don't mind heat as long as it goes away eventually, and ditto for cold. Late winter and late summer therefore really suck.
- posted by Diane @ 1:02 PM