Automatic-flushing toilets were developed for two reasons, I think (correct me if I’m wrong):

1) To prevent people from having to touch the handle and gather whatever weird galaxy of bacteria may be orbiting around and on the metal

2) (with the later toilets) To have the option of reducing the amount of water flushed (see: bathrooms at Eppley Recreation Center with two flushing options for pee and poop)

These are perfectly sound reasons.

…

I hate automatic-flushing toilets with a passion. I’ve have the toilet flush multiple times on me. I’ve had them flush while I’m still seated on them. And as a bicycle commuter who has to change clothes in bathroom stalls—sometimes the not wheelchair-accessible stalls—I’ve had instances where there were four or five flushes while I’m in there.  

Can anyone think of other examples where a technology was developed, a policy was enacted, or a theory was popularized that meant well but fell short? I’ll start the list:

• The idea of “food miles” to advocate for local foods. I’m as pro-local food as one could get, but saying that local foods is better because it has less of a carbon footprint is misleading. Transportation is a minor component of overall greenhouse gas emissions. There are many good reasons for local foods, but GHG shouldn’t been the reason we tout.
• Heck, one could argue that energy efficiency has its drawbacks because it’s not teaching people to use less. I remember reading some article (I think it was the Washington Post) mentioning how some Prius owners emit just as much CO2 because they’re driving farther under the guise that increased fuel efficiency is the same as no emissions. 
• Any others?

Silver Diner in Greenbelt offers free milkshakes every Monday from 6 pm until closing for University of Maryland, College Park students. You must present your student ID. 

As someone who had thoroughly abused this marketing ploy last semester, I can attest to the amazingness of the milkshakes.

At some point in late September/early October of this semester I reached my saturation limit with Powerpoint presentations. Powerpoint lectures are the norm in all three of my classes this semester and I’m guessing (though I don’t clearly remember) have been the norm since my undergraduate days as well. It’s easy enough to see the usefulness of presenting copious amounts of information in an aesthetically pleasing format that frees up the lecturer from cramping up his/her hand on the chalk/white board. Having said that, some people have NO CLUE how to assemble a decent Powerpoint. So the following are my specific beefs regarding the state of university Powerpoint lectures:

1) There are good ppt color schemes and there are bad ppt color schemes. For guest lecturers who have to give the same presentation in multiple locations perhaps I can excuse you for not knowing that your dark background and light text which was fine for Home Office A would look terribly washed out in Classroom B or Auditorium C. But for lecturers who consistently present in the same location, WHY? WHY? Seriously, take five minutes in your classroom, set up your laptop and run a mock ppt with various background templates. Your students/audience will thank you.

2) Speaking of templates, I’m of the school of Powerpoint thought where less is more, but unfortunately we have graphic designers who conjure up pretty templates with patterns, images, and other geometric fancies that makes the Powerpoint-assembler go “Oooh!” in delight. This is just my (ranting) opinion, but I can’t think of too many opportunities where anything other than a plain background would work in a lecture.

(an exception: I found myself not being distracted/annoyed by the background templates that accompanied the various talks at the colloquium last weekend. I think the important distinction to make here is lecture templates vs presentation templates).

As an example, recently in one of my classes (disclosure: not a MEES course) I spent just about the entire period obsessing over the background of the Powerpoint, which was deep blue with water ripples in the lower right corner. It was pretty discreet as far as backgrounds go, but I couldn’t stop thinking how unnecessary those ripples were in a presentation about genomics. 

3) Good fonts: Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, Calibri. Bad fonts: Impact, anything with the words “Gothic” or “Script”, Comic Sans, and that one font my tenth-grade English teacher used in all her (old-school!) projector thingys (slides? translucent sheets? I don’t even remember what it’s called anymore).

This point could be up for debate.

4) Laser pointers and the people without a steady hand who still obsessively use them. Sometimes I’m only a few shades away from turning into a homicidal cat when a laser pointer is involved.

(Going back to the same non-MEES class I mentioned earlier, in a different lecture the lecturer had a white background, neon blue text presentation. He also used a green laser pointer. I am not remotely exaggerating when I say I couldn’t look at the screen without seeing the negatives of the text in neon yellow.)

5) Why cram all your information on the Powerpoint? It’s supposed to be an OUTLINE that you fill in with your words, not a SCRIPT that you read from. 

6) Speaking of outlines, didn’t we all learn back in elementary/middle school how to write a decent outline? As a reminder:

I. Main Idea

   A. Supporting Idea

       1. Detail for supporting idea A

       2. Another detail for supporting idea A

   B. Supporting Idea

…and so on and so forth. It’s not as easy as it looks, I realize, but it’s just annoying when there are bullet points that are terribly misused. But maybe bullet points are not outline points. Maybe I’m just a curmudgeon.

I have more rants, but I’m running out of steam and I have a midterm in 20 minutes. Any other Powerpoint complaints?

I thought tumblr allowed for multiple admins. It doesn’t appear so, though if someone would like to regularly contribute I could just give you my sign-in (the password isn’t anything I use for my private accounts). There are also (newly installed) Submission and Ask Me Anything pages, as well as a section for comments. 

Wetland plant of the day: Bidens connata Muhl. ex. Willd. (purplestem beggarticks), found in the eastern part of North America as either an OBL or FACW+ plant. 

Jennifer Anderson @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

1) The leaves were gorgeous, weren’t they?

2) New Jersey is flat. Good to know.

3) Tuna sandwich IS NOT vegetarian.

4) The guy who spoke about teaching colleges:

Guy: (good things good things good things)

Audience: (murmuring appreciation and considering the job)

Guy: And here’s a typical teaching schedule!

Audience: (collective immediate acid reflux response)

5) BB guns = advancing science

…

Any other thoughts?

Because we all know what that’s like…

Woohoo! Let’s see how long we can manage to keep up this blog.

Some ideas for what should go in it:

Scientific articles we find interesting

Quasi-scientific articles (e.g. from newspapers, web sites)

Philosophical issues to ponder that have a scientific connection

Videos of things remotely gradschool/marine/estuarine/environmental science related

(hence the “after hours” address)

Anyone who wants admin access let me know…