Archive - Oct 2005

At this point, I wonder if I even have any readers left. If you still, read, thanks for sticking with me. I don't know that this post signfiies my return, but I would like for it to.

I'm reading parts from a report of the President's Commission on Biotechnology. It was talking about future possibilities to alter DNA so that the resultant human looks better - or more aptly, more beautiful. Or smarter, more athletic, whatever. Should this day come about, will it still be an advantage to look so good? People that most of today consider beautiful or attractive tend to look athletically fit, or perhaps they don't look unfit which may be closer to the truth. Why is that attractive? The obvious answer is because that is the image promoted by media.

But beyond that, I think there is more. People who take pride in themselves - striving to look good by proper diet (sometimes improper) and exercise also tend to be successful people because they strive for goals. So if everyone started to look fit because of humans interfering with genes, would the newly fit folks benefit from becoming a part of that group? Or would we (as a society) just begin to discriminate in other ways? Afterall, the people who are muscular and smart due to genetics rather than having had to work for it will still be deficient to those who figured it out as they went. Right?

Or is it just about the muscles and quick wit? I guess what I am driving at is that when people see using genetics to cure ills as laziness and poor nutrition, they are wasting their time. I hope.

Good quote from that report...

A drug that induces fearlessness does not produce courage

Additionally - according to Woody Harrelson,

There are rules to hustling, there's an ethics involved

New photos! Macalester men soccer V Concordia. Old photos, perhaps - but they are up now.

I shot the last U women's soccer home game tonight Vs Penn State - the best team in the country with the best forward in the country. Woman averages 1.33 goals per game apparently. Had not gone one game without scoring all season! Until tonight. We shut her down. Unfortunately, one of her teammates had a brilliant header 6 minutes into overtime 2 to put PSU up 1-0. Amazing game. This has been a great season for Gopher soccer - I hope they continue it in the playoffs.

So here are the photos that I am really excited about. Photos from Mac V Carleton. Good stuff!

New Volleyball photos - and I'm really excited about some of these.

I'm done with my Monday night class! Last class was tonight, I did our group presentation, wearing my snazzy suit, 12 minutes in front of the class without notes (but with powerpoint). Then sweet sweet Matt's for the ole Jucy Lucy. So now I am down to the much more manageable 4 class schedule while working entirely too much.

Nice!

I also interviewed this morning with the GAO - Government Accountability Office. This is the holy grail of internships / jobs for Humphrey folks. Today was an informational interview so I can learn a bit about what they are looking for and they can get a sense of whether I am an intereesting person to them or not. I wouldn't say the interview went well though it did not go poorly. Clearly, I need to spend some time thinking about likely questions and developing responses in order to interview well.

I would love to work for the GAO - which serves as a non-partisan think tank for the gov - but those jobs are really competitive. I took the opportunity for the interview not so much expecting that it would help my chances at this job but because it offers good practice for similar interviews in the future.

So I guess that is my brief life update right now. I need to get some reading done as I am 1/4 of my way through a book that I'll be writing a paper on tomorrow.

I just posted football photos from the Macalester V Northwestern-Roseville game.

Eric and Chanda are now Eric and Chanda Klinker. AKA Klink and Klinkette. Terrific ceremony today near Taylor's Falls.

I went to a presentation earlier this week regarding the campaign against Coke in India. To sum up briefly, Coke is rapidly using the water resources in some areas of India at an unsustainable rate while the people in those areas are unable to get clean water.

Several college and university campuses have started to ban Coke from their campuses as Coke often has exclusive deals on campuses. Students are pushing for codes of conduct so their Universities deal only with companies that adhere to certain moral standards.

The speaker did say that Coke and Pepsi are pretty much both responsible for similar actions and therefore are not prefereable to each other. So I have to wonder about the logic of banning one soft drink manufacturer when there is no other choice. So what then? There is clearly a value in penalizing Coke for its actions.

Interestingly, Sandeep Pandey suggested that they do not want to negotiate in any way with Coke. They don't want Coke to take a smaller amount of water - they want Coke to leave permanently. Sandeep Pandey basically said that Coke is an inferior product to water which contributes to nutritional problems and should not be consumed by anyone.

I like Coke. I like Pepsi. I like soft drinks in general. So I dunno. Ultimately, I would like to drink my juices and soft drinks without supporting environmental exploitation. I wonder if that is even possible within our system.

I just posted photos from the women's Mac V Bethel soccer game from 1 October. Definitely some good shots in there.

The noblest of intentions ... I mean to write things. I have things to write - but I have to think that my academic and financial needs must be satisfied before posting. I also have a backlog of photos to process. In fact, I just threw the Men's Mac V Luther soccer game up.

In other news, I am rather frustrated with MNDOT. They put up a sign at the end of Sept saying the road would be closed on Sept 28. What it should have send was that the road would be indefinitely closed started 28 Sept. It remains blocked off, having given us 2 days warning and no explanation - choking local small businesses. Does it really take that much effort and coordination to notify the people on a street before such a blockage? Apparently. This is a contributing factor to people's frustration with government. And they are right.