Wednesday, 14 December 2011

By on December 14th, 2011 in biology, writing

08:06 – I finished the group of lab sessions on Plantae yesterday, and I’m starting on the group on Animalia this morning. That’s the final group. When I finish it, I’ll go back and start “filling in” with additional lab sessions in other groups that I wasn’t sure I’d have time to complete.

So this morning I’m starting on a lab session that covers Porifera (sponges) and Cnidaria (jellyfish, anemones, hydrae, and so on), both phyla that include the simplest animals. After that, I’ll do another lab session on invertebrates–worms, insects, and so on–and then move on to chordates–fish, amphibians, reptiles, and of course mammals.


11 Comments and discussion on "Wednesday, 14 December 2011"

  1. SteveF says:

    That’s the final group. When I finish it, I’ll go back and start “filling in”…

    Wait, what? A week or two ago you said the drop-dead date was sometime in January and you’d be working your butt off to make it. And now you’re done in a week or two? I suspect I’m missing something.*

    * Which would surprise me not at all. My wife’s official IQ is 40. (Not a joke. She took an IQ test for some purpose shortly after coming to the US, when she barely spoke English. I’m pretty sure she’d have done better to simply guess, but regardless, her official IQ is 40. It was never important enough to her to get it updated.) And I maintain that I’m dumber than she is because I’m dumb enough to marry a woman with an IQ of 40.

  2. SteveF says:

    Gah. Disregard previous comment. On second reading, I see what you’re saying — you’re starting the final group, not the final lab.

    Alas, this serves only to confirm that my IQ is under 40…

  3. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Wow. Your wife must be really bright if she scored 40 on a test without being able to read the language.

    Yes, this is the final group, which will have several lab sessions in it. I told Colin this morning that if he didn’t start behaving better I’d be dissecting a certain near-by chordate in the near future. His ears went down flat.

  4. Dave B. says:

    * Which would surprise me not at all. My wife’s official IQ is 40. (Not a joke. She took an IQ test for some purpose shortly after coming to the US, when she barely spoke English. I’m pretty sure she’d have done better to simply guess, but regardless, her official IQ is 40. It was never important enough to her to get it updated.) And I maintain that I’m dumber than she is because I’m dumb enough to marry a woman with an IQ of 40.

    This reminds me of an old story, which may or may not be true. Story goes that a number of Polish people came to the United State before, during and after World War II. Loving their new home, and seeking employment, they joined the US Military, which promptly gave them IQ tests. Said Polish immigrants being only somewhat proficient in English didn’t do well on the test. Supposedly that’s how all the Polish jokes started.

  5. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    No, I’m sure there have been Polish jokes for as long as there have been Poles. Longer, in fact, just as there were German jokes long before Germany became an actual nation. Well, I guess technically they were Prussian jokes and Bavarian jokes and so on.

    Actually, archaeologists may have discovered the earliest ever Polish joke in a cave that was occupied by modern humans about 30,000 years ago.

    Shag: “How many Polaks does it take to screw in a light bulb?”
    Gronk: “What the fuck is a light bulb?”

    (Yeah, jokes were pretty lame back then.)

  6. OFD says:

    Sorry in advance to any Polish people or women here or Polish women. U can go ahead and kill me, what the hell, I had an interesting life.

    Q: Why won’t Polish women use vibrators?

    A: Because it chips their teeth.

    Please. Kill. Me. Now.

  7. Chuck Waggoner says:

    There are 4 Chinese restaurants in Tiny Town. I know, highest unemployment city in the state, and almost a ghost town, but it has 4 Chinese, 2 Mexican, 4 home cooking, 10 chain fast food places, 3 sandwich shops, 1 former Starbucks taken over by a couple guys when Starbucks closed and who still work it exactly like Starbucks, 4 pizza places, a coffee-desert shop, and a local, independent donut shop. All this for a city with a population of about 7,500. Guess the unemployed around here are not starving.

    Anyway, I had a late lunch at the Chinese buffet today, and was talking with the Chinese couple who run it (owned by her parents). Here is something odd and interesting: the coffee they serve is from Aldi. The guy told me that their wholesale suppliers cannot match the price at Aldi, so they just buy the coffee there.

  8. Miles_Teg says:

    OFD: the SISTERS are on the way to take you out. Please make sure Mrs OFD and your dogs aren’t around, so they don’t end up as collateral damage. The cats are welcome to stay though, as the SISTERS always carry a few spare clips.

  9. Dave B. says:

    Chuck, Wikipedia reports the population of Tiny Town as 18,114 as of the 2010 US Census. The place where I live, Smallville has about half the population. We only have two or three Chinese places. The WalMart and Starbucks are in the next small town on the way to Indianapolis.

  10. Chuck Waggoner says:

    Yeah, I just do not believe the published population figures on Tiny Town. Since there are 6 vacant houses on the street I live, which is only 3 blocks long and hundreds of vacant houses throughout the town (setting fire to them is a big problem here) — and from the fact that I remember what it was like as a young kid, when the population was reported as nearly 30,000, this town acts like it has about 7,500. I always wonder if the city fathers don’t take in the whole county when reporting various population figures. I am told that there were also lots of investigations around here, regarding the 2010 census. Fewer than 3,400 people voted in the recent mayoral election, and furthermore, school enrollment does not extrapolate to a population of more than about 8,000. Thus, I seriously doubt published population numbers

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