Today I got to see my colleagues again after the long break. Of course we were there to do something or other, but the really important stuff happened in between.
Various folks dropped by my office during coffee break and we discussed, among other things:
- Alice Dreger’s book and how she’s coming to visit us in March (W00t!)
- Why people are more tolerant of other folks’ religions than of their own
- Example: an attempt to insult people of a different religious background goes completely unnoticed by targets, but upsets co-religionists in the neighborhood
- What ‘hijab’ really means
- Whether we should revive the Philosophy of Science discussion group this summer
- What somebody would do if the only group that took their good advice about strategies had despicable aims (answer: make up some reasons to like the group)
- If someone’s fat cells completely refused to release any fat to the body, how would scientists figure out what had killed them?
- How to knit leg-warmers
A bunch of us went out to lunch afterwards, and we discussed, among other things:
- When animals burn fat while fasting, and when they burn muscle instead
- Why stealing pack-rats’ food stash prevents them from fasting
- Logistics and odor of smoking ferrets
- The construction of stuffed squid and squids as Xmas decorations
- The possibility of making a life-size fabric digestive tract model
- Whether heat production is age-related and why
- What causes elevated cholesterol in pregnant women?
- Do boa constrictors kill by suffocation or by increasing/decreasing blood pressure?
- Does anybody read dissertations and should they even?
- Camera lucida and the role of comprehension in scientific illustration
- Tim’s Vermeer
- Glasses, and visual adaptation to lack/possession thereof
- Most interesting animal anyone has ever dumped on your desk
- Local craft classes for kids
- How to make jewelry out of beach glass
- Turn your cell phone into a microscope
- GoPro, its uses and abuses
It’s like starting my brain up after a month in the garage.
