(no subject)
Just finished up a four day trip that included 24 hours in Sun Valley, ID, home to all sorts of rich and famous fany pants (after having a few drinks at the cool local hang out, we went to Bruce Willis' bar, which was kind of disappointing - if I had as much money as him, my bar would be way cooler). Sun Valley is awesome because we have a condo and a car there instead of the normal hotel.
In recent weeks, I've lost a few of my books on flights, books that I'd been wanting to read for ages, so I decided to bring one I didn't care as much about this time. I finally got around to reading The Red Queen by Matt Ridley. I'd been putting it off, mostly because Ridley just recaps other people's work and I figured that reading the original research would be more interesting, but it was actually very enjoyable. It's directed at lay readers (another reason I'd only gotten to the first or second chapter previously was that there's only so many time you can have words you already know defined for you), but it's an exceptionally clear synopsis of sex research from an evolutionary standpoint. It also made me very jealous of him. He kept throwing in asides about how he was chatting with John Maynard Smith or Robert Trivers or Richard Dawkins or E.O. Wilson. There's nothing I wouldn't give to have that chance (ok, well, chatting with John Maynard Smith wouldn't be too exciting, since he's dead, but the rest).
Tomorrow morning, I'll be in New York City. I'm going to go talk to admissions people at Columbia. I'm not going to be applying for several more months, but I can't wait to be there, so I figure I might as well get a head start.
In recent weeks, I've lost a few of my books on flights, books that I'd been wanting to read for ages, so I decided to bring one I didn't care as much about this time. I finally got around to reading The Red Queen by Matt Ridley. I'd been putting it off, mostly because Ridley just recaps other people's work and I figured that reading the original research would be more interesting, but it was actually very enjoyable. It's directed at lay readers (another reason I'd only gotten to the first or second chapter previously was that there's only so many time you can have words you already know defined for you), but it's an exceptionally clear synopsis of sex research from an evolutionary standpoint. It also made me very jealous of him. He kept throwing in asides about how he was chatting with John Maynard Smith or Robert Trivers or Richard Dawkins or E.O. Wilson. There's nothing I wouldn't give to have that chance (ok, well, chatting with John Maynard Smith wouldn't be too exciting, since he's dead, but the rest).
Tomorrow morning, I'll be in New York City. I'm going to go talk to admissions people at Columbia. I'm not going to be applying for several more months, but I can't wait to be there, so I figure I might as well get a head start.