Because I didn't want to do my critique of a cohort exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
I signed up for the Interview Me! meme.
You LJ vets know the drill, but for those who don't:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me!"
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. And thus the endless cycle of the meme goes on and on and on and on...
monkeyx3: When did you become interested in tracking disease progression?
Me: I suppose you can blame a ready combination of my grandmother and Osama Bin Laden. My grandmother gave me for my 13th or 14th birthday a copy of Richard Preston's The Hot Zone. I read it in a night - mainly because it scared the crap out of me and I couldn't sleep. It was an interest, but not really much of a career plan until I was a senior at UC and looking at grad schools. After 9/11, the US poured lots of research money into counter-terrorism work, and one of the major focuses was protecting water systems. That paid for my MS that UC finally delivered today.
monkeyx3: My mom was a nurse and thus diagnoses herself with every know ailment, do you diagnose yourself with different diseases because you feel fatigued?
Me: Oh God no. I'm in the other category; I've pretty much got to be unable to function before going to a MD. Otherwise bandage it up, pop a few aspirin, or buy cold medicine at Krogers. Mainly because my doctor is the Student Death Center. Maybe if my boyfriend was an MD and being examined was fun, I'd go more often.
monkeyx3: What is the most delicious thing you have ever cooked?
Me: That's a hard question, monkeyx3. I'm not really sure what would qualify as "most delicious." I guess probably macaroni (or rather shells) and cheese.
monkeyx3: You been granted three wishes, you can’t make someone love you or wish for more wishes. What are your three wishes?
Me:
Me: Going from the future Dr. Herrick to Dr. Herrick. =P
shouldvesmiled: What's something, during your education, that you've learned about science or the scientific method that absolutely stunned you? (in a good or bad way)
Me: The breadth and depth of what we don't know. It's impressive the everyday things that we know work that we cannot describe how or why they work.
shouldvesmiled: Do you believe in the accuracy or strong possibility of something that others would label a "conspiracy theory"? Please elaborate.
Me: Does God count? Snicker.
I suppose you could consider my distrust of a lot of the international political/legal systems - Kyoto, International Criminal Court, the UN - to be a "conspiracy theory." I am highly skeptical of surrendering sovereignty to a body that I have little to no say in. Especially since they seem to be rather prejudicial - or at least operate prejudicially - against the United States.
shouldvesmiled: If you could be trapped in an elevator with anybody, excluding romantic interests, who would it be and why? What would you talk about?
Me: I'm being rescued, right? I've been trapped in an elevator before, and eing trapped gets tedious, quickly. Especially if it's a small elevator.
Well, since you've ruled out sex . . .
Probably Eugène de Beauharnais. He is one of my personal heroes - not just for his capabilities and a learning curve that astounds me, but also for a deep personal sense of morality. He was fundamentally a decent guy, and there are few historical figures one can say that about. I am amazed at how young and a lot of historical figures were. I'm the same age Eugène was in 1809. I'm a grad student, he was viceroy (and effectively king in all but name) of Northern Italy and commander of an army. I suppose I'd want to talk about how the hell he got so damn good at that so quickly.
shouldvesmiled: Supposing reincarnation were real, what sort of person would you want to be in your next life? Where? Why? What would you do with this second chance?
Me: I suppose if I came back, I'd like to have at least some access to the things I have learned the hard way. I wouldn't want to relive my life again, but at least be a bit wiser when it came to making choices. But I suppose everybody would want that.
shouldvesmiled: You been given absolute dictatorial power over a small, impoverished third-world country for one year. What would you do to reverse its fortunes in this time period?
Me: Take my unlamented and unmourned predicessor's vast stolen booty and use it as capital. Find foreign industries and get them to my country to exploit my people and my resources. Subsistence agriculture has no future; if we can get industry here, however bad it is, we can always improve working conditions. And working conditions will improve - the workers will unionize, they'll negotiate with management in various degrees of unpleasantness. You can't jump from third-world-hellhole to USA. Ideally, I'd like to profit from the industrialization of other nations and start higher on the industrial chain than they did. But we've got to get somebody with the know-how and the monetary juice in to pay for building things - and then to pay wages and taxes. Ideally, the country would partner with the multi-nationals, and the lure of profits would get other wealthy people investing. We've got to get money flowing between people. Use the multi-nationals as training camps; learn everything that we can from them while their people are here, find out what works and what doesn't, and make sure the 2nd gen or the 3rd gen people are my citizens.
Educate, educate, educate. All that high tech stuff is useless if my citizens can't use it, and more importantly, can't troubleshoot it if it doesn't work. That means using as much of the tax revenue I can spare from the factories on K-12 and trade schools. Make sure that when the cheap labor market goes elsewhere, and it will, we've got a workforce educated enough to switch over to making and designing more sophisticated products.
While that is working, I've got to stabilize the political system. If people trust they'll see their money again, they'll be willing to invest it. If the country's going from junta to junta and purge to purge every year, people will hide it in their mattresses or their foreign bank accounts. Same dif. Start small - try and breed mayors and prefects and city councils, and build on the existing political culture. We probably won't have an elected president for a few decades, but if I build a strong structure and tradition of semi-democratic/republican rule at lower levels, the national level democratic infrastructure will last. If I don't, they won't.
I don't think any of my reforms will bear fruit in a year. At best, we'll probably be opening our first few factories, schools and village councils. That's why my most important task as El Supremo is to sell my vision - both to the public, and to an acceptable successor. I'm under no illusions that he or she will be popularly elected - a year is way too early to ever expect that. The best I can hope for is a kind of Pax Romana tutelage. But I can lay the groundwork for a smooth transition and try to avoid a coup. Nothing would wreck my vision faster than a coup against my successor(s). If I sell my people and especially the competing interest groups on how my vision is good for them - usually by showing them how they and their kids are going to get rich beyond their wildest dreams - then the country should make it through. That's task #1.
You LJ vets know the drill, but for those who don't:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me!"
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. And thus the endless cycle of the meme goes on and on and on and on...
monkeyx3: When did you become interested in tracking disease progression?
Me: I suppose you can blame a ready combination of my grandmother and Osama Bin Laden. My grandmother gave me for my 13th or 14th birthday a copy of Richard Preston's The Hot Zone. I read it in a night - mainly because it scared the crap out of me and I couldn't sleep. It was an interest, but not really much of a career plan until I was a senior at UC and looking at grad schools. After 9/11, the US poured lots of research money into counter-terrorism work, and one of the major focuses was protecting water systems. That paid for my MS that UC finally delivered today.
monkeyx3: My mom was a nurse and thus diagnoses herself with every know ailment, do you diagnose yourself with different diseases because you feel fatigued?
Me: Oh God no. I'm in the other category; I've pretty much got to be unable to function before going to a MD. Otherwise bandage it up, pop a few aspirin, or buy cold medicine at Krogers. Mainly because my doctor is the Student Death Center. Maybe if my boyfriend was an MD and being examined was fun, I'd go more often.
monkeyx3: What is the most delicious thing you have ever cooked?
Me: That's a hard question, monkeyx3. I'm not really sure what would qualify as "most delicious." I guess probably macaroni (or rather shells) and cheese.
monkeyx3: You been granted three wishes, you can’t make someone love you or wish for more wishes. What are your three wishes?
Me:
- Wish #1:
My retirement plan is a 50 foot sailboat for one and two and to sail the world, so I guess one of those wishes would be for Will and I to have the time, money and skill (and boat) to do that. I'd like to sail the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and then the South Pacific Islands. - Wish #2:
I'd also like sufficient funds to be a serious philanthropist. I'd like to purchase, preserve and operate historical sites as museums without worry about cashflow. Places like Colonial Williamsburg or Ville de Quebec's Frontenac had a powerful impression on me, and lots of our historical places, ships, parks and museums are in serious financial trouble such that they have to sell, reduce, or even close. - Wish #3:
Time as a companion to Dr. Who, and him to have sufficient interest in Earth history to spend a while finding out "why'd that happen?"
Me: Going from the future Dr. Herrick to Dr. Herrick. =P
shouldvesmiled: What's something, during your education, that you've learned about science or the scientific method that absolutely stunned you? (in a good or bad way)
Me: The breadth and depth of what we don't know. It's impressive the everyday things that we know work that we cannot describe how or why they work.
shouldvesmiled: Do you believe in the accuracy or strong possibility of something that others would label a "conspiracy theory"? Please elaborate.
Me: Does God count? Snicker.
I suppose you could consider my distrust of a lot of the international political/legal systems - Kyoto, International Criminal Court, the UN - to be a "conspiracy theory." I am highly skeptical of surrendering sovereignty to a body that I have little to no say in. Especially since they seem to be rather prejudicial - or at least operate prejudicially - against the United States.
shouldvesmiled: If you could be trapped in an elevator with anybody, excluding romantic interests, who would it be and why? What would you talk about?
Me: I'm being rescued, right? I've been trapped in an elevator before, and eing trapped gets tedious, quickly. Especially if it's a small elevator.
Well, since you've ruled out sex . . .
Probably Eugène de Beauharnais. He is one of my personal heroes - not just for his capabilities and a learning curve that astounds me, but also for a deep personal sense of morality. He was fundamentally a decent guy, and there are few historical figures one can say that about. I am amazed at how young and a lot of historical figures were. I'm the same age Eugène was in 1809. I'm a grad student, he was viceroy (and effectively king in all but name) of Northern Italy and commander of an army. I suppose I'd want to talk about how the hell he got so damn good at that so quickly.
shouldvesmiled: Supposing reincarnation were real, what sort of person would you want to be in your next life? Where? Why? What would you do with this second chance?
Me: I suppose if I came back, I'd like to have at least some access to the things I have learned the hard way. I wouldn't want to relive my life again, but at least be a bit wiser when it came to making choices. But I suppose everybody would want that.
shouldvesmiled: You been given absolute dictatorial power over a small, impoverished third-world country for one year. What would you do to reverse its fortunes in this time period?
Me: Take my unlamented and unmourned predicessor's vast stolen booty and use it as capital. Find foreign industries and get them to my country to exploit my people and my resources. Subsistence agriculture has no future; if we can get industry here, however bad it is, we can always improve working conditions. And working conditions will improve - the workers will unionize, they'll negotiate with management in various degrees of unpleasantness. You can't jump from third-world-hellhole to USA. Ideally, I'd like to profit from the industrialization of other nations and start higher on the industrial chain than they did. But we've got to get somebody with the know-how and the monetary juice in to pay for building things - and then to pay wages and taxes. Ideally, the country would partner with the multi-nationals, and the lure of profits would get other wealthy people investing. We've got to get money flowing between people. Use the multi-nationals as training camps; learn everything that we can from them while their people are here, find out what works and what doesn't, and make sure the 2nd gen or the 3rd gen people are my citizens.
Educate, educate, educate. All that high tech stuff is useless if my citizens can't use it, and more importantly, can't troubleshoot it if it doesn't work. That means using as much of the tax revenue I can spare from the factories on K-12 and trade schools. Make sure that when the cheap labor market goes elsewhere, and it will, we've got a workforce educated enough to switch over to making and designing more sophisticated products.
While that is working, I've got to stabilize the political system. If people trust they'll see their money again, they'll be willing to invest it. If the country's going from junta to junta and purge to purge every year, people will hide it in their mattresses or their foreign bank accounts. Same dif. Start small - try and breed mayors and prefects and city councils, and build on the existing political culture. We probably won't have an elected president for a few decades, but if I build a strong structure and tradition of semi-democratic/republican rule at lower levels, the national level democratic infrastructure will last. If I don't, they won't.
I don't think any of my reforms will bear fruit in a year. At best, we'll probably be opening our first few factories, schools and village councils. That's why my most important task as El Supremo is to sell my vision - both to the public, and to an acceptable successor. I'm under no illusions that he or she will be popularly elected - a year is way too early to ever expect that. The best I can hope for is a kind of Pax Romana tutelage. But I can lay the groundwork for a smooth transition and try to avoid a coup. Nothing would wreck my vision faster than a coup against my successor(s). If I sell my people and especially the competing interest groups on how my vision is good for them - usually by showing them how they and their kids are going to get rich beyond their wildest dreams - then the country should make it through. That's task #1.