I got Sunny’s package. I loved it! A book called Life of Pi, a LiveStrong wristband and lovely note. So, I got three packages in totality and I loved all of them.

I’m going to read Sunny’s book and tell you guys what I think about it.

Apart from that, we had a halloween party amongst some of the interns. It wasn’t too bad. If it wasn’t for the annoying sore throat, I would have had some beer. Seems like alcohol is a part of Halloween.

I just watched a couple of 2^nd season episodes of Veronica Mars, and looks interesting. I’m going to watch the rest of the episodes that I downloaded.

ORNL has very beautiful landscapes like rolling hills with smoky fog. I really want to take pictures except I hate getting buildings and power lines in the picture. Its so annoying.

The Abstract Factory: The only debate on Intelligent Design that is worthy of its subject

This blog entry features a very descriptive argument against intelligent design.

I was just wondering about gravitons. Why do physicists believe in that particle if they have never seen it? The theory says that it should exist but we haven’t isolated the particle yet due to its incredibly heavy nature. Food for thought.

I just had the longest conversation with Goms. I talked to her for 200 mins which is 3 hours and 20 mins?!? I guess I would have gone longer if I wasn’t tired and it wasn’t that late. I don’t remember if I talked to Bhavya for longer than that or not. It was a while ago. So, according to my memory, Goms sets the present record for the phone and Kelly has the record for longest conversation period. And I just noticed that Daylight Savings Time has just begun. Apart from talking to Kelly and Goms, my day was very unremarkable. Tomorrow is bound to be more eventful. I gotta ask Jenn how the party was.

3 New Delhi Explosions Kill at Least 49 - Yahoo! News

This terror attack was way too close to home. Dad tells me that mum was in that shopping center earlier in the day before the explosions. I don’t remember the last time we had such a major attack anywhere apart from the border. I guess I vaguely remember something about Mumbai.

Is US becoming hostile to science? - Yahoo! News

The debate has broadened to the effect of the conflict between evolution and intelligent design to a national or perhaps an international scale. I wonder if there is such a debate in any other country. This is alientating science from the generation to come. The statistics of people who are scientifically literate are dismal. It’s extremely sad actually. The US intellectual/scientific class is being overrun by the influx of brilliance from other countries. Can you imagine living in a country where the majority of people are the minority amongst the people who think scientifically and understand the world around us? If the situation is not corrected, that’s exactly what will happen. And people wonder why foreign nationals or international people get better jobs. It’s the skill. It’s the knowledge. It’s the alacrity to learn, and adapt. It’s hard to do that if people aren’t motivated, and lazy. Maybe I am wrong. Perhaps I am stereotyping and generalizing. If I am, correct me.

*Update* Follow this Slashdot link to look at the comments posted about this article. Comments: Slashdot | Is The U.S. Becoming Anti-Science?

MIT Fires Professor Over Falsified Data - Yahoo! News

Ethics in science is critical. Scientific misconduct is not tolerated in a community which is result oriented. This is yet another case of data falsification. How do they think they will get away with it? Seemingly intelligent people forget that the results need to be reproduced by other scientists to be verified. Can you imagine the condition of the students that were working with him? Can you imagine the shame of the department and the university?

After doing a few handstands at work in my cubby, I am back to doing nothing. I just asked my mentor and he says that I can relax because he doesn’t have anything for me to accomplish for the rest of today. I guess I like my relaxing day today because yesterday was too long. The five hours of talks, and then the multiple hours of homework. Working in groups like that can make people snappy. I think we should all understand the homework before copying down answers. I also think you should be able to defend your previous answers with better things that “I found it on the internet”. It takes a lot of patience to deal with obvious laziness and stupidity. Stupidity frustrates me especially if an intelligent person is being stupid. But then what’s the measure of intelligence? Scores on tests? Speed of processing power? Thoroughness? Probably all of them, eh?

I had a ton of fun last night at Knoxville when Jenn and I went swing dancing. We got to dance with a lot of other people during the social dance. Jenn enjoyed dancing with others and following different leads while I got to partner up with differing follows and I feel like I’m getting back into the groove. The one thing that stood out last night was me leading a guy. I’ve never danced with a guy and he was trying to be goofy when he asked. It was sort of weird at first but I got over it. Jenn was laughing her butt off when she saw us dancing. I like dancing with Jenn because she has rhythm and relatively easy to lead. Plus, I know her so that makes me more comfortable to get close and try new things. Boy, I’ve been missing out. I hope we get to go back soon.

I have homework to finish tonight. That’s something I am not too excited about. I also need to study for the GRE. I need to write emails to grad professors. I need to do quite a bit. Hopefully they will get all done before the weekend is done.

Nanotech: Is it soup yet? | CNET News.com

I was looking at nanotech news on new.com.com and I found this link where it talks about the commercial nanoscience ventures. It’s a lucrative technology to exploit and I hope it’s still around when I finish my ph.d.