Wednesday, September 19, 2007

RADIO LAB!

My favorite new NPR show as of late is Radio Lab. I heard it on This American Life a few weeks ago and downloaded the podcast. I love it. They only make 5 shows a season but they are so good. The episodes are funny, smart and entertaining and have great sound effects!

The premise of the show is they take a topic and explore using science. Today I listened to 2 shows at work, Placebo and Sleep.

The Placebo episode explores the history of placebo research. One of the stories explores when a solder in war gets shot their pain levels are less than when a person in society gets shot. Listen to the episode to find out why.

The Sleep episode explores the evolution of sleep and sleep research on animals. Did you know that dolphins rests one half of their brains at a time. so cool

So download the podcasts and listen when you get a chance. I am sure you will not be disappointed!

Friday, September 14, 2007

wait, you have a blog?

well then why was your last post way back in August? Why are you slacking on your blog? How come no sweet plant photos? What gives?

I am busy. Simple as that. I have been working long hours in the field, helping to plan a wedding, and over the past few weeks have been hunting for an apartment. From the look of things, so has the rest of the San Francisco. I have never visited craigslist so frequently on a daily basis in my life. Apartment hunting is a full time job in itself, with remembering open house dates, phone numbers, rents and realty names and addresses. Whole weekends were lost driving to open houses jut to find out they were dumps, and still 25 people were fighting over them. Morale was low. We got so sick of getting passed over we created a rental packet, complete with a generic application, credit reports and a cover letter with our contact info on it, all bound in a nice report folder.

If anyone out there is searching for an apartment, this is the way to go. People are impressed you went through the trouble and the rental packet makes you stand out. I don't want to jinx anything but I believe by Monday, our search will be over. More details to come.

I hope things slow down soon so I can update my blog more regularly in the future. I believe that it will.

so this weeks PLANT OF THE WEEK is the sunflower. I know, I know, i knew this one already but I did not know this flower is Helianthus annuus which is native to California. This flower is a member of the Asteraceae or sunflower family, with all members having a composite of smaller flowers. This family is the largest in California but the second largest in the world behind Orchidaceae.

I took this photo in a huge field of sunflowers. They were pretty. This flower is another great photography flower because of the contrasting colors. I need a digital SLR!!!