I'm conjuring up some things that will hopefully make it easier for me to add pages to the site. In the meantime, things may get janky around here.

Also, I'm working on a new project which will turn PHPBB threads into RSS feeds. Look for that to appear on the projects page soon.

Since I've become aware of the argument between science and intelligent design, I've heard the creationist side make the argument that the venerable Darwin himself doubted the fact that natural selection could have created something as complex as the eye. Darwin wrote in Origin of Species that:

To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.

I always presumed that Darwin was merely ignorant of the primitive eyes of other creatures from which such a complicated organ as the human eye might have derived. Given that his theory was so controversial, I thought maybe he was throwing a bone to his detractors in an attempt to be less controversial.

Then I picked up the actual book. Sitting right next to that sentence that creationists so oft-quote was this gem:

Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though inseparable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Darwin went on from there to describe how he could clearly see the lineage from the simple optic nerve to the wonderful sense of sight that humans have. His words brought a tear to my "irreducibly complex" eye.

Mr. Worthington (who is really a she) passed away today. We think that she got sick back in Arlington Heights and the stress of the travel got to her. She's always had trouble with stress.

In honor of her favorite pasttime, here is a video of her eating some cat food:

This is a very interesting article about the United States' debt-to-GDP ratio, as compared with the other big global economies. Looks like Japan is the place to be during this crisis: http://www.creditloan.com/blog/americans-debt-to-income-ratio-as-compared-with-other-countries/.

So last week I lost my man purse which contained my TI-89 calculator and travel charger for my laptop, amongst other things. I knew I had taken it to my first class that morning and was fairly sure I took it out of that classroom. But after that, I had no idea where I might have left the bag. Ugh.

Then, a stroke of genius. I remembered that my second class of that day is videotaped for remote students. Luckily, I always sit in the front row of that class, so I am always visible on the lecture videos. I quickly surfed to the video lecture site and opened up the lecture on the day I lost my bag. I saw myself walk in, with the bag (woo hoo!), set it under the desk, and, when the lecture was over, stand up and walk out without the bag.

Yes!!!!

So now I knew where EXACTLY I left my bag and focused my search to that building. After a day of searching through the building's many lost and founds, I finally found my bag sitting in the ACM room.

The internet is...amazing.