Punnett Squares
I was re-reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and came across the part where Harry tries to explain genetics—
*cough* If you haven’t read this fanfiction, it’s pretty darn awesome. Harry Potter meets Science.
—anyway, I won’t spoil it, but they were talking about a certain genetic trait. The phenotype is either +W or -W, and they were trying to figure out what the genotype was. Harry explains the monohybrid cross you probably learned about in high school Bio, where there are two alleles, W and w. To find out how the genotype and phenotype relate, they…
Slow Mental Clock
Something I’ve noticed when I get tired is that my internal mental clock seems to slow down. I don’t just mean that it takes me longer to do things, I mean my actual perception of time seems to change.
It’s a fairly well established fact that humans have neurons in their brains that fire at a very regular rate; presumably, these both manage regular processes (like a heartbeat, or the contractions of your intestines) and provide your perception of time. Basically, it’s this that lets your brain estimate how long something takes…if the neurons fire, say, 400 times, then it’s…
Puerile Parenthood
It bothers me when people say they’re their pets’ parents. “Oh, are you Lucky’s mommy?” No, no, she is not. She’s Lucky’s owner, perhaps Lucky’s pack leader, but not her “mommy”.
It also bothers me when people do this in TR. “Your kids really liked you…you must have been a good director.” They’re not my children…they’re not even all younger than me. They’re my troupe, my cast or castmembers. And thanks for the compliment.
</pet-peeve>