This terrifies me, both from a personal "I am about to apply to grad school for biostats and epidemiology and want to do research" standpoint and a "this has tons of possible implications for our future as a society and I don't like any of them".

And I don't really know how to fix it.

It lurks in desolation. Bumped around the bottom of lunch bags as schoolchildren rummage for chips or shrink-wrapped Rice Krispies treats. Waiting by the last bruised banana in a roadside gas station, the only produce for miles. Left untouched on hospital trays, forlorn in the fruit bowl at hotel breakfast buffets, bereft in nests of gift-basket raffia.

Really pulling out the literary flourishes, there, arentcha.

At some point he mentions "and you play with this enough to develop intuition" or something. I think that's a really good goal, but I think it might take a while for that intuition to develop. I really want to read the network paper he played with to see it in action- the energy use one he's got on the site is fun, but I'm not trying to learn something thats reliant on sort of an abstract framework. Its a cool tool he's got there, though.

Oh its raining in WI tonight...maybe its time to visit up north.

Ooh, where is this from?

Yeah, when it comes to these two guys, who knows? But I've kept hearing about systemic issues about how science is funded and the pressures that puts on researchers and how that effects what science gets done.

And I guess thats a hopeful thing, at least- I've kept hearing about it. People are talking about it. Hopefully this leads to change.

Your theory about otherizing is interesting; I've always assumed that the preference for older researchers primarily comes from the fact that older researchers, by dint of having been around longer, have longer track records that can justify getting funding. On the other hand, people do tend to otherize like crazy- do you think there might be a possibility of removing some of its influence in the grant evaluation process? Obviously there can't be complete blindness (I'm thinking of orchestra auditions that take place behind a screen)- for one thing, experience at writing grants will show through- but is there any place in the process that could be more blind?

No idea, not an itunes user. My facebook was filled with people asking "why do I have this album now?", though, so it might show up in annoying ways. I would say something about how it seems like a creepy display of power from apple, but then I realized how integrated I am with all of google's services and I'm pretty sure there's not much difference.