spectastic

why can't you take the cat with you on your travels? the longest I've left my 2 cats alone was 5 days. when I came back, the litterbox was totally full... I mean TOTALLY. I was expecting to find shit on my kitchen counter, but they actually behaved. but now that I have a roommate, it's not a big deal anymore. If you need to leave for a longer period of time, get one of those gravity autofeeders, instead of putting all the food and water in one giant bowl. because what they'll do is binge for the first couple of days, and starve for the rest. Also, however much you put out is gonna be the exact same as the amount that comes out the other end, so that'll give you a good idea how much litter you need.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/struggling-blackberry-agrees-be-sold-4-7-billion-f4B11234242

didn't they declare bankruptcy and sold themselves to someone? my company switched out all its company phones with the i4 (or was it 5, i don't know I don't have one). if you look at the 5 year projection, it looks like they've been dead for quite a while.. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=blackberry%20stock

I think approaching very slowly is a bad idea. chat her up and make her know you like her. If it doesn't work out, move on. Don't spend weeks and months on an elaborate plan to make someone your girlfriend, when you can show them who you are up front and get through with the first step. that'd be my approach anyway. there's no right answer to this

is index fund one of those funds that group together multiple stocks, or am I thinking of something different?

anything that goes into a black box and comes back out looking different is considered processed goods. That goes for freshly packaged vegetables too. That's why I referred to good processed food and bad ones. hey. I'm a process engineer. I know my shit, ok? ok, maybe there isn't a strict definition on what processed food is . But that's mine. someone else might think differently. to each your own.

the example is listed with the poison in the corn is one. My point on that is for corporations, the driver for GMO is not to make the world a better place, but to make money. I work in a corporate atmosphere, so I know how it is. No matter what they say or do, it's all about the bottomline at the end of the day. If they make an investment, they expect a return. That's how they get big.. Here's a good article that I read just now. It talks about how by providing these technologies to African farmers, the corporations pretty much take control of what gets produced in Africa, kind of like forcing African the hand to take Monsanto as their permanent contractor, at a cost that they obviously can't afford. It also talks about pesticide resistant SUPER weeds (must be some strong weed) that resulted from the pesticide resistant corn they've been growing. I don't know enough about the topic to judge, but when they get problems like this, who do you think the farmers would go to for help? corporations.. at a hefty price? you bet. That's my view anyway.. I don't like corporations. here's the article http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/20058-why-african-farmers-do-not-want-gmos

it helps to know what you want to do, but a lot of times, the PhD research topic is pretty different from the job, particularly in industry. Right now, I'm looking at which markets are looking good before I narrow down what I want to study. Biotech and pharmaceuticals are pretty hot right now, but working with cells isn't really my cup of tea. I just google everything. Being out of school, I don't have access to the major journals anyway, but it helps to start looking at a high level first like review articles, before doing a ton of research on journals. also, if anyone of a good source to find articles for free, let me know. I don't want to have to email someone to send me articles....

there are good gmo's and bad ones. an example of a bad gmo is modifying corn DNA to make it secrete a harmful chemical on the surface that kills bugs, saving money on pesticides. Supposedly, this chemical has a halflife short enough such that in the period that it's picked, processed, packaged/shipped and put on the shelves, the levels will be low enough that it's pretty much harmless. But it didn't always quite go according to plan, and it was found in people's food. I'm for good gmo, like researching ways to grow stuff in different climates and low quality soil. Imagine Africa feeding itself instead of fighting all the time over resources. that's a big deal. on the other hand, I think the bigger corporations like Monsanto are more hung up on making/saving money projects than any philanthropist pursuits.

something tells me this is more accurate than people would want to believe

I feel bad for you, but man... I've seen worse.

put it in a blender and shape it into the shape of poop with the fork and prank your roommate

check out this guy's story http://austintriathlonstore.blogspot.com/2014/01/from-fat-kid-to-state-tt-champion.html when I first talked to him, I had no idea who he was, only that he was on the same team as a couple of friends. when I asked about the lose skin on his arms, they said he used to weigh 400 lbs. this guy is awesome.

I'd really like to work at a place like specialized or gopro, or something, where people are more open and easy going.

according to this http://authoritynutrition.com/grass-fed-vs-grain-fed-beef/ the advantage of grass fed beef over grain fed is that they have more omega3 fatty acids, and vitamins. but I think these can easily be supplemented by other foods, so I'd still rather get grain fed beef at half (or less) the cost of grass fed stuff.

yay big pharma!.... self assembly merged with 3D printing seems like a niche area that seems pretty cool.

anything that's been prepared and packaged is considered processed, even basic ingredients like flour. you can't avoid process food. but it's easy to distinguish good processed food like freshly packaged meat, frozen veg, milk, vs other stuff like frozen pizza, quick microwaveable meals, where you don't control the ingredients hey.. basically, just stick around the fresh produce and meat sections, and stay the hell out of the isles in the grocery store. ok??

at least 6 people got fired and 1 quit in the last month.

there's a documentary about that, called "fed up" or something like that. it talks about what the food corporations are doing to get consumers "addicted" to sugar and making recipes that are targeting the reward centers in our brain that were developed by evolution for the early humans to find the natural sugar in berries and fruits, instead of the bags of potato chips and honey bbq ribs in the frozen section, or the scoops of sugar people put into their coffee. I guess I'm one of those clean eaters, because I try to cook healthy stuff (not gonna get involved politically though). But it's pretty much impossible to find unprocessed stuff unless you go to the farmer's market. I buy packaged meat and frozen vegetables all the time, and they're not so bad. I also try to stay away from too many restaurants, because a lot of them put the bad stuff in their food for it to taste good, and make their business thrive. but with grad school schedules, I can't imagine people on here would be able to find the time to cook all the time.

he aversion for getting a phd comes from the 5 years of low income, high workload, and a variety of other uncertainties that pertains to mainly the job market. I was originally interested in working with OPV's, OSC's, OLED's and the like, due to my background in polymers. But these are very small markets that appear to be struggling. There was a whole bunch of research money poured into these areas, and by now, their development seem to have pretty much flat lined. That's a bad sign to me. biotech is another option, but I've not had that great of an experience working with them in my college career. so I need to do more research on what's out there, and get a better career plan than just do what I find interesting.

he's just an old complacent jerk. i'll put it this way.. the guys who've worked at this plant for 30+ years isn't going to let a 23 year old kid come in and tell them what to do. they'll work with the new engineers and teach them what they know, but some won't let some young guy tell them that they've been doing it wrong the entire time. I'm the only person who cares about the utilities units, which are units that few people care about. people would lie through their teeth and say that something has been worked on, or they're busy with something else and couldn't get to it, when the reality is they just don't give a shit. I'm just going to finish my projects, take my vacations, and leave this cesspool

my job sucks because I have to take care of the units that nobody gives a shit about. we had black smoke coming out the stack today, a real fucking problem, and I'm sitting next to this operator trying to work with him. But he just got done working on the unit he cares about, and is now sitting there playing solitare on his phone, pretending I'm not there. what a fucking prick.

yea, it would probably depend on the company, industry, aspirations, etc. I'm not looking forward to spending 5 years in the poop. But if that's my one way ticket to getting job with intellectuals doing stuff I like, then so be it.