Survivor (mostly)
Mar. 5th, 2004 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herewiss13This is the most amazing thing. If politics is the "art of the possible", then science is the "art of the mindblowing".
52,000 different species of microbes found in a liter of Sargasso Sea water. Approximately 1,800 new species, 1.2 _million_ new genes
Marine microbes are notoriously hard to cultivate in the lab so this shotgun approach of sequencing the DNA straight from the sea water is pretty radical.
___________
Survivor: I love Survivor. Not a big fan of other reality tv shows, but this one is ok. Haven't missed a single episode in 8 seasons. By removing the contestants to remote locations, the show strips away all distractions. You get pure game theory, applied with greater or lesser degrees of skill, interesting competitions and beautiful scenery. What more do you want? There also a fair amount of human drama from time to time but, frankly, that just embarasses me and I try to skip over it, last night's outburst by Sue being a strong case in point (though she may very well have been justified). That's not what I tune in to see.
I want alliances, grabs for power, canny people-reading, humbling take-downs, major upsets and triumphant underdogs. Suvivor delibers these machiavellian marvels in spades.
You do have to wonder about the symmetry sometimes, though.
Examples:
1) This season started with three tribes. Last week the losing tribe was to be split between the other two. The losing tribe ended up having 4 members, the other two with 5 each. How nicely even, two new members for each surviving tribe. What would they have done if one of the 5 members tribes had lost?
2) After last week's vote off, the tribal numbers were 6-7. One of the members of the tribe of 6 had walked off the show, concerned about her dying mother (rightly so, it turned out, but why go in the first place then?). This imbalance (which did not reflect "inferior" competition) would have placed that tribe in a distinct, and somewhat unfair, disadvantage at the merge. So what happened this week? A member of the _other_ tribe, outraged by an incident of potential sexual harassment, found she was too angry, humiliated and distracted to continue and stormed out, leaving them at a nicely even 6-6. There's only been one quitter _ever_ before this season. Now we've had two in the first four weeks! And given another "twist" next week (which will probably involve the tribes swapping a few members), this situation becomes extremely convenient. Swapping members equally between tribes with 7-6 is much messier than 6-6. Balance is restored.
3) Similarly, in virtually every season, the Merge (which is apparently pre-scheduled) conincides with a period in which the two tribes have even numbers. There might be a huge disparity for a time, with one tiny tribe and one big one, but the big tribe _always_ takes a dive and loses members until parity is achieved. There might be some elements of human psychology involved (successful groups get cocky, turn on themselves, overconfident, etc.) but it still seems incredibly convenient.
::shrug::
Still love the show. And despite his unbelievably crass and insensitive behavior last week, Richard Hatch remains my favorite. He's the only one to approach Suvivor as a _game_, not some somber, serious competition, and his people-reading and people-manipulation are second to none, despite his bamboozlement and ejection. Still, didn't get him upset or despondent as other bootees have been. Could have done without the nudity, but nobody's perfect.
________
Oh, and "love" life update: This new winker and I have established a continuing correspondence. Her name is Meghan. Still early, but it seems quite promising. I professed an interest in the "macro" subjects of biology, while she's a devotee of the "micro" and biochemical, but I told her that was alright; some of my best friends are chemists. ;-)
She doesn't check her email near as often as I might like, but what can you do? We're still in the introductory phases, but it's nice to have someone to talk science with, at least.
She's even very sympathetic to my depression to boot, having been down many of the same roads. I shouldn't be, but I'm still constantly amazed by how many other people are in the same boat. E. was too...as were C. and E(2). (I. apparently being the one exception). Maybe it's not the population at large, maybe I just attract the mentally unstable. That would explain a lot, actually...
52,000 different species of microbes found in a liter of Sargasso Sea water. Approximately 1,800 new species, 1.2 _million_ new genes
Marine microbes are notoriously hard to cultivate in the lab so this shotgun approach of sequencing the DNA straight from the sea water is pretty radical.
___________
Survivor: I love Survivor. Not a big fan of other reality tv shows, but this one is ok. Haven't missed a single episode in 8 seasons. By removing the contestants to remote locations, the show strips away all distractions. You get pure game theory, applied with greater or lesser degrees of skill, interesting competitions and beautiful scenery. What more do you want? There also a fair amount of human drama from time to time but, frankly, that just embarasses me and I try to skip over it, last night's outburst by Sue being a strong case in point (though she may very well have been justified). That's not what I tune in to see.
I want alliances, grabs for power, canny people-reading, humbling take-downs, major upsets and triumphant underdogs. Suvivor delibers these machiavellian marvels in spades.
You do have to wonder about the symmetry sometimes, though.
Examples:
1) This season started with three tribes. Last week the losing tribe was to be split between the other two. The losing tribe ended up having 4 members, the other two with 5 each. How nicely even, two new members for each surviving tribe. What would they have done if one of the 5 members tribes had lost?
2) After last week's vote off, the tribal numbers were 6-7. One of the members of the tribe of 6 had walked off the show, concerned about her dying mother (rightly so, it turned out, but why go in the first place then?). This imbalance (which did not reflect "inferior" competition) would have placed that tribe in a distinct, and somewhat unfair, disadvantage at the merge. So what happened this week? A member of the _other_ tribe, outraged by an incident of potential sexual harassment, found she was too angry, humiliated and distracted to continue and stormed out, leaving them at a nicely even 6-6. There's only been one quitter _ever_ before this season. Now we've had two in the first four weeks! And given another "twist" next week (which will probably involve the tribes swapping a few members), this situation becomes extremely convenient. Swapping members equally between tribes with 7-6 is much messier than 6-6. Balance is restored.
3) Similarly, in virtually every season, the Merge (which is apparently pre-scheduled) conincides with a period in which the two tribes have even numbers. There might be a huge disparity for a time, with one tiny tribe and one big one, but the big tribe _always_ takes a dive and loses members until parity is achieved. There might be some elements of human psychology involved (successful groups get cocky, turn on themselves, overconfident, etc.) but it still seems incredibly convenient.
::shrug::
Still love the show. And despite his unbelievably crass and insensitive behavior last week, Richard Hatch remains my favorite. He's the only one to approach Suvivor as a _game_, not some somber, serious competition, and his people-reading and people-manipulation are second to none, despite his bamboozlement and ejection. Still, didn't get him upset or despondent as other bootees have been. Could have done without the nudity, but nobody's perfect.
________
Oh, and "love" life update: This new winker and I have established a continuing correspondence. Her name is Meghan. Still early, but it seems quite promising. I professed an interest in the "macro" subjects of biology, while she's a devotee of the "micro" and biochemical, but I told her that was alright; some of my best friends are chemists. ;-)
She doesn't check her email near as often as I might like, but what can you do? We're still in the introductory phases, but it's nice to have someone to talk science with, at least.
She's even very sympathetic to my depression to boot, having been down many of the same roads. I shouldn't be, but I'm still constantly amazed by how many other people are in the same boat. E. was too...as were C. and E(2). (I. apparently being the one exception). Maybe it's not the population at large, maybe I just attract the mentally unstable. That would explain a lot, actually...
