The NYTimes published an Op-Ed titled Your Brain Lies To You.

It starts like this:

False beliefs are everywhere. Eighteen percent of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth, one poll has found. Thus it seems slightly less egregious that, according to another poll, 10 percent of us think that Senator Barack Obama, a Christian, is instead a Muslim.

I don't know how the rest of it goes. That's as far as I got before my brain shut down.

And because I am a geek, I have made a new header for my blog out of photos of Mars that have recently been sent back by Phoenix.

The Mission Overview and all of the images which have been sent back so far can be found on the NASA website, along with other information about the mission.

The photos I used, from left to right:

On Solid Ground
First Look at Martian Arctic Plains
Polygon on Mars
Icy, Patterned Ground on Mars

Some may remember that a while ago there was a major breakthrough - evidence of the presence of water and ice on Mars. The Pheonix was sent to the north pole of Mars gather samples of water ice and the local soil for scientific analysis.

Also because I am a geek, I think this is pretty awesome. If anyone's counting, Phoenix is the sixth confirmed landing of American spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

That's what it says in the spot where my fourth grade should be - just NR. NR = Not Reported. This sort of worries me - that was the one where I got an extension, and then went over the extension a little bit. On the other hand, my professor never emailed me to tell me something was wrong. I also know that professors are generally expected to have a seventy two hour turn around on final grades. For a test, this seems okay. But for fifteen to twenty essays, which are themselves fifteen to twenty pages, this seems unfair. Three days to read and grade 225 to 400 pages seems like it would take a herculean effort. And that's just for one class, not multiple classes. In this class, the essay is half of our grade. Three days seems a little aspirational, at the least.

I didn't feel like raising GUAS from the ashes today either. Last night I was watching television because I couldn't stand to look at my computer screen any longer. I spent about nine or ten hours yesterday working on the website and the listproc. Unlike some people who are silly heads who live in Bronxian stomping grounds, I actually like the new site better, and not just because I made it. It has fewer colours and photos, but in my mind that adds up to visually and aesthetically simpler, and therefore more desirable. Take that Joe! Just kidding. I agree that the last site was quite good. For this one, we have no choice but to use a template, and the template is not very customizable. I expect that this is to make it simpler for people who don't build websites, and even out the playing ground for all the professors, departments, organizations, etc. THe only real customization I can do besides the header is with html in the text, and by embedding photos and videos. Even the photos can't be hosted on the site though - the only way it works is by putting them on a flickr stream and using the code. That's strange, but okay. I might just set up a flickr stream for the organization to make it simpler.

The first photo is of Mister Bones helping with the dishes. Mostly he helps by getting in the way or by licking plates as they're loaded into the dishwasher. He looks confused and sad here, because I had just thrown out food instead of giving it to him. Mister Bones doesn't believe in the concept of food going bad, and therefore not being suitable for eating. The second photo is of Mister Bones helping me blog. As you can see, he helps me blog by sitting on my bed and touching my nose with his nose. He slept all day today, until my parents pulled into the driveway in their hippie car, and then he woke up and ran to the front door to meet them when they came in. This morning we made more progress with chomping and dragging. After a round of chomp chomp I showed him how to chomp on my dad's arm and then drag my dad towards me. Then he did it all by himself. Yay for progress! Much like Mister Bones, I also slept all day. I think the sleep deprivation from finals has caught up to me, and I've run out of adrenaline. That's fine - after I sleep it off I'll feel better and return to a normal schedule. Today was a day of being a bum, and it was great. Now I'm going to go continue reading Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. I bought it months ago, but was too busy with school to start it until I got on the plane home.