Decreasing Entropy

With the coming New Year come some changes/updates for the webpage. The first thing you'll probably notice is that the name and address of the site have changed. Let's just admit it, pctdeq.com was kind of a lame address, and Punctuated Equilibrium...ok, but nothing great. So now the page is called Decreasing Entropy. So what the hell does this mean? Well, by the most basic definition, entropy is a measure of disorder in a system. In a closed system, meaning one that does not receive outside energy, the total entropy of the system must increase, meaning disorder increases. Anyway, the idea for the name came when Olga and I were in Giant Eagle many months ago. We decided that we wanted to get a can of broccoli cheese soup (aka best soup ever). She removed a can of soup which she realized she did not want, and, in struggling to put the can back into the display, shouted, "DECREASING ENTROPY!" (get it...since putting the can back in the display increases the order of the system). I laughed heartily and suddenly realized how that phrase would make the perfect name for my website. So, months later, now that my previous hosting has expired, www.decreasingentropy.net is born. I wanted to get .com, but some crazy Frenchman in Quebec owns that...why a man with a page entirely in French would want the domain name "decreasingentropy.com" is beyond me, but, I'll just settle for .net.

Ok, now that I've bored you with an explanation of how my website got its new name, it's time to tell you what goodies I bestow upon you with this update. First, there's a brand new rant. This rant deals with Time Magazine naming Vladimir Putin "Person of the Year" and the subsequent reaction from Mitt Romney. In addition, you'll notice that there is a new link - Mammoth Cave Kentucky - under the Pictures section. These pictures come from a trip that Olga and I took over the break down to, you guessed it, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast, did some hiking around the park, and took the Wild Cave Tour that Mammoth Cave operates. This tour is their most physically demanding and sees the participants hiking, climbing, and crawling through various parts of the caverns, many of which are off limits to all but this tour. In total, the tour lasted about 6 hours, and I've got some great pictures from that. Finally, I've put up a new video in the Videos section under Other Stuff. This is a short clip of another hologram I made, this one of a rose (which I had to craft out of Sculpey - real roses, I learned, are not stable enough to make holograms out of) which I made for Olga for Christmas.

That does it for the updates. Now just for a bit about myself incase anybody is interested. I will be graduating this year (finally) with my degree in chemistry and will be heading off to grad school this coming fall. I've sent my applications in to Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins, UC San Diego, and McGill. Now I just have to wait to hear back. Ok, that's all for now. Enjoy the updates, feel free to e-mail me with thoughts, opinions, etc. about anything on the site. Also, since I just made the move, there may be some issues with broken links, missing pictures, and whatnot. If you come across any issues with the site, please do let me know so that I can fix them. Happy New Year.

Time for another update, and this time, it's worth a note on the main page. As you can see, I've reworked the navigation on the left just slightly. Mini Rants is finally getting some love, and it will probably be what I update the most in the near future, so I've moved that to the top. Go check out that section for 2 brand new mini rants. In addition, I've added a new section to pictures - Miscellaneous Pictures. Right now, it only has pictures from the trip to Hocking Hills that I took with Olga, but I hope to upload other random pictures from daily life, random happenings, and small trips there. Finally, in the near future, the site will be moving again. I won't be completely revamping it this time, but, it needs a new name. I mean, come on...pctdeq is kinda lame. I knew this from the start, but it's all that I could come up with at the time. More details to come.

What's this!? Two updates in one week!? Yes! I was poking around my harddrives and finally stumbled across a video that I took a while back and was wanting to upload but simply could not find. It now resides in the "Videos" section of "OTHER STUFF". It's another hologram, this one a white-light-viewable of a turtle. As I said in my last update, I've found that numerous people have issues with the videos due to the codecs I used (sorry >_<). This one, at the very least, is using the Xvid codec (get it HERE), and I THINK all of my other videos are Xvid as well. They MIGHT be DivX however. Regardless, I still recommend getting VLC Media Player as it should play all of my videos without a hitch. Enjoy.

Dawn your reading glasses and thinking caps, kids. I've posted a brand new rant! Departing from my last conspiracy-theory blasting rant on chemtrails, I've returned to my classic form with more social commentary, this time discussing those lovely stones known as diamonds.

In addition, it has been brought to my attention that many people are having issues playing the videos that I've posted here. I used a newer codec that I guess most people don't have. If I find the time, I'll see about reencoding them with a codec that more people will have. However, to be perfectly honest, it's probably not going to happen. As such, if you want to watch the videos, I'd recommend downloading VLC Media Player. It's a great little media player that will play just about anything you throw at it. Until next time, enjoy the rant, and you know where to send the love/hate mail.

A few weeks back, Eric, Emma, and I were chatting in my living room. Emma brought up the fact that eating 10 bananas results in receiving the same radiation dose as that of a chest x-ray (this is from the radioactive potassium). Following that, Emma pulled out a book which had a pie-chart comparison of sources of radiation to which humans are exposed. The conversation went something like this:

This, of course, led to laughter and high-fives. Then, a few days later, I received an e-mail from Eric in which he stated, "Here's my analysis of your problem." The attached Excel graph can be seen HERE.

On top of this, I've added a new rant-ish thing. This one isn't really in the same class as most of my rants, but I took the time to write it up recently, so I figured it's worth posting. It's a response to some conspiracy theorist nutjobs talking about "chemtrails." Surprisingly, I've been hearing a good amount about these lately, and there have even been news reports about them. Basically, the conspiracy theorists believe that the government is launching chemicals into the air from various aircraft and for various reasons. All of these "persistant contrails" are not actually contrails, but rather chemtrails! Well, it's bullshit. If you feel like finding out why, go read the rant.

But wait! There's more! There are also two BRAND NEW sections. The first is mini rants, a section I've been threatening to put up for quite some time. Well, I finally motivated myself to just put it up in hopes of making something of it. If you feel like it, check back on that frequently, as I probably won't update the main page every time I put up a mini rant. They will mostly consist of everyday things that need to be ranted about. What that'll be, I'm not sure yet, but, hell, I love to rant so I'm sure I'll find plenty of things. Additionally, there's a videos section. I have enough neat little videos now that I feel compelled to make a section dedicated to them. They may not be up at the time of this update, but they'll be up in a few days. As always, if there are any problems with the site (e.g. broken links), any recommendations, responses to what I have to say, etc., please feel free to e-mail me and let me know what's up.

I finally got around to compressing the videos that I took during my France trip. They document Eric and myself getting lost on the slopes and hiking down a trail for an hour or two. If you've got a few minutes, go watch them, they may provide a few laughs.