The Island of Doctor Thoreau

Hit & Run regulars will be excited to learn that tireless commenter thoreau has successfully defended his doctor's thesis. I still say thoreau's doctor should have defended his own thesis, but in any event, we can now boast about offering Ph.D-level commentary.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Congratulations! Not that I'm surprised.

[Jennifer]

First comment posted at 4:18. Thread itself appears at 4:22. Did Thoreau's thesis involve the optics of time travel?

[cjp]

What with the overwhelming liberal bias of the academy, it's a miracle you were passed! 🙂

Congrats, thoreau.

[SPD]

Mazel tov, Doctor thoreau! Today Walden is a slightly more respectable place.

Tim -- that headline? Beautiful. Henceforth whenever I read the Good Doctor's postings, I shall think of half-human, half-beast abominations serving him drinks and cleaning his tropical laboratory.

[Mo]

Congrats thoreau!!!

But, like Jennifer, I was completely unsurprised.

[Isaac Bartram]

Yay!!

[JonBuck]

Well done, thoreau! This from a Master's degree holder. Maybe one day I'll go the extra mile...

[thoreau]

Thank-you all. I now move one step closer to establishing an island of modified organisms, when I go do a postdoc studying medical applications of optics.

[Jennifer]

Thoreau-
By medical applications, do you mean putting eagle eyes into human specimens?

[Jason Ligon]

" ... In conclusion, the coating of strengthening molecules can have significant effects on the diffraction characteristics of the whole lattice. Oh, and it is incumbent on me to remind you snarkily that a Democrat would not necessarily have explained this any better or worse than I did." 😉

Good job, Dr. Congratulations on sticking to it and having the smarts to get it done. I went down that road myself for a while, and I sincerely respect what it is you have accomplished.

[SPD]

Just remember, Dr. thoreau -- he who breaks the law, goes back to the House of Pain.

All glory is fleeting... all glory is fleeting...

[Mo]

What the heck...

The Island of Dr. Kerry would be worse.

[Jeff]

We walk on two legs, not on four...

[Jennifer]

Jeff-
Did you get my e-mail about the banana? I think it may have been spam-blocked.

[metalgrid]

Now open that mouth and let's have a look at that brain. No, not that one.
I only have one.
Really? ::Takes notes::
Um, is there a human doctor around?
Young lady, I'm an expert on humans. No pick a mouth, open it, and say, "....."
Uh, ahem, "....."
What? My mother was a saint! Get out!

[wellfellow]

Bravo, Thoreau!

[thoreau]

I mean ways to get information from visible light instead of x-rays.

Try shining a flashlight through your hand. Especially in a dark room. Light comes out. There isn't much of an image apparent. But there are ways to extract information from it.

The images that I'll be working on extracting aren't as sharp as images with x-rays, but visible and IR light is much more sensitive than x-rays in measuring chemical composition. A blurry image that says "This lump is definitely cancer!" can be just as useful as a very sharp image of something whose composition is unknows. Is the lump cancer? Or is it an abcess?

Also, the mathematical models used to study light propagation in tissue are similar to the models used to study the formation of blood vessel networks around tumors, and I may be involved in some of that work as well.

I'm looking forward to it. I'll be working in a group that includes theorists and experimentalists, as well as close collaborations with clinical researchers.

[Jim Walsh]

Kudos to you, sir.

[smacky]

Good job, thoreau!

[Jennifer]

Thoreau-
Does this involve using computers to enhance the images, or some sort of optical filters or lenses or whatnot?

[joe]

Well done, Doctor.

I trust the horrific man beasts will have pubs and corner stores within easy two-legged-walking distance.

[Jason Ligon]

thoreau,

I've long thought you needed one of these. Now I'm sure of it.

[Russ D]

Piled higher and deeper, eh thoreau?

Congrats anyway. Hope it doesn't mean you'll be commenting less often.

[David]

Congratulations Thoreau! I think that you should use Dr. Thoreau as your name now.

[Eric the .5b]

Well done, Thoreau.

[the regulator]

Good job! I expect abstracts on all of your posts now.

[Number 6]

Congrats, Dr. Thoreau!

[Isaac Bartram]

So yer a doctor, eh? I gets dis pain in me shoulder when I lifts me arm, like dis.

Wot's dat?

Ohhhh.

[CTD]

Congratulations! Today I shall get down on all fours to civilly protest TIODT's laws 🙂

[Ken Shultz]

Hurray!

[Jim Henley]

I'd like to thank the troops for my right to congratulate you, Dr. T.

[Les]

Congratulations, Dr.! Science is a pretty neat idea.

[Warren]

Good Doctor,
You have been a beacon of reason, shedding light into the eyes of the blind. Your prolific comments have always been relevant, rationally sound, and accessible. Now I suppose we can expect your comments will be sporadic, bloated, immaterial, and incomprehensible.

Well done and congratulations! This definitely deserves a drink!

[Yogi]

thoreau-

Is this a physics Ph.D.? EE? Either way, congrats. I'm a physics 1st year grad student myself looking to study medical imaging. I'd love to learn more about what you're doing. Shoot me an email with a link to your research if you can.

[Soda]

Congrats!

[Baylen]

Congrats! Careful, though. Isn't it illegal to shine a flashlight through your hand. (Something about the hand not being ENERGY STAR compliant.)

[R C Dean]

Way to go, doc.

[Trey]

I got a Post-Hole Digger too, big deal...

Congrats!!!!

[B.P.]

Congrats Thoreau. I'll raise a glass to you this eve. (I was gonna drink anyway, but still...)

When my wife asks me why I'm so tanked and my only excuse is that I saw on an internet chat room that someone I've never met received a PhD. today, I'm gonna feel like a real friendless dweeb.

[dead_elvis]

Congrats, just don't let actual, real work and making the world a better place and all interfere with constant commentary here.

[Allen Phelps]

Congratulations!

[NoStar]

Well done, Dr. T.

So, will you still be hangin' out here with the rest of us slackers and dropouts?

[Pipsqueak]

Now I suppose we can expect your comments will be sporadic, bloated, immaterial, and incomprehensible.

Wait...is there a direct relationship to those sorts of comments and PhDs? In that case, give me my PhD, dammit. I've been getting a raw deal here.

[Akira MacKenzie]

Congrats Thoreau!

[Tony]

Congrats, thoreau. Your comments are some of the best reading at H&R -- no offense to the people who actually write here for a living.

Would you ever consider revealing your secret identity, in order to meet other Santa Barbara-area Reasonistas for drinks?

[kmw]

Congratulations!!!

Are we invited to your graduation ceremony? Not that I'm anywhere near CA, but we can send Mo as our official representative, maybe?

[Patrick D]

Congrads, Thoreau! It sounds like a fascinating topic.

[doctor thoreau :)]

Wow, the outpouring of comments is heart-warming! Thank-you, everybody!

My work is just being sent to journals now (my lab's admittedly unusual tradition is to send everything off at the end), so there isn't much to link to.

I'll be commenting less when I'm a postdoc. Less freedom, more pressure, and, to be honest, more excitement because now I'll be doing the kind of physics that I know I like instead of the kind of physics that at some point I thought I liked. But I won't vanish, fear not.

As to Jennifer's question: Some of the work is done by computer enhancement, but a lot of it is done by playing with different types of illumination. For instance, you could illuminate the body with a short pulse of light. Some of the light passes through without scattering, and that light carries a clear image. Other light gets scattered several times before exiting so it slows down. By only capturing the first portion of the transmitted light you can get an image.

And there are lots of other tricks. Even playing with polarizers can get more information.

I'll probably be working on methods that use pulses of light to study the chemistry rather than the actual image, although that's not entirely clear yet. When I get started in my new research group I'll see where my new advisor assigns me.

[Jason G.G. Bart]

I shall cut-and-paste thoreau's entire thesis as soon as I am presented with it.

[Rick Barton]

thoreau,

Kudos to you! We're very proud and happy for you. You're certainly proof that intelligence and affability aren't mutually exclusive. So now will your comments here also be accessible via Google Scholar?:)

You said that you would be working in a group that includes theorists and experimentalists. Are you more one of these than the other?

[db]

Congratulations, thoreau!

My girlfriend has been working on hers in Statistics for a few years now, and expects to defend in December, so I know a bit about what you people go through.

Congrats again!

[Eddy]

Damn it Jim, he's a doctor not a bricklayer!
Congratulations thoreau, well done.

[Frank Anderson]

Congrats, Dr. Thoreau!

Just started med school last year, and yeah you're right on the whole imaging problem where you need to run a hell of a lot of scans to find out what one problem is (we'll run a CT scan with/without contrast and a MRI with/without contrast to see if you got a tumor, hemorhage, alien fetus?).
Since I'm interested in pathology, you might be hurting my profession (What! No more fine-needle-aspiration biopsies! Blashphemy!), but in the end I hope this means cheaper and more accurate diagnostics for patients. Good luck on trying to make my career path obsolete 😉

[Dynamist]

What's with this spontaneous outpouring of goodwill? I thought only the state was authorized to offer support and congratulations, after the proposed well-wishes had been cleared by the thought police and sensitivity committee.

If the Evil party or the Stupid party get wind of our ability to self-organize, they just might have to adjust their plans for Total Control.

Once again, thoreau has held up the mirror in which we can see the better angels of our nature. Thanks!

[joe]

"When my wife asks me why I'm so tanked and my only excuse is that I saw on an internet chat room that someone I've never met received a PhD. today, I'm gonna feel like a real friendless dweeb"

BP, thoreau. thoreau, BP.

There. Now drink.

[MayDay72]

Doctor Thoreau,

Congratulations!

Though I don't fully understand becoming a "doctor" if it's not the type of doctor that can give samples of cool prescription drugs to your close friends...

;-P

[Psion]

Congratulations, Doctor!

[McClain]

Cool.
Keep up the good work there, Doc.
Cheers!
🙂

[crimethink]

All you old-timers, is this the first thread on H&R solely dedicated to an event in the life of a poster?

Well, in any case, whether or not you're now the answer to that trivia question, congrats thoreau.

[Mo]

If one considers death an event in the life of a poster, then this is the second. At the very least, this is the first happy post about a poster's life.

thoreau,
How dare you use your scientific knowledge to help humanity? Don't you know that we libertarians have a heartless, misanthropic reputation to maintain? Best of luck in the postdoc world. My hat's off to you. I can't wait to visit your island of monkey butlers off the California coast.

[rob]

I pity tha fool that messes with Dr. T!
Congratulations Doc!

[Steven Crane]

I'm only an occasional commentor at this blog, but the level of familiarity and camaraderie that all the regular patrons show to each other (yes, even joe!) is truly first-class and makes me proud to be a part of this little web-community-thing.

Congratulations, thoreau.

[kevrob]

I pity tha fool that messes with Dr. T! - rob

Does our Doc T have 5,000 fingers? Is he.....atomic??!!!

Way, to go, Thoreau! If you ever organize a band of Cheesehead Cavaliers, I harmonize pretty good, monkey-boy!

Kevin

[kyfho23]

very cool, Dr.T...especially since the visible spectrum & longer wavelengths in general are less damaging.however, i am NOT going to sit on a spotlight if my doctor wants to scan for testicular cancer. 🙂

hope it's even (dare i say it?)profitable,but if naught else, it's facinating.

may the practical benefits only be overshadowed by the joy of creation!

[raymond]

Congratulations.

[gaius marius]

i hope you are prepared, doctor, to be ignominiously lumped into the global conspiracy of the liberal activist intelligensia by the defenders of freedom and decency. 🙂

well done.

[Richard]

Congratulations. Hope you get a raise now.

[lcat]

Congratulations thoreau, even those this makes it even
less likely you'll agree to be a supreme court justice or pope

[crimethink]

If one considers death an event in the life of a poster, then this is the second.

Well, that depends on whether you consider death to occur at the end of life, or to be the state that comes after life. And if you liked our discussions on when life begins, you'll love the ones on when life ends! 😉

[doctor thoreau :)]

And now for the bombshell:

I'll be doing my postdoc at the National Institutes of Health.

Call it hypocrisy. Call it compartmentalizing. Call it whatever you will. The unfortunate situation is that this is how academic research is done in the US. I'm not proud of it, and I won't make a permanent career there, but that's where I'm going for now. I've been involved in privately funded academic work before and I'll be involved with it again. But the privately funded postdoc opportunities for my background and interests were slim. I didn't rock the world in grad school, I just did some decent work. Meanwhile, an NIH group that fit like a glove came along. And, FWIW, even this NIH group has an industrial collaboration. Not industrial funding, admittedly, but in the grand scheme of my career trajectory it's significant to me that even at NIH I'll be keeping some contact with the private sector. It will help me steer back toward that direction in a few years when I move on to the next step.

I wish these institutions were privately funded, and my career will eventually intersect more private funding in the future. But I am not going to walk away from academic research solely because of the funding situation. Rather, I am going to make a point of always keeping my eyes open for ways to move in that direction. Even if it's something that I'm not in a position to do yet, I'm going to file it away and hold it in store for the day when I am in a position to do something about it. Already my limited exposure to the place has given me a few ideas about ways that these institutions could be privatized. (And, for the record, putting the place under the management of a private contractor with federal funds is not one of them. The Department of Energy has tried that, and it just doubles the number of layers of management without improving efficiency.)

Make of it what you will. I view the job as an honor, not an entitlement, and I view my relationship to the federal government with discomfort rather than acceptance.

So, if you catch me saying "We need more money!", please do me a favor and slap me. If you hear me saying that we deserve your money, do me a favor and slap me. But if you hear me saying "Here's where the fat is and here's how the whole thing could be streamlined", hear me out. If you hear me saying "Here are ways that the institution could be transitioned into the private sector", please hear me out.

And if you hear me say like joe once said "On my honor as a government employee", oh boy, don't even bother slapping me. Just give me up as a lost cause ;->

[Mediocrity]

May your particles be wave-like, your propagation rectilinear, and your space Cauchy.

[kwais]

Dr Thoreau,
Even though you will be working for the Evil state, congratulations!

[thoreau]

Even though you will be working for the Evil state

Maybe I should change my name to Doctor Evil ;->

[JSM]

Nice job Dr T! I hope we won't lose your valuable insight when you start work at NIH. While there, can you plug the benefits of marijuana to your superiors?!? In the meantime, I will let my roommate s.a.m. know of your success. He is always talking about some of your comments on selected H&R issues. It seems a lot of us H&R regs have a lot of respect for you, whether we agree with you or not!

Good luck!

James

[thoreau]

I hope we won't lose your valuable insight when you start work at NIH. While there, can you plug the benefits of marijuana to your superiors?!?

Like I'd ever stoop to hanging out with people from the drug abuse institute! Please!

Seriously, though, my understanding of the situation is that a lot of scientists know that pot isn't particularly dangerous, but anybody who becomes an Authority bows and scrapes to the political orthodoxy.

I did notice when I interviewed that the lab I'll be working in is addicted to caffeine. (Feel free to tell jokes about federal employees and coffee breaks, God knows I'll be doing the same. But to be fair, I usually solve research problems when I leave the lab. I can't tell you how many insights I've had while walking to lunch, biking home, riding my unicycle around campus, or even just sitting on the toilet.)

Anyway, at some point I'll probably crack a joke about how we're all government employees yet we're helplessly addicted to a stimulant grown in Colombia, just to see what the reaction is. If it's positive I might start to broach some of my more subversive ideas.

[thoreau]

In fact, a third of my dissertation stems from an idea that I got while driving down to LA with my wife to see Phantom of the Opera. Most of the ideas that I had that night were wrong, but as I started solving the equations I saw interesting things.

[kevrob]

Well, Doc T, if you are going the supervillain route, wouldn't it be more appropriate to appropriate the nom du crime, Dr. Light? Your inspirations would be this guy, or this guy. This guy is a good guy, though.

Just remember the fate of Dr. Robert Stadler.

Kevin

[Randolph Carter]

A big Huzzah for Dr. Thoreau! I had a hard enough time getting my B.A...

Oh, and for old time's sake:
If we can't shine flashlights through our hands, the terrorists win.

[Jason Sonenshein]

Congratulations, Dr. Thoreau!

[Ruthless]

thoreau,
On the other side of this paper-thin-walled duplex (In those prime years when the Little Woman and I get it on, it's 5.3 on the Richter Scale over there.) in the 'hood of Sinincincinnati resides a house-painter and a baker/speech-therapist.
The painter/home-brewer likes to inform me: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, paint.
Anyhoody, their lovely daughter, Alina, just became an M.D.
Her residency will be in NM.

A giant tip-o-the-slacker-hat to youse, thoreau!

[Ruthless]

"riding my unicycle around campus, or even just sitting on the toilet"

In the apartment complex in which we lived for many years, there was a guy who was legally blind who rode a unicycle while juggling bowling pins.
He was trying to keep his edge.
He hit a speed bump and died.
Kidding.

"Some folks here sit and think.
I am here to shit and stink."

[Solitudinarian]

Perhaps a bit late, but congratulations, Doctor thoreau! In this interim period of successful dissertation defense and post-doc research, may your cup be ever full and your thirst deep. Kudos!

[thoreau]

Ruthless-

My most sincere congratulations on your daughter's MD! On Friday, when my committee approved my dissertation, the only people in the room happier than me and my wife were my mother and stepfather.

Maybe at NIH I'll befriend some researchers from the institute on drug abuse (I'm in the much more respectable biophysics group) just so I can needle them with observations on my caffeine addiction. I'll point out that I experienced physical withdrawal symptoms at one point when I went off it for a few days, and that it's a stimulant grown in Colombia.

[Eric the .5b]

I'll be doing my postdoc at the National Institutes of Health.

Call it hypocrisy. Call it compartmentalizing. Call it whatever you will.

Maybe "our friend on the inside"? 🙂

[thoreau]

Maybe "our friend on the inside"? 🙂

What the leaders of our government don't realize is that libertarian scientists inside the government are waiting for Dr. Ron Paul to issue General Order 42. When that happens, computer viruses will disable the IRS, DEA, and ATF. An Electromagnetic Pulse will destroy the equipment at the FCC, so that Howard Stern can finally enjoy his first amendment rights without FCC scrutiny. The anti-violence vaccine will be slipped into the water supply at the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. And a quantum computer being developed at NIST will be used to hack into the NSA's systems and end their unconstitutional spying on US citizens.

I just hope that Dr. Paul hurries up and recruits the apprentice that he's been waiting for. Otherwise Darth DeLay might issue General Order 666 and send Darth Santorum to kill every closet libertarian in the government ;->

[cdunlea]

Congrats! From an ABD who decided (with my wife and new baby) to make money instead.

[kevrob]

I would have thought that Doc Frist would be Rep. Paul's opposite number.

Kevin
(too old to be a padawan, dammit!)

[Sandy]

Congratulations. I considered going on for one after my MA, but quickly realized that International Relations is pretty much bullshit when compared to the physical sciences, plus it gets ignored at the policymaker level, anyway.

[Jennifer]

Thoreau-
So you and your wife will be coming out to the East Coast? Cool! Now if we can just convince Mo to move too, then I won't have to feel guilty about fantasizing California falling into the sea.

[Ken Shultz]

...Um, thoreau and Mo aren't the only regulars in California worth saving from the subliminal but destructive power of your apocalyptic fantasies.

[thoreau]

Why do you want to destroy CA, Jennifer?

Do you really want to see 55 anti-theocrat electoral votes vanish?

[Jennifer]

Sorry, Ken.

Dear Californian posters:
I don't know who you are, but please move out of your state so I can indulge in my apocalyptic fantasies without guilt. (With housing prices being what they are, you can sell your overpriced garden shed of a home and buy a veritable mansion out here anyway, and the chance of an earthquake, mudslide, or wildfire destroying it is pretty remote.)

Thoreau-
I know, from both a tactical and strategic standpoint this doesn't make sense, but I can hardly help it. "Governor" Reagan. "Governor" Schwarzenegger. The first smoking-in-bar bans. The seatbelt bans. "I have the right to never have my feelings hurt and you have the obligation to behave thusly." All this moon-in-the-seventh-house touchy-feely age-of-aquarius bullshit that keeps popping up out there, and I wouldn't care if it stayed in its own state but it keeps infecting the rest of the nation like a single spore of mold that can take over your whole bathtub if you're not careful.

But I am going completely off-topic here. Congratulations again, and I'll even concede that California itself can't be that annoying in this year 2005, if it can produce somebody like you. From what I've read on these posts you are en exceptionally intelligent, insightful, naturally good-hearted and generous person, a far better person than I or most other people will ever likely be. More power to you.

[MayDay72]

[T]hen I won't have to feel guilty about fantasizing California falling into the sea. -Jennifer

I just need about 2.5 hours advance notice. 'Cause that's how long it'll take me to vacate from the Sacramento area via Highway 50 or Interstate 80 to the Nevada state line near Lake Tahoe.

A few months advance notice would be even better so that I could purchase a condominium on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. I'm sure that it would become incredibly valuable propery since it would be both oceanfront and mountainside property.

Though it would be a bit inconvenient to have to walk more than a mile straight down (vertically) in order to visit the beach...

[Nerd Humorist]

May your particles be wave-like, your propagation rectilinear, and your space Cauchy.

[snort!] I second that. A toast to thoreau!

[MayDay72]

Jennifer,

Yes...The stuff that you don't like about California [nanny-statism, new-age-ism, etc.] DOES actually occur here...And more commonly than many of us would like.

But it is mainly limited to relatively small geographical areas...Around the San Francisco Bay, on the coast and near the university towns (such as Davis) these areas also tend to be the most heavily populated and most commonly visited by tourists. So some outsiders might have a bit of a skewed perspective on California since these are the places that they visit and hear about most often. Since the largest cities are also in these locations it also means that most of our politicians are elected mainly by people who live in relatively small geographical areas AND they tend to be fairly statist and autoritarian.

But drive a car just an hour or so from any of these locations and I'm sure that you'll find people representing much more diverse ideological, philosophical and political beliefs.

[Jennifer]

MayDay72-
Yes, I know. In reality I would feel just terrible if California were to somehow evaporate. However, if any Californians here want to retaliate by fantasizing the destruction of New England, go right ahead. The world would thus be rid of the twin travesties of the Kennedys, and maple-cured bacon.

[MayDay72]

The world would thus be rid of the twin travesties of the Kennedys, and maple-cured bacon. -Jennifer

Well...I could never feel good about something like that. It would be a tragedy beyond comprehension...'Cause I really like that maple cured bacon...

[Begin: Homer Simpson]
Mmmmmmmm...
Maple-cured bacon!
[Slobber, slobber, slobber]
[End: Homer Simpson]

Oh...I can't remember. Was there another "travesty" that you mentioned?

[Native NYer]

Congrats!

Not that you're the Doctor, do you get a TARDIS along with your sheepskin?

[Ruthless]

A hundred posts on a Hit and Run thread in your honor is what I would call a pretty rip-snortin' cyber celebration.
(I'm coming in again semi-sober this time to get you over the 100 mark.)
Put all this in your scrap book. We Reasonoids predict great and good things for you and your family.

For the record, our daughter is not an M.D.
She's amazing and all, but the M.D. is the daughter of the house-painter next door.

[Jennifer]

I'll be number 100 by saying this to MayDay: "Boston accents."

[pigwiggle]

Congratulations Thoreau; certainly a monumental achievement that most are either too lazy, or perhaps simply not sadistic enough to commit to. You are graduating at a time when a full half of all science and engineering postdocs and grad student are foreign nationals. In my group we have (we are theoretical chemists) watched our access to these well-qualified students choked by stricter regulations on student visas and visas in general. This is good for our job security (I?ll be gradating in a year or so) but, sadly, I think generally bad for US science. I wonder how we will be more secure by keeping out the smart folks. Anyway, what are your plans, postdoc in industry or academia?

[thoreau]

pigwiggle-

Postdoc at NIH. See post above of June 4, 2005 12:23 PM for my apology for going into government work. Suffice it to say that I won't be making a career there, but it's a great place to postdoc.

And again, thanks to everybody for the well wishes. I'll be printing out this thread and including it in my scrapbook, as Ruthless suggested.

[MayDay72]

I'll be number 100 by saying this to MayDay: "Boston accents." -Jennifer

Hey...I'd never mess with THAT. I'm sure we all know the ramifications of correcting the pronunciation of a pseudo-Kennedy...

It's "chow-duh"! CHOW-DUH! I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!! Especially those of you in the jury! -Freddy Quimby

[Jennifer]

MayDay-
Joe Lieberman.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

I'm coming in pretty damned late in the party, but congrats!

Will you be working in Bethesda? It is a very nice campus, and easily metro-accessible.

Don't feel too hypocritical. I knew a pretty hard-core lib who worked for the damned IRS!

[pigwiggle]

T-

I don?t think it ?unlibertarian? to take government funds. Folks would be foolish to turn down this kind of ?free? money, and really that?s the point, isn?t it. While the money is there for the taking don?t put yourself at a competitive disadvantage by turning it down.

[Rhywun]

Congrats! Your thesis descriptions have provided me many moments of glazed-over eyes 😉

[Russ D]

thoreau,

putting the place under the management of a private contractor with federal funds is not one of them. The Department of Energy has tried that, and it just doubles the number of layers of management without improving efficiency

Sounds almost exactly what my father told me from decades of reactor research work at Argonne Nat'l Lab. You may actually become even MORE libertarian after working at NIH.

[drf]

CONGRATULATIONS!

all of us are proud of you.

[Stevo Darkly]

What's up, Doc?!

I hope I'm the first to say that -- I came to the party late and haven't even read this whole thread yet. (I was out of town this past weekend.)

Congratulations, Dr. Thoreau.

[Stevo Darkly]

OK, now I had time to read the thread. A couple follow-up comments.

I'll be doing my postdoc at the National Institutes of Health.

Hey, it's nice to have a spy on the inside. Hey, know what would be really cool? If we could get, say, an Objectivist a job at the Federal Reserve ...

Actually, one of the first libertarian-minded individuals I ever met was working for the Social Security Administration at the time. And the first homeschooler I ever heard of was a public school teacher when I met her.

That which does not statistize us, makes us libertarianer.

Thoreau- So you and your wife will be coming out to the East Coast? Cool! Now if we can just convince Mo to move too, then I won't have to feel guilty about fantasizing California falling into the sea.

I think Mo had landed a new job that required him to move East. I think he said he might be passing in the general area of St. Louis when he moved.

Wouldn't it be cool if Mo and Dr. Thoreau both moved at the same time, and both happened to stop in the middle of the country along the way for some celebratory drinks with Stevo Darkly, Steven Crane, SixSigma and other H&R folks in the STL area?

[hunting girl]

thoreau,

as a Ph.D. student in biomed. engineering who is (pinching nose) NIH funded as well, I feel your pain.

Nevertheless, congratulations on a job well done!!! I can't wait until (with luck & lots of sweat) i am one day a gleeful postdoc too...