Monday, June 22, 2015

Interstellar: A review

5:19 PM
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Finally. I know it took quite some time for me to get around to actually watching this movie. But I have. I finally have. First off, I stand by my opinion that Nolan is a genius, and at the very least an artist.

Before I get into this, I need to say that I really enjoyed this movie. I'm just going to point out some of the flaws that I had with it. Which is not a lot, but there are a few.

Now going into this movie I knew very little about it. I knew it has something or other to do about Matthew McConaughey going into space. And that's about it. Also, I did not know how to spell his last name, luckily my browser seems to have his last name stored into its dictionary. For some extraordinary reason.

Anyway, first I need to give this movie kudos because of the lack of romance. Let me elaborate, when I saw McConaughey's character and Hathway I thought, yup they're going to be the love interests. Oh, I should probably mention that there are spoilers in this review. Although, I'd be kind of surprised is there was someone who got around to watching this movie later than me. So back on track, the story chooses instead not to go there, at least for the majority of the movie. At the end it is implied, however, it is literally in the last minute of the movie. Instead this movie focuses on a different kind of love. The love between a father and a daughter .

And here comes my first bone to pick: the son. The father and daughter relationship is so strong that their love is "quantifiable", and what of the son? It seems like the dad doesn't care in the slightest for the son, he's just sort of there. Which begs the question, why is he there in the first place? It just makes McConaughey's character seem uncharacteristically cold, which clashes uncomfortably with his undying love for his daughter. Also, if I'm not mistaken, we never do find out what happens to the son. I presume he dies, but it is never verified, nor does the father seem particularly distraught about the news.

Well that was the first issue I had with the movie, the second was the inconsistency with the ending of the movie. Throughout much of the movie the story was based in scientific fact, or at least theory. Then all of sudden we find out that there is a fifth dimension run by aliens that we never see. Which throws the whole scientific aspect of this movie to the wind.

Finally, as others have pointed out, the ending is a little anti-climatic. McConaughey's character beats all odds to see his daughter again, then he does. For about 30 seconds. Whereupon she promptly kicks him out of her room, in order to die with her family. Not including him. So yeah.

All that said, it was still a pretty amazing movie, and the cinematography is breathtaking. If you haven't seen it (which is unlikely) do give it a shot.


Featured image: I believe it is just using the video as an image. I can't really be bothered to go find a different image. So this is the video background. What can I say.


Spelling/grammar errors courtesy of this being a blogpost and thus not really edited.

Drinking: Oolong tea (chilled that is)

Friday, June 19, 2015

Oatmeal (porridge) recipe

10:14 AM
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Porridge. Or as I call it oatmeal. Traditionally a breakfast, this dish, if you can call it that, is perfect to keep your strength up till the next meal. I almost said day... It will not keep you filled till the next day. Please don't eat only a bowl of oatmeal for an entire day worth of food. It's a wondrous thing, but it is not magical. As far a I'm aware. 

Start off with a rather small pot. Not doll sized, but not huge. Unless of course you're making a bigger portion. 

Put it on the stove. If you're stove takes a long time to heat up turn it up. If not then don't. Now measure out 1/3 cup of oats. Do this first, because if the measuring cup is wet then the oats won't come out of the cup cleanly. 

Righty O, now put in 2/3 cups of water. Followed by 1/3 cup of milk, I use skim milk. Although I might play around with this in the future. 

Put the heat up to high. Stir regularily, otherwise it will stick to the bottom. At some point, it doesn't really matter when, place a good amount of cinnamon (ground) into the mixture. Then add a a spoonful of sugar. Haha, just a spoonful of sugar makes then medicine go down. 

Anyway. Keep on stirring the mixture until it is a rather thick consistency. Then pour this into a small bowl. Drizzle a little maple syrup (or some other kind of sweetener) over the top, and there you have it. 

This time I added some dried berries and green melon to the top. You can experiment with this if you would like. I probably will. You'll probably see it appear on this blog. 

Well that's me for now. 


Drinking: green tea and jasmine blend. My oh my is this a good tea. It's become my staple daily tea. Pretty good for any occasion. 

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

"If you want to give up remember why you started."

8:59 PM
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Wise, wise words. I've been running through this quote quite a bit recently. Someday they may come in handy for you too. I should clarify. The quote I'm referring to is the title of this post. Sorry I got a little overzealous with quotes. Once you get me started I tend not to stop.

"Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about."

If you do, you'll never forgive yourself. And you'll be an old man filled with regret. Did you get the reference? If not. Well. I can't talk to you right now. And seriously? You don't get it? That's just shameful. Simply shameful. Also I'm not sure if I should put quotations around that... It seems like I should, but you never really know. Also I'm not entirely certain I quoted completely correctly. Oh well.

Sorry...

8:53 PM
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1. I've had a number of sciency posts recently. I apologize if that's not your cup of tea. Haha. See what I did there?
2. I haven't really posted anything substantial for the last couple of weeks. Yeah... I'll try and get on that.
3. I might continue to be busy.... I'm kinda working on a project right now... Hopefully I can write about the project someday. But for now. Apologies.

I will hopefully be able to post some foody posts in the next couple of days. Don't we all love food?


Drinking: Cold Japanese Oolong Tea. Yum. I think I'm gonna go get another cup now.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Series Pause

4:49 PM
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Well this is frustrating. Out of the countless TV shows I watch, every single one of them is on either mid-season pause or end of season pause. I guess that is a tad of a hyperbole. Just a tad. I mean I still have shark tank and bones. But I don't really like bones. And shark tank is good, but it isn't really a series, it's actually real-life. So yeah. I guess I have more time to read.... Sigh.

Translocation: Food glorious food!

4:41 PM
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Last post we talked about transpiration, which involved the movement of water around the plant.
Now it's time to talk about the movement of other things in plants. By things I mean minerals and ions, such as glucose and other sugars.

So to start off we need to understand what sources and sinks are. A source is any part of the plant that produces more "food" (glucose usually) than it uses. Sources tend to be leaves and the stems of plants. It can also be roots and/or tubers if they are releasing their storage. A sink is any part of a plant that uses more glucose than it makes. This can be any growing part of the plant including the stem, leaves, roots, and/or tubers.

The process of translocation takes place in the phloem of a plant. This is made up of sieve tube members (elements) and companion cells. The sieve tube member is the structure that actually "does" the translocation. And beside each of these members resides a companion cell. These companion cells serve as, well, servants for these members. Sieve tube members lack a nucleus, and have very little cytoplasm. The companion cells support the sieve tubes, as they have a nucleus and have dense cytoplasm. The sieve tube members are all connected, and attach to each other "end-to-end". In-between each sieve tube is a sieve plate which is perforated (has holes, like Swiss cheese).

Alright now let us begin. We start off at a source. There a process called phloem loading occurs. This is essentially the process of dumping all the glucose from the source into the phloem. This requires active transport mechanisms, especially at the end when the concentration of glucose is much greater in the phloem than in the source. I should probably mention that the phloem and the xylem are very close to each other, only separated by the cambium. The increased concentration of solute in the phloem results in osmosis of water from the xylem to the phloem. The combination of the high concentration of glucose and water at the source area of the phloem creates high turgor pressure at the sink, and lower turgor pressure at the sink. As things move from an area of high pressure to low pressure we see a movement of the sap to the sink.

Once at the sink the carbohydrates are removed from the phloem, this could be partially passive, however, at least part of it will require active transportation. Now our phloem is back to having a low concentration of carbohydrates. The water remaining in the phloem will now diffuse (via osmosis) back to the xylem. Because now the ion concentration in the xylem is higher than the concentration of carbohydrates in the phloem.

And there we have it. You should all now be experts on the topic of transpiration and translocation.

Tea: Have yet to make one. I might have some lipton camomile later.

Transpiration: How Plants Defy Gravity, among other things

4:25 PM
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Plants. Yup plants. I actually just heard that a scientist hooked up a plant to a lying machine, and supposedly showed that they can faint from pain. Think about that next time you eat a salad. Just a bowl full of passed out lettuce. Bon Appetit.

But that is not what we are here to learn about. As usual I digress. So transpiration. The process starts off in the roots of plants. So extend your mind beneath the soil. You there yet? Alrighty. As you probably know soil is rich in minerals. If you didn't you know now. So, in the roots of the plant these minerals are actively transported into the roots. It is active transport because there are more minerals in the roots than there is in the soil. If you've forgotten, active transport is the movement of substances against the concentration gradient. So now that we have a high concentration of ions in the roots we can get water to come into them via osmosis. Remember, osmosis is the movement of water molecules, across a semipermeable membrane, from an area of low solute concentration, to an area of high solute concentration. So now the picture comes together. The active transport of minerals into the root allow for the passive movement of water molecules into it.

Step one complete. Now that the water is in the root of the plants it will enter the xylem. Xylem is tube like structure that brings water and minerals up to the leaves of the plant. It can only go up, not down. The xylem is made up of dead cells called parenchyma and sclerenchyma. The structures themselves are known as tracheids and vessel elements. Now the water enters the xylem. Following the law of gravity the water would just remain there, it would fall. Like the apple on Newton's head. But due to two concepts called adhesion and cohesion, water is kept in a line going up the xylem. Cohesion is an attractive force between two or more like molecules. Whereas, adhesion is an attractive force between two unlike molecules. So we see adhesion between two water molecules, between a negatively polarized oxygen atom of one water molecule and a positively polarized hydrogen of another water molecule. This keep them in a straight line. Adhesion, occurs between water molecules and the walls of the xylem. This also keeps them in a line. Like good school children.

This still doesn't explain why water moves against gravity! You cry in frustration. Never fear, your answer is near. Not rhyme intended. It just sort of happened. Well in the leaves of a plant we have small pores called stomata. These stomata open in order to let carbon dioxide in (to conduct photosynthesis) and to let oxygen out (waste product of photosynthesis). However, these open pores also result in the evaporation of water (called transpiration/evapotranspiration). This force of transpiration pulls on the stream of water molecules, as they evaporate out of the plant.

And there you have it. That is how plants defy gravity. You can't say the same I'm afraid.

The Light Independent Reaction (and you thought we were done)

3:03 PM
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I'm actually serious. We are done. After this post, you will know the process of photosynthesis in its basics. Although, I might still write another couple, to sum it up a little more cohesively. Also if you can't learn in paragraph form, I sincerely apologize... On with the show! I should probably mention that the goal of photosynthesis is to make glucose... Yeah sorry about that.

We now move from the grana to the stroma of the chloroplast. Fun stuff. There we meet the Calvin Cycle. Not the Krebs Cycle. Don't get the two mixed up. I know I do. CALVIN CYCLE. Wonderful. Now we can move on. As we established with cellular respiration a cycle means it is continuous. This time, however, it is not oxaloacetate that we start off with, but a molecule called Ribulose Bisphosphate (RuBP). Unless unlike oxaloacetate it is a 5 carbon compound. Then in a process called carbon fixation, a CO2 molecule binds with RuBP. This reaction is catalyzed by enzyme RuBP carboxylase (Rubisco for short).

This creates a highly unstable 6 carbon molecule, which immediately splits into two 3 carbon molecules called glycerate-3 phosphate, GP (not G3P, which is glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate and what we made during glycolysis). GP is then reduced by NADPH and ATP (old friends from the light dependent reaction), which ultimately gives us a different 3 carbon molecule called TP (triose phosphate). TP now faces the most important decision of its life. To leave home (the cycle) and become a sugar phosphate (such as glucose), or follow in his father's footsteps and convert back to a RuBP molecule. Most TP molecules don't have the guts to leave the comfort of home and are thus converted back into TP with the help of ATP. And thus the cycle begins again.

Ta for now.