proximate

The incubator nonsense continues. I also just re-read the last post, and maybe I should proofread things. I probably won't though.

We are performing a test-run with a CO2 tank hooked up to the incubator (instead of waiting for a line to be run to the room) and a handheld O2 sensor set in the room.

Well, we are doing that NOW, but earlier this week, we wanted to do that and couldn't because it turns out plastics designed to work at room temp or higher can get brittle and break when you want them to work in a cold room, which can make your CO2 leak out into the room instead of fill the incubator. So that needed a fix.

And today's shark-cell-incubator-mad-science-emergency is that the CO2 sensor on the incubator, which tells it when to shove more CO2 in or not, is carefully calibrated to be a really good sensor when operated at 37 and high humidity. It is complete shit when operating with basically no humidity at 18 degrees.

My boss is super optimistic that this will all get worked out. In fact, he's having some mad-science-shark-cells cent here on Friday, and they'll need that 18 degree CO2 controlled environment ready to go as soon as they get here. I think maybe part of his optimism is because he's out of town and doesn't have any idea that most of this epic has been happening. I may tell him shark week is over and he can handle this on his own from here on out.

In other news, I get to be assistant coach for Cain's soccer team, and our first practice is this evening!

I haven't commented on the word of the day because I am completely unimpressed. My mind is near-constantly sorting through proximate and less proximate and more ultimate causes for things, and I sometimes actually think about it in those terms, and the word is just played out. For example: Ethan could be screaming and crying downstairs, and through brief interrogatory investigation ("use your words, honey") it is discovered that the proximate cause of the screaming and crying state is that Raechel won't let him wear the BLUE necklace. But dig a little deeper, and Rae is withholding necklace rights because Ethan was kicking her in the elbow, which was because Ethan was .... and so on, until it is revealed that the ultimate cause of the problem is that its too damn hot outside for the kids to go out and run off excess energy, so they're stuck inside tormenting each other.

I just finished book three of Daniel Abraham's Dagger and Coin series, which is quite good. I really like having a bunch of anatomically divergent races of humanity as an alternative to having humans/dwarves/elves/hobbits/etc like a classical fantasy world. Then I started reading Jared Diamond's The World Until Yesterday, which is non-fiction, but (ironically?) comparing cultures of divergent races of humanity. Is that irony?