Dr. Ash

From macro to micro, what a wonderful world.

It’s Earth Day, I figured I should talk about Earth stuff. How about, sustainable energy.

A few weeks ago, I was teaching one of my science classes about energy. The focus was on kinetic and potential energy because it meant that the kids got an excuse to launch pingpong balls around the room with elastic band-powered catapults. But while I was giving the pre-activity talk I mentioned solar energy and solar panels. One of the kids asked, with understandable frustration, why people don’t more people use solar power. The sun’s right there, all the time. Continue Reading

I intern with my dog trainer’s school and help out with their puppy socialization class. While watching puppies play is pretty heartwarming, my favourite part is training sessions. By week three, all of the pups have a sit on cue and are working towards their cued downs. It’s fascinating watching their little gears turn as they try to figure out what behaviour gets the hallowed click (and inevitable treat). However, another huge part of puppy class is socialization and handling.

Ok, this is apparently an old dog, but he’s so funny I couldn’t help myself.

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This week, I made a lot of paper planes. A LOT. Apparently young children have trouble with folding paper planes.

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I recently re-started playing a video game called Mass Effect. Before Christmas we bought the complete trilogy. I’m about half way through the second game but I decided to go back because:
1) I wanted to do somethings differently
2) I wanted to take the time to explore the game’s universe.

You see, the first time I played through Mass Effect I binged. I mean really binged. I didn’t have much else going on at the time and so I played through the whole thing in about three days. There are a number of theories about why this happens. Why regular people can be sucked into a video game so deeply their skin will begin to meld with the controller. What I want to talk about though, is the idea of ‘flow’. Continue Reading