User:OParker

Me, A Summary:

I'm a senior college bio major with conc in molecular bio. I'm mainly interested in genetics, ecology, evolutionary theory and bioengineering. Other areas I can help out in are microbiology, biochem, some nanotech theory, environmentalism, various aspects of Chesapeake Bay (be it eel grass, mantis shrimp or just how much pollution sucks), as well as detailed and intimate knowledge of the fauna of Great Gull Island, Long Island Sound, with special focus on the Common and Roseate Tern (go on, ask me what "used" mackrel tastes like, I dare you).

Non-science topics I can talk about are WWII history, some Constitutional law and political theory, especially concerning abortion law and separation of church and state. Finally, if you're looking for information on the various, not-quite-commonly-known aspects of Brooklyn, I'm a local, so I might be able to footwork if all else fails.

Politics: Liberal Rationalist

First and foremost, I believe that the United States of America is humanity's best hope of establishing ourselves off-planet, and thus securing our survival for the next few millenia. For that to happen though, we need more scientists (for which we need one of the world's best public education systems), a culture of rationality, cheap access to LEO for industrial development, business models favoring efficiency (not CEO and middle management saleries), and an energy grid based on nuclear, solar, wind and hydroelectric power. Everything else is secondary to these objectives. On social matters, I think that ethnic, sexual and political discrimination is wrong, not because people have intrinsic rights to freedom, but because it's simply wasteful and inefficient. To discard entire sections of the population as "inferior" based on skin color, ethnicity or sexuality keeps a society from fully exploiting all of that clade's mental and physical resources. Also, since America is a democracy/republic, an informed public is a absolute requirement, stupid people kill countries and massacare progress. Along with a free and impartial media, education is the most important issue for America to face today.

Entertainment: The stuff I do in my free time that's not social. If wiki ever needs articles on this, I'm willing to help.

-Music (not in any particular order)

---Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

---RATM

---Jimi Hendrix

---Blackalicious

---Metric

---Secret Machines

---Mos Def

-Idiot Box and Silver Screen

---Daily Show and Colbert Report

---Battlestar Galactica

---Gladiator

---Full Metal Alchemist

-Dead Tree Format

---Anything by Neal Stephenson

---Berserk

---The Jefferson Bible

---Y, the Last Man

---Anything by Terry Prachett

Favorite Quotes:

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression: for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach unto himself. -- Thomas Paine

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others." -- Thomas Jefferson

"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe

"The United States is in no way founded upon the Christian religion." -- George Washington & John Adams, in a diplomatic message to Malta.

"Fantastic doctrines (like Christianity or Islam or Marxism) require unanimity of belief. One dissenter casts doubt on the creed of millions. Thus the fear and the hate; thus the torture chamber, the iron stake, the gallows, the labor camp, the psychiatric ward." -- Edward Abbey

“My relationship with my right hand has been more physically gratifying and spiritually fulfilling then the sum total of your sexual exploits.” - Manny, this one's for you kid...

"Say what you like about my bloody murderous government," I says, "but don't insult me poor bleedin' country." -- Edward Abbey

"The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money." -- Alexis de Tocqueville

The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this. -- Albert Einstein, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.", 1921

“Barring a massive parasitic infestation of the brain discharging its ravenous children out through my eye, I can’t imagine anything worse.” - I love you too baby. See you in the August!

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it. -- John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.-- H.L. Mencken

“Alright son, let me put it this way; having sex with your mom was a mistake, and you’re the consequence.” - Thanks Dad!

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. -- Thomas Jefferson, 1814

“What happens in Thailand, stays in Thailand… this includes the liver you lost in that last round of craps.” -Shout outs to all my homies from Brooklyn, and the anesthesia team at Bangkok General Hospital!

The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. -- Thomas Jefferson, 1823

The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma. -- Abraham Lincoln