I just got an email from a lab head asking me to work for her. The project is interesting. It uses stem cells and a synthetic mesh or scaffold to try to grow living retinas taht would ultimately be transplanted into the eyes of blind people with the aim of restoring vision. One of the problems is to get the cells to differentiate into neurons taht can form functional circuity that can interface with photoreceptors, either human or silicon, and from there process the information and then to send meaningful nerve impulses to the optic nerve. The first goal is to get a prep that responds to light stimulation with enough resolution taht it can identity the stimulus. For example, it should be able to "see" well enough to recognize objects and to read very large print or signs. The next goal would be to successfully transplant the stem-cell derived prep into a human eye. The deal breaker though is that the lab is part of an organization close Irvine, California. Briefly, Irvine, and almost all of southern California, is the opposite of what I would consider an ideal place to live in. It embodies many of the things I hate about America -- sprawl, car-culture, conspicuous mass consumption, racial segregation (no blacks in Irvine), and I think is the capital of Tits and Noses. Southern California ranks among the top regions in the country where the most frivolous plastic surgery is performed. And the Republican Party was founded there. A few years ago, I had a job offer to work for a biotech company down there that paid twice as much, but within an hour of getting off the plane at the "John Wayne International Airport," I had been driven into such a deep state of despair by that city experience (including its inhabitants) that I was near suicidal.
Not long before that trip, I had read Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Until then, I had wondered what he meant by "fear and loathing." Did it have something to do with his claimed drug bender in Las Vegas? (I could write pages debunking that one. For example, adrenochrome is not extracted from the adrenal glands of dying people but is merely common adrenaline carried by physicians that has been exposed to oxygen and thus oxidized and turned a reddish color. Contrary to Thompson's claim, the rush is much like adrenaline and is neither euphoric nor hallucinogenic. As far as huffing ether, it would be really hard to do it in public. It's extremely volatile and stinks too much. People would notice and call the cops.) Or was it a deeper commentary on something that's wrong with Las Vegas? In Irvine, I realized the answer. That term is Thompson's commentary on the descent of American society into moral and intellectual degeneracy and hypocritical hedonism, largely due to the greed-driven leadership of those who hold power in America: national and local politicians, military and law enforcement officials, and the heads of corporate and banking enterprises-- and the complacent populace.
The sun sets before 4 and rises after 7. That leaves 13 hours of night. The solar power generation system is so inefficient that I can run an electric light for only about an hour each night. (I don't own the system, and I didn't build it. If I had, it would be able to power a laptop and lights 24/7. The old man who owns it jury-rigged it from the cheapest components he could find in random mail order catalogs. On top of that, he's barely literate, ignorant, lazy, and everything else he has tried to build here is completely jury-rigged, shoddy, and barely works (if it works). I have a hard time dealing with inept people, especially elderly bigots, who half-ass everything they do, don't take care of things, and are destructive; but sadly he's a very typical personality type for this region of the country.) Can I write things like that here? I feel bad for being critical of somebody's personality, but it's been building up, and I feel that I need to vent. Then again, these are all things about himself that he can change. For me, I also grew up in that kind of white-trash family background, but I've made a deep effort to rise above it. Hopefully, I have succeeded to some degree. I can't say the same for him or many of the other people, especially older ones, I have encountered here.
So for reading, I have a couple of oil lanterns, a red Coleman camp lantern that runs on white gas or gasoline or about anything you put in it, some rechargeable LED lights, and some candles. So I sit in that cabin reading or writing by lamp light for hours each day. The eye strain has become painful.
So, I'm staying in town for a couple of days. I left extra food for the horses at the cabin. It's good to have internet -- but, I wasn't completely without internet at the cabin all the time. I borrowed a "smart phone" that was miraculously able to pick up a signal and go online in the mountains. But keeping the phone charged was a problem.
My gf is starting to try to talk me into going down to San Francisco to live with her for a while. I can't tolerate cities, traffic, children, unruly dogs, or television sets because they make startling noises and sudden movements. Loud noises and disturbances put me on edge leaving me in a state where I can't think clearly and am under the weight of constant low-grade anxiety. It's like my nerves are raw, and I can't tune out or ignore distracting sounds or movements for long. I crave solitude. That's one of the reasons I came out here.
That, and I'm disgusted by modern civilization and humanity (with a few exceptions) in general. Specifically, I hate what so-called "development" or, more accurately, sprawl has done to the natural areas. There are so few left, and, at least in the lower 48 states, most of the wilderness areas and national parks are all crawling with people and their unleashed, undisciplined dogs and children doing day hikes or firing guns. "Let's go to the country and shoot guns Pa." Even out here, it seems like I can't walk more than a mile without coming across some kind or road or redneck jeep track that utterly destroys the beauty and serenity of the spot. Strangely, I've read that the construction of a new road through a formerly pristine area, one of his favorite places to hike, is what set off the Unabomber (a former UC Berkeley Mathematics professor who couldn't bear modern civilization and turned survivalist before becoming turning into a killer) on his nearly 20 year bombing spree. As a pacifist though, I would never harm anyone or sabotage or destroy their property if I can't withstand modern life any longer. I would simply walk off a 10,000 foot cliff.
Another thing I noticed is that the forests here don't look right. All of the trees, tall though they may be, have thin trunks, and there's a lot of thorny, jungly undergrowth. It turns out that logging companies clear-cut, burn, bulldoze or otherwise destroy what's left of most of the forests (even supposedly protected national forests and wilderness areas) here every 50 years or so, the length of the timber harvest cycle. Even what's called "old growth" forests are not truly old for politicians have redefined the phrase "old growth" to mean, generally, any tree 50 years old or so. Why? for economic reasons I would guess. To fool environmentalist. They like to claim that they still have a large proportion of old growth forests remaining in the state so they can get away with logging as much as the want. But that's only a guess.
I wonder if it would be feasible to live in Antarctica. Build a house on the beach and live on penguin eggs and seal meat, seaweed, algae, and lichens. I could build a small greenhouse and have fresh vegetable during the summer. With global warming, Antarctica will be tropical before long, and I could get an early start down there.
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