-
Why Two Degrees?
Looking over the long road ahead of me, one might consider asking, incredulously, why somebody would want to do an MD/PhD program at all. It’s certainly a justified question, to which the short answer is that I think receiving training in both clinical medicine and research science will be especially valuable in my future career.…
-
How I’m Spending the Next Decade
I am still somewhat dumbfounded and incredibly grateful that I got into the MD/PhD program at Loma Linda University. Now that classes have actually started, I’ve noticed the people around me becoming increasingly confused about what MD/PhD actually means in terms of my daily activities. Indeed, the overall plan for how I’ll be spending the…
-
On the West Coast (of Maryland)
Our trip back to Maryland is coming to an end with the wedding of two of our friends. While Rachel’s off doing bridesmaid things, I’m enjoying a beautiful part of Maryland I’ve never really known existed. They even have a few palm trees growing in the gardens, something I would have appreciated a lot more…
-
Lego’s Lost Trademark Case Is a Good Thing
My love of Lego goes back nearly as far as I can remember—Lego sets were some of the first things I saved money to buy, and one of my brother’s early sentences was him asking me to “pay dupo” with him. I’ve spent years on staff at one of the biggest Lego community websites around.…
-
Quitting: Ensuring Everybody That Matters Loses
Game modding communities thrive on the free exchange of knowledge that ranges from the developers adopting a mod-friendly attitude to the hobbyists who share their work and knowledge with comrades. The community thrives on clever innovation, on people picking up a project where others have left off, and on learning by imitation. Yet interestingly, the…
-
Free Culture’s Worst-Case Scenarios
Many of my budding artist friends appreciate their obscurity problem and want to share their work without the encumbrance of copyright. Yet they are worried about others using it for commercial purposes, the same fear that drives people like Cory Doctorow into the arms of Creative Commons licenses. This idea of somebody else, maybe a…
-
Buying Elsewhere Is Not Cheating
Ignorant corporate executive Cory Ledesma thinks buying games used somehow cheats developers (read: his company, THQ), so he doesn’t have any problem with tying a game’s online multiplayer mode to a one-time-use code. This is the kind of ridiculous decision one can expect from the knee-jerk fiscal entitlement mentality everybody making things seems to have…
-
Finally, the Grand Canyon
After we arrived in Loma Linda it took about a week to get internet access, and the house is finally in enough of an orderly state that I feel okay about taking time to sort through and upload pictures. The Grand Canyon is pretty spectacular. Of course, everybody knows that, and we’ve all seen pictures,…
Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.
Category: Long Reads
Stories that take a bit longer to get through.