Research Troubles on July 4th

Let me start by saying that I hate the whole "green is the new red, white and blue" movement that seems to occur nowadays around the 4th of July. Just because I am an environmentalist doesn't mean I appreciate having propaganda shoved down my throat. It just seems like a ridiculous catch-phrase. It reminds me of an article I read this morning in the New York Times about how people like to buy Prius hybrid cars because they are the only car marketed clearly as a hybrid. When asked why people purchased the hybrid, the most common response was, "to identify myself as environmentally concerned." Apparently other hybrid cars (such as the Honda) are only identified as such by a small blue mark on the back of the car. Which is why the Prius is the only really successful hybrid vehicle in commission so far.

Anyways, sorry for the diatribe. We have encountered a major set-back at the lab - a recently discovered experimental design flaw has rendered all of our data unpublishable. The mistake was one which everyone involved overlooked - the PI, Lauren, and all the other students in the lab. Unfortunately, this means that we must toss out half of our plants and reorient our experiment towards intra-population differences. Lauren discovered the mistake yesterday - and it was a bit rough. I went out and purchased an entire bag of Hershey Kisses. We sat sadly munching on chocolate and musing on future possibilities for Lauren's Masters thesis. During this, I made an unusual and strange discovery. I had always thought that Hershey Kiss wrapper simply read, "Hershey Kisses" but as I looked down - I read on my little string-wrapper, "I Hate Mondays." Incredibly apt, and yet, - very strange. Don't worry - yours truly did a little investigative reporting (ie Google) and I found that the 100 year anniversary of Hershey Kisses is this year - therefore they are publishing lots of crazy things (like "celebration," "I hate mondays," and "Kiss me").

Anyways, hopefully we will figure out some way to make the research move forward. Although our PI has already told us to throw out half the plants, which is not encouraging. More later...