26 Jul 2006
Good customer service! In England!
In response to my English friends feeling somewhat slighted by the England day = bad day comment (sorry guys, you know its not personal), i have a GOOD story! I will even consider renouncing my definition of an England day. Here's the story: i needed to return some headphones i bought through Amazon.co.uk. You can track all of your orders, and see your account history online. When i went to find out where to call - since the headphones are outside the 30-day return period - after some searching i came across a "contact customer service" link. When you go to click on "call customer support", you type your number into a box, and THEY call you right back! Its brilliant, because all mobile phones (and land lines, for that matter) charge for outgoing calls but not incoming! So you don't have to waste your minutes calling customer service! Amazon.co.uk has renewed my faith that there IS such a thing as good English customer service - also they resolved my issue, and said they'd send me a replacement for my faulty headphones. I stand (somewhat) corrected - before i renounce my definition, i should point out that Amazon was originally an - ahem - American company. So - i'll gather more evidence and renounce if necessary. Until then, let it be known that not all companies are party to the VORTEX of black-hole customer service in England.
21 Jul 2006
Notes from the Tube
More happenings on the tube: in addition to the earlier post about women applying makeup on the tube, i saw the most incredible one the other day. This woman was painting her nails, standing up, on the train. Fire engine red. Good god. She did a decent job too. Good thing she didn't have this happen:
Yesterday i lost my footing on the train, and fell into someone's lap. Full on, complete fall with my bag in their face, sort of straddling two passengers. They were very nice about it, but the fact was i was the one at fault. I wasn't holding on, i was getting out my reading material, and the train lurched and i teetered, and there was no bar to grab onto, and nowhere to balance my feet. I just fell backward onto some laps. The guy was really nice, but i was mortified and the woman was possibly tying not to scream because i might have smashed her toes in her flip-flops. What do you do? I apologized profusely, but its kind of like "hey, sorry for being such an asshole" and then what? Anyway, the moral of the story is: don't stand on the tube without holding on. Unless the train is so crowded that you can't move and if it lurches the crowd will "catch" you - don't do it. Its not worth the embarrassment or the potential for damaged body parts.
Yesterday i lost my footing on the train, and fell into someone's lap. Full on, complete fall with my bag in their face, sort of straddling two passengers. They were very nice about it, but the fact was i was the one at fault. I wasn't holding on, i was getting out my reading material, and the train lurched and i teetered, and there was no bar to grab onto, and nowhere to balance my feet. I just fell backward onto some laps. The guy was really nice, but i was mortified and the woman was possibly tying not to scream because i might have smashed her toes in her flip-flops. What do you do? I apologized profusely, but its kind of like "hey, sorry for being such an asshole" and then what? Anyway, the moral of the story is: don't stand on the tube without holding on. Unless the train is so crowded that you can't move and if it lurches the crowd will "catch" you - don't do it. Its not worth the embarrassment or the potential for damaged body parts.
One of those "England" days
Lets start with the good news: i recovered my phone. It was lost, and then it miraculously was turned in and now i am reunited with this small piece of critical equiptment. Thank you to the lost-item gods.
Now, on to the black-hole effect that i encounter in England on a regular basis.
After i got to the museum on Monday, i realized that the missing phone had indeed not been left there. I promptly called the Oxford Bus Company to see if anything had been turned in. Lo and behold, the woman on the other end of the line said, yes, a phone matching that description WAS turned in, and she would go and get it to verify it was mine! Hurrah - until i was put on "hold" (the handset of the phone was simply set down on the counter). For about 10 agonizing minutes, i could hear that the woman had returned with an object (said phone) and was talking to a colleague (now an assumed Monster or Man-in-Black perhaps) about their weekends and their kids and their next holiday. At some point i started asking, loudly, if they could hear me - had they forgotten about me? Now i know: this is why, when you normally call the Oxford Bus Company, it takes about 5 minutes for anyone to answer the phone! Its not because, as the recorded message states, "All of their customer service representatives are very busy" - rather, they're idly chit-chatting about the weather and footie and the godawful haircut they had recently. Gah! So i chew my nails, shout occasionally into the phone, and finally, my heroine comes back. "Yes! We have your phone!" she says. I ask if she's sure - since when i had called over the weekend, there was another phone of very similar description which was NOT mine. Well, she's mostly sure, but i want to be very sure - so i ask her to turn it on and check so that i can identify the picture wallpaper. BAD idea, since this activity (presumably very simple, no?) takes another ten minutes with more evidence of office joking and chatting. After a while - meantime i had come very close to hanging up and calling back because i thought they'd forgotten about me again - she says, "Yes! We have your phone!". Great, i say and arrange to come pick it up that day, before 5 when they close. Superb.
I catch the early bus back to Oxford, and arrive at the bus station, walk into the office, and announce the purpose of my visit. The nice young woman behind the counter looks at me sympathetically, and says, "No, we don't have any phone here". I tell her, in as calm a manner as possible, that there has been some mistake, now kicking myself for not getting the woman's name i spoke with earlier. I start to think there's been some bad joke, and this bus station IS one of the portals into the Underworld or outer space. Monsters Inc is real?!
It turns out, that the lost and found is NOT LOCATED at the bus station! Its located about 30 minutes away, in south Oxford! Okay, well that would have been useful information to know, since its now ten minutes until 5, when they close. Thank god for Searle, the man at the office who takes pity on me and my plight, and agrees to let me in if i knock at the door when i arrive, as long as its before 8.30. Soon, after some suburban trekking in the industrial district (i did get to see the warehouse where Mini's are built) i arrive and am happily re-united with my phone! Hurrah! And, i am currently backing up my address book as i write.
This whole experience led me to the conclusion that things do not operate on a logical progression necessarily in England. It has to do with the ideas of customer service, and providing the necessary information in a logical way. When this effect is most pronounced, i know its been an "England" day - things work out, but in a needlessly circuitous, frustrating fashion. Maybe this happens everywhere, or maybe England just has more portals into the Otherworlds that i've heard and read so much about. I prefer to think its the latter (witness the Plant Sciences Library as well, and O2, and the Royal Mail and the OUCE IT department, and, and...). Of course there are exceptions like The Alternative Tuck Shop (are they efficient or WHAT?) and the London Tube system, but if we assemble all the data, there seems to be something going on here. All makes me more thankful that anything ever really happens or manages to work properly.
Now, on to the black-hole effect that i encounter in England on a regular basis.
After i got to the museum on Monday, i realized that the missing phone had indeed not been left there. I promptly called the Oxford Bus Company to see if anything had been turned in. Lo and behold, the woman on the other end of the line said, yes, a phone matching that description WAS turned in, and she would go and get it to verify it was mine! Hurrah - until i was put on "hold" (the handset of the phone was simply set down on the counter). For about 10 agonizing minutes, i could hear that the woman had returned with an object (said phone) and was talking to a colleague (now an assumed Monster or Man-in-Black perhaps) about their weekends and their kids and their next holiday. At some point i started asking, loudly, if they could hear me - had they forgotten about me? Now i know: this is why, when you normally call the Oxford Bus Company, it takes about 5 minutes for anyone to answer the phone! Its not because, as the recorded message states, "All of their customer service representatives are very busy" - rather, they're idly chit-chatting about the weather and footie and the godawful haircut they had recently. Gah! So i chew my nails, shout occasionally into the phone, and finally, my heroine comes back. "Yes! We have your phone!" she says. I ask if she's sure - since when i had called over the weekend, there was another phone of very similar description which was NOT mine. Well, she's mostly sure, but i want to be very sure - so i ask her to turn it on and check so that i can identify the picture wallpaper. BAD idea, since this activity (presumably very simple, no?) takes another ten minutes with more evidence of office joking and chatting. After a while - meantime i had come very close to hanging up and calling back because i thought they'd forgotten about me again - she says, "Yes! We have your phone!". Great, i say and arrange to come pick it up that day, before 5 when they close. Superb.
I catch the early bus back to Oxford, and arrive at the bus station, walk into the office, and announce the purpose of my visit. The nice young woman behind the counter looks at me sympathetically, and says, "No, we don't have any phone here". I tell her, in as calm a manner as possible, that there has been some mistake, now kicking myself for not getting the woman's name i spoke with earlier. I start to think there's been some bad joke, and this bus station IS one of the portals into the Underworld or outer space. Monsters Inc is real?!
It turns out, that the lost and found is NOT LOCATED at the bus station! Its located about 30 minutes away, in south Oxford! Okay, well that would have been useful information to know, since its now ten minutes until 5, when they close. Thank god for Searle, the man at the office who takes pity on me and my plight, and agrees to let me in if i knock at the door when i arrive, as long as its before 8.30. Soon, after some suburban trekking in the industrial district (i did get to see the warehouse where Mini's are built) i arrive and am happily re-united with my phone! Hurrah! And, i am currently backing up my address book as i write.
This whole experience led me to the conclusion that things do not operate on a logical progression necessarily in England. It has to do with the ideas of customer service, and providing the necessary information in a logical way. When this effect is most pronounced, i know its been an "England" day - things work out, but in a needlessly circuitous, frustrating fashion. Maybe this happens everywhere, or maybe England just has more portals into the Otherworlds that i've heard and read so much about. I prefer to think its the latter (witness the Plant Sciences Library as well, and O2, and the Royal Mail and the OUCE IT department, and, and...). Of course there are exceptions like The Alternative Tuck Shop (are they efficient or WHAT?) and the London Tube system, but if we assemble all the data, there seems to be something going on here. All makes me more thankful that anything ever really happens or manages to work properly.
14 Jul 2006
An unexplored planet teeming with new lifeforms
Searching for Mina Carlota, Cuba, i came across this little gem from E.O. Wilson, who surely should be knighted by now for his incredible service to our discipline. My favorite is this passage, written in response to the amazing diversity and species he was seeing in New Caledonia:
- "Take me, Lord, to an unexplored planet teeming with new life forms. Put me at the edge of virgin swampland dotted with hummocks of high ground, let me saunter at my own pace across it and up the nearest mountain ridge, in due course to cross over to the far slope in search of more distant swamps, grasslands, and ranges. Let me be the Carolus Linnaeus of this world, bearing no more than specimen boxes, botanical canister, hand lens, notebooks, but allowed not Fears but centuries of time. And should I somehow tire of the land, let me embark on the sea in search of new islands and archipelagoes. Let me go alone, at least for a while, and I will report to You and loved ones at intervals and I will publish reports on my discoveries for colleagues. For if it was You who gave me this spirit, then devise the appropriate reward for its virtuous use...."
8 Jul 2006
Seven seven
The museum observed two minutes of silence yesterday at noon in rememberance of the 7/7 bombings last year in London. I gathered with maybe two hundred people: visitors, staff, directors, contractors in the central hall. There was an announcement and a low hush spread over the crowd. As i looked around, i realized that the number of people standing together is only a fraction of the number of people injured by the blasts. It is such a heavy and tragic feeling, to confront the sudden deaths and numbers of people killed and injured. It made the knowledge of the 7/7 evenets feel much more weighty, real - the victims were robbed of their lives, and the ripples were intense through the fabric of society.
I do believe that we can, and will, find ways to stop killing and harming each other. Saving all sentient beings from suffering is our goal. If we move toward that, we fix everything, including environmental and social problems. Environmental conservation IS about social values shifting, and as Jared Diamond so thoroughly illustrates, all environmental degredation has been one of the pillars leading to societal collapse in history. So in order for anything to change, everything has to change, and everyone has to do their part. Listen, good people: continue to be the change you wish to see in the world, especially in the face of adversity.
I do believe that we can, and will, find ways to stop killing and harming each other. Saving all sentient beings from suffering is our goal. If we move toward that, we fix everything, including environmental and social problems. Environmental conservation IS about social values shifting, and as Jared Diamond so thoroughly illustrates, all environmental degredation has been one of the pillars leading to societal collapse in history. So in order for anything to change, everything has to change, and everyone has to do their part. Listen, good people: continue to be the change you wish to see in the world, especially in the face of adversity.
7 Jul 2006
More on evolution
After i posted the questions about plant evolution, i got some answers in the form of lectures given by distinguished researchers. At the Natural History Museum, Dr. Ansell has done research into the chloroplast (the structure that makes plants green and is responsible for photosynthesis) genome. He says, roughly, that the genome is much more highly complex and variable than we previously thought, and that the variation within that DNA could be responsible for the extraordinary speciation we see in vascular plants.
Dr. Rieseberg, of Univ. of British Columbia, then gave an outstanding lecture which i attended, about the mechanisms of speciation in plants. He discussed the concept of a species, and systematically proved that its a good concept for plants (as has been debated and questioned by botanists since Darwin's time). He also talks about the spread of "advantageous mutations" and tested the inheritance of certain genetic traits in widespread plants. His conclusion is that a "species" is likely reinforced, or encouraged to remain separate from other similar plants, by the spread of advantageous mutations.
Which brings me to some speculative points:
Polunin says there are several "eras" or heydays of taxa: these are times when the organisms flourished, diversified, and occupied much of the planet. So the first heyday (in the early Paleozoic) was Fishes and Ferns. Then in the Mesozoic period was the rise of the Reptiles (including dinosaurs) and Gymnosperms. Now in the Cenozoic, we're in the age of Mammals (including us) and Angiosperms. My theory is that these explosions of proliferation and diversity among taxa have to do with the most available resources (water, heat, food), and with mutual benefits. So maybe its no accident that mammals and all animals depend on higher plants for their source of respiration: oxygen. And likewise, plants use what we breathe out - and maybe this lends weight to why we see a parallel rise of these groups now. So the recent rise of mammals and angiosperms could be (partly) about mutual benefit. This would favor the advantageous mutation theory too.
Ask a big question, get a big(ger) set of questions.
Dr. Rieseberg, of Univ. of British Columbia, then gave an outstanding lecture which i attended, about the mechanisms of speciation in plants. He discussed the concept of a species, and systematically proved that its a good concept for plants (as has been debated and questioned by botanists since Darwin's time). He also talks about the spread of "advantageous mutations" and tested the inheritance of certain genetic traits in widespread plants. His conclusion is that a "species" is likely reinforced, or encouraged to remain separate from other similar plants, by the spread of advantageous mutations.
Which brings me to some speculative points:
Polunin says there are several "eras" or heydays of taxa: these are times when the organisms flourished, diversified, and occupied much of the planet. So the first heyday (in the early Paleozoic) was Fishes and Ferns. Then in the Mesozoic period was the rise of the Reptiles (including dinosaurs) and Gymnosperms. Now in the Cenozoic, we're in the age of Mammals (including us) and Angiosperms. My theory is that these explosions of proliferation and diversity among taxa have to do with the most available resources (water, heat, food), and with mutual benefits. So maybe its no accident that mammals and all animals depend on higher plants for their source of respiration: oxygen. And likewise, plants use what we breathe out - and maybe this lends weight to why we see a parallel rise of these groups now. So the recent rise of mammals and angiosperms could be (partly) about mutual benefit. This would favor the advantageous mutation theory too.
Ask a big question, get a big(ger) set of questions.
5 Jul 2006
You go girl
One more thing: big props to the women who apply their makeup on the Tube. Are you crazy?! I saw a woman today, painting her eyebrows in. Its a fine art, as the train jerks along and lurches, she deftly lifts the pencil from her face, and draws a line with the same pointilist method. I've seen this several times now, and i am impressed. I think it should be commissioned as performance art.
Gingko and plant evolution
The plant world is astounding. It turns out that flowering plants, angiosperms, are only at their peak in this geologic epoch. Relatively recent. Why should it be that this evolutionary mechanism (pollen and ovary reproductive structures) are the most prevelant? Is it a coincidence that Gingko biloba, when taken daily, can help with memory, while this plant is among the OLDEST living vascular plant relatives? Does it have some collective memory properties because its just been around for so long? And my book (Polunin's Plant Geography) says that plants just came up on to land at some point. Coincidence? Maybe over milennia, coincidence just morphs into evolution. Angiosperms have this complex method of reproduction, whereby the pollen grain has to find the flower of the appropriate plant (might be on another individual, far away from the origination of the pollen grain) and then, once landed on the flower, grow a pollen tube to deposit the gametes. It is just an unlikely and accident-prone system - yet somehow the earth is covered with these things! Over 250,000 species - the only other taxa with more species in it are the bugs (beetles in fact). So maybe the question becomes: why angiosperms and beetles? I guess the answer for now is, why not?
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