Items

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  2020-08-30

  Virtual labs feel like a bad video game

  I'm currently adjusting to virtual lab for an upper-division physiology course, and my class is using a program called Labster for simulations. Picture a 2010's era, first-person video game where you are walked through 'levels' of the lab by a floating robot overlord called Dr. One. You get to put on a virtual lab coat, use a virtual iPad, and interact with virtual lab equipment. I've done experiments on computerized lab-rats, teleported into mitochondria, and clicked my way through the Krebs cycle. It feels very dystopian and unsettling, and would be funny if I wasn't being charged full tuition for what boils down to a Portal-2 knock-off without the cool aliens. Sometimes it's nice not having to commute to school. But mostly, I miss real lab and the feeling that I'm learning something meaningful by being in class.
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  2020-03-09

  Six Flags: Magic Mountain

  This photo was taken in the beginning of the outbreak. The amount of states declaring a state of emergency was slowly growing at this time. Amusement parks had seen a drastic decline in people. Though this image may depict a rather large crowd, it certainly was not the case. Rides were no more than a five minute wait, bathrooms were empty, the park itself felt empty. Some areas were completely vacant and it felt unsettling to see a lack of occupants.
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  2020-03-18

  It’s Unsettling

  Reflections and concerns about the pandemic from a mid 30s middle-class woman working from home who has not left her home in five days to protect the elderly women that she lives with.