About a week ago I attended a lecture on campus by PZ Myers. As is par for the course here, retirees outnumbered students at least ten to one (despite admission being free for students and $10/person otherwise). Lack of seating aside I really enjoyed it.
It was about intelligent design and why it's not, as people like the Discovery Institute claim, at all on par with evolutionary science. Part of his point was how different things that are designed and things that have evolved by natural selection are.
To illustrate this he brought up evolved satellite antennae. An evolutionary algorithm was used to create and simulate a variety of designs, the most fit one was selected, and them descendant forms of that antennae produced and selected from and so on. The resulting antennae look very weird but work very well - actually far better than the ones NASA engineers designed. They also have a lot of extraneous and awkward parts, the detritus of adaptations. This is why natural selection can produce things like us humans, who have phenomenally advanced brains but precariously located testes.
It took me until this morning, when I was sitting in math and sketching streetcar stations, to connect this to last term's Urban Geography class and realize you could do the same thing with a city.
There's plenty of data to be had on traffic patterns from around the world. From that you can develop a model to simulate the behavior of pedestrians, motorists, bicyclists and rickshaws. Develop a whole range of permutations of city layouts (with all their varieties of intersection types, speed zones, and and select for whatever criteria is desired - least number of accidents, least congestion, most pedestrian-friendly - and go on from there.
I'd be most interested to see how the evolved forms differ from our own. I doubt they'd look like the twisted mazes of Las Vegas suburbs, but it's also unlikely they'd be a nice gridiron like Manhattan.
I'm very glad I came down to Ashland and took that class. Crossing the hell-intersection of Siskiyou and Indiana is far worse th
an crossing 82nd 
Street. Part of this is just the drivers. 82nd Street has its fair share of idiots in low riders with oversized spoilers, but Siskiyou has all of them plus hicks in Ford F-150s with oversized tires who - as I learned last Sunday - will gleefully feign running you down for laughs. This plus the retirees. Half the driving population is made up of people 18-22 and 65-80. Of course the main problem is that Siskiyou is fed directly into by Highway 99, and no one can drive below 45. Anyone who was around me during spring break probably heard me bitch about the Ashland government's response to a pedestrian death at that crosswalk: put in more crosswalks.
Urban planning always tickled my interest, maybe in part because I grew up playing with SimCity 2000 and others like it. The anthology on cities I did for my senior English project also did a lot to put my mind on it. Dealing with that intersection and taking that class, though, have actually made me consider it more seriously as a field of study.
Hopefully all this doesn't bleed into the D&D campaign I plan to run over the summer. I don't want to bore my players with diagrams explaining the absolute genius behind Dwarven intermodal separation of transit.
As could well be expected, there were unforeseen problems in my schedule, and of course the advisers are not in the office on Saturday.
But, with the power of Intertron™, I am able to make the changes myself while just sitting on the steps of their Medford Campus building and using its WiFi (which is conveniently right across the street from the Greyhound Bus station, which is only open in three-hour segments on weekends and holidays. Also, the normal bus does not run on Saturdays. What the crap.)
The problem was that Organic Chemistry is two parts: CH334 is the actual class, and CH337 is the lab and recitation parts. I had not signed up for CH334, which conflicted with the Why Art? University Seminar course. After re-adjusting this, I had 17 credits for the term, so World Civilizations was dropped (I'd prefer to take 110 before 111 anyways).
Thus, my new schedule:
Introduction to Organic Chemistry: It is a bloated monster of carbon bonds.
Masterpieces of Film - I know this is probably one of those deceptive classes that sounds like you can just relax in class and watch films and write a half-assed essay every month, but will probably kick my ass, but I'll take it anyways.
And the new University Seminar Honors course - Biological Issue and the Individual - It's being taught by an actual biologist, and looks promising. It involves 'evaluating scientific arguments', which is something I'm going to need in the next four years.
I'm only taking three classes and it's still 13 credits which, with my previously attained 31 from AP classes, would actually be a workable rate towards graduation each term.
Leapt on a bus at too:early AM yesterday and got into Ashland for registration at SOU. My initial unease ("I'm coming here in a few months to spend the next four years here and I don't know anyone") was offset by the fact that everyone is just plain likable (not just the admissions staff, but all the incoming freshmen I was with).
The first evening was an introduction (during which, thanks to the Tom-donated OPB shirt, am now remembered as The Guy In The OPB Shirt), dinner, going down to one of the Green Shows (a very good band from Mexico - I've heard more good Mexican music in two days of Ashland than I did in seven days of Mexico), coming back to our dorms and being greeted by a doe and her fawns strutting boldly through campus.
Surprisingly, excepting my own packing difficulties* and a massive blister on my right foot, everything with registration went smoothly.
Having 31 credits from Advanced Placement makes picking the first term of classes a whole lot less intimidating. AP Psychology, U.S. History, and Government together took care of all my basic Social Sciences requirements, and Chemistry took care of 8 of 12 of my Actual Science requirements (though by rights Psychology should be in the latter section).
Classes for first term:
HST 111 - World Civilization - It's a prerequisite for a lot of other history courses, and I like the subject matter anyhow. Though I'm pretty sure I know everything after playing Sid Meier's Civilization.
CH334 - Introduction to Organic Chemistry - I am rightfully terrified of this class, but it must be done. I would have taken the introductory Forensic Science class, but it doesn't actually fulfill any prerequisites towards anything.
USEM 101H - Why Art? - One of the honors University Seminar courses. There were a lot of tempting ones, but I decided to choose one of the three Honors courses and this was the most interesting. Essentially, it looks like Art History.
FLM 295 - Masterpieces of Film - O, the silver screen! This was actually a last-minute choice, since my adviser wasn't aware that the basic art classes are restricted to actual art majors until the very last moment (I wanted to take Introductory Drawings - ah well, next year). I took this on a whim instead, because I've been wanting to take a film class since junior year of high school and they always fill up before I get in.
SOU also boasts a very nice and usable internet system. I can now also be contacted at loftusm@students.sou.edu, if you feel a pressing need to email me somewhere that does not have nigh-limitless storage.
Right now I'm at the Ashland Hostel, which has (unlike the dorms - you need an ethernet cable) wireless. It's very nice, and is perfect for housing a whole group of friends on a trip. Alas, I am but one man amongst Appalachian mountain climbers.
I think my stomach is telling me to go find a meal, but my right foot is threatening to kill me if I put weight on it.
* When I leave the house on some errand, I always forget one thing. If I leave the house on a journey outside Portland without a month to fastidiously plan, I forget a dozen things. Thus was the case this time, yet my bag still weighs as though I'm carrying nuclear warhead materials.**
**I'm not.
I received 5s on the Advanced Placement for U.S. History, U.S. Government, and Psychology, and a 3 on Chemistry.
This qualifies me as a Academic (Moderate) Badass.
