Welcome

This venture primarily resulted from a bit of overindulgence on my part on facebook - I thought I should convert some of the narcissistic, incoherent energy into thoughts on a variety of subjects that have piqued my curiosity over the years. I would hesitate to call this a blog in the traditional sense of the word (in contrast to my prior exertions which fit the mold). I have always been interested in fundamental processes that make nature tick, but of late, I have also gotten increasingly interested in the limits (and lack thereof) of human endeavor and various economic and social issues. Besides, I want to write outside of my research and in non-formal language, so you can expect blind extrapolation. I hope to use some of my commute time and general downtime, so please bear with me on the inevitable intermittency in posting.

So why is the site called "turtleonthefarm.blogspot.com"?

When I think of the way the world works, I feel like a turtle among farm animals - I feel out of place ?

The Maryland mascot is a Terrapin and the Stanford Campus is called the farm ?

But really it just sounded intriguing to me and was somewhat relevant

Happy reading!!!

Edit #1: For some unknown reason, some of the posts in this blog have taken the route of sounding like essays for the general public. I don't know whether this has anything to do with my age or my profession.

Edit #2: In the age of google-induced itis, I have expended some effort in some of the longer articles to highlight (in red) some important points so that it is easier for you to power skim.