Productivity, I Choose You!

How do you studyblr? I'm a second year Microbiology student. Follow me on Instagram @cheungkylicious

[lecystrek]

Studying in Edinburgh

[gomedorgohome]

#MOTIVATIONALPOSTERMONDAY

[0pera-phant0m]

[finally-learning]

Productivity day 2. I couldn't get very far today, but I did do something. 9.23.2016

[0pera-phant0m]

[finally-learning]

Productivity Day 1. First day back and I’m feeling good. Let my motivation never SLOw! 09.22.2016

[finally-learning]

Well it's official. I'm only taking math and science classes this quarter. Wish me luck!

[studyquill]

as requested by quite a few people - a masterpost of educational podcasts. links go to either the site or the itunes podcast store. an excerpt of the description is included with each.

* indicates a podcast that i listen to regularly

entertainment

*welcome to night vale - twice-monthly updates for the small desert town of night vale

*muggle cast - everything harry potter

general information 

radiolab - investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea

*stuff you should know - about everything from genes to the galapagos

*stuff mom never told you - the business of being women 

tedtalks

good job, brain - part pub quiz show, part offbeat news

news

no one knows anything - the politics podcast from buzzfeed news

wait wait…don’t tell me - weekly current events quiz

college

*college info geek - the strategies and tactics the best students use

*getting in - your college admissions companion

math

math for primates - a couple of monkeys who decided that arguing about mathematics was a better use of their time than throwing poo at one another

math mutation - fun, interesting, or just plain weird corners of mathematics

science

60 second health - latest health and medical news

the naked scientists - interviews with top scientists, hands-on science experiments

60 second science - the most interesting developments in the world of science

startalk - astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe

nasa science cast - science behind discoveries on earth, the solar system, and beyond

history

*myths and legends - myths, legends, and folklore that have shaped cultures

stuff you missed in history class - the greatest and strangest stuff you missed

the podcast history of our world - from the big bang to the modern age! …eventually

witness - the story of our times told by the people who were there

the history chicks - two women. half the population. several thousands years of history.

entrepreneurship & finances

practical money matters - better managing their finances

the internet business mastery - learn how to create an internet based business

social triggers insider - the fields of psychology and human behavior

listen money matters - honest and uncensored, this is not your father’s boring finance show

writing & literature

professional book nerds - it’s our job to discuss books all day long

a way with words - words, language, and how we use them

grammar girl - short, friendly tips to improve your writing

classic poetry aloud - recordings of the greats poems of the past

language

esl (english) - improve english speaking and listening skills

language pod

coffee break

search in your podcast app for specific languages!

art

99% invisible - exploration of the process and power of design

tips and tricks photography 

the arts roundtable

hobbies & other

stash & burn (knitting)

practical defense - staying safe in our increasingly dangerous urban environments

zen and the art of triathlon - a triathlete’s view on living the multisport life

the art of charm - make you a better networker, connecter, and thinker

the indoor kids - isn’t just about video games, isn’t not about video games

rationally speaking - explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense

the dice tower - board games, card games, and the people who design and play them

motivational & inspirational

back to work - productivity, communication, work, barriers, constraints, tools, and more

personal growth podcast - classic and contemporary self development audio

what it takes - conversations with towering figures in almost every field

here be monsters - exploring the dark corners of the human mind

on being - the big questions of meaning with scientists, theologians, artists, teachers

[finally-learning]

Well, Saturday grind went well. I’m not done. I don’t think I’ll ever be done. Gen chem is a struggle that I will overcome. 

[getstudyblr]

You don't know why you're studying anymore?

You’re studying because you want to get a good grade, you’re studying because you want to show that you’re capable, you’re studying because you want to go to your favorite university, you’re studying because you want to be a doctor, a judge, an engineer, an artist, whatever you dream of. You’re studying because you wanna do what you love. You’re studying what you hate because you want to do amazing things one day. You’re studying because you have a goal. You’re conflicted because you care. You’re procrastinating because you think you won’t be good enough, so why even try? But let me tell you, if you keep lying down and just thinking about your ambitions, they will never come true. You gotta work for it. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. I promise you it will be worth it. And don’t think, not even for a second, that you can’t do it. Don’t make excuses. You CAN and WILL do it. You’re studying because it will help you do it.

[mystudyzone-deactivated20160303]

How To Start A Study Session (when your really not up for it)

1. Cut up an apple and sprinkle some cinnamon over it (this tastes so good), or grab a healthy snack from the kitchen

2. Get out everything you need, laptop, charger, paper, pens, bullet journal, iPad, notes etc.

3. Write a priority list, number them so you keep track and finish/start what needs to be done first.

4. Have some background music or put on a TV series that you’ve watched all the episodes of so you don’t have to pay close attention. Friends, Doctor Who and The Simpsons are some of my favourites

5. If you have a long day/pulling a (nearly (?)) all nighter, get out a movie series, this, to me makes time fly while I still get the same amount done. I recommend Harry Potter if you have a weekend of study ahead. Watching your favourite movies will keep you from leaving your desk (for the wrong reasons) and getting distracted. (JUST TO BE SURE: choose a TV show/movie you’ve watched a dozen times so you don’t have to pay attention/ go back because you have no idea what’s going on)

6. Use different methods to remember dates, events and the the general stuff for up and coming tests. Flash cards, mind maps and note taking are three ways I memorise information for tests.

7. If you’re starting a research task (essay, oral) watch a documentary relevant to your topic and take notes on the important points. Watch lectures (tedxtalks), if worthy of your time. This is a great way to get your starter information and you can do your own research from there.

8. Every hour (at least), get up and do a couple of star jumps (jumping jacks) or anything to get your heart rate going, staying on your butt all day is not best for your health.

9. Bribe yourself. “if I do three hours on my Latin revision + homework, I’ll _________“ this helps with just getting through it.

10. Keep your goal in mind. Photoshop your face in a doctors white coat, in court as a judge, as a teacher in front of your Yr 11 Applied Mathematics. Have a visual representation of your goal. GOOD LUCK

[scholarly]

[mindpalacestudy]

Sometimes your motivation is at it’s lowest right before exams. You’ve spent the whole year working so hard, and now you have the the end in sight, that final bit of work seems impossible.

Please just push on for these last few months or weeks. It’s more important to work now than it ever has been. You can do it!

[universi-tea]

Having the right study space can be the difference between putting your work off until the last minute and actually wanting to work. Here are some tips on how to create your perfect study space, no desk required. 

pick a spot

 If you already have a desk, then this may already be done for you. If not, look around for somewhere that has good lighting (natural is a bonus!) and is in an area that’s not too busy or loud. It doesn’t have to be big – it could be a corner, or even your bed. 

pick a desk 

Now that you’ve found a spot, you need either a desk or some sort of other surface to work on. My favorites: (ordered from most expensive to least)

Desks: Lots of storage (Ikea) ⋙ Bamboo (ikea) ⋙ Glass (walmart)

Lap Desks: Comfortable  ⋙ Compact

find some storage

Color-coordinated organizers (pencil cups, paper trays, etc)

Drawer organizers

Pencil cup (set of three) - design one and two

Hanging folders

Storage box

Basket

Cork boxes (set of four)

decorate your space

Cork board

Chalkboard decal

Calendar printables (free)

Quote printables & more (free)

Even more quote printables (make your own too!)

Floral prints

City prints

Tons more prints

Hang pictures, notes, and your own artwork!

Plants (real or fake)

Your favorite books

String lights

Banners/pendents

Postcards or letters from friends

inspo - my favorite spaces

chalkboard by @katherinehenson

calendars and cactus by @mymidnightlatte

pink prints by @limestyle

fresh flowers by @eviepeeveylemonsqueezy

prints and pictures by @studyyoustud

storage goals by @secretdiaryofamedstudent

plants plants plants by @hanniestudies

more 

[introvertunites]

[finally-learning]

If you look at the first table on the left in the textbook, it's about 15 cats. I think my favorite cat names from the list are: Phantom, Jupiter, Oregano, and Posh. If I'm feeling the TMNT, I'd totally go for Michelangelo.

[bijoux-et-mineraux]

Polished Malachite Stalactite - Copper Crescent, Congo

[xekstrin]

*looks around*

Is

Is anyone gonna say it

[brambledboneyards]

malachite is a poisonous mineral. please do not fuck the malachite stalactite

[zdravomilla-deactivated20220114]

@lizaleigh do you know any rock people that can confirm/deny because I am very curious and really don’t feel like getting into a conversation with my geophysicist brother that MAY somehow get back to the fact I saw a malachite that looked like a weird dildo.

[lizaleigh]

…sadly, I am not on good enough terms with any of our partner geologists to just attach this to an email with the subject line: “EXPLAIN.” Although I think @mollisaurus is a mineral person. Thoughts?

[mollisaurus]

oh geeze, i’m kinda rusty on minerals but malachite is just copper carbonate and is really common in both antique and modern jewelry so i think like if you were really gun-ho about it you could go ahead and put it wherever you want?

[vulcanology-geology]

It’s really only a problem if you’re polishing or cutting it. The particles would be bad to breathe. It’s rather porous too, so I would worry about bacteria growing. Well, being literal anyway… Better to leave the poor thing alone. ._.

[thepioden]

I mean it kinda depends on where you stick it because malachite does not like acidic environments very much and the malachite will degrade and also might dye your bits blue-green as the copper dissolves out.

So use a condom when fucking rocks is the takeaway here.

[rosenagldky-deactivated20201223]

Oh my god guys it’s poisonous

It is super poisonous

There is a reason we do not use it in make up any more

Not even with a condom, do not fuck the rock

[nassadii]

Try this one instead. 

[naughtylittledragon]

malachite literally explodes in water does it not?

[rosenagldky-deactivated20201223]

I… no… I think you’re thinking of pure sodium?

Malachite is however water soluble, which really just means it will poison you quicker

[reclusiveandelusive]

This is both hilarious and cool as fuck because you’re getting all this information on minerals and rocks. You’re also watching people argue over wether or not you can fuck this rock

[bijoux-et-mineraux]

I go on hiatus for a week and come back to find tumblr molesting my post, but hey, at least we all learned something so yay tumblr, you just keep on  being you.

[aimee-b-loved]

I’m still not sure if I can fuck this rock.

[adulthoodisokay]

I’m looking into it.

[adulthoodisokay]

UPDATE:

[buzzfeed]

Today in “I’m so sorry, coworkers, it’s for Tumblr,” I brought this post to the attention the science reporters at BuzzFeed. Dan Vergano did a some research and weighed in on the question “Can you use malachite as a dildo or is it toxic?”

The answer is “It’s probably fine, just wash it first and maybe use a bunch of lube.”

[sprigglebearstudios]

Oh man this got so much better than the last time I saw this post

[0hcicero]

This is my favourite. Science side of tumblr: asking the REAL questions

[badscienceshenanigans-deactivat]

*biologist crashes through the underbrush* Ok so here’s the thing though Malachite is not poisonous to YOU. BUT fucking this stalactite will probably wreck your vaginal flora and leave you with a gruesome infection within a couple days. Want details? SO GLAD YOU ASKED, ‘CAUSE HERE THEY ARE. • Malachite is not copper oxide. It’s Cu2CO3(OH)2. Like most carbonates it’s water soluble– that’s how it became a stalactite in the first place! And technically any given chunk of “malachite” isn’t just malachite– it’s a mix of various copper carbonates & oxides. This will become important later.  • When malachite dissolves it makes a bunch of copper (Cu++) ions. Cu++ is GREAT at killing bacteria and fungi– so good at it that sprays with Cu++ get used a lot as a spray in agriculture to stop plant disease. It takes such a large dose to harm larger organisms that copper sprays are used a lot in organic agriculture (like Bordeaux mixture).  So bottom line, yes malachite is technically nontoxic to humans. But it kills bacteria when it dissolves and releases Cu++. • Malachite dissolves somewhat slowly in water– but vaginal secretions aren’t just any water. A healthy human vagina has a pH of 3.8-4.5 and a salinity of about 0.9%. It’s also warmer than your average underground cave at 37°C (or 98.5°F in American meat units). As luck would have it, acidity, salinity, and warmth all make malachite dissolve faster.  • In other words, the human vagina dissolves malachite.  • I have no deeper explanation for why human females can dissolve rocks with our genitals. It simply is.  • Gonna to take a quick moment to point out that sex toys that dissolve when you use them are maybe not the best investment.  • Anyway the key question now is “how fast does the human vagina dissolve malachite?” Are we talking geological timescale, a Nazis-in-Indiana-Jones situation, or something in between? If the reaction kinetics of dissolution are very slow, then there’s nothing to worry about. An encounter with a stalactite would have to last years for enough Cu++ to leach out to cause problems. If it’s quick then we’re in trouble.  • Unfortunately it looks like nobody really knows. One of the best sources on how malachite dissolves & precipitates in water– an EPA document on how to avoid too much Cu++ in municipal drinking water systems– helpfully says “The kinetic constraints on the formation of these solids in water systems are largely unexplored” (p. 42) because end equilibrium points is all you need to run a city water system safely. In other words, the experiments that would tell us how fast malachite dissolves in various types of water just don’t exist because nobody’s ever needed to know before. So we’d better assume it’s going to happen reasonably quickly, #for safety. • So in best scientific fashion, we’re just going to bullshit our way ahead using what facts we DO have on hand: endpoint equlibria.  • Is there any info out there telling us what equilibrium concentration of Cu++ we get in salty acidic water at body temperature? Almost! One J.F. Scaife published some great data on this back in 1957. TAKE IT AWAY, SCAIFE. 

That orange box is how many moles of dissolved Cu++ Scaife got from sticking malachite in some water that had 0.171 moles NaCl/L (body salinity is about 0.154 moles NaCl/L so this is slightly less salty than people) at 30°C. He’s got no acidity in there, and again the salinity and temperature are slightly lower than people. But this is probably the closest we’re going to get to data on how malachite behaves in vaginas anytime soon, folks. From this we can take away that if you leave malachite alone in a vagina you’ll get AT LEAST 9.12 x 10^-4 moles/L, or 5.8 ppm, of Cu++ at equilibrium.  • Recall from above that most “malachite” isn’t actually pure malachite, it’s a mix of various copper carbonates & oxides. The EPA document elaborates: “[T]raditional ‘eyeball’ identification of malachite by its blue-green color is extremely unreliable, because almost all cupric hydroxysulfates, hydroxycarbonates, hydroxychlorides, and even fresh cupric hydroxide can be some shade of blue-green. … Thus, the uncertainty in the computed copper concentration in equilibrium with malachite is at least about a factor of 2 … until further experimental data focusing on this problem is generated.” In other words, “do your math and then double how much Cu++ you think is going to be in the water, just in case.” So that gives us 11.6ppm Cu++, at equilibrium, with malachite in a (til now!) healthy vagina.  • Next step: do we have any idea what happens to bacteria in acid conditions with copper? OH MY GOD WE TOTALLY DO. Gyawali et al 2011 checked this out in the context of “so what if we rinsed tomatoes with a solution of lactic acid and copper, because that would be a safe & organic way to get rid of E. coli?” So now this post has officially ruined stalactites, vaginas, and tomatoes.

^This would happen. These are the counts of 4 E. coli strains exposed to various levels of lactic acid & Cu++ for 8 hours. This table only shows the end counts but it represents the death of 99.7% of bacteria*. • Losing 99.7% of your vaginal flora is seriously bad news. You’re looking at really good odds of a yeast infection, bacterial vaginosis, and/or other infection issues. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to not be in the 4% of the population or so that’s sensitive to skin contact with copper.  • The good news? Biochemically speaking, you’re probably ok to put it in your butt. It’s not as acidic or salty in there, plus there’s a huuuuuge stockpile of gut microbes right upstream that can quickly repopulate the colon after spelunking is complete. However this stalactite is not flared at the base so it is the wrong shape for putting in your butt. Do not put this stalactite in your butt.  • This all looks like fun and games, but I think it’s really interesting that the internet’s mistake in concluding that this stalactite is fuckable is very similar to the mistake made by the Flint water management system. Hear me out.  • Central to the Flint lead poisoning crisis is that authorities only looked at & tested Flint’s water in its central treatment plant before it went out through the pipes. Not after it went through the pipes. They did not consider what would happen biochemically as it went through the pipes and metals started dissolving.  • Similarly, in concluding that the stalactite is fuckable, the internet only considered the stalactite itself. Not the biochemical processes that would happen to it as it, welp, went through the pipes.  • Media frequently reports that the Flint River’s water is “corrosive,” leading many to believe the river is full of industrial waste. This ain’t the case. You’d need industry to fill a river with industrial waste, and industry left decades ago. That’s why Flint’s so poor. So what IS in the water? Road salt. Plain old stupid road salt. The old Detroit-based source didn’t have salt because it came from Lake Huron which has a large, mostly rural watershed. Meanwhile the Flint River runs through a lot of towns, making it slightly salty as everything melts down in spring. And as we recall from the stalactite experience, a little salt is all it takes to get metals to dissolve.  • Information on this engineering problem was not coming through clearly from the engineering or chemistry sides. It took a biologist, pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, to document the real-time results and provide the data to kick-start a high-level investigation.  • Morals of the story: when dealing with a biological system pls consider asking a biologist, your vagina and/or city could depend on this • Pls use a condom when fucking any water-soluble material • Still don’t put the stalactite in your butt -3/10 do not recommend

[xiphoidprocess]

I think this is a really good example of the power of interdisciplinary communication in science.

[honeyformytea]

Oh my god

[live-active]

[finally-learning]

Now LET’S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS.