had my committee meeting in the morning, in which geoff and martha took turns ripping my study design into itty bitty pieces, and then setting those pieces on fire. even though this was precisely the reason i wanted them on my committee in the first place, it still hurts when it happens. in much, much better news, i finally summoned up the courage to ask if i could use the review paper i wrote as part of my qualifying exams, and the answer was that i most definitely can, which significantly reduces the amount of ass-busting i need to do next year. round of drinks for everyone!

dan dennett gave a talk in the evening on memes and cultural evolution -- he has taken richard dawkins famous idea and run with it, perhaps a little too far. in the very first place, i'm not sure i accept the strong form of human exceptionalism, and without that piece i just can't buy into cultural evolution superceding and overriding genetic evolution. i'm willing to be persuaded though -- i'm sure that von knows a lot more about the topic than i do, and perhaps we shall discuss the particulars some day soon.