Chrifsmas Eve…

Workout Notes 1.5 mile swim (2650 yards), then 3 mile run on the track (29:10; ok this was somewhat more than 3 miles), 2 mile walk on the treadmill (about 28 minutes).

The swim: 10 x 100 free, 5 x 25 fist, 75 free, 5 x 25drill/25 free, 10 x (25 fly, 25 free), 100 side, 50 cool down.
Interestingly enough, the pool was empty when I got there. Then lanes 2,3 4 had a person and this cute, shapey woman comes in. Instead of taking the open lane or splitting with the other two guys, she jumps in my lane!

I still “got it”. (ok, so this was probably her favorite spot and she knew that the other lanes would fill anyway, but this is my blog so I can pretend all that I want)

Afterward, I ran 24 laps of the “just under 8 laps to the mile” track. The first mile, as usual, was a death march (just under 10 minutes). But there was another cute woman in black spandex “workout bellbottoms” (tight in the butt, loose at the ankle) who was going about 10 minutes per mile who was just ahead of me, so that was ok.

Afterward, I “ran” a couple of 9:36 and those miles didn’t feel nearly as easy as they should have.

Politcs After spending most of yesterday sparing with Hillary Clinton supporters at the Daily Kos, I wasn’t going to say much today. But, one thing came up that really made me laugh:

Now here’s something out of Clinton’s campaign that her rivals are enthusiastically endorsing.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton may have shot herself in the foot trying to get Iowa voters to pledge support to her — she is encouraging them to go caucus on January 14, 11 days too late.

At a rally featuring her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Saturday, campaign workers asked supporters to sign and mail cards that said “Yes! I’m an Iowan for Hillary” with their contact information as well as other supportive friends.

One small problem. In the upper right-hand corner of the card, it says “I, ___, pledge to support Hillary Clinton at my precinct caucus on January 14, 2008.”

The caucuses are January 3rd.

That’s right. The CLINTON campaign is so well oiled, so experienced. So in the previous week they’ve managed to alienate African Americans and now they do this. And she is the one that is going to beat the Republicans????

Come on Senator Clinton, crack the whip! Yes, as an Obama supporter I want us to win Iowa. But things like this reflect poorly on all of us.

More politics I just love this stuff; this breaks down the United States into several regions where the people have a distinct brand of politics. To explain: the extreme southwest (heavily Hispanic), the upper coasts (think: Massachusetts, Seattle area) and the Chicago area all tend Democratic, but all have a different brand of politics. The plains and the deep south are both Republican, but in a different way.

I came up with the 2008 version of the 10-region map by taking into account county-level data from the 2004 presidential election and the 2006 congressional elections, changes in the demographics and population size of each region, and feedback from readers who were delighted or offended by the original map. All but three of the regions are geographically coherent. The exceptions are Upper Coasts, which includes most of New England and the Pacific Northwest (both part of the Green Party base, if it had one); El Norte, which is based in the Southwest but also takes in the largely Latino area of Miami, Florida; and Frontier, which is based in the Rocky Mountains but also includes a slice of “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire (the Libertarian Party base, in its wildest dreams).

Unless there are some dramatic political shifts over the next year, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee will win at least four regions: Frontier, Cumberland, Southern Inland, and Comanche. (I initially named that last region Waltonville, in honor of the fact that the first Wal-Mart stores opened there, but then a colleague pointed out that the name might remind people of the TV series The Waltons, which, of course, was set in the mountains of Cumberland.) And the Democratic nominee will carry the Northeast Corridor, Upper Coasts, El Norte, and Mega-Chicago. That leaves the South Coast and Chippewa as the two regions up for grabs, but there are also some states divided between two opposing regions that will probably be battlegrounds. In Arizona and Colorado, for example, the question is whether the Democrat can win the El Norte parts of the state by bigger margins than the Republican will win the Frontier parts of the state. [...]

Go to the article to see the map.

Next, there is an interesting article about credit; the old question is: if a truly colorblind process produces appropriate results but ends up disqualifying more members of a protected group, is this process bad?

In a report to Congress that is certain to generate controversy, the Federal Reserve Board says credit scores vary “substantially” among racial and ethnic groups but have made credit more available for major consumer purchases such as a home.

The Fed’s study, encompassing credit bureau records and demographic data from a national statistical sample of 301,536 individuals, was mandated by Congress in 2003. Credit scores are now heavily used not only in home mortgage underwriting and pricing, but also in credit cards, auto loans, employment and rental application screening, and the insurance industry.

Critics have questioned the accuracy and fairness of credit-score models, charging that in some cases they are inherently biased against minority groups such as African-Americans and Hispanics.

After a massive research effort over several years that focused on three different credit-scoring models – including one created by Federal Reserve staff economists – the agency concluded that:

Credit-score statistical factors and models are not biased against any particular demographic group, but are highly predictive of future payment performance. Lower scores correlate strongly with future delinquencies; higher scores are associated with good payment performance.

African-Americans and Hispanics, on average, “have lower credit scores than non-Hispanic whites and Asians.” [...]

Read the whole article; it isn’t that long but is interesting.

Hat tip to Statistical Modeling, whose blog pointed us to these outstanding articles.

Social: this is a sobering post which shows one (of many) reasons why African Americans might see life in this society differently than their lighter skinned neighbors. This whole incident is just plain sad.

Teaching: I am loving “Rate Your Students“. Here is one snippet:

Oh, crap, we got schooled on our superficial behavior by Dr. Deep, who thinks he’s fighting the brave fight against plagiarism all by himself. Yes, while the rest of us are out debating the relative merits of navy versus grey blazers, Dr. Deep is the Thin Blue Line between good student ethics and bad student ethics. Out of exasperation, Dr. Deep has joined the already large and growing ranks of people who argue that plagiarism is All My Fault. Yeah, so ya wanna blame me for plagiarism?

Get in line, Dr. Deep. The line to blame me is about as long as the line to see Santa.

Get in line behind Suzie Snowflake who blames me for her plagiarism because “she wouldn’t have copied” had I, as the instructor, “required students to do an assignment on plagiarism for the first few classes” rather than “expecting them to go look at the university’s plagiarism policies “during their own time.”

After her is Biff Buckingham III who blames me for his plagiarism because “his frat has all the assignments from last year,” so why should he “rewrite something when it’s all there in the files?”

Then comes Grubby Graduate Student who blames me for having the audacity to point out plagiarism in his thesis. “If you hadn’t required me to look into all that boring literature, I would have had time to finish my thesis without copying!”

After Biff is Pinhead Pedagogue from the Center of Teaching Excellence, Outreach, And Innovation. Wearing a Hawaiian shirt in the middle of the Midwest in December, Pinhead explains that “policing plagiarism is merely a way to reinforce the professor as ‘authority’ rather than allowing students the freedom to learn naturally.

I mean, think about it; if students were really vested in their work, they wouldn’t cheat. They’d glory in the opportunity to explore ideas that were really meaningful to them.

Okey dokey, Dr. Deep. It’s now your turn. Granted, by now, your message that plagiarism is All My Fault is a bit stale, but have at it. It’s your turn. Thanks for not jumping the line.

Religion: we believe in freedom of religion; that is, you are free to worship OUR god.

According to Gary Foster, editor of the Church Leader’s Intelligence Report:

Today 56% of Americans believe freedom to worship applies to all religious groups vs. 72% in ’00.

Yup, you heard that right—44% of ‘mericans believe freedom of worship does not apply to all religious groups. Wanna take a guess at which one they approve of?

There is another funny post over there; it is about god and boobs. No, not the Mike Huckabee type of “boob” but rather the Jeri Thompson kind.

Atheism Fun

A recent visitor didn’t like my Holiday Cards.

Well, I have something just for him:

(ok, not just for him)

Note: Shalini, the other lady mentioned in this video, is attractive too!

And you think that I am mean?