Tidbits here and there

Academia Cosmic Variance gives tips for applying to graduate school in physics. I’ll highlight a few of my favorites:

Here are some of the things from various admissions files that have made me sad (details changed to preserve anonymity) [....]

• Transcripts with three times the number of courses (and substantially better grades) in music than in physics.

[...]
• “Stu Dent has excellent physical intuition and will undoubtedly succeed in graduate school”. Except, Stu has mostly B’s and C’s in their physics courses and a 15th percentile on the physics GRE.

• Students who have taken no math beyond calculus.

No, I didn’t add the last line!

Quips from the wingnuts
You can’t make this stuff up:

A pro life group is protesting Krispy Kreme giving away a free doughnut of choice on inauguration day…because of the word choice.

The American Life League (ALL) takes umbrage with the use of the word choice, not once, but twice in the promotion:

“Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is honoring American’s sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies — just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet ‘free’ can be.”

The ALL said in a statement

“The next time you stare down a conveyor belt of slow-moving, hot, sugary glazed donuts at your local Krispy Kreme, you just might be supporting President-elect Barack Obama’s radical support for abortion on demand – including his sweeping promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act as soon as he steps in the Oval Office, Jan. 20….

“Just an unfortunate choice of words? For the sake of our Wednesday morning doughnut runs, we hope so. The unfortunate reality of a post Roe v. Wade America is that ‘choice’ is synonymous with abortion access, and celebration of ‘freedom of choice’ is a tacit endorsement of abortion rights on demand.

The Miami New Times has the full statement. Grade A Nutters.

Ok. This sounds like Colbert Report or Good Kentuckian satire.

But there is more! Did you know that Obama’s invocation choices might lead to Sky-Daddy destroying Washington DC?

Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is telling parents not to let their children watch what will be the “most perverted [inauguration] in our nation’s history” and warns that God just might destroy the nation’s capital because of it:

The inauguration of Barack Obama as the President of the United States is going to be historic for many reasons, not all of them good. Obama’s inauguration may help move race relations forward in America, but Obama’s inaugural events are a major step backwards for historic Christian values. CADC must issue this WARNING message: Don’t let your children watch!

National events ought to unify and elevate the nation by celebrating what is virtuous, such as God and patriotism. Obama is making a terrible mistake by polluting his inaugural events with sexual sin. Some one ought to remind him that he wasn’t elected mayor of Sodom.

Barack Obama’s inauguration will have the dubious distinction of being the most perverted in our nation’s history … In order to be consistent in using this kind of reasoning, Obama ought to have a stripper lead off the inaugural parade followed by the Hell’s Angel’s Motorcycle Drill Team followed by the Crips Precision Handgun Corp. and the Transvestite Fashion Police. Just because something exists in society does not mean it is good and is to be paraded in front of everyone, especially children.

On this historic occasion of the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, I must unfortunately recommend that you keep the kids away from the TV and pray that God will not rain fire and brimstone down on Washington DC.

These folks must be mentally ill or at least mentally underdeveloped.

More on “Faith” Many people are now using a cafeteria style “faith”: picking and choosing what they like. Sure, many so called Bible believers do exactly that; for example: surely they don’t think that murder is a “god” approved remedy for gambling debts, right?

But now, folks are just being more honest about it:

A new study shows that a majority of Americans cherry-pick what parts of their religion they believe in:

A sizable majority of the country’s faithful no longer hew closely to orthodox teachings, and look more to themselves than to churches or denominations to define their religious convictions, according to two recent surveys. More than half of all Christians also believe that some non-Christians can get into heaven. [...]

In the Barna survey, 71 percent of American adults say they are more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a defined set of teachings from a particular church.

Warming Trend

Workout notes: I started my swim late (stayed up after Spamalot last night) but still got 4000 yards. 5 x 200 on 4 (warm up intenstiy), 5 x 200 fist (3:35) on 4, 10 x (25 fly, 75 free) 1:43-1:46 on 2, 5 x (25 front, 25 free, 25 3g, 25 free) on 2 (fins), 400 IM (8:31; the 100 fly just about killed me), 100 side.

Weather: when I felt the gym, I thought: “this doesn’t feel as bad as it did this morning”. I was right: it had warmed to -6 F; but there was no wind (therefore the windchill was less).

Humor: The irony of the name….

see more pwn and owned pictures

Science: Stephen Chu talks to us (he is Obama’s nominee for Energy Secretary and a Nobel Laureate)

Wingnuts This is why we call them wingnuts:

But Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who last March predicted Al Qaida would be “dancing in the streets” if Barack Obama were elected president, now concedes that the dynamic has merely “shifted” on the terrorist front.

“They have made statements against Obama,” King acknowledged to Politico. “This thing has shifted and now I think Obama’s position of immediate withdrawal [from the war zone] has changed.”

Shortly after making his comments last year, King took his bluster to Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera:

“[I]f I am wrong, Geraldo, and we elect Obama to the presidency and he declares defeat, if they don’t dance in the streets, I will come and apologize to you and everybody in America. But I’m saying, I’m right.”

Well, Osama isn’t doing an Obama jig, and this week, Bin Laden released an audio tape challenging the new president.

While he was willing to concede he was wrong about the whole terrorist street dancing routine, King has moved on to the whole “Hussein” controversy.

He doesn’t like the fact that the president-elect will be sworn in using that middle name during Tuesday’s Inauguration.

After telling the Associated Press last year that Obama’s middle name was among the reasons Islamic terrorists would rejoice over his election, King says he’s since been careful to avoid using it. Thus he found Obama’s decision to allow it be mentioned on the steps of the Capitol “bizarre” and “a double-standard.”

“Is that reserved just for him, not his critics?” King asked.

The congressman says he doubts Obama’s sincerity when he explained that he chose to use his middle name so as to be historically consistent with past inaugurations, when America has heard the full names of its presidents echo from the inaugural stand.

“Whatever his reasons are,” King said, “the one he gave us could not be the reason.” [...]

So Barack Hussein Obama shouldn’t use his full name? This guy is an imbecile.

Economy
Obama’s proposed budget has some stuff for science in it:

The US House unveiled an $825 billion, two-year stimulus plan today, crafted by the Obama transition team and House Democrats. There is a hefty amount for basic research in the sciences, totaling some $10 billion! My eyes are instantly drawn to the $1.9 billion directed to the DOE Office of Science, which funds my own field. It is hard to overstate how fantastic, and sorely needed, this is. Here is the relevant part of the plan summary:

TRANSFORMING OUR ECONOMY WITH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
We need to put scientists to work looking for the next great discovery, creating jobs in cutting-edge technologies and making smart investments that will help businesses in every community succeed in a global economy.

Broadband to Give Every Community Access to the Global Economy
• Wireless and Broadband Grants: $6 billion for broadband and wireless services in underserved areas to strengthen the economy and provide business and job opportunities in every section of America with benefits to e-commerce, education, and healthcare. For every dollar invested in broadband the economy sees a ten-fold return on that investment.

Scientific Research
• National Science Foundation: $3 billion, including $2 billion for expanding employment opportunities in fundamental science and engineering to meet environmental challenges and to improve global economic competitiveness, $400 million to build major research facilities that perform cutting edge science, $300 million for major research equipment shared by institutions of higher education and other scientists, $200 million to repair and modernize science and engineering research facilities at the nation’s institutions of higher education and other science labs, and $100 million is also included to improve instruction in science, math and engineering.[...]

Follow the link; there is more there. We’ll see how much survives the budget wars.

Economy: One consequence of the bailout:

Why Citi Turned Around on Mortgage “Cramdowns”

The latest data show one out of ten homeowners in the United States is either late in making a mortgage payment or in such serious arrears as to risk foreclosure. Last week, congressional Dems breathed a sigh of relief when Citigroup dropped its opposition to a proposed change in the bankruptcy laws allowing distressed homeowners to do what owners of commercial property and second homes can already do when they can’t pay up — use bankruptcy proceedings as a means of working out better deals. (It’s called a “cram-down.” The practical effect wouldn’t be hundreds of thousands of bankruptcy judges striking new deals, as conservative lawmakers predict; the mere option of going into bankruptcy would give homeowners more bargaining leverage with mortgage lenders in striking better deals.)

As long as Citigroup opposed this measure, it didn’t stand a chance. Citi’s clout in Washington is legendary. But on January 8, Citigroup’s CEO, Vikram Pandit released a statement saying that Citi “believes it will serve as an additional tool to the extensive home retention programs currently in place to help at-risk borrowers.” The announcement was greeted with kudos by House and Senate Dems. The bankruptcy provision is now moving, and is likely to be attached to the stimulus bill. [...]

Citi has already got the sweetest bailout deal of any big bank, but the probability seems high that it will want more bailout money. This is the easiest explanation for Pandit’s turnaround on the cram-down legislation — something the Democratic Congress and distressed homeowners very much want.

In other words, the Wall Street bailout has had exactly the same effect for Congress that the proposed bankruptcy provision would have for homeowners — it has increased its bargaining power over those who ordinarily pull the strings. The massive tax-payer financed bailout of Wall Street, largely a product of Wall Street’s power in Washington, seems to be weakening the Street’s ability to veto financial legislation it doesn’t like.

Academia: College faculty weigh in on the idea that high school students need less homework, not more (selected responses):

My niece is in 8th grade. A lot of her homework is busy work that just doesn’t add anything. I think the kids that come into college today are intelligent enough. Many are lazy, some aren’t. Where they aren’t prepared from where I sit is that they think they can do everything at the last minute and pull out an A. Essays are written poorly, rife with spelling errors and grammatical errors among other things. They don’t proofread – hell, spellcheck is more than I often hope for. I teach in a quantitative area and they don’t realize that you don’t learn how to solve problems overnight. Give them a more modest amount of homework, but make them think a little. I think the discipline is at least as important as the knowledge. In terms of discipline, I also mean more understanding. Too many of my students want to just do a brain dump and leave. Then they get pissed at me when I assume they remember at least a little something from the prerequisite courses. Silly me. I don’t have a problem with the “less homework” movement as long as what assignments the kids get actually help them learn instead of just doing the same thing over and over again. Now if we could get them to play a bit less beer pong…

[...]

I would say that 10% of my students are functionally illiterate, 80% of them lack knowledge that any college bound kid should just HAVE, period. And 60% of them couldn’t critically think their way out of a paper bag. Don’t get me started on their inability to write very simple coherent papers (what the hell kind of student got through high school not having written a five paragraph essay? And I’m not talking about poor, underprivileged high schools, either…), their inability to follow a lecture, their inability to take notes from either readings or the lectures, and– and I think all historians are familiar with this particular case of bizarre undergraduate disease– their need to compare ALL historical events to Nazi Germany and ALL people in history to Hitler. I’m starting to believe that high school history classes consist entirely of the students doing dioramas portraying how EVIL Hitler was. [...]

What annoys me here is that this author refuses to go into any reasons about her whining, crying, begging kid has so much homework to do. For one thing, snowflakes are freaking activitied to death. I spent my entire youth reading, laying on my tummy watching ants, and making up personalities for the trees on my street (one a badass ent). If I were growing up now, I would need endless play dates with peers, age-appropriate activities to stimulate learning, and then off to a child-gym for approved child-aerobics. (Used to be, we just “went outside and played.”) Back in the day in school, there were “slow’ classes and ways of tending the slowest learners in groups that could be caught up (or not) independently. From what my real teacher friends tell me, the classroom has to be integrated now and we all have to pretend that little dumb-as-a-brick Johnny is as bright as a new penny, but simply working along in the big group at a different level (like kids can’t figure this out and make shit out of the others, which is what kids do). So I suspect teachers are spread thin teaching to a more heterogeneous group of learners. Bound to take up time. Add to that the pressure to pursue lots of games and activities and learner-centered stuff, which in my experience students do enjoy–but it eats up time like a ravenous wolverine. Add to that the fact that ambitious parents demand that school’s offerings be engorged with college-appealing activities; study hall has become a dirty word for a lot college-minded kids. (Isn’t that a shame; I loved me some study hall and detention, where you could sit and read without anybody pestering you. Oh to have that reading time back.) AND we also have all this state testing going on. So part of me suspects that there is a growing gap between what teachers can get done during school hours and what the kids are going to get tested on—and hence the pushing more and more material to after hours and home. I’ve not tested any of this, but I doubt the answer is simply “let’s let little Suzy do less homework since she doesn’t like it interfering with her riding lessons and texting.” Of course she hates it; everybody needs leisure, but it’s not like we haven’t gotten to the point we are because of parents’ demands that every be child be mainstreamed, edutained, and activitied like a young prince.

Record Cold?

Maybe this isn’t record cold (but it is darned close to the all time record set in 1977) but….

-20°F Feels Like -35°F

Yikkes! (that is -29 C without the windchill)

Trivia question (easy): at what temperature does T F = T C?

Comment:

This takes about 10 minutes. Via Sandwalk.

Spamalot comes to Peoria

I’ll be brief. If you loved Monty Python and the Holy Grail and if you have a chance to see Spamalot, do it.

Many of your favorite scenes will be there, and yes, they manage to work in a famous song from The Life of Brian (Always Look on the Bright Side of Life) into the Knights of Ni scene.

This particular production (Peoria, IL, 15 January 2009) managed to work in a reference to disgraced Illinois Governor Blagojevich and to our current (less than a week to go!) President.

Yes, the Black Knight is there as is the Killer Rabbit and the French Knight with the outrageous accent.

Let’s put it this way: it is -8 F outside and I had a smile on my face the entire show; if you like Monty Python and you see this, you will too.

If haven’t seen Holy Grail in a while, I recommend renting it, or at least checking out the various youtube clips of the more famous parts.

Note: if you want to read more about what goes on during the performance, read this. The cast does occasionally make some minor changes (e. g., Bush references, Blagojevich references) to suit the time and the location).