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).

Friendly Atheist by Hemant Mehta: Colbert’s Yahweh or No Way

more about "Friendly Atheist by Hemant Mehta: Co…", posted with vodpod

I hate the cold but it could be worse…

It was -13 when I got up; it was to get to -15 and now it has “warmed” up to -3.

The streets have been plowed (even our alleys) so now they are mostly sheets of ice that are mostly drivable.

But it could be worse: it is currently 52 F in Columbia, South Carolina.

Here is something that is happening in South Carolina:

South Carolina has made it illegal to transmit “material containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature“.

Well, darn. Dang it all to heck.

Actually, it looks like it doesn’t take effect until approved by the governor, so we have a little grace period. After that, though…they’re going to have to sweep up everyone on the internet and imprison us for 5 years.

There is this tidbit too

The South, in particular, stands out as a region where whites and blacks voted differently. In what is likely another indication of black voters’ incredible enthusiasm for Obama, several Southern states experienced record turnout. For example, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina all posted new turnout records despite their lack of attention from the candidates. However, Obama received strikingly low support from white voters in those same states – lower even than John Kerry received in 2004. According to exit polls, just 10 percent of whites in Alabama pulled the lever for Obama, for example.

For more detail, see here.

Example: in Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin Obama got 51, 51, 51 and 54 percent of the white vote.
In Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas it was 10, 11, 14 and 26 percent (the latter inflated by Austin, I’m sure )

In short, with a few exceptions (Austin, Texas, is one), I tend to prefer the weather in the south, but prefer the cultural climate in the north.

On Feeling Inadequate

Some time ago (on my bold blog; July 2005) I posted something about my own feelings of inadequacy.

Evidently, a friend of mine recently made a post (somewhat tongue and cheek) about his.

If you read his post, he talked a great deal about material things.

Frankly, such things have never mattered all that much to me.

If you want to know what makes me feel inadequate; well here are some folks who do:

Terence Tao (Fields Medalist)

Edward Witten (Fields Medalist)

Myron Rolle, all star football player and Rhodes Scholar

Oh yes, this fellow too:

He is the first President Elect that is younger than I (by about 1 year): he came from nowhere to become President whereas I haven’t done a single thing of distinction in my life.

15 January 2009; Keeping Tabs on Aaron Schock and other topics

Workout Notes 4 mile run on the track, yoga class, 4 mile walk on the treadmill.

4 mile run: lane 3, 10:22, 9:29 (19:52), then 1 lap on, 1 lap easy 9:10 (29:02), then 2 laps on, 1 off, 3 on, 1 off, 1 on 8:56 (37:59).
Pat Arnold (who ran the FOLEPI 4 mile race in 21:27 and the Lakefront Marathon in 2:49) was doing some light running between his harder intervals and jogged a couple of laps with me at a time.

The yoga class was with Ms. Vickie.

Afterward, I walked 4.2 miles on the treadmill (55 minutes); I warmed up at a 13 minute pace and gradually raised the elevation to 3 at .75 miles into it. At 1.25 I raised it to 4 and at 1.5 I raised it to 5 and kept it there until mile 2.5. Then I kept it at 4 until 3.25 and then at 3 until 3.75 and 2 until 4.0. Total: 1 mile at 3, 1 at 4, 1 at 5, most at 12:45 mpm.

Then, I met Ms. Vickie and we had breakfast at Cafe 401.

Politics
I’ve decided that I am going to follow the political career of Aaron Schock (US Representative IL-18).

Issue: Ledbetter Bill
Discussion:

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Good thing there’s a woman in—er—running the House. Otherwise, pay equity legislation would probably not make it to the top of Congress’s legislative docket. But that it did, with the House of Representatives planning votes on Friday on two bills designed to control workplace gender-based pay discrimination.

The much-ballyhooed Lilly Ledbetter bill would reverse a Supreme Court decision, which, on a technicality of sorts, required pay inequity plaintiffs to file legal complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before they even were aware they were being discriminated against. The case arose when the former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant supervisor Ledbetter filed a complaint because men in similar situations were getting pay raises that she was being denied.

The second bill would strengthen parts of the 1963 Equal Pay Act and close loopholes that have apparently allowed employers to avoid responsibility for discriminatory pay.

The Ledbetter bill passed the House already last year, and Ledbetter herself addressed the Democratic Convention in Denver last summer. But the measure died in the U.S. Senate. Bets are on that this time it’s a winner.

Results: From here.

Roll call
HR 12 passed 256-163 (14 not voting), D: 246-3-7, R: 10-160-7
Schock: “no”.

Issue: SCHIP
Discussion:

Politico on Tuesday examined the debate over SCHIP renewal and expansion legislation that also would lift eligibility restrictions for documented immigrants. The House is expected to vote on the legislation Wednesday. According to the Politico, the House vote “could set the tone for future debates” on immigrant issues (O’Connor, Politico, 1/13).

The bill would expand SCHIP to cover four million additional children. It also would repeal a rule barring documented immigrants from receiving federal health benefits during their first five years in the U.S. The rule originally was written into a 1996 law overhauling the nation’s welfare programs and Medicaid and was expanded to include SCHIP when the program was created in 1997 (Kaiser Health Disparities Report, 1/13). A similar Senate bill would not lift the waiting period.

Jennifer Ngandu — spokesperson for the National Council of La Raza, which has lobbied for a repeal of the five-year waiting period for SCHIP — said, “We really believe that this is the first opportunity for the president-elect and the Congress to demonstrate their commitment to the Latino community.”

According to Politico, “many GOP lawmakers still view the proposed repeal as a ‘wink-wink, nod-nod’ for immigrants in the country illegally to receive federally funded health coverage through state-run Medicaid programs.” Other Republicans argue that the budget shortfalls mean that many states cannot afford to expand their Medicaid or SCHIP programs, and the federal government would have to increase its contributions for the expansions to happen, Politico reports. According to Politico, Republican opposition is not expected to prevent the legislation from “easily passing.”

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said, “It’s not just about Hispanic families; it’s an issue of providing some sense of health care security for all families” (Politico, 1/13).

Results (here)

Passed: 289-139-6, D: 249-2-5, R: 40-137-1. Schock: “no”.

I’ll try to keep this updated.

Update Elaine Hopkins has a couple of articles about Schock: his vote on the Ledbetter Bill and his proposed bill to force individual states to have special elections if they lose a Senator (e. g., one gets called into service as a cabinet member, gets elected VP or President). From Hopkins’s source:

Q You’ve been a real broken record lately with your insistence that Roland Burris’ hinky appointment to serve nearly two years of an unexpired U.S. Senate term demands a change in the law on how we fill such vacancies. Is anyone with real power putting muscle behind your insistent calls?

A Yes. The youngest member of the U.S. House, 27-year-old Aaron Schock, the Peoria Republican who became the first-ever congressman born in the 1980s when he was sworn in last week, is announcing plans to introduce the “Ethical and Legal Elections for Congressional Transitions (ELECT) Act.” He wants a federal law requiring special elections be held within 90 days of U.S. Senate vacancies. Primaries within that 90-day window would be optional.

[...]

Q What’s the second problem you have with the ELECT Act?
A I’m not sure it squares with the U.S. Constitution. The 17th Amendment requires elections to fill Senate vacancies, but not specifically “special” elections. It allows for temporary Senate appointments, and it gives state legislatures broad discretion as to when to hold these elections.

I don’t see how you mandate timetables without amending the Constitution.

Q Do legal scholars agree?
A Well, Northwestern University School of Law Professor Robert Bennett, for one, agrees that this is “a very difficult area” because the Constitution doesn’t give the feds timetable authority, or “certainly not with any clarity.” But, he said, “the fact that the (17th) Amendment itself could be read to impose the requirement ….. might predispose courts to accept” the ELECT Act in the same way they have accepted other federal tinkering with state election statutes.

[...]

Economy Robert Reich has some ideas on how TARP-II should work.

It’s difficult to make the case that the first $350 billion bailout of Wall Street — so-called “TARP I” — fulfilled its goals, unless one argues that the Street would have imploded without it, which is pretty much what Hank Paulson is saying these days. And since it’s impossible to prove a counter-factual, especially when the Treasury was never clear about TARP I’s goals to begin with, Paulson may have a point. But the easier and probably more correct argument is that American taxpayers wasted $350 billion. No one knows exactly where it went – [...]

ongress is now about to give the next Treasury secretary an additional $350 billion, as the second tranche of the bailout. One hopes that the new administration will use it better. Some suggested guidelines:

1. Do not use any of the money to buy stock in — that is, to “recapitalize” — the banks. This is a sinkhole of cosmic proportion. [...]

2. Do not use the money to buy the banks’ “troubled” assets. [...]

3. Prohibit any bank that gets TARP II funds from issuing dividends, purchasing other companies, or paying off creditors.

4. Bar any bank that gets TARP II funds from paying its executives, traders, or directors more than 10 percent of what they received in 2007.

5. Require that any bank getting TARP II funds be reimbursed by its executives, traders, and directors 50 percent of whatever amounts they were compensated in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. [...]

6. Insist that at least 90 percent of the TARP II money be used for new bank loans. If the banks cannot find suitable lenders, they should return the money. [...]

Follow the link to read the explanations and reasons for the proposed conditions.

Academics: Are grade school kids given too much homework? Professors (college professors) are called to weigh in. My guess is “yes”; they are.

1. Kids should have a life beyond just doing mundane stuff like this; I know that much of my intellectual growth came from outside the classroom where I read books and did good stuff on my own.

2. From the above article:

Homework is such an established part of education, it’s hard to believe it’s not all that beneficial, especially in large quantities. But the truth is, a recent Duke University review of numerous studies found almost no correlation between homework and long-term achievement in elementary school, and only a moderate correlation in middle school.

“More is not better,” says Harris Cooper, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and neuroscience who conducted the review. In fact, according to guidelines endorsed by the National Education Association, teachers should assign no more than ten minutes per grade level per night (that’s ten minutes total for a first-grader, 30 minutes for a third-grader).

“Most kids are simply developmentally unable to sit and learn for longer,” says Cooper. Remember: Many have already been glued to their desks for seven hours, especially at schools that have cut gym, recess, art, and music to cram in more instructional time. If you add on two hours of homework each night, these children are working a 45-hour week. Some argue that we need to toughen kids up for high school, college, and the workforce.

I tend to agree.

Academia: Weed Out Courses and Student Evaluations. I don’t have much to add, except that you get this phenomena in physics and in calculus courses as well.

Academia: slacker students. Most of us who teach college level mathematics have heard this before: “I’ve already had this class so if I don’t do well in it under you, it is your fault.” “So, if you’ve had it, why are you taking it again?” “Well, I made an F the first time. But I really do understand the material.”……
(I am constantly reminded of this)
Evidently this happens in other disciplines as well.

Science Is there evidence for life on Mars? Possibly.

NASA and Science magazine will announce Thursday afternoon that large amounts of methane have been found on the Red Planet, which could be a sign of biological activity.

“The most obvious source of methane is organisms,” planetary scientist Colin Pillinger told London’s Sun tabloid. “So if you find methane in an atmosphere, you can suspect there is life. It’s not proof, but it makes it worth a much closer look.”

On Earth, methane comes mainly from belching animals such as cows and rotting organic matter such as dead leaves. But it’s also pumped out by volcanoes.

The catch is that it breaks down quickly in the atmosphere due to reactions with sunlight, and there haven’t been any active volcanoes on Mars for millions of years.

So it could be that the large amounts of methane spotted floating over Mars’ northern polar regions during the summer months are being created by microbes buried under the soil. Or it could just be the result of some little-understood geological process. [...]

Hat tip to 3-quarks daily.

15 January 2009 in Peoria, IL

Just the facts, sans exaggeration:

Fair -13°F Feels Like -30°F

I really want to roll over and go back to bed.

I wished that I believed in weather gods so I could curse them!

I wish that I had a Hummer so I could pump out some greenhouse gasses and get this planet warmed up.

Just Screwing Around

My “2-3 day presemester project” is to understand Fox’s Free Differential Calculus better; I’d like to use these ideas to calculate something analogous to the Alexander Polynomial for a non-compact knot.

This has been done (in some cases) by Brody (On Infinitely Generate Modules) for wild compact knots.

So, right now I am just screwing around for a few (too many ) minutes.

Here is what I’ve come up with on the internet:

Daily Kos: if you want some insight to how President Bush thinks, read this diary.

In an obscure 2003 book titled “Air Force One: A History of the Presidents and Their Planes” by Kenneth T. Walsh, there is an incredible anecdote that sums up George W. Bush. Read it and weep:

Another innovation is Bush’s interest in the board game Risk, in which players amass armies and try to conquer the world. En route home from Europe in July 2001, Bush supervised a particularly competitive game. The president encouraged each participant to take the biggest risks possible and to attack each other mercilessly. At one point, he goaded his military aide, supposedly an expert on military maneuvers and strategy, to take some chances. When he did so and found his armies annihilated, Bush teased the aide for being the first to lose. Supervising another game, the commander in chief yelled “You’re a wimp! Go get ‘em.”

Risk is just a board game, not real life. But did Bush know the difference?

[...]

The book, which is actually quite admiring of Bush (as were most press accounts in the 2001-2005 period), also includes this:

“He [Bush] has a very basic belief that if he does his part-gets the information, makes the choices-the results are somehow with God,” says chief White House speech writer Michael Gerson. “He believes there’s something broader going on. He does his best and the outcome is out of his control.” This gives him a sense of peace and enables him to make decisions crisply and without anguish.

I suppose that if you think God is deciding the outcome, and God is good, then why worry yourself over decision making? Feel free to ignore pre-war intelligence reports, appoint Brownie to FEMA, let the deficit skyrocket, let Wall Street run wild, who cares?

Another article: Some Jews protest Israel’s actions.

Here’s the story from the LA Times:

J

ewish activists chain themselves to Israeli Consulate building

10:18 AM, January 14, 2009

Demanding an end to military action in Gaza, eight to 10 Jewish activists chained themselves this morning to the Israeli Consulate building on Wilshire Boulevard.

Other activists who were not chained to the building walked in a circle outside the consulate, chanting: “Let Gaza live! End the siege now.” One of the signs they carried read: “The Israeli consulate has been closed for war crimes.”

Hannah Howard, a spokeswoman for the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, which is conducting the protest, said demonstrators chained themselves to the front steps of the building at 8:30 a.m. and that two others blocked the walkway. Several more stood in front of the driveway on Wilshire Boulevard to prevent cars from entering and exiting. About 50 protesters participated in the demonstration, she said.

“Jews will not allow the violence that is being done in our name to continue,” Howard said. “Not all Jews are united in support of Israel. We [also] recognized the humanitarian crisis in Palestine.”

The consulate is on the 17th floor of the building at 6380 Wilshire Boulevard, and many other businesses have offices inside.

–Ruben Vives

Link

There have been many other protests specifically by Jewish Americans against this war in Gaza, both here in LA and in other places around the country. This is exciting in that it begins to break down the myth of monolithic Jewish support for even the worst of Israeli’s militaristic politicies.

Republicans: The Republicans have become a circular firing squad. As much as I am enjoying this, I also know that this looks a bit like we looked in 2004, so I wouldn’t get too smug.

Huckabee attacks his rivals:

Sarah Palin has complained repeatedly that she was given unfair treatment by the media during her rapid political ascent last year.

But Mike Huckabee – a potential rival for Palin in 2012 should they both decide to seek the White House – apparently doesn’t agree.

In an interview in the current issue of Esquire, Huckabee speaks sympathetically of Palin, saying she had been subjected to “sexist things that would never have been asked of a male candidate.”

But he pushed back against Palin’s assertion that high-profile journalists – particularly Katie Couric of CBS – were biased in their interviews with her.

“Now I must say I did not think that either the Charlie Gibson interview or the Katie Couric interviews were unfair,” Huckabee said. “In fact, if anything, Katie Couric was extraordinarily gentle, even helpful. [Palin] just … I don’t know what happened. I can’t explain it. It was not a good interview. I’m being charitable.” [...]

He has a few words for Mitt Romney too:

but Mitt Romney has remained his favorite target. In his new book, Huckabee wrote that Romney was “anything but conservative until he changed the light bulbs in his chandelier in time to run for president.”

And then there is the race for the chair of the RNC (Howard Dean won the DNC chair in 2004-2005; Obama nominated Tim Kaine for the post this time)

The race to become the next chair of the Republican party is, as expected, a bit of a political dog-fight, with six candidates vying to differentiate themselves from one another at a time when the party’s image is in tatters.

As one anonymous consultant who worked with the RNC phrased it: “Everyone is basically pissed.” Another GOP source described it to the Huffington Post as a circular firing squad.

And so, it isn’t a shocker that opposition research tarring the different candidates is being peddled around to reporters — and some of the material crosses the line into personal, petty sniping.

One Republican consultant mailed over an opposition research document on Saul Anuzis — no author is listed, as is the case with several such anonymous files that are “floating around,” the source said. “There are certainly a number of candidates who are benefiting from attacks on Saul,” he added. The oppo research starts off, sharply enough, by making light of Anuzis’ education.

Highest degree earned: High School Diploma.

From there, it goes after Anuzis’ salary as current chair of the Michigan Republican Party, raises questions about secret business partners and ethical conflicts of interests, and generally trashes his leadership as a GOP organizer. It concludes:

Saul Anuzis is a paid political hack whose greed and misconduct lost him his job in government. After fifteen years of trying to make it in business, he came back to what he knew best: politics for pay. His goal was simple: take over the party to enrich himself and his friends. After overseeing tremendous party setbacks and election loses, he leaves his party as a failed chairman. Saul Anuzis now leaves his post after undoing most of the good party building work in the 1980′s and early 90′s. His true legacy will be a financial one: an exorbitant salary, a huge debt, contracts to his friends and himself (that obligate the party well into the future), and a party in no position to pay for any of it. Isn’t this the kind of legacy that Republicans are trying to get away from??

Here is more fun from the right wing woos: (remember that there are people walking around out there who take this stuff seriously)

Note: 8 minutes into it, one of these idiots mentions that some of the fundies went on a “Esther fast”. Hey fundies, how about your fasting for the entire Obama term?

Via Right Wing Watch:

Just before the election, relatively moderate right-wing figures like John Hagee, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, and James Dobson participated in a God TV “Election Special” where they split time with fringe figures like Jill Austin, Cindy Jacobs, and Lou Engle (and if you think people like Hagee and Robertson don’t deserve to be called “relatively moderate,” they you obviously aren’t familiar with people like Austin or Jacobs. Compared to them, Robertson and the like seem downright reasonable)

Humorous Stuff (sort of mean spirited at times)

Liberals Must Die (snark site) has just started back up; this post is….well…let’s just say that there are few things that people won’t use Obama’s name to market.

At another snark site, this video was shown. The relevant part runs from about 2:30 to 2:50. You might call it “entertainment fail”.

But getting back to the post: one of the labels was “sluts“. So, I just had to look up posts with that tag and found this one.

You ladies know who you are. You don’t have to be having sex to be viewed as a slut. You only need to put out a message that your highest value is that of sexual favors. If your normal attire is in sexually provocative clothing, or you flirt excessively with men by talking to them or touching them in a sexual manner, then you’re seen as a slut. A jerk can easily identify your vulnerabilities when you are being a slut, and target you for his own twisted purposes. [...]
When you like that men lust after you, you enjoy the power of having something that others want. It’s a natural thing to crave power. But the clear message you send when you are slutty is that you your sexual prowess is your highest power. You may try acting like you are also clever, insightful, witty, and well-read, all while wearing a very short miniskirt or exchanging suggestive email messages with a man [...]

My jerky ex talked about one of his female “friends” who often sent him pictures of herself in the nude or skimpy outfits. He showed me her public Myspace pictures where she would try to look like someone’s fantasy pin-up girl. He said she didn’t sleep around, but would wear these really hot outfits when they “hung out” together. He complained that she had lots of “daddy” issues, and that she had a very childish and an unrealistic view of relationships. Then he said that she was so damn hot that he couldn’t help but want to be around her. I don’t know if the poor girl knew that he was talking about her like she was a dumb piece of ass, but she continued to tease him while trying to show him how much of an intellectual she was.

You guessed it, he eventually cheated on me with her. In true fashion of a jerk, he kept me from meeting such a “good” friend and said that “one day” I’ll meet her. This was a lesson to me on how jerks view you if you’re slutty. They immediately hone in on your vulnerabilities. You are even more appealing when you make it known that you don’t sleep around. A slutty girl who doesn’t sleep around is a pristine target to jerks.

I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I read this; sometimes I enjoy a little (impersonal) flirtation.