16 December 09, afternoon

You mean that women are paying to get their butts rubbed?
(image is from the article above)

Did you know that there is a type of humor called “science humor”?

The former biologist was Tim Lee. After completing his undergraduate biology degree at the University of California, San Diego, he worked at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for a while before he realized he needed a doctorate to do the interesting work. But by the time he finished his Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis, he had realized he hated academia.

“I just didn’t want to read any more papers,” Dr. Lee said. “I didn’t want to write any more papers.” [...]

Dr. Lee wrote more jokes. He went to more open mikes. He eventually got a paying gig — $35 from a comedy club in Santa Cruz, Calif. Along the way, he started telling science jokes, and he discovered that PowerPoint made a good comedy prop.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Brian Malow, who calls himself “earth’s premier science comedian,” and Norm Goldblatt, a physicist who performs standup as a side gig, have been telling science jokes for years.

“It’s not as limiting as it sounds,” Mr. Malow said. “Science is in everything.”

Even so, Mr. Malow finds he sometimes needs to add footnotes. One joke he tells is, “I used to be an astronomer, but then I got stuck on the day shift.”

“When I have a savvier audience,” Mr. Malow said, “I have to point out that joke could be offensive to solar or radio astronomers,” who do work during the day. And since many telescopes now can be operated remotely, even astronomers working with optical telescopes now do much of their work during the day shift. [...]

A biologist walks into a comedy club. How does the story end? That stumped Dr. Lee, and he said he would think about it.

A couple of days later, he sent an e-mail message with this response: “A biologist walks into a comedy club. The owner asks, ‘Why’d you select this club?’ Biologist says, ‘Well, it was the natural selection.’ ”

Academia: sometimes students don’t want to know how their grades were calculated. Disclaimer: I grade my finals completely and honestly; the only thing that might change is the grade scale because there are more questions in which it is difficult to get partial credit e. g., a student uses Green’s Theorem to calculate a line integral around a non-closed path. (*)

(*)Yes, I know,in the “not really” Green’s Theorem problem , one could put in another path to close up the first path, use Green’s Theorem and then subtract the “easier to compute” line integral from the result…THAT would get full credit from me. But I am not talking about that.

Ok, enough of a break….time to finish that last batch of final exams!

For Liberals Only: Do you want to kill the Senate HCR Bill?

If so, here are 20 questions for you to answer.

16 December 09

Workout notes I wasn’t into it; I had body aches (not from illness but from yesterday’s weight lifting…yeah, I know… that pathetic workout) so: 500 warm up, 500 drill/swim, 6 x 100 IM, 5 x 100 (alternate paddle/free), 100 side.
That was the last 7 am swim of the semester.

Then, 2 miles on the AMT, 3 miles on the stairmaster. I have to be careful of my step. Then I did some light stretching.

Back to grading exams; I’d like to be done by this afternoon so I can watch tonight’s basketball game in peace, and I’d like to set up my winter blood donation (Friday would be perfect).

Health Care: Yeah, the Senate bill sucks, but it is better than what we have right now and it will save lives. So I made my calls. You can too. Note: the Washington DC offices might be hard or impossible to reach; I’d recommend calling your senator’s state office. For Illinois residents: I called the Springfield offices: Senator Durbin: 217- 492-4062 Senator Burris: 217-492-5089.

Al Franken calls out John Thune for lying on the Senate floor: “Let’s have an honest debate, for goodness sakes!” – Daily Kos TV (beta)

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15 December 09 (pm)

Oral Roberts died. Actually, I found him funny. Obviously he had some success; it isn’t just anyone who can start a university from scratch and make it work (even if it teaches nonsense). But Richard Dawkins wonders why his money making was tax exempt.

Joe Lieberman: he is against what liberals are for. Of course, Senator Lieberman hasn’t made sense for quite a while, even if he is popular with the polyester pants/expanded waistband set.