I jumped the gun on Blumenthal

I was taken in on the edited video clip supplied by the New York Times. Here is the 6 minute speech that the NY Times edited down to a sound bite:

And here he is in a debate:

Moral: when I feel outraged, wait a day or two or at least dig a bit.

On another note: this article by Mano Singham is interesting:

The main reason that atheists deny that god exists is because there is no credible evidence for him/her/it. In trying to meet this challenge, religious people tend to split two ways, those who accept the need for evidence and those who think evidence is unnecessary for belief.

Ordinary religious believers tend to say that yes, they do so have evidence. When asked to specify what this evidence consists of, they tend to talk of personal experience of the presence of god, miracles, and things they consider to be deep and insoluble mysteries (like the origin of life or the universe). [...]

The more sophisticated theologians and philosophers realize that the kinds of evidence that are produced in favor of god can be easily shot down by skeptics and so now they don’t even try. They tend to make the best of a bad situation by finding ways to pooh-pooh the whole notion of evidence, saying that we atheists are wrong to be tied to such mundane matters as material evidence or even raise the question of the actual existence of a god, and must open our eyes to appreciate the deep and sublime truths about the nature of god that evidence cannot touch.

This strikes me as total hogwash, the kind of pseudo-reasoning that only an intellectual can come up with. At least ordinary religious people realize the need for evidence, even if they cannot produce any credible evidence.

Why am I posting this? I have facebook friends that argue with me over this all of the time. Also, there seems to be “understood assumption” that the “rational” thing to do is to “believe”. Again, I have no issue with those who use religion for their own benefit and don’t try to push their superstitions or bigotry on others.

Quip of the day

When viewing an MRI image of my knee, one runner quipped: “I can see the face of Jesus in your MRI. Time to put it on e-bay.”

Just Saying….Jobs…

(via Rachel Maddow)

19 May 2010 (am)

I stayed up too late watching the Celtic-Magic game. It was worth it.

Yeah, there were some elections going on; mostly primaries but there was a special election for the late Rep. Murtha’s seat. Nate Silver sorts it out and yes, there is less here than meets the eye. I agree with him on the significance of the Arkansas race:

Arkansas — Democratic Senate primary

The results: Blanche Lincoln and Bill Halter head to overtime. Lincoln has 45 percent of votes counted so far tonight, and Halter 43 percent, but a majority was required to avoid a run-off.

The conventional wisdom: Lincoln spent too much time hanging out in the middle of the road and got run over.

The reality: There are parallels between what Rand Paul accomplished in Kentucky and what Bill Halter did in Arkansas. As I mentioned earlier, Kentucky is not a particularly good state for real libertarians. Likewise, Arkansas is not an especially good state for netroots progressives, who are mostly white, liberal, and college-educated, whereas the state’s Democratic primary electorate is 61 percent non-college, 64 percent non-liberal, and contains a fair number of black voters.

Halter endeared himself to national progressives and to unions with his vocal support of the public option, giving him money, momentum and media attention. But to Arkansasans, he was a relatively familiar face (as the sitting Lieutenant Governor) who ran a relatively non-ideological campaign, railing against corruption, bailouts, and wishy-washiness, as challengers of all political persuasions are doing. Halter came out against cap-and-trade, on the other hand, and tried his best to avoid taking a position on contentious social issues.

Certainly this is a rough environment for moderates, but Lincoln made matters worse by drawing unnecessary attention to herself on health care, and by picking the wrong issues to moderate upon: yes on TARP, no on the public option is a set of positions that very few rank-and-file Democrats (or voters of any kind) will share. And she was a very incumbent-y incumbent in an environment where incumbents are not popular.

Of course, we should not yet be speaking about her in the past tense; Lincoln could still win the run-off. But I suspect that the presumably superior enthusiasm of Halter’s voters will pay off for him in three weeks. Turnout was actually not bad in Arkansas — in fact, it slightly exceeded turnout in the 2008 Presidential primary — but I don’t know if Blanche Lincoln is the sort of person for whom people are going to get up off the couch to vote for twice in one month.

Frankly, I wonder if this matters, as I don’t see the Democrats holding on to this seat after November. I hope that I am wrong, and given that I don’t understand the situation there, I could well be wrong.

More on politics Robert Reich has his take too, but of more interest is the cold water he is throwing on the “economic good news”:

But the probability of the economy moving into high gear between now and then is not great. Consider that almost eighty percent of the increase in GDP in the first quarter was due to the growth of consumer spending. Where did consumers get the money if their real hourly wage dropped? From drawing down their savings. Obviously, they can’t continue to do this. Had consumers not spent their savings, the GDP would hardly have grown at all [...]

In fact, if you exclude temporary boosts like the government stimulus and the restocking of company inventories, the U.S. economy would not have grown in the first quarter. As these temporary boosts fade later this year, consumer spending is the only thing that will keep the economy going. But consumers won’t be able to spend what they don’t have.

Some economic cheerleaders predict employers will increase wages as their profits grow. That’s nonsense. With five jobless workers for every job opening, employers are under no pressure to raise wages.

Other cheerleaders say the stock market’s rise will boost consumer spending and confidence. That’s nonsense, too. How many consumers feel richer because the Dow is up from what it was at the start of the year? They may see a bit of a rise in their 401(k)s, but their biggest asset is their homes, and housing prices are going nowhere. One out of four Americans with a mortgages now owes more than their house is worth.

The real lesson from today’s political races is the economy still stinks for most people. And the real lesson from the economy’s first quarter is the recovery is so weak that the anxious class is likely to remain anxious through November. Incumbents beware.

Time will tell if he is right or not; he has enough credibility with me that I will listen to him, even if what he says isn’t what I want to hear nor what I currently believe.

A bit of science
Postpartum depression: some dads get a form of it too:

By SHIRLEY S. WANG

It’s not just new moms who get postpartum depression. More than one in 10 fathers become depressed after the birth of their child, too, according to a new study that researchers said underscores the need for more awareness of men’s depression.

Postpartum depression in mothers has been well-recognized, but much less attention has been focused on how new fathers fare. That’s because women are usually the primary care givers and postpartum depression was considered a condition likely linked to hormonal changes in pregnancy. Experts say treating depression, whether it’s in the mother or father, is important because it raises the risk for long-term behavioral and psychiatric problems in the child.

Researchers from the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk sought to get an accurate estimate for what percentage of men experience depression in the year after their child was born, using commonly accepted depression measures. They conducted a statistical review of 43 previously published studies involving 28,000 male and female adults.

Some 10.4% of fathers experience depression during the postpartum period, the analysis showed. In the general population, 4.8% of men are believed depressed at any given point in time, according to government data.

For women, the rate of postpartum depression was estimated at nearly 24%, according to the new analysis, which was published Tuesday in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“When we look at the impact on families and children [of depression in new fathers], this is a public-health problem that goes beyond the individual,” said James Paulson, a child clinical psychologist and pediatrics professor at Eastern Virginia and the first author on the paper.

The reasons for paternal postpartum depression are likely similar to those that contribute to the condition in mothers, including sleep deprivation, stress in the parents’ relationship and isolation from friends, Dr. Paulson said.

I think that the moral here is that not ALL of the depression that a woman might feel is hormonal.
I haven’t read the original study but wonder if this depression is greater among couples who have moved away from their larger families (e. g., does having grandma and grandpa around to help out really help with this?)

More science

Amphibians adapt to changing environment:

t’s been 30 years since Mother Nature kicked off an experiment in creative destruction at Mount St. Helens, and today the volcano serves as a prime example of how life adapts to changing conditions.

The changes on the mountain are fascinating to biologists – and perhaps unexpectedly, creationists as well.

For example, consider the amphibians of the ponds: When the volcano blew on May 18, 1980, an avalanche of logs, rocks and other debris wiped out some lakes and reshaped others. Biologists thought amphibians such as salamanders, frogs and toads would be among the hardest-hit species.

So biologists were “absolutely shocked” to find that most of the area’s amphibian species had survived the blast, Crisafulli said. The eruption created an array of 150 ponds that actually encouraged the amphibians to widen their territory.

These weren’t your father’s amphibians: The reshaped terrain reshaped the animals as well. The pond habitat favored Northwestern salamanders that could keep their gills and live their whole lives as aquatic animals, as detailed in this Seattle Times report.[...]

Note: there haven’t been enough generations for true evolution to take place; right now you see these amphibians adapting to their new environment and making life changes.

Galaxy structure
Here is a nice article on a galaxy and how different it looks when viewed in different wavelengths.

The image above demonstrates the difference: The picture at right shows M83 as seen in visible light by the MPG/ESO telescope, while the picture at left was produced using HAWK-I. The infrared view isn’t as flashy, but it does trace the underlying structure of the galaxy’s spiral arms more clearly – and pinpoints individual stars.

Fun:

From here:

Can we make these tight spandex mandatory for all the volleyball girls around the world? And how about mandatory champagne and whip cream shower for all the winners?

Yeah, there a couple more shots of these volleyball players from Argentina.

Celtics-Magic Game II

I expected the Magic to win this one; they are too good to be swept at home.

Still it is intense with the Celtics up 53-51 at the half. Howard: 17 points. Pierce: 22. Rondo: 13 with 4 assists. Redick: 11 off of the bench for the Magic. There has been a technical, a flagrant foul, cuts, bruises, etc.

Storm clouds for the Magic: Howard has 3 fouls.
Still, I see them holding on.

57-57 early in the 3′rd, but Howard picked up foul number 4. Perkins got his 4′th as well, but Davis and Wallace can back him up credibly; not sure that the Magic can replace Howard.

66-59 Celtics with 6 minutes left in the 3′rd. Carter slipped and banged his wrist on the floor; it turns out he is ok but it looked bad at first. Garnett is not having a good shooting game but is rebounding and playing defense.

Going into the 4′th:
Celtics 78-70. BUT, every time it appears that the Celtics are starting to pull away, someone steps up with a big shot. Pierce has 26, Rondo 19, Garnett 8, Perkins 10.
Howard: 23, Redick, Carter 12.

Wallace buried a 3 from the corner; 81-70 Celtics.

85-77 Celtics; Rondo a spectacular reverse lay up in traffic. 8:46 is left, which is an eternity.

Ooops, Perkins fouled out. 7:44 to go, 85-79, Celtics. Now Pierce has 4 fouls. Tony Allen comes in.

85-81, two big shots by Howard. The game is getting even tighter.

Oh oh, Pierce has foul number 5 with 4:05 to go; 89-88 Celtics. Oh boy. Turn over. Magic leads 90-89 with 3:35 to go. I’ve got the feeling that the Magic will pull it out; Boston’s shooting has gone south over the previous few possessions. Still, the game is tight.

Howard has 30 points. Another stop.

Big shot by Garnett. 91-90 Boston.

Offensive foul; Davis draws another charge from Redick. 2:17 to go. Now 2:01; Boston ball; 5 seconds on the shot clock and a time out.

Second chance shot; 93-90 Celtics, 1:15 to go; quick 3 missed by the Magic.
Lay up; 93-92 with 50 seconds to go. It doesn’t get closer than this.
34.7 seconds left, Pierce shooting 2 shots. Piece buries them; 95-92 Boston with 34.7 seconds left.

Ooops, Pierce fouls out with 31.9 seconds to go. Carter 2 shots. Misses the first. Misses the second. 30.6 and Boston ball. A score for Boston just about ends it.

Good D; Garnett misses a contested long jump shot but now only 3.5 seconds are left and Orlando inbounding. Misses, Boston wins!!!!!

(photos from yahoo)

So the Sex Lives of SCOTUS Justices are Fair Game

What about Justice Scalia? Michale Kinsley wants to know:

Let me be clear: the issue is not the fact that Scalia has chosen to have nine children. That is his personal business. The question is whether he is an extremist advocate of the so-called “Nine Children Agenda.” Can he deal open-mindedly with children’s issues when he has so many himself? Can he persuade his children to recuse themselves when appropriate (or, in the vernacular, “Just shut up, will you? I’m trying to write an opinion here. Sweetheart, could you please come and take him…stop climbing up my leg…watch it with that glass of water, buddy…no, that’s some condemned prisoner’s brief that daddy has to reject, so don’t …would somebody please take this kid…LOOK OUT for the… Jesus H. Christ, how am I supposed to get any work done”?).

Speculation is already rampant about why Scalia chose nine children over a more conventional lifestyle. Is he a sex maniac? That suspicion naturally arises. But perhaps once he started, he just never got around to stopping. Or maybe he just likes children. In recent days, Scalia’s friends have rushed to his defense, going out of their way to portray him as a model of sexual restraint. “Every Friday a bunch of us used to go down to this bar to pick up women,” one of his college roommates recalls. “We’d always ask Nino if he wanted to join us, but he always said he was too busy studying. Frankly, we thought he was gay.”

Simians and Sleazeball Democrats

Can Chimps, Monkeys and other simians talk? Well, they can communicate but really don’t have a language:

Walking through the Tai forest of Ivory Coast, Klaus Zuberbühler could hear the calls of the Diana monkeys, but the babble held no meaning for him.

That was in 1990. Today, after nearly 20 years of studying animal communication, he can translate the forest’s sounds. This call means a Diana monkey has seen a leopard. That one means it has sighted another predator, the crowned eagle. “In our experience time and again, it’s a humbling experience to realize there is so much more information being passed in ways which hadn’t been noticed before,” said Dr. Zuberbühler, a psychologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Do apes and monkeys have a secret language that has not yet been decrypted? And if so, will it resolve the mystery of how the human faculty for language evolved? Biologists have approached the issue in two ways, by trying to teach human language to chimpanzees and other species, and by listening to animals in the wild.

Well, no.

Monkeys and apes possess many of the faculties that underlie language. They hear and interpret sequences of sounds much like people do. They have good control over their vocal tract and could produce much the same range of sounds as humans. But they cannot bring it all together.

This is particularly surprising because language is so useful to a social species. Once the infrastructure of language is in place, as is almost the case with monkeys and apes, the faculty might be expected to develop very quickly by evolutionary standards. Yet monkeys have been around for 30 million years without saying a single sentence. Chimps, too, have nothing resembling language, though they shared a common ancestor with humans just five million years ago. What is it that has kept all other primates locked in the prison of their own thoughts?

Drs. Seyfarth and Cheney believe that one reason may be that they lack a “theory of mind”; the recognition that others have thoughts. Since a baboon does not know or worry about what another baboon knows, it has no urge to share its knowledge. Dr. Zuberbühler stresses an intention to communicate as the missing factor. Children from the youngest ages have a great desire to share information with others, even though they gain no immediate benefit in doing so. Not so with other primates.

“In principle, a chimp could produce all the sounds a human produces, but they don’t do so because there has been no evolutionary pressure in this direction,” Dr. Zuberbühler said. “There is nothing to talk about for a chimp because he has no interest in talking about it.” At some point in human evolution, on the other hand, people developed the desire to share thoughts, Dr. Zuberbühler notes. Luckily for them, all the underlying systems of perceiving and producing sounds were already in place as part of the primate heritage, and natural selection had only to find a way of connecting these systems with thought.

Politics
Yep, we have sleazeball Democrats too (besides Gov. Blagojevich and Rep. Jefferson. Disgusting.

ust read this from an email alert, didn’t see it diaried yet. Details over the fold …

And BTW – diary police, yes this is not exactly a fleshed out diary full of analysis and opinions regarding this news event. When such a diary emerges I will be happy to take this one down. Until then this can provide a place for conversation regarding this issue. Thank you.

* kbman’s diary :: ::
*

At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life.

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.

Link

18 May 2010 (noonish)

Workout notes (part II): weights:
Pull ups: 10, 10, 10, 10 (chin), 8 (chin), 5 (chin)
Rows (Smith Machine) 3 x (6 x 135); focused on keeping the upper body parallel to the floor
Dumbbell military: 7 x 50, 10 x 45, 7 x 50
Incline bench 10 x 135, 8 x 135
Pull downs: 3 x (10 x 140)
Rotator cuff
Legs: partial squats: 10 x 135 Smith machine
Leg Extensions: 10 x 25 (each leg)
Leg Curls: 10 x 90
(starting off gently for a while; gradual build up is the key)
Ab sets
yoga leg lifts (2 sets of 20)
vertical leg lifts (to 90 degrees) 2 sets of 10 hanging, 1 set of 20 supported
Twists: 2 x (12 x 130)
Crunches: 2 x (10 x 130)
Vertical crunches: 2 sets of 20
head stand: 5 minutes

Saw Mat afterward. He didn’t recognize me in the head-stand position.

That, plus 5 miles this morning, made for a pleasant day.

Posts
Mathematical Nonsense: yes, here is a math model for marriage. Conclusion: if you don’t work at it, it will fall apart, but if too much work is required, it will fall apart. Duh.

The results of the mathematical analysis showed when both members of union are similar emotionally they have an “optimal effort policy,” which results in a happy, long-lasting relationship. The policy can break down if there is a tendency to reduce the effort because maintaining it causes discomfort, or because a lower degree of effort results in instability. Paradoxically, according to the second law model, a union everyone hopes will last forever is likely break up, a feature Rey calls the “failure paradox”.

According to the model, successful long-term relationships are those with the most tolerable gap between the amount of effort that would be regarded by the couple as optimal and the effort actually required to keep the relationship happy. The mathematical model also implies that when no effort is put in the relationship can easily deteriorate.

My take: marriage with me will work from my end if my wife has That is the two B-squareds: Big Brain and a Big Butt. My wife has both.

Idiotic Math teacher: I hope that this imbecile gets fired:

The Secret Service investigated an Alabama high school teacher for using the example of shooting President Obama while teaching a geometry lesson.

The Secret Service spoke with the man, a teacher at Corner High School in Jefferson County, but decided not to arrest him.

“We did not find a credible threat,” Roy Sex­ton, of Birmingham’s Secret Service office, told the Birmingham News. “As far as the Secret Service is concerned, we looked into it, we talked to the gentleman and we have closed our investigation.”

A student in the class described the lesson: “He was talking about angles and said, ‘If you’re in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president.’”

The district superintendent told the News that the unnamed teacher will not be disciplined.

Yes, I’d say the same if it were President Bush.

Science and Religion: Jerry Coyne talks about a Huffing Post article that blames…you guessed it…noisy atheistic scientists for the lack of acceptance of evolution:

Over at HuffPo (who knew?), Karl Giberson, vice president of the Templeton-funded BioLogos foundation, analyzes the reasons why intelligent design persists in America. Here are his four explanations:

ID’s coffin is far from being nailed shut. Several things are propping it open:

1) The complex designs of many natural structures that have not yet been explained by science. As long as there are ingenious devices and intricate phenomena in nature (origin of life, anyone?) that we cannot understand, there will be ID arguments.
[...]

4) The enthusiastic insistence by the New Atheists that evolution is incompatible with belief in God. Most people think more highly of their religion than their science. Imagine trying to get 100 million Americans to dress up for a science lecture every Sunday morning — and then voluntarily pay for the privilege.

Well, I did order science lectures from the Teaching Company so I guess I am part of those dismissed in 4. But how about this: science is hard, popular explanations are necessarily incomplete and many think “if it doesn’t make sense to me it is bullshit”.

Yes, I know of non religious people who reject evolution because it doesn’t make sense to them.
I recommend reading the rest of Coyne’s article and making a comment.

Absurdities of religion
Yes, I agree that religion can give people some individual comfort and provide some sense of community, even if the people don’t accept the hocus-pocus associated with it.

For example, during my Catholic days, I remember going to a date’s house and having a talk with her and her housemate. It was one heck of a good time. Her housemate was Catholic and she was a Protestant. Anyway, when we discussed our weeks, I mentioned that I had gone to a “throat blessing” ceremony at our church; basically the priest took holy candles and made an X with them and touched your throat with the crux of the X.

My date roared with laughter; and then I started to laugh too as did her housemate. She asked me: “do you really believe that THAT helped you?” I smiled and said “I still got my flu shot”. Then I admitted that I just did the ritual just because I enjoyed the ritual.

Unfortunately, many believers accept the hocus-pocus, often with deadly consequences. Yesterday I tut-tutted one such instance in Saudi Arabia. (fire fighters let 15 young women die in a fire rather than attempt to rescue women who might not be modestly dressed.).

Well, we have such idiotic stuff here too; in this case a Nun was disciplined (ex-communicated) for making a life saving decision for a medical patient:

A Catholic nun and longtime administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix was reassigned in the wake of a decision to allow a pregnancy to be ended in order to save the life of a critically ill patient.

The decision also drew a sharp rebuke from Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, head of the Phoenix Diocese, who indicated the woman was “automatically excommunicated” because of the action.

Sister Margaret McBride, who had been vice president of mission integration at the hospital, was on call as a member of the hospital’s ethics committee when the surgery took place, hospital officials said. She was part of a group of people, including the patient and doctors, who decided upon the course of action.

Why would anyone want to remain a part of such a morally bankrupt institution?

May 18 2010 Injury Report

Workout notes 5 mile hill walk in just under 1:10; slightly slippery but ok.

Injury note I got the results back from my MRI. Evidently I have a torn meniscus (a big hole showed up in it) and I have a “bucket-handle tear”: a flap is loose and sometimes gets suck in the joint, thereby causing a loss of range of motion. Evidently I tore it some more and it became “unstuck” for a while in 2007.

I’ve been operating with this for some time; this has been the knee that I kept getting “bent knee” calls on during judged racewalks.

Upshot: I get arthroscopic surgery early July; the incision should heal in time for me to train for the Big Shoulders 5K swim in September.

I see what to avoid (deep squats) and anything that involves pivoting but I can build up with gentle lower body exercises.

So I know what to do. On to the weight room!

Attitudes: mathematics and walking

Mathematics Last week, a friend of mine e-mailed me a paper. A problem that I tried to solve back in 1989 has finally been solved; it was the result of a lot of work by lots of smart people, and someone that I know (and like) finally solved the problem.

So the good: a nice person got it.
The bad: well, the effort it took to solve the problem was, well, out of reach for someone who makes a living teaching 12 hours of undergraduate, mostly lower division mathematics; much of it remedial. The people who made significant progress on the problem work in research positions.

Sure, they are smarter than I and their course loads often include a graduate class.

Yes, I have a job and many others don’t. But there is, well, a deep seated “sigh” and a bit of remorse that I didn’t do better (and land at least a research post-doctoral position).

I can’t do anything about that now, but I can quit blogging for today and get to work on a paper that I should send out in the next couple of weeks!

Walking
From time to time, people comment on runners (or walkers) who either greet or don’t greet others. So yesterday, I made it a point to see what I do. So here is the full truth:

In all cases I move well to the opposite side of the path/road and

1. If the person coming the other way is walking for exercise or running, I usually smile and nod…well maybe grimace if I am toward the end of a long workout.

2. If the person has a dog, I don’t even make eye contact; I really hug “my” side of the path/road.

3. Same if the person is pushing a stroller or if it is someone just strolling or, say, a couple holding hands. I look away and down and don’t make eye contact.

I am not seeking approval of how I react; I am merely making a report. I don’t know if this is a “big city” habit (“mind your own frigging business!”) or it is because I am an introvert who doesn’t like people (except for those that I meet and get to know).

But there it is.