8 February 2011 freezing edition

Workout notes Yoga; it was a very shabby effort on my part. Then Lynn took me home and I went to Bradley to lift:

Squats (Smith machine) 20 x 45, 10 x 135, 6 x 185,
Squats (free) 10 x 135, 10 x 155
Incline press: 10 x 115, 10 x 125, 7 x 135
curls: 15 x ? (barbell), 15 x 20, 15 x 20 dumbbells
pull downs: 3 sets of 10 x 120
rows: 10 x 190, 10 x 200, 10 x 200
Sit ups: 4 sets of 25 (incline from 1 to 4)
(note: the “high incline sit ups NEVER get easier!)
walk: 4 miles in 50:54 (12:50, 12:42, 12:45, 12:37)
hip hikes, back exercises
Exercise ball hamstring exercises (3 sets of 10)

On a positive note: my back is feeling better and the piriformis issue is clearing up and the shoulder is getting better. I am beginning to think of training again….but right now it is just a thought. Maybe by this summer I’ll actually be able to TRAIN? Maybe?

Posts
Darwin award?

see more funny videos

Mathematics and statistics:
Here is an article about the potential pitfalls of using statistical measures to detect bias. If you have had a stats class, the ideas are easy to summarize: suppose you had two groups of people who take a standardized test; the mean for group A is 980 and the mean for group B is 1000. Also suppose that the standard deviation is 100. Then suppose the cut-off for, say, an “elite score” on the test is 1300. Then out of 10000 people, 13 from group B will meet the standard but only 7 from group A; that is, a 20 point difference in the mean leads to an 85 percent increase in the number of those scoring “elite”.

Ideas true, academics tend to be liberals and scientists dramatically so. But that doesn’t mean that we need an affirmative action program for conservatives. Paul Krugman has some fun with this:

Ideologies have a real effect on overall life outlook, which has a direct impact on job choices. Military officers are much more conservative than the population at large; so? (And funny how you don’t see opinion pieces screaming “bias” and demanding an effort to redress the imbalance.)

It’s particularly troubling to apply some test of equal representation when you’re looking at academics who do research on the very subjects that define the political divide. Biologists, physicists, and chemists are all predominantly liberal; does this reflect discrimination, or the tendency of people who actually know science to reject a political tendency that denies climate change and is broadly hostile to the theory of evolution?

Now, I don’t mean to say that political bias in the academy is absent, although it’s not consistent: I can well imagine that it’s hard to be a conservative in some social sciences, but in economics, the obvious bias in things like acceptance of papers at major journals is towards, not against, a doctrinaire free-market view. But the point is that doing head counts is a terrible way to assess that bias.

Teaching Of course, I am a strong supporter of President Obama, but I am a bit worried that he is falling for bad idea in terms of education. Sure, I don’t like it that we sometimes have idiots who earn teaching certificates; we certainly do. And yes, in this crappy economy, any job is a good job. But if we continue to make teaching an unattractive job, we won’t attract the best talent. Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub can fill you in a bit more; I highly recommend reading his blog post.