29 November 09 (pm)
I am back in Peoria; I decided to defer my first “welcome back” workout to tomorrow morning. This is the last full week of classes but I should be ready for it.
Travel notes
1. I-55 from St. Louis to I-155 (Lincoln, IL) was more crowded than normal. Otherwise, the trip back was uneventful.
2. On the way back, we listened to an unabridged version of The Kite Runner. I’ll say more in a later post.
Football I missed most of the games because I was on the road. But of note:
1. Houston creamed Rice 73-14; it was 59-0 at the half!
2. Hawaii upset Navy 24-17; well it was “sort of” an upset. That trip is seldom easy, at least in the regular season.
3. I love the USC-UCLA game. For one, I find the team colors (both sides, together on the field) to be dazzling. Perhaps this is because I cut my teeth as a football fan when I lived in Japan and my only contact to seeing the color of big time football were the color photos in Sports Illustrated. Yes, this was the big game that year:
This is from this year:
Of course, the action is often good and this year’s game featured a controversy: USC was up 21-7 with less than a minute to go and had the ball. The did a kneel down and UCLA called a time out. Hence, USC ran a play action pass and scored.
This lead to a spirited “discussion” between the two teams.
Cool uniforms, a long tradition and usually good play: what more can you ask for?
Sure, some rivalries mean more to me (Army-Navy, ND-Navy, ND-USC, Texas-Texas A&M) but this is my favorite “disinterested fan” rivalry.
Posts
Given the lighthearted nature of the above, I almost feel guilty about adding this to today’s posts.
But here goes: in Africa, albinos are often murdered and their body parts then sold on the black market because some witch doctors claim that the albino body parts have “magical powers”.
In Joplin, MO,28 November 09
Workout notes 1 mile open water swim at Barton Springs in 35:41.
Travel: I-35 wasn’t that bad today (Austin to I-20 just south of Dallas.)
Posts
Some time ago (1996) a meteorite from Mars was found to have wormholes; the standard explanation was that these wormholes were the result of a inorganic process.
That hypothesis has been refuted; perhaps life (as we know it) formed these holes?
In 1996, David McKay of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texax, and colleagues proposed that that a chunk of Mars rock found in Antarctica, called ALH 84001, contained possible signs of past life on the Red Planet, such as complex carbon-based molecules and microscopic objects shaped like bacteria
Many researchers doubt the claim, however, and various suggestions have been made for how the structures could have been created without life.
One area of disagreement centred around nanocrystal magnetites in the rock, some of which appear to have chemical and physical features identical to those produced by contemporary bacteria. Sceptics of the biological explanation suggested that the magnetites were created when carbonate decomposed under high pressures and temperatures, perhaps in the heat of the impact that ejected the meteorite 15 million years ago or deep beneath the Martian surface.
Now a fresh analysis by McKay and colleagues rules out the carbonate decomposition explanation.
The researchers have used high-resolution electron microscopy not available 13 years ago to study the physical and chemical make-up of the magnetites in detail, and found that no plausible geological scenario could explain the carbonate decomposition origin.
Hat tip: Peoria Pundit.
27 Nov 09 AM
Workout notes 2 mile swim at Barton Springs (35:00, 35:07 for 1:10:07). Air temperature 41, water 68.
I was a tiny bit bummed when I missed going under 1:10 when I got out of the water, but then the two ladies who had put their stuff next to mine got out of the water. They wore wet suits but took them off while in the water and they had little tiny black bikinis underneath.
One smiled at me and said….well….”uhhhhhh” though chattering teeth; I said “I agree” and she laughed. Their bodies were a sea of goosebumps.
As for me: I had put on a heavy terry-cloth robe and thought about offering to share it with them.. 😉
Posts
Science and religion: Jerry Coyne appears to be amused at those who claim that “science and religion are compatible….so long as the religious change their beliefs to fit science.” 🙂
As Coyne points out: it is possible to reconcile science with the existence a non-interfering deity (deism).
PZ Myers enjoys a laugh at the expense at those who believe that black holes (singularities in space time) are some sort of liberal conspiracy.
Cosmic Variance: gives thanks for the “conservation of momentum” principle in physics. 🙂
(every Thanksgiving they give thanks for a physical principle).
How does an atheist give thanks anyway? True, we don’t believe that some deity altered the Cosmos for our benefit but taking stock and realizing that we probably have it better than we realize can help our attitude and therefore make us more likely to help those who really don’t have it so good?
Forces:
Politics The health care battle in the Senate will be tough and reconciliation carries some problems.
26 November 09: Football PM
Thanksgiving dinner Two chickens (between 4 of us we ate, maybe, 1.25 of them), potato salad, mashed potatoes, salad. I just can’t eat that much any more.
Mom, Olivia (my daughter), Barbara (my wife) and I were there; it was intimate.
Of course, I caught a couple of football games:
The Cowboys overpowered the Raiders 24-7; they basically beat the Raiders at the line of scrimmage, though the Raiders had one good drive to cut the lead to 17-7 in the 3’rd. Otherwise, the Raiders were overmatched.
My mom and I are watching the Longhorn-Aggie football game.
At the half it was 28-21, Texas over Texas A & M. Neither team can stop the other, though the Aggies got a touchdown that was set up by a punt that hit a Longhorn player who had fallen down. Texas is running and passing well; A&M can pass it; at least they could in the first half.
I get the feeling that UT will pull away eventually (they are driving) but the Aggies do NOT look like a team that lost 62-14 (to Kansas State) and 65-10 (to Oklahoma). But the Longhorns are driving and have it first and goal at the 7; they are running and passing at will. Make that touchdown; this drive was set up by an Aggie fumble at the Longhorn 42; all of the yards came by running.
It is 35-21; the Aggies cannot fall further behind if they wish to stay in the game.
(photos from yahoo college and yahoo pro football)
It is now 35-32, Longhorns. The Aggies got a field goal but also threw an end-zone interception; but the Longhorns are still moving the ball well. There is 13:38 left in the game; we’ll see how it turns out.
Update Make it 42-32 Longhorns; the Aggies got it to the 9 but were pushed back by a penalty. There is 7:30 to go. Wow…touchdown Aggies; a beautiful end zone catch (reasonably good coverage). It is now 42-39 Longhorns. UT needs to keep scoring; they sure can’t stop A & M.
Update again: UT runs the kickoff back to make it 49-39. Track meet. 🙂
Update: The Aggies return it to midfield and a late hit puts it at the Longhorn 36. There isn’t a lot of defense as of yet.
This looks like a Pac-10 game.
Update 49-39 UT, though A & M missed a chip-shot field goal and threw an end zone interception. An average team (6-6) put up 531 total yards against the Longhorn defense; they’d better do better than that against Nebraska and in their bowl game.
23 November 09 (pm)
Just some random stuff:
College Parents: help cut the umbilical cord when your kid goes to college:
(via Rate Your Students)
Sarah Palin: Ok, you probably could have done the same with some Obama supporters; the point is that people really get sold on an image and not on substance. Sure, I might have known what then Senator Obama had done and where he stood, but many of his supporters did not.
(and ok, it is fun to laugh at conservative idiots) 🙂
Security article: An article makes claims:
Decertifying “Terrorist” Pilots
This article reads like something written by the company’s PR team.
When it comes to sleuthing these days, knowing your way within a database is as valued a skill as the classic, Sherlock Holmes-styled powers of detection.
Safe Banking Systems Software proved this very point in a demonstration of its algorithm acumen — one that resulted in a disclosure that convicted terrorists actually maintained working licenses with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The algorithm seems to be little more than matching up names and other basic info:
It used its algorithm-detection software to sift out uncommon names such as Abdelbaset Ali Elmegrahi, aka the Lockerbie bomber. It found that a number of licensed airmen all had the same P.O. box as their listed address
Schneier (the author of the security blog that I am linking to) goes on:
Although I’m all for annoying international arms dealers, does anyone know the procedures for FAA decertification? Did the FAA have the legal right to do this, after being “made aware” of some information by a third party?
Of course, they don’t talk about all the false positives their system also found. How many innocents were also decertified?
Oh yes, the good old “false positives”. 🙂 You’d be surprised at how many people don’t take these into account in not only security and drug testing areas, but in medical testing areas as well. For example, many years ago, I asked my doctor if I should be stress tested. He said that while I had a remote chance of having a heat attack, any positive stress test result he might obtain on me would almost certainly be a false positive; in short, a stress test would reveal almost no information!
But I digress; I love the final line of Shneier’s article:
they don’t mention the fact that, in the 9/11 attacks, FAA certification wasn’t really an issue. “Excuse me, young man. You can’t hijack and fly this aircraft. It says right here that the FAA decertified you.”
🙂
22 November 09
Workout notes 10 mile McNaughton loop in 3:13; note that I missed the Golf Hill turn and doubled back and cost myself about 5 minutes. The trail was slightly dryer.
Note: after the fact, my right leg (lower hamstring/calf area) is a bit achy. Two 10 milers in a weekend was pushing it a bit.
Posts You’ve heard about the change on the recommendations on mammograms. Of course, there are some complaints. But here is a nice explanation as to what is going on:
On Monday evening, the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) released new recommendations for screening mammography, which it published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, that have, let me tell you, shaken my specialty to the core. I must admit I was surprised at the recommendations. No, I wasn’t surprised that recommendations to scale back mammographic screening were released. I saw it coming, based on a series of studies, some of which I’ve discussed right here on this very blog. What surprised me is how much of a departure from current mammography guidelines the USPSTF recommendations were and, even more so, that they were released this year. I hadn’t expected recommendations like this this soon. But I have to deal with them, and so I might as well try to help my readers understand them too.
The first thing that women need to understand is that these recommendations are for asymptomatic women at average risk for breast cancer undergoing routine screening for breast cancer. They are not for women judged to be at high risk due to genetic mutations, strong family history, or other factors producing a high risk for breast cancer. Neither are they for women who are not completely asymptomatic. If you’re a woman, particularly if you’re over 40, and have felt a lump, it needs to be worked up. Period. Screening by definition is administering a test to an asymptomatic population. These recommendations should not be used as a reason to delay or forego the evaluation of masses or other breast abnormalities. I mention this because I sometimes see confusion between screening and diagnostic mammography.
[…]
The summary for patients states:
The USPSTF found fair evidence that women who have screening mammography die of breast cancer less frequently than women who do not have it, but the benefits minus harms are small for women aged 40 to 49 years. Benefits increase as women age and their risk for breast cancer increases. However, there are relatively few studies of mammography for women aged 75 years or older. The potential harms of mammography include anxiety, procedures, and costs due to false-positive results and receiving a diagnosis and treatment of cancer that never would have surfaced on its own within a woman’s natural life time. They found that the benefit of mammography every 2 years is nearly the same as that of doing it every year, but the harms are likely to be half as common. They found no evidence that self- or clinical examination reduces breast cancer death rates. […]
n the meatime, screening asymptomatic people for disease always comes down to a balance of risks and benefits, as well as values. In the case of breast cancer, starting at 40 appears only to modestly increase the number of lives saved but at a high cost, while screening yearly only increases the detection of breast cancer marginally compared to screening every other year, also at a high cost in terms of more biopsies and more overdiagnosis. Whether the cost is worth it or not comes down to two levels. First and foremost, what matters is the woman being screened, what she values, and what her tolerance is for paying the price of screening at an earlier age, such as a high risk for overdiagnosis, excessive biopsies, and overtreatment in order to detect cancer earlier and a relatively low probability of avoiding death from breast cancer because of screening. Then there’s the policy level, where we as a society have to decide what tradeoffs we’re willing to make to save a life that otherwise would have been lost to breast cancer. Although screening programs and recommendations should be based on the best science we currently have, deciding upon the actual cutoffs of who is and is not screened and how often unavoidably involves value judgments. Such decisions always will.
Surf to the article to see some numbers.
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