Dating by Punnett square

I'm totally using this in my genetics class this semester:

The Rules of Climate Change Denialism

I (compulsively?) read the Letters to the Editor of the Greenville News. They are, in my mind, a frightening window on the psyche of a particular, vocal segment of the US population. Filled with accusations of Obama-led socialism (though, so far, absent of birthers), Al Gore hypocrisy, and general looniness of all kinds, it's like Fox News filtered through the League of the South.

Once, I made the mistake of responding in the comments online to a global climate change denialist who claimed that there is an eleven-year cooling trend, so global warming is a hoax. I linked to this NASA data demonstrating there is no such cooling trend, but rather a clear upward temperature trend.














In response, I was informed that data was so "massaged" that it couldn't possibly be trusted. It is clear that I had not read the rules of evidence regarding permissible climate change data, especially these two:

1) Nothing that was recorded by instruments such as weather-stations, ocean buoys or satellite data. Since all instruments are subject to error, we cannot use them to measure climate.

2) Nothing that has been corrected to account for the error of recording instruments. Any corrected data is a fudge. You must use only the raw data, which is previously disqualified under rule #1. Got that? OK, moving along…

And here I went and violated both...

(via Deltoid)

Tiger is a Sagitarius

Not dead, just busy here... I've got a few serious posts kicking around in various stages of completion, but to get me back on the wagon for blogging, here's a quick, silly post.

I was at the pet store recently, and while waiting in the checkout line, noticed a curious book prominently displayed in the "buy me, buy me" impulse purchase magazine racks--Astrology for Cats. Wow, that's a two-for-one in the bogosity department! It's astrology! It's third-rate pet psychology! Two great tastes that taste great together!

I only browsed the introduction, so I don't have any really good lines from the pet horoscopes. But the introduction itself has a dead giveaway at the utter uselessness of this book: (highly paraphrased)

If you are lucky enough to know the birth date of your kitten, then consult the section on the corresponding astrological sign. However, if, like many cat owners, you don't know the birth date of your feline companion, simply read the descriptions of all the astrological signs, and pick the one that best matches your cat.

Talk about confirmation bias...

This explains a lot

Yet another local letter to the editor:

President Barack Obama's recent trip to the Middle East brought back memories of an article I read in the July 21, 2008, issue of Newsweek. The title of the article was “Finding His Faith.”

This interview occurred on an airplane during then-Sen. Obama's trip to Europe while waging his presidential campaign. Mr. Obama stated that 12 percent of Americans erroneously believed he was a Muslim. He had accepted Christ and was a Christian. However, the article goes on to say that just because he was a Christian it had not stopped him from asking questions, because there was the possibility that he could be wrong.

No born-again believer thinks there is the possibility that he may be wrong. This statement leads me to believe that President Obama may in fact be a Muslim and at some point in his career he will admit it, but not as long as he thinks it would be harmful to his political future.

Delusional, prone to conspiracy theories, and happy to trumpet it in the newspaper. Personally, I'm happy to find out that no born-again is ever wrong.

Grading standards

My semester has been over for a couple of weeks or so and the grading is all finished, but I have compatriots at other schools who are only now struggling with the last sets of essays and exams to put marks on. And, if Facebook is good for nothing else, it does at least let them share their frustrations. Here are a few of my favorite recent updates/comments:

In my class, a "C" means, "I can tell that you know what class you're in, as well as what planet you live on, you've clearly attended sometimes and you have a fuzzy grasp of the subject, although you've probably opened the book rarely if at all. Either you should not be in college because you are constitutionally incapable of thinking, or you are so incorrigibly lazy that you should be treated with electro-shock therapy. You deserve to fail but we need to retain students. A "B" grade means that you've put in a modest effort but you still don't get that you're in college and not junior high school. You don't want to learn but you know you need a college degree if you want to go into sales. An "A" means that you've done the minimal amount of work necessary for a college student, a performance for which you would receive a "C" if I was teaching this class 50 years ago. But, congratulations, I'm OK and you're OK!"

Best excuse for poor class attendance yet: "I had a bad case of poison ivy that lasted two months. I couldn't get to your class in the morning because it was so intense."

X would really appreciate it if students would lose the following phrase when begging for something to raise their grade: "I'll do whatever it takes."

Tell them "what it takes" might be a brain transplant...

and, of course

The response to "Whatever it takes" is "clearly not, or we wouldn't be having this conversation"