Bits and Pieces
jlynch | March 6, 2008Richard Dawkins was talking here tonight. Unfortunately because of family commitments I wasn’t able to make it and ended up giving my ticket to Wilkins who has his thoughts already online. Jim Lippard (whom Wilkins and I are grabbing a beer with on Saturday) has a comment or two on the talk up. By either account, I didn't miss much beyond what I already read in The God Delusion. I suspect Saturday's discussion will be interesting!
jlynch | March 2, 2008Things I can do that I no longer need to do (from here by way of here). Examining this list will no doubt tell you a lot about what I spent the past nearly forty years doing with technology.
Adjusting rabbit ears on top of a TV
Adjusting a television’s horizontal and vertical holds
Adjusting a television’s color and hue adjustments
Adjusting the tracking on a VCR
Adjusting the head azimuth of a Commodore’s Datassette
Archie AT commands for dial-up modems
Autoexec.bat editing
Backing up a PC using QIC-40 or QIC-80 tapes
BASIC Booting off a floppy disk
Burnishing a cartridge connector with a…
jlynch | February 23, 2008Some quick takes as I’m still too busy to write anything significant ...
With everything going on at the moment, I’ve been neglecting to post on the Irish rugby team’s performance in the Six Nations Championship. On the 7th they lost to France (26-21) and today they beat Scotland, 34-13. So that is two wins and a loss so far, enough to put them in second place (albeit because of a better point differential than France or England) behind Wales, whom they play next.
Somehow I hadn’t noticed that Neil Young released two live albums last year, Live at Massey Hall 1971 and Live at the Fillmore…
jlynch | February 14, 2008Those of us who teach can imagine what would be like. A lecture hall full of students. Some eager to learn, some who couldn’t care less. Some still in their teens, some returning to college after many years. All vibrantly human. And then the unthinkable happens, as happened today in Northern Illinois University.
After Virginia Tech, I walked into my lecture theater and looked at the 140 students. And then looked at the exits. For the first time I looked at the exits. That moment, searching for potential escape routes, has stayed in my mind’s eye. It is particularly strong tonight.
jlynch | February 12, 2008
Yesterday was Darwin Day. And a beagle won Best In Show at the Westminster Kennel Club. Coincidence? I think not.
jlynch | February 7, 2008
Yesterday was a good day, though a long one. I was in my office from nine in the morning meeting with students constantly (talking about upcoming papers) until I began teaching at 12:15. My classes were discussing the Book of Job and really seemed to get it, and by that I mean be able to tease it apart and figure out what was going on, and what the assumptions and goals of the authors were. Seminars are so much fun when the students come ready to talk, argue and discuss! After classes I had a five minute break (literally my first break for the day, not even enough time to grab a coffee)…
jlynch | February 2, 2008
Saw my first Ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis) yesterday. While this is not a picture of the one I saw, it is more on less identical. Interestingly, I spotted the hawk was being mobbed by some very irate birds as I was driving home from the store and was able to pull over and get a good look for over a minute. I hadn’t realized that we had them here in the ’burbs, but am fairly confident of the identification.
[source]
jlynch | February 2, 2008The Beloit College Class of 2011 Mindset list has been released. It features aspects of the worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2007, i.e. those born in 1989. Some things that make me feel old:
What Berlin wall?
They never "rolled down" a car window.
They have grown up with bottled water.
Russia has always had a multi-party political system.
Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
MTV has never featured music videos.
The space program has never really caught their attention except in disasters.
The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were…
jlynch | January 25, 2008I’ve seen the light, had an epiphany even. Tom Cruise tells us:
Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, its not like anyone else. As you drive past you know you have to do something about because you know you’re the only one that can really help.
and later
We are the authorities on getting people off drugs. We are the authorities on the mind. We are the authorities on improving conditions. Criminal, we can rehabilitate criminals, way to happiness, we can bring peace, unite cultures.
Is there anything Scientology can’t do? Probably not, according to Cruise.
So I’ve had an…
jlynch | January 25, 2008As regular readers probably know, I have been a (sporadic) contributor to The Panda’s Thumb since its founding in March 2004. Usually if I post there, the post ends up here, with comments often ending up at both sites. To make it easier to keep track of these (and to make it easier to keep up with comments), I have created a category The Panda’s Thumb (cross posts) which will list all such cross-posts since January 1st of this year. Cross-posts will also be indicated by the spiffy icon you see here.
jlynch | January 22, 2008
And so it started, four years ago today.
The "more focussed" thing didn’t really work out though ...
jlynch | December 27, 2007The 2007 BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America has appeared. #9 is sadly on the money.
9. You
Charges: You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at your pharmacy asked you to press 9 for Spanish. You cling to every scrap of bullshit you can find to support your ludicrous belief system, and reject all empirical evidence to the contrary. You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism -- it’s nationalism when foreigners do it. You hate anyone who seems…
jlynch | December 22, 2007Over at fark.com, there’s a thread on viral videos. Someone posted this classic
which the original YouTube poster described as "The Crazy Indian Video with SUBTITLES THAT SAY WHAT I THINK THE VIDEO SOUNDS LIKE IN ENGLISH!!!" and is probably the most hyperkinetic thing I have ever seen in my life. It’s also probably best not to watch it while drinking.
jlynch | December 15, 2007And while I’m at it rounding up the year ...
Top ten posts (from any year) for visits this past year
Strange beastie in Maine
Polar bears are threatened
Epic takedown of Pivar
From sea to shining sea
Last LOL I promise, well maybe
Possibly the dumbest argument ever against atheism
Beware the catfish from hell
Oreskes responds to Shulte
Wizzened baby animal alert
An international coalition of non-religious ID scientists & scholars
I’m guessing that #1, #2 & #9 are popular because of Google image searches. Others are popular due to link-love from Pharyngula or people’s obsession with…
jlynch | December 11, 2007Our overlords (can the beatings stop now? please?) have asked us to ask you to take a brief two question quiz regarding languages. Run along and do it ... otherwise the beatings will continue.
jlynch | December 8, 2007
No, not a processed meat made from young dogs of African origin, but this:
My Name is Ronald Gigs, I and my Wife are on a Christian mission to Africa and we came along with our little Puppy Jenny. After a while we notice that the weather here is not good for the Jenny and we have not been able to take good care of her the way we always do because of our job. we need someone to adopt her and take care of her the way we always do. If you can take good care of her please get back to us because we really need someone to take good care of her.
And we hope you are also a loving person with a kind…
jlynch | December 5, 2007Over the next few weeks I’m going to manually moving pre-2006 posts on Stranger Fruit over to this site. Longtime readers - or is that reader - will remember that the blog was hosted on my own server between January 2004 and December 2005 but disappeared into the aether after a database crash early this year. Remnants are, however, to be found on the Wayback Machine and I’m going to use those to recreate some of the material going back to January ’04 in an effort to give it more permanence. I’m going to have to do this manually, but that will enable me to just concentrate on the science and…
jlynch | November 30, 2007Bora reminds us that Open Lab 2007 is now in the judging phase - 329 entries now have to be whittled down to 50. Some unknown reader (thanks!) nominated my Pithecophobes of the World, Unite! Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV series for inclusion.