Miscellaneous
mixingmemory | October 10, 2006This is just funny. In case you don't remember, in this year's World Cup finals, French star Zinedine Zidane, who was playing in his last World Cup game, headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in extra time. He was promptly red carded, and thus removed from the game. There was a lot of speculation about what Materazzi might have said to Zidane to make him do such a foolish thing, so Materazzi has written a book about it. From the article:
In a book titled "What I actually told Zidane," Materazzi lists 249 possible phrases he could have uttered, including his real words, the ANSA news…
mixingmemory | October 4, 2006Is it wrong that I like this? I'd like to see the Nietzschean Dilbert, too.
And I had to include a second one, because this is one of my favorite quotes from Zarathustra:
mixingmemory | September 27, 2006OK, I learned of this site from Positive Liberty, and tried desperately to resist it, but ultimately was unable to. The result of my weakness:
And if you recognize the "slogan," the answer is yes, I am a big fan.
mixingmemory | September 21, 2006A few days ago, the New York Mets clinched the National League East title, becoming the first team to win a division with the Atlanta Braves in it, other than the Braves, since 1990 (excluding the strike-shortened 1994 season, of course). This marked the end of the longest streak of consecutive division titles in professional sports. Strangely, as a devout Braves, I am somewhat relieved that the streak is over. I was 15 when the Braves won the first of their 14 straight titles, and the streak has lasted half of my lifetime. I have to say, it's been exhausting. I still have the scar on the top…
jrosenhouse | September 14, 2006Have to blog and run today. I get to spend three hours this afternoon trying to persuade skeptical calculus students that “related rate” problems aren't so bad. A forlorn quest, I know. Anyway, how about I just point you towards some interesting reading:
Over at CSICOP's site, Penny Higgins offers this excellent article on the topic of transitional forms generally, and Tiktaalik in particular. Worth it for the diagrams alone!
Joshua Roebke, writing for Seed, gives us a concise summary of Grigory Perelman's refusal of the Fields Medal for proving the Poincare conjecture.
The New York…
mixingmemory | September 10, 2006OK, this has nothing to do with cognitive science, but today's quake felt throughout the southeast reminded me of a little history that some people may not be aware of. In Tennessee, there is only one large natural lake, Reelfoot Lake, in the far western part of the state just south of Kentucky, near the Mississippi River. It's an exceptionally beautiful place, with bald eagles and bald cypress trees (in the picture below), but what's really cool about it is how it was formed.
In 1811 and 1812, there were dozens of earthquakes, including 4 very large ones, in thea area around west Tennessee…
jrosenhouse | September 4, 2006I was watching Steve Irwin before it was cool.
I discovered him by accident, channel surfing. Commercial, commercial, Law & Order, infomercial, holy crap is that guy picking up snakes by the tail?! As I recall, it was a show called, “The Ten Deadliest Snakes in Australia.” He was not a big star at this time, and did not yet have his regular television series. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing.
After that I made a point of watching him regularly. As his fame grew his mannerisms became exaggerated to the point of being annoying, and his show was clearly being aimed at a…
cmooney | September 1, 2006This is a history of science question for all of you folks. What do you think are the most prominent historical cases in which new ways of taking measurements of nature, or new scientific calculations, have themselves brought about major new theories or hypotheses? In other words, what are the case studies of how new means of measurement have themselves effectively changed reality? Feedback would be appreciated.
jrosenhouse | August 26, 2006It's been a good week for entertainment. I saw Snakes on a Plane, of course. Very enjoyable, though inevitably a bit disappointing given the hype. Needed more snakes. And Prison Break returned this week. I had to tape the premiere and only just got around to watching it. Looks like another fine season ahead.
Classes start Monday. Ominous music, please.
jrosenhouse | July 17, 2006Like all sensible people, I'm a huge fan of George Carlin. I regard him as the very best stand-up comedian, ever. Not only are his routines funny and insightful, but they are delivered so skillfully that you can learn a lot about good public speaking simply by studying his technique. I often tell people that Carlin (and Robin Williams) had a far greater impact on my teaching style than any math ed. specialist ever did. After all, stand-up comedians have to command an audience's attention for up to an hour at a time using only their words and their mannerisms. That's pretty much what math…
jrosenhouse | July 10, 2006Check out my most recent review. Maybe I've been too hard on this site....
jrosenhouse | July 10, 2006Also while I was away, Nature published its list of the top blogs by scientists. EvolutionBlog was listed in a tie for the twentieth spot, based on my Technorati rank (whatever that is). Cool. All such lists have to be taken with a grain of salt, of course, but it's always nice to be noticed.
It was also nice to see The Panda's Thumb, to which I am proud to contribute, ranked second. P. Z. Myers earned a well-deserved spot at the top of the list. And congratulations to all the other SB'ers on the list.
cmooney | July 9, 2006I thought he was a real football hero. Guess I was wrong.
Every team I have rooted for during this World Cup--USA, Netherlands, England, Germany, and finally France--has gone down almost as soon as I switched to supporting them. I have no good record of picking winners.
Still, thanks to Zidane, I thought France was a safe bet. He seemed like a man on fire. I could have sworn that I saw a polished veteran who not only knew how to put the ball in the net when it matters, but whose stellar example had lifted his entire team to another level.
Oh well, never mind.
For the record, on some level I…
mixingmemory | July 9, 2006Wow, what a really bad cup this year. I mean, I was rooting for Italy after the U.S. was eliminated, but ending on penalty kicks? That just sucks. Combine that with all the other games that either ended on penalty kicks after extra time, or in which the only goal scored was on a penalty kick, and then the poor officiating through much of group play, and this was the worst cup that I remember.
mixingmemory | July 6, 2006If you're looking for a good way to waste some time, try this (via Bitch Ph.D.). Here is a piece created by my 8-year old Pollock (aka Darth Vader):
mixingmemory | July 2, 2006
It would be fair to say that I am obsessed with all things related to the first world war. I would be neglecting my own obsession, then, if I didn't mark the 90th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. For those of you who don't know, The Battle of the Somme began with a British offensive designed to capture areas around the River of the Somme that had been held by German forces since 1914. In preparation for the battle, British forces had dug tunnels under the German trenches and laid huge mines there. After a prolonged artillery barage, the mines were detonated at 7:30 am,…
mixingmemory | July 1, 2006OK, this is goofy, but I was tired and bored, so I started playing around with "The Advertising Slogan Generator" (via Pharyngula) You put a word or phrase in, and it sticks it in classic advertising slogans. I used "cognition," and this is what I got:
Try Cognition, You'll Like It.
The Cognition Goes Straight to your Head.
Little. Yellow. Different. Cognition.
Only Cognition Has The Answer.
Cognition Keeps Going and Going.
Nobody Better Lay a Finger on my Cognition.
The Cognition of your Life.
The Cognition of Champions.
Go On, Get Your Cognition Out.
Got Cognition?
Fill It To The Rim With…
cmooney | June 28, 2006I've always known that spammers are big losers. But I've been surprised and a bit offended to learn recently that spammers apparently think that blog readers are big losers as well.
Let me explain. I screen all blog comments to weed out all the spam; and lately I've been detecting a pattern. Here are some samples of the kind of comments that the spammers have been leaving:
I've just been hanging out not getting anything done. What can I say? I've basically been doing nothing worth mentioning, but pfft. Not that it matters. Pretty much nothing exciting happening to speak of. I haven't been up…