Miscellaneous

Way, way back in September of 2005, a Danish newspaper published some cartoons depicting Muslims and their prophet, and in response, thousands of Muslim extremists responded with varying degrees of threatened and actual violence. As you all know, this resulted in a storm of media coverage around the world, including pretty extensive coverage in the American media. This coverage resulted in several important and, it seems to me, pretty productive discussions on a wide variety of relevant issues, including self-censorship among journalists, the double standard that exists when criticizing…

Time for lighter fare. There are some really good movies out there... Warning: A few minor spoilers ahead. First up, of course, is The Dark Knight. Superhero movies just keep getting better and better, but this one is going to be hard to top. It's two and a half hours long, but I wanted to go on for another two and a half. Heath Ledger is surely going to get a posthumous Oscar for this. If you've ever wondered what it means to commit to a part, this is it. But even more than his performance, the writing for the character was really first-rate. There are so many scenes that do a really…

Later on today, I'll be travelling to Bristol to meet Heather Perry and interview her about the self-trepanation she performed. If you have a question for Ms. Perry, submit it here. The first migraine-plagued caveman who countered his aching cranium with crudely pounded flint (and lived) surely shared his medical breakthrough. Headcutting is old as woodcutting. Aztec shaman or Greek physician, a good doctor knew the value of airing out a fevered brain. In dark ages before Lister and Pasteur, chirurgeons didn't know a virus, from a curse, but they needed a name for the rusty saw they used to…

Mr. Z and I are celebrating America's Fourth of July holiday with that great new American tradition, the STAYCATION! Later I'll blog about how I began my staycation on July 3rd. Yesterday, Mr. Z and I staycated in style, cleaning out a large and extraordinarily untidy closet. Triumphant but exhausted, we elected to go out to dinner rather than grill something. We are hoping that Homeland Security does not get wind of us having Chinese food on the 4th as opposed to A-merrycan grilled slabs of meat. We did hie ourselves unto the local fireworks display after dinner and despite the rain it…

I am totally drooling right now. (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan).

Here's a little tidbit from my personal life that I thought I'd share, because I find it pretty amusing. I've always ridden the bus to work, because as anyone who's spent time on a college campus knows, it's impossible to get good parking spots unless you show up at about 4 am. On the bus, and while waiting for the bus, I read. I don't read work-related stuff, because I like to underline and take notes, and with the bus bouncing me around, my underlines become strike-outs (when I go back to the paper, I wonder, "Why did I dislike this passage so much that I struck it out?"), and my…

Hahahahaha!!! From the comment section to this post: HULK SEE MOVIE, HULK LIKE SMASH THINGS, HULK F5 NEURONS EXHIBIT ABOVE-BASELINE BOLD ACTIVITY.

If you're a depressed liberal and need to read something uplifting and inspiring, check out this profile of Adam Bender (pictured below), a great little league catcher who happens to have only one leg. Be sure to watch the video! It's really impressive. And then there's this: He suffered a mild concussion on one collision and missed a practice or two. But he recovered and was ready for action in the next game. At one point this season he led the rookie league in put-outs at home. Man, the kid knows how to block the plate. I hope he got the out on that play.

This necklace comes from the Anatomica Collection by Paraphernalia, which features vintage illustrations and woodcuts printed on acrylic. I can think of two ladies who would adore these anatomical accessories. They'd probably know which illustrations were used to make them, too. (Via Dark Roasted Blend)

Be sure to have a look at the crossword puzzle in today's New York Times. It's the bestest, most awesomest crossword ever! Actually, I haven't seen it yet. The Times does not make their crosswords freely available online (is there no end to their treachery?). And it's not so easy to find a print edition of the Times here in Western Virginia. The university library gets it, but some days, like today apparently, they are a little slow getting the paper down to the periodicals room. The way I know it is such a supremely magnificent puzzle is that it was constructed by my cousin Barry. So…

There are certain milestone moments in the history of any household that, while representing small triumphs, are also tinged with a bit of sadness. Baby's first steps. The first visit from the Tooth Fairy. High school graduation. Each represents a passage from a comfortable and familiar phase of life into something new and unknown. An opportunity to spread your wings and explore new horizons, but also a sign that something good has been lost. Such are the vicissitudes of a life well-lived. My friends, my little slice of heaven has experienced such a moment. Isaac the cat has started…

It seems I'm not the only one who's spent the last year worrying about whether I needed to update my CV. My SciBling Janet Stemwedel got tenure! In philosophy no less. (You can have a career doing that?) So congratulations to Janet!

The big Monty Hall book has finally been sent off to OUP, so it's time to get back to blogging. We begin with lighter fare. I caught the midnight screening of the new Indiana Jones movie last night. Did it live up to its billing? No. It was terrible. A true disaster. Cringe-worthy. Hard to see how it could have been worse. At least there's still Get Smart and The Incredible Hulk to look forward to. I see that P.Z. Myers has a post up describing the process by which Indiana Jones movies get written. Methinks P.Z. is giving them too much credit. There was not one single, solitary…

There's nothing to see here. Let's all move along now... Oh, and go see Iron Man. Great movie!

More fluff while I grade papers... While you're giving me your puns (see below), you should also give me your best (slightly) pejorative and (hopefully) funny descriptions of cognitive psychology/science. The two best I've heard, both from the same attention researcher, are: "Cognitive psychology is just metaphysics with computers." and "Cognitive psychology is a bunch of monkeys jumping around trying to grab the high hanging fruit."

I'll get back to substantive posting in a bit, but as the semester wraps up, I wanted to ask for your help. Over the years, punning has become a more and more integral part of our lab meetings. It's reached the point, in fact, that our P.I. can barely utter a single non-pun sentence, even outside of the lab. On a recent plane trip, he tempted fate by punning with airport security when the refused to let him take his yogurt on the plane, yelling, "These people are discriminating against my culture!" We're also not entirely convinced that he isn't with his wife because she called her ex-husband…

Like 99.8% of the people in psychology departments, I hate teaching statistics, in large part because it's boring as hell, for both the instructors and the students, but also because students have a hell of a time grasping it, and that makes for some really painful interactions. Part of the problem, I think, is that the way we talk about statistics wasn't designed to facilitate undergraduate instruction. And to see this, you need look no further than the concept of statistical significant. First of all, whose idea was it to refer to it as significance? I mean, the first thing you tell…

Here at EvolutionBlog we're sometimes a bit slow with the routine maintenance. My blogroll over there has long been in need of a massive updating. My brief attempt to come up with a cool banner for the blog foundered on my general lack of motivation for such a project. And I still haven't gotten around to figuring out why my Chess links don't quite format properly. But if you look carefully you'll notice one change I managed to get around to with all due speed. I received a letter today informing me that I am no longer expected merely to Assist the other professors, I am now entitled to…

When I was in elementary school I was taught that if you have a noun that ends in `s', and you want to make that noun possessive, you do it by placing an apostrophe at the end of the word and that is all. Thus, in referring to the theorem proved by Thomas Bayes, you would write Bayes' theorm. In referring to the book wirtten by Richard Dawkins, you would write Dawkins' book. Lately, though, several people have told me that this is not correct. Apparently we are now supposed to place an `apostrophe s' at the end of all nouns, regardless of whether or not the word already ends in `s'.…

That impoverished student would be me, and I feel like I'm begging, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm studying part-time for my M.Sc., and working three days a week to support my family and pay the mortgage, bills and my tuition fees. (Actually, my meagre income has been further reduced these past few weeks, as I've been on paternity leave.) If you enjoy reading my blog, please consider showing me some love by donating a few dollars. You can do so by clicking on the orange "PayPal - Donate" button that I've placed near the bottom of the sidebar on the left (and which is…