personal
drorzel | September 26, 2006I'm in the middle of what is either a fall cold or a seasonal allergy flare-up-- I lean toward the latter, for various reasons that don't really matter. The important thing is, my head feels like it's stuffed with cotton balls and vacuum pump oil.
This isn't the real gripe of the moment, though. The main complaint I have today is that my stomach problems are preventing me from doing anything about my cold/allergy problem. Not for any good reason, but because the gastroenterologist made me paranoid.
(Cut for whinging-- if you click below the fold, you've brought it on yourself...)
What I…
j7uy5 | September 26, 2006Someone around these parts was writing about
title="spelling and usage note"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile_pepper#Spelling_and_usage">chilies
recently, but failed to mention the best: Mesilla Valley chilies.
Zingerman's
sells "New Mexico chilies." Although it would be better for
them to specify "Mesilla Valley" chilies, the vast majority of New
Mexico chilies are from the Mesilla Valley.
From September 28 to October 3, 2006, Zingerman's is having their "
href="http://www.zingermansroadhouse.com/content/pages/events_05.php">New
Mexico Chile Harvest Specials."
What: …
j7uy5 | September 25, 2006...That the hospital I work in finally installed an electronic medical
record system. I was messing around with it and discovered
that the hospital administration had accessed a record of a sleep study
the hospital had done on me. It turned out that they were
trying to figure out a way to use my brain power while I was sleeping.
In essence, they wanted me to work 24 hours a day.
terrasig | September 24, 2006I completely missed it: a rather momentous occasion in the life of this blog.
The ScienceBlogs.com version of Terra Sigillata just passed the traffic volume of the old site on Wednesday, 20 Sept at 9:14 pm EDT with a visitor from Arlington, MA, USA.
Visitor 13,986 must be a regular reader because they came directly here, not even through the ScienceBlogs frontpage from which I derive almost 20% of my traffic.
So, while it took just over nine months to reach almost 14,000 visitors at the old blog (although I haven't had a new post there since June), we got to 14,000 here in the new digs in…
drorzel | September 23, 2006Over at The World's Fair, David Ng is sorting his records autobiographically, and encouraging others to do the same:
If you make a music mix that is a reflection of your informative years, what would those dozen or so songs be, and maybe more interesting, why? You don't have to be proud of the song choices - they're not necessarily a reflection of taste, more about your history.
This could get embarrassing, but it's a grey and rainy Saturday morning, I'm getting a bit of a cold, and I need to do some major updates on the departmental web page, so thinking about my musical history seems like…
pharyngula | September 23, 2006Where were you guys? You missed it. I kept looking for you, but only the usual locals showed up. It was a great evening, but you disappointed me.
If you're still on your way, OK…there's still plenty of beer left, and a couple of bottles of wine, and even some food. And, of course, you can help with cleaning up the aftermath.
jstemwedel | September 22, 2006In a comment on the last post, zwa asks:
I'm curious about your vegetarianism (as one myself) and whether your kids are. If yes, did they choose it, if no did you try to convince them?
My kids are vegetarians, and have been since birth -- so they didn't choose it. I have imposed it on them in a stunning act of maternalism.
OK, it's actually not that stunning.
Anyway, for the curious, here are my reasons for this particular parenting choice:
The family dinner table isn't a restaurant. The choices are to eat what I'm serving or not eat it. This was the deal (at least when I was growing up)…
pharyngula | September 22, 2006Y'all come on down—we're having a party at my place tonight. Everyone bring something to eat or drink, hang about, talk, listen to some music…
All you need is hate
The Delgados
Black Cadillacs
Modest Mouse
Viktorin
Hedningarna
Lullaby
The Cure
Thunder Road
Bruce Springsteen
Skinfakse (Delivering The Light)
Hege Rimestad
Porcelain
Moby
El Prado
Tom Griesgraber
Sugar Magnolia
Grateful Dead
Excitable Boy
Warren Zevon
Consequence Of Sounds
Regina Spektor
I'm going to be so lonely tonight, aren't I?
pharyngula | September 22, 2006It's time for another edition of that popular game where I browse through the mailbag and see what peculiar images people have sent to me, prompted by my peculiar reputation. It's not all flabby, slimy squid this week!
Click on the images to go to the source.
Why would the plaintiff have brought suit in the first place?
Hubba hubba. Am I perverse for really wanting to see what's under that dress?
Giant cephalopod! Fighting zombies! in Dutch!
Much, much too young for me. But cute.
Martian seagulls? That's different and cool.
drorzel | September 22, 2006Via Jo Walton, Russ Allbery has a wonderful piece on the glory that was Usenet:
I've strongly disagreed with the idea that Usenet is dying. I still do, I think. I think things ebb and flow and shift around, but up until now I haven't really thought about how my interaction with Usenet has changed, whether Usenet has died a little for me. But I'm sitting here, trying to capture how I feel about newsgroups and the communities in them, how I feel when I post, what threads I participate in, and... there's That Hierarchy, there's a sense of attachment to the technology and to a bunch of technical…
cmooney | September 21, 2006Numerical models suggest that Mooney and Nisbet will be in rare form this Friday night at Science Club in DC. And Big Head Rob and Kelly Ann Collins have official party announcements (one of which includes a Weird Science poster). But will this unprecedented social union between a few science geeks and stylish bloggers like Rob, KAC, and Rock Creek Rambler lead to a Big Bash? Or will it be more like cold fusion?
Inquiring minds, with and without Ph.D.s, want to know....
pharyngula | September 20, 2006Wheee, I'm going to zip into New York again next week. I'm flying in on Monday to talk at the Inspiration Festival on Tuesday. I'm on the Seed slate with:
Chris Mooney - Washington Correspondent, Seed Magazine
Lisa Randall - Professor of Physics, Harvard University
Natalie Jeremijenko - Design Engineer / Technoartist, Yale University
PZ Myers - Associate Professor of Biology, University of Minnesota
Randy Olson - Lecturer
Jonah Lehrer - Editor-at-Large, Seed magazine
Pardis Sabeti - Researcher, Broad Institute / Lead Singer, Thousand Days
And here's my job, in one very short talk:
From…
cmooney | September 19, 2006Born September 20, 1977, in Mesa, Arizona. (And I'm speaking very near there on Sept 27!)
I don't remember at what time of day I was born. I'd have to call my Mom to find that out and she's probably asleep at the moment. However, I do remember hearing that I apparently didn't cry. Read into that what you will...
pharyngula | September 19, 2006Doggone it, I'm gonna have to take someone out to the woodshed. Aren't little girls supposed to be submissive and obedient?
cmooney | September 19, 2006After the Discovery Institute's criticism of my credentials, it occurred to me that I'm hardly the only person to study the works of someone like Chuck Dickens in college, only to end up writing professionally about the works of someone like Chuck Darwin. For instance, here's physics writer Jennifer Oulette, with two books under her belt that, if we universalize the Discovery Institute's attack on me, she shouldn't have written due to her background:
I'm a former English major turned science writer, through serendipitous accident: I stumbled into writing about physics, drifted further and…
oracknows | September 18, 2006Janet has posted the final results of the Nerd-off, and, contrary to what he deserves, Orac did not come in first place.
I was robbed!
Come on, how could the Dalek cookie jar sitting on the shelf in my office not have guaranteed my ultimate triumph over all in the realm of nerdiness?
cmooney | September 18, 2006I note this post from last week, and am flattered that a well known D.C. beacon of social radiance like KAC has deigned to Google me. Furthermore, she's mooting whether I'm worth going on long walks on the beach with (PG version). If she only knew.
It all reminds me of a (modified) Han Solo line: "I don't know, whaddya think? You think a DC socialite and a guy like me..." To which Luke Skywalker quickly countered: "No." But then, he was jealous.
In any event, KAC has also generously agreed to serve as part of the host committee for my upcoming 29th bday party, which I'm having jointly with D.…
clock | September 17, 2006The coooolest thing ever!
My son's science teacher broke his shoulder so he had to be out for two weeks (he's the one who was instrumental in the district adopting the science textbook I like, and he teaches evolution "straight-up").
During that time, they had a substitute teacher. She gave them their first assignment - to find something interesting science-related and write a short report.
Then, she started listing which sources are legit and which are not. Then, my son raised his hand and asked if they were allowed to find information on science blogs, for instance on one his Dad writes…
jstemwedel | September 15, 2006There's been a marked difference of opinion between two of my fellow ScienceBloggers about what ought to be done about the "pipeline problem" in physics.
Chad suggests that there may be a substantial problem with high school level physics instruction, given that "[e]ven if high school classes are 50/50 [female to male], the first college physics class is already 25/75".
I take it that the worry about what's happening in the high school physics classroom isn't going to spark much controversy in these parts. (However, I do recall hearing, when I was still in high school, that at some colleges…
pharyngula | September 15, 2006This has been a bountiful week at Chez Pharyngula, and I have received generous gifts from several readers. A full accounting lies below the fold.
Why, yes. Yes, I do.
Readers from Winnipeg visited the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre and reported on what they found there…and they sent me a t-shirt! The sentiment is perfect, and I know you're all jealous now. Hmmm. Winnipeg isn't that far from Morris, and I know lots of the faculty here make trips up that way (especially for the folk festival). Now I've got a few more reasons to pay a visit, even if it is the Bible Belt of Canada. Has anyone…