personal
revere | December 4, 2008Another one gone. First Miriam Makeba. Now Odetta. It's almost as if they waited for the election and then said, "It's OK, now." Odetta was 77 and her voice still powerful. It remains even more powerful in memory. This one has hit me hard.
Two contrasting clips. The first, a studio recording from 1957 of Midnight Special, the Leadbelly song she helped make famous. Vintage, classic Odetta. The second a lovely, bittersweet trio with Janis Ian and Phoebe Snow. Thanks to the posters on YouTube:
edyong | December 2, 2008A quick reminder for anyone interested in ordering a copy of Not Exactly Rocket Science: the Book.
According to Lulu, to guarantee yourself a pre-Christmas delivery using the cheapest possible shipping method, you'll have to order by 10 December or 12 December depending on which part of the world you're in.
And if anyone has already ordered and read the book, feel free to voice your opinions here.
E
terrasig | November 30, 2008Just clearing out the family e-mail account that has tons of old messages from various things I've signed up for over the years when I found a series of e-mails from Virginia-based singer-songwriter, david m bailey. I first saw david play at an event for people living with cancer about eight years ago - he's kind of a cross of old Cat Stevens and Jim Croce but very heavy on the inspiration he draws from 12 years of living with cancer.
For background:
The son of Presbyterian missionaries Dr Ken and Ethel Bailey, david spent his childhood in Beirut, Lebanon. He learned his first chords in 7th…
terrasig | November 29, 2008Okay, my friends. My two years of imprisonment are up. I love my Treo 700p but it is time for me to make a change. Any reviews of new Treos I've seen tell me that I need to attend a funeral.
So, if I am to change, let me tell you first what I love:
1. a good synch-able scheduling function - I look back at this schedule when composing my annual report of scholarly activities for The Man. I like to synch it with my personal computer but NOT with the corporate Outlook.
2. keeping my personal stuff far separate from my business stuff (but I like the real-time push of business e-mail)
3. a real…
edyong | November 28, 2008For some reason, I've only just discovered the navel-gazing blogger meme that started at Nature Network a few weeks ago. But I've written up a shed-load of science this week and I'm feeling lazy and introspective. So better late than never...
1. What is your blog about?
Not Exactly Rocket Science is a news site crossed with a popular science book crossed with an excitable, precocious and eloquent child jumping up and down and pointing at things that are cool. I care about making science understandable and interesting to non-scientists and about good writing. Any topic is fair game, but…
jstemwedel | November 27, 2008The younger Free-Ride offspring offers this drawing of a hippo exhorting you to remember Thanksgiving.
Judging by the plate in the lower right hand corner of the picture, the hippo is pretty good with portion control. Possibly, though, after cleaning its plate the hippo will eat the cornucopia in the upper left hand corner. You never can tell with hippos.
Still, this hippo seems to have impeccable manners.
A question to ponder while digesting your meal: Why does the Russian language have two words for hippopotamus? Are (or were) there so many hippos roaming the steppes that you'd need…
sa smith | November 25, 2008Urge to kill fading... fading... fading...
Last micro test today.
Just finished writing my final paper.
No more Type III Secretion Systems.
No more god forsaken 'Listeria' and 'Salmonella' and 'EHEC'.
All I have left is three weeks of virology. Sweet, sweet virology.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee **giddy clapping**
I SUCK SO HARD AT BACTERIA LOL!!! I had to study so friggen hard and I think Im just going to scrape by with a B!! BLECH!! LOL!
But hopefully the completion of this damn course means I get to blag more again!! Like about MAN-MADE FRANKENSTEIN VIRUSES that have NO MEDICALLY…
jstemwedel | November 25, 2008Here are the rest of the recipes for dishes that I'm making for Thanksgiving this year (with the exception of pumpkin pie -- I'm still shopping for a pumpkin pie recipe).
I'll mention here (and should have mentioned in the previous post that all the measurements here are U.S. quantities (cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, etc.). Those of you using non-US measuring cups and measuring spoons will want to find a good conversion guide.
PEARL ONIONS IN MUSTARD CREAM SAUCE
You can trim, peel, and boil fresh small onions, but you can also use a bag of frozen pearl onions. Either way, you want to boil…
jstemwedel | November 25, 2008Having posted what I'm making for Thanksgiving, I am happy to accede to your requests for the recipes. Of course, I encourage you to violate the recipes at well (since that's how I was taught to cook).
I'm posting these in two batches, so if you don't see the recipe you were looking for here, it will be posted in the next recipe post, which should be up by tonight.
LINDA'S PICKLED PEARS
12 pears, pared, cored, and cut into quarters (d'anjou work well)
1.5 cups honey
4 cups cranberry juice
1 cup red or white wine vinegar
6 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cloves…
revere | November 25, 2008Happy Blogiversary to us. Yes, it's our fourth Blogiversary, meaning Effect Measure has lasted longer than many marriages. Our first post was on November 25, 2004 at our old site over at Blogger. We moved here to Scienceblogs on June 9, 2006. According to Sitemeter, we've had over 1,650,000 unique visits, more than 3,000,000 page views and written over 2800 posts. On our Scienceblogs site alone we've logged almost 25,000 comments (we don't have a count for the Blogger era). There has never been a day without a post on the site, so that makes 1461 straight days of posting here. It makes me…
jstemwedel | November 24, 2008Back when I was a college student, Thanksgiving meant getting myself home to Northern New Jersey from metropolitan Boston.
Before my parents entrusted me with the fire engine red '77 Chevy Impala station wagon my junior year, this involved inviting another student who hailed from the West Coast and who had a car on campus to spend the holiday with my family. Once I was in possession of the station wagon, it was an occasion for me to provide a ride home to another denizen of Northern New Jersey who was car-less at school. But once I was home, it was the typical holiday meal with parents…
jstemwedel | November 23, 2008Zuska tagged me; I am helpless to resist it.
5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago:
Suspecting I was pregnant (I was)
Drafting thesis chapters
Walking 5-10 miles a day
Taking dance classes (Argentine tango and big band swing)
Playing Snood
5 Things On My To-Do List Today:
Get the Free-Ride offspring to swimming lessons.
Reprovision (toilet paper and groceries).
Process winter squash on hand (to make pumpkin puree, butternut puree and a delicata squash dish for Thanksgiving)
Make a persimmon semifreddo for Thanksgiving.
Dehydrate most of the Fuyu persimmon that doesn't go into the semifreddo.…
pharyngula | November 23, 2008I have sinned. While I was in Philadelphia, I was supposed to attend the Drinking Skeptically event on Thursday evening, and I was honestly looking forward to it…but I went to dinner with Michael Weisberg, Janet Browne, Rasmus Winther, John Beatty, Jane Maienschein, and a few others, and when I finally looked up from the conversation, it was 10:30. Too late. I offer abject apologies to Salvatore Patrone and everyone who showed up.
To get even, the Science Pundit has tagged me with a meme. I am, of course, obligated now to actually address it, as long as I'm groveling. Here are the rules:…
oracknows | November 23, 2008Well, now there's something that doesn't happen to me every day--or every week. Or every month. Or every year, at least not for quite a while.
Last night I stopped at our local supermarket to pick up a couple of things, one of which was a six pack of one of my favorite local brews. As the guy behind the counter checked me out, something happened that I haven't had happen to me in at least a decade.
He asked to see my ID.
The only explanation I can think of is that I was wearing a hat the covered up my graying hair, but, even so, I don't think my face has looked as though I might be under 21 (…
sa smith | November 21, 2008Hi girls! **waves excitedly**
Its a big day, right? YAY!
I know you all are totally pepped up, and I dont want to be a Debbie Downer again... but well... see, when I was your alls age, 12-ish, I was in love with a family of vampires too. The main dude wasnt Edward, though. His name was Lestat. Tall, blonde, violet eyes (or as Meyer would describe them, amethyst). He wasnt nice like Edward, but he was a badass, and I loved him for it (common, he was a rock star, who could resist??).
There was this other vampire in his family, Louis? I loved him too. So angsty. He was so pre-emo emo.…
jstemwedel | November 20, 2008In the event that your horoscope in this morning's paper was not sufficiently informative, there is a website that will take the URL of your blog and return an analysis of your personality type.
Is it accurate?
Well, here's what Typealyzer makes of me:
ISTP - The Mechanics
The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generelly prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.
The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent…
pharyngula | November 20, 2008I've got a rather laid-back schedule here in Philadelphia, and I took advantage of it this morning — I took a little walkabout around the neighborhood. Unless you're from Los Angeles, cities are great places for walking, and it was very pleasant to idle along.
Then, of course, I was required to get lunch at a truck. And, of course, I had a cheesesteak. Wow. They only make these greasy confections right in this particular city, I've found: onions and peppers and chopped beef all fried together and slathered onto a slightly chewy roll, with a little cheez-whiz and ketchup (not mustard, Sidaway…
pharyngula | November 19, 2008Fellow travelers, we all know this feeling of stepping off a plane into a strange city and following the signs to baggage/transportation, trying to get our bearings and find our way through these sometimes labyrinthine airports to just get out of these unattractive hubs — the whole thing with air travel nowadays is that you have to do it, and while you're doing it, all you want to do is escape from it. I know that feeling well lately.
Well, I have arrived in Philadelphia, and it was different. I lived here from 1993-2000, and I stepped off the plane and knew exactly where I was and what I…
jstemwedel | November 19, 2008There are some newspaper stories that must be pretty easy to write at this point because it seems like they're essentially the same year in and year out. California is having another budget crisis, and the Californians who are going to take it in the teeth are students -- especially students in the California State University (CSU) system, to which the university that employs me belongs.
Once again, budget shortfalls at the state level mean enrollments will be capped at the 23 campuses in the CSU system. Practically, this means 10,000 or so qualified applicants will be turned away. In…