U of M
retrospectacle | January 15, 2008PZ Myers, despite being at a large Midwestern state school, has decided to pick on my current academic home, the University of Michigan. Why, you ask? Well, yes, a few students are doing something rather silly.
Engineering senior Israel Vicars didn't think it was a coincidence when he walked by a drunken girl who had fallen over in a parking lot and desperately needed help. Vicars attributes his ability to safely return the girl to her residence hall to the power of united prayer. Fostering that united prayer is what the campus program 40 Days of Prayer is all about.
Apparently a lot of…
retrospectacle | September 10, 2007A few months back, I was interviewed for the University of Michigan's med school magazine "Medicine at Michigan," which made me feel like quite the star seeing as how I had my picture taken in dramatical black and white. The interview, which just came out, was about the "kerfuffle" with the fair use copyright-fight I was involved with in May with the Journal of Food and Agriculture.
Yeah, its kinda amusing, check it out (pssst, there's cleavage! lol)
retrospectacle | August 31, 2007I came across a story on Digg.com that describes an interesting dilemma for universities: how to reconcile the needs of their students while maintaining delineations of church and state. Specifically, the University of Michigan-Dearborn (I go to the main campus in Ann Arbor) has come under criticism for plans to install two footbaths, at a cost of $25,000, to accommodate their Muslim students. Muslims are required to wash their feet prior to the five times daily prayers, and non-Muslim students had complained that bathroom sinks were being used for this purpose. This created unsafe, slippery…
retrospectacle | March 27, 2007An interesting article ("Why You Rarely See Your Professors In Church") which appeared in the University of Michigan student paper was forwarded to me by its author, Kingson Man. Its tagline went something like this:
Studies show that professors are three times more likely to be atheists or agnostics than the rest of the population. Is a complete separation of church and state good for the University, or should you be worried about being indoctrinated by godless liberals?
Oh, University of Michigan! Oh, Bastion of Intellectuals and Aging Hippie Liberals! Is *nothing* sacred in your tolerant…
retrospectacle | February 8, 2007 Researchers have recently discovered that male chimps routinely physically abuse female chimps, sometimes even using branches as weapons. But, why would they do that?
Chimps don't form monogamous pairs; rather, mating is dictated by the females' estrus cycles. During estrus, the competition for access to these few fertile females is intense. The leading theory, albeit a shaky one, is that the physical abuse is punishment for female chimps' promiscuity. By bullying them, they are discouraged from seeking other males, making it more likely that resulting offspring is his. Another explanation…
retrospectacle | February 2, 2007In the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, U-M researcher Liangyou Rui, Ph.D. and his team report their findings on a protein called SH2B1, a protein in brain cells may act as a linchpin in the body's weight-regulating system. It seems to play a key role in signaling in regards to fat storage, sugar use, energy balance and weight.
The experiments were performed in two types of mice that the team altered genetically so that they only expressed a unique form of the SH2B1 protein in their brain cells. They zeroed in on SH2B1's activity in the hypothalamus: the area of the…
retrospectacle | November 17, 2006This news is of ill portent to UM, and right before the big Ohio State game?? Bo Schembechler, a former head coach here, is a legend to UM football. He used to be a OSU assistant coach, and dying today just seems like a really bad sign. I mean, if you believed in that kinda thing.
Michigan coaching legend Bo Schembechler has died after collapsing Friday morning, Detroit-area television station WXYZ reported. He was 77.
Schembechler collapsed at WXYZ's studios in Southfield as he prepared to tape the "Big Ten Ticket" show and was taken to Providence Hospital, the ABC affiliate said.
What did…