11.25.06
Iraq War longer than WWII
As of today, the war in Iraq has lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in World War II — three years and just over eight months. “Only the Vietnam War (eight years, five months), the Revolutionary War (six years, nine months), and the Civil War (four years), have engaged America longer.”
Lego design tool
The Older Grandson is a big Lego fan, and he soon will have his own computer set-up. I imagine that he could greatly enjoy this freeware Lego design software and his resulting Lego creations would become even more ambitious.
Science teachers censoring science
Science teachers don’t want to show a free DVD of An Inconvenient Truth for fear that Exxon-Mobil will not fund their association:
At hundreds of screenings this year of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the first thing many viewers said after the lights came up was that every student in every school in the United States needed to see this movie.
The producers of former vice president Al Gore’s film about global warming, myself included, certainly agreed. So the company that made the documentary decided to offer 50,000 free DVDs to the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) for educators to use in their classrooms. It seemed like a no-brainer.
The teachers had a different idea: Thanks but no thanks, they said.
In their e-mail rejection, they expressed concern that other “special interests” might ask to distribute materials, too; they said they didn’t want to offer “political” endorsement of the film; and they saw “little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members” in accepting the free DVDs.
Gore, however, is not running for office, and the film’s theatrical run is long since over. As for classroom benefits, the movie has been enthusiastically endorsed by leading climate scientists worldwide, and is required viewing for all students in Norway and Sweden.
Still, maybe the NSTA just being extra cautious. But there was one more curious argument in the e-mail: Accepting the DVDs, they wrote, would place “unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.” One of those supporters, it turns out, is the Exxon Mobil Corp. [And see note at end of this post. - LG]
Five comedies for a desert island
Alert Reader passed along a pointer to this NY Times article in which 22 funny people were asked what five comedies they would want if they were alone on a desert island.
What surprised me was how little overlap there is. The list, sorted by number of mentions:
4 for This Is Spinal Tap (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, 1984)
3 for Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers, 1964)
3 for Dumb and Dumber (Jim Carrey, 1994)
3 for Sons of the Desert (Laurel and Hardy, 1933)
2 for Animal House (John Belushi, 1978)
2 for Groundhog Day (Bill Murray, 1993)
2 for The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Steve Carell, 2005)
2 for The Big Lebowski (Jeff Bridges, 1998)
2 for The Jerk (Steve Martin, 1979)
2 for Young Frankenstein (Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, 1974)
And one vote for each of the following:
Sensible way to get things done
Set a series of small deadlines instead of one big deadline. The small deadlines, giving you something to have completed every day or two, make sure you get started now, and keep you moving toward the goal.
One big deadline lets you delude yourself into thinking you don’t need to start just yet, so you postpone starting until it’s too late to produce quality work.
In addition, by setting the series of deadlines that lead to the final goal, you’re more apt to discover sticking points in time to fix them—for example, a part that must be ordered today if you want it to arrive two weeks from now.
And making the series of deadlines forces you to think through at the outset exactly what the project requires.
More at the link.
UPDATE: Here’s an even better summary.
This sounds like a good breakfast chili
Black bean chili
Total time: 2 hours
Servings: 8From Morning Food: Breakfasts, Brunches, and More for Savoring the Best Part of the Day by Margaret S. Fox and John B. Bear
4 cups dry black beans
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 cups finely chopped yellow onions
1 1/2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups (1 [28-ounce] can) crushed whole tomatoes
1/3 cup finely chopped jalapeño chiles (2 large jalapeños)
1/2 pound Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese, grated
Sour cream
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
8 sprigs or 1/4 cup chopped cilantro1. Sort through the beans; discard the funky ones and any small pebbles. Rinse well. Place the beans in a large pot and add enough water to cover them by several inches. Cover and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat and cook for about 1 3/4 hours, or until tender. Water should always cover the beans, so add more if the beans start to peek through. When the beans are cooked, strain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. Add the reserved cooking water back to the beans.
3. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Toast the cumin seeds and oregano in a small pan until the fragrance is toasty, about 10 minutes.
4. Sauté the onions, bell peppers and garlic in the oil over medium-high heat with the toasted cumin seeds and herbs, cayenne pepper, paprika and salt until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and chiles. Add this mixture to the beans and stir well. Add additional seasoning to taste.
5. To serve, place about one-quarter cup grated cheese in a warmed bowl, add a generous cup of beans, and dollop with a spoonful of sour cream. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon green onions and cilantro.
Each serving: 582 calories; 29 grams protein; 66 grams carbohydrates; 23 grams fiber; 24 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 25 mg. cholesterol; 502 mg. sodium.
Evolution trickery
If you have ever sat alone in a bar, depressed by how good-looking everybody else seems to be, take comfort—it may be evolution playing a trick on you. A study just published in Evolution and Human Behavior by Sarah Hill, a psychologist at the University of Texas, Austin, shows that people of both sexes reckon the sexual competition they face is stronger than it really is. She thinks that is useful: it makes people try harder to attract or keep a mate.
Dr Hill showed heterosexual men and women photographs of people. She asked them to rate both how attractive those of their own sex would be to the opposite sex, and how attractive the members of the opposite sex were. She then compared the scores for the former with the scores for the latter, seen from the other side. Men thought that the men they were shown were more attractive to women than they really were, and women thought the same of the women.
Dr Hill had predicted this outcome, thanks to error-management theory—the idea that when people (or, indeed, other animals) make errors of judgment, they tend to make the error that is least costly. The notion was first proposed by Martie Haselton and David Buss, two of Dr Hill’s colleagues, to explain a puzzling quirk in male psychology. Read the rest of this entry »
Interesting story of compromise
The NY Times has a report today on how big business has systematically worked to compromise the American Diabetic Association, giving cash contributions to the ADA and in return being allowed to put the ADA logo on some of their products and be listed as a “sponsor.” In addition, the graphic with the story shows how six of the seven members of an ADA panel chosen to study how to treat prediabetics—including whether drugs should be used—reported some form of financial relationship with pharmaceutical companies, many of whom make drugs to treat diabetes. The panelists owned stock and/or received compensation or research funds from some of the companies.
Unfortunately, it’s a familiar story. Large businesses will do anything to increase profits and tilt research results and government regulations in their favor, and they have lots of money to contribute to associations, scientists, and Congressional representatives, as we’ve seen.
The ADA, to its credit, is rethinking its position and trying to limit its involvements with companies that make money from diabetics.
Christianity in the classroom
A Kearny High School student has accused a history teacher of crossing the line between teaching and preaching — and he says he’s got the tapes to prove it.
Junior Matthew LaClair, 16, said history teacher David Paszkiewicz, who is also a Baptist preacher in town, spent the first week of class lecturing students more about heaven and hell than the colonies and the Constitution.
LaClair said Paszkiewicz told students that if they didn’t accept Jesus, “you belong in hell.” He also dismissed as unscientific the theories of evolution and the “Big Bang.”
LaClair, who described his own religious views as “non-Christian,” said he wanted to complain about Paszkiewicz to school administrators, but feared his teacher would deny the charges and that no one would take a student’s word against a teacher’s.
So, he said, he started taping Paszkiewicz. Read the rest of this entry »
Vetiver again
As planned, I used the QED Vetiver shaving soap this morning. Wonderful earthy aroma. I used an Omega silvertip brush, large and wondefully soft—in fact, exactly the sort of brush that some think is not good for soap, but of course they’re all perfectly fine for soap. Lathered on the face and used glycerine before the third (final) pass.
I used the Gillette Fatboy again, but with the setting at 4 it did a better job for me. I sneak in an against-the-grain pass on the little odd patch at my right jaw as part of pass two, and I have a wonderfully smooth face right now.
Alum bar after the rinse, and then Pinaud’s Clubman aftershave, and I’m good to go.
Sophie getting ready to ship
You know about cats and cardboard, right? Here’s Sophie getting herself ready to be shipped to some distant destination—the kitchen, perhaps, or the study, or even the bedroom. (Her worldview is somewhat circumscribed, especially since we’ve become more careful in opening the door and know to look under the bench beside the door.)
