personal
clock | June 27, 2006
Thsi post (and you can always click on the icon to check out the original) was written on April 29, 2005. Those are my observation about the in-class science fair in my daughter's classroom.
Yesterday morning Mrs.Coturnix and I went to Coturnietta's school. Her class had a Science Fair! You can just imagine my excitement - a scientist's daughter's first venture into science!
For two weeks she pestered me to help her with her project, and I did a little bit here and there (using sharp objects when neccessary, for instance, or going to the store and buying supplies she ordered), but in…
clock | June 25, 2006OK, my car won't start. Here is the information that may be relevant:
- It is a 2000 Ford Winstar minivan.
- It never happened before - not even close.
- It is used every day.
- On most days it covers only a couple of miles. Once or twice a week, it may go to Raleigh (28 miles one way) or to my school (16 miles one way).
- It appears to have plenty of electricity, oil and gas.
- When the key is turned, all the lights come on, radio comes on etc.
- Nothing in the engine appears to move when the key is turned - I cannot see any movement or light anywhere.
- When the key is turned it makes a…
jstemwedel | June 24, 2006Because I was in Sweden for my younger offspring's birthday, and because my older offspring's birthday is nowhere near the school year, we gave them a joint un-birthday party today. Each was allowed to invite eight friends. Of these, a total of five attended (plus a younger sib), but there was some suspense about what the actual turnout would be due to low RSVP rates. Summer vacation can be like that.
Food is pretty straightforward for the age-range involved (4 to 7): raw veggies and dip, chips and salsa, Smart Dogs in blankets. Younger offspring and I squeezed a bunch of lemons from our…
jstemwedel | June 24, 2006Sad to report, the Sb/DonorsChoose anti-biology attack ad seems not to have been an isolated incident. My anonymous source discovered another such ad, this one targeted at the brain sciences crowd.
What has become of our sense of scientific unity? Can we pull together despite attacks like the one reproduced below the fold? Does this mean that Karl Rove is actually taking an interest in the sciences?
"She looked at me like I was a rat waiting to be run through a maze. She grabbed her clipboard and started reading me the consent form. But ... I couldn't tell whether she was really…
clock | June 23, 2006Sunday, May 28th
Keeping with our strategy of making sure the kids are having fun (instead of trying to see everything we wanted to see), we decided on Sunda morning to do what kids wanted to do. So, we checked out of the hotel early and took a long walk west towards the river. At the pier, we got on a Circle Line ferry and took a three-hour trip all around the island of Manhattan.
The guide was an obnoxious guy, inserting too much personal and political opinion, but he knew enough about the history and importance of various buildings for us to learn more. We got really close to the Statue…
clock | June 23, 2006
Since everyone is posting about spiders this week, I though I'd republish a sweet old post of mine, which ran on April 19, 2006 under the title "Happy Bicycle Day!" I hope you like this little post as much as I enjoyed writing it:
This week's theme for the Tar Heel Tavern is bicycle. I was wondering what to write about. Perhaps about crazy bicycle rides I had as a kid. Or a fun riff on "fish needing a bicycle". Then, I was saved! Because, today is the Bicycle Day! That's just great, because I can go on a scientific tangent with a local flavor.
If you do not know what Bicycle Day is,…
jstemwedel | June 23, 2006
I should have known it would come to this.
A week into our ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose drive to raise money for schools, the warm spirit of pan-science-harmony has started to erode.
An anonymous source has come into possession of the text of an attack ad targeting our biological brethren and sistern. I hate to even give a story like this oxygen, but in the interests of full disclosure, I reproduce the ad below the fold.
"If it's green and wriggles, it's biology."
"Biology is just stamp-collecting."
"Biology is the 'science' with the greatest preponderance of women."
"If biology were a real…
pharyngula | June 22, 2006You may have noticed it was a bit quiet here on Pharyngula yesterday. I took the day off. My daughter Skatje has been away for a few weeks, visiting her sweetie-pie in Kentucky, and we had to make the long drive to the airport and back, so we decided to make a day of it in the big city as long as we were there. I also had to drop by the Big U and sign some papers.
When my boys and I decide to paint the town red, guess what we do? We headed to Dreamhaven Books, Comics and Art, Phoenix Games, Uncle Hugo's (what is it with the remarkable concentration of geekdom on Lake Street in Minneapolis…
clock | June 21, 2006Saturday, May 27th
After revising our strategy - substituting quality for quantity - we had a good night's sleep and woke up at a more decent time on Saturday morning. I took the kids down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast for some delicious pancakes and waffles, while Mrs. Coturnix went to buy some matinee tickets for whichever (family-friendly) Broadway show she could get. 'Wicked' was the first choice, but those tickets have been sold out for months in advance. A couple of hours later, after waiting in the long line twice, she finally got a good deal on tickets for Spamalot from a…
clock | June 20, 2006 This is an early post of mine, written on February 11, 2005, a rare one in which I discuss my own lack of religion:
I had major computer problems last week so didn't think I would have the time to write a blog entry of my own for the third installment of the Carnival Of The Godless (found here), so was going to post a link to an old post, but the title of one of the new Carnival entries, I, Bloginette, made me think that my blog also has a bird as symbol (a quail, not a magpie), and I also remembered how much I loved the old TV series "I, Claudius", and how wonderful it would sound if I…
clock | June 19, 2006Friday, May 26th
Afternoon
So, about noon or so, we finally got to the American Museum of Natural History. I was pretty smart, actually... A few months ago, when we first started thinking about making this trip, I decided not to renew my subscription to Natural History Magazine, but to subscribe my wife instead. So, when we arrived at the museum, we skipped the long ticket lines and went straight to the "Members" desk, where my wife got a little discount, I got a student discount (yes, I still have a valid student ID - officially they did not kick me out yet), and the kids ar, quite…
clock | June 17, 2006On June 18th (year undisclosed, under the pain of torture, not to mention prolonged abstinence), a baby girl was born. She was born in Richmond, VA, quite by accident - although from an old Raliegh family, her father was doing his residency in Richmond at the time. She grew up in Raleigh, and, many years later, said "I do". I said "I do" at the same time and in the same room (no church ceremonies for us hard-core atheists!). Happy birthday!
On June 18th, 1991, I woke up very early in the morning, picked up my backpack and hailed a taxi. My parents and I went down to the Belgrade train…
pharyngula | June 16, 2006I can't bear listening to myself, so someone else will have to tell me how big a fool I made of myself on the podcast interview.
(You usual suspects don't even need to bother to listen to it to tell me how big a fool I am—just go ahead and get it out of your system.)
clock | June 15, 2006This Monday night I taught lecture #7 of the 8-week Intro Biology course (adult education at a community college). First, I gave them their Exam #2 (on Diversity, see my lecture notes on those topics here, here and here). The flat distribution of the first exam has now turned bimodal: some students are making big improvements and I will probably end with a nice cluster of As and Bs, while other students are falling and may end up with a few Ds and Fs, with nobody left in-between.
Then, I continued with the physiology topics. The week before, I covered nervous, sensory, endocrine and…
clock | June 12, 2006
This post is kinda personal. I wrote it first on July 27, 2005 on Science And Politics. Later, it was professionally edited and published on LabLit.com on March 3, 2006. Here is the unedited version:
I was just thinking today what a long and winding route I took in becoming a biologist. So, why not write a blog post about it?
As long as I can remember I loved animals. I have no idea where that came from. My family mostly had to do with theater, art, language and literature. I think they thought I was going to become an actor. My grandfather was a famous architect and I certainly have…
clock | June 12, 2006I gave the second exam today. I have not graded them all yet, but I have a feeling that the grade distribution will move from flat to bimodal: some people going up into As and Bs, others falling to Fs, and nobody remaining in the middle. Some people put an effort in it, some don't. That's life.
Since the last meeting of the class (and the Final Exam) is next week, I'll have to quickly write down the notes for my last two lectures so the students can have sufficent time to study. I will post the notes here, as usual. I hope to get both lectures written tomorrow, but life may interfere if…
pharyngula | June 12, 2006Mooney gets written up in the Las Vegas Sun. Here's what I get in the same article:
Friday's panel included a Minnesota biology professor…
Yeah, that's it.
Someday, I will be famous enough to warrant actually mentioning my name! They'll misspell it, but still…
pharyngula | June 12, 2006We left Las Vegas on a 12:30am flight to Des Moines, IA, had an hour and a half layover, got into Minneapolis sometime around 7:30, made the 3 hour drive from there to Morris, and now I sit here a little shell-shocked and worn out. Give me a little time to bounce back and Pharyngula will be chugging along with fresh material again.
Now…coffee, or nap?