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jstemwedel | December 15, 2007When I partook of this last year, I thought it was a one time thing. But by golly, John Lynch seems to have established this meme as an annual tradition, and I kind of like traditions.
The rule: post the first sentence of the first post for each month.
January: Don't update your blog for a few days.
February: I simply cannot accept the final judgment in Bravo's Top Chef (season 2).
March: The inaugural edition of Scientiae, the new women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics blog carnival, has been posted at Rants of a Feminist Engineer.
April: In case you somehow missed…
terrasig | December 15, 2007On this day in 2005 we first signed on to the blogosphere on the original Terra Sigillata at Blogger. I had spent over six months reading the blogs of other in the areas of medicine and science and wondered if there was any need for yet another blog from another frustrated scientist. But I'm an academician stuck in a position where I don't teach full-time. I really used to enjoy beginning my pharmacology lectures with little vignettes about the latest drug news or some information about an herb or dietary supplement. I've also been fortunate to have a lot of clinical colleagues who would…
clock | December 15, 2007Matt and Mrs.Whatsit tagged me with the 7-meme and 8-meme and I have been struggling with the ideas as to how to respond. I am usually a sucker for memes. I always do them. But there is nothing - weird or not - about myself that I have not already mentioned on this blog at one point or another (except things that I will never say, as I do not want to endanger my job, my marriage, or my good relationships with the family, in-laws, neighbors, friends and colleagues). So, instead, I will challenge you: have you done more memes than I did in your blogging career? List them all. Here are…
jstemwedel | December 15, 2007Today I stumbled upon a story the elder Free-Ride offspring wrote. Possibly intended to strike a Charles Dickens-like tone, I think it ended up a bit closer to Dostoevsky.
Of course, I have to share it:
When Mice Go Caroling
When mice go caroling, you better watch out.
When they're done, they will ask for cookies.
OK, so at this point I'm expecting a plot arc of the sort found in the classic book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Likely there will be some unforeseen consequence -- or some elaborate chain of unforeseen consequences -- following upon this innocent act of generosity. Hilarious…
pharyngula | December 13, 2007My last class for the semester is over as of this minute. All that's left is to proctor one final exam, and then…the horror of grading. Exams and more exams and term papers and lab reports, all to be done next week.
I guess I can't quite celebrate freedom just yet. But I will soon enough. I'll probably get wild and read a book or something.
pharyngula | December 11, 2007Classes aren't quite over, but I gave my last lecture for the fall 2007 semester today. I still have a discussion session, a lab, and an exam to give, but it's still something of a landmark in the trajectory of the term. No more lecture prep! No more daily theatrical performances! What's left is more like friendly conversation and accounting.
I have this six-pack of homebrew from Dave Puskala waiting for me in the refrigerator at home…I'm opening one tonight.
jstemwedel | December 10, 2007Do furnaces break more frequently in the winter than the summer, or do people just have occasion to notice non-functional furnaces when the weather gets really cold?
(Why yes, our furnace has broken, and our temperatures have been dipping below freezing. Why do you ask? Is it my pathetic chattering?)
drorzel | December 10, 2007"Do you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -- Steven Brust, Dzur
Way, way back in October, when I was annoying you all with DonorsChoose fundraining posts, I offered to sell post topics for $30. I've paid off most of these, but I have three left, one of which was for something more regarding Robert Jordan.
As I noted at the time, the Wheel of Time books were ridiculously important in my life-- because of them, I got involved with the Robert Jordan group on Usenet (I take obscure pride in being there from before the founding of rec.art.sf.written.robert-jordan), and through…
grrlscientist | December 8, 2007You may not remember this, but one year ago today, I was discharged from the nuthouse after being hospitalized for a little longer than four months. What a long journey it's been since that day, one year ago. I was intensely lonely and barely functional for oh so many months, and the doctors were constantly worried and wished to send me back to the hospital (they even made housecalls), but I managed to maintain my freedom and to survive. I still experience many rough days and many setbacks, and I am still working on getting my feet under me and "regaining functionality" even today. But…
grrlscientist | December 6, 2007tags: Eclectus roratus solomonensis, parrots, pets, birds, avian, behavior
Sophie, a female Solomon Islands Eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus solomonensis,
who looks just like my own Elektra.
Image: Courtesy of Denise and Dave Bell/Eclectus House.
As I had mentioned earlier, I am playing host to a surprise house guest, so my birds are behaving in new and different ways than usual. The usually stoic Elektra, my Solomon Islands Eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus solomonensis, has been especially mischievous.
Yesterday morning, all the birds were out and the hawk-headed parrot (still…
jstemwedel | December 6, 2007Taking a very brief break in the dungeon of grading to partake of this meme, with which I have been hoping to be tagged for months. (Indeed, I wasn't really officially tagged -- Julie was, but she's busy writing papers and stuff, so I'm helping her out by pinch-hitting for her on the meme.)
No mere time-waster, this meme was started by PZ Myers at Pharyngula as a means of demonstrating evolution in cyberspace.
The rules:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...".
Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify…
jstemwedel | December 5, 2007If you're "writing" a philosophy paper and you're going to plagiarize, why would you plagiarize a sub-optimal source like Wikipedia? Why wouldn't you at least rip off a top-notch source like the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy?
It seems to me there was a time when cheaters took more pride in their craft.
Disclaimer: Regardless of the quality of your source material, plagiarism is wrong. Don't plagiarize!
cmooney | December 5, 2007I realize that I haven't been my usual self this week, and there haven't been many posts. Sheril has been picking up the slack, thank goodness--but I don't know how much more I'll have this week, folks. Work has just kicked up unbelievably of late.
But there's good news: One reason we're a bit quiet here at The Intersection is that Sheril and I have been devoting some time to a really awesome and extraordinary project that we are going to be able to inform you about early next week (hopefully). Once we do so, I think you'll forgive us our slowness in posting of late.
Big time.
grrlscientist | December 5, 2007tags: Eclectus roratus solomonensis, parrots, pets, birds, avian, behavior
Sophie, a female Solomon Islands Eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus solomonensis,
who looks just like my own Elektra.
Image: Courtesy of Denise and Dave Bell/Eclectus House.
I am playing host to a surprise house guest (human), so my birds have been exhibiting all sorts of unusual behaviors these past couple days. Elektra, who is a four-year-old female Solomon Islands Eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus solomonensis, is characteristically reserved and even a bit stoic (dare I say "unflappable"?), so I thought she was…
pharyngula | December 4, 2007People keep sending me horrible, frustrating news stories — I'll post some later, but first, I have to restore my center with pleasant contemplation. Deep breaths. Grade some more exams. Watch some fish for a little while.
OK, here's a pleasant memento: Mrs Janes' 3rd grade class at O'Brien Elementary School, in Kent, Washington. The year is 1966.
(click for larger image)Top row: Cindy Burton, Kathleen Sturtz, Nancy Bull, Mary McHugh, Debbie Long, Becky Barnier, Darlene Yamada, Susan Rea, Billie Anderson, Mary McKay, Cathy Jenkins
2nd row: Mrs Janes, Richard Campbell, Richard Nault, Arthur…
clock | December 3, 2007The other day, Kate wrote an interesting post about inter-species relationships, in particular the cases of inter-species adoption and parenting. In her post, she mentioned a paper that immediately drew my attention - Influence of various early human-foal interferences on subsequent human-foal relationship. by Henry S, Richard-Yris MA and Hausberger M. (Dev Psychobiol. 2006 Dec;48(8):712-8.).
In the paper, the newborn foals were either handled by humans (e.g., brought to the teat), or left completely alone with their mother, or just had humans standing by. Then, a few weeks later, they…
jstemwedel | December 1, 2007
Near the beginning of November, I announced my intention to jump on board with International acaDemic Writing Month. I put up a list of writing projects on which I was going to try to make some serious headway.
And my commenters asked, essentially, whether I was nuts.
My commenters are very, very smart. They hardly ever lead me astray, and this matter is no exception.
First, let me note that I did, in fact, accomplish some academic writing that I might not have without pledging that I'd be making some progress. Here's my original list of writing projects with what I actually did noted in…
grrlscientist | December 1, 2007tags: parrots, feeding
One of the great pleasures I have is feeding my birds. I love everything about it, from shopping for the finest and freshest foods to preparing them for the birds to eat. As a result, I'd guess that my food preparations for the birds become rather complicated. Anyway, I thought I'd let you all know what my birds are eating this week;
All the birds;
frozen, thawed mixed vegetables (peas, carrot pieces, corn, lima beans)
fresh zucchini pieces
fresh red bell pepper pieces
fresh corn-on-the-cob cut into 1-inch "wheels"
fresh gala apple pieces
fresh mango pieces
fresh orange…
grrlscientist | November 30, 2007tags: parrots, behavior
My hawk-headed parrot is teething. Or, because she's a parrot and thus, has no teeth, she is "beaking". Except she typically proceeds quickly from "beaking" (testing substances with her beak) to puncturing or otherwise destroying various objects -- "chomping", if you will. So, for your amusement, I have compiled a list of objects that she has "beaked" and "chomped" so far;
Beaked;
DVDs
CDs
the blanket on my futon
my futon mattress
my fingers
several books (I rescued them before she made "v" shaped punctures in their covers and pages)
the refrigerator
my…
sciencewoman | November 29, 2007I'm saying a sad goodbye to my trustworthy vehicle of 7 years that has been declared a total loss after a traffic accident last week.
But, I'm excited about the prospect of buying a new car this weekend. We've decided to get a hybrid. I spend too much of my commute stuck in traffic, and it vexes me to lecture my students about carbon emissions and global warming and then go idle in traffic for a half hour.
The question for you is: "Which hybrid should I get?" Do you drive a hybrid? What have your experiences been with it? Would you buy it again?