The convenience of internet check-in for airline flights is nice but at what cost?

Some cool stuff on Geekpress today:

Moss in space
En garde! (avec parapluie) - Part 1 and Part 2 - The drawings alone are enough reason to check these out. ;)
Last but not least, some Super Bowl Super Bull

Baby cheetahs are cute, with their fluffy little heads. (Another photo here.)

Maybe I'm too hard on Shrub sometimes. The poor guy's just a little ronery...

When life imitates art...

This is totally crazy. I am awestruck. What will they think of next?

There is something distinctly X-Filean about this:

"The FAA Web site says the plane was registered to a company called 448 Alliance LLC, and gave an address in Dallas. Directory assistance has no company with that name, but does show a DDH Aviation at the same address. No one answered the phone there."

Full article here.

Ugh. I'm sorry, what century is this, again? You know, I'm glad we live in a (supposedly) free society and all, wherein everyone (who yells loud enough) can have an opinion heard and considered, but how is it that a theory almost universally accepted within the international scientific community doesn't get taught in public schools because teachers fear backlash from the fundamentalist (Christian) community? That is just not okay. If people want to believe that the Bible trumps physical evidence, well fine. Their faith should be strong enough that they won't get their knickers in a twist if their kids are exposed to alternative ideas.

Don't get me wrong. I do see their point; they feel like it's a waste of time for their kids to be learning these "untruths" of science and history. Their tax dollars should go toward "meaningful" education. I still say buck up. It's not as though a high school biology class spends the entire year covering evolution. And when has a good debate ever been a waste of time? I think these people should be happy to have their kids involved in evolution discussions at school; if, when presented with all the information available, the kids still decide the Bible's account of human creation is the only real truth, at least now they've had the opportunity to hear the other argument. Their faith will be solidified, and they'll be able to fling more informed barbs at those nasty secularists.

Has Tony Blair lost his mind?! Ah no, don't worry, those scribblings actually are the work of Bill Gates...buh?

This is incredibly geeky. You must listen to the American flag image... read the post to see what that means.

I seem to be reading a lot about Bright Eyes these days. Well, this is the second article I've seen this week, anyway...

Ha!

So yesterday I just about got run down in a crosswalk. There's a stop sign, and I was about 1/3 of the way through the thing and this guy just came cruising right past the sign and line! He was looking the other way to see if he could turn, likely planning on a California rolling stop. Fortunately for me, he slowed down as he penetrated the crosswalk. I used some quick goat thinking and leaped out of the way, but he really made me mad. I pounded on his hood a bit and yelled at him. Really put me out, almost being killed despite the presence of stop sign and well marked crosswalk.

Yep, that's our fearless leader, "advancing history" and "firmly plant[ing] the flag of liberty." Thank heavens he's also found the time to "lay out the math" for Social Security reform and figure out how to combat those "twin deficits" we've got going...

I almost feel like this article was written specifically to piss me off.

Funny article in The Onion.

"Kirk generally keeps a tight rein on his interpersonal expenditures," Herman's longtime friend Ken Klein said. "Contributions of affection rarely exceed his own yearnings. Also, there was an exchange of liquid assets on the first date, which is suicide in this dating market. It's not the sort of thing that generally leads to a permanent merger."

I'm going to go ahead and say that people should check out the Flaming Lips. Sonically dense, as they say. Some of you might like.

Awesome story about a dude in the mailroom of a publishing company... getting a book deal. Via Ezra Klein (and then he found it via someone else ;))

The debate continues - Why do men score much higher than women (in most countries) on math and science exams? Personally, I'm inclined toward the "cultural differences and social conditioning" argument.

Yum. Mouse serum and stuff: stem cell lines approved for federal funding are delicious and nutritious tainted with animal products.

Check it out, my peeps. Bunch o' pictures - my gallery is on bottom. Susan's got a big one full o' cat pictures. More to come.

Maureen Dowd is crazy. I'm pretty sure that she watched the inauguration^* and cracked. Maybe I should say that she saw it coming and cracked.

^*Inauguration n.- the ceremonial insertion of a large corkscrew into an orifice of the democratic party.

u: iwannaread p:thisbook

This afternoon I went to the post office to join in on a wee lil' protest against the inauguration. It was pretty cool but at the this old guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted to be in a movie he was making because of my 'interesting look'. I asked him what kind of movie, because he was probably a pervert, and he said that it is about a female assasin. I thought that was pretty cool, but I doubt I will do it, due to my lack of acting skills, and the fact that I don't know him and he lives out in Williams.

Why Hail to the Chief? Because he's the chief. And he needs hailing. Duh.

Would you pay $150 (or more) to see yourself as you truly are? I guess it's cheaper than a video camera and monitor...

Check out the stuff about the "hair part theory"...pretty funny. (via Geekpress)

Stay in your pineapple under the sea! We don't want your filthy ideals of tolerance and understanding anywhere near our children!

I'm not so sure what this is supposed to mean. It's rather confusing.

NYT review of the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (about "the science of split-second decisions"):

"If you want to trust my snap judgment, buy this book: you'll be delighted. If you want to trust my more reflective second judgment, buy it: you'll be delighted but frustrated, troubled and left wanting more.

Or just go to the bookstore, look at the cover and let your neurons make up their own damn mind.

Bush admits his intelligence needs work. At last ;)

Boy, howdy, they sure got them some winners down there in Memphis.

Yesterday afternoon, Tom & I went for a walk in old town and stopped by the Apple Store, hoping to gawk at and drool over the new Mac offerings. Sadly, they didn't seem to have either the new Mac mini or iPod shuffle. Ah well. Here's an interesting chart/graphic/thing showing how freaking smart the folks at Apple have been in building their little empire. (via Geekpress)

I know I've been bemoaning our lack of true winter weather lately, but this is just too much. Huaaaagh!

Ouch!

I'm sorry, Pootie-Poot? I mean...huh???

Wow... maybe women should act all helpless if they want to snare a man:

A second study, which was by researchers at four British universities and reported last week, suggested that smart men with demanding jobs would rather have old-fashioned wives, like their mums, than equals. The study found that a high I.Q. hampers a woman's chance to get married, while it is a plus for men. The prospect for marriage increased by 35 percent for guys for each 16-point increase in I.Q.; for women, there is a 40 percent drop for each 16-point rise.

u: iwannaread p: thisbook

Check out the secrets of the masters, mate.

Stockpiles, my arse.

Okay- the critics aren't impressed, but I think that the Mac mini and the iPod shuffle are dead sexy. Especially that Mac mini. The shuffle is a bit gimmicky, and the mini maybe a little underpowered, but I started salivating when I saw it, so take from that what you will.

Thank goodness we can always count on Slate to ask the important questions.

It's still raining! Wow. Something like 14" in the month of January. Pasadena apparently averages 20" in a year...

Sorry to break it to you, TJ, but Listerine just ain't the same as flossing...

Band name gleaned from Jared Diamond's book, Collapse: Goat Scorn

Brief Respite from Serious Discussion

Here's a cool article about the aerial, "video game angle" cameras used at football games.

Dude, where's my cohort?

I'm glad that my post below started some discussion, but I'm not done railing against the man. This time, I'm taking issue with the practice of advancing kids through school by age, rather than ability or accomplishment. Now, I must grant that advancement by age is a well established practice- in the sense that it's done nearly everywhere, and has been done for a long time. There seems to be very little else to recommend age-advancement, however. What arguments can be advanced in support of it?

Probably the first argument most will give relates to socialization. The idea is that kids of a given age will be better able to interact with each other. What supports this idea? It seems that children are certainly not of an age with their parents, and yet during childhood, they interact very well. Frequently they relate with their older or younger siblings, or even other family members of similar age. Children are so malleable that they can fit into nearly any situation- that's what they're made to do. What's more, when, outside of school as currently implemented, are people formed into groups solely on the basis of their ages? The idea that kids should be socialized in groups of homogeneous age seems like poor instruction for the future!

Another argument sometimes advanced regards the teachers: it is easier for teachers to deal with groups composed by age. Children of a particular age tend to be at a given developmental stage. There is certainly truth to that. However, a group of students of any age will have many individuals of differing development- teachers must still cope with the outliers! Also, remember that children are develping intellectually, emotionally, and physically- all at once. Should physical development- the most directly tied to age- be the factor setting the clock? Unless school really is to be glorified daycare, then the teachers ought to primarily be intellectual resources for their students. Hence, students' intellectual development should be paramount in advancing them.

This is not to say that school plays no role in instructing children in acceptable behavior. It's just that for the system of education to be at all effective in its mission- producing citizens capable of contributing to society and participating in our democracy- they must already have the rudiments of acceptable behavior upon entering. If they do not, and parents instead rely on the schools to instill their children with this essential knowledge, we end up with todays mess- teacher as babysitter/disciplinarian/instructor.

Digression: In the previous paragraph, I wrote that the mission of our education system is to produce productive citizens. The more cynical (read: realistic) among you will object that this was not the intent behind establishing said system. Rather, you'll say that the intent was to keep kids busy learning to accept authority until they reach their physical peak, at which point they'd be put to work. Or, you'll say that the point was to produce young adults with just enough education to participate in the manufacturing economy. That's all well and good (and probably true; I can also be cynical), but for the good of our world, those things can't be the mission of the education system (any more). Instead, it must be that we endeavor to give each citizen the tools to be productive and able to discharge their civic duty. It is not possible to stay a democracy if the people cannot understand the actions of their government (and the consequences of said).End Digression

It does not follow that education cannot be fun. While the acquisition of some of the skills can be dreary (reading, basic math), the exercise of those skills can be wonderful fun. The exercise of those skills- developing an appreciation of literature, music, art, science, film -whatever!- can even teach people about who they are, enabling them to express and create.

Q: What is wrong with education as practiced in the United States?

A: A large fraction of students complete their education having not gained the skills and/or knowledge necessary to contribute meaningfully to society, it costs a huge amount of money, and it wastes an incredible amount of time (which, as we all know, is money ;) ).

Unfortunately, all these problems are linked. The costs of educating the populace are made higher by inefficiency, which also wastes the time of all parties involved. The students are also under-prepared because of the inefficient use of their time spent in educuo (see how well educated I am? I can even make up Latin phrases).

What is the main source of inefficiency? The students. Or, more precisely, when we try to teach them.

Consider this- according to Stephen Pinker's book, The Language Instinct, toddlers acquire, on average, something like a half-dozen words per hour. So answer me why the kids aren't being pushed? I mean, good grief! Children are nothing so much as learning machines. Why is it that there's any delay at all in getting the bastards stuffed full of useful information?

Further, their tiny little brains are incredibly more well-suited to learning than the hormone-addled brains of teens! We should to be able to graduate, from middle school, students who are literate, numerate, aware of the basic history of their society and the world, and familiar with the basics of how objects interact. All this, before they're completely consumed by their burgeoning desire to mate!

We should, as the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot, when it has some hope of retaining the useful information that we'll strive to imprint upon it. So, rather than making grammar school and middle school mere exercises in unpleasant babysitting, force these places to live up to the potential of the students.

And while it is fine and dandy to produce well rounded citizens, what we really need is for them to be able to read and write, add and subtract, think and experiment. There is little need to instruct them to: play instruments, sing, play games, talk about how they feel about themselves (this is important- recent studies indicate that concentrating too highly on the self-esteem of students has detrimental effects on their performance!), paint, or draw. Rather than wasting time on "rounding" the kids out, let them acquire a core set skills and then discover their own edges and corners and shapes.

Texas snow! Going once. Going twice...erm...

Texas puddle! Going once...

In theory, I think the idea of small, themed high schools is a good one. However, the effective implementation of that idea is of course the tricky part. I can definitely see how problems can arise quickly when students are placed in one of these schools not out of some particular interest in its theme, but because they have nowhere else to go.

NPR has been really irritating, of late. They can't stop replaying their interviews with Artie Shaw. I mean- I don't really care about Artie Shaw. The guy hasn't been relevant in a (large) number of years, or even a (medium) number of decades! Just let him die in peace, and play some cooler interviews.

Jeez- Kittie Feldie has a creepy laugh. She's interviewing Roy Blount, Jr. and keeps on laughing... hee hee hee hee hee

Gaaaahhh!

The current storm system passing through caused a tornado in Inglewood. That's down by LAX.

Goodbye Lennie :(

Question: Is it unmanly to carry an umbrella?

Book Review: Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Read it; it's quite good, and the subject is amazing.

Sea of Glory examines this expedition's origins, follows along the journey, and looks back on the aftermath, explaining why you've probably never heard much about this astounding episode in our country's history.

The author, using such sources as the sailors' and officers' (official and private) journals and correspondence, tells the tale well- it is a gripping story, and I read it in but a few sittings.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, it was of extreme interest.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Okay, so the clutter thing? Was pretty lame.

In fact, their result is totally expected. Because of the time reversal invariance of (most) physical systems, the only thing that would be unexpected would be not observing their result.

If, however, they had many dissipative objects in their field of view, implying what is called dispersion (and vice-versa), or many objects with other sources of current, then you might be surprised that their trick worked.

Even if you had external current sources, because there aren't that many sources of current with significant gigahertz components in their spectra, we'd kinda expect little in the way of unexpected differences.

That's not to say we'd expect perfec agreement, but, as in the acoustical case, I'd expect pretty good agreement. After all, real things are complicated :)

Hang on a sec...this isn't right, right?

The U.S. dollar is near an all-time low against the euro, which began circulating in January 2002, and is close to a five-year low against the Japanese yen. The British pound is trading at nearly two to a dollar. (Emphasis added by me)

That's just a typo, right? Should be saying that the dollar's trading at nearly two to a pound? Otherwise, the Brits are in way worse shape than we are...

I'm not wild about clutter, but some scientists are.

A Festivus for the rest of us!

Mmmmm...first amendment-y.

Right now, according to a Washington Post poll, a larger percentage of americans disapprove of Bush than approve of him. Some 38% strongly disapprove, whilst 27% strongly approve. Via Pandagon.

Stop taking Aleve.

The Times has a soft spot for Yamhill. Either that, or Yamhill has something extraordinary in the water. Can anyone guess the other Yamhill connection at the Times?

u = iwannaread

p = thisbook

Crunch. 70-car pileup in Pennsylvania and no one was killed or seriously injured. Pretty unbelievable.

So here's a question that occurred to me whilst reading a comment at The Gadflyer: did Bush have Rove set up Giuliani for a fall as a service to Jeb?

Whoo! Take it all off! Except your business license! I'll need that to stay on so I can complain to the BBB if you don't adequately "work it."

Bionic dolphin...cool!

Slate's Timothy Noah is a god among men...well, god among journalists, anyway.

Country music is getting kinky.

And today's little gem from Fafblog is:

I had a little golem, I made it out of clay
And when it's dried and ready, Prague armies it will slay.
Golem, golem, golem, I made you out of clay.
Golem, golem, golem, with golem I will play.

Yet another high class reality show to hit the airwaves soon. Leave it to FOX to create a show called "Who's Your Daddy?"...

Today my block teachers (US history and literature) made my class take the citizenship test to become an American citizen. I failed! I scored 47 out of 64. You can miss up to ten. They also had us take the Alabama voting test (these tests were from the late 1800s mind you) and I actually gave up on that one it was so hard. And with that one you couldn't miss any and it was about 50-some odd questions long. Lastly, they had us take this silly IQ exam, only five questions long, consisting of riddles I know well from memorizing MindTrap cards. ; )

Interesting: beware where you shop. My officemate sent this along.

Interesting article about Japanese gadget culture (via geekpress)

As her majesty the Queen would say, "We are not impressed."

There is a new video teacher at our school and the guy is a bloody moron. He keeps coming to me, wanting me to be the little news lady for our school news. We don't even have a news show! Plus, the video productions classes are meant for creativity and exploration, but he is forcing every one to do news. My friend has a website and gave him 'the dumbass award'. Pardon the poor spelling on his site. http://www.freewebs.com/brassknuckle1/mathiews.htm

How much do you want to bet Bose's stock will jump if this passes?

Blah blah blah blah.

Something on NPR I heard reminded me of this fact: electronics grade silicon is among the purest of materials available on Earth.

For your amusement: Comedy Central Special - Jeremy Hotz. Funny, funny guy. Right-click the link to save (or whatever it is you Mac users do).

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to confiscate that terrorist laser pointer!

Really Rumsfeld? You're doing everything humanly possible to add armor to those humvees? (via linkfilter)

Okay, these guys are slimeballs, but I love giving DeLay the shaft.

Caltech may be strange, but I don't imagine there's a high occurrence of public nudity among geeks.

More about how Caltech is strange: I saw a guy with some kind of snake tattoo on his bicep. Down his arm a bit was another tattoo:

You can learn a lot about a man by considering the masters he chooses. What kind of masters did Bernard Kerik choose? What does it say about his character?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Secretary of Homeland Security, presumptive. Now, with more double-plus ungoodness.

Read my lips... no higher taxes.

So since we're not going to raise additional funds for Social Security, can you guess what will happen? One good guess would be that benefits would be reduced. That, however, would not be politically expedient. Therefore, we can expect that there will be additional debt.

Another possible response would be to reform S.S. in some way. For example, we might move to a system of individual accounts. Will that cost anything? The Magic 8-Ball is probably coming up, "Not Likely," since that's what they want to hear.

Gentlemen, that laptop might be rendering you infertile.

Caltech is odd: I saw a guy wearing sabots today. Actual, wooden sabots. And judging by the wear evident, they're his normal shoes.

Amusements from Wired (via geekpress):
Segway Polo
How do you make roads safer? Easy - just take away all signs and signals and let people figure out navigation for themselves. Sounds like survival of the least idiotic, to me.

New word heard in a meeting: correlationship

e.g. "As you can see, there is a direct correlationship between these two data points..."

Here is a picture of my new weiner dog Franklin. He's probably the best dog ever.

Vivent les Francais..."planting explosives in the suitcases of unsuspecting passengers - all in the name of safety."

Cool! Watch out ,though. Grey goo may be nigh upon us. (via geekpress)

*sniffle*

I know that sentimentality is considered cheap, but this octopus really tugs at the heartstrings.

Maybe it's because octopuses are so smart that the story got to me.

Yet another reason why I should endeavor to get more sleep at night.

Here is a funny thing that happened the other day. I was in Fred Meyer and there was an announcement for John to meet his wife in the home department. About five minutes later, the announcer said, "John, please meet your ho-I mean wife-in the home department."

Test post for Megan.

Yeah, FDA, stick it to the women! They don't need- much less deserve- the levels of sexual satisfaction that men do.

Next On Fox:When Blogs Go Quiet!

It's been a busy week: the lab has been productive, we have some understanding of what's going on, and now I need to go back into sample production mode. Turns out that the project we're working on has a program kickoff in the middle of this month in D.C., and we're trying to send some samples out to get Erbium Oxide deposited on them. This would count as significant progress to report at the kickoff meeting.

Home's good, but I need another, more hefty, break. Honestly, I'm dyin', here!

Thanks to all those who wished me a happy birthday- I had a pretty good one!

We got some neat results at work, I had my girl with me :), and I got the first 3 seasons of The West Wing on DVD! Whoo-hoo!

We watched the pilot episode last night- it's the only episode that I've seen where the theme music matched well with the action. Next up: Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc. (wherein Josh, a lawyer, doesn't know the name of a logical fallacy)