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jrosenhouse | January 24, 2016Well, the final snow tally in my neck of the woods was a little over two feet. Impressive! On the other hand, there doesn't seem to have been much damage. There were no strong winds, we never lost power, and all of my trees seem to be intact. And it means I get another snow day tomorrow! Cleaning up after two feet of snow takes some time. I think my students might forget who I am.
In other news, it seems that the Grand Mufti in Saudi Arabia is not fond of chess.
A video clip of Saudi Arabia's top cleric saying that the game of chess is “forbidden” in Islam because it wastes time and…
jrosenhouse | January 22, 2016Here in my little neck of the woods we didn't get the apocalyptic, world-ending snow you've heard about on the news. But it was more than enough to close school for the day, and that's good enough for me!
Meanwhile, here's Emily the cat staring at the snow while I was working on the computer:
vlicata | January 22, 2016Hello again,
We’ve been on Mars – er, I mean in Antarctica for 1 week now. It’s similar to what one might imagine being on Mars is like, but with breathable air (nice air). The landscape around McMurdo Station is all volcanic rock. Rock and dirt everywhere. Stand in the middle of McMurdo and spin around and you’ll see about 230 degrees of rock and dirt as far as the eye can see, and about 130 degrees of extraordinary beauty looking across the Ross Ice Shelf toward the Trans-Antarctic Mountains. Right across from the station, shown in the picture, is Mount Discovery (slightly obscured in…
jrosenhouse | January 21, 2016The United Methodist Church has denied an application from the Discovery Institute to set up a table at their upcoming general conference. As you can imagine, the ID folks and their fellow travelers are having a collective freak out about this. Click here for a representative post about the sheer injustice of it all.
The basis for the rejection is that the Discovery Institute violates the UMC position on Evolution and Creationism:
WHEREAS, The United Methodist Church has for many years supported the separation of church and State;
Therefore, be it resolved, that the General Conference of…
jrosenhouse | January 20, 2016In a post from 2012, I wrote the following as part of a discussion about reconciling science and religion:
Too often the defender of reconciliation acts as though his job is done as soon as he has tossed off a logically possible scenario that includes both God and evolution.
This was specifically in response to an interview with philosopher Elliott Sober, in which he breathlessly reported his finding that science could not absolutely rule out the possibility that God was guiding the mutations in the course of evolution. Adorably, he seemed to think this represented a genuine contribution…
gregladen | January 19, 2016The following is a repost of a Facebook Post by Michael Mann. I don’t think this needs any comment from me. The original is here.
Begin Repost
Several colleagues have notified me of the following email that has been sent to a presumably broad group of researchers and academics by John Droz of the #Koch-funded American Tradition Institute (#ATI) (read about Droz here).
The email forwards a sign-on letter from #GeorgeMarshallInstitute chair and #climatechange denier #WillHapper (read about Happer here) asking colleagues to support the Lamar Smith (R-TX) witch-hunt against NOAA scientists (my…
jrosenhouse | January 17, 2016Folks, I entertained tonight. Had actual people over at my house and served them dinner.
And quite a dinner it was, if I do say so myself! I prepared filet mignon, with a homemade pan sauce made from balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, and chopped onion. For side dishes I roasted some red potatoes and steamed some broccoli. With the potatoes I went old school and prepared them just with salt, pepper, and olive oil, garnished with a bit of chopped parsley. For the broccoli I used chicken stock instead of water as the steaming liquid, and used lots of fresh herbs (rosemary, sage, and thyme,…
jrosenhouse | January 14, 2016Have you been following the goings-on at Wheaton College?
Last week, Wheaton Provost Stanton Jones took the first step toward firing Larycia Hawkins, a political science professor at the college for more than eight years, who posted on Facebook last month her intentions to show support for Muslims feeling besieged after the Paris terrorist attacks.
“I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book,” she posted on her Facebook page. “And as Pope Francis stated ... we worship the same God.”
According to the private evangelical college, not…
cmonforton | January 14, 2016There are many things I am thankful for about my job. One of them is being able to use the bathroom whenever (and as often) as I need. I thought about this situation when I’ve heard poultry workers mention the restrictions they face. I've also read about the problem for bus drivers and other public transit workers. The Washington Post, for example, has been following the issue involving drivers for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). In a story from 2011, WashPost's Dana Hedgpeth wrote:
“Some operators say they have had to relieve themselves in a cup or bag at the back…
gregladen | January 14, 2016Four elements are being added to the Periodic Table of the Elements. (I'm going to need a new shower curtain). These elements have been "known" for a long time, but are only now being added for reasons explained in the video below.
Meanwhile, have you read The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into The Land Of The Chemical Elements, or The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements? Great books. Not current, but then again, the Periodic Table has been around for quite a while.
And now the video:
jrosenhouse | January 12, 2016Philosophers Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle believe that it has. They make their case in this essay, posted at The New York Times.
The history of Western philosophy can be presented in a number of ways. It can be told in terms of periods — ancient, medieval and modern. We can divide it into rival traditions (empiricism versus rationalism, analytic versus Continental), or into various core areas (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics). It can also, of course, be viewed through the critical lens of gender or racial exclusion, as a discipline almost entirely fashioned for and by white European…
jrosenhouse | January 11, 2016In a post from four years ago, I wrote this:
[A]s a society we do everything in our power to make teaching as unappealing a profession as possible. In most districts the pay and benefits are laughable compared to other professions. Even worse, there is a deep lack of respect for the work that teachers do. People who haven't set foot in a classroom since their own, typically undistinguished, academic careers, and who wouldn't last five minutes if they ever did enter a classroom, seem perfectly happy to give lectures on how easy teachers have it, what with their nine-month school year and…
aardvarchaeology | January 11, 2016
2015 was an amazing year for scifi movies. The Martian, Fury Road, Force Awakens. And I hear Ex Machina is good too?
Tess Parks's "Life Is But A Dream" sounds exactly like Mazzy Star.
Tolkien Society flea market / fundraiser, late 80s. I'm in my larper tunic and baggy-sleeved shirt. An old lady loudly asks her friend, "Was that a boy in a dress?"
Jack the Ripper was into one night stabs.
Signed off on Jr's first ID. "You are the bows from which your children / as living arrows are sent forth."
Deezer took a look at my druggy favourites, then played me "White Rabbit" and "Eight Miles High".…
jdupuis | January 11, 2016Kristin Briney's Data Management for Researchers: Organize, maintain and share your data for research success is a book that should be on the shelf (physical or virtual) of every librarian, researcher and research administrator. Scientists, engineers, social scientists, humanists -- anyone who's work involves generating and keeping track of digital data. This is the book for you.
Like the title says -- data management for researchers. If you have data and you're a researcher, this is the book for you. Organize, maintain and share, the title says. If you're a researcher that needs to manage…
jrosenhouse | January 10, 2016I picked a charming helpmate for you this week, composed by Edgar Holladay in 1978. He was especially well known for lightweight problems where the pieces formed a recognizable shape on the board. This one looks roughly like an arrow. The stipulation calls for helpmate in eight:
Remember that in a helpmate black and white work together to construct a position in which black is checkmated. Also, black moves first. So you are looking for a sequence eight moves long, staring with black's first move and ending with white's eighth move, that ends with black being mated. Also, the move…
vlicata | January 10, 2016Hello,
World’s Fair has been dormant for some time now. Sincere apologies to those who had been following it. We are reactivating it in conjunction with a project called “Antarctica: Persistence of Vision”. The project is part of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writer’s Program: a science outreach program designed to combine art and science as a way to highlight and promote the beauty and value of Antarctica and the scientific research going on there. At the moment, Dr. Trish Suchy and I, both from Louisiana State University, are waiting in a hotel in Christchurch, New…
jrosenhouse | January 9, 2016Having neglected my Sunday Chess Problem duties recently, I'll give you a bonus chess post this week. I won't be making a habit of this, however, since I don't usually play games like this.
Here's a blitz game I recently played on the Internet Chess Club. I was white. My opponent was black and was rated in the high 1900s. We pick up the action with white about to make his fifteenth move. This came out of a Vienna Game.
I have this terrible fear that in a slow game, with too much time to think, I would have played the wimpy 15. Ne4. But in a blitz game, you might as well go for it.…
gregladen | January 8, 2016The Time Scales of Political and Climate Change Matter
The US is engaged in the laborious process of electing a new leader, who will likely be President for 8 years. Climate change has finally become an issue in US electoral politics. The climate policies of the next US President, and the Congress, will have a direct impact on the climate, because those policies will affect how much fossil carbon is put into the atmosphere over coming decades. So it is vital to consider what the climate may do during the next administration and the longer period that will include that administration’s…
jrosenhouse | January 7, 2016As it happens, I've been thinking about mathematical anti-evolutionism a lot lately.
Sometime over the summer, though I can't find the exact post, I mentioned that I had been working on an article about mathematical arguments against evolution. I finished it in the fall, and it has recently been accepted for publication in the journal Science and Education. The article is currently in production, but I don't how long the process will take.
The main point of the article is that while anti-evolutionists deploy mathematics in a large variety of ways, ultimately all of their arguments are just…
jrosenhouse | January 6, 2016There's a famous short story by Woody Allen called “The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers” that I like to reread from time to time. (It's very short, so follow the link if you've never read it before.) The story is told through the correspondence of Gossage and Vardebedian, as they argue about a game of postal chess in which they are engaged. There's one excerpt that keeps coming back to me, since it applies so perfectly in so many contexts:
Received your latest letter today, and while it was just shy of coherence, I think I can see where your bewilderment lies. From your enclosed diagram, it…