atxcats

Cute Cat Craziness!

2008-12-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

It's funny how cats won't spend 30 seconds on a cat toy you buy them, but give them a discarded box, and they amuse themselves for hours on end! (Or the cat equivalent of hours on end.)

What's the Word?! Tinklenberg!

2008-10-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

(I was going to link the title of this to the Michelle Bachmann Blog Carnival, but the site seems to be down for maintenance. I'll try again a bit later, so come back if you need more information.)

How Many Texas Cheerleaders Can You Cram Into an Elevator?

2008-08-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

During a cheerleading camp at UT Austin this week, a gaggle of high school cheerleaders decided to see how many cheerleaders can fit into an elevator.

If you want the elevator to remain functional, the answer is "fewer than 26," since that was the magic number that broke the elevator and caused it to become stuck with the door closed.

Fortunately, with 26 teen cheerleaders, you will have at least 20 cell phones, and within half an hour, they were rescued.

(click on the title for more details.)

The temperatures in Austin have been as high as 104 or 105 lately, so no wonder they are doing silly things -- or rather sillier than normal things.

Bush Jokes at G8: Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter

2008-07-10T13:38:00.001-07:00

George Bush surprised world leaders with a joke about his poor record on the environment as he left the G8 summit in Japan.

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

worst. president. ever.

read more | digg story

Another Internet Tradition or "John McCain is aware of the internet"

2008-06-23T16:44:00.001-07:00

I do hope you are aware of all internet traditions.

For now I shall give this a rest, okay?

UPDATE: I corrected the spelling of "McCain" -- oops

+
*

George Carlin, RIP

2008-06-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
But He loves you.
He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!
-- George Carlin Politically Incorrect, May 29, 1997

OMFSM! Look who Visited my Blog!

2008-06-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

I guess they HAVE figured out the internets! (see post immediately below this one.)

Has the McCain Campaign Finally Figured Out the Internets?

2008-06-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

From the John McCain's Facebook Supporters page today:

"John McCain added the Pork Invaders application." Pork Invaders seems to be a game featuring various little pink piggies worth 10 - 30 points. I assume that the piggies are scarfed up by evil liberal Democrats. Or are the Democrats supposed to be the little pink piggies? Sorry, but I'm not going to "Add the app" to find out. And aren't we long past the heyday of "Space Invaders" anyway?

The other "cool" McCain application is "Campaign Cribs: Straight Talk Express" Um, I suppose this was inspired by the MTV series, but it comes off as "look how young and hip we are," especially since the heyday of MTV Cribs was more than 5 years ago, right?

It is also interesting that while Obama has over 1,000,000 FB Supporters, McCain has a little more than 140,000.

I am Aware of all Internet Traditions

2008-06-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

R U Aware of All Internet Traditions?

2008-06-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

Demolition of ESB @ UT Austin

2008-06-19T17:57:00.001-07:00

Click on the pictures below to get a really good view!

The Experimental Sciences Building at UT Austin is being demolished this summer. Apparently tearing it down and rebuilding it was more cost and time effective than the extensive renovation it would need. It's sad in a way because there were the names of various scientists inscribed just below the roofline of the building interspersed with beautiful carvings & medallions (one carving is right above this paragraph.) There were also a couple of beautiful meeting rooms -- one with gorgeous wood paneling (and I'm not a bit wood paneling fan) and a display of wood from all over the world.

As this progresses, I'll post a few more pictures. They have a water cannon spewing water to keep the dust down. The rebar on the building is awesome, too -- a big hunk of the roof (with red tiles still attached) about 20' long was hanging from the top story by a number of rebar cables, and I thought, "That building doesn't want to come down easily, does it." Sigh.

Click on the title for an 8 minute time elapsed video of the demolition (I just fast forwarded through most of it -- it's a good view of the building from before they started the exterior work until this week.)

Obama a Muslim ?

2008-06-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

Click on the title to fight the smears.

And what if he were?

Pfleger: Bully in the Pulpit

2008-05-30T11:55:00.001-07:00

There was another sermon given at Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ the same day as Father Pfleger's. Why hasn't FauxNews put snippets of the sermon given by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite on their endless loop? Perhaps it doesn't reinforce their propaganda?

"Father Pfleger, as America now knows, preached a very different message on race, one I greatly resent.We in the United Church of Christ are trying to have what we call “A Sacred Conversation on Race” and I did not find Pfleger’s sermon to represent what we in the UCC are trying to do in having a sacred conversation."

read more | digg story

November 2008 Presidential Ballot

2008-05-26T10:19:00.001-07:00

A nightmare I had this weekend after hearing that Barr is the Libertarian presidential candidate and reading comments from supporters of Clinton who said they would write in her name in the fall if she doesn't earn the Democratic nomination:

Candidate Party

McCain:      Republican

Obama:     Democratic

Barr:             Libertarian

Clinton:      Independent

Even if there were only three of the above in the race (McCain, Barr, Clinton) or (McCain, Barr, Obama), it might be possible that none of the candidates would get the 270 electoral votes needed, and the election would then end up in the House.

It's going to be an interesting summer (and fall.)

Texas Board Denies Online Creationism "Master of Science"

2008-04-24T20:28:00.001-07:00

Following up on a similar "no" vote, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has turned down a request by the Institute of Creation Research to offer an online Master of Science Degree. (The vote yesterday was done by just a subcommittee of the board, and today's vote was by the entire board. We were pretty sure that the whole Board would vote against the proposal, but you never know what weird things can happen overnight.)

This struggle is never ending, though -- this year, high school biology books are up for review, and a majority of TX SBOE members favor the new creationism/creation science/intelligent design flavor, "Teach the Controversy," which means, "Teach our particular interpretation of the bible, and never mind that we are skipping some important steps that every other hypothesis has to go through on its way to being taught as a theory in schools: Research, Peer Review, Scientific Consensus, etc."

read more | digg story

Texas higher education board rejects creation science degree

2008-04-23T13:55:00.001-07:00

This is a follow up to something I just posted.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board rejected the Institute for Creation Research's proposal to offer a master's degree in science education, claiming that the degree would not prepare teachers to teach evolution. The ruling raises the question if current degree programs prepare teachers to give fair treatment to creation science.

I especially found this interesting:

The decision to turn down the proposal, subject to final action by the full board Thursday, came despite arguments from institute officials and faculty that teaching creationism to students would not hurt their future effectiveness as science teachers."

Yeah, right, being indoctrinated in pseudoscience won't hurt your effectiveness as a science teacher.

According to the article, the ICR also threatened legal action on free speech grounds. If the ICR wants to offer a graduate degree in Texas, and have it certified and/or accredited, all they need to do is label it accurately. I've put some suggestions in the post below this one.

read more | digg story

Another Setback for Creationism in Texas?

2008-04-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

Details to follow, but I just got an email from someone who was at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Academic Excellence & Research, etc. Committee meeting today, and they have voted to accept the recommendation of Commissioner Paredes to deny certification for a Masters of Science Education program to be offered by the Institution for Creation Research.

The full board votes tomorrow, so unless they get "teh dumb" overnight, this is a setback for the ICR.

If they want certification in Texas, they might want to consider calling it a "Masters of Theology" or "Masters of Creationism", since it certainly isn't science.

Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

2008-04-18T21:16:00.001-07:00

This is one of those occasions when parody is the best response.

read more | digg story

April 1 @ RLM

2008-04-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Our admin. associate, Colleen, made me take down the broken door signs this week after two math professors were flummoxed by them -- they wanted to come in to tell her that their sections of Number Theory in the fall would be taught via Moore Method, and they walked up to the door, looked at the signs, looked confused, walked away, saw students leaving the office, walked back to the door, stared at the door, and finally entered the office. Click on the title above to see the picture she took of our office doors.

Colleen wasn't too upset about the rest of the April 1 antics. (Actually, she was laughing about them most of the morning.) I stuck a mini sticky note that said "gotcha" at the bottom of her optical mouse; taped down the switch hook on the telephone so that when she picked the phone up it would still ring, joined all her paper clips together, etc. For the computer the faculty use, I moved the dock, opened up a couple of applications, took a screen shot, closed the applications, replaced the wallpaper with the screen shot, and hid the dock; however, after thinking about it for a bit, we decided that we should put the faculty computer back to normal, since we didn't think he could deal with it. (He's brilliant, but not that technologically savvy -- we can usually introduce him to one new change per year -- for example, when our note taking system migrated from a mainframe application to a web based one -- we would have been in trouble if they were to have also switched the registration system to the web at the same time.)

I am taking suggestions for next year in the comments section -- you really have to plan ahead a bit for these things.

Chris Comer was Expelled

2008-04-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

Ahh, shortly before 7 a.m. CDT, the real Expelled site was updated. Currently, a short video with Chris Comer's story is featured.

Why wasn't this real travesty of decency and justice mentioned in the movie Expelled?

John A. Wheeler, R.I.P.

2008-04-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

(Click on the title for the NYT obit.)

The auditorium classroom across from my office in RLM at UT is named after John Wheeler (he joined the faculty here in the late 1970s.) He coined the term "black hole", and science fiction would be a lot less interesting without his concepts such as the "many worlds" theory.

Expelled Exposed

2008-04-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

Expelled Exposed, has the truth about the so-called "Expellees" of the movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." Please click on the title to visit their site.

I'd like to point out that (from what I've heard), "Expelled" does not discuss the science educators and administrators (such as Chris Comer of Texas) who have been reprimanded or fired for supporting science. Kenneth Miller alluded to several other cases when he spoke at UT recently -- I'll try to find some information about them to put in another post.

Dr. Kenneth Miller @ UT Austin: "God, Darwin, and Design: Lessons from the Dover Monkey Trial"

2008-04-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

Kenneth Miller, one of the witnesses for the plaintiffs in the Dover ID trial, gave an engaging SRO talk at UT Austin tonight. The webcast is already up, if you click on the title above. You'll need to download the Envivo plugin (and you need to have the most recent media player for your system) to view the webcast.

As the room filled up, I contrasted this event with the recent stealth screenings of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed -- where the Expelled audience was carefully vetted and screened to keep out undesirables, the "God, Darwin, and Design" talk was widely advertised and extra room was made for the overflow. (The room held 400 - 500, and they directed people to the classroom next door where they set up the webcast for viewing.) All were welcome, and the webcast had an international audience -- groups were set up all over for viewing, including Monterrey, Mexico and the UK.

The target audience for this talk (actually a series of outreach talks sponsored by UT's Environmental Sciences Institute) is K - 12 educators, and this comes at an opportune time for Texas since out SBOE is doing biology text reviews this year. During the Q & A period at the end, I asked if anyone had invited the TX SBOE, which got a laugh -- Miller said that he understood people could be fired for forwarding emails about talks on evolution. (I had actually meant to send the information about the talk on to my SBOE representative, Ken Mercer, and suggest that he attend, but I didn't get around to it.) Later I did see Chris Comer in the audience (the former Science Director for our state who actually was fired after she forwarded an "FYI" email announcing a talk by Barbara Forrest, another Dover ID witness.)

The contrasts with the ID crowd (if it can be said they have enough for a crowd) continued with Miller's points about how science deals with a new claim (1. research, 2. peer review, conferences, publishing, thrashing it out, which leads to 3. scientific consensus and then finally 4. the claims are included in classrooms and textbooks.) and what the IDers are demanding (going directly from the new claim to the classroom and textbooks without all the intervening steps that scientists take.)

Miller talked a bit about his experiences in the Dover trial -- I'll gloss over that, except for the fact that former PA Sentator Rick Santorum had nominated Judge Jones to his position (how did I not know that?!) The IDers must have felt that the fix was in when they drew Judge Jones.

He also gave some examples of evolutionary theory pwning ID/creationism/irreducible complexity. I've heard him talk about these in more detail in this video from a talk he gave at Case Western: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRsWAjvQSg It's 2 hours long, but he presents some very powerful evolutionary explanations and predictions. (bacterial flagellum, fused human chromosome #2, the dishonest presentation of the fish-to-amphibian fossil record in the ID/creationist book "Of Panda's and People", etc.

Tonight's talk was a little over an hour and fifteen minutes, but Miller is a very funny, engaging speaker. "Didn't these guys learn anything from the Nixon administration?!" (referring to the documents presented by the "Of Pandas and People" text creators to the Dover plaintiffs which were the nail in the coffin on the idea that ID is creationism and hence is religious teaching, not science.)

His view of Expelled is that the IDers need an explanation of why their ideas haven't caught on in the scientific community, and about the last straw they have is to conflate "Darwinism" to Nazism and other social ills. He said that we have to confront those errors with the facts every time we hear them. He also talked about reviewing Behe's new book -- twice -- and reports that Behe accepts the common ancestry of all beings, including humans, which is sure to be a disappointment to many IDers.

Another couple of funny anecdotes -- when he was on the Colbert Report, the only contact he had with Colbert was right before the show when Colbert said to him as he walked by, "Are you Miller? I'm gonna get you -- you're going DOWN!" Also, during the cold war, Miller was at a conference (either in E. Germany or someplace with some E. German scientists) -- I swear, the beginning of this anecdote was the only time my mind wandered -- and when one of the Germans left to go to the rest room, Miller turned to the other scientists and said, "Um, you know, that guy really isn't very smart," and the other Germans said, "Oh, him? His not a SCIENTIST -- he's Stasi!" (apparently, that's the only way the E. Germans would let their scientists hang with our scientists.)

And of course, because Miller is a theist -- Catholic to be exact -- he discussed how one can be a believer and accept evolutionary theory, and how accepting evolution does not necessarily lead to atheism. True enough, although in the case of this writer, accepting evolutionary theory did make it possible for me to be a non-believer, and it would be dishonest of me to say that this aspect of my education didn't have an effect on my beliefs. Of course, every aspect of my education eventually led me to non-belief, so I don't think the IDers should just pick on biology!

Expelled Contest

2008-03-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Expelled! The Movie is sponsoring a contest to see who has been the most persecuted by those evil evolutionists:

MOVIE CONTEST
Ever sat in class and had your professor straight up challenge your intelligence for suggesting even the possibility of an intelligent design in the universe?
Tired of being labeled merely for questioning aspects of the Darwinian theory of evolution? Ever been scoffed at or ridiculed in front of your peers?
Well, here’s your opportunity to tell your story on our Website AND possibly be in the movie, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”! Tell the world some of the outrageous things your professors say about your questions.
You and your story just might be chosen by our producers to be in the film, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”! Let your voice be heard!
*Only submissions that meet our above requirements will be published.

I'm not sure the designers of this contest realize that this runs both ways, since I've heard plenty of anecdotes of teachers and other students inappropriately bringing their religion into the classroom. For example, when my husband was in the Salt Lake City public school system, things got so bad that his parents sent him and his brother to a Catholic school so they could get away from the religious proseltyzing. His brother came home crying one day because his best friend said he could no longer play with him since they (my husband's family) weren't LDS.

So, if you have such an example, I'd encourage you to click on the above link and share your story with the Expelled crew. I already saw an entry by a student whose English teacher informed him that "God created the universe" when he submitted a paper on the Big Bang.

Does anyone know if Expelled features Chris Comer, the former Texas director of Science Education who was asked to resign after forwarding an announcement of a lecture given by Barbara Forrest about her experience as a witness in the Dover, PA "Intelligent Design" trial? (Gee, you'd think that the TX SBOE would be more than a little bit curious about this subject, since they would love to introduce ID in our classrooms here, but apparently they aren't.) Also, this is just a rhetorical question, since I'm almost certain they didn't mention it.

UPDATE

I checked the link this morning, and the contest is now over -- long before the stated closing date in the official rules (although I'm sure they had a provision that they could close the contest at any time.) You can still read the entries and see some video clips.

OMFSM! The Expelling of PZ from Expelled Hits the NYT

2008-03-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

For the life of me, I can't understand why the producers of the movie criticized PZ for his view of the movie because he hadn't seen it, but then when he tries to see it, they kick him out?

What are they afraid of?

If their evidence is so strong, you would think they'd want to get it out there pronto!

PZ Gets Expelled and Wins teh Internets!

2008-03-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

It's probably bad form to blog by just linking to someone else's blog, but this incident is just awesome! And it is related directly to my post just previous to this one.

"If you can't let your opposition see your argument, it must be a piss-poor argument."

(SRI's comment when I read him PZ's post.)

Rock Star Biologist -- University Tour 2008, or How I Got to Meet Richard Dawkins

2008-03-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

So Richard Dawkins came to UT Austin to talk this evening. The student group sponsoring the event was the Atheist Longhorns, led by the indomitable Sandra Sythe who booked the venue, negotiated with our Student Organizations Office, spent many hours tabling on our West Mall, and communicated with the Center For Inquiry and the Richard Dawkins Foundation (the organizations which funded the University Tour.)

The Center for Inquiry hosted a small reception (40ish) for Dawkins before the talk. We chatted briefly -- I told him that our physical anthropology professor assigned The Selfish Gene within a year or so of publication, and he asked where I'd gone to college. A couple of other people came over, and the conversation turned to politics, and one guy said, "You know, almost no one in this room could hold public office in Texas."

Dawkins asked what he meant by that, and we tried to explain the Texas Constitution. Dawkins and I both reached for our brain extensions (PDAs, etc.) to look it up on the web -- "aha" we laughed -- "a race!" -- Dawkins won because I have to use a guest ID and have to log on frequently (and every time I walk two blocks on this campus apparently -- can't wait for June and the advent of 802.1x) and he had it pulled up about the time I got logged on.

He then wanted to write it down, and I was the first one with paper (my little black moleskine book) -- Dawkins read it off his PDA, and some other guy wrote it down.

We'll come back to this in a bit, but a few minutes latter, a woman came over and said that Richard had told her that I'd gone to UCCS -- and she was on the faculty there! We talked a bit about how the school has changed, and the only professor I remember (except for Dave Nichols, r.i.p.), Fred Coolidge, is still there. (I never had a class with him, but he went to a couple of parties @ my friends Van & Eileen's house.)

Back to the subject -- the first thing Dawkins put up on view at the lecture (once he got started -- some technical glitches held things up for at least half an hour) was the following:

Texas' Bill of Rights Section 4:
"RELIGIOUS TESTS: No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments

and then he put up the rest of it:

, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being."

which really got a hoot out of the audience -- and that was the quote he'd written down on my moleskine paper!

The auditorium held over 1,000, and it was SRO -- I have a feeling they probably had to turn some people away. Most of the questions were o.k. -- I was a bit disappointed that out of the 8 or so people who asked questions there weren't any overt theists. There was one woman who started out referencing Zeitgeist, The Movie (don't get me started on that piece of shabby scholarship), which confused Dawkins (and most of the rest of the audience) into thinking that she was into astrology.

Couple of thoughts on the content of the talk -- he's not shrill about religion, unless you think that someone disagreeing with any of your theological beliefs is, by nature of merely disagreeing, shrill. Scott doesn't share my passion for cat macros, but I don't think he's shrill for it. There's just something different about religion, isn't there.

Dawkins said that if we only got one thing out of the talk, it was that natural selection and evolution are not random. Do I care to expound on this point? Nah, not right now -- perhaps later.

One neat thing he did was to put up a mock up of a special edition of a Journal addressing the extinction of dinosaurs. The first abstract was what you'd expect from a scientific journal -- "The existence of the iridium layer in XYZ may indicate that the dinosaur extinction is due to an asteroid strike." (sloppily transcribed by me, but you know what a scientific abstract should look like.)

This was followed with the "intelligent design" or "faith based" abstracts: "It has been personally revealed to Professor Higgins that asteroids caused the dinosaur extinctions." "Professor Hughes has a deeply felt notion that asteroids caused the dinosaur extinctions." "Professor Helix has issued a fatwa against those who don't believe that asteroids caused the extinctions."

All in all, for the most part, he gave a nice display of how to gently use consciousness raising to get your point across to a world hostile to scientific thought. (I thought the Marcus Brigstocke clip on religion was a bit over the top, even thought I laugh every time I watch it.)

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Dawkins mentioned PZ Myers of Pharyngula Phame (found on scienceblogs.com) when he discussed the deceptive practices of the Expelled! movie crew.

Smart Phones? iPhone? iPod Touch? Goodbye Hipster PDA!

2008-03-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've been lusting after an iPhone for a while now, and had some money socked away for it but I just couldn't justify the extra $ per month for a data plan. One weekend I had the brilliant idea that I could save a lot of money by cutting down or eliminating espresso drinks -- that resolution lasted until exactly 10:00 a.m. Monday.

When I was initially researching iPhones, smart phones, PDAs, etc., there were a couple of features I didn't care for on the iPod Touch. This weekend, I realized that I couldn't remember what my objections were, so I decided to get one and use it for a while. Certainly any inconveniences, problems, or gripes would appear within a short time, and if I decided I couldn't live with them, I would give the Touch to Scott, and get something better suited to my needs.

There were a couple of things about the iPod/iTouches that wouldn't work well with my University & College. One was that they don't support 802.1x authentication, which is what is used here; however, that problem should be taken care of with the updates coming in June. I was able to use the "guest" wifi access today at work, but I had to get special permission (easy to do) to use that and not the restricted access -- and I'll have to log in again after 11 hours.

The other problem was that our College uses Meeting Maker™, so I couldn't easily sync my calendar -- there are ways around that but they're a bit kludgy and involve syncing Meeting Maker ™ to iCal (or vice versa?) I asked our IT guy (who rarely, rarely has to make an appearance in our office suite other than to bring us our new Macs every few years) if there is any possiblility we could get the web based version of Meeting Maker™, or any version that could be used with the iPhone/Touch or any other smart phone or PDA, and he said, "No, we'll never get that, and our College doesn't support any calendars for any PDAs/smart phones."

This conversation was the same week that Abilene Christian University and a Christian U. in Oklahoma announced that they were GIVING all incoming students an iPhone or iPod Touch! You would think our major university could keep up with the church college world, but apparently not. (To be fair, our Communications College uses a scheduling system that syncs well with most smartphones, Blackberries, PDAs, etc.) If our college doesn't want to support my calendaring needs, they'd better stop scheduling all these fracking meetings! I need to get some of our science faculty to push for more support!

Perhaps I'd better dig the ol' Hipster PDA outta the recycling bin!

(Postscript -- the Blogger spell checker suggests I replace "iTouches" with "douches"!!!)

It's Just as Well the Judge Ruled Against the Prayer Vote at the Graduation Ceremony. . .

2008-03-07T23:00:00.001-08:00

Why, the students could have voted for the Pastafarian prayer!

An Austin federal judge has prohibited the Round Rock school district from allowing students to vote on whether to have prayers during graduation ceremonies.

My Night at the Caucus

2008-03-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

The following is somewhat plagiarized from my entry at the above link.

S.R.I. and I attended the 454 precinct caucus in South Austin. Two precincts met in an elementary school cafeteria, but one precinct had only 3 people show up (there are only 75 households in that precinct.) One of the secretaries/recorders exclaimed, "This is the first caucus where I needed to use a calculator!"

It went fairly smoothly, and we were able to start not long after 7:15. 253 people signed in (and our voter cards were checked.) It took about 45 minutes for the explanations and sign in, and about half an hour to count. Had I been running the circus, I would have had people go to the sign in areas by rows, to make it more orderly, but it wasn’t that bad. We had a nice conversation with a WW II veteran about his service, and Scott shook his hand and thanked him for all he’d done for his country.

Everyone was so excited that such a large crowd showed up. One woman said, “I’ve been in this precinct for years, and this is the first time I’ve had to use a calculator!” I counted over 10 neighbors and former co-workers. About half the group left after the announcement of the count.

I believe the Obama caucus had 20 delegates and the Clinton had 15. (Anyone who had voted for someone who had fewer than 7 votes had to caucus with another candidate - there were a handful of people who had voted for Edwards, etc.) The Clintonians were able to select their delegates quicker — the Obama caucus (my group) had 28 people who wanted to be delegates, so we had to vote on which 20 would be delegates. The remaining 8 would be alternates, and then I think they tried to get another 2 alternates.

The Obama delegate wannabes each spoke briefly about why they wanted to be a delegate. It was neat to find out about some of the people in our neighborhood. One woman has a disabled or severely ill child, and has had Medicaid cut off twice — once in the middle of a hospital stay! One young man (if I heard him correctly) recently received his US citizenship, one woman was a lawyer, at least 3 were educators, including a woman who teaches a leadership glass to young girls, one man was a doctor, there were several retirees who’d lived in the neighborhood for decades, and we had an Iraq War Marine veteran and a Vietnam war veteran. Most seemed to be regular, working class folks, just like me. I’ve never been prouder to be a Democrat — these are some great peeps!

We then voted to accept the resolutions - without looking at them :( — but I think that was because everyone was tired. Scott wasn't happy about that, and he does have a point. The whole thing was over by about 10 p.m.

I've read several other caucus reports, and it seems the results were pretty mixed. Some want smoothly, but many seemed to be overwhelmed by the large turnout. One of the dorms on the UT campus which serves as a polling place had 1000 voters show up to caucus. There were reports of some precincts not being able to start until long after 7:15 p.m. (You have to wait until the last person has voted, and you can't start before 7:15.) You can read the rest at the link above, if you are interested.

Just When You Think This Guy Can't Get Any Dimmer

2008-02-26T16:48:00.000-08:00

Our Governor Perry in a NYT Magazine interview by Deborah Solomon about his new book and the Boy Scout legal fund. . .

Which has been fighting the A.C.L.U., to keep gays out of the scouts. Why do you see that as a worthy cause?

I am pretty clear about this one. Scouting ought to be about building character, not about sex. Period. Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.

Why do you think a homosexual would be more likely to bring the subject of sex into a conversation than a heterosexual?

Well, the ban in scouting applies to scout leaders. When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they’re not there to learn about that. They’re there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.

But don’t you think that homosexuals might also be interested in being loyal and thrifty?

The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?

No.

Well, then why don’t they call it something else?

Um, well, if "homosexuality is about sex" because it has "sex" in the name, what about the heterosexuals? Can anyone be safe with them???

For Dinner Tonight -- Chickensaurus Pot Pie?

2008-02-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

For anyone who scoffs at the idea that birds aren't avian dinosaurs, just take a look at Chickensaurus!

Hmm, perhaps a Chickensaurus cookbook isn't far behind!

Evolution is NOT Boring -- and ID "Proves" that the Creator is a Cephalopod!

2008-02-10T15:29:00.000-08:00

An Austin HS science teacher, Steve Bratteng, proposes 13 questions that Intelligent Design cannot answer in an article in the Austin American Statesman:

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/02/08/0209bratteng_edit.html

here are the answers:

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/02/08/0209answers_edit.html

Here's one of the questions:

"3. Why does each of your eyes have a blind spot and a significant tendency for retinal detachment, but a squid's eyes, which provide equally sharp vision, do not have either problem?"

We have the scientific explanation (albeit simplified):

"Vertebrate and squid eyes have very different evolutionary origins, arising in very different ways, but both achieving an effective visual structure. The vertebrate pattern happens to leave the retina open to a much greater tendency to become detached."

And we have a possible ID explanation:

"I know! I know teacher! I know! This proves the creator was a cephalopod!"

If IDers & creationists want their beliefs taught in science class, they're going to have to demonstrate that they are, indeed, science. I think we'll be waiting for quite a long time for that.

Little Sir Echo Satellite

2008-02-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

In 1960, NASA launched their first communications satellites. Echo 1 launched in August of that year, and my father and a couple of his brothers loaded a bunch (at least 6) of the Brown cousins into the back of my father's old Chevy pick-up and drove us outside of town so that we could see the satellite passing by. I was 7 or 8 at the time and in awe of the dark, dark rural Colorado sky and the wonderful stars.

When we finally saw Echo, looking just like a star, but moving swiftly across the sky, one of my cousins started singing, "Little Sir Echo how do you do? Hello, (hello) hello, (hello!)" The rest of us joined in and we sang it at the top of our lungs until dad got us all home (I'm SURE that drove him and my uncles nuts.)

Well, for almost 50 years I thought that my cousin Kenny had just composed that song out of the same awe I had at seeing something move across the sky so quickly, but thanks to the powers of the internets, I have found that my cousin did not spontaneously compose an astronomical paean -- this song dates back to at least 1939 (you can hear it on YouTube if you click the title.)

Such disillusionment, haha!

Just a Theory?

2008-02-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

I can hardly get past the first paragraph of the above article (click on the title) -- in Florida,

Top state legislators say they're ready to join the fight over putting the word ''evolution'' in Florida's public school science standards to ensure that it's taught as just a theory and not as fact.

It all just depends on what you think the meaning of theory is, isn't it!

Here's a thought, school boards -- why don't you let the SCIENTISTS decide what should be taught in science courses, and how it should be taught?

Evolution too Boring? Too Boring! WTF?

2008-02-04T12:47:00.000-08:00

Did Mr. Villalobos of the ATX sleep through his biology courses or what?!

John Young’s column is another attempt to keep the Institute of Creation Research from attaining a graduate degree program for creation science

Young fails to see that Darwinism has failed to pique the interest of students to further their academic knowledge. Except for T-rex kicking dinosaur butt, evolution stinks. It’s boring and no self-respecting kid is going to lay claim that he came from a monkey.

Darwinism has contributed more to the dumbing down of our kids than all the negligent, uncaring, uninvolved and pathetic parents combined.

Where to begin with this? All subjects will have their boring parts for some people, but if you are bored by a theory that explains the development of life on this planet then go back to your WoW. Science is hard, and it isn't for wimps like you. (I know, I know, ad hominem and all, but I just couldn't help it.)

There is a good chance that if he was educated in Texas, he wasn't really taught much about evolution anyway.

Didn't Find the Book Club, but We Did Find This. . .

2008-01-30T19:23:00.000-08:00

Doh! The book club (Center for Inquiry - Austin) is on Thursday night and this is Wednesday! My days are all off. Well, it will give Scott another day to finish the book.

We did look around the bookstore where I found, "Science Evolution, and Creationism" brought to us by the National Academy of Sciences (click the title above to a link where you can find the book -- you can even read it free online.) This will save me sending off for it, although they were discounting it so cheaply if you bought copies in bulk, I thought I'd buy a few extra copies to distribute to some creationist relatives.

The bookstore was also playing such gawd-awful, somewhat atonal music -- not music that made me want to browse and spend $$ -- it was music that grated, irritated and made me want to flee! I have pretty broad musical tastes, but that was atrocious. We do hope it isn't playing tomorrow night, when the book club really meets.

Oh, and the book we're discussing is The Subtle Knife. Next month, I think, is a collection of short stories, Galileo's Children: Tales Of Science VS. Superstition, ed. by Gardner Dozois. Scott's read all of it, and I've read about half, so I should be able to finish that soon (and review what I have read.) This is about the same proportion of reading we've done for Subtle Knife -- I've read it all, and Scott hasn't finished.

Master of "Science" Education

2008-01-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

There is a big controversy here in Texas over the proposed "Master of Science Education" degree that the Institute of Creation Research wants to offer. If this degree is approved, I'm afraid of what we'll see in our science classes.

I have never seen a Sunday School/religious school religion assignment that has been in the least bit challenging -- they're all designed so that everyone "passes."

I can see the attraction some have to intelligent design/creationism/ and science "from a Christian perspective" -- after all, science is hard and Sunday School is mind-numbingly easy.

(I've adapted this from a comment I left at Possummomma.blogspot.com)

What's Next in Texas -- The University of Astrological Studies?

2007-12-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

Or a revival of the phlogiston theory in the Chemistry Department?

The geologists should also get up in arms about this, since these are young earth creationists.

The whole article was pretty disturbing -- here are a couple of points that were particularly so.

This first one is pretty scary -- the possibility that the graduates of this Institute could be unleashed on the public schools.

"Patricia Nason, the institute's department chairwoman for science education, said most of the institute's students end up teaching at private Christian schools. But, she said, they learn about evolution and are qualified to teach in public schools."

Of course they want "academic" freedom for themselves, but they aren't willing to give any:

"It is ... expected that faculty members as teachers, scholars, and citizens, will further the ministry of the Institute through their life example and commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord. Acceptance to this limitation of academic freedom is reaffirmed with each annual contract."

Click on the title of this post for the rest of the story, "Creationist institute seeks certificate to operate master's program in Texas Christian facility teaches science from biblical perspective."

Going back to Colorado for retirement is looking more and more attractive, but then of course we'd end up right in the midst of the evangelical cluster economy (Focus on the Family, The Navigators, Young Life, New Life Church, etc.) Yikes -- there's no escape!

Texas is Soooo Much Fun Right now

2007-12-14T09:06:00.000-08:00

From Lizzette Reynolds, TEA Deputy Commissioner:

"The concern was, should these sorts of things be on the TEA e-mail?
Maybe this was my sensitivity from working on the federal level. I
looked at it and said, “This could be political.” My goal was to make
sure the right people looked at this.

I realize that people have their opinions. If you want to do that, Yahoo is free. Get a Yahoo account."

and later:

"I still think the e-mail by Comer left the agency exposed. The whole
situation has been a little disturbing to me. Maybe I should have seen
the political side of it."

So which is it?? -- she thought "This could be political" or "Maybe I should have seen the political side of it."

************ ********* ****

I sent this comment in response to the article:

Why should the sending of this message from Comer’s work email be inappropriate?

Barbara Forrest was a witness at the Dover, PA, trial.

The Dover school board had injected the religious concept of intelligent design into the high school biology classes.

There are members of the SBOE who would like to do the same in Texas.

Attending the Forrest lecture should have been mandatory for all
SBOE members so that they could have some idea of what they were
getting into. I’m appalled and dismayed that they didn’t have the
curiosity to attend, and that Reynolds thinks there is anything wrong
with a Science Director informing various populations about a lecture
on a science issue.

The Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial cost the school district over $1,000,000, as they were ordered to pay the plaintiff’s fees.

Can you imagine the cost to the State of Texas to go through such a
trial on a state level? Can you imagine the cost to the State of Texas
as scientists, biotech businesses and concerns, etc. avoid a state with
such a hostile environment to science?

Chris Comer should be lauded for trying to save the State of Texas a vast amount of money, time, and prestige.

Freaky! (as Dave put it)

2007-10-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

Click on the title link and take a look -- then read the exchange Scott and I had as we were watching the dancer rotate:

SRI (his initials -- is that cool or what): It just changed rotation.

me: I didn't see it change. Colleen and I were looking at it at the same time,
and she saw it change and I didn't.

SRI: Is she actually changing directions, or is it just me?

me: Did you hear what I said? If you see it go one way, and I see it go the
other, what does that tell you?

SRI: That you're wrong.

me: SCOTT!!!!!

COTN Over 9/11 Tourette's

2007-10-01T09:28:00.001-07:00

I can't remember exactly where I heard this, or exactly whom it was referring to, but a certain politician was recently described as having 9/11 Tourette's. My guess that it was referring to Rudy Giuliani's recent appearance at an NRA function where he invoked 9/11 a number of times.

Black

2007-08-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

The vet called this morning -- Genji didn't make it. We'll take him to the ranch, where we've buried Ivan (Scott's brother's Golden Retriever), Beast, and Wretch (cats).

Home Tomorrow?

2007-08-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to see Genji since Saturday. He had an operation late Monday afternoon, and Scott said he looked pretty bad on Tuesday and no better on Wednesday. We were both thinking that this was it -- he's not going to make it after all, but then the vet called this morning and said he was doing better, and that he could go home soon.

This afternoon we went to visit -- since he's no longer hooked up to 2 or 3 IVs and a catheter, we were able to visit with him in an examination room. I didn't get to see him in his little "wife-beater" t-shirt (I hate that term, but they put a little sleeveless t-shirt on him for a couple of days to keep him from getting at the stitches. Scott said he looked so humiliated -- "Here I am a fine tuxedo cat, and they put me in THAT?!")

I said something about when he could go home and the tech said, "He IS going home tomorrow!" The other tech (Brian?) came in to show us how to feed him. Since he's not wanting to eat on his own yet, he has to be fed 4 times a day through a feeding tube. It's actually a bit easier than I anticipated -- the important thing is to make sure the canned cat food and water is well blended so there are no lumps, and then make sure that you aren't pushing the food through the syringe too fast -- else he'll vomit. Then you have to put 5cc of water in another syringe through his feeding tube to flush the food out.

We're hoping that having him home will calm him down so he'll feel more like eating. When we'd take the cats to the ranch, they would often not eat the first day, and eat very little on subsequent days, until we got back home.

Some of his stitches could come out now -- the others will have to wait a few more days. He'll also need to have his pills crushed and dissolved in water and then administered through the feeding tube.

We're turning the cave (our den -- it has two rock walls) into the infirmary. It has a door to the rest of the house, so we can keep the other 2 cats away from him. There are two french doors so he can have a nice view of the back yard, and even get some son if he'd like (and the rest of the room has a couple of dark corners if he prefers that.) He probably won't be able to negotiate the litter box for a while, so we'll line his space with these pads that are made from diaper material. He won't be moving far for a while, so this should be a nice room for his recuperation.

When the vet tech took him back to his cage, he actually looked at us like he knew who we were -- "Halp! Don't want! Taek me home!" (I have mastered cat macro or lolcat language.)

We're keeping our fingers crossed, but he might actually make it -- he's through the worst of it, anyway.

Operation is Over

2007-08-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well, Genji didn't have much infection in his wounds -- there was some necrotic tissue that needed to be removed. They had to insert another drainage tube. He isn't healing as fast as the vet would like, but we think that could be because he is 10 years old and he's stressed out because there are dogs all over the place! Scott will go see him tomorrow morning, and I'll see him (if I can get away from work in time) in the late afternoon.

Somewhat of a Setback

2007-08-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

The 10:00 a.m. report from the vet wasn't so good today. Genji has some infection in his wounds and needs another surgery. Scott called this afternoon, and they started the surgery about 3:00 p.m.

We're crossing our fingers and sending him thoughts of mice and butterflies.

The other cats seem to miss him -- he loves to groom the other two (Saki & Yuki.) Saki is not so fond of Yuki, since he stabbed her a few years ago, and she had an infection that required a trip to the vet. Genji is really the peacemaker among the three.

Well, we hope we have better news with the next update.

We Are Grumpy Today (Genji)

2007-08-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday visiting hours begin at 9:30 a.m., so we were there bright and early. Genji did his "Meow! Meow!" when we walked in, but seemed rather grumpy. Then we noticed that the 5 drainage tubes that dotted his upper rear leg and lower abdomen were gone -- it's a bit painful to have those removed, so no wonder he wasn't feeling so hot.

I tried to interest him in some food -- he didn't want to eat yet, but both times he actually pushed himself up on his front legs and sat up for a bit. We petted, combed and stroked him and told him what a wonderful cat he was. He seemed pretty tired, so we left after about half an hour. We did take a couple of pictures of him -- the wounds are just horrible, but I felt it was important to document them.

There are no visiting hours on Sunday, so I hope that he's better on Monday. He's got to start eating on his own before he can come home.

Another Genji-cat Report

2007-08-24T21:05:00.000-07:00

Today Genji meowed twice when I came to visit. The technicians commented again on his increasing feistiness when they attend to him -- but that is good news, and they didn't seem to mind. He has been on oral pain killers for at least a day, and they were going to switch him off the IV antibiotics onto pills, too. They also said that the 5 drainage tubes in his lower abdomen could come out either today or tomorrow. (This is gross, but when the first vet at the emergency center picked him up so we could see his injury, there was a tube hanging out about the same place his leg had been -- for just a few moments, I thought that it was part of his bone sticking out!)

He was sitting up a little more and was holding his head up longer. I tried to feed him some of the yummy sardines in aspic provided by the critical care center, but that seemed to trigger a hiccuping response. Dr. Armstrong said that he was doing much better, but he would still need at least another week in the hospital. We can visit Saturday morning, but not Sunday.

I scratched under his little chin (kinda hard to do with that big collar around his neck), and he purred for the first time in a week. His eyes are much brighter, too.

Scott came in after I'd been there about ten minutes. He had some quality time with Genji, but then the tattooed technician (I need to find out their names) said that we'd have to leave since an emergency case was coming in.

I left a note for the woman who owns the dogs -- she's been coming by almost every day to check on his progress. She is obviously deeply concerned, and I'm having a hard time reconciling this caring person with the kind of vicious dogs she has. We're really in a quandry, too -- we want compensation for all the vet bills, but we also don't want this dog/these dogs in our neighborhood any more. I would feel just awful if I didn't do anything and the dogs hurt another being -- critter or child. I think the bills are actually now moving out of the realm of small claims court, which complicates things, I'm sure.

The Genji-Cat Report

2007-08-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

We took Genji to the critical care facility (3 blocks from our house, which is nice) on Monday, where the veterinarian promptly told us in effect, "Most cats with injuries this severe don't survive, in particular, the window between 3 - 5 days is particularly perilous, since that's when the infections start raging. Only about 30% of cats would survive this."

We decided to see how Monday went. We visited him and he meowed a few times, but didn't really get up -- although he tried to jump out of the kennel! On Tuesday he was a little worse, and didn't stay awake very long. I wasn't able to get away from the office on Wednesday, but Scott said he was about the same as Tuesday and he did try to knead Scott's arm a little. They said there was a little fluid in his lungs and some necrotic tissue somewhere.

This morning the vet called around 10 a.m. We were expecting her to say that he'd died during the night, but she said he was slightly better, and she was very guardedly optimistic. He still isn't eating, and she said he'll need at least another week in the hospital (assuming things don't get worse.)

I'm taking off work a bit early today to go visit the little guy -- it seems to cheer him up to see us, and I think it will cheer us up to see him doing better.

Genji-cat

2007-08-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

(click on the title for a picture of sweet Genji)

About 1 a.m. Saturday morning, Scott heard an awful sound and ran outside to find a guy pulling two dogs off our tuxedo cat, Genji in our yard. Scott rushed him to the vet, and he had to have a rear leg amputated. There didn't seem to be any internal organ damage (thank Bast), but when they did an x-ray Saturday afternoon, they found that his bladder had migrated out of the abdominal cavity (there may have been a tear in the muscle, and when the leg was removed, the pressure keeping the bladder in may have been released, allowing the bladder to move.)

They had to do another operation to fix that (they said it was a relatively simple procedure) and also to do a small repair to the muscle of his remaining rear leg. His tail isn't moving they way they'd like it, but that could just be all the anesthesia, and hopefully not nerve damage.

Scott said the guy with the dogs said they would pay for the vet, (they live on our street, 1 block away) and Saturday morning the woman who owned them came by to apologize and again offered to pay for the vet. She said they are kept in her back yard, but escaped. Scott gave me a description of them, and one of them sounds like this dog who was running loose a few months ago who ran toward me growling and snarling fiercely when I stepped onto our carport -- I had to run back into the yard and close the gate and wait until he ran off -- now I feel dumb for not following up on it, but it was something that I'd forgotten by the end of the day. I need to go see if that is the same dog, because if it is, I think the neighborhood has a problem. Scott said that one of the dogs(the one that looks like the one I saw earlier) growled and snarled at HIM when he was trying to help Genji -- in our own yard.

We moved him to a critical care facility (just a couple of blocks from our home), where we were told that the prognosis for such an injury really isn't very good, but if he can make it through the next 48 - 72 hours, he'll most likely recover. When we saw him during visiting hours, he wasn't very responsive at first, but then he put his head up, and he tried to jump out of the kennel. His eyes looked much better than yesterday, as he didn't have that glazed over look, and it seemed that he knew who we were. He was pretty vocal, and it sounded more like, "Please get me out of here!" than "I'm in horrible pain," although I'm sure he is in awful pain. We'll get an update on his condition in the morning.

Even though the dog owners said they'd pay, we're not going to count on it until it happens. (They may not feel like it when we report the dog -- the Austin code has a provision that a dog that has killed or seriously maimed another pet cannot be kept in the city (unless the injured pet was in violation of the code, which I don't think Genji was.) We really anguished over this, since it's such a lot of money, but I really don't want that dog in the neighborhood where he might get out again to injure another pet or even a child.

When Genji was seriously ill with pancreatitis in 1999, we called him "rent payment" when we got the bill. When we got the bill for Saki's trip to the emergency vet earlier this summer (she's fine, now), we called her "mortgage payment. His new nicknames have been escalating now -- we're on "engagement ring," "small used car,"and we may end up with "house down payment" before we're through with this.

What We Did to Our Lawn this Spring

2007-05-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

When I say "We," I mean "Mostly Scott!"

We are tearing out our lawn and turning it into a small prairie. The Indian Blanket and coreopsis grew about 3 feet higher than we anticipated due to the rich soil. The plants in the back of this group are over 6 feet tall now.

EDIT: July 20, 2007
The work of Lady Bird Johnson has inspired the design of our yard. Wildflowers aren't just for the highways, y'all!

New Book in the Physics/Math/Astronomy Library

2007-03-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

There is a new book in the PMA Library: Contact Geometry and Nonlinear Differential Equations.

For some reason, this title bothers me. I can't help but imagine being poked in the side by a particularly insistent acute angle.

I Coulda been a Baraminologist

2007-03-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered a new source of humor and fun, although I'm not sure that was the intention of the homeschooled founders of conservapedia.com -- a site designed to counter the "Anti-American, Anti-Christian Bias" of wikipedia.

After reading the section on kangaroos, I found that my background in biology and anthropology has most likely disqualified me as a career as a baraminologist:

"According to the origins model used by creation scientists, modern kangaroos, like all modern animals, originated in the Middle East^[1] and are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah's Ark prior to the Great Flood. It has not yet been determined by baraminologists whether kangaroos form a holobaramin with the wallaby, tree-kangaroo, wallaroo, pademelon and quokka, or if all these species are in fact apobaraminic or polybaraminic.

Also according to creation science, after the Flood, kangaroos bred from the Ark passengers migrated to Australia. There is debate whether this migration happened over land^[2] -- as Australia was still for a time connected to the Middle East before the supercontinent of Pangea broke apart^[3] -- or if they rafted on mats of vegetation torn up by the receding flood waters^[2]."

Vista

2007-02-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

This popped out of SRI's mouth today -- it was so funny I almost dropped the dinner I burned last night (but that's another story):

VISTA:

#@$%! Viruses! I Should Try Apple!

We Do Have the Best Crimeline!

2007-02-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

O. M. G. -- for once I have no words to introduce this:

WEST MALL
Disorderly Conduct: A UT student reported being approached by an unknown female twice over the course of two days. The student stated that during a recruiting drive, the unknown female began talking to him, then placed her hands on his shoulder continually while they talked about the student organization. The next day, the female attempted to kiss his hands and cheek. The student became offended and told her to stop. After being told to stop the female placed her head within several inches of the student's nether region and explained to him that she would love to hum the National Anthem with a certain part of his body in her mouth. The subject stood up and began showing nude pictures of herself to other students that were standing around watching the events unfold. The unknown female was told to leave. The unknown female began screaming and yelling obscenities, then left the area. The unknown female was described as: White female, 5' 04', slender build, shaved head, and last seen wearing a white dress with multi-colored dots, a long black dress with a fur collar, and a pink hat. Occurred on: 02-02-07, at 1:05 PM.

In anticipation of Valentine's Day, this tale of "wooing":
JESTER WEST DORMITORY
Public Intoxication: UT Police Officers responded to a suspicious person that was harassing one of the residents and was refusing to leave the dormitory. During the investigation, the officers located the subject and observed that the subject was crying. The subject explained that he had broken up with his girlfriend and had driven to Austin to "woo her back." Officers detected a very strong odor of alcohol on the subject's breath and noted ththathat the subject needed the support of the surrounding walls to maintain his balance. As the investigation continued, the subject displayed several clues that indicated he was intoxicated. The subject was taken into custody for Public Intoxication. The subject was being transported to Central Booking. Occurred on: 2-03-07, at 3:10 AM.

This one had better not be one of "my" students (I know some have classes/labs there):
J.J. JAKE PICKLE RESEARCH CENTER
Harassment: A UT student approached the main gate leading onto the research campus and was granted access. Following established protocol, the student was required to sign in. The subject drew his rendition of the male genitalia on the signature line then handed the clipboard back to the UT guard. The guard saw the rendition and was offended. During the investigation, the student explained that he was "just trying to be funny." The staff member declined to file charges, but wanted the student referred to the Dean of Students Office. Occurred on: 02-03-07, at 2:29 AM.

Molly Ivins, RIP

2007-01-31T21:11:00.000-08:00

Molly Ivins lost her third fight against breast cancer tonight.

What a wit she was -- she gave us "Shrub" for goodness sake -- and how fitting a moniker that is.

We lived in the same part of town, and would see her on occasion in Shady Grove or Magnolia, two neighborhood restaurants. We restrained ourselves from running over and asking her to autograph our Texas Observers, but I doubt she would have minded had we done so.

Here are a few quotes, in case you have managed to have missed her wit:

"It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America."

"In Texas, we do not hold high expectations for the [governor's] office; it's mostly been occupied by crooks, dorks and the comatose."

"...Phil Gramm, the senator from Enron..."

"I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle."

and from her last column: "We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders and we need to raise hell."

I am a Bible Scholar

2007-01-27T21:33:00.000-08:00

You know the Bible 93%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

(I thought some of the questions were way too easy, what with 3 modern references in a 4 answer multiple choice question.)

Icepocalypse 2007, Austin Texas

2007-01-19T23:06:00.000-08:00

I think this was taken by someone I work with. And if not, it still looks exactly like our yard earlier this week.

The city of Austin was pretty much closed down for two days -- so I was looking forward to watching "The Peoples' Court" with Judge Marilyn Milian, but NOOOOO! KXAN had to preempt it both days with their stupid weather report. Those meteorologists have been insufferable since they got their NEXRAD and Doppler systems -- "Oh, look, it's raining on 12th street, and it is heading toward your neighborhood and will be there in 15-20 minutes."

I don't mind being warned about possible weather danger, but do they really need to take an entire hour at 4 p.m.?

Algorithm March With the Ninjas

2007-01-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

This has been around a while, but I seem to have missed it. (Click on the title for the link to the video.)

Stay with it -- it all comes together after the Pythagoras Switch!

Why I Was Late for the Meeting

2007-01-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

I was driving into work this week for the Dean's monthly meeting, when I got a funny feeling and looked down at my feet and. . . Bunny Slippers!

My Victim Check

2006-12-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

This week's mail brought a check for $11.49 from Travis County Community Supervision & Correction's Victim Services unit as the first of the restitution payments for our burglary. (22 rifle, fax machine & the cost of replacing 4 locks.) The perp (Miss H.) was supposed to have started making payments last February or March, and I'm assuming there is a bit of a gap between the time she makes the payment & the time the county cuts the check.

I'd been meaning to call and tell them that we'd found the rifle at the ranch, but I couldn't find my letter from them that had the case number. The check had the case number (well, most of it) and the phone number for victims services (which I'd also lost), so I was able to call them today to get this straightened out, since we really don't want Miss H. to have to pay for something she didn't take.

When I called, it took them a bit of time to find everything, since the check didn't have the last 4 numbers of the case, I've got a fairly common name, and the perp had a common name, and, as the victim's services advocate said, "She's got a lot of cases!" We knew that she'd been involved in at least 6 burglaries that happened about the time they hit our house.

Well, we do hope Miss H. gets her life back on track, and perhaps it will be a bit easier for her, since now she has slightly less to pay off. We are grateful to her for cooperating with the police, and helping the victims get most of their belongings back.

NOTE: The Miss H. who burgled us is not the Miss H. on my MySpace friend's page. That Miss H. is the Austin High School art teacher who got fired because a friend had posted nude photos of her on the internet.

I Didn't Get to See the Dixie Chicks :-(

2006-12-07T06:46:00.000-08:00

FRANK ERWIN CENTER, 1701 Red River

Disorderly Conduct: A non-UT subject rushed past the ticket taker in an attempt to enter the Dixie Chicks concert after presenting only a backstage pass. The subject stated that she was in a hurry then unleashed a tirade of offensive language that would have had any salty sailor blushing from embarrassment. Once the subject regained control of her emotions, the officer explained to her the security protocol that was required to enter into the Center. Again the subject's tongue unleashed a scathing tirade that displayed the shallow depth of her wordsmithing ability. During the investigation, the officer contacted the security director for the tour and the subject was released to him. Occurred on: 12-04-06, at 8:30 PM.

John Safran vs Mormons

2006-12-05T07:15:00.000-08:00


I have considered going door to door to talk about my beliefs or lack thereof -- or at least standing on the corner at the University to pass out freethought literature on the days the Gideons come to campus to pass out the little green New Testaments, but John Safran has actually done something about it.

My New Blog is Ready?

2006-12-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

But I need to sign in with my Google account? Do I even have a Google account? I probably do, but what was the password? And if I can't remember, did I write it in my big book o' secret password codes? And if I did write it in the big book o' secret password codes, can I remember the secret code for that password?

Bother.

On the other hand, drag and drop elements sound tempting.

Has anyone tried the new Blogger?

And it's almost time for y'all to start thinking about your New Year's Revolutions. One of mine will be to post all those postcards that have been piling up all semester. Brother-in-law & Sister-in-law just sent a nice one from the Gran Pantanal, Brazil.

Someone Stole My Coffee!

2006-10-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

So, I stumble into RLM, actually a bit earlier than normal. I ordered a non-fat double latte with an extra shot, and went 5 steps away from the coffee stand to open up the office and put up my lunch. R.H. and I exchanged a few words, and I went back to the stand to get my caffeine fix -- but it's not there!

Kristin looked at the counter, looked at me -- said, "It was right there! -- Hey, did someone take a double non-fat latte with an extra shot? Hey you, over there at the condiment table!" This poor guy turned around and said, "I just had a small regular coffee."

Kristin said she'd replace the drink as soon as she finished the one she was making. A moment later she shouted out, "Double Caramel Decaf Soy Latte! Double Caramel Decaf Soy Latte!" but no one came to the counter to claim it.

Am I a bad person for having a bit of schadenfreude that someone who is perhaps lactose intolerant and an avoider of caffeine was walking around all sick and jittery that day?

We Didn't Get Arrested (On the Barricade)

2006-10-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

(click on the title above for some information about Accenture)

The Texas State Employee's Union General Assembly started this Friday by surprising Accenture with 150 or so protesters wearing our new red General Assembly shirts. Most of us didn't know where we were going until a few moments before the buses were to be boarded, right at rush hour on Friday afternoon. We were told our destination along with directions to "get out of the bus and on to the sidewalk as fast as you can, because the buses are on private property."

I was one of the marshals which means, instead of getting a badge and a gun, I got a an armband, a bull horn, and a list of chants as well as a big poster to carry.

I'm sure I looked pretty funny trying to negotiate the march line with all of that -- the bullhorn they gave me required the use of two hands and it didn't work, I stupidly took my shoulder bag, the armband kept falling down my arm, I couldn't read the print on the list of chants, so I had to fumble with my reading glasses -- and the chain that keeps the glasses around my neck kept getting tangled up with my delegate lanyard and badge as well as the poster hanging around my neck -- all that while yelling "They say privatize -- WE SAY ORGANIZE! Finally, one of the other marshals said that he would try to fix the bullhorn (sadly he couldn't), but at least I had one less thing to deal with. (I just read this to SRI, and he said, "Obviously, you needed to get organized, Susan!")

One of our instructions before we left was that if anyone were to approach us to ask who was in charge, we were to say -- at this time I piped up, "The guy in the red shirt!" (we were all wearing red shirts) -- but the correct answer was, "I don't know."

We weren't bothered by any of the Accenture building security, although up to 30 employees from the building came out and watched us. Accenture is at one of the busiest corners in Austin -- IH 35 and Ben White. We marched back in front of the building for half an hour or so and then walked back to the buses. We had to walk past WalMart to get there, and they actually had their security there watching us.

And what is Accenture, and why would we want to protest?

Here is some information about from TSEU:

"Privatization is a boondoggle that has already wasted millions of Texas taxpayers' dollars. Bermuda-based Accenture LLP has already pocketed nearly $100 million on a $1 billion contract, and what Texas gets is the call center disaster. DeLoitte charged us millions for the TIERS system that still does not work. Convergys has collected millions of dollars to run a high-tech, on-line Human Resources system that has produced chaos in five state agencies.

Based on this history of success, privateers have targeted Child Protective Services, the Texas Workforce Commission, state universities, and many other state services."

Accenture is also the company responsible for the voter purge in Florida before the 2000 presidential elections (in which felons were to be purged from the voter rolls, but many who weren't felons were also cut from the rolls.) Accenture also put the wrong number for applicants for Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to fax completed forms and documentation -- instead of going to the Accenture offices in Austin, the faxes were ending up in a warehouse in Seattle, totally confounding the workers there. More info here:

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13659

One of the women on the bus to the rally said that she had tried to call (the outsourced) payroll services for her unit. (I'm not quite sure if this is Accenture or Convergys -- another outsource provider.) Someone answered the phone from another office. "Is this payroll?" "No, this is Human Resources" (or some other non-payroll unit.) "But I asked to be connected to payroll." "Yes, but there is a 30 - 40 minute wait to get through to payroll, so they are routing the calls to other offices." "Can you help me with a payroll issue?" "No." "May I please speak to your supervisor?" Interestingly, I just read an article that said that the abandonment rate for this agency had gone down -- well, yeah, duh, if you route the calls to the wrong place so that it doesn't look like people are hanging up . . .

In Memoriam (Texas State Employees Union Members)

2006-10-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'll have another post or two on the General Assembly of the Texas State Employees Union with in a day or so, but this is something I wanted to put up right away.

A few years ago I was walking to a far away parking garage after dark -- the security guard informed me that I am encouraged to call the campus police for an escort whenever I had to walk in the dark on campus.

Two weeks ago, a student in extreme distress came to my office late in the day. He said that after he'd left my office the day before, someone named Marcus, and a couple of other people named Marcus started following him. I asked him how he knew that they were Marcus -- "Because they called me." The conversation disintegrated from there. When another student came to the office to add a class, I was able to contact my supervisor who notified the police. The police got there very quickly, but the distressed student was already gone. They found him a little later, and were able to get him to where he could get the assistance he needed.

On August 9, 2006, two of my fellow union members were kidnapped from the on-campus parking lot of the Lubbock State School. A week or so later, the decapitated body of one of the women, Kay Harrelson) was found (although it is unclear as to the cause of the dismemberment -- it may have been due to animals.) The other woman, Kay Merimon, has not been found.

TSEU has called for restoration of discontinued security services on the campus and for additional steps to protect the security of staff and residents.

I'll never take our security staff and UTPD for granted again; however, the Texas legislature seems intent on slashing government services.

BTW, Ann Richards was a TSEU member, so she was on the list of deceased members.

A POSTSCRIPT:

Since I posted this, I discovered that the two women actually disappeared at lunch and they have a suspect under investigation -- it's some guy who works at that school. He didn't return to work after lunch, and he called in sick the next day. He lied about when he left -- he was caught on his apartment complex's security camera at lunchtime when he said he didn't get home until much later, and he said he was alone, but the camera showed someone else in his car.

More UT Crime Line/Campus Watch News

2006-09-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

I can see it now -- sentenced to hard labor, the poor little squirrel struggles to move while attached to a little ball and chain made out of paperclips and a golf ball:

KINSOLVING DORMITORY

Criminal Mischief: As reported by a Campus Watch subscriber:

My husband and I were visiting our daughter, a UT student. As we, our daughter and 2 of her friends exited Kinsolving dorm Sat. Sept. 23 just after sunset, we saw a squirrel jump up on a bike seat and attack it. The seat was a soft one, foam covered with cloth. The squirrel ripped open the cloth in several places and used its paws to pull out the stuffing. We tried to scare it off, even throwing water on it, but it kept coming back. We couldn’t think of anything else to do to help the poor person who will have a destroyed bike seat. If you want, I could send you a picture of this perpetrator in the act of vandalism.

The Continuing Saga of Acne Girl and Sushi Boy

2006-09-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

A follow up to yesterday's post -- one of my co-workers said that I should NOT try to hook these two up. After yesterday's escapade, she has come to the conclusion that Sushi Boy is too good for Acne Girl:

ROBERT L. MOORE HALL, 2515 Speedway

Failure to Identify / Attempted Theft: UT police officers responded to RLM on a reported suspicious person who had stolen a Dr. Pepper on 9-20-06. At the time of the theft the suspect was described as an Asian female, wearing a pink shirt and tan pants. When officers arrived, the owner of the vending cart pointed to an Asian female wearing a pink shirt and tan pants. The owner stated that the female had attempted to take a package of "Goldfish" crackers, and got her hand caught in the cookie jar. During the investigation, the subject stated that she was a current UT student, but provided a false name and date of birth. The officers realized that the subject was not forthcoming with her correct information; she was asked to repeat her telephone number and could not remember the number that she had just given. The subject admitted that she had lied about all of her personal information. The subject was taken into custody for Failure to Identify and transported to Central Booking. Occurred on: 9-21-06, at 10:10 AM.

(In yesterday's Campus Watch, the female perp was described as having acne.)

Crime Watch in RLM

2006-09-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

This happened in RLM yesterday (From the Campus Watch):

ROBERT L. MOORE HALL, 2515 Speedway

Theft: An unknown female was observed removing a can of Dr. Pepper from an unsecured storage cabinet and walked away without paying for the item. The coffee shop owner yelled at the female to stop and followed her out of the building. The unknown female is described as: Asian female, 28-30 years of age, shoulder length hair, with acne. She was last seen wearing a pink T-shirt and tan pants. Loss value: $.75. Occurred on: 9-20-06, at 12:31 PM.

The perp returned to the scene of the crime yesterday -- she went into the library, so their security video picked her up -- the library staff gave the video to the coffee shop people who were going to show it to the police.

Then this came in on the campus watch right after the above theft:

UNION BUILDING, #4 West Mall

Theft: A UT staff member observed an unknown subject take a handful of sushi from a private vender located on the second floor. The subject left the area prior to the arrival of the officer. The subject was described as: white male wearing an orange shirt. Loss value: $4.00. Occurred on: 9-19-06, at 7:00 PM.

My "matchmaking urges" (ala Ski Boy and Bikini Girl from a couple of years back, and there were also my efforts with trying to get the two cute redhead government major twins hooked up with the cute business twins, but one of the business major twins said that he and his brother didn't like to date twins) kicked in -- I have got to get these two matched up -- what a dream date -- she can take care of the drinks, and he'll get the food!

Well, there is a postscript to this story -- the female perp returned to RLM today and tried to rip off another can of Dr. Pepper -- this time the staff chased her off before she could take the product. But a little later, K., the manager of the stand, was upstairs, and she saw her sitting on a bench, reading. The perp didn't know who K. was (it was another employee who chased her yesterday) so K. nonchalantly used her cell phone to call the police. They arrived and K. said, "That's her!"

She didn't press charges though -- she just wanted to get her attention, and I think she gets handed over to Student Judicial Services.

(and Note to Self: "don't steal from a building that you spend a lot of time in!")

It's always a lot of fun in the RLM,

Arrrrrr!

2006-09-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

My office always celebrates "Talk Like a Pirate Day." This year we put up a sign which read, "Only X more days until Talk Like a Pirate Day!" (we changed the days remaining every few days or so, so it was never correct.) There was some fine print on our poster -- "Please sign our petition to get TLPD an official UT holiday! We don't yet have a petition, but if you ask, we will make one."

So a month went by and no one asked . . . until last week when a student walked through the door and said, "Do you really have a petition?" "No, but we'll make one. May we help you?" "Not really, I'd just like to use the stapler." Jesse said, "You may use the stapler, but only if you ask like a pirate." So he did -- but then he said, "If I were really a pirate, I'd just TAKE the stapler!"

Yes -- our office is getting into the TLPD spirit early!

Aunt Pearl's Small Blouse (Spongebob in Reverse)

2006-09-02T22:53:00.000-07:00

Almost as catchy as the original tune, although somewhat disturbing:

http://spongebobreverse.ytmnd.com/

Take the Search Engine to My Blog

2006-08-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

Recent searches (mostly google) that directed people to this blog:

throwing cats from buildings
sandra bullock austin neighborhood
duct disinfectant
oodle doodle korean egg council
fruity oaty bars
leonidas mandlebrot (I was talking about chocolate and a few days later the mandelbrot fractal.)
Being Burgled
which dr. who character are you
susan brown austin
come into my tummy oh so very yummy
and if I had a face like you I'd join the british army
people dating online blogspot
binocular flasks in south austin
czech artist postcards prague cats
anything
being burgled
subject was combative
no pants party
kitchen peninsula
mossman guitar serial numbers
Amazon Mistress and friend, austin
wiggle jiggle yellow middle that's the best of what we are
ut austin
pictures underpants
ut austin jester center address (in Chinese?)

I was particularly interested with the search for "anything" -- nothing in particular, just "anything." And do you reallly want to know about --no pants party--, --pictures underpants-- and --Amazon Mistress and friend, austin-- ?? And I don't date online -- what's with that?

And now if they goggle these terms again, will they be more likely to end up on this blog again?

Rear Ended on Ben White Blvd., and There is a Dead Rodent in the Room of Music and Contemplation

2006-08-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was stopped at a rather long stoplight in my neighborhood, just minding my own business and listening to a podcast of a couple that had deconverted from LDS (and xtianity) (and one of the influencing factors was a cosmology class taught by Gregory Benford that one of them took) (and note, in subsequent podcasts, they turned off the fan in the room, so that the sound quality is better)

Well, so anyway, there I am stopped at the light when "THUNK!" my car is hit from behind. I didn't hear anything break, but I did want to check, but as we were in the middle lanes (one that could go straight or turn left), and the light was about ready to change, I looked in the rear view mirror, pointed left, and the woman who hit me nodded. So, I'm just hoping that she will turn, because since she is behind me she could easily just keep driving, and there would be nothing I could do about it.

She does follow me, and we turn into the parking lot of a 7-11. As soon as we get out, I say to her, "I don't think you did any damage, but I just wanted to check."

It was a very hot day -- 103, and she was flushed and sweating, and she said, "I'm so sorry, I was stopped, and my nose started to bleed and I reached down to get a tissue and "bam!" There is no damage to either car. Her license plate was from Alaska -- she said she'd just gotten to Austin. I asked her if she was o.k. and if she had some water to drink. I was ready to march her into the 7-11 and buy her some juice or water, but she said she was o.k. and she did have water, so I thanked her for stopping and we went on our merry ways.

We just started letting the cats out again this week (Yuki had dental surgery a few weeks ago, and I wanted to protect our investment), and when I woke up this morning, the first thing I noticed was a dead rodent in the Room of Music and Contemplation. (too large for a house mouse) I am waiting for Scott to wake up to take care of this, but if he sleeps much longer, I think I can handle it. Yuck, I think we might go back to being inside cats. My preference is to keep them in, but it's hard to fight against one Scott and 3 felines.

Voting is Important!

2006-08-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

It's not like I'd want to tell you how to vote or anything, but if you click on the title, you will be taken to a polling place where you can vote for the honorary name for a new Hungarian bridge. (it may take a little time to load even with a fast connection.)

Then you could scroll down quite a bit (or do a "find on this page") until you find Steven Colbert, and then you could click the bubble next to his name and vote for him. He has 3% of the vote as of today.

Or, you could go and vote for Chuck Norris, for all I care -- but just be sure to vote!

Robert Ingersoll Podcast

2006-08-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

Ever since S. broke the radio in my car fixing my turn signals and brake lights, I've been listening to various podcasts (on Wolfgang, the iPod Nano, he got me for breaking my stuff, but that's another story).

I've recently discovered an excellent podcast of the works of Robert Green Ingersoll. Click on the title above for a link to information about the podcast -- I've been updating the 'cast through iTunes.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) was one of America's greatest thinkers and orators. He was a Chautauqua Institute lecturer, attracting at one time an audience of 200,000, even though he was referred to as "The Great Agnostic" when most of his audience was not.

The Council for Secular Humanism has some info on him as well as well as Infidels.org

http://www.secularhumanism.org/
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/

Someone once asked RGI what his extensive library had cost him. His answer: "The presidency of the United States."

Taxes!

2006-08-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

This week erupted in a harried frenzy when father-in-law called and said that the deadline for our tax return was August 15. He was frantically trying to get S's self-employed schedules together -- S was HERE and his files were THERE -- arrgh. FIL manages to complete the forms and faxes them to me -- but S had to go back to help FIL & MIL find their documents, receipts, etc., so FIL dictated a power of attorney for S to sign, since I wouldn't have time to complete our taxes so that S could sign them before he left. FIL did call me to go over S's forms and to tell me what lines to integrate into our joint return. He's a tax attorney, but he uses TurboTax and recommended it for S & I, so it's not going to be that complicated.

WHEW! Now I know what I'll be doing this weekend --

Then this afternoon, S calls and says, "Uh, you know that August 15 deadline? Well, we were looking at our paperwork and found that the extension deadline this year is October 15!"

Yippee! This means that S can search his files (uh, stuff put in shoe boxes, rubbermaid containers, etc.) and perhaps find more deductions. And that I don't have to do taxes this weekend. And that on the off chance we owe a little more than we paid, I won't have to send it in this month.

Taxes!

More Cat Photos -- Yuki in his Favorite Basket

2006-08-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

This is our third cat, Hiroyuki Sakai (after one of the Iron Chefs), or Yuki for short. He showed up at our doorstep a few years ago -- scruffy, hungry, covered with bites and scars, etc. Scott said he seemed to be friendly, but a bit scared. "Waaah," he cried, "I want to be friends with you, but I'm frightened -- Waaaah!" Once we started feeding him, though, he became very friendly. We looked around for owners, but he seemed to have been lost for good or abandoned. A few weeks after he started hanging around, Austin had a few days of bitterly cold weather. We couldn't leave him outside, but we didn't want to expose him to the other cats before he was checked out by our veterinarian, so we let him stay in the hallway/pantry/closet. After a clean bill of health at the vets (along with vaccinations and neutering), he became a full fledged member of the family.

Yuki has a very sweet disposition and he and Genji are great buddies. Saki isn't too fond of him, but we think that is because he stabbed her, causing a painful infection.

Not that I would condone anything like this, but . . ..

2006-08-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Click on the title for a site that makes your websurfing look like a word document. Should the boss come in for a closer look, you can roll the cursor and change the text to an essay on procrastination. Of course, she may wonder why it is taking you three months to write 1,000 words, but hey -- at least you are appearing to be productive.

Too Hot to Properly Blog, I am an

2006-08-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

English Genius
You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 93% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 44% on Beginner
You scored higher than 25% on Intermediate
You scored higher than 62% on Advanced
You scored higher than 81% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

1966

2006-08-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

heh, heh, heh, I'm plagiarizing myself!

2006-07-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

Scott has been in Ft. Worth for the past 2 weekends, so I took advantage of his absence to see two movies that he most likely would not want to see, namely A Scanner Darkly and The Devil Wears Prada.

He really likes Philip K. Dick, but the rotoscoping of Waking Life made him dizzy and sick, so he really didn't want to see it because of that, which is a shame. (and speaking of Waking Life, Scott had Robert Solomon for Philosophy 610QA and/or B)

We didn't discuss seeing Devil, but he might actually like it -- the script was funny and witty -- a good summer movie. Favorite quote -- Nigel (Stanley Tucci) to Andy (Anne Hathaway): "Don't make me feed you to one of the models!" Meryl Streep was a terror of a boss, and it's a credit to her acting that she was able to portray this without raising her voice once. I've worked for that character before. Once in Germany -- she had totally terrorized the person I replaced, but I was able to tame her with my powers of calmness and reason. Once in TX -- this boss-lady could be a "yeller" -- and worse, you never knew what would set her off on any particular day. One day you could put something in front of her and she'd approve it, and the next day the same thing would start a long, raging tirade. Current boss? As long as I say, "That was my mistake, I'll fix it and never do it again," (and then NEVER DO IT AGAIN) she's pretty cool (even though she did terrify me at first.)

Seeing that does make me wonder about my supervisory skills. For the most part I'm pretty laid back with my staff as long as they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. I never yell, although I have been known to say through gritted teeth, "This really isn't working out. Perhaps you should consider another line of work?!" I really shouldn't have let things go that far. The supervisory part of my job is perhaps my least favorite, but hey, it has to be done.

Out of the two, I think I liked Scanner better, just because I like darker movies.

Autoerotic Crucifixion (just seeing how long 'til this comes up on google)

Radio Random Susan

2006-07-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Fruity Oaty Bars

2006-07-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Can't get that Fruity Oaty Bars song outta my head!

Little Scampish Cats

2006-07-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

We need to spend some $ to upgrade our hall bathroom. How could we have not noticed what a mess it was when we first looked at the house? The cabinets are o.k., and I don't think we'd need to change them. The floor is tile -- sort of meh yellow/brown and very slick when wet. Not my favorite, but we could live with it -- and it does match the tile in the foyer and hallway.

Now we start getting into yuccky. The walls are purple. I like purple, but this is a dark, muddy purple, and it makes the room look too small and dark. The worst part is that the purple is really FABRIC. Can you say mold? Yecch. How could we have missed this?

The bathtub is surrounded on 3 sides by this cheesy pale yellow/buff/manila or something plastic "bath unit". Should be replaced, since there is a crack on one side, and it just doesn't look nice.

The sink & vanity -- the sink should be replaced and the vanity -- how could we not have seen this? The vanity was painted with a cream colored latex looking textured paint. It looks like someone spread yellow cottage cheese all over. The worst part is that THE PAINT IS PEELING OFF THE VANITY. Yecch -- how could we not have noticed this?

What does this have to do with cats, you may think? Well, we were ready to get a granite vanity & new sink and perhaps some other things for that bathroom, but we made the mistake of taking the youngest cat, Yuki, to the vet for his annual checkup (which he was a bit overdue for.) He'd never had a dental and needed one, so last week Scott took him in. After a couple of hours, we got a call -- apparently Yuki had two severely cracked teeth that most likely would not heal, and did we want them to extract them?

Sooo, instead of nice new sink and vanity top, we spent lots of $$$ on Yuki.

When Scott brought Yuki home, he had a package of special dental chew pellets that the vet recommended. I stupidly didn't put them in the cat food cabinet, and one morning I woke up to find that one of the little scamps had broken into the package and eaten half of the chews and the other half are all over the floor. Great. So I pick them up and put them in a slightly heavier plastic back AND STUPIDLY NEGLECTED TO PUT THEM IN THE CAT FOOD CABINET. Which means that when I go up this morning, someone had broken into them again, and eaten all but about two of the chews.

I'm not sure exactly which cat is the culprit. Knowing those three, it may well be a group effort.

The good news is that I took him in for his one week checkup, and he's healing just nicely. I invested double digits for another package of dental chews, and the first thing I did was put them in the cat food cabinet -- although it wouldn't surprise me if they learn how to break into the cabinet -- perhaps we should keep them under lock and key.

Perhaps I'll have a pic of Yuki doing something cute in a couple of days -- he really is lovely -- lean, shorthaired grey kitty. He's got a sweet, loving personality, and he's very athletic -- we just love to watch him jumping and leaping.

What Dr. Who Character are You?

2006-07-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

Should I be somewhat concerned that I rate as 50% Dalek????!!!!

You scored as 4th Doctor. Wild, eccentric, wacky! do you want a jelly babie?

4th Doctor

83%

3rd doctor

67%

1st Doctor

58%

9th Doctor

58%

5th Doctor

58%

7th Doctor

50%

a Dalek

50%

8th Doctor

50%

6th doctor

42%

2nd doctor

33%

10th Doctor

33%

Davros

17%

What Doctor Who character are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Stem Cell Veto: What's Next? Snowflake Brigades?

2006-07-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Now that GWB has vetoed the bill to relax some of the stem cell research regulations (for projects receiving federal funding), is he going to go after in vitro fertilization? After all, where are all of those little "snowflakes" coming from? If embryonic stem cell research is morally wrong, then in vitro fertilization is wrong.

Or maybe young women should be "volunteered" to carry the hundreds of thousands of blastocysts that would otherwise be discarded. (I should NOT be giving these people ideas -- I'm feeling more and more that Atwood was prophetic in her Handmaid's Tale.)

Perhaps this would be a "The Handmaid's Tale" prequel. (or Gattica meets The Handmaid's Tale?) In order to continue the never ending war on terror, the draft is re-instituted; however, women are not drafted into the armed forces -- they are drafted into "Snowflake Brigades" and forced to serve as incubators for the detritus of decades of in vitro fertilization. After all, we do need more cannon fodder (and cannon fodder incubators) for the legions needed for an unending war.

Google Earth Time Travel

2006-07-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

After traveling all around the world on Google Earth, I was sorely disappointed that I couldn't go back as far in time as I would have liked. I know that the views of our area are at least a couple of years old -- the carport on our house isn't there, and the stupid apparently abandoned white pickup that was across the street from our old duplex (rudely parked so as to make backing out of our driveway inconvenient and hazardous for pedestrians, forcing young couples with baby strollers out into the street) was there. (The pickup just disappeared one day.)

I suppose that a google earth could be kludged together with some of the oldest satellite pics, so you could go back a few decades, and the zoom levels wouldn't be that great, but I want more than that -- I want to be able to look back a few hundred or a few thousand years. Or how about Google Earth Time Travel Video?!

S. said I should submit my request to Google, but I'm thinking that my physics majors would be a better bet.

Tales of the Lost and Found in the RLM @ UT Austin

2006-07-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Byron came to our office this afternoon to help us figure out why jgar5 couldn't print PDF files. It was some pretty obscure thing that I would never have figured out, so we're glad we have Byron to help. When he left, he found a cell phone in the hallway and gave it to jgar5 who promptly called back a couple of the people who had recently called that phone in hopes of getting some clue as to who owns it.

Half and hour or so later, a very loud "DA DA DADA DA DADA DA DADAAAA DA DADA DADADADADADA" spewed forth from jgar's desk. "Jesse, be quiet -- there's someone taking a linear algebra test in the conference room!" (I thought the noise was coming from his computer.) When I looked up I saw that he had picked up the found cell phone (still blaring "DA DA DADA DA DADA DA DADA") and was trying to figure out how to answer the darn thing. (which is playing "Mexican Hat Dance" in case you weren't able to recognize my dada da's.)

"Hello? Yes, I called your number because someone lost this phone, and we're calling people this person recently called to help us find the owner of the phone. Do you know who this number belongs to? Uh, you're calling from India? O.K., O.K. Can you spell that name? D - I - V - Y - A. O.K. OK., So, you'll send her an e-mail to tell her we have her phone? We're in RLM 4.101. Well, ok, then, thank you!"

After everyone left the office this afternoon, I was trying to tidy up the detritus of our last freshmen orientation when the phone started blaring its DA DA DADA again. I rushed over to jgar5's desk, picked up the phone, tried to flip it open, but it wasn't a flipable phone (hey, the light was off in that office, and the phone was still making that thor-awful noise), but by the time I figured it out, whoever had called had disconnected.

So, Divya shall have to wait until tomorrow to get her phone back.

(We also get a lot of phones back to their rightful owners when they think to call their own number.)

UPDATE: Divya came to the office to claim her phone. We usually ask for some sort of I.D. before we give lost & found stuff back, and she said, "Oh, just a minute, I've left my purse in the library!" Um, what is WRONG with that sentence?! I don't even leave my handbag with S. to watch. Stuff can disappear from this place in a blink of an eye.

Lady Murasaki is so Inscrutable

2006-07-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

This is our girl cat, Lady Murasaki. She is very shy around anyone other than us -- probably because she & Genji were barn kitties who have never really been around other humans.

She seems to be the smartest of the 3 cats, although the boys seem to have an edge on figuring out technology (door handles!)

Genji and Saki are siblings -- Yuki is a latecoming interloper, at least according to Saki. More on the relationship between the cats when I post Yuki's picture.

Genji Cat Sleepathon

2006-07-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

(click on Little Genji to see a picture of Big Genji)

Genji stayed in this postition for about 6 hours straight Sunday -- well, he flopped from side to side a couple of times -- but for the most part, he looked just like this. (And be easy on the big guy -- he thinks the camera adds 5 pounds.)

You're a Little Late to be Asking about the Asteroid

2006-07-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

1:30 p.m. CDT
I answer the phone at work, "Mathematics, Physics & Astronomy Advising Center."

A voice a bit older than most of my students says, "Uh, I heard there was an asteroid heading toward earth today."

Me: "This is the undergraduate advising office, let me get you the Astronomy Department."

but then I thought: "Oh, I read about that at lunch -- the asteroid has already passed by."

Man: "I need to know whether I need to be packing things up, you know."

Me: "The asteroid already passed by -- it didn't even come as close as the moon. I read it online a while ago. (looking it up) . . . ah, here, 'Large Asteroid Zips Past Earth' -- 'A huge asteroid whizzed by Earth early Monday, passing about 269,000 miles from the planet's surface -- slightly farther away than the moon.' "

Man: (still unsure that he is safe) "But this is Monday."

Me: "Yes, but it said it passed by EARLY Monday -- this is the afternoon."

Man: "O.K."

Me: "Bye now."

I would have put the BBC as the title link above, but they hadn't updated their article -- it just said it was due to pass near earth -- closest to the west coast of North America around 0444 GMT.

We get calls like this from time to time -- how to work math problems, grand unification theories, etc. Some of the stuff we'll try to help with, but I always send the grand unification theories upstairs!

What S Said the other Morning

2006-06-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

The other morning, as I was waking up, Scott said to me, "Do you want some Diet Coke to wash down those Mentos?"

Is he trying to explode my stomach or something??!!!

(and if you are like the people in my office who didn't know about Diet Coke & Mentos, click on the title above.)

This is even better than "Peeps in the microwave" -- a favorite activity of one of our physics majors. Not our office microwave, please!

Buddhabrots

2006-06-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

I've been fascinated with fractals for years, and I've recently discovered a particularly beautiful form of the Mandelbrot Set -- the Buddhabrots. This one is from a Wikipedia contributor, Evercat, who has kindly released this image into the public domain.

Happy Solstice from my Cat

2006-06-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

Well, he really didn't say "Happy Solstice", but he sure was talking this morning, and much too early at that. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow meow meow!

he can only say a few things:

*give me food
*open the door
*i want soft food
*let me out
*i'm very concerned about the food situation
*sit down and give me a lap
*did I tell you i was hungry?
*open all the doors -- i hate closed doors!

sorry but he doesn't know how to celebrate a Solstice, so that greeting has to come from me!

Mmmm, Chocolate (click here for chocolate)

2006-06-17T00:09:00.000-07:00

I lived in Germany from '83 to '86 when it was hard to find Leonidas chocolates anywhere but Belgium. Several times friends of mine travelled to Belgium and brought back a small box of these yummy, yummy chocolates. As my friend Kellee said -- you have to ration them wisely and force yourself to eat 2 a day because they only last a week or so because of the fresh ingredients. But oh, one or 2 Leonidas were worth a pound of any other chocolates.

One of the women who are helping Scott's family in Ft. Worth just returned from visiting relatives in Europe, and she brought back the perfect gift -- pretty, pretty boxes of Leonidas. Scott was sweet and gave me half of his box, and I will love Sondra forever! (You can get Leonidas in the states now, but it's great to get some from the source!)

After Time, I'll Be Unstuck in Time

2006-06-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

After you die...
Unstuck in Time

After death, you will become unstuck in time, and re-live various moments of your life. Time will cease to exist. One moment you will be learning to catch butterflies, the next you will be using your walker to go to the bathroom. You will live on forever in this way, constantly reliving the sweetest and not so sweetest of moments.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Need a Funny Today?

2006-06-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

Click on the title for today's funny!

Next post (when I have some time) will be how Scott and I "outed" ourselves (as non-believers) during our recent trip to visit family in Colorado. (Guys, you would have known a lot sooner if you'd just paid attention, or even asked -- it wasn't like we were hiding anything. sheeesh!)

I Cry Everytime We Go Here (Ludlow Massacre)

2006-05-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

We stopped at the site of the Ludlow Massacre north of Trinidad, Colorado, off Interstate 25, today. We stop here everytime we decide to return to Texas from Colorado via New Mexico.

Click on the picture for a larger view, and click on the title for a brief story of the massacre. I'll write more later, and post a picture of the names of the murdered -- of the 20 killed at Ludlow, most were children -- some as young as 3 months old. Yeah, they were a real threat to Rockefeller (J.D. Jr.), the owner of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

Playing with the camera what is smarter than me

2006-05-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

(click on the pics for better detail)
O.K. O.K.! I know these are horrible, but they were my "test" pictures -- the first pictures taken on that particular camera and downloaded wirelessly. I was expecting much more grief, but it was really quite effortless for my first attempt at anything like this. (although in retrospect, I'll probably go back and change the configuration from using our wireless network to an Ad-hoc profile -- camera to computer -- which was recommended "for first time users of wireless networks", which I am -- well, except for setting up the AirPort last night. (which ran into a minor glitch because I, or perhaps SRI, had gotten it partially set up either 6 months or 1 year ago, and the computer couldn't find the network, and then I realized, "Hey, I'll bet if the base is reset this will work," and it did!) (You gotta love the Macs -- intuitive AND logical.)

The real reason we wanted a digital camera was to take cute pictures of the cats and put them all over the internet. And now that said camera is ready to go, there is nary a cat in sight. Perverse little critters anyway.

These pictures are of our entry hall. They look a bit more orange than the actual color, and of course there is the flash in the midst of the drawing (by a man named Mike Bear (R.I.P) -- my mother bought this years ago when he showed up at the doorstep with some of his art and a need for money.) The small mirror on the left was a wedding present from Lucinda -- it incorporates some small red stained glass. (It is supposed to be moved to the other side of the hall, but that hasn't happened yet.) From Korea are two gifts from Spence -- a Buddha plaque/relief and a bell -- the bell is supported by a dragon breathing fire, and at the end of the flame is the mallet that rings the bell. Oh, and a couple of pics of my nephew who is graduating from (home)highschool this year. (What? Is he both the valedectorian and salatutorian? As well as last in his class? What was his prom like? Did he ever have to stay after school?)

SRI really prefers white walls, but I really, really liked this red foyer. (the rest of the house has more muted colors.) I just love looking at that red wall for some reason.

Hey, I got an e-mail that said Rove got indicted on Friday, but I haven't seen anything in the media about it. Just a rumor or wishful thinking? Heh, heh, I've got a couple of Rove stories from my days in the Government dept. at UT, but I really can't repeat them. Rats.