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.)
Friday, December 19, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
What's the Word?! Tinklenberg!
(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.)
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
How Many Texas Cheerleaders Can You Cram Into an Elevator?
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.
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.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Bush Jokes at G8: Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter
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
Monday, June 23, 2008
Another Internet Tradition or "John McCain is aware of the internet"
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
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
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
Saturday, June 21, 2008
OMFSM! Look who Visited my Blog!
I guess they HAVE figured out the internets! (see post immediately below this one.)
Friday, June 20, 2008
Has the McCain Campaign Finally Figured Out the Internets?
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.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Demolition of ESB @ UT Austin
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.)
Friday, June 13, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Pfleger: Bully in the Pulpit
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
"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
Monday, May 26, 2008
November 2008 Presidential Ballot
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.)
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.)
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Texas Board Denies Online Creationism "Master of Science"
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
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
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Texas higher education board rejects creation science degree
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
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?
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.
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.
Friday, April 18, 2008
April 1 @ RLM
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Chris Comer was Expelled
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