gmonkey42

This morning, I got up, drank some Gatorade and went to Zumba. Then I came home and took a shower. Then I made my special scrambled eggs with vegetables and Hollandaise. Then I went to Walmart and got these awesome curtains for the kitchen. They have roosters on them! ROOSTERS!

See, the sun always shines right in your eyes if you're standing at the sink in the morning and I'd been meaning to get a curtain for a while. So there it is. Roosters! I also got some tulips for the garden.

Then after that, I walked to the grocery store and got a few things. Then I had soup and an artichoke for lunch. Then I loaded the dishwasher. I think next I'll relax and read for a bit. Maybe later, Housemate and I will watch some DS9.

It's been a nice Saturday!

[Error: unknown template qotd]I think a big problem is going to be that everyone's biased based on how they themselves performed on the tests. I did pretty well on the SAT (1440) and really quite well on the GRE (710 math, 800 verbal, 5.5 analytical writing). I think standardized tests should be one of many criteria college admissions offices use. But would I have a different opinion if I hadn't done well on the tests? Some of the traits that helped my performance on the test - being self-motivated and hard-working, reading a lot, having a commitment to lifelong learning - also help me produce better work in school and a career.

I know studies have shown that standardized test scores are a poor predictor of performance. I can see how people who do well in real life have test-taking anxiety and their test score is an underestimate their true abilities. And I know lazy, ignorant people can pay thousands of dollars to take a test-prep course and improve their score from "abysmal" to "acceptable." There are many factors that determine someone's score on a test and a lot of those factors have nothing to do with how well they'll do in real life. But that doesn't mean the test is completely useless; there are some factors that test-taking and real-world-productivity have in common, as I said above. I think it's good to have standardized test scores available because it's the only measure that's consistent across the board - someone could have a really high GPA and glowing recommendations but not actually be very bright if they went to a high school that had low standards. We need a valid, fair way to compare students who went to different schools.


On the other hand, I think the tests required by No Child Left Behind are stupid. A nationwide high school exit exam is a good idea in principle but they're doing it wrong. One big problem with nationally imposed standards for curriculum (which is sort of on a tangent, I know, but the standards are in place because of the test) is that it takes a long time for something like that to be updated, there's a lot of bureaucracy to get through and a lot of different interests all competing with each other. The result is we're forced to cover a watered down, out-of-date version of everything; this is especially a problem in science education.

There was a troll post on ontd_science and it's already baleeted. It's good that the mods are on top of things. But the last time I saw it, there were only 9 comments and three of those were mine; I'm sure it got a lot worse and now I've missed it!

The OP asked us to comment with common misconceptions about science. The first comment was a link to the relevant Wikipedia page (which I didn't know existed until that xkcd strip!). The second comment was mine with a few of my favorites and a humorous quip about each one.

The OP replied that they weren't really looking for common misconceptions held by the general public, but by scientists. And that comment included the word "experts" in scare quotes. This was the first sign that the thread was headed for deletion. Another commenter and I replied briefly to explain that it doesn't really work like that - if experts (or, indeed "experts") disagree over the interpretation of data then yeah, one will turn out to be more right than the other but that doesn't mean the other one has a misconception. That's not what that word means.

Also we both used the phrase "by definition" and my final comment was to give the other explainer an internet high-five for that.

Then the OP replied that in fact there could be experts who cling to misconceptions but true experts will evaluate new information and be willing to change their minds. Yeahhhh, that second one is called "doing science." So the OP is saying there are experts, who actually adhere to the basic principles of science, and then there are "experts" who... don't? but they're still somehow regarded by other scientists, who know them to be wrong, as experts? Whut? The OP was obviously fishing for something but I can't really articulate what it was. Something involving the OP not understanding how science works, I think. Like the goal of science is to assume we know everything about everything and then we write it down in a bunch of big, heavy textbooks and force everyone to believe in it because we think we're smarter than everyone. You're right, OP, scientists should totally stop doing that!

So at that point I left to watch stand-up comedy on YouTube for a while and when I came back, the post was gone.

You know what's cool, though? The way the OP seems to think science works is itself a common misconception!

I installed the Overviewer 3rd party mapping program for Minecraft, which makes high-res zoomable maps of your Minecraft worlds. It took 3 hours to run (it'll take less time now that it's done the first one). Here's my world!


I don't know why that narrow strip of land is there at the upper right. That might be a mistake.

( two more, zoomed in )
There's also a farm cottage and a signal tower. The manor house is built into the side of the mountain and I'm going to expand that so it has more hidden rooms in the mountain. The village is located on the bay on that big landmass on the far right. On that finger of water between the big chunk with trees on the right and a smaller desert island on the left of it. And I just completed the tunnel connecting this village to the castle and have laid down mine cart tracks through about half of it.

OSTRACIZATION IS NOT A WORD! THE WORD IS OSTRACISM! STOP WRITING "OSTRACIZATION," IT MAKES YOU LOOK STUPID!



thank you for your time

Oh man. I don't even have the words to describe it. During the intermissions and on the walk & ride back to her apartment, Nada and I were both mostly quiet. We were pretty tired but I think were also just processing what we'd seen.

Except I wish we'd been in the opposite seats: we were in the last row on the left for Part 1 and front row on the right for Part 2. The majority of Zach's scenes were on the right in Part 1 and the left in Part 2. Ah well. It was still really great. And I was about 8 feet from Bill Heck's naked butt so there's that.

The angel was scary, just as she was supposed to be. Christian Borle was AMAZING. As Nada said, he's very good at sweating & crying.

...I seriously can't think of what to say. I'm so glad I got to see it. I'm trying to resist feeling sad that I won't be able to see it a second time.

But on a happier note: ( PICTURES! )

I hadn't heard about this until I read this Tiger Beatdown post: Bradley Manning, a soldier, is being held in inhumane conditions, and has been for the past 7 months, for leaking evidence of war crimes by the U.S. military to WikiLeaks, though he has not actually been charged with any crime.

You can go to this site to donate to Bradley Manning's legal defense fund. I made a donation. You can enter your own amount, every bit helps.

See also this Salon.com article

From ontd_science
A flock of blackbirds - and only blackbirds - drops dead out of the sky
and 125 miles away,
mass deaths of a single species of fish

So it's either the beginning of the End Times or, y'know, a COINCIDENCE.

Except I just read Zombie Survival Guide so I can't help snickering a little.

So...is anyone in central/nothern CA doing anything cool for New Year's? If so, can I tag along?

Otherwise I'll probably be home making custom content for Sims 2, which is fine too. But going out somewhere would be nice, I just don't want to do it by myself.

ETA: wow, that sounded pathetic :D

[Error: unknown template qotd]"Witness the decline and fall of the American Empire; thanks, capitalism!"