Nothing to Say and Saying It Loudly

Says Mark Radcliffe:

if Edwyn Collins and Orange Juice had been commissioned to write a soundtrack for a 70’s porn film

Normally I am annoyed by little quotations that people have in their email signatures, but this one I found humorous:

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whenever you say something to them, they translate it into their own language, and at once it is something entirely different. - J. W. v. GOETHE

There is a good thread (that has been going for nearly 5 years) at edwardtufte.com on the best software packages for graphing. Right now I am partial to R (r-project.org), which is sort of a jack of all trades mathematical and statistical. The learning curve is steep, particularly steep for graphics, but once you figure it out, you can do just about anything.

Actually graphics in R are somewhat paradoxical. Default graphs are really easy.

plot(1:10, 1:10)

Makes a nice plot of (1,1), (2,2), … (10,10) with axes all pretty. But if you want to play with the axes, you have to know what is going on behind the scenes. It also can intuitively select the correct type of plot based on the type of data that is passed.

Plus in R you can do any statistical test that you can imagine.

There is an article in the NY Times (and probably every where else, but the NYT one happens to be the one I read) about one of Ohio’s school boards abandoning a lesson plan critical of evolution. This is a big deal, particularly after the Dover thing.

The article quotes some ID person, saying, if effect, that this decision is a slap in the face to the people of Ohio, who should determine what is taught. This logic strikes me as a little odd. The issue has come up obliquely before; frequently news reports say that some percentage of residents of state X think that teaching intelligent design is a good idea.

But here is the question: why do average people think that they know more about biology and, more specifically, what should be taught in biology classes than people who are actually trained to teach biology? Why can’t people accept that there are things that should be left to people trained to do certain jobs? They wouldn’t let a surgeon do their taxes, or an accountant do their coronary bypass. They probably wouldn’t let either one repair their car. Why can’t they let biology teachers teach biology?

And it is called rdiff-backup.

This whole airplane on a conveyor belt controversy reminds me of my long standing complaint about KITT being able to drive up into the trailer in Knight Rider while both were in motion.

• Figure skating (men’s, women’s, and pairs)
• Ice dancing
• Moguls skiing
• Snowboarding (any variety)
• Speed skating (non-short track)

Sports that you might be surprised to learn that I do like:

• Curling
• Skeleton
• Biathlon

Sports in which I have moderate interest:

• Slalom skiing
• Women’s ice hockey

I reserve the right to amend these lists in the future based on how much Bob Costas irritates me.