Here are several trends I've noticed on the road, displayed in graphical form.

The first seems to be standard across the USA. At least it holds everywhere I've spent a significant amount of time. The notation "Pr(x)" means "Probability of x".

( Continue for pictures… )

Since returning from my vacation to Utah, I've written several pieces critical of certain religious practices, which has led one friend to comment that I am "anti-religion." Not at all-though it may seem like it sometimes. I firmly believe that when religion is used for good, then it is good. Yet all too often in today's America, we see religion ( Read more... )

Orson Scott Card has dashed off yet another bigoted screen against gay marriage, the sheer idiocy of which has been thoroughly derided elsewhere (zarq links to several rejoinders). What strikes me as particularly nonsensical, in light of his contributions to literature, is Card's heavy reliance on reproductive biology to bolster his argument. Hang on ( Read more... )

I’ve been teaching a graduate-level course for three weeks now, and it’s nearly wiping me out. Whenever I get a free hour or two, I spend it comatose, in a desperate attempt to pay off the compound interest on my sleep debt. I don’t know what I’d do if my boss hadn’t kindly left me her lecture notes and old assignments ( Read more... )

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In the October 1967 issue of Analog, editor John W. Campbell reprinted an amazing and disturbing preamble to a paper presented at the 1966 Peking Symposium on the physics of elementary particles, shortly after the beginning of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. I have reproduced it below, under the cut ( Read more... )

Kathy brought Yuki-chan back from the vet this morning, two ovaries lighter. I figured I'd hang around for an hour or two after Kathy left for work, to make sure Yuki was recovering okay. Gave up and left for work ten minutes later, after she'd done about 150 laps around the house at a full gallop with Altair in hot pursuit, followed by a couple ( Read more... )

I'm just wrapping up the first of two consecutive 70-hour work weeks, and thus have had very little time to devote to LiveJournal; but with the upcoming election drawing near, I'll sacrifice a few minutes of sleep to make this important announcement for all Ohioans and anyone else interested in the quality of public-school education in Ohio ( Read more... )

A little while ago I wrote an entry about our cat's surgery to remove a sarcoid tumor, and the total hack job the vet did sewing up her back. Well, turns out I was completely wrong about a couple of things. First, the incision really had to be 4 cm long: though the visible part was only pea-sized, the tumor flared out beneath the skin to the ( Read more... )

A disturbing article appeared in the New York Times last Sunday (may require registration to read). It explores George W. Bush's continuing popularity in Utah, hinting at the reason behind this anomaly without quite explaining it. The outrageous quotes therein from Bush-faithful Utahns just make me want to fly back there and slap a few people ( Read more... )