Thanks to Helen for finding the photo online that I saw in the paper yesterday which prompted yesterday's post on this. Don't miss this photo!!!:
Battle of the giants: python bursts eating gator - Science - Specials
Friday, October 07, 2005
Thursday, October 06, 2005
In fight between python and gator, both lose - The Boston Globe
"The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead after apparently becoming locked in a gruesome struggle."
Hey, maybe this is a good thing. Hopefully these pythons will get REALLY GIANT and reclaim some of the underappreciated Everglades for mother nature!
Hey, maybe this is a good thing. Hopefully these pythons will get REALLY GIANT and reclaim some of the underappreciated Everglades for mother nature!
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Unconstitutional Prerequisite -- Judging Harriet Miers -- In These Times
Does anyone know if it's true that Bush had the unconstitutional prerequisite of faith in god for his two Supreme Court appointees? --
Judging Harriet Miers -- In These Times: "she passes Bush’s unconstitutional prerequisite that federal judges have a religious faith. Her former pastor told The New York Times, “Harriet has placed her faith in Jesus.” This type of religiosity has been required by Bush of all his appointees, though Article VI of the United States Constitution unambiguously provides that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”"
Judging Harriet Miers -- In These Times: "she passes Bush’s unconstitutional prerequisite that federal judges have a religious faith. Her former pastor told The New York Times, “Harriet has placed her faith in Jesus.” This type of religiosity has been required by Bush of all his appointees, though Article VI of the United States Constitution unambiguously provides that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”"
Sunday, October 02, 2005
NPR : Podcast Directory
Finally, the NPR podcast is here! Go here to find your favorite NPR shows and never miss a beat because now, it's on your iPod:
NPR :: Podcast Directory
NPR :: Podcast Directory
Songs to make love to
Hope this one doesn't freak people out too much. . .Actually, I don't mind if it does!
I've been thinking of sharing lists of music in certain categories that my iPod has me thinking about. I got the idea from Mikostinko
. She listed her top 25 song based on the most played on her iPod.
I'd be too embarrassed to admit some of the stuff getting play on my iPod, so I've been trying to think of what would be interesting, and not embarrassing, to share.
Well, I'm not embarrassed to admit that I love to make love. I have begun to think lately about how my lover and I don't tend to play any music while doing the nasty though. It's odd because we both love music and both can name songs we think are sexy songs.
When I first got the iPod, the first thing I wanted to do was get ALL of my CD collection onto the thing. The thing wouldn't hold all my music at the quality I preferred, so as I started using the thing, I started using the song, star rating system on the iPod to remind me of which songs to remove from the player when I was at home synching. I would use the 1 star rating for this.
Well, time has passed, the wife took the smaller iPod and I bought the largest one. ALL of my music is now on the thing. So, now I've decided to start rating songs, as I hear them. (I, like most everyone else, am a big fan of the shuffle feature. It's a 6003 song, personalized radio station on my belt!).
I have only rated 3 songs so far as 1 star, "Songs to Make Love To." Now, please don't misunderstand, these are not necessarily just sexy songs. For me, this is a to-do list of songs I want to try out while getting down and dirty.
Here is the short list so far. It's short because I want to hear the song, not just remember it, before I add it to the list:
There will definitely be more soon.
I've been thinking of sharing lists of music in certain categories that my iPod has me thinking about. I got the idea from Mikostinko
. She listed her top 25 song based on the most played on her iPod.
I'd be too embarrassed to admit some of the stuff getting play on my iPod, so I've been trying to think of what would be interesting, and not embarrassing, to share.
Well, I'm not embarrassed to admit that I love to make love. I have begun to think lately about how my lover and I don't tend to play any music while doing the nasty though. It's odd because we both love music and both can name songs we think are sexy songs.
When I first got the iPod, the first thing I wanted to do was get ALL of my CD collection onto the thing. The thing wouldn't hold all my music at the quality I preferred, so as I started using the thing, I started using the song, star rating system on the iPod to remind me of which songs to remove from the player when I was at home synching. I would use the 1 star rating for this.
Well, time has passed, the wife took the smaller iPod and I bought the largest one. ALL of my music is now on the thing. So, now I've decided to start rating songs, as I hear them. (I, like most everyone else, am a big fan of the shuffle feature. It's a 6003 song, personalized radio station on my belt!).
I have only rated 3 songs so far as 1 star, "Songs to Make Love To." Now, please don't misunderstand, these are not necessarily just sexy songs. For me, this is a to-do list of songs I want to try out while getting down and dirty.
Here is the short list so far. It's short because I want to hear the song, not just remember it, before I add it to the list:
| Song | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| New Years Prayer | Jeff Buckley | Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk |
| Danger and Heartbreak Dead Ahead | The Marvelettes | Good Morning Vietnam Soundtrack |
| Face to Face | Siouxsie & The Banshees | Twice Upon a Time: The Singles |
There will definitely be more soon.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Rethinking Race and Class - Radio Open Source
Open Source is a radio show on WNYC in NY. They are one of the first NPR type shows to offer up the full show as a free podcast. This is great because no station in my area is getting the show yet, but I get to listen the the show every day on my iPod.
Every Monday until further notice, starting this week, the show will be about Race and Class issues. I've listened to most of the first one already and hope that others will stay awake on this issue well into the future.
A friend of mine and I were recently corresponding about a couple of old, previous entries here on blobBuoy about some other correspondence from way back that I interpreted as Hate. My new friend had an interesting perspective on how some people, and not even minorities necessarily, believe and behave as though they are entitled to certain things--like jobs and shit like that--that these things should just be handed to them. This came up in the debate over whether new people coming to our country should expect the culture here to adapt to them.
The Open Source Podcast I reference below made me think of a couple more things in light of the whole "hand-out" question. They discussed how so many of us (non-minorities) take for granted, and possibly are unaware, that we have only gotten where we each are today because of so many things just given to us. Even those of us who struggled through college have taken loans, scholarships, etc. which would not have been possible without some sort of government subsidy. Those of us who have insurance via a major, national provider are also in this category.
They also mention that at some point after the Civil Rights Movements of the 60's,AmericaAmerican politicians restored the notion of the "rugged" human"myth of the rugged individual". That somehow, we forgot that everyone needs a little help to get somewhere. This reminded me of another friend who suggests that we shouldn't give too much to our children--that they will be better off "living the adventure" of struggle and survival. I thought this was an interesting perspective, but today I find myself feeling that that same perspective is the very reason we have so much poverty in this country.
The privileged in this country believe that they truly worked their way to where they are now, with no help from anybody and that everyone else should be expected to do the same. How easily we forget the advantages we have just for being white. It's like driving, I suppose. It's not a right to be white, it's a privilege.
On class and race and inequality:
Open Source Blog Archive Rethinking Race and Class: "This is not a Hobbesian leviathan brooding over an unruly mob, using force to keep order while making sure the everyone can pursue their lives with a decent degree of security but a mafia lying to one group (genuinely conservative, frightened white Christians) while abusing another (gays, blacks, enemies of one sort or another) all the while stealing everything." --Marcellus Andrews
Every Monday until further notice, starting this week, the show will be about Race and Class issues. I've listened to most of the first one already and hope that others will stay awake on this issue well into the future.
A friend of mine and I were recently corresponding about a couple of old, previous entries here on blobBuoy about some other correspondence from way back that I interpreted as Hate. My new friend had an interesting perspective on how some people, and not even minorities necessarily, believe and behave as though they are entitled to certain things--like jobs and shit like that--that these things should just be handed to them. This came up in the debate over whether new people coming to our country should expect the culture here to adapt to them.
The Open Source Podcast I reference below made me think of a couple more things in light of the whole "hand-out" question. They discussed how so many of us (non-minorities) take for granted, and possibly are unaware, that we have only gotten where we each are today because of so many things just given to us. Even those of us who struggled through college have taken loans, scholarships, etc. which would not have been possible without some sort of government subsidy. Those of us who have insurance via a major, national provider are also in this category.
They also mention that at some point after the Civil Rights Movements of the 60's,
The privileged in this country believe that they truly worked their way to where they are now, with no help from anybody and that everyone else should be expected to do the same. How easily we forget the advantages we have just for being white. It's like driving, I suppose. It's not a right to be white, it's a privilege.
On class and race and inequality:
Open Source Blog Archive Rethinking Race and Class: "This is not a Hobbesian leviathan brooding over an unruly mob, using force to keep order while making sure the everyone can pursue their lives with a decent degree of security but a mafia lying to one group (genuinely conservative, frightened white Christians) while abusing another (gays, blacks, enemies of one sort or another) all the while stealing everything." --Marcellus Andrews
Sunday, September 18, 2005
I'm not the only "shell game" freak. . .Numb3rs episode continued. . .Monty Hall?
Here's some stuff I found supporting the whole Cup and Bean thing I've been debating with people lately:
I checked Wikipedia and there was nothing there on this specifically. I thought it might be an interesting topic to nurture on that site if I could come up with the time. Then I searched for "Monty Hall" on a whim and found there IS indeed something on this on Wikipedia.org. The best stuff yet comes from there in these Venn Diagrams.
Someone at USC did a Science Fair project on this just last April.
Another guy built a simple Java Applet (which is a lot nicer than my little CF app.) and says it's a great way for students to learn about "the ideas of repeated trials as a means for investigating a random phenomena."
Math Dept Home Page: "Let Ci denote the event that the car is at door i, and Hj the event that the host opens door j . Then
P(You win the car if you switch)
= P(H3 C2) + P(H2 C3) = P(C2)P(H3|C2) + P(C3)P(H2|C3) = (1/3)·1+ (1/3)·1 = 2/3
and in similar manner we find that
P(You win the car if you don't switch) = (1/3)·p + (1/3)·(1 - p) = 1/3
where p = P(H2|C1)."
I checked Wikipedia and there was nothing there on this specifically. I thought it might be an interesting topic to nurture on that site if I could come up with the time. Then I searched for "Monty Hall" on a whim and found there IS indeed something on this on Wikipedia.org. The best stuff yet comes from there in these Venn Diagrams.
Someone at USC did a Science Fair project on this just last April.
Another guy built a simple Java Applet (which is a lot nicer than my little CF app.) and says it's a great way for students to learn about "the ideas of repeated trials as a means for investigating a random phenomena."
Math Dept Home Page: "Let Ci denote the event that the car is at door i, and Hj the event that the host opens door j . Then
P(You win the car if you switch)
= P(H3 C2) + P(H2 C3) = P(C2)P(H3|C2) + P(C3)P(H2|C3) = (1/3)·1+ (1/3)·1 = 2/3
and in similar manner we find that
P(You win the car if you don't switch) = (1/3)·p + (1/3)·(1 - p) = 1/3
where p = P(H2|C1)."
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