Diss Update

The good news is that the most recent (and hopefully near final, or final but for defense) draft of the diss is done and goes to most of the committee by tomorrow. The downside, one member is overseas which delays the process. But, that's why we figured an extra month in to be on the safe side.

In other news, plans for a celebratory Ireland trip in May continue, probably with a stopover in London for a day or two depending on cost.

Feline Worship

A little worship of the felines (a.k.a. new cat pics):

Academic Journal

I forgot to mention the other day that a colleague who has started up a new academic journal (LATCH, see sidebar links) has asked me to join the editorial board. Basically, the journal publishes work in any branch of literature. The first issue should be out sometime in Fall 2008, according to the head editors. With any luck, it will catch on and acquire a good reputation.

No Noose is Good Noose

Ok, bad Mel Brooks puns aside . . .

Not a whole lot of new stuff here. My intent to graduate paperwork was filed today. Now I just have to convince my committee that I'm ready to graduate. :) On the other hand, classes started up again on the 14th and they're shaping up to be interesting. My second Writing II course has already taken the record for Most Turnover in Week One with eight students dropping and eight students adding. I'm certain that's the highest I've had in 5.5 years, and we've only hit the second day of that class.

The Great Books course looks interesting. Three students I already know and during the first day I identified the class smartarse, so that's four students to the positive side.

Work on the sci-fi setting I started months ago continues apace. I've hit 52-53 pages handwritten (probably 70-100 typed) and have at least 24 to go before stage one is more or less complete. Fantasy writing's been put on the back burner as I haven't really been "into" working on the second city in the setting. Maybe I'll go back and start up a story or two in the first city and see what happens. But that'll have to wait until the most recent diss draft is in the committee's collective hands.

Reading has been necessarily limited due to class prep. So the last couple things have been: Karen Traviss' Star Wars books (two at least - Republic Commando: Hard Contact and Triple Zero); C. J. Cherryh's latest Foreigner book (Deliverer); Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. Virgil's Aeneid and the anonymous Beowulf are next on the list, but those are teaching related. I'm not sure what the next fun book will be.

Anyway, Traviss' books were fun reads. They are fast paced, well written, and entertaining. On the downside, I think she thinks her readers are dumber than they are. For example, in both books she has explanations of certain acronyms and the second book includes a glossary of terms. Unfortunately, nearly all the entries are common sci-fi terms or acronyms. Or they're commonly known "military" acronyms like ETA or SOP.

Cherryh's book lived up to expectations. As the ninth book in the series, she managed to maintain the pace of the other eight books as well as Bren's knowledgeable, yet still incomplete, understanding of the atevi (including the one he's sleeping with). I'd say it's an excellent conclusion to the series, but I think she's left enough open for at least a book ten, if not a fourth trilogy.

Oh, and I finally checked out TMBG's latest album, The Else. After one listen, I don't think it's up to their usual standard, but I'm more than willing to give them a few more listens before deciding definitively. That said, "The Mesopotamians" is absolutely hilarious and catchy.

Polls: Fact, Fiction, and Accuracy

The current presidential primaries in the U.S. have gotten me thinking about polls and their accuracy. Liberals like to cite polls showing various things, from citizens' support for the fiasco in Iraq to support for gay marriage or legal abortion. Conservatives like to cite polls showing support for teaching the oxymoron that is "creation science" or whatnot. Everyone claimed an upset when the polls showed Obama easily winning New Hampshire's primary with Clinton second, then the two of them tying in terms of delegates (sure, she won in popular vote, but not by enough to lead in delegates).

So, how accurate are polls?

Apparently not too accurate, no matter what the polling companies want us to think.

The founder/owner of Zogby's told John Stewart last night that his company, and presumably most of the others, only get responses from 850-900 people. In the case of New Hampshire, that's 0.0683% of the population, not even one-tenth of one percent. That's hardly a representative sample.

As I tell my students everytime they consider using statistics:

1) See who conducted the poll/study. (Are they reliable?)

2) See who funded the poll/study (if possible). (Where's the bias coming from? Most polls and studies, especially those conducted by universities, need outside funding.)

3) What criteria did the study/poll use?

4) Where was the poll/study conducted? (Obviously polling in NYC is going to get different results than polling in El Paso, TX.)

5) When was the poll/study conducted? (Different times of day and months can skew results.)

6) How many people responded? (This, obviously, determines whether there's a representative sample of the populace.)

7) Is there a breakdown of who responded? (In other words, were they predominantly women, men, liberals, conservatives, Christians, Buddhists, auto workers, carpenters, CEOs, etc. since this can, obviously, skew results.)

Unfortunately, far too many people, both liberal and conservative, don't bother to dig into the background of the polls/studies they cite. Or they look into such information but don't present it because that might hurt their cause.

Using the above examples, I could poll 1000 people in the middle of the Bible Belt or southern Ohio regarding whether creationism should be taught in schools. I'd bet the results would be overwhelming in favor. On the other hand, the same poll conducted in NYC, Los Angeles, or Berkeley, CA will probably be skewed the other way. Obviously, a conservative politician citing poll results to get creation into school science classes would happily cite the Bible Belt/S. Ohio poll, but refrain from mentioning where it was conducted. However, both polls would be inaccurate, if they were used to make claims about the American people as a whole, since they are limited in area and only cover 0.0033% of the U.S. populace.

National Academy of Sciences and Evolution

It's very sad that the National Academy of Sciences has to actually state this, given that it should be blatantly obvious:

Academy stresses evolution's importance
By Will Dunham Fri Jan 4, 9:08 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Academy of Sciences on Thursday issued a spirited defense of evolution as the bedrock principle of modern biology, arguing that it, not creationism, must be taught in public school science classes.

The academy, which operates under a mandate from Congress to advise the government on science and technology matters, issued the report at a time when the theory of evolution, first offered in the 19th century, faces renewed attack by some religious conservatives.

Creationism, based on the explanation offered in the Bible, and the related idea of "intelligent design" are not science and, as such, should not be taught in public school science classrooms, according to the report.

"We seem to have continuing challenges to the teaching of evolution in schools. That's something that doesn't seem to go away," Barbara Schaal, an evolutionary biologist at Washington University in St. Louis and vice president of National Academy of Sciences, said in a telephone interview.

"We need a citizenry that's trained in real science."

Evolution is a theory explaining change in living organisms over the eons due to genetic mutations. For example, it holds that humans evolved from earlier forms of apes.

The report stated that the idea of evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. "Science and religion are different ways of understanding the world. Needlessly placing them in opposition reduces the potential of each to contribute to a better future," said the report.

But teaching creationist ideas in science classes confuses students about what constitutes science and what does not, according to the report's authors.

The report was released by the academy and the Institute of Medicine, which advises policymakers on medical issues. It updates academy publications issued in 1984 and 1999. It was written by a committee headed by University of California-Irvine biology professor Francisco Ayala.

"Biological evolution is one of the most important ideas of modern science. Evolution is supported by abundant evidence from many different fields of scientific investigation. It underlies the modern biological sciences, including the biomedical sciences, and has applications in many other scientific and engineering disciplines," the report stated.

The authors highlighted developments in evolutionary biology, citing its importance in understanding emerging infectious diseases. They noted the discovery, published in 2006, of the remains of a Tiktaalik, a creature described as an evolutionary link between fish and the first vertebrate animals that walked out of water onto land 375 million years ago.

President George W. Bush said in 2005 American students should be instructed about "intelligent design" alongside evolution as competing theories. "Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said.

Advocates of "intelligent design" contend that some biological structures are so complex they could not have appeared merely through natural processes.

A judge in Dover, Pennsylvania ruled in 2005 that the teaching of intelligent design violated the U.S. Constitution, which requires a separation of church and state, because it is based on religious conviction, not science.

A 2006 Gallup poll showed that almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen)

More Stupidity

And yet more stupidity from the religious reich/moral minority. (Apparently we're supposed to teach our kids that what happens to their bodies during puberty is bad, but stealing is perfectly fine.)


Perfectly Normal Protester Pleads Not Guilty

JoAn Karkos, who checked It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health by Robie H. Harris out from the public libraries in Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, and refused to return them in September, pleaded not guilty to a civil charge of failing to return library property December 19. Her trial was set for May 28, 2008, the Lewiston Sun Journal reported December 20.

Her appearance in court came the week after Lewiston police decided not to pursue an obscenity complaint Karkos filed November 19 against Lewiston Public Library for carrying the sex-education book. “The determination that we made was that having those books available does not violate city ordinances,” police Sergeant David Chick said in the December 11 Sun Journal. Lewiston’s obscenity ordinance covers materials with a “shameful or morbid interest in sex,” and the police found that the book’s educational aims put it outside the ordinance’s reach.

“I don’t view this as obscene material in the least,” said library Director Rick Speer. “I thought of it as a waste of the police’s time and of ours, and that’s just been ridiculous.”

Posted December 21, 2007.
from: ALA Website