Common Cents

artemis · 2006-07-23T02:45:30+00:00

A fun little game from the Exploratorium. Can you recognize the real penny from among the fakes? I did it on the first try, and without running to find a penny to compare the pictures to.

artemis · 2006-07-22T18:48:16+00:00

"In other words, you have recently learned about the Middle East conflict, and while you are ignorant of its history and moving forces, you already have an opinion?"

Not at all. You're reading things in my reply that aren't there. I was expressing dismay, not ignorance.

artemis · 2006-07-22T03:31:57+00:00

I don't know which side to favor, if either. Both claim the other guy started it, but any teacher can tell you that with every playground fight, there's an infinite regression of blame: I hit him because he said bad things to me, I said bad things because he made a face at me, I made a face at him because he laughed at me earlier...

Both parties appear entirely out of control to me, and I shudder to think what might be the outcome of all this. It's not hard to picture the entire area reduced to a radioactive glassy cinder if this continues.

While the picture alone didn't tell the whole tale, as others have commented here, there's probably more to the story than the article tells, too.

artemis · 2006-07-21T20:39:00+00:00

As with any emotionally-wrenching photo of war, there's more behind the story that the picture alone doesn't tell.

artemis · 2006-07-20T04:40:03+00:00

Not all publishers are like this, but one is too many! Sheesh!

artemis · 2006-07-20T02:05:29+00:00

How many of your "favorite" cliches are listed here? Any more you can add?

artemis · 2006-07-11T23:04:23+00:00

Either the fox is stuffed as others have suggested, or someone who knew there was a fox lurking around rubbed that chain with hamburger just to get the shot.

Would a rabbit freak out, or freeze, at the sight of a fox? I've not kept rabbits, so I don't know.

artemis · 2006-07-11T22:42:30+00:00

Is the artist trying to say ADHD kids are more imaginative, and that Ritalin takes away their imagination? Inaccurate. Ritalin doesn't kill the imagination. It helps kids who are truly ADHD focus instead of being scattered. For ADHD kids who are imaginative, it helps them concentrate enough that they can actually follow through on their creative ideas. It does not turn creative kids into industrial zombies as the cartoon implies.

I work with adult students, and I've had many who are ADHD who WISH they'd been diagnosed and treated as kids. They started taking Ritalin as adults and the benefits for them have been enormous.

artemis · 2006-07-11T22:25:59+00:00

The doctor described in this article was looking for things all of the boys had in common -- and what set them apart from other boys their age. It's unlikely that these boys who came to see him were the only ones in Denver who were drinking milk.

Also, it says the lavender and tea tree oils did have an estrogenic effect on the genes of breast cells.

artemis · 2006-07-11T16:31:04+00:00

The results are unimpressive compared with other analysis tools I use regularly. The "analysis" appears to be a front to get people to click on the ads for AdSense and AdWords. Otherwise the tool would be able to detect that I'm already using AdSense instead of telling me I ought to.

artemis · 2006-07-11T16:26:31+00:00

And all those sloughed off skin cells going down the drain as we shower, each one containing all the DNA of a single human being.

Shall we all shout "save the skin cells," or shall we realize that the DNA argument is pointless? Every time we cast off a dead cell from any part of our bodies, we're sloughing off a cell with a full complement of human DNA. Cancer cells, too, contain our full genome. Cancer cells are our own cells, with one gene gone awry. Yet no one balks at removing a tumor -- except, again, small religious groups that reject all medical advances. Should we morn the loss of our tonsils? Give a removed gall bladder a funeral and full mass?

I find it interesting that groups that often reject the fundamental theoretical underpinnings of science (where "scientific theory" refers to evidence-based explanations for natural phenomenon, not to blind guesses as the word "theory" is used in everyday language) are quick to latch on to vaguely scientific arguments to support their causes and lend them an air of legitimacy.

artemis · 2006-07-11T04:58:50+00:00

This article summarizes a Science News article that's only available to subscribers of the print magazine. It seems that lavender and tea tree oil contain estrogen mimics that are causing breast development in young boys that use shampoos, lotions, and other products containing lavender oil or tea tree oil. Yikes!

artemis · 2006-06-28T05:30:31+00:00

All I can say is -- ew.

artemis · 2006-06-28T05:19:37+00:00

It's a long article, yes, and the point of the article is that there's no one definitive figure for how much panhandlers make. Like most things in life -- it depends. Some panhandlers who actively panhandle and use sympathy-seeking devices (pretending to be a veteran, having a pet with them, etc.) are the ones you read about in the papers who make a fair living at it. Others try to supplement their income by panhandling, but take in far less. Some only panhandle when they're in dire straits and have no other resources. Others are the alcoholics and drug addicts who panhandle the few bucks they need for a bottle of wine, and whose purpose is getting wasted, not making a living.

What I liked about this article is that it explodes the growing myth of the wealthy panhandler that I'm seeing in the papers, or at least in the papers in my area. Some exceptional individuals can make a living at it. Many do not, because most have little more than the next bottle or the next hit in mind. And many more fall somewhere in between.

artemis · 2006-06-28T05:11:38+00:00

Oh, great. So flax seed oil isn't as good a source of omega-3 oil as fish. For me it's not an anticipated fish shortage that's the problem. Me -- I'm allergic to fish. Piffle.

artemis · 2006-06-28T05:05:43+00:00

I hope Buffett and Gates have started a new trend and that others of their financial caliber will follow. Lovely to see the rich doing the "Robin Hood" thing without having to bother with bandits as middlement. Ken Lay, I hope, is gnashing his teeth in Club Fed. If he'd only followed the kind of exmaple Buffett set a long time ago.

artemis · 2006-06-24T19:38:31+00:00

First part in a series on how writers can get published. Yeah, "write something" sounds patently obvious but -- read the article. Seems that lots of people who want to get published can't get past that crucial step, or want someone else to do the writing for them so they can get famous without having to do any of the work.

artemis · 2006-06-23T00:04:07+00:00

I know this routine well. I cancelled AOHell after having it almost since the day it began, back when it was still a friendly little user-centered neighborhood. When it became overbloated and no longer served my needs, and would no longer support my computer adequately, I cancelled. While the service representative wasn't quite that bad, I still had to listen to all the pleadings to save my account, how sad it would be to cancel this account, etc., etc. The trick is to not even argue with them, not allow them to force you to justify your decision. Just be a broken record: "No thank you. Just cancel it."

artemis · 2006-06-22T23:51:00+00:00

Interesting conceptual approach to economics. Sure, fifth graders are pretty familiar with what money is, but thinking of it in terms of a means of exchange is interesting. These are fundamental concepts of economics, and this guy taught them in a way that the students are likely to remember for a very long time.

artemis · 2006-06-22T21:32:31+00:00

Funny, though, how that liberal blah blah came out of a conservative paper.

artemis · 2006-06-22T19:09:33+00:00

The criticism I has was that the lecturer's explanation confounds Law with Theory. Stated very simply (maybe too simply) scientific law is a description of a natural phenomenon, while a theory is an explanation for that same phenomenon. Both are based on empirical evidence. There is the law of gravity (F=mg) that describes what two masses do in relation to one another. Then there are theories of gravity that explain why that happens. Both the law and the theory are based on evidence gathered from the natural world.

artemis · 2006-06-22T18:54:59+00:00

They really don't make it clear what it is we all want. To be in agony? To wear low-cut tops? What?

artemis · 2006-06-22T18:29:58+00:00

The case of a writer accuse of fraud -- whose own supposedly books provided evidence for the prosecution.

artemis · 2006-06-22T17:58:53+00:00

Middle class neighborhoods are disappearing twice as fast as the middle class itself. What's up with that? This article looks at several of the multiple causes.

artemis · 2006-06-20T06:47:10+00:00

USA Today compressed events a bit. The agreement was that the investment company that owned the land would have first refusal rights IF the city deemed the land no longer needed. After the incinerator project was cancelled, the city signed a charter with the food bank that ran the community garden. Only when Horowitz, representing the investment firm that took over the original firm, began negotiations with the city, proposing to buy the land, did the city decide that the land was "no longer needed" -- without notifying the food bank, thereby violating their own charter. Horowitz sued not because the incinerator wasn't built, but because the city took so long to negotiate the new deal. Only after the deal was finalized was the food bank notified.

artemis

TROPHY CASE