This morning there was a purple finch on my bird feeder. House sparrows are actually also finches, but they are not magenta, which is a nice color to see first thing in the morning.
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10:45:41 AM,
Tuesday 26 February 2002
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Charlotte-Meck schools are in the news again. They made NPR this morning. The Swann group is appealing the court-ordered resegregation to the Supreme Court, which has not yet decided whether to hear the case. One of the more interesting things in the story is that the school system is now 57% white, 43% minority. They didn't do a breakdown on the minority groups, but I would imagine the recent increase is due to an increased Hispanic population, and not due to any sort of white flight.
The main point of the story was that the new zoned choice system, in which parents can choose any school within their regional zone, is almost forced segregation, because some parents feel that the lines were drawn so that the poor inner city folks would only have a choice of poor inner city schools. This is not just about race, and hasn't been for years. It's also about economic opportunity and economic bias. And it is about "social engineering" and I think that's fine, because as I look at the world around me, a little aquaintance with people of different colors and different economic levels might really improve the folks in power.
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(4)
09:14:49 AM,
Monday 25 February 2002
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It's Program book time. Today, from Descartes' Meditations, the First Meditation, "Concerning Things That Can Be Doubted" (LaFleur translation):
"But how can I be sure but that [God] has brought it to pass that there is no earth, no sky, no extended bodies, no shape, no size, no place, and that nevertheless I have the impressions of all these things and cannot imagine that things might be other than as I now see them? And furthermore, just as I sometimes judge that others are mistaken about those things which they think they know best, how can I be sure but that God has brought it about that I am always mistaken when I add two and three or count the sides of a square, or when I judge of something else even easier, if I can imagine anything easier than that? But perhaps God did not wish me to be deceived in that fashion, since he is said to be supremely good. "
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(14)
11:25:13 PM,
Saturday 23 February 2002
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I bought the Rent soundtrack yesterday. yes, I am a freak. The thing is that the cast members in the touring production were apparently cast to look and sound as much like the original cast as possible. They even nailed what I had thought were some fairly idiosynchratic pronounciation and vocal styles. And of course the costumes are identical. That's all really weird. It reminds me of the "tribute band" phenomenon. I mean I'm probably not going to make it to New York any time soon, so they brought New York to me. But still, it somehow lessens my experience to know I was getting a carbon copy. I had also heard that the play was written for race-blind casting. So why aren't they doing it?
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(1)
08:37:58 AM,
Friday 22 February 2002
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I saw Rent last night. Awesome. The touring production cast was very young, which I think only lends more authenticity to the whole thing. I'm very glad to know that not everything on Broadway is a Lloyd Webber spectacle. Refreshing and fun.
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(3)
12:16:03 PM,
Thursday 21 February 2002
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It got darker as I walked to school this morning. Then the rain started. Now I just want to go home and read trashy mystery novels.
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(5)
10:52:29 AM,
Wednesday 20 February 2002
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The birds have found my birdfeeder, which has been up since November, I think. So far, it just seems to be the same pair of House Sparrows, which are of course an invasive exotic species from England. But hey, it's nature.
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(6)
12:51:21 PM,
Tuesday 19 February 2002
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The Ford Exorbitant
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(6)
12:31:47 PM,
Monday 18 February 2002
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Had a good trip to Decatur and Atlanta yesterday. Remi couldn't go (he was sleeping the sleep of comic exhaustion) and so I took Abbey the undergrad. She is very cool. She liked Remi's mix tapes, which is one of my main criteria for good people. We went to Buckhead, which is a very ritzy place with very nasty streams. If I were very rich and lived in Atlanta (not that either of those is ever going to happen), I would live in Druid Hills, where the streams aren't so bad.
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(3)
09:05:23 AM,
Monday 18 February 2002
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Been wondering how to serve your country yet not go to war? Like weather? Like oceans? How about joining the smallest of our seven uniformed services?
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(3)
02:51:28 PM,
Saturday 16 February 2002
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The opening scene of Cecil B. Demented so completely illustrates the fantasies of movie theater employees.
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(14)
10:57:19 PM,
Friday 15 February 2002
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Not doing work. Nope nope nope. Heard from my friend Dave, who's in grad school at Utah State. He works at an ice rink where a bunch of Olympic figure skaters and hockey teams are practicing. Everybody is cooler than me.
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(3)
10:47:27 AM,
Wednesday 13 February 2002
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There are days when I think that theoretical ecology would be so much less trouble than applied. The logistics of computer models and similations are pretty easy, especially compared to the sheer infuriation of site selection and experiment design.
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(2)
01:16:46 PM,
Tuesday 12 February 2002
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So instead of meeting with my advisor yesterday I went to an entomology seminar on forensic entomology. As in using bugs in criminal investigations. As in maggots, blow flies, and carrion beetles. It was a bit much. But interesting. And I do like mystery novels.
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(11)
08:40:10 AM,
Tuesday 12 February 2002
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My advisor has jury duty. That, my friends, is what we call luck. Witness my celebration at her misfortune...er...my joy in the workings of our justice system.
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(4)
10:07:54 AM,
Monday 11 February 2002
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After the Great Rollerball Disaster, I got Remi to watch Bamboozled with me last night. An absolutely brilliant film. Watch this only with people who will not judge you because you will laugh at some of the minstrel show and you will feel guilty immediately afterwards. The final, caustic statements on the state of African-Americans in the entertainment industry remind us that Spike Lee doesn't need to manufacture messages, that they are present in every movie we see, that we need more Spike Lees to get us out of the pit of mediocrity. This is accentuated by the excellent leading performance of Damon Wayans, who, along with his brothers, should probably be held at least partially responsible for the status quo (see Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2 among many others).
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(2)
10:43:43 AM,
Sunday 10 February 2002
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Bible criticized by Harry Potter fans for messing with kids' minds.
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(4)
01:10:41 PM,
Thursday 7 February 2002
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We saw Birthday Girl over the weekend. I'm more convinced than ever that Nicole Kidman is good, if for no reason other than I, who can rarely recognize actors, can recognize her.
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(7)
11:52:37 AM,
Thursday 7 February 2002
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2 more degrees and we would have ice. Very sad.
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(5)
08:56:07 AM,
Wednesday 6 February 2002
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The Official Wedding Announcement is now online. Go thither, and make your true congratulations there!
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08:17:01 AM,
Monday 4 February 2002
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Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes little boxes
Little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one
and a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in little boxes
And the came out all the same
And there's doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in little boxes
And they come out just the same
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
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(13)
08:51:23 AM,
Sunday 3 February 2002
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Michael Moore is my hero. "President" Bush is going down.
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(18)
09:19:16 AM,
Saturday 2 February 2002
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I used to be surrounded by others in the midst of cohabitation. But Lizzie and Andrew are married. And Laura and Dan got married a long time ago (not that I'm implying Laura and Dan ever lived together before marriage). And now Mike and Debbie...
Anyway, congratulations!
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(14)
12:02:06 PM,
Thursday 31 January 2002
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In 1990, Huntersville had 5,000 people. In 2000, it had 25,000. It's not that I can't go home again, it's just that when I get in the general vicinity it's easy to get lost.
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(12)
08:30:14 AM,
Thursday 31 January 2002
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"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
George W. Bush, Saginaw, MI, Sept. 29, 2000
Let's roll.
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(8)
12:22:45 PM,
Wednesday 30 January 2002
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I haven't written because there hasn't been a way to say the things I'm thinking.
Hug the people you love and tell them they mean the world to you and hope that they understand.
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(9)
09:23:39 AM,
Monday 28 January 2002
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Welcome to why the church has died
In the heart of the exile, the kingdom of faith
Who holds the land and keeps the commands
And marries itself to the state.
Modern scribes write in Jesus Christ everyone is free
But the doors open wide to all straight men and women
But they are not open to me
Who is teaching kids to be soldiers
To be marked by a plain white cross
And we kill just a little to save a lot more
The philosophy of loss
There are a few who would be true
Out of love, but love is hard
But don't think that our hands haven't shoveled the dirt
Over Central American graveyards
Doctors and witch-hunters stripped you bare
Left you nothing for your earthly sins
But who made this noise just a bunch of boys
And the one with the most toys wins
Who is teaching kids to be gamblers
Life is a coin toss
And of course what you give up is what you gain
The philosophy of loss
Whatever happens to anyone else
Can happen to you and to me
And the end of my youth was the possible truth
That it all happens randomly
Who is teaching kids to be leaders
And the way that it is is meant to be
The philosophy of loss
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(6)
08:41:10 AM,
Thursday 24 January 2002
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Of the six people in my office, four of us have fathers who are engineers and a fifth has a bachelor's in engineering. This says something, but I'm not sure what.
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(3)
10:31:05 PM,
Wednesday 23 January 2002
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Who is that on the back of The College?
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(4)
04:11:51 PM,
Wednesday 23 January 2002
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There is a horse farm in the middle of Decatur. In the middle of my (supposedly) urban watershed. That makes me sad.
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(8)
03:06:23 PM,
Tuesday 22 January 2002
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This morning I copied EndNote, a nifty bibliographic database program, from our office computer. I spent the day entering citations for articles I've copied. Not only is it searchable, it will download citations from the online databases (Web of Science, Oxford, BIOSIS, etc). The really cool thing is that it works with MSWord to make bibliographies. Let's say I wanted to reference the River Continuum Concept (the most referenced paper in aquatics right now). I would just type (Vannote, 1990) in word and EndNote would enter the entire citation into the bibliography at the end of the paper. That, friends, is what we call useful.
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(5)
03:17:07 PM,
Monday 21 January 2002
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Ever since I first read Harry Potter I've been remembering a series of books I read as a kid. All I remembered was that they were all set in a slightly different reality with witchcraft and magic. In one, witchcraft was illegal and the kids were at a home for the children of witches where they were supposed to be broken of their tendencies. So, today I finally tried doing a search on Amazon for children's books 9-12, keyword "witch" and I think I found them.
Does anybody know about Diana Wynne Jones? There's nothing here about original publication dates, but my books must have been from the early '80s, if not the '70's. I got them from the library and they weren't in great shape then. Possibly they've been rereleased because of Harry Potter? I may end up making a trip to Borders to check them out.
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(4)
04:11:31 PM,
Saturday 19 January 2002
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In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman he discusses what he calls "Cargo Cult Science", which is his nickname for pseudoscience. His explanation of what is missing in pseudoscience, and I think it holds true for many other disciplines, but is absolutely essential in science.
"It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty--a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid--not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked--to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated...
In summary, the idea is to try to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgement in one particular direction or another."
My point is, in particular, one doesn't do this is philosophy (e.g. any given seminar reading). And that's fine, because philosophy is not science. But, if one is used to philosophical presentation, and then only hears about a scientific idea, he may not realize that scientific theories are not presented in the same way as philosophy, nor are scientific theories accepted as readily as philosophical ones are accepted. (I love Aristotle. You go! I love my personal pet theory. Well, why?) Nor can they be dismissed as easily. (I think Hume is wrong. Poof, that's great. I think evolution is wrong. Well, why?)
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(10)
09:32:42 AM,
Saturday 19 January 2002
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Does it make me special that I, and a bunch of other Johnnies, once tried to have a rational discussion with the new chair of Bush's bioethics committee and he was a jerk and unable to remain rational?
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(9)
08:24:56 AM,
Friday 18 January 2002
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Finally started back with the Athens Choral Society Tuesday night. It rules. It's amazing how much easier the new music is than Elijah. After the fiasco with the Orchestra on Elijah, I was very amused to see that Thompson's Peaceable Kingdom is a capella.
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(15)
12:24:38 PM,
Thursday 17 January 2002
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The undergrads have temporarily vacated the mac lab. I discovered yesterday that the printers rarely work in the pc lab, and none of the pc people really seem disturbed by this. They're so used to computers not working right, they don't even complain about it anymore.
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(1)
11:14:15 AM,
Tuesday 15 January 2002
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