May 16th, 2009
April 13th, 2009
This is too awesome and bizarre not to share…
Too bad there are no pictures. This picture is NOT Juliot-Curie or her husband:
But this might be what jujitsu practitioners might have worn around that time…
Interesting fact:
Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education, earned a PhD in engineering at the Sorbonne, where Marie Curie was one of his teachers. He was also an assistant in Frederic Joliot’s laboratory. Frederic and Marie Joliot-Curie trained in judo under Feldenkrais.
April 6th, 2009
March 27th, 2009
Packages I Hate
I have no hand/finger disabilities. I am under 70. Yet, I continually struggle with the packages listed below. Is it just me? Or are these things designed by people with freakishly strong, agile, and nimble hands? Or, maybe they are designed by Edward Scissor-hands?
Here are the worst offenders, in no particular order.
1) Containers with plastic seals on the outside.
These include salad containers and their ilk:
The containers themselves are fine. What bothers me is the plastic seal that they usually have around the edges of the lid. Nearly impossible to break without a knife, pair of scissors, or other such implement.
Contact solution and others of this variety:
See above. Nearly impossible to rip of without scissors; nearly impossible to remove with scissors/knife unless they are tiny. Annoying as hell when you already have your contacts removed, in their case, waiting for their saline bath.
2) Containers with inner seals:
Sabra hummus comes with a plastic seal inside the container, but the attached tab to pull it off isn’t strong enough. So you break the tab, and then are forced to dig in with a knife.
Of a similar genre,
Yogurt containers and similar plastic containers with a tinfoil seal. Often very sticky. The tab often rips off.
3) Of course, childproof containers that are also adultproof:
Variations include:
Mouthwash. You have to squeeze the lid together, then twist.
Pill containers. Also annoying.The lining up part, I get, the snapping off part can be hard.
4) Sticky cardboard packages. I think they use crazy glue.
Easy to use, not easy to open. Trust me.
And finally, the piece de resistance,
5) Plastic packages from hell
And this variation, the sticky-as-hell cardboard container:
March 5th, 2009
Favorite Index Entries
From my forthcoming book:
Most random entries:
draftees, malnourished, 103
menstruation, and social functioning, 32–33
Best Names:
Munk, Ardis, 82
Patrinos, Aristedes, 134
Longest entries:
Manhattan Project: calculation methods in, 82; competition in, 72; efficiency in, 79; ethical concerns in, 72, 73, 78; gendered culture of, 74–78; genres of, 130, 134; government funding for, 95; hierarchical culture of, 89, 134; influence on scientific research, 72; institutional values of, 11–12, 84, 88; intensive ethos of, 72, 73; male culture of, 131; Marshall’s role in, 73, 75–76, 78–87, 130; organizational culture of, 73, 76, 94; participating institutions, 74–75, 140n2; petition from scientists of, 95; plutonium production in, 74, 78–79, 80–81, 83–84, 96; productivity of, 72, 82; as research metaphor, 72; risk assessment in, 78–97; Roosevelt and, 76, 77; safety hazards in, 72, 73, 78–94, 96–97; secrecy in, 76, 77–78; staff of, 71; technical rationality in, 73, 80, 81, 82, 86–87, 89, 94, 95, 96; technical reports of, 8, 73, 95, 98, 130; urgency in, 11, 71, 75–80, 87, 95, 96, 98; view of nature, 131; Way’s role in, 73, 76, 87–94, 130; women physicists of, 2, 8, 9, 11–12, 73–98
Roberts, Lydia J., 12, 131; academic career of, 101, 102; chairmanship of Committee on Dietary Allowances, 104, 105; democratic approach of, 100, 104, 106–9, 110–11, 122, 124; family support for, 132; feminine style of, 106; NAS service of, 100; NRC membership of, 102; promotion of RDAs, 109–11; publications of, 101–2; publicizing of RDAs, 111–12; rhetorical resources of, 100, 104, 111, 113, 125; role in RDAs, 99–100, 102, 104–14, 131–32, 143n9; scientific persona of, 106, 107–8; use of discourse of expertise, 100, 104. Works: “Improvement of the Nutritional Status of American People,” 113; Nutrition Work with Children, 102; “Scientific Basis for the Recommended Dietary Allowances,” 109, 110; “Usefulness and Validity of the Recommended Dietary Allowances,” 109, 110, 111
Tsuchiyama, Tamie, 11, 45–55, 131; allegiance to U. S., 54–55, 68; background of, 45–46; career of, 69; confiscation of notes from, 55; correspondence with Thomas, 40, 44, 45, 55, 66, 68, 69; departure from JERS study, 68, 69; diary of, 55; dissatisfaction with JERS study, 47; field notes of, 52; field reports of, 46–54; Gila visit of, 63; inexperience with fieldwork, 55; informants of, 48, 49, 51; and Nishimoto, 46, 50, 68, 132; at Poston camp, 45, 46, 47, 51, 53–54; racialized identity of, 51; relationship with Thomas, 68, 69; research conditions for, 44; and rhetoric of objectivity, 42; on segregationists, 68; subjectivity of, 41, 55, 66, 68, 70; use of temporal distance, 47–51, 53, 55, 59, 63. Reports: The Beating of S____ K____, 48; Chronological Account of the Poston Strike, 48–49, 50–51; History of the Central Executive Committee, 51; Notes on Selective Service Registration, 49–50, 54
February 26th, 2009
Those years of being totally uncool have paid off
i.e., not going to parties, concerts, clubs, etc and instead staying home and coloring pictures of hockey players.
Created by Train Horn
Also, it is a good thing that I have the hearing of a 25-year-old because I have the sight of a 72-year-old.
October 2nd, 2008
Just so we’re clear…
From the venerable OED: Maverick. A. n. 1. N. Amer. An unbranded calf or yearling.
September 27th, 2008
McCain’s Debate Strategy Notes
- Begin every other answer with “Senator Obama doesn’t understand that…” Examples:
- ”I — I don’t think that Senator Obama understands that there was a failed state in Pakistan when Musharraf came to power.”
- “What Senator Obama doesn’t seem to understand that if without precondition you sit down across the table from someone who has called Israel a “stinking corpse,” and wants to destroy that country and wipe it off the map, you legitimize those comments.” (see enthymemes below)
- “He doesn’t understand that Russia committed serious aggression against Georgia. And Russia has now become a nation fueled by petro-dollars that is basically a KGB apparatchik-run government.
The implication is that if someone doesn’t agree with you, it is because they are stupid.
2. Take whatever steps necessary to show that you can pronounc Ahmadinejad correctly, even if it means trying three times:
“Here is Ahmadinenene (ph), Ahmadinejad, who is, Ahmadinejad, who is now in New York, talking about the extermination of the State of Israel, of wiping Israel off the map, and we’re going to sit down, without precondition, across the table, to legitimize and give a propaganda platform to a person that is espousing the extermination of the state of Israel, and therefore then giving them more credence in the world arena and therefore saying, they’ve probably been doing the right thing, because you will sit down across the table from them and that will legitimize their illegal behavior.”
3. Use enthymemes with questionable premises. Because who is smart enough to wonder about the connecting premises?
Example: ”we’re going to sit down, without precondition, across the table, to legitimize and give a propaganda platform to a person that is espousing the extermination of the state of Israel, and therefore then giving them more credence in the world arena and therefore saying, they’ve probably been doing the right thing, because you will sit down across the table from them and that will legitimize their illegal behavior.”
Missing premise: If you talk to someone, you condone and legitimize their opinions.
So, by extension, we should just not talk to people with whom we disagree, because that would be legitimizing their opinions.
And if someone disagrees with you, it is because they are naive/stupid/crazy anyway.
So there’s really no purpose or reason for persuasion in McCain’s world, is there?
September 16th, 2008
I don’t get it
What What message is this poster sending? Palin is a Westinghouse war worker from World War II? She’s Rosie the Riveter?
It’s a total non sequitor, which we know thanks to this article: Kimble, James J., and Lester C. Olson. “Visual Rhetoric Representing Rosie the Riveter: Myth and Misconception in J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It!” Poster.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9.4 (2006): 533-69. Kimble and Olson conclude that the feminist message of this poster was limited in WWII; it was basically produced for internal use at Westinghouse alongside many more posters that depicted women in traditionally feminine wartime roles.
On second thought, the comparison may be more apt than I thought.In World War II, women were encouraged to apply their domestic skills to the technical workplace with such jinglas as this one from the Women’s Bureau bulletin, “What Job Is Mine on the Victory Line”?
If you’ve sewed on buttons, or made buttonholes, on a machine
You can learn to do spot welding on airplane parts.
If you’ve used an electric mixer in your kitchen,
You can learn to run a drill press.
If you’ve followed recipes exactly in making cake,
You can learn to load shells.
Maybe this poster is implying something similar:
If you’ve been a beauty pageant winner,
You can learn to give speeches in front of millions.
If you’ve slaughtered and dressed a moose,
You can learn to lead our country in battle.
If you’ve been mayor of a small town,
You can learn to be vice president of the nation.
September 11th, 2008
More Comedy
Today, someone came across this blog by searching for “i love bacon underwear.”
Perhaps there is an untapped niche market for bacon related merchandise–propaganda posters, underwear, who knows what else. I’ll get right on that.
