After a long, long day away from home, I got here to discover more daffodils in bloom. Finally. I could have kissed them. Even the old daffodils are starting to bloom.
Daily Archives: March 24, 2010
Heh
Quick Things
1. Two sets of mice, both given the same number of calories a day. The HFCS mice ended up outweighing the sugar mice. It’ll be interesting to see if this plays out in further tests.
2. The teapartiers are upset at what went down on the Hill here in Nashville, in part, because they don’t understand how state government works. I wanted to find this funny, but I honestly can’t. I mean, hell yes, I believe that a portion of the teapartiers are motivated by racism. But here’s another part who are motivated by anger and frustration with a system they don’t really know anything about. And, let’s face it, it is pretty terrifying and enraging to feel like you’re being pushed around by forces you can’t control and barely understand.
And I have a lot of sympathy for the frustration of finding that you’ve come clear to Nashville to support something only to discover that you need to come back next week. Because, really, who can just come back next week?
I’ve had folks pull that crap on me. “I don’t see you on the Hill.” “Why don’t you call instead of blog?” blah blah blah. It’s like, because I work, motherfuckers. And I work in town. Logistically, it’s a lot easier for me than it is for most folks in the state to get time off.
And there’s always this shit. Don’t be so angry. Do it this way. Don’t do it that way. No, you have to wait. Again, blah, blah, blah.
And if you don’t do those things, somehow you’ve proven yourself unworthy of being heard.
Don’t get me wrong, I think these bozos are wrong. But I know their frustration, of feeling like you’re being shafted because you don’t know how things work. Feeling like they use the unspoken rules of decorum to make sure you remain on the outside.
3. When watching the health care vote, I was struck by the rhetoric of “you cannot intrude into my private relationship with my doctor” and then the “but this bill will kill babies” nonsense. And I realized, they don’t want to be treated how they demand women be treated. Kind of blew my mind to see it so blatant. That’s one of the things at the heart of this–they don’t want to be treated like women.
Hmm.
Cute Baby Story
Last night, I went over to chat with my neighbors and flirt with their cute baby, since they were all outside having dinner. The baby was sitting in one of those newfangled plastic seats that lets floppy babies sit upright. And she was just watching everything with her great big anime eyes. And their dog, Leo, kept bringing her his toys! Like, “Come on, baby! Play with me.” while her parents were worrying that he was going to hit her in the head with his rope. He did not, of course, but it just tickled me how much he wanted her to play.
It was darling.
Sasquatch Jesus
Okay, I’m sorry to have to link to Got Medieval two days in a row, but either I find medieval references to Bigfoot irresistible or he’s just on fire lately. You probably saw in the news yesterday how these scholars have discovered that we’re fat because Jesus eats progressively more over the years at the Last Supper? (Yes, I know that sentence makes no sense, but roll with it.)
Well, the whole post is a genius explanation of why this is problematic, to say the least, having to do with whether artists all used perspective or why certain things are bigger in certain pictures than others.
But get this:
Where to begin? Perhaps with the claim that the authors studied “52 of the best-known paintings of the Last Supper”. By “52 of the best known,” they mean that they consulted one book, Last Supper, put out by Phaidon Press. And that’s it. Just the one book. And it’s not a particularly rigorous treatment of the Last Supper, either, more or less just a coffee table book, the sort you’d find marked down on the big random rack at the front of the Barnes and Noble, sandwiched between Dragonology and the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of the complete collected Garfield. It’s like they literally grabbed the first book on the Last Supper they saw and decided to end their research there.
People, this study is going to be published in The International Journal of Obesity, yes a journal is going to publish this, and they looked at one book.
Is The International Journal of Obesity peer-reviewed? I mean, how would you even review that? “Yes, these two seem to have a good grasp of the one book they read.”? They read and wrote a journal article based on one book and they get to put that on their c.v.s?
I have been in the homes of many people writing their dissertations or book manuscripts. I have been in their offices and, on occasion, I’ve had to go to the library for them. I feel like I should tell them, some of whom are you, that now may be the time to switch your focus to obesity studies. The work seems much easier than what y’all have been up to.
Tiny Cat Pants 