prod & ponder

New stamps!

A couple nice examples:

From the December British Medical Journal.

Published 17 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2825
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2825

Research
Christmas 2008: Music
Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass

Declan Patton, research assistant, Andrew McIntosh, associate professor

1 School of Risk and Safety Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 2052

Objective To investigate the risks of mild traumatic brain injury and neck injury associated with head banging, a popular dance form accompanying heavy metal music.
Design Observational studies, focus group, and biomechanical analysis.

Participants Head bangers.

Main outcome measures Head Injury Criterion and Neck Injury Criterion were derived for head banging styles and both popular heavy metal songs and easy listening music controls.

Results An average head banging song has a tempo of about 146 beats per minute, which is predicted to cause mild head injury when the range of motion is greater than 75°. At higher tempos and greater ranges of motion there is a risk of neck injury.

Conclusion To minimise the risk of head and neck injury, head bangers should decrease their range of head and neck motion, head bang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult oriented rock, only head bang to every second beat, or use personal protective equipment.

Perhaps the perfect blog: here (NSFW)

From a recent comment thread on Facebook…

The Presidential Inaugural Committee has, in the spirit of transparency, posted a summary of all the donations (>$200) at the PIC website.

I did a quick back-of-the-napkin sum of the state totals (i.e. warning: there may very well be errors here) and came up with this:

Nothing jumped out as shocking. California and New York are both big sources for political money, and Obama has built a strong base of support in Illinois. Alaska has given squat.

Some celebs in the mix: Halle Berry, Samuel Jackson, Robert Zemeckis, Jamie Foxx, Berry Gordy, Jamie Curtis, Christopher Guest, and Sharon Stone.

Personally, I appreciate seeing a shift at the outset toward a culture of transparency in governance.

Apparently if ImaginaryGirl became queen of cyberworld for the day, this is the avatar she would have represent me:

When writing to apply to a graduate program, do not use “u” to abbreviate “you” and “ur” to abbreviate “your.” I know, it seems obvious. And yet…
(Yes, really.)

Also, does anything seem vague or flexible about this deadline, given at the start of the semester:

“You are required to complete your internship hours and submit (1) your internship paper, (2) the log of your internship hours, and (3) your evaluation form by December 5th, 2008.

The internship course is only offered pass/fail, and incomplete is not an option, so I want to be sure you’re aware of the consequences of missing the December 5 deadline: students who do not complete their internship hours and submit the required material by December 5 will receive a failing grade for the course.”

I ask, because just a day or two before the deadline approached, several students mentioned their plan to miss the deadline and be granted an extension as if it were no big deal.

I love teaching and respect and appreciate my students, but sometimes the antics get to be a bit much.