Author: bmagnus

A Simple Request

I was looking at my calendar, and happened to notice that it’s 2014.

Can we please, for the love of all that is good, stop speculating about the 2016 Presidential Elections?

Seriously. It’s over two years until that particular election day, and two other First-Tuesday-After-The-First-Monday-Of-November election days between now and then. A lot can happen between here and there: scandals with -gate appended to them; game-changing political decisions; world events could impact American politicians; personal issues up to and including death could shorten the list of potential candidates; Kanye West could decide he’d make a better President than all those old white guys and the Godfather’s Pizza dude — that would liven up the debates that will seem interminable two years from now.

Enough already.

In Closing: let’s start off with all the NSA, NSA, Snowden, privacy, and NSA links you can manage; DRM is part of the security problem; just a reminder that if the products the weight loss industry worked, eventually they wouldn’t have any more customers; on minimum wage and working for a living, sort of; wisdom (h/t); um, yes; sure looks nicer than a traditional solar panel!; free things to do in Vegas; addiction; Biblical scholarship; and Quantum Physics for Babies.

A Weighty Subject

Ok, I know it’s February. Those of you that are sticking to your plans to do something towards making yourself healthier this year, good on you.

Somebody accidentally put The Truth in a research article:

The risk of cardiovascular disease death increases exponentially as you increase your consumption of added sugar.

Here’s the abstract; here’s related commentary. Among the findings are that 71% of American adults get more than 10% of their calories from added sugars and about 10% of American adults get 25% of their calories from added sugars — not naturally occurring sugars like you’d find in a wide variety of foods, but added sugar that is only there because somebody put it there. All this sugar “has been linked to the development of high blood pressure, increased triglycerides (blood fats), low HDL (good) cholesterol, fatty liver problems, as well as making insulin less effective in lowering blood sugar.” Further, in the words of one of the authors, “Added sugars do one of two things — they either displace nutritious foods in the diet or add empty calories.”

Now what is that thing I’ve said before? Oh yes: “every weight loss diet that works demands that you sharply limit — if not completely eliminate — added sugars from your diet.”

Gee, do you suppose this could at least partly explain the obesity epidemic?

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only weighty research that’s come out this week. It turns out that many parents don’t see overweight children for what they are! In fact, some of them think their normal weight boys are too skinny! This is actually a “review article“, which means they looked at the results of a whole bunch of other research studies (69 of them, in this case). It doesn’t take yet one more study to show that if Mom and Dad don’t see Junior’s weight as a problem, they aren’t going to do anything about it.

Cut the sugar: don’t even buy candy, cookies, cake, or sugary sodas. Take a realistic look at your kids, and then yourself. Maybe it’s time for more veggies and less of everything else.

In Closing: Affordable Care Act; Plague; your dose of NSA, privacy, spying, Snowden, and related links; Stray Dog Strut; $0.77; I think they like the status quo of cheap exploitable workers who will never be able to vote against them; poverty; and preventing unwanted pregnancy prevents abortions. Who knew!

Indy says….

“It belongs in a museum!”

 

Regrettably not my original picture. Some pics were lost in a server upgrade. It still says “museum model,” trust me.

See, says so right there on the side: “MUSEUM MODEL”.

This little lovely is at the National Atomic Testing Museum. Worth visiting, don’t bring small children, don’t pay extra for the Area 51 exhibit. These are my opinions, your mileage might vary, driver carries no cash.

In Closing: original Porsche electric car; more than one in four American families had trouble paying medical bills in 2012; turns out the safety argument is bogus; your usual assortment of NSA, spying, privacy, terror, blah blah and related links; fox would like job guarding henhouse; still might be worth laying in some extra supplies; “oh, gee, maybe that factory sealed bottle from the duty free store isn’t a flight risk after all”; yeah, I think I’ll skip the “wearable tech,” which is somehow mostly about sex and food. I think the Twitter Bra is the most ridiculous item.

And Happy End of January.

Shorties’ Due

Enjoy some pre-SOTU appetizers.

Keeping an eye on us all: So, here’s the latest links on the NSA, privacy, spying, Snowden, the legality of anything the NSA is up to, and related issues. This just keeps getting messier.

No, the fact that it’s cold outside does not prove that global warming is a hoax: seriously, people.

Check the weather anyway, I think hell froze over: Ben Stein veers away from the party line and says that if the national debt is a problem, higher taxes is the answer.

Stuck in [what’s left of] the middle: on income inequality, the middle class, and related issues.

Afghanistan: I guess there will be no true peace unless everyone agrees to it.

Uh, what?: Some public school in Louisiana thinks that they are a Christian school, apparently. And the sad part is that they will “blame” the non-Christian family for making them teach in accordance with the First Amendment and the Law.

More relevant than he thinks: Religious extremism is dangerous, no matter what the religion is. See also, last two paragraphs.

Same as it ever was: Americans are not happy with their government. However, don’t expect anybody to “vote the bums out” anytime soon.

What, you want accurate facts too??: Rand Paul.

Anti-Abortion and Pro-Life are different things: Amen to that.

Why?: Why, exactly, was personal information about 74,000 on a laptop computer for any reason?

And finally: Budget Bourbon. My current brand of choice is represented, so I may yet try the others.

I know you’re out there somewhere.

I’m talking to the guy who decided to shoot at another motorist at a busy Vegas intersection during rush hour.

What the heck were you thinking? The cops still think it was probably a road rage thing: did he forget to signal? Maybe you were riding his freaking blind spot and he accidentally cut you off?

Maybe you thought you would just scare him. Well, he’ll never be scared again, because you killed him! Worse than that, he had two small children in the back seat. Thankfully, they were not hurt by your bullets — for pity sake, how many shots did you fire?? — nor by the subsequent crash into two other vehicles. That 2 year old boy and 3 year old girl got to watch their Daddy die. Somebody had to explain to their Mommy what had happened.

You gave no care to the fact that your bullets could have killed innocent people.

Those aren’t the only people you hurt that night either.  Thousands of motorists were detoured or otherwise delayed. Businesses were closed, their employees unpaid for hours they couldn’t work. Small sacrifices by comparison, but still.

You, sir, are a disgrace to gun owners. You obviously have anger management issues and no grasp of even the most basic gun safety rules. Asshats like you give ammunition to those who think we need more gun control laws, even though I think it’s a coin-flip whether you have yours legally. I don’t like the fact that people with as little judgement as you are in my community, perhaps even on the same road as me.

I know they’re going to find you. I don’t know where they’re going to find an unbiased jury.

In Closing: full of hot air and bacteria; and their kids pay the price; I’m only linking it because it’s correct; a variety of items on poverty, safety net programs and their impact, income inequality, corporate money stupidity; etc.; some bonus NSA links; they’ve got this backwards — Medicare [for All] can save the Affordable Care Act; everybody wins when kids can learn at their own pace; and the unsung hero of the medical device world.

Quiz Time

As I return to classes, I would like to share an item that got lost in the holiday shuffle: a recent study “showed that giving brief online quizzes at every class meeting in an introductory psychology class boosted student performance.” I have no doubt that this will translate to many other classes.

Allow me to explain some of the obvious reasons this is so. First, by having a graded event every class period, the expectation is set that students must show up every day. You can’t just read on your own, show up for exams, and expect to get a good grade. Showing up in class gives students the chance to hear a different explanation than is in the textbook, the chance to ask questions and hear other questions answered, and additional exposure to sometimes complex subjects.

Second, not only does each student know he or she must show up to class, he or she must show up prepared! It is understood that you’ve got to read and study and make an honest attempt to understand what’s actually been covered so you can do well on that quiz. That’s a different mindset than rolling out of bed and slouching through class.

And finally, it gives the professor valuable feedback on what students understand — while the coverage puts this onus on the student, I feel it’s a two-way street. If the majority of students miss one question, the instructor can and should re-teach the material while it is fresh. A new angle on how to present the topic can be explored. Students then have a fighting chance of understanding the material before finals. In many disciplines, harder concepts rest on top of previously learned ones, so this step is vital towards keeping everyone on track.

So yeah, no surprise that daily quizzes are good for learning outcomes.