On the heels of the Hanukah meme, here’s the Christmas meme, as seen at Musings of a Distractable Mind:
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Holiday meme the first: Hanukah.
On a post where I mentioned the eight-nights’-worth-of-gifts challenge, Liz left a comment that kind of tagged me with Flea’s Hanukah meme.
Since the Free-Ride household celebrates both Hanukah and Christmas, the Christmas meme will be up next.
Hold onto your kippah — here we go!
The busy blogger’s year in review.
David posted his holiday letter, but I didn’t feel up to composing one of those. So instead, I’m going to do this “year in review” meme I saw at Geeky Mom’s pad. (She got it from Trillwing.)
The rule: post the first sentence of the first post for each month.*
Brain-Friendly Giftables, part 4: Measuring devices.
Brains enjoy getting information about the world around them. Although our sense organs do a pretty good job of keeping the data flowing to the brain, the occasional sense-organ-extending measuring device can add a whole new set of experiences for our brains to chew on.
We wrap up the brain-friendly giftables list with a selection of measuring devices. A (lab) notebook or sketch pad would make a fine accompaniment to any of these.
Bush administration’s State Department thinks it’s A-OK for Libya to execute innocent health care providers.
Only a few days out from the 19 December verdict in the Tripoli 6 case, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that the Bush administration honestly couldn’t be bothered that Libya shows every sign of being ready to execute foreign healthcare workers who the scientific evidence indicates did not commit the crime with which they have been charged. Otherwise, you’d figure that the State Department spokesman, once questioned about the case, would bother to do his homework and figure out at least the bare facts of the situation. He did not.
So the lives of healthcare workers who went to Libya to help Libyans are dispensible? If saving them from an unjust sentence scores no political points, it’s not worth even considering? May I suggest, then, that the president’s draping himself in the mantle of the “culture of life” is so ironic that it may be raising the president’s risk of heart attack.
Absolutely appalling.
Revere has more.
Gender profiling at the wine bar.
Razib tossed off a post expressing amazement that a very attractive wine bar hostess was making science fiction recommendations. The noteworthy feature, apparently, was “the intersection of science fiction & female physical hotitude.”
Predictably, others have commented on this post, worrying about the casual profiling of hot chicks as not into S/F, or perhaps of women who are into S/F as closeted ugly chicks (or closeted boys).
Should I pile on? Maybe just a little.
Best final exam doodle EVER!
I’m sure I’m not the only academic who receives final exams with doodles (as well as “thank you for the class” and “please don’t fail me!” messages). But I need to share a piece of exam artwork that transcends the bounds of doodling.
Indeed, it is a cartoon illustration that demonstrates good mastery of the concept about which the student was asked on that exam page. (In addition to the drawing, the student presented a perfectly correct and crystal clear written answer to the question. The drawing was an added bonus.)
Let me set up the cartoon with a brief explanation of the question so you can fully appreciate how wonderful it is:
For a guy who can make reindeer fly, this should be doable.
Dear Santa,
I know this is short notice, but only this week, while talking with my better half about matter, I thought of something so wonderful that I hope you’ll be able to leave it in my stocking this year.
Friday Sprog Blogging: matter for kindergarteners.
Dr. Free-Ride’s better half taught the younger Free-Ride offspring’s kindergarten class about matter this week. It was a lesson that included a working definition, some hands-on explorations of the properties of different sorts of matter, and a little magic.
Something you don’t see every day (during finals week).
I suppose I should have seen this coming. You provide a nice, quite room for the final exam, so why should it be surprising that a student takes this as an invitation to nap? Especially given that this is a student who attended — slept through — just about every class meeting of the term?
At least there was no audible snoring.