tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84486630463753224982024-03-08T13:00:26.409-06:00Angry by ChoiceDiscussions on the interface between Science and Society, Politics, Religion, Life, and whatever else I decide to write about.The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.comBlogger344125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-72844469065584766812024-01-15T16:48:00.000-06:002024-01-15T16:48:07.178-06:00Kicking Off a New Semester<p>It seems like yesterday I was knee deep in determining final grades, but Wednesday I am back in the thick of it. Luckily, my teaching is much less in the spring, two classes that meet once a week. One is a three hours lecture/lab on the Biology of Beer and the other is a writing instruction course for students writing up their research. Since I have done both a number of times, the time commitment is not onerous (I've already paid the up front costs). Of course things can always be improved so there is always some time investment improving the course(s) and keeping things fresh, but this is nothing compared to doing it for the first time.</p><p>In the fall, I am 98% working on teaching, 10% on research, 5%grant writing, 10% manuscript preparation, and like 20% on admin things. Basically the fall sucks. So now that teaching is more like a hard 10%, how do I maximize productivity on the research? I have a manuscript to revise, so that gets top priority, but also have two manuscripts that are basically done research-wise, so they are strong seconds....BUT grants need to be written, BUT papers need to be out there to support the grants. My life is Ouroboros, but with less rebirth.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIG6FtT6UXC_mfi_GBDcyEh5SqWBXjg-O1MXfkf7jPnYFO6JWJI6CbpVi9wa97jb7IdfVIVe0NaEnaF_DGnoo8lYEabHnJmnmgV7p6xYHdps7BjWZUZJKnHSrYnTWxHo1mCmXIgzl3yvBbE9GdfMPVRcWTbNYOo2z0Py5jLNTpuGhaP57MqiVYFkzCGldf/s1089/Ouroboros-Tattoo-60.jpg.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1089" data-original-width="853" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIG6FtT6UXC_mfi_GBDcyEh5SqWBXjg-O1MXfkf7jPnYFO6JWJI6CbpVi9wa97jb7IdfVIVe0NaEnaF_DGnoo8lYEabHnJmnmgV7p6xYHdps7BjWZUZJKnHSrYnTWxHo1mCmXIgzl3yvBbE9GdfMPVRcWTbNYOo2z0Py5jLNTpuGhaP57MqiVYFkzCGldf/s320/Ouroboros-Tattoo-60.jpg.webp" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ouroboros tat from <a href="https://tattmag.com/ouroboros-tattoos/">here</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-46212816250290865722024-01-07T14:33:00.002-06:002024-01-07T14:33:25.416-06:00The Cold North Shore; What If Its Not Cold?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ0a1E_QQqK0vYc3bOGTZIgNCDcop223Ol07ds-zjRiDTbiX4y2EkGL0fivP6xHEJYajW7C9Q9ffurpnUKkFP1FOURppYfs37wNvIk4f8BL9KR6yBCYe57Nmti1abTI0tmUpvRO3Nv1Lw3IEdmblg_WuWktWEK47iU7TCo_EXGdwvbDLrq1UjYGXPkOpf4/s1024/North%20Shore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ0a1E_QQqK0vYc3bOGTZIgNCDcop223Ol07ds-zjRiDTbiX4y2EkGL0fivP6xHEJYajW7C9Q9ffurpnUKkFP1FOURppYfs37wNvIk4f8BL9KR6yBCYe57Nmti1abTI0tmUpvRO3Nv1Lw3IEdmblg_WuWktWEK47iU7TCo_EXGdwvbDLrq1UjYGXPkOpf4/s320/North%20Shore.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lake Superior</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Back from an official, albeit short, vacation. The only work related thing I did was check to see how things were going in the lab via an email. Have a paper review to complete and could have worked on it there (didn't). Lots of emails to reply to, they didn't go anywhere and I can deal with them tomorrow. Almost always when I take time off, I end up working at some level (revising a manuscript, working on a grant, etc). This is not a good thing. This time I did it right.</p><p>Spent almost an entire day, it was overcast, reading and went on a short walk to stretch my legs. Finished the vast majority of Stephen King's Holly, an Xmas present (I have since completed it). It was a great way to reset from the busy end of the fall semester that moved directly into holiday events, which while nice are also taxing. Felt more relaxed than I had in a long time. The following day was spent exploring the city of Grand Marais, bought a new book (support local booksellers), and enjoyed a beer at <a href="https://www.voyageurbrewing.com">Voyager brewery</a>. </p><p>Very little animal life in evidence up there, a few crows and that was about it. Did see a deer on the drive up. You might think this is not surprising, because we are deep in winter, but usually there is plenty of evidence of animal activity especially via tracks in the snow. Can identify squirrels, rabbits, deer, mice, etc pretty easily. However, this year there is still essentially no snow on the ground and the temps have been well above normal. Walking the dog in a sweatshirt, outdoor slippers, and a hat! Usually its a heavy winter coat, boots, mittens, and boots for the dog. This led to a thought, does the increased temperature affect the hibernation patterns of animals like bears, which do wake up occasionally? I realize there are other cues that control hibernation, otherwise animals would come out of hibernation when we have an almost yearly late January warm up, which is followed by another month long drop in temps in February. Animals that wake up too early, may not be able to find food. Many plants do this as well. When to germinate? When to start budding new leaves? Much of this is controlled primarily by day light length (but temperature plays a role too). This is good, because if temperature was primarily in charge, an early warm spell could be disasterous. But what about hibernating animals? They are not out in the open so day length shouldn't be much of a factor. Guess I'll spend some time on google later today.</p>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-62416048206269699262024-01-01T18:49:00.000-06:002024-01-01T18:49:07.653-06:00New Beginnings and ResolutionsIts been too long letting this site sit in limbo, maybe purgatory. I have a
couple of goals this year and one thing I think will help accomplish them is to
write about things I enjoy and/or want to write about more frequently. So I am
planning to put something here, usually (hopefully) science related three times
a week. This particular post is not science related, but damnit, I'm counting
it.
<div><br /></div><div>Obviously the fact this is coinciding with the New Year brings up the idea of New Year's resolutions. I like the idea of New Year's resolutions, but why decide to start something on a particular date, such as January 1? I think it is pretty well agreed upon that these date-specific resolutions tend to die untimely deaths usually before the end of February, which is ironic since its the shortest month. For me, using this date as opposed to October 15th, is that this is a good transition time. I am done with my teaching heavy semester, which is why I didn't attempt to start this October 15th, because I knew it was unlikely to be successful. Also the holidays are done, so there was essentially chaos for two weeks and now it's time to establish a new routine for the upcoming semester. Writing, for fun, is one way I can ease back into a routine.</div><div><br /></div><div>Things I'm looking forward to this upcoming semester:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Being able to attend more seminars in person. In the fall, basically the big ones for me occur either when I'm teaching or end about five minutes before I need to start teaching. I love the option of attending online, so I can listen and see the slides but can leave early without being disruptive.</li><li>Reading more science. Time limitations in the fall kept me focused on those papers to help with teaching, manuscript prep, and a grant submission. Now I'll have more time to read things that just look interesting (another resolution is to read a paper a day unrelated to my research interests, which I'm starting after my vacation which starts soonish).</li><li>Read more for fun. I never stop reading but have much less time for it in the fall, usually just before bed. Now I have more time to read for enjoyment. I already started that but will emphasize it in my vacation and continue on....probably until next fall semester.</li><li>Time to brew! I have a bourbon barrel porter aging in a bourbon barrel (an Xmas gift) right now, but that's it. :(</li></ul><div>So some science things I'm thinking about and have been for quite awhile. Why does sexual reproduction exist? What control species barriers? How do endosymbionts become plastids/mitochondria? What should my next science tat be (I already have this one figure out, just need to get it.)?</div><div><br /></div><div>Ok, I have accomplished day 1 of writing for my personal benefit. No need to go on and on and on and on.</div></div>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-14077635645182851242020-03-12T06:00:00.000-06:002020-03-12T06:00:05.240-06:00Daily routine7:00 am coffeeeeeeeeeee<br />
8:00 am more coffeeeeee<br />
9:00 am more coffee maybe shower, maybe already showered. Regardless let's assume already showered<br />
<br />
10:00 get to work/lab If I car pool this means getting dropped off at the St. Paul campus and taking the shuttle bus to near where I work, if I don't car pool this means parking next to my building and kicking the fuck out of the card reader until it decides I can get into my building.<br />
<br />
10:05 open some doors and walk up several flights of stairs. Go to my office and unlock the door and drop my shit off.<br />
<br />
10:10 go back through all the doors and down the stairs to get some more coffee. This requires going through key carded doors that don't require kicking the shit out of. In fact if I get near them with my card they work (Fuck you one outside door that is a total fuckstain!).<br />
<br />
10:15 drop off coffee in the office and go to bathroom to wash hands. Yes I'm thinking about the shuttle bus handles and chairs as well as the door knobs I've touched getting to and from my office as well as getting my third coffee. Yes I use soap and get the paper towels ready ahead of time. Yes I use soap and use the paper towels to turn off the water. Yes I get more paper towels, which is ok my hands are still wet, to finish drying my hands and open the door. I use my foot to prop the door while I took the paper towels and exit the bathroom.<br />
<br />
12:00 I don't know if this is the correct time, but I wash my hands because I've been in the lab doing science. (If I haven't been doing science in the lab, I wash my hands anyway because its time, and I want lunch.)<br />
<br />
1:00 Go into the bathroom and wash my hands, I might use the facilities too as I've had 3+ cups of coffee.<br />
<br />
3:00 Leave lab or office and wash hands, because its time and whether I realize it or not I've almost certainly done some things regrind door handles, stairs, countertops, or something lots of hands have touched.<br />
<br />
5:00 At gym, use sanitizer. After running laps on track use sanitizer. Do some weight lifting with pulleys. Mucho sanitizer.<br />
<br />
5:45 Don't touch face, you don't know what you've been in contact with.<br />
<br />
7:00 Arrive home and wash hands well with soap and water. Make dinner, assume I'm safe. Wash hands and dishes, partner will appreciate (at least the dishes part) and I'll feel good about a full day, complete with active knowledge of where my hands have been.<br />
<br />
9:00 get ready for bed, wash hands anyway, because as confident as you are, you're probably off by a bunch.<br />
<br />
#Flattenthecurve<br />
<br />The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-33027224502554805062020-03-11T21:24:00.001-06:002020-03-11T21:24:48.646-06:00How the Coronavirus and Flu Are Not the SameThere has been much attention, too much in my opinion, comparing SARS-CoV-2 with Influenza B. SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza B are the specific names for the viruses in question when we generally short hand Coronavirus and Flu, there are many types of coronaviruses, including SARS, MERS, and some versions of the common cold (although most colds are caused by rhinoviruses). There are also multiple types of flu, including influenza type A, B, and C, although A and B are the most common. From here on out, I'll use Coronavirus and Flu as this is how most people and the media discuss them, but realize this is short-hand. (COVID-19 is the disease caused by Sara-CoV-2 and is not a pseudonym, much like AIDS is a disease caused by HIV.)<br />
<br />
Both viruses are RNA viruses, their genetic material is RNA and this is converted into DNA after infection into a host cell. These viruses force the host cell to use this DNA copy to make all the proteins required to make new virus and to make complete RNA copies which will then be packaged into new viral particles before killing the host cell and infecting other cells and/or hosts.<br />
<br />
Both Coronavirus and Flu cause significant respiratory illness. Indeed, SARS is an acronym for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. These infections make breathing more difficult, in large part due to immune responses trying to keep you alive, but they also make a patient more prone to getting pneumonia, which can also kill you. These aspects of infection help explain why the elderly, immunosuppressed, and young are high risk groups (It appears that Coronavirus is not particularly lethal in the young, however data is still limited in my opinion.)<br />
<br />
At first glance it looks like Coronavirus and Flu are similar. This could lead some, like an orange baboon, to directly compare them. If we do compare them directly, its easy to conclude that Flu is much much worse and its a plot by the universe to be concerned about Coronavirus. In the US, Flu infects 10s of millions, leading to hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and 10s of thousand deaths! Every year!!! To date world-wide, Coronavirus has infected over 100,000 people and caused about 4000 deaths. For non-viral comparison sake, car crashes kill about 40 thousand people in the US, comparable to the flu virus. Gin deaths are similar in the US.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDmmcz8qD67Vwo4pS2mvAEiJsub3OX3I81kH96hB81Vzy9auC2cxjfURgMmvcpXX-oDXMKae_DNznko-GDrchCuoAFJ96odqUuKYThhdYlO-T7BIGF-k1dC_rpelcqbt5cclY9SvHs50p4/s1600/Donald-Trump-Orangutan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDmmcz8qD67Vwo4pS2mvAEiJsub3OX3I81kH96hB81Vzy9auC2cxjfURgMmvcpXX-oDXMKae_DNznko-GDrchCuoAFJ96odqUuKYThhdYlO-T7BIGF-k1dC_rpelcqbt5cclY9SvHs50p4/s320/Donald-Trump-Orangutan.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your basic Orange Baboon. From <a href="http://here./">here</a>, although I realize the image on the left is an infant orangutang and the image on the right is an actual orange baboon.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Since we don't shut down schools, concerts, etc for the flu and don't seem to care that much about vehicular deaths and definitely aren't willing to do anything about gun deaths, what is the concern about Coronavirus all about?<br />
<br />
It's because because these comparisons are, at best, inadequate but more likely abysmal.<br />
<br />
First, we need to consider what happens when someone gets sick with either virus. Maybe nothing both viruses cause symptomatic infections, although these patients can readily pass the viruses on to others who may not be so lucky. Next possibility is you get sick but not so severely that you go to the hospital. Hopefully you stay home and recover, but this being America, many people will have to go to work or are otherwise unable to rest because social safety nets are for commies, you know like every other developed country on the planet. More severe cases lead to hospitalization and of those a subset will leave the hospital in a casket. Here's one of the first places where Coronavirus and Flu differ. Roughly 2-3% of infected individuals will die of Coronavirus, aka leave in a casket, this number will likely change as more information is obtained (in other areas of the world because the US is wasting time and energy NOT testing even likely infected patients). However, the Flu leads to death in roughly 0.1% of patients.<br />
<br />
Second, lets consider some other critical differences.<br />
<br />
1. There's a Flu vaccine! That's right there's a vaccine against influenza, but somewhere between jack and shit for SARS-CoV-2, to be fair it's closer to shit than jack shit. Regardless of what orange baboons say, it will be a long time, at the earliest before, there's a vaccine. In fact, it may take many years before there's a vaccine. We still do not have anything close to a vaccine to HIV and we've been working on it since the 80s. The flu vaccine isn't perfect because it has to be developed before flu season begins so some years its more effective than others (if it were developed afterwards, it would be too late to be useful....hmmmm). To be clear, even when the vaccine doesn't match well, it still provides some protection and reduces mortality and severity, shortens length of illness, and reduces chance of infection. Also evolution matters and flu, much like other RNA viruses, I'm looking at you SARS-CoV-2, evolves quickly. This is why you should get a flu vaccine every year. By the time a Coronavirus vaccine is developed, in the best case scenario, most of the planet will already have been exposed.<br />
<br />
Ok, the savvy among you are already thinking, if there's a vaccine but still a shit ton of people die from Flu, why should I care about Coronavirus? Well, most people are not vaccinated for the Flu, maybe 50%, which is well below what is needed for '<a href="https://www.aappublications.org/content/36/5/14.1">herd immunity</a>'. However, health care workers, doctors, nurses, EMTs, etc. are almost uniformly vaccinated against flu. Thus, they are much less likely to miss work because they have the flu, which means they are available to care for those who do get sick and require hospitalization.<br />
<br />
2. We know the flu is coming! Look there's a reason you need a vaccine every year. As above its due to evolution. But here's the thing, for well over a hundred years we've known this is coming. Every single year. And as our medical personnel are kind of smart and know this is coming, they are prepared. Besides being vaccinated, hospitals and clinics generally have the resources available to handle the influx of respiratory illnesses that will show up during flu season. We know thousands of patients are coming in, so its factored into the medical care equation. Don't believe me, think this is some kind of plot conceived by the MSM? Ask yourself why do insurance companies, the epitome of capitalism in the US, prepare for these expenses every year? In the US, hospitals are generally revenue generating, at least for the wealthy, so why aren't they prepared for this change in hospital cases every year? The short answer is: they are prepared. They are prepared for flu, they are also prepared for other cases, like heart attacks and broken bones. However, they are NOT prepared for dealing with fundamental changes in the status quo.<br />
<br />
Coronavirus is a change in the status quo.<br />
<br />
3. Here's the problem if hospitals plan for X number of beds being occupied, even during flu season, what happens if more than X number of beds are occupied due to Coronavirus? What happens to any potential extra patients, like Grandpa with a heart attack? In the US, we live in a firm capitalistic society, if someone isn't making money then why bother. So hospitals don't have a bunch of excess beds for, just in case. Hospitals don't have extra doctors, nurses, or other staff sitting on the bench for, just in case.<br />
<br />
TV medical dramas give a false sense of time frames in regards to infectious disease testing. One thing they do give reasonable service to is bed availability. If two school buses crash into each other, the local hospital cannot compensate with the increased patient load. This becomes the plot focus for episode this week. In these scenarios, patients are triaged and sent to other hospitals or patients left to wait for a team to be available to treat them. This is the drama of the episode. So what does this mean in the real world in the face of a pandemic?<br />
<br />
4. If a small percentage of health service professionals, EMTs, nurses, doctors, get sick then everything fails. There are a finite number of nurses available to serve at a given hospital, there are only so many goalies available on game day (2 in fact). If the goalies get injured you are basically fucked. Yes there was this one game this one year that the team won, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG-IGNvfrg8">just saying</a>. However, the reason this is notable is that most third string goalies never get in and when they do they fail.<br />
<br />
If fewer medical professionals are available more people fail to receive adequate care, so these people get worse results. Furthermore, new cases get pushed to the back burner making the problem last longer. Also Grandpa who shows up with a heart attack is part of this queue.<br />
<br />
5. This leads to the St Louis vs Philadelphia conundrum. (Not fair to either city.) During the flu of 1918, problematically called the Spanish Flu, Philadelphia took a Trump MAGA approach, not doing shit, and St. Louis took a more draconian approach of closing dance halls (clubs), schools, and other gathering areas. This this led to the 'flattening the curve' idea that is all over the nets.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLmuHyQt8J9SYJYNB81uG6acEs2s3S0b2T2L6nuzCe2we66VRevkHm45uU4Cz9A_95j_gZyiF5cNz6BmZL4h0SpL65t_Qv3ZU5dMef_Bm54hCeuBP3vpvI0A6bo4QYwq-rJtYBR8Ztoucn/s1600/flatten-the-curve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="1600" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLmuHyQt8J9SYJYNB81uG6acEs2s3S0b2T2L6nuzCe2we66VRevkHm45uU4Cz9A_95j_gZyiF5cNz6BmZL4h0SpL65t_Qv3ZU5dMef_Bm54hCeuBP3vpvI0A6bo4QYwq-rJtYBR8Ztoucn/s320/flatten-the-curve.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <a href="https://www.flattenthecurve.com/">here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The gif is better in my opinion: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Covid-19-curves-graphic-social-v3.gif">Flatten the Curve</a><br />
<br />
Basically the idea is that if exposure and infections are delayed, severe cases do not overwhelm the health care infrastructure. The bad part of this is infections occur over a longer period of time. The good part is that fewer people die! To be clear without flattening the curve, there's a much greater chance of people dying from Coronaviruse, but also Grandpa dying of a heart attack, because the health care system is overwhelmed. If doctors, nurses, and other staff are home sick they are not helping Grandpa out and there are not people on the zamboni who can come into the game successfuly.<br />
<br />
We, in the US and most other places, are not prepared for pandemics. It's not our business model. However, by taking steps to mitigate the potential, and almost certain problems, we can respond adequately. To be clear people will die, people will get sick, there's no denying that. However, we can significantly reduce the number who die and get profoundly sick.<br />
<br />
As an academic, a skeptic, and a realist I doubt we will succeed. Overall I think we are Philadelphia, not St. Louis.<br />
<br />
Prove me wrong.The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-43858926088980146922020-02-11T14:46:00.001-06:002020-02-11T14:46:39.732-06:00What I read 2019<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">The Shining by Stephen King. Excellent book! Saw the great movie of the same name. They're different, I'll leave it at that.</span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br /></span></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C- </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu: The Adventures of the Deadly Dimensions by Lois H. Gresh. If you want to combine two distinct universe into one and spend a few hours on the beach reading about it, this one's for you. If you're looking for depth, look elsewhere.</span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br /></span></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">The Institute by Stephen King. Great story, probably my favorite of King's recent works. Maybe a prequel/sequel to Firestarter, never read it, but saw the movie many years ago. Deals with many themes, not the least of which are reminiscent of locking kids in cages for political purposes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br /></span></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">D </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">Origin by Dan Brown. Pretty much every other Dan Brown book, except in Spain. Fast paced easy entertaining read, but I already read this story when it was called The DaVinci Code.</span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br /></span></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron. A good book to pass some time but meh. Good prose regarding <span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">troop</span> movements and ideas of warfare, but I could use more, much more, on character development.</span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C+</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Except the Dying by Maureen Jennings. Only read this book because I started binge watching Murdoch Mysteries on Hulu, which are based on the characters in the books this one starts. The characters in the book are profoundly different from those in the TV series, but its a fun read. I am looking forward to reading the next one by the fire this winter at Lake Itasca.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">A</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter. A great world built by Winter. Definitely ephansizes the difference between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. In this day and age, it is good to see the unaccountable powerful get knocked down a peg or two. Reminds me of Pierce Brown's Red Rising books in this way. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br /></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B-</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nest by Terry Goodkind. Not sure how to define this book. Kind of suspense/thriller, but kind of </span><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;">sci-fi, if you count psionic powers (I do). Interesting premise, but as is Goodkind's want, it becomes a heavy handed political hammer in the latter portion.</span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B+</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Empire of Grass by Tad Williams. Really did not like some of characters in the first book, which I expect was part of Williams story arc. Maybe I'll like root for them by the end of the trilogy. Could also be having a teenager, makes reading </span><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">about teenage angst hit too close to home rather than being a fun escape.</span></span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Stiehl Assassin by Terry Brooks. Been reading Brooks since I was a teenager, it's weird knowing this world is coming to end with the next book. Regardless, this quadrilogy is some of the best Shannara work since Elfstones and </span><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Wishsong.</span></span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A-</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. I enjoy King's forays into different genres and styles, like the installments of The Green Mile and this pulp mystery short story. Really the mystery is a mechanism to describe how an outsider becomes accepted into a small community.</span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Did not see this coming! Sometimes its great to </span><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">have a Barnes & Noble 20% coupon to take a chance on a book. Another new world, but this seems to be inspired, at least in part, by East Asian mythos.</span></span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B+</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Pet Sematary by Stephen King. Book is so much better than the first movie or the more recent version. Particularly the ending.</span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Dark Forest by Cixin Lui. The Three Body Problem did not need a sequel, it was a great read in and of itself. Regardless, The Dark Forest takes us into dealing with the future arrival of an alien fleet and how to survive. Seemed a little clunkier than The Three Body Problem, but that could be an issue of translation from the original Chinese.<span style="color: red;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A She Has Her Mother's Laugh by Carl Zimmer. This is probably the best science book I have read over the last decade. Should be required reading for anyone into the biological sciences. This is my book of the year!</span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. A great horror story/decent into madness story. Leans more towards the horror side. Reminded a little of Stephen King's Rose Red miniseries, where a group of strangers are brought to an ostensibly haunted house. Just googled it, and Rose Red is a degree of separation from Jackson's work.</span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B+</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sand by Hugh Howey. A different world built by Howey, from the Wool trilogy. A post-apocalyptic story where the world, at least what we see of it, is basically buried in desert. Looking forward to the next follow up, if there is one, to see where this goes.</span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Horrific book that captures what I think many male Evangelicals would like the country to look like. Albeit they would miss out on the fact they would not be the elite with wives </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and broodmares.</span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B+</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Outsider by Stephen King. A continuation of the Mr. Mercedes universe, but since (spoiler alert) Hodges is dead how does it continue? This story focuses on a new police officer and Holly, the introverted colleague of Hodges from the early stories. Like the earlier books, its a mystery crossed with </span><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">sic-fi horror.</span></span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Echo Burning by Lee Child. Jack Reacher being Jack Reacher. To be read at the beach with a beer or two.</span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">An Echo of Things to Come by James Islington. A solid second novel in the Licanius Series. After establishing a strong world in the first book, absent much historical information, we begin to fill in those gaps. This makes the second book more than simply a lever to help get us to the third book. </span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">D</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Night flyers and Other Stories by George R.R. Martin. A collection of good short stories by GRRM. All, if I recall correctly, are sci-fi and not fantasy which is distinct from his more popular Game of Thrones books.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">22 books read this year. Slightly better than</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> last year. Of these, 21 were fiction, 10 were sci-fi/fantasy, </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">5 were by Stephen King</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and 1 was a classic. Only 1 non-fiction book and it was biology.</span></span></div>
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The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-30164231355070758452019-10-16T18:06:00.002-06:002019-10-16T18:06:51.688-06:00I am Lazarus<img alt="Image result for wash me" class="irc_mi" height="299" src="https://previews.123rf.com/images/whitegreyblack/whitegreyblack1604/whitegreyblack160400014/57267325-wash-me-car-dust-word-on-dirty-rear-window-of-the-car-and-inscription-wash-me-front-and-side-view-cl.jpg" width="450" /><br />
<a href="https://www.123rf.com/photo_57267325_wash-me-car-dust-word-on-dirty-rear-window-of-the-car-and-inscription-wash-me-front-and-side-view-cl.html">So dusty</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Look I haven't blogged in ~forever but now is as good a time as any to post something. As a PI trying to run a lab, teach effectively, raise a young adult, be a partner, have my own time not necessarily in this order, this has been a stressful few years. (#thankgodfortenure).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Regardless, its time to reset and recharge while in the midst of my heavy teaching load and just receiving news that not 1, but 2, fucking grants were 'not discussed'. But first I'll enjoy a couple of tasty malt beverages and then get back into the thick of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My goal now is to use this space for brief updates to ensure I keep writing.</span>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-11944287469247498922019-01-01T11:54:00.002-06:002019-01-01T12:03:38.154-06:00What I Read (2018)<span style="color: blue;">B </span><span style="color: black;">High Deryni by Katherine Kurtz. Final of the trilogy. I like the antagonism between some leaders of the major religion (Christianity) and Deryni magic (I read as a proxy for science). Ending was abrupt, I didn't have a good reason to believe the war would actually be averted that easily.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">F </span><span style="color: black;">War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Basically the Kardashians for the media and audience of the late 1800s. Most of the book is essentially a 'lifestyles of the rich and famous' expose. I care little about the turmoil of the extremely well-to-do, which all stories from this period seem to revolve around. Battles were well described and the conditions of war better dealt with than many other attempts. The ending and a couple of chapters in the latter has were philosophical reflections on history, which were interesting albeit wordy.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">C</span> Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. Much like Lee Childs Jack Reacher stories, this was an easy fast read, good for relaxing.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: purple;"></span></span><span style="color: blue;">B-</span> Deryni Checkmate by Katherine Kurtz. Decent follow up to Deryni Rising although this is not a stand alone story rather a part I of II.<br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: blue;">B+</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: black;">Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz. I first read this book several decades ago, probably late middle school/early high school, and remember enjoying it a lot. Spent a fair bit of time trying to remember the titles or the author recently with no success, I knew they were written by a woman and happened to the three original books (of which Dernyi Rising is the first) on a shelf at a used book store. I snapped them up no question. A short novel introducing the world and main characters and telling a good story. One aspect I forgot is that the story basically occurs over a couple of days, reminding me that a good fantasy story does not have to be an epic quest covering months to years.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: blue;">B+</span> </span><span style="color: black;">The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neil Stephenson and Nicole Galland. I tried reading Quicksilver but got bogged down, it wasn't 'quick', and gave up. This story kept me engrossed. A solid story, encompassing reality (as I understand it), magic, and time travel. Reminiscent of Stoker's Dracula in that the narrative is driven by letters, journal entries, emails, etc. Took a long time to embrace the plot, but the world building was compelling and worth it. Ending wide open, which I enjoy, but not saying I need a sequel (would likely read if there is one).</span></span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;">A</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright. Excellent part-biography part warning call. While you can fell the presence of Trump throughout the book, he doesn't really make an appearance until the last chapter. Makes an important point that Trump is a symptom not the actual disease. Might be my book of the year, but The Three Body Problem still wins.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br /></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: purple;">C+</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Alice by Christina Henry. Alice and an asylum, what's not to like. Much of this book actually. An interesting take on a classic story. It builds a new universe, but there isn't enough there there to really understand the rules in my opinion. Doesn't quite reach American McGee in its craziness but seems to try. The ending was a surprise.</span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: blue;">B</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington. I enjoyed this book when I read it, but much of it didn't stick with me. The ending was a whirlwind of action and gripping. The world building dragged a bit for me, but I say this in hindsight at the time I was right there. I have the second volume of the series but when I got it, I had to refresh my mind on the previous volume. Could be a personal issue, regardless I enjoyed this at the time and when I reminded myself what is was about.</span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: blue;">B+</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The Skaar Invasion by Terry Brooks. Good book, dialing up the Empire Strike Back vibe to 11. Pretty much the standard second installment of a Terry Brooks trilogy. However, there were enough differences and surprises (no spoilers) to bump this up. Brooks is one of my favorite fantasy writers and I admit much of this might be nostalgia, but I enjoyed this iteration of book 2 of 3 much more than probably any in the past two decades.</span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;">A</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey. Another enjoyable ride through the solar system and 'proximity' via stable 'worm holes'. The story is wrapping up with this and the next two books making Persepolis Rising the first in a classic trilogy. This book is distinct from the other books, which is something the duo writing under James S.A. Corey have done exceedingly well in previous iterations of the series. Raises the stakes and tension to eleven (Realize that this is the same series that basically destroyed the Earth a couple of books ago so that's saying something!).</span><br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #666666;">D</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>John Constantine, Hellblazer Vol 2: The Devil You Know by Jamie Delano and David Lloyd. Kind of a mix of stories with an overarching narrative in the latter part.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: purple;">C</span><span style="color: #222222;"> Giant of the Senate by Al Franken. Always solid in political satire or more aptly sarcasm, Franken does a solid job with this book. It is a pity he stepped down, but several chapters in the early middle, did not do much to help his case and were by no means humorous to read in light of his behavior.</span><br /><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: red;">A+</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;"> The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. This is one of the best science fiction books I've read in forever. At the time I read it, it was my </span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">choice for must read book of the year. Great narrative through time. The fact that it is written by an author from a different culture, Chinese, and translated into English and it's brilliant! Leaves an open ending that I think is the perfect way to end the book. Bought the sequel, but deep down I wish there wasn't one.</span></span><br /><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><span style="color: purple;">C</span><span style="color: #222222;"> Drawn Blades by Kelly McCullough. I like this series a lot, but this installment lacked some of the world and character building I enjoyed. Seemed more as an action adventure place holder in the ongoing story of Aral.</span></span></span><br /><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: purple;">C</span><span style="color: #222222;"> The Sandman, vol 8. Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman. I like the Sandman stories overall. This is a collection of short stories based on characters trapped/stuck in an otherworldly inn to wait out a storm. The characters tell stories to each other to pass the time. Sadly, I recall little of the actual stories at the time of this writing even though I enjoyed them when I read them, which means something....hence the C.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: blue;">B+</span> How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg. Highly recommend this book to get a sense of mathematics with some history and personalities thrown in. </span>Many parts are readily approachable, but there are numerous places where some solid math foundations are needed to follow the arguments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: purple;">C</span> Running Blind by Lee Child. If you have a few hours to kill and nothing better to do, this will get you through it. Extremely fast paced, which is good because you don't want to have a moment to think about the characters or logic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: blue;">B</span> The Sandman vol 7, Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman. A good story overall touching on aspects of life and death (although Death herself only makes minor appearances).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: purple;">C+</span> On Writing Well by William Zinger. The first part was great, lots to incorporate into my writing and my classes. The second part was meh overall. The third part was a mix of the first and second parts.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: red;">A-</span> The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams. Happy for a new installment of this series. Think the length of time between writing this book compared to the original series makes the writing fresh. Characters are wonderful, though I dislike the grandchildren and wonder if this is intentional on Williams part. There are suggestions throughout the book that something is afoot regarding the children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">21 books read this year. Worst number since my seizures knocked me down for a few months. Of these 21 11 were sci-fi/fantasy 2 were other fiction 3 were graphic novels 1 was a classics 4 were non-fiction.</span></span></div>
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The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-36235153091593551772018-06-07T17:00:00.000-06:002018-06-07T17:00:07.130-06:00Manifestation of Prof Stress<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Spring semester has ended, which means something from a teaching perspective but not from a research perspective. At least that's true for me. I know others can vary in their teaching/research mileage. For me, teaching is basically a fall/spring semester concern. I do teach a couple of weeks during the summer, but this requires little prep work so I don't count it. Research is a year long venture, but does suffer during the fall/spring, especially the fall, because of my teaching duties. A couple of weeks ago on consecutive nights, I woke up around 2 am from bad dreams. These dreams, I won't say nightmares because they were stress inducing but not terrifying, related to these two big areas of my professional life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first night it was a research related dream and the focus was on grants, big surprise to people in the field I expect. The dream actually started out on a good note as I was just awarded an R21 grant from NIH! The happiness and relief of having some money to conduct the research I want to do, quickly transitioned to stress as I began thinking about how quickly I could get someone hired and trained to do the research successfully. I became increasingly stressed because the R21 is only a two year grant. If it takes 6 months to hire and get someone well trained (a stretch in my opinion), I basically have 6 more months before we need to be generating most of the data in order to write a larger grant. For those not in the know, it takes a few months to write a proposal (for me at least) and then ~ 9 months before funding decisions are made. Thus, in order to maintain constant funding from the onset of the R21, I basically have 12 months to get most of the work done with an untrained person. I woke up a mix of happiness combined with a whirlwind of stress. I was up about 2 hours before going back to sleep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The second night it was a teaching related dream. In real life I had just completed final grades for my Spring semester course and was breathing a sigh of relief to have ~3 months to focus on experiments and writing (papers and grants). In my dream, I felt like I was in the same place and at work setting up experiments when I realized my Fall semester classes were starting in a couple hours and I hadn't set up the course website, planned any lectures, etc. I was running around trying to get together some slides for the introduction and to print off some worksheets for the students but couldn't find a printer. To make things worse I couldn't find out where my class was meeting and time was ticking down to the point where I was figuring out how late I would be. Basically this was my adult version of the 'just realizing you have a final in a class you didn't know you were enrolled in all semester' nightmare. Again up for a couple of hours without being able to sleep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Haven't had anymore repeats of the stressmares™, but apparently my sleep schedule basically requires waking up at 2 am. I do get some reading done I guess, but would rather get a straight 7-8 hours of sleep. Stupid brain.</span><br />
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<br />The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-5341597126457619472018-01-16T22:24:00.000-06:002018-02-05T11:30:16.706-06:00What I Read (2017)<div class="item" style="color: #202020; margin: 0.25em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap;">
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">(Grade A-F, no E's) Title-Author Additional thoughts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">C+ </span><span style="color: #222222;">The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. An alternate history where the axis wins WWII and life in the US under oppression. Many story lines that were linked, but he connections seemed weak. Still not sure about the importance of the man in the high castle (</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">although he moved) other than to imply the strange twist at the end. I guess that keeps the story in the sci-fi genre.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Lost Gods by Gerald Brom. Didn't know what to expect, but I liked the cover. Fun story merging horror and fantasy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">C Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling. I enjoyed the premise of this story and it got better in the final two acts. There were many clunky technical details in the beginning that did not fit in with the narrative well. Seemed like the Stirling learned a lot about schooner ships for research and tried to jam it in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">C </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">Wytches vol 1 by Scott Snyder. Meh, but not as Meh as God Country.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Ok this was fun. Glad Christie included an epilogue how the hell everything happened.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">D </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">God Country by Donny Cates & Geoff Shaw. Meh. American Gods is a great book and would make a great graphic novel. This was not American Gods.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B+ </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. I did not enjoy the second story in this series, by the final entry is a winner. The story came to a solid conclusion tying up many loose ends.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Walking Dead Compendium Two by Robert Kirkman et. al. A good follow up to the first one. The survivors discover a idyllic community only to have everything go the shit. People suck.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I understood this book better than Slaughterhouse V and thus enjoyed it more. Satirical book touches on many aspects of life in the US. Author drawings throughout the book is interesting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Black Elfstone by Terry Brooks. The first Shannara story I read was Elfstones, shortly after it came out. I've had a fondness for this world for decades and while some stories have felt repetitive, this one is starting out on familiar territory but is introducing some new complexities and territory. A solid beginning for a new quadrilogy (and a change from the trilogy form Brooks has generally used).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">C </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. See Fool Moon below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. A timely book, incredibly timely. How a populist can come to power in the US and quickly devolve into fascism. Although written in 1935 the populist plank could be written (and much of it has) by today's tea party. This is my required reading book choice for the year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">C </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. Another easy read to pass some time. Didn't add much to the Harry Dresden's character which was something I was looking for.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">Storm Front by Jim Butcher. Recommended to me by a prince of assholes, a fun read before bed. Look forward to reading more about Harry Dresden. Wish there was more character development in the book, but a good first story.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">To Green Angel Tower part 2 by Tad Williams</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. Rereading this series in preparation for the Witchwood Crown, originally read this series during graduate school when I took some time off to mentally relax after writing the initial draft of my thesis.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B+ </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">To Green Angel Tower part 1 by Tad Williams</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. Rereading this series in preparation for the Witchwood Crown, originally read this series during graduate school when I took some time off to mentally relax after writing the initial draft of my thesis.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">Coraline by Neil Gaiman. A story of a not very nice mother, the other mother. Not really a children's book although I would have read this to my son when he was younger anyway. The world's not all kittens and puppies.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B+ </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">The Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. Rereading this series in preparation for the Witchwood Crown, originally read this series during graduate school when I took some time off to mentally relax after writing the initial draft of my thesis.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. Rereading this series in preparation for the Witchwood Crown, originally read this series during graduate school when I took some time off to mentally relax after writing the initial draft of my thesis.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">End of Watch by Stephen King. A great ending to the series. Intertwines with the first story well, but each of the trilogy is a stand alone story.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">Weaponized Lies by Daniel J. </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Levity. Good book, but covers some ground I'm quite familiar with.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">C </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Blade Reforged by Kelly McCullough. I enjoy this series and the flawed protagonist but this story was entertaining yet fleeting. It provided more backstory for Aral and the war amongst the gods in this world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> B </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Tripwire by Lee Child. An easy fun read. f the three books I've read so far, the villain in this story is the most developed and interesting and all around evil.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B- </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Injustice: Gods Among Us Year 2 The Complete Collection by Tom Baylor, Bruno Redondo, and Mike S. Miller. A decent follow up on the initial story. Lags because the first collection established the world and key problem of Superman becoming an authoritarian. This is developed further and the two sides more fleshed out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">B </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">Paycheck and Other Classic Stories by Philip K. Dick. Has any short story </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">sci-fi author had as many movies made out of their work? I doubt it. Some of the stories in this anthology I enjoyed, others were just so-so, but thats to be expected.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Walking Dead: Compendium One by Robert Kirkman et. al. Great first compilation of the graphic novels. It's hard to read these stories and not give up on humanity. Basically a reasonable analysis of the human condition.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">26 books read this year. Below average by a few books, not going to count the 4 rereads against myself since it was a good 20 years since I read before. </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;">Of the 26 books: 5 were graphic novels, 1 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">was philosophy, 4 were older books.</span></span></div>
The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-12545332570768278982017-11-21T20:53:00.003-06:002017-11-21T20:53:42.263-06:00Eukaryotic Microbiology: The Blogs Are Coming<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite my desire to keep updating the blog with course information, which has been an abject failure in regards to updates, I still want to post when I can. To be fair, I'm behind on grading, so I can't in good conscience be blogging about the course when assignments need to be graded.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However, I'll take a minute to make this brief post. It's getting to my favorite time of year: Student Blog Posts at <a href="http://eukaryoticmicrobe.blogspot.com/">Traveling Small with a Nucleus</a>! I know for many students this is a writing assignment they truly enjoy. (Of course I'm sure some students do not like this assignment, but I have yet to hear from them.)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdFpEiwjIrOS-gaZyrnqGEJbScfGNZBlWTlG4s8IbVmL0z85y4wAbnG0E8MOc48jEYaACzclTln1uamRA9gW-40vCg44pGyhaBAAtSqFvH_S5YNO1BUSrmuoc2LNbnt6Btylzf1TdX2Tv/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-11-21+at+8.51.30+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="1600" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdFpEiwjIrOS-gaZyrnqGEJbScfGNZBlWTlG4s8IbVmL0z85y4wAbnG0E8MOc48jEYaACzclTln1uamRA9gW-40vCg44pGyhaBAAtSqFvH_S5YNO1BUSrmuoc2LNbnt6Btylzf1TdX2Tv/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-11-21+at+8.51.30+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">S0, I invite you to check out some previous students posts in the interim. The majority are quite good and there are some real gems in there. It's possible TSw/aN may be invaded with some organisms lacking a nucleus too. I'll keep you posted. </span>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-46256632450595807332017-10-05T18:45:00.000-06:002017-10-05T18:45:38.188-06:00Eukaryotic Micro: Week 3 the last of the fungi<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So this week (actually last week) we covered what is probably the last unit concerning fungi: <i>Cryptococcus neoformans</i>. The first two weeks covered two ascomycetes, <i>Candida albicans </i>and Fusaruim species, and now we move over to the basidiomycetes, otherwise known as 'if I asked you to draw a fungus this is what you would draw'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The primary research papers were:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26463162" ref="ordinalpos=12&ncbi_uid=26463162&link_uid=26463162&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f;">Polyploid titan cells produce haploid and aneuploid progeny to promote stress adaptation.</a> Gerstein AC, Fu MS, Mukaremera L, Li Z, Ormerod KL, Fraser JA, Berman J, <b>Nielsen</b>K. <span class="jrnl" title="mBio">MBio</span>. 2015 Oct 13;6(5):e01340-15. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01340-15.</span></li>
<li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26313153" ref="ordinalpos=3&ncbi_uid=26313153&link_uid=26313153&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Protein Composition of Infectious Spores Reveals Novel Sexual Development and Germination Factors in Cryptococcus.</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Huang</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> M, Hebert AS, Coon JJ, Hull CM. </span><span class="jrnl" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;" title="PLoS genetics">PLoS Genet</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. 2015 Aug 27;11(8):e1005490. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005490. eCollection 2015 Aug.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="title" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
This is an interesting point in the semester. Upon completion of this week, we are ~25% of the way through the semester and exactly 25% of the way through the 12 modules. This is the point where students have completed the short writing assignment four times now, so hopefully they are comfortable with what I am looking for. I lay out the guidelines on day 1, and then model what I expect. There are two difficulties. 1: Getting students to explain a dataset of their choosing such that someone would walk away knowing what was done, what it showed, and most importantly be able to ask informed questions about the data set. Students are reasonably good at explaining the data after a week or two, but struggle to give enough experimental information such that you would know how the data was obtained. 2: Identifying limitations with the data set. This is in fact difficult, but it is an important skill to foster if we really want people who are critical thinkers. I ask them that their limitation answers the question 'how does this affect the authors' conclusions or interpretations?' This latter issue usually takes a couple more weeks to get better at for most of the class.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMMXKPNAj0zMjsa7eWF7tzWUi383MukcMZM7Fv1L6mEFc7o2xt8rCEkyZYrHPUYqFcMFvJAbiMVQFkLOOe_9Yf1hNCez4RWGsQTq627SWL83LmQxFiX6Z21R93DjdAsS-7_l0pRfxBtZ6/s1600/asd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="590" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMMXKPNAj0zMjsa7eWF7tzWUi383MukcMZM7Fv1L6mEFc7o2xt8rCEkyZYrHPUYqFcMFvJAbiMVQFkLOOe_9Yf1hNCez4RWGsQTq627SWL83LmQxFiX6Z21R93DjdAsS-7_l0pRfxBtZ6/s320/asd.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.news-medical.net/news/20160601/Cryptococcus-research-an-interview-with-Associate-Professor-Kirsten-Nielsen.aspx"><i>Cryptococcus neoformans</i> normal and titan cells</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="title">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's also interesting because Cryptococcus follows up the ascomycetes we already discussed extremely well. Like </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Candida albicans, C. neoformans</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> is a budding yeast, which is distinct from Fusarium, which although more closely related to </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">C. albicans</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, is a filamentous fungus. However, like Fusarium, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">C. neoformans </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">forms dikaryotic filaments during sexual reproduction and grows in a filamentous form during asexual spore production. </span></div>
<div class="title">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="title">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I like these two papers (this is the first year I've used the Gerstein paper) because they deal with different aspects of development/differentiation in different ways. </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">The Gerstein paper is focused on a role titan cells play using primarily genomic approaches; </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">the Huang paper is focused on spore formation and development using classica</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">l genetic approaches.</span></div>
<div class="title">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Gerstein et al ties in conceptually with the Selmecki and Ma papers <a href="http://angrybychoice.fieldofscience.com/2017/09/eukaryotic-microbiology-two-weeks-in.html">from</a> the Candida and fusarium modules respectively. All are centered on the acquisition of additional genetic information and the outcomes of this. I'm certain creationists always talk about the inability for an organism to acquire new 'information'. Well here are three independent examples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Huang et al ties in, slightly, with the Lui paper <a href="http://angrybychoice.fieldofscience.com/2017/09/eukaryotic-microbiology-two-weeks-in.html">from</a> the Fusarium module by dealing with cellular differentiation and development. This is something we will come back to in the future frequently and is a biological concept I think is often underappreciated in microbes. </span></div>
<div class="title" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
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The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-70275311682217496682017-09-25T20:04:00.001-06:002017-10-03T16:31:12.074-06:00Eukaryotic Microbiology: Two Weeks In<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Have the second week of Eukaryotic Microbiology in the books (except for some residual grading to complete). So far we've covered <i>Candida albicans</i> and two <i>Fusarium</i> spp. Last week was <i>C. albicans</i> and we discussed two papers. (I'm not including the review articles students read at the beginning of each week.):</span><br />
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18363649" ref="ordinalpos=9&ncbi_uid=18363649&link_uid=18363649&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f;">An isochromosome confers drug resistance in vivo by amplification of two</a><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18363649" ref="ordinalpos=9&ncbi_uid=18363649&link_uid=18363649&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f;"> genes, ERG11 and TAC1.</a> <b>Selmecki</b> A, Gerami-Nejad M, Paulson C, Forche A, Berman J. <span class="jrnl" title="Molecular microbiology">Mol Microbiol</span>. 2008 May;68(3):624-41</span><div class="title">
</div>
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18069889" ref="ordinalpos=3&ncbi_uid=18069889&link_uid=18069889&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Self-regulation of <b>Candida</b> albicans population size during GI colonization.</a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>White</b> SJ, Rosenbach A, Lephart P, Nguyen D, Benjamin A, Tzipori S, Whiteway M, Mecsas J, Kumamoto CA. PLoS Pathog. 2007 Dec;3(12):e184</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="title">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And this week was Fusarium and we discussed:</span></div>
<div class="title">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20237561" ref="ordinalpos=4&ncbi_uid=20237561&link_uid=20237561&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f;">Comparative genomics reveals mobile pathogenicity chromosomes in <b>Fusarium</b>.</a> Ma LJ, van der Does HC, Borkovich KA, Coleman JJ, Daboussi MJ, Di Pietro A, Dufresne M,... Cuomo CA, <b>Kistler</b> HC, <b>Rep</b> M. <span class="jrnl" title="Nature">Nature</span>. 2010 Mar 18;464(7287):367-73. doi:10.1038/nature08850</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26083253" ref="ordinalpos=2&ncbi_uid=26083253&link_uid=26083253&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f;">Two <b>Cdc2</b> Kinase Genes with Distinct Functions in Vegetative and Infectious Hyphae in <b>Fusarium</b> <b>graminearum</b>.</a> Liu H, Zhang S, Ma J, Dai Y, Li C, Lyu X, Wang C, Xu JR. <span class="jrnl" title="PLoS pathogens">PLoS Pathog</span>. 2015 Jun 17;11(6):e1004913. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1004913</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="desc">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">While I planned to discuss each week individually, these end up going well together, plus this is a difficult time of the semester for me guaranteeing I can't write as frequently as I would like.</span></div>
<div class="desc">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="desc">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So we stay within the ascomycota for the first two weeks. Some things that I wanted to emphasize in class and that came from the students:</span></div>
<div class="desc">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What does it mean to be 'wild-type'? This came up with regards to a 'wild-type' genomic sequence. Is the CFTR mutation (the allele that causes cystic fibrosis when homozygous) a mutant genotype? Does the fact that in the caucasian population a cystic fibrosis causing mutation in the CFTR gene occurs with a frequency of 0.025 make a difference? What about the allele that causes sickle cell anemia when homozygous? People who have a 'mutant' allele and a 'normal' allele are more resistant to malaria, so this mutation is potentially beneficial.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How is phenotypic diversity generated in asexual organisms? This is an important question because sexual reproduction is promotes phenotypic diversity in many eukaryotes. However, there are significant issues associated with sexual reproduction that prevents using it as a simple explanation for phenotypic diversity.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How do organisms adapt to their environment and is a pathogen really any different from any other organism (short answer is 'no')?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How do duplicated genes evolve? This (Lui paper) goes hand-in-hand with the Candida Selmecki et al paper and the Fusarium Ma paper.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We'll be revisiting many of these issues throughout the semester. We spend a fair amount of time dealing with specific aspects of the papers, but I try to highlight some of these broader issues. This week we tackle<i> Cryptococcus neoformans</i> and will highlight at least one of the above issues again.</span></div>
</div>
The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-68338056568054367302017-09-06T20:58:00.000-06:002017-09-06T20:58:45.025-06:00First Eukaryotic Microbiology Classes<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since we do not start classes until after Labor Day, the first week represents a Wednesday, Friday week for my writing intensive Eukaryotic Microbiology course. I designed the course to run on a M/W/F cycle, so this first W/F week might seem problematic, but it is not. In fact, it works out extremely well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first day of class (today), involves discussing what is going on in the course and going over the syllabus. <a href="http://angrybychoice.fieldofscience.com/2014/09/first-class-in-books.html">Similar to last year</a>, in the first class I try getting students involved by having describe their goals and defining plagiarism. This year I focused the first lecture on the structure of the course and less time going in detail on the syllabus. It was only partially successful because I didn't get through the course set up but got through most of it. Luckily there's time to finish on Friday.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although I don't get too deep into the syllabus (the students can read), I do cover grades and how they are determined because this is an issue that cuts to the heart of many students. One thing I started doing last year in another class, is determining the course GPA. That is the GPA for the course, determined by the student grades. The last two years my Eukaryotic Microbiology course had a GPA of 3.0 and 2.7. I'm pretty happy with these GPAs overall, it means I am not giving out a ton of A's but the GPA is higher than one might expect for an introductory class (this is not an introductory class and is taken primarily by seniors in the major with a smattering of graduate students).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The class is generally set up as follows:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Monday: I give a standard lecture introducing the students to an organism and the relevant topics for the week.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Wednesday: Students present primary research papers. However, they don't actually present the paper, I have them answer some specific questions:</span></li>
</ul>
<ul><ul>
<li><span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">A. What question is the paper addressing and why do we care?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">B. Which conclusion do you think is the most interesting/important and why?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">C. Pick one figure that you think best supports your favorite conclusion and explain in detail how the data support the conclusion.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">D. What are the limitations of the data?</span></li>
<li><span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">E. Why are the conclusions important?</span></span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Questions A and E are only answered by the presenters, which is why they are struck out. These questions are derived from a document by Little and Parker (no longer available online, but they were at the University of Arizona). I like these because they focus the students in on a specific aspect of the paper, their favorite conclusion, which may be completely different than the press release or authors' overall conclusion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The students then focus in on the data that supports that conclusions and not the entirety of the paper. Essentially, I do not want the presenters to reiterate the paper to the class, everyone is required to read the papers so there is no need to reiterate them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The most difficult part is finding limitations or some issue(s) with the data/interpretation of data. I think students are trained to accept the literature and not rigorously go after the authors and their arguments, which, is in a nutshell, how science works. This one takes time and experience to get good at. Even excellent papers can have issues and I think one of my jobs is to get students comfortable with finding issues.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One thing I haven't told the students about is that the presenters have to give a 30 second elevator talk about the paper. I started doing this several years ago and I think it is extremely important. Basically, if you were an author and someone in the grocery store asked you about your work, how do you explain cogently and succinctly such that they are impressed and glad their tax dollars are supporting the work.</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Friday: Discussion of things. This varies markedly and is dependent on the students. I have a discussion board for them to ask questions, raise issues, provide feedback, etc. I do not post to these boards unless things are going off the rails and try to keep it a student oriented discussion board. (Once a prof posts a comment, all additional comments cease in my experience.)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On Friday, the second day of class, I will model what I expect out of the student presentations. We are reading "Complementary Adhesin Function in <i>C. albicans</i> Biofilm Formation' by Nobile et al. I also provided a review article 'Adhesion in Candida spp.' by Paula Sundstrom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I will give a 30" elevator talk and then give an oral presentation that covers answers to the above questions A-E. Students are required to provide written responses to questions B-D to get us started.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Starting Monday we really kick into gear, although we will stay with <i>Candida albicans</i>. FYI the topics we are covering are drug resistance and host environmental adaptation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My goal is to keep blogging about the course throughout the semester.</span>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-46145982651136503042017-08-21T17:58:00.000-06:002017-08-21T17:58:17.671-06:00How to Study: Repetition is good (which is why I post this every year)<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">With the onset of a new semester and a new crop of students having arrived or shortly arriving at college, here are some words of advice from someone who had to learn to study the hard way...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is an advice column for students looking for some techniques to improve their study habits. I am not an expert in learning, but I am an expert in being a college student with no fucking idea how to study and had to figure it out over the course of a year or two. I was one of those students who didn't have to do much to maintain an A/B average in high school. Although I was exposed to study skills and habits while in high school, none of it stuck because I really didn't need to study to do reasonably well. So here is what I learned that worked for me. If you have your own successful techniques, please feel free to add them in the comments.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Learning is an active process, it requires energy. It may not be as physically taxing as a 45 minute work out, but then again you may not be doing it right. What I discovered is that I learn when I do things, when I engage the material, when I'm an active participant. If it's a couple of days before the big exam and you're wondering to yourself '<i>What's the best way I can study? I know, I'll take some time to search online and get some tips.</i>' Well, if this is you, you're fucked or at least I don't have anything for you. Come back after your upcoming exam, my advice might help you for the next exam. Right now, you are in cram mode, so you better start cramming and not wasting your time reading blogs. I will admit that cramming works, to a degree. Cramming is a short term solution, getting enough material under you belt to survive or even succeed at the exam. But it's a long-term problem. Are you really in college to survive exams and classes? That was really high school wasn't it? Cramming is problematic because the material is never actually learned, it may come up again on the final, it will likely be important next semester or the semester after that in your more advanced classes. Learning and cramming both take energy, but the former is far less stressful and provides both short-term and long-term gains.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Step 1</b>. Find an environment to study in. Ultimately this became at my desk in the bedroom of my apartment. I also kept my stereo close by set at police notification level. I learned quickly that I could ignore the music, but sounds from the street, from the kitchen/dining/living room area, or from anywhere outside my room were distracting. To this day, when I'm working on grants or papers and do not want to be disturbed, I close my office door and crank up some music. Although I am a chaotic person by nature, my desk was neat and organized. I needed a place to work comfortably and that was it. My textbooks and notebooks were stacked in/on some milk crates I used for shelves. (These of course were the store bought kind of 'milk crates' not the easily available sturdy and inexpensive milk crates available behind 7/11s, like the one across the street of my apartment. Although if they were the illicit version, which they weren't, they would have been returned when I moved to go to graduate school.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Step 2</b>. Get a bunch of notebooks. I used spiral bound notebooks available for next to nothing at drug stores. Of course these notebooks will have absurd cover designs or pictures you would never in a million years gravitate towards (see picture of my Molecular Biology notebook). That's not the point. The point is what's inside the notebook, and that will be gold. I mixed up the designs on the notebooks I bought so I could easily identify which one I wanted. The alternative is to be flipping through them wondering if this is the black notebook Im looking for. Get one notebook for every class you take (except maybe for the golf/tennis/etc classes). Any class that has a lecture has its own notebook. No cheating by getting a three-subject notebook. Also, get a couple of additional notebooks.</span></div>
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These <a href="http://ninfield.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/design-classics-the-bic-crystal-ballpoint-pen/">things</a> are evidence of evil</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since you're at the drug store already, get some pens and pencils. I love pens, but despise cheap ass ball point pens. You'll be using these a lot, so get pens/pencils you are comfortable with. Make sure you get a variety of colors. I survived with black, blue, and red, but there is a veritable palate of colored inks now. Get what you love or at least can tolerate. I prefer mechanical pencils, but if you get classic ones, you better kick in for a decent pencil sharpener or two. Also grab some highlighters also in assorted colors.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Step 3.</b> Do the readings strategically. Chapter 3 is covered Wednesday? Read it through by Tuesday night. That isn't very strategic is it? The strategy is to skim read the text. Get a sense of what's in there and what will be the likely topics and points for the upcoming lecture. You don't need to be more than familiar with the material. (In the case of labs, this is not true. You must be intimately aware of the material, because you will be using that information in the lab. Hell, there may even be a quiz on the lab manual!)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Step 4</b>. Go to class. Although you probably couldn't pass a quiz on the readings material, the vocabulary is familiar. Now you already know a bit about the upcoming lecture. Gather up your pens and pencils and one of the extra notebooks. Leave your textbooks at home, along with the highlighters, and other notebooks. You don't need much.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Get to class on time and get a good seat. In large classes, I recommend a seat near to the front and in the middle where the professor can actually see you. Why? Psychology that's why. Take two students doing equally well, one student the professor recognizes, even if there is no name associated with the face, and one student the professor has barely, if ever, seen. If both come to discuss an issue regarding an examination or writing assignment, which one will have at least a sub-conscious advantage?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Open your notebook to page 1 get out a couple of writing implements and get ready. If the professor has handouts or, god forbid, print outs of the slides, then definitely pick them up, but DONT use them during the lecture (with rare exception). Your job is to take a shit ton of notes. Don't worry about neatness and perfection, just get the stuff written down. Write down the points on the slides, the drawings, incorporate what the professor is saying. <b>The very act of writing things down is helping you learn the material!</b> 'But we have the slide print outs, so why write stuff down?' you ask. In my more youthful days I would have responded with 'Because we didn't have the material presented to us, so stop being so fucking needy.' But in my dotage I think an example is better. What is another name for a television? Did 'idiot box' spring to mind? There's a reason for that. Some people watch tons of TV, these are not inherently the most educated people in the world. My mother loved to watch soap operas during the 70s, hours of soap operas. She was not an expert in social interactions because of this nor was she an expert story teller, she just watched a lot of soap operas. This is one of the biggest impediments to learning, fucking handouts. Remember I said learning was an active process. Lectures are not television. You should be doing something not just watching. The problem with handouts is that it facilitates the TV watching mentality. There are reasons to hand out the notes, which is why you are collecting them, but wait until later to use them. For now, take a shit ton of notes. Do not be tempted to put notes in the margin of the print outs, you bought the cheap ass notebook, so use it. (Plus you'll want a pristine copy of those hand outs for later.) So, you were in class sitting in a strategic location, you took a shit ton of notes, now what? Go to your next class and repeat using the same notebook.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Step 5</b>. THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP: The next day. So you went to all your classes, even the ones you think are boring, and you took a bunch of notes, even on things you think you know already. Now what? Hang out with friends, watch TV, play some PlayStation, then go to bed and the next day go to all your other classes. At some point on this second day, you need to carve out some studying time. When depends on your schedule. I did this in the mid-late-afternoon, because I was generally done with classes then. Go to your studying environment, get out your notes from yesterday, one of the fresh notebooks that will be specific for a specific class, any handouts, and your textbook. Now you will rewrite your notes in a more organized and legible manner. As you rewrite, you will refer to the text for additional points, and in your class-specific notebook you can either incorporate the textbook material or simple refer to the page numbers/figure numbers. Either redraw or cut out the handout figures you need and add them to your notebook. This could take as long as the original lecture, but probably won't. Regardless, you are now learning some serious material. The act of rewriting helps embed the information into your memory, by organizing the material in a manner that works for you (which is probably like it was presented) you are thinking about the material in total not simply one fact after another. You are also reading the text in a more in depth way, which is easier because you already skimmed it and went to the lecture. Do this for those boring easy classes too. It helps maintain good study habits and instead of simply learning the material, you'll own it. Another benefit is that if you do this, you will know before the next lecture what material you may not understand. This gives you a ton of time to meet with your colleagues, TAs, professor to get things straight.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Step 6</b>. When you finish going through the crappy notes, rip out the page(s) and throw them away. You don't need them anymore because they are rewritten and you'll feel good about the progress you made.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I won't guarantee these steps will improve your grade, but I do guarantee that they will improve your understanding and knowledge of the material.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Additional thoughts</b>:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>A</b>. Write in your textbooks, at least highlight important information. I used different colored highlighters for different purposes. Red was for definitions, blue was for what I thought were key concepts, green was for things referring to my class notebook. Will writing in your textbook reduce its value when you resell it? Well hopefully you will not resell it. Having that chemistry textbook could come in handy when you need to revisit something you forgot in your molecular biology class. If you absolutely do not want the book, why buy it in the first place? Probably you could borrow one from a colleague or use the library.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>B</b>. Scheduling. You need to prepare ahead of time when things are getting done. If you don't, you will almost certainly get behind or not have enough time. If you want to go to that party or game, you may need to start rewriting your notes earlier than normal to make sure you have enough time to finish before going out. Also, there will be several big assignments due for other classes throughout the semester, you'll need to be prepared for catching up on those notes you couldn't rewrite the day after class. (Don't get more than a class or two behind or you'll defeat the purpose of rewriting.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhmHA56BZb3cjjp4EMOe_f7iDXZfdbhnLjBmL7vX9dbReZukW-Ef612mOzOVG3lQmhzT4qOh8IwRahYYa6oZnOZwujImbbzSleDwt42WFXkSyDw0Gyn6DsY3yXc1M_CamwX0TV-TwkdudZ/s1600/no-phone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhmHA56BZb3cjjp4EMOe_f7iDXZfdbhnLjBmL7vX9dbReZukW-Ef612mOzOVG3lQmhzT4qOh8IwRahYYa6oZnOZwujImbbzSleDwt42WFXkSyDw0Gyn6DsY3yXc1M_CamwX0TV-TwkdudZ/s200/no-phone.jpg" width="126" /></a><b>C</b>. Turn off your phone. You can survive an hour or two without reading all those awesome texts and tweets coming in. A 30 second distraction actually amounts to much longer, because it takes time to get back to where you were before you were distracted. Every time you break focus, you are back to a more superficial level of learning and it takes some time to get back to that deeper level.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>D</b>. When it's test time, you'll find it much easier to study. The material is already there in your mind because you've been through it at least twice already. You may have to pull an occasional all-nighter, but it will be different than the cramming you did previously.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>E</b>. For the record, I still use these techniques to prepare grants and papers (see photo). I do a lot of background reading and have notebooks dedicated to taking notes on the papers, complete with different colored pens. This allows me to make connections and think about the material in a much deeper way than I would be able to otherwise. Same for seminars I attend, I bring a notebook.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">With those words of advice,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Good luck and have a great semester!</span><br />
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The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-76591078385385800682017-03-26T20:10:00.002-06:002017-03-26T20:10:50.421-06:00Why I'm Marching for Science<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Saturday April 22nd 2017 is Earth Day. It is also the day chosen for the March for Science. I was thinking about traveling to Washington DC to march, but will most likely be marching in Minnesota in the Twin Cities march (<span class="username u-dir" dir="ltr" style="color: #187b98; direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a class="ProfileCardMini-screennameLink u-linkComplex js-nav u-dir" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/ScienceMarchMN" style="color: #187b98; direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; unicode-bidi: embed;">@<span class="u-linkComplex-target">ScienceMarchMN</span></a></span>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are numerous reasons why I'm marching. The most obvious reason for me is that science has been under a constant attack by republicans the last few decades, and these attacks reached a tipping point for me in the last election. Anti-science viewpoints do not know party lines but democrats have not been a constant opponent of science, disparaging scientists, scientific agencies, education, etc. If the previous two statements have your face turning red and mental spittle flying, then there's little point in reading further even though what I want to express in this essay is not specifically a republican/democrat comparison.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to suggest that if, as a nation, we have decided that science is the enemy, that we don't need to hear from any more experts, that we make our own reality, then its time to close up shop. We can unequivacolly state that we no longer want a more perfect union, we do not want to promote the general welfare or provide for the common defense, nor are we interested in our posterity. We can still have a government that makes, executes, and interprets law, but let's not kid ourselves that we care about the mission statement outlined in the Preamble of the Constitution of the USA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why do I say this? It seems that I'm linking our system of government and science and if so is that appropriate. I think it is. As a student of public education, a few decades removed, I remember learning about the Enlightenment and how Enlightenment ideas and thinking influenced the founding fathers. For those who may have forgotten, these ideas were a focus on reason, logic, science (as it existed at that time), etc. as a way to improve our lot in the universe. Enlightenment principles led to things like the Preamble. Don't take my word for it, you can read what the framers thought by reading The Federalist Papers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our government was founded on the idea of rationale policy and governance, on the use of logic and honest debate to inform decision making, on science to explain what was true and what was not. If we have decided as a nation that allegiance to party is more important than making informed decisions, then why waste time pretending we care about our system of government anymore?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've spent some amount of time thinking about why this concept is so difficult and anathema to many people. I think in part it is because when we think about 'logic' or 'rationality' or 'science', we think these are simple terms easy to understand. Kind of like we all went to school, so we all feel like we understand a teacher's job. Let's take the example of 'logic', that should be easy. The fact is many books have been devoted to this topic and many more will be. When I say logic, probably a lot of people think along the lines of:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If A=B and B=C, then A=C</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is true and this is logic, but it's logic at its simplest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How about another example many people are familiar with that may not be so simple.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You see a train coming down the line and it is going to hit and kill five people, you can flip the switch so the train goes onto another track, but it will kill one person there. What do you do?</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Simple? How about...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You see a train coming down the line and it is going to hit and kill five felons, you can flip the switch so the train goes onto another track, but it will kill one person there. What do you do?</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Simple? How about...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You see a train coming down the line and it is going to hit and kill five white girls aged 14-15 but they are felons, you can flip the switch so the train goes onto another track, but it will kill one person there. What do you do?</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Simple? How about...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You see a train coming down the line and it is going to hit and kill five elderly people, you can flip the switch so the train goes onto another track, but it will kill one child there. What do you do?</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We can go on and on. Some people will not flip the switch in the first case, because that would in fact make them the murderer of one person, although they saved five. Others would say they'd flip the switch in heartbeat in that example, but then what happens in the latter examples. I say the first case is a logical decision because the needs of the many (5 people) outweigh the needs of the few (1 person). In this case, I'm making it a simple numbers game. In the subsequent examples, I'm including information that may impact the value of the people in question such that the raw numbers may not matter as much. Speaking of value, what if in case 2, I point out they were non-violent felons, would your choice change?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's get back to science. Science requires logic, but it is more than logic as science requires observation, making inferences based on these observations (aka hypotheses), conducting experiments, and then interpretation of the data, and repeat. Both making inferences and interpreting data requires logic but also requires creativity and imagination of possibilities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our legislators need to write laws to accomplish the mission statement described in the Preamble. The world is a dynamic place as is society so we constantly need new laws. For example, we need a new budget every year, there are problems that need to be solved, etc. How are laws written? This is where science plays an important role.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let's say people who lived in communities in the 1950s downwind of nuclear test sites got cancer at a much higher rate than people living elsewhere. First, this is only discovered serendipitously because doctors in these areas see more cases of cancer than they expected based on their training (that's because by and large people don't move too far). One possibility is that the training was shoddy, so the doctors call colleagues who work elsewhere and learn that their colleagues find cancer at a rate they learned about in medical school. This seems like a real problem, so now some epidemiologists are called in to look more closely at the situation and they find that after controlling for other factors, like diet, age, etc. people downwind of nuclear testing sites are in fact much more likely to come down with cancer. Congress is mobilized, there's a problem that needs solving.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's where science and politics separate. There are many issues and repercussions involved here. A law could ban nuclear testing within 50 miles of downwind communities. Is that sufficient distance? We could change the law to make it 500 miles, is that even possible? A law could ban above ground testing, would that prevent the problem? It would if the problem was aerosolized radioactive compounds, but not if the cancer was due radioactive compounds seeping into the water supply. Or we could attack the epidemiologists for being in the pocket of big-antinuke with an agenda trying to get rid of jobs on nuclear testing facilities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Look at what happened with the smoking-lung cancer science. It took decades and hundreds of thousands of lives before the cigarette companies agreed that smoking causes cancer. The list can go on and on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Legislators have a difficult job and we should elect the best and brightest and bravest. If based on scientific studies, it is shown that a new yet inexpensive chemical used on farms kills shrimp, what does a legislator do? If they propose a law banning the chemical, an entire industry and all the employees of said company are out of work. If you don't ban the chemical, the shrimpers on the coasts will be devastated. Maybe you propose banning the use of the chemical near estuaries near the coasts, but this puts farmers in those regions at a disadvantage to those who are not near these areas. Here's where bravery comes in, is a legislator in Iowa going to consider the shrimpers, the industrialists, or the farmers? What about the Mississippi legislators?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Science can tell us much, but it cannot necessarily tell us policy. In the shrimp example, science will also tell us that shrimp are a primary food source of many fish and ultimately mammals. If the shrimp fail, the fish fail and the whales fail, if the fish fail the seals fail and the sharks fail. The impact is not limited to shrimp. Of course if farm costs go up, food prices go up which means less spending on other areas across the country. Making policy is difficult, there are very few, if any, truly 'everybody wins' scenarios. The question I expect politicians to be able to answer is 'why did you vote the way you did?' I expect a politician to explain the pros and cons of their choices and if they can't articulate both the good and bad and back those claims up with data, then what good are they? We might as well make decision based on our guts or 'common sense' whatever that means.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is why I march for science. Many politicians are ideologues, chickenshit, or both. The worst are the chickenshit ideologues, which represents much of the republican caucus. These are the folks who want a specific policy to go through, kind of a 'we are going to throw the switch on the train track' regardless of the scenario. When scientists point out that there are two people on the track now and 50 young adults on the other track, politicians attack the scientists or the data. Companies that can make money off switches that change tracks can pay 'scientists' to suggest the possibility that maybe there aren't 50 people on the other track because its tough to tell the difference between 47 and 50 and therefore any other number. I 'March for Science' because the legislators in Congress applied for and advocated for a difficult job and they are deciding en masse they don't want to do their job or at least not be held accountable for what they do. They are often not the best nor the brightest and are generally not the bravest. They are too scared to make a decision that may hurt their constituents even if it benefits the greater good, so they lie, obfuscate, and attack those who point out the problems in order to get reelected. A brave legislator tells the farmer that they voted to ban the chemical because it adversely effects shrimpers and so many others; an honest legislator tries to offset the hit the farmer takes through tax credits or other mechanisms. Our legislators* do not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So as a citizen of the USA, a father, and a scientist, I will march because science is essential for the government to make effective policy and to be held accountable for that policy. I march because I want our representatives to be honest, I want them to be accountable to the people who voted for them and able to defend decisions that in the short term may hurt their constituents. If you are too scared to do the job, do something else. Most people are reasonable and if you explain why a hurt is happening and can explain how you are dealing with that hurt, you will get much in return. When you act like your constituents are petulant children, you can't be surprised when they act that way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*there are a few, very few, exceptions.</span>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-23269410371342915552017-03-05T07:26:00.000-06:002017-03-05T07:26:59.096-06:00Myths of Evolution: I<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I 'belong' to a Creation-Evolution debate group on Facebook. Probably 'follow' is a better word than belong. My reason for joining was to see what arguments were given from the other side in the hope that I would see some nuanced discussion/rationales for creationism. Of course, what I see is the general troll-level argument you get on any website. Essentially the Ken Hamm approach to science and biology. It being the internet, I am not surprised and don't generally participate (hence the 'follow' as opposed to 'belong'). Hell, I'll even admit to providing troll-master-level responses to some creationist posts, albeit with you know data and shit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My ultimate goal in joining this group was to hear from the other side and potentially use that as a jumping off point for some posts where I could provide some information for others who may have the same questions or be thinking along the same lines. Because the Facebook posts are essentially the equivalent of 30 year olds living in their parents' basement complaining about Lady Gaga's stomach during the Super Bowl halftime show, this goal hasn't come to fruition from my end. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Still I saw this recent post which made me cringe from the potential waste of a young mind. Also, it reminded me of the culpability of teachers and scientists who teach a linear version of the history of life. Here's the post and associated picture (the picture is fairly well known):</span>
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<span style="color: red;">It seems finding evidence against evolution is child's play. One of my friends told his young daughter that some people believed we evolved from apes, and her immediate reply was, why aren't there still ape-men today?</span></blockquote>
<a class="_6o4 clearfix _5aqh _5dec _9_n" href="https://scontent.flhr4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/16831898_572965332900198_7075583732965598683_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=3acb09534336e12f2d8da427a77c89e8&oe=59324BE4" style="box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0470588) 0px 1px 1px; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; max-height: 476px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 44px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="scaledImageFitWidth img" height="400" src="https://external-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQD4h3fru4RNmW_D&w=476&h=476&url=https%3A%2F%2Fscontent.flhr4-1.fna.fbcdn.net%2Fv%2Ft1.0-9%2Ffr%2Fcp0%2Fe15%2Fq65%2F16831898_572965332900198_7075583732965598683_n.jpg%3Fefg%3DeyJpIjoidCJ9%26oh%3D3acb09534336e12f2d8da427a77c89e8%26oe%3D59324BE4&_nc_hash=AQB52MQwDW-H8Vb_" style="border: 0px; height: auto; min-height: 100%; position: relative; width: 476px;" width="400" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sadly, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">if the story is true a father lost a teachable moment and my experience is that those don't come around as often as you might expect. Anyway let's break this down:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> '<span style="color: red; font-size: 14px;">It seems finding evidence against evolution is child's play.</span>' Sure, it seems like finding evidence is child's play, but reality doesn't work like that. It seems like the earth is flat. I bet if you ask an uneducated child to draw the earth, they would not draw a sphere unless they were taught is was a sphere previously. It seems like a volume of water wouldn't be larger when it was frozen, but I wouldn't but a full glass of water in the freezer if I were you. It seems like the sun moves across the sky not that the earth is spinning beneath it. Actually finding examples that discount the 'seems' approach to understanding the universe is in fact child's play.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'<span style="color: red; font-size: 14px;">some people believed we evolved from apes</span>' Hell, let's go all the way and say some people currently believe we evolved from an ape-like ancestor. It's not a past tense kind of thing. Some people believe a male was specifically created by a god ~6000 years ago and a woman was cloned from his rib (apparently without a Y chromosome). I would be more comfortable if I could write it as '</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some people <b>believed</b> a male was specifically created by a god ~6000 years ago and a woman was cloned from his rib.' I left off the snarky part because this is now a historical comment and I'm not going to call out people who didn't have the benefit of current knowledge.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 14px;">her immediate reply was, why aren't there still ape-men today?</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">' I don't have a problem with this question being asked, although I highly expect that either the question wasn't asked this way or that the set up was different (shorter version: I believe the entire story is a lie). The fact that the daughter said 'ape-men' when the premise never uses the term suggests it is fabricated or at least embellished. Regardless, let's say she asked this question or one very similar. This should not be the end of the story but the beginning of the story. As a father, teacher, even simply a member of the human species, I would redirect her and use it as one of those infrequent teachable moments. For example, 'that's a great question, but maybe we should back up and ask why some people believe that'. This of course requires some honesty and openness on the part of the father, which based on the post is not apparent. Essentially if we want to obtain more knowledge about the universe as it exists, we need to ask for evidence and to evaluate it. In the absence of time or energy, we should in fact defer to experts who have had the time and energy to ask for, evaluate, and potential obtain the evidence.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second, the picture is objectively factually wrong. There are m(b)illions of humans (shown on the right). Of course the default human is a white man, because of course it is. However, there are not millions of the ape-like ancestor on the right, because they are all dead. The picture suggests we evolved from modern species still in existence, which is not how evolution works. This is why you don't get to have Sunday dinner with your great great great grandmother, she's dead. But you can have Sunday dinner with you cousin 5 times removed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is a more accurate picture:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBAcL3xVkXxxAH88En69h3FDLyy1yYjyuFvvU7f6bl9s-iOjST7XxwHK0Fn8IfDreGKtAO_YNDFAMi2GiYbS7sYXNYXeqXRmoGREnAbYCl-oGhpOCg6uaYONJQFnecKJRUjh515v9-dYTk/s1600/BvGebGNCQAEclTZ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBAcL3xVkXxxAH88En69h3FDLyy1yYjyuFvvU7f6bl9s-iOjST7XxwHK0Fn8IfDreGKtAO_YNDFAMi2GiYbS7sYXNYXeqXRmoGREnAbYCl-oGhpOCg6uaYONJQFnecKJRUjh515v9-dYTk/s400/BvGebGNCQAEclTZ.jpg" width="251" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (Tangent: there are not millions of chimpanzees left, there's much less than a million, there are not a million of all the non-human apes (chimps, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans) combined on the planet, this is a sad.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Third, there is blame to lay at the feet of scientists, teachers, publishers, etc who at least subconsciously promote the viewpoint shown in the first picture. For example, a google search for 'evolution' reveals a majority of pictures like:</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIeSwryhWRkei4xwbchvHegzHNymQe8k8TLb5L5mwI6wy7RfSsyJeAgxtUEMBXUXzTFtDYKg2NWVGFcfFQGdQXyQCmirftW6RDpHuivRi64u7wsIpXvBdhMddLHwS9ao9xH4MedKkax2Ni/s1600/evolitio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIeSwryhWRkei4xwbchvHegzHNymQe8k8TLb5L5mwI6wy7RfSsyJeAgxtUEMBXUXzTFtDYKg2NWVGFcfFQGdQXyQCmirftW6RDpHuivRi64u7wsIpXvBdhMddLHwS9ao9xH4MedKkax2Ni/s320/evolitio.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><a href="http://www.frontrangeforum.org/courses/a-laymans-study-of-human-evolution/">From the Front Range Forum</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Searching for 'diversity of life' shows most pictures similar to this one:</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFAKGgfuy3kW2GabjSmUJoXc1TaMWI-r4g1YM3qxnRtNITicA2HEGxlyVSEWQOdnfLrfQeOt4TldEXpbUuwaS2zoeepbet1vCeTZWPaeIBRV5GV8U_JIqUgMmsSdl_Af_gmPhtd2Nc949n/s1600/Timeline_evolution_of_life.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFAKGgfuy3kW2GabjSmUJoXc1TaMWI-r4g1YM3qxnRtNITicA2HEGxlyVSEWQOdnfLrfQeOt4TldEXpbUuwaS2zoeepbet1vCeTZWPaeIBRV5GV8U_JIqUgMmsSdl_Af_gmPhtd2Nc949n/s320/Timeline_evolution_of_life.svg.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Timeline_evolution_of_life.svg">Evolution of Life</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The issue is that evolution in these panels is shown as a linear pathway from one form to another culminating in humans. We are amazing organisms, but are we any more amazing than a moss, which can harness the light of the sun to pull carbon dioxide out of the air to make food? Are we so much better than bacteria that can breathe rocks? We are not the culmination of evolution, all other life is at at least as evolved as we are. A strong argument can be made that most organisms are more evolved than we are as they have much shorter generation times and thus reproduce faster than we do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The rebuttal picture I included is much more accurate because it shows that modern chimpanzees and humans evolved from a common ancestor. Based on general looks, the common ancestor may compare better to the chimpanzee, but both the chimpanzee and human are as distantly related to this common ancestor as you and your sibling are to your great grandmother. (In fact, we can make that picture more accurate by including another branch coming off the lineage leading to the chimpanzees that ends at the bonobos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you're going to discuss evolution and try to explain it to others, please use branching trees, especially those that do not implicitly suggests humans are the most evolved (at the pinnacle of a tree or at the edge). Here's a great example of a tree showing human evolution:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjin9xyeCDSFHvFhsWq_05pmE4zEmX833hvNWs7Tqm9p4DWycpvBUTic6rWq0y_HFm_V0tF30OYpk1ftFWomZiKvh2Et5QkamZzELRiBLRj88145IG9T-ixzufegTROWQ7P_X5q-WPdaQbl/s1600/3883ae59ddeba67b85aa1734fa58c233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjin9xyeCDSFHvFhsWq_05pmE4zEmX833hvNWs7Tqm9p4DWycpvBUTic6rWq0y_HFm_V0tF30OYpk1ftFWomZiKvh2Et5QkamZzELRiBLRj88145IG9T-ixzufegTROWQ7P_X5q-WPdaQbl/s320/3883ae59ddeba67b85aa1734fa58c233.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.quora.com/If-Humans-and-Chimps-evolved-from-the-same-common-ancestor-why-is-a-chimp-a-chimp-and-a-human-a-human">A less egocentric view of evolution</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(I know humans are at the top, but notice the y-axis is a timeline. The things at the top still exist, the chimpanzees and humans, the organisms further down are extinct.)</span></div>
</div>
</div>
The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-33818295437523621452017-01-23T22:25:00.000-06:002017-01-23T22:25:36.248-06:00Welcome to the 4th Reich part 1.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've been perusing the whitehouse.gov site and this is something I've seen</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEkDzJiqbOWHMSqDJDe3Qgoo0uRf7bTz4U7wGIqVB6Uk0GbcyJ6rD2-wf4i8tWZiORRYbtc49RwDwTlYlfxORFHQQg9D1aoxbzNZ8rXyb08LeYzzie65cEzRF8y7Vt16FjvXWtMoBNexCt/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-01-23+at+9.53.45+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEkDzJiqbOWHMSqDJDe3Qgoo0uRf7bTz4U7wGIqVB6Uk0GbcyJ6rD2-wf4i8tWZiORRYbtc49RwDwTlYlfxORFHQQg9D1aoxbzNZ8rXyb08LeYzzie65cEzRF8y7Vt16FjvXWtMoBNexCt/s400/Screen+Shot+2017-01-23+at+9.53.45+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Making Our Military Strong Again?!?!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What the fuck does that even mean?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are some facts, albeit not 'alternative facts' aka not shit I make up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's how much of our discretionary budget goes to the military:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg84nxODzWEFizsM13Xt7TvR7zx6ldYH8HHhb0BFE_Xph0tv6tZwV5KbfpH0Y9ZMLYRSfQnDQ_137kmC1tr195m_f6Iz6zZS3Jf5wg4TWB_LApBut2gpDxFgBOIDyCy8YOcpb-XnWIEA5c0/s1600/discretionary_spending_pie%252C_2015_enacted.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg84nxODzWEFizsM13Xt7TvR7zx6ldYH8HHhb0BFE_Xph0tv6tZwV5KbfpH0Y9ZMLYRSfQnDQ_137kmC1tr195m_f6Iz6zZS3Jf5wg4TWB_LApBut2gpDxFgBOIDyCy8YOcpb-XnWIEA5c0/s400/discretionary_spending_pie%252C_2015_enacted.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states/</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Over half of the discretionary budget goes to the military, although it's more than this graph shows because I think you should include Veteran's benefits (6%) into this figure at the very least. So at least 60% of all discretionary funding goes to the military. (No mention of unfunded wars in this graph.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How does the US stack up against the planet earth?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8JfO1flYYiNyLaf_gsUckWdSL7Zv7_8EH62AbXxTeE7zKD02D8FYdy1uDrgQOnD4Uz7ZgLq0h2lJg5BwWapeIOBJDO82-KQk_1PlPC3p3uVEki3I4fBzChytTlhqDzZJ69diCMkgj2zn/s1600/4A8078449E794DFB8CC33ADD00A6F1AF.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8JfO1flYYiNyLaf_gsUckWdSL7Zv7_8EH62AbXxTeE7zKD02D8FYdy1uDrgQOnD4Uz7ZgLq0h2lJg5BwWapeIOBJDO82-KQk_1PlPC3p3uVEki3I4fBzChytTlhqDzZJ69diCMkgj2zn/s400/4A8078449E794DFB8CC33ADD00A6F1AF.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">From <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts/?utm_term=.48ddea5eb877">Fake News</a> aka people who disagree with <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Der Furher</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well not the planet earth, but the next 13 highest spending countries don't spend as much on the military as we do COMBINED! You might notice that France, UK, Japan, Germany, South Korea etc. are our allies. With Trump being in you might want to throw Russia in as an ally.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'HCo Whitney', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1599999964237213px;">President Trump will end the defense sequester and submit a new budget to Congress outlining a plan to rebuild our military. We will provide our military leaders with the means to plan for our future defense needs.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This quote is right from whitehouse.gov. So I'm guessing Trump needs more money for the military. I wonder why, is it to have shiny new tanks driving down Pennsylvania Ave for the State of the Union? We spend more than China by roughly 6x! This raises the question, if we spend so much of our fucking money on the military, but (in Trump's world) the military is so fucking horrible, why in the world would we throw more money at them? They'll just fucking waste it right?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm wondering if Trump and company will bring up 'data' like we have fewer ships in the navy than in 1860. If so, I'll pit one destroyer against the entire 1860 US navy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe our military needs more money, I want to know why. I want a justification, because the numbers I see tell me different. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-77794563998727347012017-01-16T22:14:00.000-06:002017-01-16T22:14:50.969-06:00Reviewing grants for NIH vs NSF: a comparisonDuring my career, I have reviewed grant proposals for both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The standard NIH research proposal is called the R01, generally giving 5 years of funding to a research lab; the standard NSF proposal generally gives 3 years of support to a research lab. By and large, an NIH award will provide more funding than a NSF award on a per year basis.<br />
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How the process works in general terms:<br />
After an investigator(s) writes a proposal to either agency, the proposal is assigned to a study section or panel for review. The study section/panel is comprised of expert researchers in the general research area the proposal is about. Specific experts are recruited based on the specific proposals submitted such that there is at least one expert working in the area of each proposal. In general, reviewers receive a stack of 8-15 proposals to review. Reviewing takes a lot of time and energy with reviewers often referring to the literature to get up-to-date on specific topics. Ultimately, the reviewers all gather together in a room to discuss the proposals and make recommendations for which proposals get funded and which do not. At the NIH, reviewers have much more influence on which proposals obtain funding than NSF. In part, this is because NSF is legally bound to ensure funding is spread across the country and to different types of institutions, the NSF program officers have to superimpose the reviewer recommendations with these other criteria to make funding decisions. (To be clear, proposals NSF reviewers find to be fundamentally flawed are not funded simply to spread the wealth.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkkbjhsvGlyj7UFE6_Vr1X7z-3idhK28BPIUF_ak28m-cePgltybwUIMe2UNDBiZ9-L98ImyRVSrVT5hKfu0n4Q4w4iphLBML4ilFSXxyopGbG2zKScPquFGuBlM9ZE0KBnfTTQYfGQ-P/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkkbjhsvGlyj7UFE6_Vr1X7z-3idhK28BPIUF_ak28m-cePgltybwUIMe2UNDBiZ9-L98ImyRVSrVT5hKfu0n4Q4w4iphLBML4ilFSXxyopGbG2zKScPquFGuBlM9ZE0KBnfTTQYfGQ-P/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://news.usc.edu/72165/reviewing-grants-can-be-a-mystifying-process/">A generic stack of grants to review</a></td></tr>
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Once the initial reviews are written though, the process is fundamentally different between NIH and NSF. I believe the NSF model is profoundly better than the NIH model and I'll explain why using a specific rationale that I think is readily justified but also anecdotes, which I realize do not count as data and are therefore less reliable. (Full disclosure, I have reviewed grants for both institutions, have submitted proposals to both institutions, and have been funded by NIH but not NSF.)<br />
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What happens at NIH pre-meeting:<br />
When you review a proposal you score it on a variety of criteria using a 1 - 10 point scale (1 being the best). You also give your proposal an overall score. For your stack of proposals, you are supposed to spread out your scores such that you don't give every proposal 1s across the board. A reviewer has to note both the strengths and weaknesses of the proposal for each of the criteria which is the basis of the review. Any given proposal is reviewed by 3 reviewers (sometimes more, but generally not). Once all the proposals are reviewed and scored, this information is sent to NIH and the information becomes available to the other reviewers. Thus, a reviewer cannot 'cheat' and see what the other reviewers think before writing their own critique.<br />
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For a given proposal titled 'XYZ' that is reviewed by reviewers Dr. 123, Dr. 456, and Dr. 789, a different proposal titled 'ABC' would be reviewed by Dr. 123, Dr. 045, and Dr. 232, and a third proposal titled 'JKL' is reviewed by Dr. 123, Dr. 045, and Dr. 789. The point here is that different groups of reviewers are reviewing different proposals. However, there is generally overlap of reviewers because they share similar expertise. Say the study section is on signal transduction in eukaryotic systems, there might be a group of 6 experts who work with mouse models, another 8 experts who work in fungal systems, and 6 more experts who work with Drosophila. So generally speaking, every proposal using mouse models (and likely other mammalian models) would be reviewed by 3 out of the 6 experts who work with mouse models. Say there are 15 proposals in the study section (out of 90) studying mammalian signal transduction, then you should see that these are being reviewed by a specific cohort of the entire study section. Same for the proposals using fungi as a model and proposals using invertebrates as a model.<br />
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What happens at NIH during the meeting:<br />
At NIH, once all the proposals are scored, they are ranked with the lowest overall score (based on the 3 reviewers) being ranked first. Depending on the cohort your proposal falls into, this could work for or against you. Some reviewers score high (more likely to give 1s) than others. So one reviewer's 2.2 may be another reviewers 1.3, even if they are equally enthusiastic about their respective proposals. Based on the luck of the (reviewer) draw your proposal might be scored as the 10th best, but with a different draw that same proposal might be scored as the 1st (best) proposal for the entire study section. Here's the outcome of this situation, proposals are discussed in their rank order, so the lowest scoring (best) proposal is discussed first, second best discussed 2nd, third best discussed 3rd. Of the 90 or so proposals submitted only the top third is actually discussed by the entire group, the other two-thirds are 'triaged' (i.e. not discussed). Of those discussed only a handful are actually funded, 0-4. As the group discusses a proposal the 'best' proposal is described to the entire panel most of whom have not read the proposal at least not in any depth. Usually the first page (the Specific Aims) is read by everyone, but generally not much else of the proposal. After the brief presentation where the reviewers go over their strengths and weaknesses, any member of the panel can ask questions or comment. If a reviewer gave a proposal a 1.3 but stated nothing but weaknesses, the question would inevitably arise 'why did you score this so high?' Once the discussion is complete, the three reviewers give revised scores (generally they change little and if so move towards the mean). The entire panel then enters their own score for the proposal, which is generally the average of the three reviewers. Then the panel moves on to the next grant.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikOI0tixSfjz-Crt3xR-Imbe-wjc_9edJhwmrCCzcqf5ZlEF0EAvTQy0nxCpkgMCun-ZuPafQvZLctJbEls6UvZVb7WWF5bJdMnTlVDqfVEBC85ltqDo9EJ8iP7-E7tWzy4FC3YlVBSS2Q/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikOI0tixSfjz-Crt3xR-Imbe-wjc_9edJhwmrCCzcqf5ZlEF0EAvTQy0nxCpkgMCun-ZuPafQvZLctJbEls6UvZVb7WWF5bJdMnTlVDqfVEBC85ltqDo9EJ8iP7-E7tWzy4FC3YlVBSS2Q/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institutes_of_Health">NIH</a> (FYI panels take place at a hotel not here)</td></tr>
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How can this go wrong?<br />
First, there is the psychological issue that the panelists know they are discussing the proposals from 'best' to 'worst'. Even though a reviewer may love their proposal, which was ranked 10th, it is not discussed until after nine other proposals. These reviewers may lower their ultimate score to reflect this, but the entire panel knows it was 10th and the reviewers are changing their scores to make it not be 10th, rightly or wrongly.<br />
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Confounding this issue is the majority of grants are solid good proposals that should be funded. That me rephrase that, the top 20 proposals (or so) in a study section are solid excellent proposals. Hell, you could take the top 10-15 and (in general terms) the scientific/impact difference between the top 10-15 proposals is negligible, yet only the top few have any chance of funding. This means that once you reach a certain point, funding is really a luck issue and nothing more. In fact, there have been suggestions of putting the top proposals into a lottery to determine funding. This is not a new problem. When I was trying to obtain my first R01, I submitted my last attempt at funding for one project (you had three attempts). Based on previous critiques and scores, I was confident of funding. However, one of the main parts of an Aim had been completed and published during the time I spent on the first and second submission. It would be stupid to propose doing published stuff, so I changed that Aim to focus on the follow up studies based off of what we had published. The third submission was triaged (it was actually discussed because I was a new investigator, but was scored in the triaged range), and the biggest issue was that I had reworked an Aim and 'we have not had a chance to fix it.' (Quote from the actual reviewer.) My program officer recommended I resubmit with a new title as a new proposal, which of course I did. This 'first' submission was funded and received one of the lowest (best) possible scores. My point is how arbitrary the system can be.<br />
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Second, people suck. On a study section I have served on (ad hoc) numerous times, there are two distinct factions based on the type of organism each faction studies. Some members of one of these factions would read and critique the high ranking proposals of the other faction in order to present 'issues' and 'faults' during the discussion session. This is completely valid if everything is equal, but this was done with the goal of diminishing the high ranking proposals of the other faction in order to increase the standing of proposals from their faction. (In other words it was not done to critically evaluate the science across the board but in a strategic way to help their colleagues and their field.)<br />
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Third, (and most importantly in my opinion) the scoring is done blind. Apart from the three reviewers, the rest of the panel scores the proposal in secret (again based on my discussions with panel members it is usually the average of the three reviewers). Once a proposal is scored it is not brought up or discussed again.<br />
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What happens at NSF pre-meeting:<br />
It's pretty much the same as described above for NIH, however there is not a 1-10 scale but a qualitative scale (Excellent, Very good, Good, Not competitive). There are still 3 reviewers, there are still strengths and weaknesses, there are still cohorts based on areas of expertise. NSF proposals are broken up into two sections the 'intellectual merit' basically the science being proposed, and the 'broader impacts' basically how does this benefit society. Each of these sections is a critical part of the review, have an excellent intellectual merit, but no real broader impacts and your proposal is not scored well.<br />
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What happens at NSF during the meeting:<br />
At the surface level, its similar to NIH. However, the proposals are not pre-ranked/pre-scored. The order of discussion is based on reviewer availability as some ad hocs call in. It's also based on the leadership of NSF some of whom may be interested in a specific area and want to sit in to hear the discussion in an area they are familiar with. (At NSF the program officers are practicing scientists who have taken a multi-year leave from their research institution to serve at NSF, the upper leadership are usually 'permanent' staff at NSF).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbIpJ40FoPQd2DTW3Tg0pVVlUcUKItOowG-DBUOSqofJfdmT7RqC0UKLclpOUMrgF4RBreQMSZO653n6tvehsCFffWwYZePhhDhRnMpNT24InWmS10zJ2cswkqTR5wCejAMUn-8GQ8RVzO/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbIpJ40FoPQd2DTW3Tg0pVVlUcUKItOowG-DBUOSqofJfdmT7RqC0UKLclpOUMrgF4RBreQMSZO653n6tvehsCFffWwYZePhhDhRnMpNT24InWmS10zJ2cswkqTR5wCejAMUn-8GQ8RVzO/s320/3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.federaltimes.com/articles/dell-federal-lands-88m-nsf-it-help-desk-contract">NSF headquarters</a> (FYI panels take place here!)</td></tr>
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Proposals are discussed by the reviewers and then a general discussion takes place. This discussion is more robust than what I have observed on NIH study sections. Once the discussion is done, the panel, not the reviewers, suggests a category to put the proposal in (again either Excellent, Very good, Good, Not competitive). The Very good and Good categories are further broken up into two groups I and II to distinguish the very very good and the not so good goods.) After the panelists make a recommendation, the reviewers can agree/disagree and another mini-discussion can ensue. Regardless, the proposal under consideration is placed on the board. (This is an excel spreadsheet projected on the wall.) We then move on to the next proposal.<br />
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A key difference is that once a proposal is placed, it can be discussed further. This is particularly important when two similar proposals get profoundly different rankings. We can then discuss why. At NSF proposals can move around a lot. Furthermore, everyone at the table has to agree on the categories and position within the categories of every proposal (we still decide on the most excellent, the 2nd most excellent, the 3rd most excellent, etc.). I may not agree with the ultimate position of every proposal on the board, but as a group we are in agreement.<br />
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How can this go wrong?<br />
First, psychology still exists. If the reviewers score a proposal Excellent or Not competitive, as a panelist you are influenced by this. I did not read every proposal (although often I and the other panelists will read particularly contentious proposals at night before we meet the second day). Regardless, those initial critiques carry weight even if we know it happens and try to avoid it.<br />
<br />
Second, people still and always will suck (#Trump2016). My most recent NSF full proposal was not funded and one of the reviews referred to me as 'she' and 'her' whereas the other reviewers referred to me as 'the investigator' or 'Dr. XYZ' (this is standard boilerplate when talking about the researcher). I'm not saying the reviewer was biased against me because they thought I was a woman, but its possible. This was the only time in close to two decades, I've read a such a condescending review that attempted to explain to my feeble girl-brain what science is and how it's done by 'real'-scientists. (Full disclosure, I'm not a woman and it doesn't matter anyway.) After talking with my program officer, my proposal was the one on the fence between funding and no funding, which unfortunately fell on the side on no funding. And here is why I think the NSF system us better...<br />
<br />
Why the NSF system is better:<br />
Regarding my unfunded NSF proposal: It is my fault it wasn't funded. I could complain about sexism and bias, but if my proposal had been slightly stronger the other reviewers would have gone to bat for me more and the panel would have placed my proposal higher and I would have been funded. This is not the case at NIH, one slightly not enthusiastic review can tank your proposal. I expect when my NIH proposal was dinged for getting too much done and rewriting an Aim the panel hadn't yet corrected, there was some brief discussion of this being not a reasonable critique (if the reviewer didn't actually say this out loud, it wouldn't be discussed period) and then the scores were adjusted somewhat. The reviewers who supported my proposal increased their scores slightly to show some semblance of reviewer cohesiveness and the reviewer who was an idiot decreased their score somewhat to 'fix' the BS critique and the panel scored to the mean, which amounted to triage. If the proposal had to be placed on a board and put in context with other proposals, then I doubt it would have been triaged and expect it would have been funded based on the score of the subsequent proposal.<br />
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In conclusion, I like the NSF system more because it is more transparent, accountable, and self-correcting.<br />
<br />
Some potential confounding factors:<br />
Success rates: There is really no difference in success rates between NIH and NSF, they both suck (#Trump2016) and essentially a lottery system of top proposals seems appropriate (although NSF has additional criteria that impact who gets awarded).<br />
<br />
Number of grants: My experience is that there is really no difference when it comes to the meetings. Some NSF programs have a preproposal (essentially their triage step) and then review 30 or so full proposals, which is about the NIH study section full review. I'll point out that every preproposal is reviewed too, there is no 'it wasn't good enough to discuss' category.<br />
<br />
Probably others I cannot think of now.<br />
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Also, I know none of this is #Trump2016's fault, but it is my go to hashtag to express contempt at the shortsightedness of one party (Republicans).The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-55889621674873302292017-01-06T21:54:00.000-06:002017-01-06T22:26:51.398-06:00Is Peer Review Broken?<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oh, you wanted more than that? Maybe some nuanced reflection on the issue of peer review? Ok, I'll give it a go, but I won't do nuance. Nuance died when Trump was elected, actually before that, but talk about nail in a coffin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There have <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/07/can-we-trust-peer-review-new-study-highlights-some-problems/">been</a> <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/135921/science-suffering-peer-reviews-big-problems">many</a> <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/peer-review-troubled-from-the-start-1.19763">stories</a> <a href="http://time.com/81388/is-the-peer-review-process-for-scientific-papers-broken/">floating</a> <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/23672/title/Is-Peer-Review-Broken-/">around</a> <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-1.1/peer.htm">for</a> <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/hank-campbell-the-corruption-of-peer-review-is-harming-scientific-credibility-1405290747">years</a> on the failings of peer review (the vetting of scientific studies by other expert scientists in the field prior to publication). These stories usually follow the publication of some study that is fundamentally flawed or unacceptable for any number of reasons. Several examples come to mind <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/332/6034/1163">Arsenic bacteria</a>, <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/244/4901/143">Cold fusion</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2785264/">Caterpillar hybridization</a>, etc. So questions 'Is Peer Review Broken? and If so, How Do We Fix It? come up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For those who live in the scientific universe you can skip the blue paragraphs, otherwise if you want a short breakdown of the process feel free to read them.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Once a group of scientists have made observations and gathered data, they write a story (aka scientific manuscript). I want to note this manuscript is a story, not in a fiction story sense, but in a narrative sense. The authors may not describe the experiments in the order they were conducted, because it makes a more logical narrative to describe things out of order. The authors may use their 20-20 vision to redescribe why an experiment was carried out, because at the time of writing the manuscript the original reason may not make sense in light of the narrative. Again, for those just looking to find reasons to disparage science, I'm not suggesting authors are manipulating data or trying to obscure their findings (although there are cases of this), I'm talking about making a compelling argument to convince a skeptical audience of experts that their interpretations of the data (aka conclusions) are correct.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Ok, once the manuscript is written revised and edited until most if not all the authors hate the thing, it is submitted to a scientific journal for publication. The journal then assigns the paper to an editor who then decides if the paper is of sufficient rigor and interest to the readers to actually get peer reviewed. If the paper passes this hurdle, the editor sends a number of requests to other scientists asking them to evaluate the manuscript, including the experimental approaches and interpretations of the conclusions. (There are some variations on this model, but most journals follow this model. Some have additional levels of scrutiny, but this tends to be early in the process and not by current scientists.) Many potential reviewers decline and the editor repeats sending out requests until, usually, at least 3 agree. The 3 reviewers then read and critique the manuscript and provide feedback to the authors and editor on the pros and cons of the manuscript, this is the PEER REVIEW component. At this point the editor makes a decision on the manuscript which ranges from (rarely) acceptance, editorial revisions, more experiments needed revisions, to outright rejection. The most common response is some kind of revision, either with or without more experiments, and the authors deal with those critiques and resubmit a revised manuscript. (In the case of outright rejection, the authors usually revise the manuscript based on the review comments and send the manuscript to another journal (They revise because the same reviewers are likely to see it.)) The manuscript can either be accepted/rejected by the editor or</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: blue;">(most commonly)</span><span style="color: blue;"> sent out for re-review</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Peer review, much like everything humans do, is a human endeavor. So it is subject to human limitations. This is not new or particular special, it's simply a fact that humans are not robots, have biases, and some even have ulterior motives. In a simplistic sense we can say peer review is broken, because people will and do make mistakes at all the levels described above. However, by this criteria peer review has always been broken and always will be broken. But this is a stupid criteria. Let's go through how this process can fail, because once we know how it can fail, we can make recommendations for how to fix it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. Poor editors</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This works for and against a manuscript. For you: The editor thinks your shit don't stink. They can send out your manuscript, when they wouldn't send out the same manuscript from a different group. They can pick reviewers they know to be 'easy' or can write the invitation letter in such a way to encourage a positive review. How can this latter event happen? An editor, who is an established scientist can send to one of their former graduate students/post-docs who is now an independent scientist the following invitation,</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dear Prof X, I have this manuscript I think would be a perfect fit for journal Y, do you have time to review it? Abstract attached below.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do you see how the letter could effect the review? You have <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/controversial-caterpillar-evolution-study-formally-rebutted/">extreme cases</a> like Lynn Margulis obtaining numerous reviews until she had 3 she could use to accept an atrocious paper in PNAS (ignoring all the reviews that noted the fundamental errors in the paper).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. Poor reviewers</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've been an editor for several journals. I can give you two easy reasons why you might get a poor review. First, you, as an editor, may not be an expert in the area the manuscript addresses. You might be generally aware of the area, but are certainly no expert, which means you likely do not know who the experts are in that field (because its not your field). You can do PubMed searches to identify people who have published in specific areas, but you don't know them or their research. So an editor may not be obtaining 3 rigorous expert reviewers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second, even in an area of expertise, the researchers you know are experts often say no when asked. This is particularly true if the journal isn't one of the top journals out there. There is little prestige saying you reviewed papers for a general journal like PLoS ONE in your annual reviews compared to Science or Nature.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. Poor journals</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are also two versions of this. First, there are journals that will publish anything if you pay, its their business model. You can check out Beall's predatory journal list to identify many of these. Second, there are top-tiered journals that care about mass media dissemination of the work published there, also their business model (Science, Nature, I'm looking at you). The Arsenic bacteria was published in one of these journals, as were the <a href="http://www.nature.com/encode/#/threads">ENCODE</a> papers. This is not simply a journal issue as there were problems at all levels, but the journals actively advertised this work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So how do we fix peer review?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most of the discussion I've seen has been dealing simply with reviewers, which I think is the least broken aspect of the peer review process. (It's like blaming teachers for poor student performance and ignoring income inequality and poverty.) The solutions I've seen generally revolve around identifying reviewers, which is stone cold fucking stupid. I've obtained jackass reviews on publications and wish I knew who the dumbass was, but that's kind of the point of anonymous reviewers. If I disagree with a reviewer I cannot subconsciously or consciously screw them over on one of their papers or (more importantly) grant proposals in the future. Non-anonymous reviewers means no early career scientists will review papers for fear of career suicide or early career scientists will review papers and be favorable in the hope for favorable reviews in turn going forward. Non-anonymous peer review would essentially end all the good things of peer review and solve exactly 0 problems of peer review.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.statnews.com/2016/12/05/peer-review-process-science/">One idea</a> I have seen floated around is publishing the reviews, which I actually support. The reviewer remains anonymous, but also has to take some ownership of their review. This could reduce what I think have been some bullshit critiques. While the reviewer would remain anonymous, the community could see what the issues were and decide if those were reasonable (and reasonably dealt with by the authors) or unreasonable and the community could actually comment on it (because the age of social media has changed things profoundly).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How can we fix things? I like the publishing reviews along with the articles (make them available online). <a href="http://biorxiv.org/">BioRxiv</a> may help with this as authors can post their original manuscripts that the world can see to compare reviewer critiques to. I personally like the idea of paying reviewers. $50 a review, not enough to cover the cost of the review but to provide some incentive. (I expect I spend 4 hours on every paper I review rigorously, because I check the literature, so not even minimum wage in some states. Some papers are so bad, they can be reviewed in an hour or two, but I wonder why the editor sent the paper out (see below).) You review 6 papers a year, which is pretty low in my experience, you make an extra $300 bucks, which is not nothing. If you suck at reviewing, editors stop asking you which has a financial consequence. I can see the argument that the money could allow systemic abuse, where reviewers want to appease the editors so they get more assignments, but this is essentially the amount I could make mowing a couple of lawns on a summer evening, probably in less time. (FYI, many journals make good money on the backs of free reviewers and free editors.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One idea I have not seen floated around is to make editors more accountable. Too often in my submitted manuscripts (and those manuscript I have reviewed), the editor simply defers to the reviews and takes no responsibility. If a reviewer asks for an additional experiment, it must be done even if it has no effect on the conclusions made in the manuscript. In too many cases the editors simply pass information between the reviewers and authors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How can we fix this? One idea is make editors more accountable. First, pay them. Say $3000 a year, this is essentially the cost of one article. FYI the authors pay to publish their work in the journal. If an editor is not doing a good job, boot them and take on another one. Screw it, hire professional editors, PhD scientists, for $90,000 a year and have them cover a research area. 30 articles covers their salary (another 10-15 for benefits). How many Nature papers are biology related every week?!?! Maybe the CEOs make a little less in order to support high quality science?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What about the journals? Well, authors should stop fighting to get their shit in glamour mags. I know scientists are under immense pressure to publish in C/N/S journals (Cell, Nature, Science), but do these journals really publish the best of the best? Don't know, what I do know is that any good study published in an open access journal is available to everyone, every-fucking-one-with-an-internet-connection!!! How many people actually peruse journals anymore as opposed to PubMed searches? I still subscribe to Science and/or Nature, but primarily for the news, reviews, and opinion pieces as well as to support their policy and outreach initiatives. If you are doing quality work, it will be read, because google. If I can find a decent Chinese restaurant in Rome online, I can find interesting articles on phenotypic diversity in microorganisms online. I would point out the Noble Prize winning research on B-cells (the antibody producing cells of the body) was published in the fucking Journal of <a href="http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/01/19/ps.pev451.extract">Poultry Science</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In summary, peer review is a human endeavor and subject to human foibles. Is it perfect? No. Can it be improved? Marginally. Is it the best we have? Absolutely, but with the caveat that minor improvements can be made and the acceptance that there is no such thing as perfection, simply the ongoing striving for perfection.</span>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-84453875629120350972017-01-03T20:19:00.000-06:002017-01-03T21:40:10.340-06:00What I Read (2016)<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(Grade A-F, no E's) Title-Author Additional thoughts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span><span style="font-family: "\22 georgia\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif;"> Injustice: Gods Among Us Year 1. In general, when the video game comes first, the next media manifestation sucks. Think of all the video game to movie travesties (I'm looking at you Super Mario Bros). However, this graphic novel (a compilation of the first year of the comic book series) based on the Mortal Combat style video game is a success. Like Watchmen, it deals with some interesting issues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Die Trying by Lee Child. Another pass the time 'thriller'. Not that thrilling really, but an easy quick read to pass some time.</span><br />
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<span class="value-preview show" style="display: inline; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C-</span><span style="font-family: "\22 georgia\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif;"> John Constantine: Hellblazer Vol 1. Meh, better have some knowledge about John Constantine coming into to this or it's not going to be easy figuring out what's going on initially. Last story and a half seemed not related to the overarching arc of the story, but tacked on to add some filler.</span><br />
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<span class="value-preview show" style="display: inline; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C-</span><span style="font-family: "\22 georgia\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif;"> The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin. Had to go back and see what I rated the first in this series (FYI an A), because I was not a fan of The Obelisk Gate. Maybe I forgot too much of the earlier book, but this one provided little to no context for much of the previous book. (A brief synopsis or some character conversations to orient the reader of last years' book would be helpful.) Basically two independent stories moving along in parallel.</span></div>
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<span class="value-preview show" style="display: inline; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">A-</span> The Sandman: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed this story a lot. In general I like stories that interconnect two different worlds, particularly the 'real world' with a fantasy world. But also, this story had some great characters.</span></div>
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<span class="value-preview show" style="display: inline; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222; white-space: normal;">B-</span> Chimera by Mira Grant. Well my opinion of the second book seems justified by this book. I liked the way this story culminated, but I think the second and third books could have been merged to make a more concise flowing story.</span></div>
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B+ Night Stone by Rick Hautala. Classic Indian burial site horror story. Not a feel good happy ending, and considering that this was written in the 1980s not par for the course. Also, Hautala gets a nod because I knew him (my mom worked with his wife) and he gave an aspiring author (me, age 9) a collection of books for my birthday (including Nightshift by Stephen King and October Country by Ray Bradbury).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>Severed Souls by Terry Goodkind. Enjoy Goodkind's Sword of Truth books and I think I enjoyed this one when I read it, though I recall getting bogged down with the flight from the half-men. It just kept going and going, got to the point of being more of the same. The reason I scored this lower is I had to look up a synopsis to remember some of the plot lines of the book, not a good sign.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A-</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard. Knew little of James Garfield and now I know more. Wonderful weaving of the politics and medical science of the time, especially the motivations <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">of individual people. While Alexander Graham Bell is an </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">central character in the narrative, he doesn't actually contribute except as a historical notation (albeit an important notation).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A-</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dust by Hugh Howey. Great conclusion to the series. Kind of a happy ending if you forget about all the horrible things. Overall a good evaluation of the human condition both good and bad. Some issues were never resolved adequately in my opinion, like why were women and children frozen in Silo 1 or why other Silos had to be killed off instead of simply being ignored moving forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">F</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Darwin's Black Box by Michael Behe. Not really any redeeming qualities to this book. Behe's writing is condescending and he treats his audience like children. The book is more propaganda than scientific analysis. After a brief intro where the word 'literal' is misused. Following chapters are supposed to establish the idea of 'irreducible complexity' at the molecular level, but basically the point is that if we don't understand every possible thing, then the god-of-the-gaps argument is true. Some chapters are supposed to address the idea of intelligent design, but are rewordings of </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">god-of-the-gaps argument. I am sure this book appealed to creationists and still does.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">-</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Shift by Hugh Howey. A great sequel (more of a prequel), provides much of the backstory for how the apocalypse came to be. It's depressing in large part, but we are talking about the end of civilization. It ties into Wool well and provides a solid foundation for the last book Dust.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Wool by Hugh Howey. A great and in my opinion excellent world built by Howey. Life in a gigantic silo to survive a 'dead' earth. I whipped through this book in no time and am looking forward to picking up the second and third of this trilogy.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">+</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Sorcerer's Daughter by Terry Brooks. Definitely a Shannara book (maybe its a 'familiarity breeds...' issue), although I rank it higher because there are some novel aspects to this story, including a not so neatly packaged happy ending for some of the protagonists. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King. A suspenseful and exciting mystery by Stephen King. No magical or fantastical forces at work in this story. Not really surprised, because it seems much of the 'horror' in King's work are the human kind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B-</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Galilee by Clive Barker. An engrossing story about two families, one mortal and the other less so. I began this book many years ago, but gave up on it for unrelated reasons. An enjoyable story that I didn't score higher because I found the ending describing how the families became entwined rushed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Killing Floor by Lee Child. An average read to pass some time. Pretty obvious who the bad guys were and what the motivations were. Kind of expected more from the initial Jack Reacher franchise.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A- </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Morning Star by Pierce Brown. I truly have enjoyed this series. Like with The Expanse series, I enjoyed this trilogy tremendously although I'm not usually a fan of space operas. Unlike The Expanse series, this reads more as a fantasy that takes place in space instead of different kingdoms on a single world. There are orcs, trolls, gnomes, elves, etc. although with different names. Regardless of genre placement, I highly recommend the books.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey. Another solid sequel in this series (3/3 so far). While using the same world established and grown in the first two books, this has a different feel to it. Only aspect I didn't quite follow, which dropped it out of the A category (spoiler alert) is why did it take so long for the Southerners to realize how desperate they were to have to resort to stealing a golden egg.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A- </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Do you sense a trend with this string of A-'s? A thoroughly enjoyable read. I read the Author's preferred version, because why wouldn't you? World building exploring the border between reality and slightly not-reality reminds me of several Clive Barker stories. Hell, even some Stephen King stories. Great characters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A- </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. Blade Runner was a great movie. This book was better, but different. I don't see how you can compare the two. I love that the movie is different enough to work in that medium compared to this book which works so well in this medium.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A- </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey. A great sequel! Probably feeling better when I wrote this to score it higher than the original installment, which I enjoyed a lot. What stuck with me in this book was that it is centered on dealing with problems arising from the solution to the problem in the first book. Even our solutions, which completely solve a problem, are not without consequence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I know this novel is considered by many to be a major contribution to our literary time. Hell it even put a permanent death sentence on Rushdie, but I don't see it. I think the biggest contribution to society this book makes is uncovering the extreme danger of fundamentalist religion 20 years before it was obvious to America.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. An enjoyable romp, especially the prologue/backstory. I started this book many years ago, probably as a late teen and didn't get into it at all. Not sure why, but I thoroughly enjoyed it now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Of all the crap I was forced to read in high school, The Scarlet Letter or Fountainhead (neither of which I actually finished reading), why wasn't this a must read. Great e</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">xploration of the human condition and how fragile our hold on civilization may actually be. (I'm looking at you Ammon Bundy and Donald Trump.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">C </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein. The first book started and finished in 2016. Stranger in a Strange Land is one of my all time favorite books. I was extremely e</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">x</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">cited to read another Heinlein, however this did little for me. Don't really get the point of the ending.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">B+ </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. An engrossing layperson approach to what we know about the universe and our place in it. Engaging writing with intimate descriptions/discussion of/with the scientists on the </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ground. As a biologist, I was disappointed with many factual errors in the sections on biology, but the main points held up. I assume the astrophysicists and geologists felt the same way about the description of their fields as well. </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">D </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After Alice by Gregory Maguire. Alice in Wonderland was a delightful jaunt. After Alice was forced and tedious. Tim Burton's take on Alice was infinitely better, at least there was a story.</span></span><br />
<br />
28 books, including several graphic novels that I know rankles some readers as not being literature.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "\22 georgia\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif;">Of the 28 books: 25 were fiction for fun</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: "\22 georgia\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif; line-height: 18px;">, 1 was philosophy, 1 was history (although not academic), and 2 were science(ish). I was on pace to complete close to a record number, but the fall semester is a killer time wise for me. I have three books I'm in the middle of.</span></div>
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The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-46207784558889257322016-11-09T21:56:00.000-06:002016-11-09T21:56:05.412-06:00On the 2016 AmericanBrexit<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I planned to write an after-election post on what I thought about the election. I assumed a Clinton win and wanted to write about the divisiveness that exists in this country. I wanted to write about the racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia that was normalized during this election. I wanted to write about the normalization of violence in politics. I wanted to write about how none of this goes away simply because Clinton won and that we needed to work hard to offset the divisiveness.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wanted to write about those things...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and then Clinton lost the electoral vote...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what do I write now? What is there to say?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We have not only normalized racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia. We have made it the official position of the country. Are all Trump supporters racist? sexist? homophobic? No. Maybe many are, maybe most aren't, I don't know. But when the KKK backs your candidate, when other white supremacist groups are working to get your candidate elected, you have to own that. When your candidate rates women on a scale of 1-10, talks about the size of his penis, you have to own that. When your candidate's choice of vice president advocates electro-shock therapy to 'treat' homosexuality, you have to own that. You don't get to say, but I'm not homophobic, I like those people, and get a pat on the back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I learned some things that were articulated by Secretary Clinton, we are a much more divided country than I would have guessed. It's probably because I matured and live in a setting of higher education where I am exposed to amazing and talented people from all walks of life regardless of gender, color, religion, country of origin, etc. I'm not terrified of the 'other' like many people in this country. 'Home of the brave'? I think not.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I no longer think most of the people who voted for Trump are racists, sexists, xenophobes, and homophobes. This leads me to question why these people voted for him. There is the anti-establishment crowd with whom I can commiserate. Neither party has done much for them, although one party is outstanding at allocating blame at the 'other' for all the suffering they feel. The allocation of blame can lead to racist, sexist, xenophobic, and/or homophobic ideologies. But here's my problem, if you really feel the establishment is fucking you over, why vote for one of the parties? Why not vote for third, fourth, etc parties? Why not get things done at the local and state level to build up alternative solutions? That's a long term solution, but how long did African Americans live in bondage or the effects of bondage (which <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-new-jim-crow/id469811942?mt=11">Michelle Alexander</a> eloquently argues is rampant today), when did white women finally get the right to vote? Some people work hard over a long period of time to get their intrinsic rights, but apparently lower middle class and lower class white people can't wait.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe you think Clinton is the most corrupt politician ever. Trump has a fraud case this month and a rape case next month, Clinton emails no court dates. Trump foundation is a farce that he doesn't donate to and uses to pay off personal debts. Clinton foundation only put out 88% of proceeds and used the other 12% for overhead. Millions of dollars spent thousands of hours used and nothing on Clinton. Republicans have controlled Congress for the most recent 6 years and nothing. Are the republicans that incompetent? If yes, why did you vote for them? if no, why do you continue to call Clinton the most corrupt politician?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You are upset with the system, you just gave a party the White House and Congress. Trump gets to fill Scalia's seat (because the party you voted for refused to do their job) as well as probably another judge. For the next generation (not 4 years, an entire fucking generation) you have supported the party that wants Citizen United to remain the law of the land. You can kiss having government be interested in your needs goodbye when companies and billionaires can donate millions of dollars without oversight. On the plus side women's reproductive rights will be set back 50 years, but fuck them. (Not literally because they'll have to keep their legs closed to hold up that aspirin.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">83% of Americans identify as Christian. Tell me what aspect of Trump's rhetoric over the last 18 months you find Christian? Is it 'grabbing them by the pussy'? Is it mocking a disabled reporter? Is it egging on supporters to commit violence? Is it the overt racism (birther movement, etc)? Would Clinton get the pass Trump got if she was on stage with her 5 children by 3 different husbands? But there's a war on Christmas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My point is, many Trump supporters for whatever reason do not care about all the other things. The female racists don't care about the sexism, the financially concerned don't care about the racism. The list goes on and on and on and on. People are upset, that's their justification for ignoring the hate. This is the mentality the causes some people to think I'm pissed, so I'm going to crash into this car that I think cut me off. This is the mentality the causes some people to think I get to use public lands to feed my cattle for free, and gun toting douche bags support them. This is the mentality that gets women raped because of how they dress.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are major divides in this country. This election uncovered the extent of that division. Now let me ask you, how does electing Trump solve these problems?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's my pessimistic view. Trump has legitimized bullying and the basest of our instincts. The republican party has learned that this approach works and works better than expected. Olympia Snowe (former senator) and Susan Collins are republican senators from Maine that I disagree with on many issues but I think would not support this appeal to the worst. Cruz, McCain, Christie et al have shown that they are happy to give up values for power. So I see Congress moving farther to the right. The democrats will also move to the right to try and recruit republicans who care more about values than power. The DNC will assume more liberal voters will stay with them because anoth option is non-existent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Young women, non-whites, Muslims (it's a religion so you can't tell based on country of origin or skin color), the LBGT community, and anyone else who could be considered 'other', I feel for you. You are in a bad place now. I sympathize with you, which at some level makes me an 'other' too. Hell I'm an elite because I have an advanced degree, so I'm already an 'other'. At least I can blend in, although I tend not to. "Others' you are in a bad place. We can, and should, work hard to get Congress out of republican hands in two years, but the long-term damage is done. The Supreme Court will be staunchly in the conservative column for the next few decades. I'll be dead before this can be rectified, but my son won't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My son is growing up knowing that bullying is a legitimate and workable strategy. N**ger and B**ch are now terms that can be used without any real repercussion. Hate is a reasonable approach to getting what you want. I do and will continue to do my best to teach him the 'do unto others...' approach to life, but he is now at the age when friends and society have a growing influence on him. Pussy, in reference to the vagina, is now a part of his lingo. He didn't learn it from me and I'm trying to explain why words matter. My problem is the president-elect of the USA has made pussy 'normal'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since I can't even, here are some kittens and a puppy.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP4sXYAK0F6Qw7Sx0xFiRVNzV1mhZysvMWepJzemCNBk8oKPRixIaw4rbSagpG8pu30AnTwtGIhkuhZulicCXWF2lQVr5VzOGfK_czB2o8Oe5VsBM-qaY7hQeyI83TibKhrndg4F70LrPX/s1600/b0041f72aedd7eba8157d3a5f8c21504.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP4sXYAK0F6Qw7Sx0xFiRVNzV1mhZysvMWepJzemCNBk8oKPRixIaw4rbSagpG8pu30AnTwtGIhkuhZulicCXWF2lQVr5VzOGfK_czB2o8Oe5VsBM-qaY7hQeyI83TibKhrndg4F70LrPX/s200/b0041f72aedd7eba8157d3a5f8c21504.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/explore/cutest-kittens-ever/">Cute kitten</a></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3k5vCDOWH2MWfcY_lQXbZPR5x3V36dj7yxpS-9UqAs0Z0f-eDdqPnVuH1tXYSUxE4UNkH3kUjhdp1R8pEXcVBD9dZLyw-VabzrpLwsrHSGAQWL99NyK8LFtuGWDuFVoAAJysWHwNRMkqO/s1600/pictures-of-puppies-and-kittens-pictures-of-puppies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3k5vCDOWH2MWfcY_lQXbZPR5x3V36dj7yxpS-9UqAs0Z0f-eDdqPnVuH1tXYSUxE4UNkH3kUjhdp1R8pEXcVBD9dZLyw-VabzrpLwsrHSGAQWL99NyK8LFtuGWDuFVoAAJysWHwNRMkqO/s200/pictures-of-puppies-and-kittens-pictures-of-puppies.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.litlepups.net/55834ec8a0bfe8ec.html">Kittens with puppy</a></td></tr>
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The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-71358225397714012642016-08-25T17:38:00.000-06:002016-08-25T17:38:01.203-06:00Preparing for Eukaryotic Microbiology Class<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the second year in a row, my advanced microbiology course, Eukaryotic Microbiology, is up and running. Technically this is the 11th iteration of the course, but the second year I'm going to try and blog about the course concomitantly. So the website is went live to students today and has a bunch of business related things about the course and a the first few weeks of modules available.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before we met, in just under two weeks, there is an online quiz and a number of introductory papers for the course as a primer for the students. The papers are:</span><br />
<div class="title">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24789819" ref="ordinalpos=5&ncbi_uid=24789819&link_uid=24789819&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f;">The eukaryotic tree of life from a global phylogenomic perspective.</a> Burki F. <span class="jrnl" title="Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology">Cold Sp</span><span class="jrnl" title="Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology">ring Harb Perspect Biol</span>. 2014 May 1;6(5):a016147</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20441612" ref="ordinalpos=1&ncbi_uid=20441612&link_uid=20441612&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f; line-height: 1.125em;">The origin and early evolution of eukaryotes in the light of phylogenomics.</a><span style="line-height: 1.125em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">Koonin</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> EV. </span><span class="jrnl" style="line-height: 17px;" title="Genome biology">Genome Biol</span><span style="line-height: 17px;">. 2010;11(5):209.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24814066" ref="ordinalpos=1&ncbi_uid=24814066&link_uid=24814066&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f; line-height: 1.125em;">The hybrid nature of the Eukaryota and a consilient view of life on Earth.</a><span style="line-height: 1.125em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">McInerney</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">JO, O'Connell MJ,</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">Pisani</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">D. </span><span class="jrnl" style="line-height: 17px;" title="Nature reviews. Microbiology">Nat Rev Microbiol</span><span style="line-height: 17px;">. 2014 Jun;12(6):449-55.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24336283" ref="ordinalpos=5&ncbi_uid=24336283&link_uid=24336283&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f; line-height: 1.125em;">An archaeal origin of eukaryotes supports only two primary domains of life.</a><span style="line-height: 1.125em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">Williams</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> TA, Foster PG, Cox CJ, Embley TM. </span><span class="jrnl" style="line-height: 17px;" title="Nature">Nature</span><span style="line-height: 17px;">. 2013 Dec 12;504(7479):231-6.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24348094" ref="ordinalpos=4&ncbi_uid=24348094&link_uid=24348094&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f;">The common ancestor of archaea and eukarya was not an archaeon.</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">Forterre</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> P. </span><span class="jrnl" style="line-height: 17px;" title="Archaea (Vancouver, B.C.)">Archaea</span><span style="line-height: 17px;">. 2013;2013:372396. doi: 10.1155/2013/372396.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201648">A new view of the tree of life.</a> Hug LA., Baker BJ., et al. Nature Microbiology. 2016 Apr 11; 1(article number 16408)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18935970" ref="ordinalpos=11&ncbi_uid=18935970&link_uid=18935970&linksrc=docsum_title" style="color: #642a8f;">Predation and eukaryote cell origins: a coevolutionary perspective.</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">Cavalier-Smith</span><span style="line-height: 17px;"> T. </span><span class="jrnl" style="line-height: 17px;" title="The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology">Int J Biochem Cell Biol</span><span style="line-height: 17px;">. 2009 Feb;41(2):307-22.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJAugEmWqUx1q5Gxg61WwVmmkBGAJBP4PF16cKWWNiAURTfddA5YPhJedCmle7m63p2NmAB6LMw0SL0hCWaKzMTf-6MCJ1O1CIrOrtdXqKREGdNGt__UPoTL8nTFwZMK9agMLik5jdAV3/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-25+at+5.03.18+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJAugEmWqUx1q5Gxg61WwVmmkBGAJBP4PF16cKWWNiAURTfddA5YPhJedCmle7m63p2NmAB6LMw0SL0hCWaKzMTf-6MCJ1O1CIrOrtdXqKREGdNGt__UPoTL8nTFwZMK9agMLik5jdAV3/s200/Screen+Shot+2016-08-25+at+5.03.18+PM.png" width="170" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Figure 1 from the Hug paper</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I ask the students to read the Burki paper first, which is a great overview of the current eukaryotic tree and how it was established. The Koonin and McInerney next, followed by the Williams and Forterre papers. There's a fair bit of overlap among the Koonin, McInerney, and Williams papers that I suggest they skim through. Once those are done, I ask that they read through the Hug paper, which is the only primary research paper of the list. Finally, the Cavalier-Smith paper on what is a eukaryotic cell in some detail.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 17px;">I particularly like the two papers by Williams and Forterre as they basically argue different things. This allows me to introduce ambiguity into the course from the beginning, which I think is important. One of my goals is to teach students to think critically about the science they read. This is quite difficult as I think the students have been taught that if it's written in a textbook or scientific paper, it must be correct. Here, I am giving the students two papers, written the same year, that argue two different points of view. Logically they cannot both be correct. It will be interesting to see if this helps students get over the hurdle of being able to question authority or not. </span></span></div>
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The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-37024368464255296032016-05-31T20:40:00.004-06:002016-05-31T20:41:15.179-06:00Donald Trump and Climate Change: California edition<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So here's what the potential dumbass-in-chief had to say in regards to the lack of rain in California over the last few years: "<span style="color: blue;">there is no drought.</span>" And he follows up with "<span style="color: blue;">If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water, so that you can have your farmers survive so that your job market will get better,</span><span style="color: #222222;">"</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is how I envisions Trump's understanding of how droughts work:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and how he'll fix it:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">easy peasy</span>The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-40268487697848893072016-03-22T20:14:00.000-06:002016-03-23T20:16:14.333-06:00Best Rock Albums of the 80s<h1 class="entry-title" style="line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-weight: normal;">Over at Patheos, Ed Brayton as a child of the 80s posted his:</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/03/16/the-best-albums-of-the-1980s/">The Best Albums of the 1980s</a></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As a child of the 80s myself, entering high school in 1983, and a music lover I thought I'd add my two cents (which was worth a lot more back then, although still not much more than two cents). Overall, I have a lot of overlap with Ed's choices of bands, although I often choose different albums. Also, I'm specifying 'Rock' albums, because there are other 80s albums I love that are not Rock. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, where we agree:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Police – Synchronicity </b>An amazing album Miss Gradenko, Synchronicity II, and King of Pain are some of my favorite songs.<b> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Peter Gabriel – So </b>Got to see Gabriel in concert and he is amazing. 'So' fuses with The Police as Stewart Copeland plays some of the percussion on Red Rain. Regardless, 'In Your Eyes' is probably the best love song ever written. (and I'm not generally a fan of love songs.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Guns n Roses – Appetite for Destruction </b>Come on? Do I really need to comment? Mr. Brownstone, Welcome to the Jungle, It's so Easy....enough said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense </b>While I did not get the Talking Heads during high school, I discovered them during my early years of college. Kind of perfect for Stop Making Sense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Eric Clapton — Journeyman </b>(Ed also included August here, but although I was familiar with many of the tracks on the album, was not really in my wheelhouse.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Where we agree on bands, but not albums:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>U2</strong><b> – Rattle and Hum </b>(Ed picked the Joshua Tree, which I thought was overrated. I would have taken Boy or War, both excellent albums, over The Joshua Tree.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Yes</b><b> – </b><b>Big Generator </b>(Ed picked 90125, which is a great album. Big Generator resonated with me more and represented a memorable summer in my life. I could also put Robert Plant in here for 'Now and Zen' for that same summer.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Where we part ways:</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My Choices not on Ed's List</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>REM </b><b> — Fables of the Reconstruction (although Murmur and Document are in the running).</b> How can you consider important music from the 80s and omit R.E.M., sure they're from Georgia, but they're from Athens which also has some great breweries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Pink Floyd </b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "helvetica" , "tahoma" , sans-serif;"><b>— The Final Cut and Momentary Lapse of Reason </b>I know Pink Floyd is arguably a 60s or 70s band, but the Final Cut, which I actually discovered in the 90s, and Momentary Lapse of Reason are amazing albums for completely different reasons.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "helvetica" , "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Def Leppard</span></b><b style="font-size: 16px;"> — Pyromania </b><span style="font-size: 16px;">The 80s without Def Leppard is like the 30s without the Great Depression, why even talk about it?</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ed's Choices not on My List</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Living Colour – Vivid </b>(Great band and music that I am only recently coming to appreciate)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back </b>Not my </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">experience.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Prince – Purple Rain </b>(Great artist but never quite clicked with me.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Stevie Ray Vaughan — Couldn’t Stand the Weather </b>(Excellent artist, but there are so many excellent artists....Santana...just saying)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Genesis – Three Sides Live </b>(Look I love Genesis, especially before Peter Gabriel left, but they reinvented themselves extremely well with Phil Collins as the front man. I just don't have them higher on my list of definitive 80s bands. For a road trip 'Something in the Air Tonight' is a must.)</span></span><br />
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End point: If I redo this in 5 years how much overlap will there be? Will Duran Duran make the cut, Flock of Seagulls? Doubtful.</span></div>
The Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.com2