Category: General

General rambling, ranting, raving etc.

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Happy Holidays

I’ve been busy with too many other things to post much over the past few months. Much of my free time has been spent working on photographs and various site updates. I do my web development on a local mini-server, backup to my main Linux PC and then update the live server. In addition to the backup & synchronization utility for Windows that I use, I’ve come to rely on the synchronization utility built in to the Krusader file manager. Along the way I got tired of manually setting my original photo files read-only so I wrote a script to automate that process and compliment the other photo workflow script I wrote.

The first snow accumulation this year was later than usual, 12/7.

First Snow

But the weather finally caught up with the season on 12/19 to 21 giving me over a foot of snow to move.

Big Snow

We found out my sisters cat, Bootsie, had worms when I went to clean up what I thought was basic hairball puke and saw a worm on 12/13. We thought he had roundworm but the tests by our great veterinarian showed Bootsie to have lungworm, poor little guy. The good news was that there is simple injection to cure lungworm but, the bad news was that we needed to have him tested for heartworm because the lungworm treatment can be bad if the cat has heartworm too. I say bad news because the test for heartworm is a blood test, a bigger needle in the leg that made Bootsie scream. He got over the blood taking fast and the tests came back negative a couple days before Christmas, a great Xmas gift. Bootsie got his lungworm shot Friday and we’re all relieved that he’s on the way to finally getting rid of his worms. Here’s Bootsie taking a catnap under the tree in a new bed he got from Santa.

Bootsie napping

Another thing that’s taken up a lot of free time the past months is work I’ve been doing on a new long term project. After living in the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor since its designation 22 years ago, I’ve decided to make an effort over the next few years to see every site. To aid in my project I’ve been creating places files for Google Earth to help me plan trips in the BRVNHC. I’ve posted the first versions of my places and custom icon files along with photos and other information on my main web site.

I’m taking vacation time through the end of the year so, I hope to finish up some of the posts that have been in my drafts folder for too long now.

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Embarrassing Engineers #3

I go away on a business trip plus vacation day and what do I find when I get back, more embarrassingly irrational posts on an engineering mail list. Since this is becoming a regular occurrence I’m stealing the The Bronze Dogs’ idea of a numbered series of posts. These old posts are numbers one and two of the series.

The first thread I read started with someone linking to this news item where Dr. Herberman uses the pseudo scientific practice of getting publicity by engaging in science by press release. Sorry Doc, if you want to be taken seriously you need to wait until you publish a useful study before you go to the press. Two blogging Doctors I read, Orac and PalMD, have posted good information on this press release.

The first crazy reply post contains this glaring lack of the rational thought and curiosity needed for good engineering.

15 years ago I ditched my one and only ever mobile phone (a Motorola M301) when I got worried by the way it seemed to heat my eyeballs up and leave my face tingling strangely. The land line suits me fine thanks!

WTF, heating up his eyeballs and a tingle in his face and he doesn’t investigate this phenomenon. If he does a simple test to show this isn’t just in his mind then he’ll be making a big step towards some new science. Here’s a quick and easy test design that will work for preliminary testing.

  1. Have a friend in another room randomly set the phone on or off, record the setting and put it in a cloth bag to hide what state the phone is in
  2. Another friend who doesn’t know whether the phone is on or off brings the phone near his head.
  3. He tells this second friend what state he thinks the phone is in and the friend records the result.
  4. The 2nd friend now returns the phone to the first friend in the other room.
  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 enough times to make sure there is a statistically significant sample of test runs to rule out random chance.

If he is truly sensitive to the tiny signal from a cell phone he’ll be able to tell whether the phone is on or off almost 100% of the time, after all his eyeballs will warm up when it’s on. He wouldn’t even need to get it right every time, just significantly better than random chance to be well on the way to proving he can feel the EMF. To be certain he feels the field he’ll need to replicate the test a few times eventually using trained scientists to confirm the test procedure is correct. The next sentence from him shows why he doesn’t do it:

The website I most often referred to when encouraging people to explore this issue was http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/ , which appears to be quite academically and scientifically rigorous.

Now it makes sense, he believes he is electrically hypersensitive, a mixture of hypochondriac and conspiracy theorist. Once you fall this deep it’s no wonder you never want to do even a simple test to see if your beliefs are true. If this condition really existed then it can be very simply and accurately tested similar to the way I outlined above. People have been claiming this phenomenon is real for decades and all the properly conducted tests I’ve seen results from show it isn’t real. A few papers are here, here and here, the FDA’s Cell Phone Facts page is also a good source of information on this topic. Another list member added this to the thread:

I am not sure why cell phone only. To me every things wrong.

1. TV, Microwave, thirty water, drugs any kind, PC monitor, food specially meat, artificial drinks etc. main reason for cancer:

1. weak immune system
2. too much toxic in body
3. not enough oxygen in body
4. I am sure there are more

Oh no, it’s everything popular with the newage crowd including the toxins, I wonder if he’s buying Kinoki pads or using some of the dangerous quackery. Dr. Novella just did a nice blog post covering some of the dangers of this kind of thinking.

There is no such thing as legitimate “detoxification” treatment. Anyone claiming that a treatment detoxifies the body is a charlatan of one type or another. The concept has a psychological appeal – it is easy to imagine bad stuff being drawn out of or purged from our bodies. We evolved an emotion of disgust to help us avoid true toxins and harmful substances in our environment and food – so the detox scam is just playing off of this emotion. But there is no science behind it – so beware.

Fortunately for me a rational list member replied changing the topic title to “Cell phones causing cancer nonsense” and including no comment other than a link to the very rational Professor Bob Parks’ reaction. Whew I didn’t want to write a reply and delve into this level of craziness myself.

Then I start reading a thread about Al Gore’s latest project to try to get us off our butts and do something about fixing our pollution creating energy addiction. A nut job who has appeared in previous blog posts and shown over and over again on the list that he is incapable of rational thought posts this gem.

It would be cheaper to simply invade Saudi Arabia and take the oil. Sooner or later, somebody else will if we don’t.

Wow, the stupid it burns.

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What's up with that school wizard story

I’ve had a draft of this post lying around since the end of May but kept putting off finishing it up. At the end of June I saw Mr. Piculas on the Colbert Report so I wrote some more and now that he’s in the news again I figured I’d better finish it up.

Via this post at the Bad Astronomy Blog and further research, I’ve learned some new information pertaining to a story I wrote about two months ago. In the May 18th St. Petersburg Times, staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek has an article titled, Internet story of Pasco ‘wizard’ teacher spreads like magic. The article says there where many abusive calls and emails delivered to the school and school board members. I find it very stupid of people to have contacted the school and school board to ridicule and insult them. I certainly didn’t advocate this and neither did any of the blogs I linked to or read.

In going over the coverage of this story I found some very odd inconsistencies in the documents that the school board provided to WTSP-TV. On this follow up story page there are PDF copies of the official dismissal form and the official letter to Mr. Piculas. The dismissal form and official letter are no longer available at those links, I still have copies I downloaded if anyone needs them.

These are the odd things I noticed:

1. Letter mentions the magic trick but the dismissal form does not.

2. Dismissal form mentions inappropriate language but the letter does not.

3. Letter says incident occurred 1/16/2008 the dismissal form states it was 1/17/2008.

4. Dismissal form has a placeholder for the substitute teachers signature but it is blank.

5. Dismissal form has a scribbled over date at the start of 2/??/08 and next to it 1/23/08.

piculascrossedoutdate

6. Dismissal form was faxed from the school on 2/12/2008 (upside down on the bottom of the form, picture rotated).

piculasbottomfaxline

The most suspicious discrepancy to me is the crossed out date by the principal. The crossed out date of 2/??/08 points to the document actually being written after the letter of dismissal, not before as implied by the 1/23 date. It looks like he originally wrote 2/12/08 but of course it could just be pareidolia. Viewing the original document under magnification would provide a clearer picture of the situation.

If the principal and school board wanted to cover up the original complaint of wizardry as Mr. Piculsa described it, they could have filed a second dismissal form on 2/12 with a false date making it appear as if it was filed on 1/23. It looks to me as if there was a previous dismissal form filed before the 1/28 letter and this was a later revision to remove the wizardry accusation that was on the original dismissal form. But that’s just my opinion, without further examination of the original dismissal form the truth of the situation can not be determined accurately.

Now I read that Mr. Piculas has filed a lawsuit based on unspecified discrepancies in the documents. I wonder if faking County School records is a criminal offense in LOL Florida.

Here’s a couple of quotes from the latest Tampa Tribune article emphasis mine:

Jeffrey Gordon, the Tampa attorney representing Piculas, said the school district defamed his client by making untrue accusations about his classroom performance that have affected his efforts to teach in other districts.

…

Gordon said he thinks the evidence will show the other claims about Piculas’ performance were trumped-up charges that were added later and that documents mentioning them were retroactively predated. None of the other complaints came up in the conversation with the human resources supervisor, Gordon said.
“They never suggested he did anything wrong other than performing the magic trick,” he said.

I’m glad Mr. Piculas got someone to look into these documents, I emailed Ronnie Blair of The Tampa Tribune pointing out these oddities back in May but I never had a reply. I’m guessing my email was written off as some conspiracy minded rambling as I’m sure much of the email they get is. I’d really like for the whole story to come out but I won’t be surprised if the County simply buys Mr. Piculas and his lawyers silence.

Links to local media reports:

Substitute Teacher Says Wizardry Accusation Cost Him Job by Ronnie Blair, The Tampa Tribune, Published: May 5, 2008

Presto! Teacher Out Of A Job By Ronnie Blair, The Tampa Tribune, Published: May 6, 2008

Here’s The Trick To Becoming A Laughingstock by Daniel Ruth, The Tampa Tribune, Published: May 15, 2008

Magic trick costs teacher job WTSP-TV May 5, 2008

Magician: I’ve worked at Pasco County schools WTSP-TV May 13, 2008

Dismissal Form & Letter @ WTSP-TV no longer available at those links

Since these documents are still gone from the news sites I have put copies here: Dismissal Form & Letter

Internet story of Pasco ‘wizard’ teacher spreads like magic By Jeffrey S. Solochek, St. Petersburg Times, Published: May 18, 2008

Former Teacher Plans Lawsuit By Ronnie Blair, The Tampa Tribune, Published: July 8, 2008

Fired Pasco substitute teacher plans lawsuit By Jeffrey S. Solochek, St. Petersburg Times, Published: July 8, 2008

An update to this article is here.

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Mike Norman from Marietta GA in big trouble

By now you’ve probably heard about the racist bar owner who sold T-shirts with Curious George on them and the words “Obama 08”. As John Lynch of Stranger Fruit pointed out yesterday, “And I’m sure Houghton Mifflin’s lawyers will want to have a word with someone …”.

Well today Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has stated their displeasure, here’s a couple of quotes from an AP article:

The publisher of the popular children book’s series “Curious George” is considering legal action against a Georgia bar owner for selling T-shirts that link Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to the inquisitive monkey.

“Houghton Mifflin Harcourt did not nor would we ever authorize or approve this use of the Curious George character, which we find offensive and utterly out of keeping with the values Curious George represents,” said Richard Blake, the company’s spokesman. “We are monitoring the situation and weighing all of our options.”

Mike had better hope that they offer him a cheap settlement and then take it without hesitation. This is because violating copyright and trademark laws can carry very steep penalties, steep enough to put him in bankruptcy. Last night I had noticed Mike Norman was trying to make himself look better by saying:

“It wasn’t meant to be racist,” Norman said. “It was just funny to me because they look so much alike – the ears, hairline.” A friend gave him the shirts, Norman said, and he donated the profits to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

I wondered if the Muscular Dystrophy Association had seen this story so, I sent them an email last night with a link to the story. Today I got a nice response from the MDA saying they have declined to take his money. They also said that their lawyers have sent him a cease-and-desist order so he doesn’t use their name again.

Of course some people still don’t get it as evidenced by this comment on a blog post at the AJC:

everybody relax, curious george is a celebrated and respected storybook character and obama should be honored to be compared to him.

This sounds like the type of person who thinks there’s nothing offensive with the confederate flag, duh.

Some of the articles on this subject:

Georgia bar’s T-shirt links Obama, Curious George | ajc.com

Marietta Daily Journal – Mulligan’s shirt drawing protests

Curious George publisher may sue over T-shirt | ajc.com

T-shirt draws protests | ajc.com

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The reality-based community

I’ve heard this phrase on every episode of the Point of Inquiry podcast, yet I’d never taken the trouble to see where it came from. Today in a email conversation with an engineer who isn’t too reality based I thought I could use the reference so I decided to look it up. A post on the Center for Inquiry forums led me straight to the original source.

It is from a New York Times Magazine article from 2004, Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush written by Ron Suskind, here’s the relevant section.

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully comprehend — but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Now I’ll be able to find the source when I need it in the future. It also makes it easier to understand why the Bush administration makes so many really bad decisions, they intentionally ignore reality and try to make their own.

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Blog look update

I’ve changed to the NewsPortal theme by Kaushal Sheth for my blog this evening. I was getting sick of having too much blank space on high resolution monitors so, I went looking for a theme that used variable width for the main content column. The three column layout and widget compatibility for both sidebars are icing on the cake.

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Netiquette for blog carnival readers or how to confuse a group of blog readers

It had never occurred to me that the following would be need to be said but clearly there is at least one person out there who needs to hear this. When you read a blog post linked from a blog carnival, you should post your comments about the post, at the post. Don’t post your comment at the carnival host’s post, the main carnival site, the carnival organizer’s notice of the carnival or, at a random post at the carnival organizer’s blog.

Until this evening it didn’t occur to me that anyone would need to be told this because I’ve never been told this, it just seems like common sense. Tonight this situation came to light at Orac’s blog, it was a simple little humorous post about a nasty email he’d received. I’m skimming through the comments when I encounter this long winded comment that doesn’t appear to be at all related to the post. The replies and comments go on and on and I can’t easily figure out what precisely the commenter Roy is trying to say. Many of the replies from others show that they also are having trouble figuring out what Roy is complaining about. I see references to the denialists deck of cards from a totally different blog and mentions of the Skeptics Circle blog carnival.

Then it finally clicks for me, Roy dislikes and/or disagrees with blog posts in various Skeptic Circle carnivals. Does he post a comment at the blog post he has issues with, no. Does he at least post at the carnival host’s post, nope. Does he post his comment at the main blog carnival page, not. Does he post at the carnival organizer’s notice of that edition of the carnival, no way. Instead he places his comments at the most current post of the blog organizer, a post which has absolutely nothing to do with the blog carnival. Hmm, I don’t think I can even imagine a more effective way to make readers totally confused about your comment. 😉

So to re-iterate what should be obvious to most people, when you have a comment about a blog post, place your comment on that exact post. This way the author of the post sees your post and the blogs readers will be able to have context for your comment.

The only other acceptable alternative is to put the commentary on your own blog as a new post and link back to the original blog post. Oh and while we’re on the subject of blog carnivals, do not assume that the carnival organizer and/or carnival edition host agree with the other blogger’s posts that make up the carnival. Just because a post meets the criterion for a host to include it in an edition of the carnival does not mean the host agrees with it.