therandomtexan
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Don’t ask “Why do they hate us?” ask “Why do WE disgust them?”
Written sexual consent codes, and scoundrel cascades, oh my! “I try to become more cynical every day, but lately I just can’t keep up.” Read more
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Hooray for Norway!
My hat goes off to the people of Norway, who recently withdrew their bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, after receiving an insulting set of demands from the IOC, including Separate lanes should be created on all roads where IOC members will travel, which are not to be used by regular people or public Read more
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Presenting HORG, the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group
Dr Bruce Ragsdale, of the Central Coast Pathology Laboratory, encountered a plastic bread bag fastener in a patient’s colon. What followed was a creative explosion in abiological taxonomy. Tip from Language Log. Read more
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Busting the myth of Genius
Truer words were never said: The cult of genius tends to undervalue hard work and the productive persistence that psychologists nowadays like to call “grit”—not to mention creativity, perspective and taste, without which all those other virtues may be wasted on pointless projects. I purely wish my students weren’t intimidated by the myth. Tip from Read more
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Here’s to Toast!
OK, so I sometimes succumb to fads. While munching on toasted pan de xocol with crunchy peanut butter for breakfast, I mentioned to my lovely wife that we were honorary hipsters, indulging in the latest bistro trend, fancy toast. “You’ve gotta be kidding,” she said. “Toast? Toast?! What happened to muesli and quinoa and cupcakes Read more
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Obamito Goes to Washington?
Rumor has it that San Antonio Mayor and Democrat Latino Heartthrob Julian Castro is being considered to become the next Secretary for Housing and Urban Development. Naturally, there’s already speculation in the Alamo City corridors of power about who will replace Little Obama when he leaves. Or is really leaving? The Internet has made opposition Read more
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Let’s take a day off on our day off
I see the IWW is calling for a general strike on May Day Which is very convenient for students at my university, where May 1st and 2nd are Student Study Days, with no classes, labs, or regularly scheduled office hours. What a bunch of tossers. Read more
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The Chickens (and Pigs, and Steers, and Lambs) Come Home to Roost
Could eating too much margarine be bad for your critical faculties? The “experts” who so confidently advised us to replace saturated fats, such as butter, with polyunsaturated spreads, people who presumably practise what they preach, have suddenly come over all uncertain and seem to be struggling through a mental fog to reformulate their script. Joanna Read more
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How many significant figures should I use?
That question gets asked dozens of times every semester in my statistics classes; it’s pretty clear that most of my students have no sense of scale or proportion about numbers. But now I have Dr Rhett Alain’s short answer in his Dot Physics Measurement and Uncertainty Smackdown, wherein he refers to the (extremely) long answer Read more
The Random Texan 