good stuff
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Safe Spaces
Seems like every WLB in Christendom wants a “safe space” these days. The rich and stupid are doing it with luxury bunkers, while a Texas chapter of the Sons of Martha are taking a more proactive approach. Tips from American Digest and Happy Acres. Appropo of nothing, I’m reminded of this bit of bunker lore: Read more
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Beginning: R Tutorials
After a long, slow start, R is catching on with statisticians and (some) scientists at UTSA. The Biology Department has asked that I use R in teaching biostatistics, and many of the courses for statistics majors are using R rather than SAS (a UTSA tradition). Students have not been idle; the statistics club has asked… Read more
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The Invention of Nature
I’m neck deep in Andrea Wulf‘s biography of Alexander von Humboldt, and it’s absolutely riveting. Von Humboldt was some kind of scientific maniac, who caught the interest of everyone from Goethe to Thomas Jefferson to Simon Bolivar. Von Humboldt was arguably the first naturalist to think ecologically, as well as one of the earliest abolitionists. … Read more
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Two Reasons to Distrust the Powers That Be
ONE: Irina Sendler TWO: George ♥s Michelle It’s like they’re all just in it for themselves, and screw the little guy. A$$holes. Read more
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Take a hike!
Good for your body, good for your brain. Tip from Twisted Sifter, in the latest Shirk Report. Read more
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The Examined Life is Worth Living
Scurrilous Commentator Fred Reed demonstrates how a grown-up examines his prejudices on the way to wisdom Most Latinos of the south are either a mixture of Spanish and Indian, or sometimes pure Indian….Are they, as nativists insist, of very low IQ–83–and have they enstupidated the Spanish? Horrendously primitive? Without thinking about it, I had the entrenched… Read more
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Rudolf Bauer, Who Knew?
Before Klee, before Kandinsky, there was Rudolf Bauer, whose story is told here. Two-cushion bank shop tip from Sarah Hoyt (at Instapundit), who put me hip to Killer Nashvile. Read more
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Well, this is depressing
Ouch. My university has been identified as a “dropout factory,” ranking 474 of 535 US universities in 6-year completion rates for undergraduate degrees. I anticipate a wave of new reporting requirements, teaching workshops, exhortations from management, major investments in non-academic resources, and most importantly, creation of new administrative offices and positions. All of this will… Read more
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An Unasked Question, Answered
I’d never really thought about it before, but it’s true: my backyard swimming pool* doesn’t have a strong chlorine smell, and the water doesn’t sting my eyes. Turns out that’s because folks at my house don’t pee in the pool. Tip from Sara Hoyt writing at the Instapundit. Lots of links there about too many… Read more
The Random Texan 