We had a dinner date tonight, but bloodwork for the coolest three-year-old I know put those plans on hold for a few days. We'll do that Wednesday night now. Instead, we ate after class at a steakhouse, searching for deals and nice staff.
This is one of those carefully calculated places, designed to feel authentic and rustic and homey. After a while you begin to feel sorry for the girls sweeping the floor and the staff that must come out and yeehaw at the notion of someone celebrating their 20th birthday there. We offered to our waitress to come hide at our table if there were any more birthday parties. She took that as an invitation to stand over us as we at almost the entire meal. She was nice, and full of tales of other restaurants where she'd worked.
In class tonight -- this being the meeting of the quantitatively inclined -- there was a great deal of discussion about citations and plagiarism. Each professor touches on this, some more than others and this professor is dutifully exhaustive on the subject. Everyone has personal anecdotes and most of them sound the same. That definitions and consequences are still spelled out makes one question what students everywhere are being taught about research styles and no-nos. At the doctorate or master's level students -- a room full of teachers, this bunch -- should all have a fair grasp on the implications.
My favorite anecdote about plagiarism is actually someone else's story. A professor caught a student ripping off work in an undergraduate class. The victimized author was the professor himself. There was, apparently, no arguing his way out of that one. I am careful to credit that professor in the telling of the story so I do not commit meta-plagiarism.
The Yankee threatened to turn me into a case study this morning at the gym as I boasted of riding
only 20 miles on the bike. Twenty miles isn't especially long, but the qualifier in front of it is, to me, rather impressive. I did 20 miles because we've grafted our way into this horizontal training class which is a 45-minute session based on ridiculous poses and balance stemming from the plank position. It is all designed to strengthen your core and, in my case, make you sweat a lot. As I have no core strength the class is a difficult one for me. As I had no balance this morning, for whatever reason, the class was almost impossible today.
The teacher has learned this program from a fitness guru in the area who took yoga, aerobics and special operations training and put it together for people with extra time at the gym. The upside to the program is that it changes every week. And while Monday is said to be hard, by Friday you'll have this stuff down to a science. I dispute that claim, and look forward to disproving it on Friday. Either way, next Monday the entire thing changes again.
In other news school is becoming the other news. I have a portion of a literature review due next week in the quantitative class, homework and a midterm in the stats class and research to absorb for my independent study. If you need me I'll be the one with a furrowed brow.
And now, internet filler, because it fills the internet and helps me complete my obligation to add more fluff to the fluff flying about the place.
As we all knew, or have learned once again, things righteously discussed on the campaign trail look different when seen from the seat of power. This post is titled,
So, The Daily Show ruined White House transparency for all of us, but that's a tongue-in-cheek denotation of the overreaction of bureaucrats. "'People might tease me' is not a valid reason to reject a subpoena" is a good quote from this video, but the best stuff is around 3:45 and on.
A south Alabama physician has not found, but wonders why no one is talking about the supposed
cure for HIV. At first you're left to wonder why you'd hear about this from a clinician in the tiny town that boasts itself as the home of Jimmy Buffett, but then you realize it wasn't him, he's just curious how a conference presentation he witnessed hasn't gotten more sway:
My guess is that most scientific researchers are somewhat stunned that a clinician — not a research scientist — has been able to come up with the cure. Most of the big research money and big name American institutions are somewhat embarrassed to acknowledge that the very first case of HIV cure is not coming from their institutions.
Because we've been busy talking about Michael Jackson? I'm tired of the story -- that actually happened about 10 minutes after the news was confirmed -- but nevertheless the final mystery of the man,
the Smooth Criminal lean has been solved:
He did it with special shoes that quickly slid into pegs that rise out of the floor at just the right moment. Also helping the effect were rigid anklets that worked like ski boots, supporting Jackson and his entourage of dancers as they leaned forward at that magic angle.
That never seemed humanly possible -- indeed, the video used wires and harnesses -- and that's fine, I just wanted to know
how they did it. Now his story, triumphs, philanthropy and shortcomings, can all be laid to rest.
And, finally, a new irregular feature link:
Things your parents never taught you, but YouTube did.
6.28.2009
