Ex Cathedra

Coming up on Thursday.

Why not observe the National Day of Prayer? I know what that gets you: Madeline Kara Neumann

I’ve upgraded to the current version of WordPress (2.5.1) which fixes an obscure security problem and fixes some other bugs, among them, the bug that gave authors problems uploading images

An interesting article in the NYTimes that’s related to early posts about narrative and science and math.

In the experiment, the college students learned a simple but unfamiliar mathematical system, essentially a set of rules. Some learned the system through purely abstract symbols, and others learned it through concrete examples like combining liquids in measuring cups and tennis balls in a container.

Then the students were tested on a different situation — what they were told was a children’s game — that used the same math. “We told students you can use the knowledge you just acquired to figure out these rules of the game,” Dr. Kaminski said.

The students who learned the math abstractly did well with figuring out the rules of the game. Those who had learned through examples using measuring cups or tennis balls performed little better than might be expected if they were simply guessing. Students who were presented the abstract symbols after the concrete examples did better than those who learned only through cups or balls, but not as well as those who learned only the abstract symbols.

The problem with the real-world examples, Dr. Kaminski said, was that they obscured the underlying math, and students were not able to transfer their knowledge to new problems.

“They tend to remember the superficial, the two trains passing in the night,” Dr. Kaminski said. “It’s really a problem of our attention getting pulled to superficial information.”

You know those tourists who have somebody take a picture of them standing next to the Statue of Liberty? NASA is exactly like that. The Greenbelt: Nova: So proud of us — more pictures there, including the picture of us.

Apropos nothing, I offer the following – shamelessly stolen from another blog.

Here is where I found it. Attributed to one Leslie Stephen a name that, I’m afraid, means nothing to me.

He shows us certain facts as they appear to him. If we are so constituted as to be unable to see what he sees, he can go no further. He cannot proceed to argue and analyse, and apply an elaborate logical apparatus. There is the truth, and we must make what we can of it. But, on the other hand, so far as we are in sympathy with him, the proof – if it be a proof – has all the cogency of direct vision. He has couched our dull eyes, drawn back the veil which hid from us the certain aspect of the world, and henceforward our views of life and the world will be more or less changed, because the bare scaffolding of fact which we previously saw will now be seen in the light of keener perceptions than our own.

It’s one way to argue, I suppose. Maybe this is nothing more than “appeal to narrative.” A kind of if you are inclined to believe this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you will believe. So if it fits the narrative you’ve constructed for your world, it is truth. If it fails to fit, it is fiction.

If everything is narrative, maybe this is the best we can hope for.

But I’m inclined to believe that it isn’t all narrative; that there is argument which can do more than appeal to your own prejudices – that can have a truth value other than “this is the kind of thing I am predisposed to believe.”

In the two weeks leading up to the Indiana primary, a Democratic strategist familiar with the Obama campaign said aides are likely to turn to the controversies of Bill Clinton’s White House years — Hillary Clinton’s trading cattle futures, Whitewater and possibly impeachment. “Everyone knows the history of the Clintons,” the strategist said. – WaPo

Sara Whitman gets it:

Now the dirt comes out. I’m fine with the dirt. Clinton stood up to it before, she will again. Playing the “anonymous” leak game is a page right from Rove’s playbook.

But remember… there is nothing about “change” or “hope” in that.

Where is it, Sen. Obama? That’s why experience counts. The hate machine has been after “Billary” since 1993, maybe earlier. Sen. Clinton is bearing up under the attacks and winning. You’re cracking. It comes down to character now. Where’s yours?

In an earlier exchange on the old blog Tim took great exception with an author I’d cited who claimed that even in the hallowed halls of science, gender bias against women was a a problem today and may have gotten worse over the decades.

I found an MIT study that Tim landed on with both feet, emphasizing the chair of the committee that produced the report was a professor of English. But that’s understandable. Tim has to descend from such a great height and replies with such solemnity that he has to land hard; otherwise he’ll look like a nun on a trampoline.

I offer two studies, one in preprint for Nature and another in print in Science:  H/t to Zuska for these refeferences.

Two topics for the price of one: see y’all at the National Day of Reason

Stop the hate.

We can.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

As big a humanist as I am, I’ve always been reserved and private about my personal life. This is due mostly to my own principles, but also a result of having to deal with some heavy tragedy early on in life. Through the process of coping, I did however find an eternal optimism within me that continues to defy explanation. This, tempered with a humorous cynicism, of course, has enabled me to continue growing as a person, and get on with living.

That being said, I would like to share a profound experience I have had recently, one which I’m sure others, including our host, can relate to personally. I share this not to receive positive reinforcement, but instead, because of the shear joy of it.

At 42 years of age, I have become a father, for the first time.

My wife Nancy and I were blessed with twins Lewis and Renee, born shortly before 2am on Tuesday, April 8th. We’ve had a long and challenging road to get to this point, not the least of which being that our children were forced to come into the world early (32 weeks), due to complications with the pregnancy. But babies and mother are fine, and we are counting down the days until Lewis and Renee can come home with us. They are currently receiving outstanding care at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Magee Women’s Hospital here in Pittsburgh.

Enjoy the pictures below. Nancy and I already came to a unanimous decision of 2 to nil that our children are by far the cutest in the world, since the beginning of human history.

They are indeed the cutest children ever – Bob, exercising my privilege as blog czar for the last time. Just look at those adorable kids!

Shivpuri district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, an overpopulated area renowned forits machismo culture, has started to offer fast-tracked gun licences for those who agree to be sterilised. – Times Online

Or maybe they can do it like we do here: wait until their package falls off altogether and give them a deer rifle and a cabinet full of handguns.

On a more serious note, Echidne of the Snakes is having a fundraiser.

And ABW is calling a Carnival of the Allies.