Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Good Behavior

Behavioral Study on Students Stirs Debate – washingtonpost.com
“We have to be very, very careful about [how] the story is being told and have all kinds of asterisks and footnotes, and say, ‘We recognize that some of this might not be the child’s fault,’ ” Hone said at the March 27 meeting.

They should recognize that NONE of this is the child’s fault. Third-graders (one group where differences were especially noted) are only just beginning to develop ideas about morality.

Okay, brief re-cap if you haven’t read the Washington Post article: the Fairfax County schools have analyzed data regarding children’s “moral” development and behavioral/discipline problems according to racial and ethnic groups. They found that among third-graders the children who were black, Hispanic, or in special education had the lowest scores in terms of “good behavior” (my words, not theirs).

As you might imagine, it’s all very controversial.

A couple of things come to mind and I’m surprised the Washington Post article didn’t mention either of these.

First, data on how third-graders have developed “morally” is based on teacher reports about how well a child follows instructions, gets along with others, and so on. These teacher reports are unavoidably subjective. It’s been conclusively shown through Implicit Association studies that most people in the United States have some level of bias against African American and Hispanic people. It’s a bias most of us don’t even recognize — it’s so deeply ingrained — but it’s indisputably there. Why is this bias not accounted for in the subjective teacher reports?

Second, it would be really interesting to see how the economic status of the parents correlates with the “moral” development of the child. I’m guessing that these measures of character are much more closely aligned to wealth — or lack of it. Understand, I’m not saying that wealthy people are more likely to be of higher moral character. Hardly! Only that people with money are more likely to have an adult full-time caretaker for their child who will help to instill values and enforce good behavior.

Free Photoshop Express

Did you already know about FREE Adobe Photoshop Express? If you’ve only got dial-up or a relatively slow broadband, it’s probably not worth your time. But if you’ve got a fast connection, it’s an easy and many-featured way of playing around with your photos for FREE.

Filth

Exactly how much housework does a husband create?
Having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women, according to a University of Michigan study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. families.For men, the picture is very different: A wife saves men from about an hour of housework a week.

Now, some people have interpreted this to mean that it’s taking women seven hours to do the housework it took a man only one hour to finish. The idea being that men are so much more efficient than women.

Um… No.

What it really means is that women’s standards for cleanliness are significantly higher than men’s.

Men really create seven hours worth of mess each week, but before marriage they were only cleaning up one hours worth. Thus, six hours of mess went uncleaned each week — accumulating over time into what most women refer to as “that disgusting pit my husband lived in before I married him and introduced him to the concept of putting dirty clothes in the hamper instead of letting them pile up on the floor of the bathroom”.

Recipe: Spring Pea Soup

Alas, though I did try, my photo of this soup really doesn’t do its amazingly “springy” green color justice. Oh well. You’ll just have to take my word on this. This soup has a wonderful bright green color.

Here’s how this soup came to be. This morning I made this wonderful recipe for Spinach & Pea Risotto and I had left-over peas and tarragon. Over the years I’ve read lots of recipes for cold pea soups so what I put together this morning is kind of an amalgamation of those recipes.

I don’t have exact quantities. I know that’s going to be annoying to some of you. Others though will be able to figure out for themselves what an appropriate amount of each ingredient is.

So, Here we go:

Ingredients

About 2 cups frozen baby peas

2 cloves garlic, chopped

3 or 4 sprigs fresh tarragon, chopped

1 or 2 splashes dry white vermouth

About a cup plain yogurt

A little salt and a little pepper

Milk to thin the soup to the right consistency

Snipped Chives as a garnish

Method

Pour the peas into a colander and run hot water over them for a few seconds to thaw them. Dump the peas and all the other ingredients (except the milk, salt, pepper, and chives) into a blender and process the heck out of it until it’s smooth and creamy. Add milk, a little at a time, to the running blender to bring the soup to a soup-like consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This is a cold soup, so… you’re done! I think this would look very nice with some snipped chives as a garnish on top — though I forgot to do that with my own soup. (I’ll do it to the leftovers!)

Just pour some in a bowl and go.

It’s like eating springtime.

Charlton Heston, Gun Nut

I guess we can finally pry his gun from his “cold, dead hands”.

Heston was, at times, a reasonably good actor. He didn’t have a lick of common sense when it came to guns, though.

If you read the biographical information about Heston on Wikipedia, it looks like — for whatever reason — Heston more or less started going crazy some time in the 80s.

Joe Barton and Plagiarism

An online friend was kind enough to send me a copy of Joe Barton’s “Reflux Remedy” report. In the PDF version of the report, every single page is proudly emblazoned with “Copyright 2007 Barton Publishing Inc.”

Hint to Joe: You can’t copyright other people’s work. Most people would call that plagiarism and it tends to piss people off — especially when you’re profiting from the sale of their work.

This is just one small example. Paragraph after paragraph of the “report” consists of line-by-line copying of content from the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC) web site. Understand, the information from the NDDIC site is in the public domain, but Joe doesn’t even acknowledge the source of the text and that’s kind of a requirement. When you’re re-packaging public domain text, you can’t just slap your own label on it and copyright it as though it were an original creative work.

Bad Joe! Bad! Bad!

It does make a person wonder, though, how many of Joe’s other “reports” are heavily padded with text he’s copied from National Institute of Health web sites.

I’ll give him one thing, if people read through Joe’s “report” far enough to get past the goofy apple cider vinegar and honey “cures”, they’ll get to RELIABLE information when they read the NDDIC text. Amusingly (and not surprisingly), much of what the NDDIC recommends is contrary to what Joe suggests.

From Joe Barton’s “Reflux Remedy” report:

Medications

Your doctor may recommend over-the-counter antacids, which you can buy without a prescription, or medications that stop acid production or help the muscles that empty your stomach.

Antacids, such as Alka-Seltzer, Maalox, Mylanta, Pepto-Bismol, Rolaids, and Riopan, are usually the first drugs recommended to relieve heartburn and other mild GERD symptoms. Many brands on the market use different combinations of three basic salts—magnesium, calcium, and aluminum—with hydroxide or bicarbonate ions to neutralize the acid in your stomach. Antacids, however, have side effects. Magnesium salt can lead to diarrhea, and aluminum salts can cause constipation. Aluminum and magnesium salts are often combined in a single product to balance these effects.

Calcium carbonate antacids, such as Tums, Titralac, and Alka-2, can also be a supplemental source of calcium. They can cause constipation as well.

Foaming agents, such as Gaviscon, work by covering your stomach contents with foam to prevent reflux. These drugs may help those who have no damage to the esophagus.

H2 blockers, such as cimetidine (Tagamet HB), famotidine (Pepcid AC), nizatidine (Axid AR), and ranitidine (Zantac 75), impede acid production. They are available in prescription strength and over the counter. These drugs provide short-term relief, but over-the-counter H2 blockers should not be used for more than a few weeks at a time. They are effective for about half of those who have (…)

Copyright © 2007 Barton Publishing Inc. Page 38

From the NDDIC web site:

Medications
Your doctor may recommend over-the-counter antacids, which you can buy without a prescription, or medications that stop acid production or help the muscles that empty your stomach.

Antacids, such as Alka-Seltzer, Maalox, Mylanta, Pepto-Bismol, Rolaids, and Riopan, are usually the first drugs recommended to relieve heartburn and other mild GERD symptoms. Many brands on the market use different combinations of three basic salts–magnesium, calcium, and aluminum–with hydroxide or bicarbonate ions to neutralize the acid in your stomach. Antacids, however, have side effects. Magnesium salt can lead to diarrhea, and aluminum salts can cause constipation. Aluminum and magnesium salts are often combined in a single product to balance these effects.

Calcium carbonate antacids, such as Tums, Titralac, and Alka-2, can also be a supplemental source of calcium. They can cause constipation as well.

Foaming agents, such as Gaviscon, work by covering your stomach contents with foam to prevent reflux. These drugs may help those who have no damage to the esophagus.

H2 blockers, such as cimetidine (Tagamet HB), famotidine (Pepcid AC), nizatidine (Axid AR), and ranitidine (Zantac 75), impede acid production. They are available in prescription strength and over the counter. These drugs provide short-term relief, but over-the-counter H2 blockers should not be used for more than a few weeks at a time. They are effective for about half of those who have (…)