I see this still exists, does it?

So, I'm having a hard time parsing the health risks associated with various scenarios for the Japan reactor collapse. Most that I come across are either the admirably honest "I don't really know," or of the "No sweat, nuclear is teh awesome" or the "BAN ALL NUCLEAR POWER NOW" variety (last two slightly exaggerated). None of those are helpful ( Read more... )

Can anyone tell me this? Log scales make sense when differences at the "normally" low end count more than differences at the "normally" high end. For example, if you are comparing ratios of substances in a mixture, then the difference between a ratio of 4 to 1 and a ratio of 3 to 1 for substance x as compared to substance y is obviously ( Read more... )

So I'm basically waiting for tomorrow, when I find out if I passed my generals, and can start doing the dissertation thing (or have to redo generals all over again). What does that mean? Mostly, I'm getting really, really drunk to numb my nervousness and listening to music on youtube. And what do I realize? Fuck, Nirvana was awesome. Now that ( Read more... )

So, I did the oral part of my generals exam today. I won't find out if I passed for like two weeks, so I will be able to fill my time with ... well, I suppose getting drunk until the 10th, at which point I will have tons of paper grading to do ( Read more... )

Haha, so here is a funny video/song by Jewel about the proper way to pronounce "Boise." I think this is kind of a shtick Jewel does in the various places she plays, but still. Also, I like that she calls out Tom Grainey's, one of my favorite bars in Boise (along with Cactus, Neurolux and the balcony (if I remember the name right, its the gay ( Read more... )

So, the air force is blocking sites that have posted any wikileaks content, including, of course, the new york times

So, my brother is an air force officer (although kind of a fake one: he's a military doctor type). I wonder if he's now banned from reading, you know, the New York fucking Times.

So I passed my oral unit tonight (on imprecise probabilities), which means I am done with coursework. If I can pass my generals (on uniqueness (is there a unique rational thing to believe given your evidence?)) in January, I get to ... figure out what to write a dissertation on ( Read more... )

Now I'm sure that if I won Celebrity Jeopardy, I would donate my money to wikileaks. After all, I couldn't donate to them with my visa card even if I wanted to. So how else could I make the donation? Note: I can donate to stormfront, the leading white power website via visa; I can also donate to the KKK with my visa. But not wikileaks! Before ( Read more... )

When I log into facebook, I often see famous philosophers suggested as potential friends. I don't know them, and have never met them, but apparently enough of the people at Princeton I am friends with do know them and have friended them. It's just weird to see.