Month: March 2012

Snippets

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , , 509 Comments

You know how when you’re doing data analysis, you sometimes get sucked right in? You’re working with the raw data, getting it all organized and pretty so you can drop the whole chunk into a statistics program and watch the Passing-Bablocks and Pearsons fly forth onto the computer screen? But it takes a while to do all the organization, data point exclusions (with valid justifications), reprocessing, manually checking the lines and watching the SD and CV calculations to make sure there are no cut/paste errors, double-checking formulae, making sure no single reps in set of mostly double reps are mucking up the whole scheme, but finally! – you’re ready to define the final data set, you click the analyze button and BAM! SLOPE OF 1.01, R=1.00 BEETCHEZ!

*ahem* So, work went well last night. How about you?

Anyway, after getting home from work and the grocery store at 10:30pm I lazed out on the google reader and blog writing. But here are a few things that I’ve been mulling over.

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Snippets
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Giving God the Heisman

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , 969 Comments

I’ve been really disgusted with the Kalley Yanta’s Minnesota Marriage Minute videos. Mostly because they make bigotry, fear and hate look so damn good, professional and reasonable. I’ve been meaning to post about them, but it’s been a chore to watch her maple syrup-sweet, disingenuous arguments. This morning I was going to do it. I even made it through the first three (of 10, now) videos and had started deconstructing the calmly-delivered fallacious vitriol (damn this woman brings to mind the saccharine evil of Delores Umbridge), but then YouTube helpfully directed me to this and my head exploded:

In this video Yanta’s professionalism slips a couple of notches from her MN Marriage Minute videos. Her sugar-coated sarcasm is the epitome of the tongue-in-cheek “Minnesota Nice”, which, for those who haven’t heard the term, is often used to describe passive-agressiveness. She also confirms that her social conservatism is based in religious ideology, which she doesn’t do in MN Marriage Minute.

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Giving God the Heisman

Those are some bad nuts.

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 619 Comments

I love NCBI ROFL. It’s one of the Discovery Blogs and every day they publish a humorous or absurd study. It’s like a mini-Ig Noble award to my Google Reader every day.

Yesterday there was a case of a woman who had an allergic reaction after having sexual intercourse with her boyfriend:

“Brazil nuts are the second most frequent cause of nut allergy in the United Kingdom. We report the case of a 20-year-old woman with documented Brazil nut allergy who developed widespread urticaria and mild dyspnea after intercourse with her boyfriend who had earlier consumed Brazil nuts. Skin prick testing with the boyfriend’s semen after Brazil nut consumption confirmed significant reactivity whereas a sample before nut consumption was negative. We believe this to be the first case of a sexually transmitted allergic reaction.”

Bad nuts, indeed.

Those are some bad nuts.

Weekend Report

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , , , , 570 Comments

Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. And that’s a good thing 🙂 Here’s a couple of highlights from late last week:

Because Santorum jokes never get old, here’s what I saw while walking the dog last week:

Also, Street Smarts.

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Weekend Report

Cross-Country Connections: Steady

Brianne Bilyeu, 31 Comments

Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in very different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. This week’s theme is Steady.

From me in Minneapolis, Minnesota:

Slow and steady does it. – The Grand Canyon and Colorado River. From The Great West Road Trip with Mom in 2009.

From Erin in Bellingham, Washington:

A view of the steadily ongoing construction in my once quiet neighborhood.  Three houses were recently built behind my house and three are in progress directly across my street. This view shows the 7th(!!!) house being built just two feet from house (Bri, you remember those blackberries? GONE!) and up in the right corner you can see the earthmover for the houses across the street. 🙁

From Mom in Carbondale, Illinois:

Never once has my sister or brother in law let me down.  They were and are a steady support to me and mine.

 

Cross-Country Connections: Steady

#nudephotorevolutionary Calendar

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 241 Comments

Some incredible women made this.

Maryam Namazie, one of the bloggers here at Freethought Blogs had the idea for the project, and has description of the #nudephotorevolutionary Calendar and inspirations for the project at her website.

I am absolutely stunned by this demonstration of activism. My breath is taken away by the bravery and boldness of the women who participated in the #nuderevolutionaries Calendar. I can only imagine the depth of conviction that led Aliaa Mada Elmahdy to to post the first #nuderevolutionaries photo.

And that pisses me off.

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#nudephotorevolutionary Calendar

Where's My Better Toaster?

Brianne Bilyeu, , 366 Comments

Last week the radio show that I co-host, Atheists Talk, had Lawrence Krauss on the air. In preparing for that show I stumbled across an NPR radio interview in which Ira Flatow was speaking with Dr. Krauss about his newest book A Universe From Nothing. One of the audience questions was this:

CALLER: With all due respect, and I find what you’re saying fascinating, but where is the practicality for us on Earth? What is it doing for us today or even in the very near future?

How often do we hear this? “Why are you studying x, y, z?” “What could that study possibly have to do with anything?” “You want to do what to a mouse?”

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Where's My Better Toaster?

Where’s My Better Toaster?

Brianne Bilyeu, , 384 Comments

Last week the radio show that I co-host, Atheists Talk, had Lawrence Krauss on the air. In preparing for that show I stumbled across an NPR radio interview in which Ira Flatow was speaking with Dr. Krauss about his newest book A Universe From Nothing. One of the audience questions was this:

CALLER: With all due respect, and I find what you’re saying fascinating, but where is the practicality for us on Earth? What is it doing for us today or even in the very near future?

How often do we hear this? “Why are you studying x, y, z?” “What could that study possibly have to do with anything?” “You want to do what to a mouse?”

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Where’s My Better Toaster?

Not Okay – Sexism in Nerd Culture

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 941 Comments

I found this video via Skepchick. I watched it last night before I went to bed and had an odd Street Fighter/Cyberpunk-themed dream. Oh, internet and subconcious, you mischievous duo, you!

So, MovieBob does a weekly five minuteish video blog for Escapist Magazine. He recently did one called “Not Okay”, which takes on sexism in nerd/geek culture, and he cites specifically a recent example of sexism in gaming culture. I couldn’t figure out how to embed the video, but clicking on the image will take you to the Escapist Magazine website where the video can be viewed. Go watch it, then come back!

The specific subject that MovieBob talks about is an incident involving a man named Aris Bakhtanians, who was confronted for publicly verbally sexually harassing a female player who he was coaching in a video game reality show. In brief, Aris defended his actions by saying that sexual harassment is part of the fighting game community, and that if you remove sexual harassment, it is no longer the fighting game community.

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Not Okay – Sexism in Nerd Culture

The Secret of the Gypsy Queen

Brianne Bilyeu, , 348 Comments

Skeptoid Podcast just made their 300th episode, and to celebrate they produced something special. Rachel Bloom does the vocals, and if the name doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps you’ll recognize her as the voice behind Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury. The illustrations are also very fun to watch.

Skepticism and musical theather – I couldn’t be happier!

The Secret of the Gypsy Queen