Comments

  1. bcwebb says

    I got my expertise on the genetics of the hand from my textbook on palmistry.

  2. wzrd1 says

    A close friend we haven’t managed to communicate with for some years related a routine he developed for a mainframe.
    On error, go to human, the human routine handling the errors in input or feedback from humans, routines on computer glitches had a different name that now escapes me.
    er h
    That was a major lesson, I don’t repeat mistakes, as observed from a lead in charge of me and my team, his trainer, my trainer, observed that yes, I do make mistakes, but never the same mistake.
    Our interpersonal friction was dissolved in that exchange and after he departed for another company actually came back and apologized to our remaining team.
    Suffice it to say, it wasn’t accepted, he didn’t learn, he tried to use sociopathic bullshit to ply again, predictably and I didn’t suggest it, my trainer/defender did, a quadriplegic man.
    He was a gentle educator, filling in my own gaps via the Socratic method.
    Allowing the student to fill that answer blank.

    I’ve used both didactic and Socratic methods, as well as ginned up things like “sea monkeys” in educating those junior to me.
    Each have their place and educators.
    Genetics, ask me about how chemistry works at the low level of genetics, I’m lost in the sauce. Ask me about higher level chaining, I’m working hard. Ask me how systems of systems works, I’m fast learning.
    On first blush, most bullshit rinks like the proverbial bell that I probably will have trouble hearing.
    But, I’m also long accustomed to errors in textbooks and well, reality.
    Errors get corrected, not doing so simply repeats the error forever.

    So, on error, go to computer or idiot that programmed it.
    Did my own share in that, long ago.
    For me, finding an error is a joyful experience, I’m learning something new, even if it was my own error.
    See improve myself each day as a primary goal, See helping humanity as the zeroth goal.
    Gonna foul up, no. Fuck up, yeah.
    Just more work.

    Oh, PZ, something is fouled up in the system, replies never arrive, nor does this platform new entries in many platform venues, nor replies and blocking ain’t it.
    Please report it, it’s likely a dot parsing error reintroduced from long ago, when a triple dot within an e-mail address got reintroduced.

  3. cvoinescu says

    If I look at my right hand with the palm facing me, my index finger appears slightly longer. If I turn my right hand to look at the look the back of the hand, the ring finger appears slightly longer. If I keep the hand with the palm facing me, and look at the back of the hand in a mirror, my index finger appears longer. I suspect the fingers are very close to being the same length, and that, in my attempt to hold the fingers vertically, I slant them in opposite directions in the two palm orientations, making one or the other appear longer. I can deliberately do this with the palm facing me: I can make either the ring finger or the index finger appear longer.

  4. Kagehi says

    Having a bit of.. and issue parsing wzrd1’s post, but.. towards the end he mentions and issue with replies not working, and… yeah, the “Notify me of followup comments” function on the page has been, at least for me, broken for more than a year. Assuming that is what he was talking about.

  5. bcwebb says

    I agree the question of how mammals grow groups of 7 vertebrae and the question of organization of development is fascinating. Are you going to write/youtube any more screeds on it soon? How persistent are the genes/proteins for organization through evolution?

  6. nifty says

    bcwebb:
    I just saw an interview by Neil Schubin on his new book “Some Assembly Required”, which looks like it tackles some of those questions. The book looks good, and based on his earlier work is one of the next things I am going to read.
    PZ, as to why the text mistakes persist I think you are (tactfully) overlooking laziness and copying what other people have always chosen to include in their books.
    An author I discovered early in my own career teaching genetics who has written some nice work on how “normal” is used problematically in teaching biology is Douglass Allchin