G as in Good H as in Happy

Names and Numbers

May 9, 2006

Three out of fourteen dolphins prefer to talk to non-relatives. :-)

Via Marginal Revolution

And among the Piraha, a life without numbers or other abstractions (though, since taboo dictated that only men could be interviewed, for all we know the women are behind the scenes happily solving quadratic equations, as something to talk about with those Brazilian traders.)

Via YARGB

It's Picture Day

March 31, 2006

The irreplaceable Gagdad Bob, thundering prophet in his own right as well as doting dad, has this ruthless psycho-developmental observation re:

French rioting. They are essentially rioting to maintain the prerogatives of His Majesty the Baby, who must be loved and cared for unconditionally. You do not fire a baby when he is bad. You don't even punish him. In fact, you have no expectations of him at all.

He has authorized this parallel statement on behalf of his young son.

Old Testament

Dilys sometimes has an unfortunate tendency to talk as though she has been appointed to lay down the law for all and sundry, and to characterize and dismiss them as it pleases her.  This behavior has been kindly forgiven by her colleagues as her "Old Testament" mode. Frankly, during Lent, only one part of the Old Testament is pertinent.

Thanks to all, they know who they are, indeed everyone in her scope, for their patience.



Drawing incorporates a fine basswood carving shown here. 

Rolling Canon

Loose Canon has been getting on some nerves, too, including some pervasively earnest ones. And she labors under certain dilemmae familiar to the visibly imperfect impassioned about one or another kinds of apologetics.

Indeed, I have had, from time to time, the fleeting and disconcerting feeling that, like poor old Bridey Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited, I might not be the best apologist for the faith...

Kathy Shaidle has several last words.

Hitherto Undetected...

...earnestness deficit. Blame Jon Stewart.

Thanks to Newmark's Door.

Oh, and, incidentally...

Alas, Poor Kirby: Condolences to the Soft of Heart

The geographically and historically wide-ranging holiday fable has concluded prematurely, and Kirby...

Don't Forget the Difficult Question

September 3, 2005

We're waiting for Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte, apparently still in the wings. This, via  Newmark's Door, is a lagniappe demonstrating that evidence must be interpreted and is about comparisons.

One day when I was a junior medical student, a very important Boston surgeon visited the school and delivered a great treatise on a large number of patients who had undergone successful operations for vascular reconstruction. At the end of the lecture, a young student at the back of the room timidly asked, "Do you have any controls?" Well, the great surgeon drew himself up to his full height, hit the desk, and said, "Do you mean did I not operate on half of the patients?" The hall grew very quiet then. The voice at the back of the room very hesitantly replied, "Yes, that's what I had in mind." Then the visitor's fist really came down as he thundered, "Of course not. That would have doomed half of them to their deaths." God, it was quiet then, and one could scarcely hear the small voice ask, "Which half?"

Cartoons

Krystal Grow of the North Adams Transcript, Redux

Krystal is the journalist intern whose public perspective on job hunting made a few jaws drop. Here's another peephole into the same universe, an open letter by Andrew Whitacre, also of Massachusetts, on behalf of "the best-educated generation in American history."

We read the whole thing, did a lot of nodding at the comment from John Franklin of New York's Catalyst Group Design, then retired with our lavender-soaked lacy linen hankie to go lie down in a darkened room with a case of the vapors. High Noon is a-comin' soon down the workplace tracks, is our guess.

Via Future Tense, Corante's new blog on the future of work; they're right, it may be tense. Heads-up via the wide-ranging Instapundit.