Some People Would Love to Have This Problem

Here's a story kicking around the blogosphere regarding sexual discrimination in a Broadway show.  I swear I was not searching for stories about big boobs.  I'm not sure whether Alice Alyse will win her case because the dancing industry is usually very specific about body types and casting, although there are apparently other "blessed" women in the chorus line.  Unfortunately, as the Washinton Post article points out, the management has not even bothered making a statement regarding the case, as is their right.

 

Out at the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, a group of six photographers have turned one of the hangars into the world's largest pin-hole camera.  Inside the hangar is the world's largest photograph.  Talk about your wide-angle lens.  The Legacy Project, a nonprofit organization, hopes to preserve the view of the old runways and towers before the field gets turned into a "museum district, sports complex, and thousands of homes."  I have provided a link to the Legacy Project's website, but because of the AP's awesome research and fact checking, the story did not say which Legacy Project is funding the photographers, and I had to use my own research and fact checking skills.  Check out the group's site, which has a lot of information on the final plans of the usage of the space, and some cool pictures to boot.

 

It looks like I'm not the only one who is miffed about how science is reported in the news.  Here's the gist of the LiveScience.com story:

[Lisa]  Schwartz and colleague Steven Woloshin analyzed U.S. newspaper, TV and radio reports on research from five major scientific meetings. Their findings:

• Only 2 of 175 stories about unpublished studies noted that the study was unpublished.
• One-third of the articles failed to mention how many participants were in a study [studies with only a few test subjects are sometimes later refuted by larger studies].
• 40 percent of the reports did not quantify the main result of the research.
• Just one out of 17 news reports on animal studies noted that results might not apply to humans.

"Unless journalists are careful to provide basic study facts and highlight limitations, the public may be misled about the meaning, importance and validity of the research," Woloshin said.

I wish the bylines of the reporters writing science articles would let us know what their degree is in, if they even have one, so the readers could put their own news filters on before they just believe everything that's written.

 

Now I've seen everything, and I do mean everything, at least until tomorrow.  I really don't know what else to say about this product, other than it's made in Germany.  Why am I not surprised about Germany?

 

Finds from the Grind: On my ride today, I went down to Kaldi's cafe in South Pasadena because I was really jonesing a iced chai latte.  It's true, I don't just drink coffee and alcoholic beverages.  Sometimes there is tea (Earl Grey, hot - for you ubergeeks out there).  On certain afternoons, Mission Street down there gets closed off so a farmer's market can spring up.  Here's the view from my iced chai latte:

 

It's a good thing the senior center is just across the street, sooo conveeeenient.

 

While I was there, I was listening in on some college geeks home on vacation.  They were talking about some MMPRPG (Massive Multi-Player Role Playing Game) where a "priest" uses "mind-control" on other players to throw them over a bridge under which a team mate can "pwn" them with "single shots" to the head.  This is how over the hill geeky I am that I cannot recognize some computer game by identifying just one or two character types.  Well, I guess I just had to let my subscription to Geek Illustrated, I mean, Computer Gaming World lapse.  Ah, young geekdom.  So scrawny, so pale, so many layers of clothing.  That was me except for the pale and layered clothing.  I was always athletic, and not geeky athletic either, no stupid hacky crap for me.  And I always wore shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals.  Maybe a flannel shirt for when it got chilly.  See, flannel, I've got early 90's geek-cred.