February 2004 – Screenshot

Emily’s Gate

Back in the 70’s, the gate to Emily Dickinson’s family burial plot was stolen, but it was just recently found in a Vermont antique shop and is being returned to its rightful place. It’s an interesting story of the gate being passed through many hands, for a while serving as a fireplace screen, and not having been identified until now. The brass plaque from the 50’s which would have clearly identified its source had been removed from the gate (probably when it was originally stolen), and had been returned to the Dickinson Family Association six years ago, at which time … Continue reading Emily’s Gate

Enhanced PowerPoint Equations

By AMH

I have found the best free plug-in for the PC since Dave’s Quick Search Deskbar: the Powerpoint add-in, TexPoint. If you’ve ever typeset a formula in LaTeX and imported an image of it into Powerpoint as a TIFF, or spent hours cursing at the Microsoft equation editor while preparing slides for a paper you’ve already formated to death, you’ll love this. Install this tool, and you can type LaTeX source right into your Powerpoint slides and convert it to the corresponding display form. I’ve only played with it a little, but I’m in love. [Many thanks to J for pointing … Continue reading Enhanced PowerPoint Equations

Not a Thief

By AMH

Isn’t spam fun? Today’s gem involved an e-mail which made it past my filter and had the subject line “stolen”, message body “you are a bad writer”, and an attached file. The trusting soul thinks “This sounds like an angry person who thinks I stole someone’s writing. Perhaps the attachment is a copy of what I “stole”, and I’d sure be curious if someone is out there copying what I’ve written.” Fortunately, I’m not that trusting of a soul, and Norton was kind enough to tell me that the attachment was a virus. I liked it better when destructive e-mails … Continue reading Not a Thief

Say That To My Face

By AMH

How fun: Phone Fibbing Is the Most Common Method for Untruths. In this study of how communication media effects lying, researchers found “phone fibbing is even more likely than when people use e-mail, instant messaging or even speak face-to-face.” I doubt anyone is surprised that one lies less in face to face conversation, but it’s interesting that they found people lie least in e-mail, with face-to-face and IM’ing tying in the middle. They also say that e-mail lies “tended more often to be planned”. The researchers suggest this is because e-mail isn’t interactive, so one doesn’t have flexibilty to adjust … Continue reading Say That To My Face

Placebos Considered Harmful

By AMH

It makes total sense that placebos could have people get phantom side-effects as well as phantom improvements, but it had never occured to me before I read this article, When Placebos Do Harm. The thing I find most interesting is the possibility that extensive discussion of the side-effects of drugs could cause people to experience them even if there is no chemical causation for that individual. The article also has some interesting things to say about how this effect can influence medical studies – if a subject attributes a random headache to a placebo, they may then believe they have … Continue reading Placebos Considered Harmful

CS, K-12

By AMH

An ACM committee has constructed a Model Curriculum for K-12 computer science education – not a programming curriculm and not just at the high school level (the report is a pdf available off that page). The “Grade-Level Breakdowns” section summarizing the skills to learn at each level is the most interesting to me – there’s a strong and early focus on using technology, with education about computer science as a problem-solving field being secondary to my eye. The only items listed for K-2 that seem like computer science, instead of computer proficiency, are the last two out of twelve – … Continue reading CS, K-12

Curry Mushroom Soup

By AMH

I’ve made some variation on this recipe for Curried Mushroom Soup a few times in the past month, and it’s absolutely wonderful. It’s good with any kind of mushrooms so long as you end up with at least three cups worth total (I use as much as four cups, or cut the milk to make it have a density closer to stew). It thickens up nicely, particularly overnight as leftovers. Definitely eat this with a crusty bread to sop up the broth.

Bad, Bad Movies

By AMH

The web is more entertaining when it is tearing down instead of building up – c.f. Cinematic Disasters: The 50 Worst Films of the Decade, meaning the 90’s. Good for me – I’ve only seen six of them, but I do remember some of these coming out and being horrified. [via PCJM]

Kids aren’t just small adults

By AMH

An interesting article from last week, sure to give you warm fuzzies about drug companies: Antidepressant Makers Withhold Data on Children. Says the article, The companies say the studies are trade secrets. Researchers familiar with the unpublished data said the majority of secret trials show that children taking the medicines did not get any better than children taking dummy pills. … “Conflicts of interest and the company control of the data have thrown out the scientific method,” said Vera Hassner Sharav, a critic of the drugs and a patients’ rights advocate. “If hundreds of trials don’t work out, they don’t … Continue reading Kids aren’t just small adults