Mountebank Blog

Main Links

Categories

Archives

Search this site:

When Gerbils Attack…

GerbilChanging the bedding in my daughter’s gerbil cage, and one of the little buggers slipped out. In a frenzy to prevent one of the cats from having a gerbil snack (they were watching very attentively), I grabbed the rodent maybe a little too hard. She slipped free. I grabbed her again. She sank her teeth into the meat of my index finger. More like a pinch than a bite, but she kept a very powerful gnawing pressure. Those teeth are not too sharp, but the jaws are strong!

I got her back in the cage, and got the bedding changed, and now I’ve got a deep black and blue, with a little hole and a few drops of blood. I’m sitting here with a throbbing finger, thinking about the early symptoms of tetanus.

Published on

Judges

At one point, early on, I thought of going to law school–not to be a lawyer, but to be a judge. Somehow the idea was appealing to me.

On the other hand…

Sure, it is weak and illiberal to speak slightingly of any considerable body of men; yet it so happens that the only judges I have known have been froward companions, and it occurs to me that not only are they subjected to the evil influence of authority but also to that of righteous indignation, which is even more deleterious. Those who judge and sentence criminals address them with an unbridled, vindictive righteousness that would be excessive in an archangel and that is indecent to the highest degree in one sinner speaking to another, and he defenceless. Righteous indignation every day, and publicly applauded! I remember an acquaintance of mine literally foaming – there was a line of white between his lips – as he condemned a wretched youth to transportation for carnal knowledge of a fine bold upstanding wench: yet this same man was himself a smell-smock, a cold, determined lecher, a voluptuary, a libertine, a discreet frequenter of Mother Abbot’s establishment in Dover Street; while another, in whose house I have drunk uncustomed wine, tea, and brandy, told a smuggler, with great vehemence, that society must be protected from such wicked men as he and his accomplices.

Published on

E-portfolios and RSS

As my electronic portfolio experiment comes to an end with my Comp I class, I’m having some ideas for an article on the subject. I think that most of what I’ve seen about the benefits of this kind of exercise has been on the benefits for students, as writers and as graduates (giving them a transportable, referrable, job resource, for example). But I’ve noticed a new important feature that I haven’t seen mentioned before.

The software I’ve been using, Courseforum, includes an option for an RSS feed of the forum (it’s a wiki-based system), so that with my bloglines (or any RSS aggregator) I can see exactly when, and how often, each student works on each piece. That’s a tool for scholarship of teaching, and for fine-grained analysis of students’ writing process, which can’t really be achieved in any other way. When I go to class on Monday, I can know that over the weekend student X revised her paper three times (twice on Saturday night, both times within a 0ne-hour time span, and again on Sunday afternoon), while student Y revised hers six times (but all six were on Sunday night, between 1130 and 1145). I can also see exactly what changes they made with each revision. It’s a snapshot tool which is unparalleled.

Published on

Disappearing Blog

Thanks to Cyd for pointing out that this Blog was sort of invisible for a while! I think that the problem was when I eliminated the blogsnob script from the template (it was throwing some script errors that bugged me). Somehow I screwed everything up, and I didn’t even know it–because my bookmark points to https://mountebank.org/blog/index.php . It was /index.html that was screwed up.

In any case, it’s back and working again–basically I just eliminated that index.html –I hope I didn’t really need it!

Published on

Some new evolution textbook stickers–

The real stickerI’m sure that most of us have heard about this sticker that (with some very devious and dishonest reasoning) the Cobb County school district has decided to put on their Biology textbooks. It’s a very bad move, suggesting to students that evolution is somehow questionable, or unreliable, or different from all the rest of the science (cells, atoms, gravity) they will be learning. The move, of course, was generated by the Intelligent Design movement, the “creationism in a lab coat” subterfuge currently being attempted since creationism itself can not be taught in public schools. Intelligent Design has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked, and it does not belong in science classes (although the history and development of this anti-evolution movement, as well as its philosophical and religious roots, would make a great subject for a class in American History, History of Religion, Cultural Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, etc.)

Gravity is a theoryBut how to combat this kind of thing? How to make the point so clear that it can’t be missed? Well, Colin Purrington (an associate professor of evolutionary biology at Swarthmore–I’ve never met the man, but I’m a big admirer!) Has come up with a brilliant sheet of alternative stickers (see just one of my favorites on the right–there are about ten more, and some of them are even funnier). You can bet that right after Thanksgiving, when Staples is open again, I’m going to be buying me some sticker paper. These just beg to be printed. Thanks, Dr. Purrin! And please, everyone, make a donation to the National Center for Science Education today. Our students need all the help they can get.

Published on

A Dark View

Stephen Maturin in his diary…meditating on life. Not a terribly appropriate type of sentiment for a man (me) on the eve of his tenth wedding anniversary, but Maturin, like all of us, is sometimes subject to these meditations. I am not tonight, but I have been before, and will be again.

Hatred the only moving force, a petulant unhappy striving – childhood the only happiness, and that unknowing; then the continual battle that cannot ever possibly be won; a losing fight against ill-health – poverty for nearly all. Life is a long disease with only one termination and its last years are appalling: weak, racked by the stone, rheumatismal pains, senses going, friends, family, occupation gone, a man must pray for imbecility or a heart of stone. All under sentence of death, often ignominious, frequently agonizing: and then the unspeakable levity with which the faint chance of happiness is thrown away for some jealousy, tiff, sullenness, private vanity, mistaken sense of honour, that deadly, weak and silly notion.

Published on

What’s my Humour?

I tried some of the cute little quizzes at Quizilla to give my Intensive Writing class a break from practice exams today (we met for four days this week–we’re all pretty sick of each other). They enjoyed them, and posted their results on their blogs, so I thought I’d add my own result from the “Which of the Humours Are You” quiz. I think they got me absolutely right!

phlegmaticYou are Phlegmatic. You have a peace-loving nature, and make a good listener and a faithful friend. You do have a tendency to be selfish and stubborn in your worst moments, and your worrying can lean towards paranoia. Phlegmatics should consider careers as accountants, diplomats, engineers, and administrators. You are a somewhat reluctant leader, but your practicality and steady nerve under pressure makes you a natural choice for leadership roles.

Published on

And another little brother

And on the same day, another little brother sold a pilot to NBC!

(too bad, as he told me the story, that it’s a story I remember–and although he sold it as a dark comedy, when it really happened, it was lot more dark than comedy!)

Published on

Big Move for my Little Brother!

Nice work, John–moving up to the bigtime (and to Monterey!)

Today Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick also announced the appointment of John Ugoretz as the department’s senior policy advisor to the MLPA (Marine Life Protection Act) Initiative. As a senior marine biologist with the Department of Fish and Game, John was responsible for the planning and management of marine protected areas throughout the state, including acting as the mandate team coordinator for the Marine Life Protection Act and Channel Islands Marine Reserves processes. In his 12 years with DFG, John has been involved in a variety of projects, including monitoring stocks of Pacific herring, SCUBA surveys of marine protected areas and rockfish in Monterey and Big Sur, coordinating the pelagic shark tagging program in Long Beach, and abalone and sea urchin monitoring and management in Santa Barbara. John is a DFG research SCUBA diver, a member of the department’s Diving Safety Board, an avid angler and spear fisherman, and a U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain.

They don’t mention, though, among his qualifications, that he used to want to grow up to be a cowboy, and insisted on being called “Bob,” because it was more of a cowboy name!

Published on