The 2005 Rhosgobel index

[Warning: a very long and self-indulgent post follows; click here to skip to the end.]

In the spirit of trying to make things more usable here at Rhosgobel, here's an organized list of posts from 2005. This isn't a comprehensive index to everything I wrote, but the vast majority of my 2005 posts are linked to here (a few items are duplicated between categories, but not many).

I've broken the index into a number of categories:

Biology
Professional life / teaching
Politics
Hurricane Katrina
Recurring features
Trips
Personal
Images
Blog

Biology:

FSU attempted to start a chiropractic school (post 1, post 2), then gave up.

Despite CNN's article to the contrary, I determined that no, fruit juice will not make your children fat, and after CNN posted a second article, I fired back a second volley.

I wrote about inaccuracies in the art of the Nasonex bee, which became one of my most-commented-on posts ever.

I wrote about appendices and caeca.

I examined the (still in-development) game Spore from a biological perspective.

I summarized a study showing how antibiotics might directly influence bacterial evolution rates.

I looked at how the Bush administration was whitewashing the environmental impact of grazing.

I looked at mad cow disease in US cattle.

I talked about ending discrimination against rats.

I found some swallowtail caterpillars on my parsley, and let them pupate (they're still pupae, by the way).

I got frustrated by Michael Behe.

I looked at why echinoderms are important.

I wrote a review of our mouse cages.

I talked, in more detail than most people wanted to see, about why most insects are not bugs, and then saw "bugs" everywhere during Christmas.

I also linked to a number of neat sites and studies, including fast plants, the anatomical atlas of flies, plants photosynthesizing without the sun, a prosthetic limb that allows its wearer to feel what the limb is touching, an article skeptically analyzing exercise equipment, flying insect photographs, footage of a live giant squid, baby feeding myths, 4.4-billion-year-old zircons, singing mice, AAAS media awards, how intelligent design should be taught, and the Dover decision.

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Professional life / teaching:

I enjoyed reading about Jill/txt becoming department chair in February, then became department chair myself in September and wrote a bit about it.

I lamented the lack of pedagogical training for university faculty.

I discussed my justifications for posting my PowerPoint slides online after I give my lectures.

I showed that I was an administration mole by detailing why I like student evaluations.

I was on a hiring committee in the spring semester, and based on that experience wrote a 9-post series on how to apply for a community college teaching job.

I started a wiki for a research class I taught over the summer; the wiki ended up being a huge success (with thousands of edits over its lifetime).

My spring was filled with committee work blues, which kept on going.

My SO generated a scarily accurate portrait of me teaching.

I submitted an NSF grant with a few colleagues, only to have it rejected in October.

As happens every semester, I found more plagiarizers (I found more in the fall, too, but didn't bother to post on it), and got to deal with begging students.

I had at least one very uplifting day that reminded me of the spirit of science.

I worked most of my summer away by teaching a field course.

I had tales from a not-so-fun start to the fall semester, wherein (among other things) one of my lab sections was cancelled.

I reminded folks that in-class response systems are not for attendance, quizzes, or tests.

I completed the last steps required for me to obtain tenure.

I ran into bureaucratic problems with a fundraiser.

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Politics:

I posted on why I started blogging on politics.

I made lots of posts on prisoner abuse throughout the year (1 - January; 2, 3 , & 4 - May; 5 & 6 - June; 7 - September; 8 - October; and posts 9, 10, and 11 on the McCain anti-torture amendment).

I posted a lot on events surrounding the Downing Street Minutes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, including Conyers's letter to Bush and Conyers's hearings 1, 2, 3, 4.

US Count Votes released a report on election fraud in the 2004 presidential election, Conyers talked about election fraud too, and then the GAO released a report on electronic voting security (or, rather, the lack thereof).

I posted about community college budget problems in March (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), April (1, 2), May (1, 2), and June (1).

I posted on issues related to the special elections in California, including a lot on Prop 76, and some on Gov. Schwarzenegger's record 1, 2, 3.

I suggested people donate to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

Tom Ridge reminded us that terror levels weren't changed because the department of Homeland Security was concerned.

A Republican candidate photoshopped a picture from Dean's presidential campaign.

Some members of the Iraq parliament explicitly asked the US military to leave Iraq.

There were reports of Halliburton wasting money in Iraq, along with US military contractors exploiting poor foreign workers, and the US military planting stories in the Iraq media.

I did a sole post on the Plame/Wilson/Rove/Libby scandal.

I linked to a number of things by the EFF, including end user license agreement terms, protecting public weather data, and a legal guide for bloggers.

I started to look at privacy on the web (the series will be finished some day; the posts are even written).

I noted that a draft Indiana law prevents many unmarried people from reproducing via assisted reproduction.

We found that the US has higher rates of medical errors than other countries.

And, near the end of the year I posted that Bush's bin Laden satellite phone leak story was a myth, and linked to Conyers's response to Bush's justification for NSA wiretapping.

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Hurricane Katrina:

A national disgrace

A historical comparison

More outrage in the aftermath of Katrina

Louisiana governor requested federal emergency assistance on Aug. 27

Donating to Louisiana

Escape for a select few

Doing everything possible to help Katrina victims ...

Daily show clips

Police blocked bridge out of New Orleans

Prisoners left to die

If true, a terrifying tale

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Recurring features:

By far the most frequently-posted on topic this year was food: for links to all food posts see my recipe archives, organized either chronologically or by topic (the topic archive is much easier to use).

I made a number of posts on our mice, though sadly most of them were obituaries, as all seven of our mice died this year. All mouse-related posts are linked to on the mouse archive page.

I made a lot of posts on using Debian/Linux; they're all linked to on the Debian/Linux archive page.

I wrote a 9-post series on how to apply for a community college teaching job (see the community college job archive page for links to all the posts).

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Trips:

My SO and I traveled to London in January, and took lots of pictures (posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

We traveled to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.

We traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area twice, posting cute slug pictures after both trips.

We went to Anime Expo.

We took a multi-week trip to Canada, and visited Mt. Saint Helens, got exhausted, had tea at the White Heather Tea Room in Victoria, and visited Tacoma (among other things).

We went to the King Tut exhibit in LA.

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Personal:

My SO made me truffles.

We hit lots of snags in remodeling, including problems obtaining supplies, pouring self-leveling compound, more problems obtaining supplies, having wires melt in our kitchen, and having our fence fall down.

I posted about my summer reading.

I posted a picture of our ever-so-geeky living room.

I read about, then bought, Civ IV.

My SO and I got a sewing machine, and sewed our first project.

I went out to dinner with PZ Myers.

A friend bought a timeshare, and we helped him get out of it.

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Images:

While there are lots of pictures embedded in other posts (especially the travel posts), there were a few one-shot posts, including a picture of a caterpillar and a spider. And, of course, you can't forget about my two cute slug pictures.

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Blog:

Rhosgobel turned a year old (back in January).

I hosted the third Skeptics' Circle (is it really only a year old?).

I was translated into French.

I started an exercise blog, Rhosgobel's Gym.

I declared a week in October to be Cooking Week.

I finally figured out what Radagast and Rhosgobel stand for.

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Tom Tomorrow summary of 2005

What better to post on New Year's Eve than a wrapup of 2005? Well, Tom Tomorrow (author of such classics as Chicken Hawk Down) has already done it for me: Part 1, Part 2.

(via Democratic Underground)

Suggested resolution #2: Save the deep sea

Deep Sea News (a blog I found via a comment here ... thanks Craig!) has a great list of things you can do to save the deep ocean. And I'll bet you didn't even know it needed saving.

A tasty weekend ahead

On our way back from donating blood, my SO and I stopped by our favorite German deli. We traditionally have a dinner of good deli meats and tasty bread on Christmas Eve, but since we were with family this year we missed out on that. So, instead of waiting another whole year for good deli meats, we're going to be having them for New Year's Eve. We also missed out on our traditional Christmas dinner (a result of a family miscommunication), so we'll be making that for New Year's Day. Here's our current plan:

New Year's Eve:

• Breakfast: Baked French toast
• Lunch and dinner: Deli meats and cheeses (spicy Hungarian salami, paprika salami, fine and coarse liverwurst, black forest ham, roasted turkey, landjaeger, provolone, feta, Iberico, and English coastal cheddar), with ciabatta and rustic rolls
  

New Year's Day:

• Breakfast: Unknown (probably more deli meats)
• Appetizer / lunch: Bruschetta with fresh mozzarella
• Dinner: Cream of cauliflower soup, royal braised vegetables in cardamom nut sauce, saffron pilaf with peaches
• Dessert: Tarte Tatin

It's going to be a fun weekend!

Suggested resolution #1: Donate blood

My SO and I just got back from donating blood, and once again it was a somewhat disheartening experience. The donation itself was fine; what was disheartening was the lack of other people donating blood. We were the only people in the donation center for about half the time, and for the entire time the place was less than a third full. After finishing up my blood donation, my phlebotomist was just wandering around the donating area, obviously quite bored (she reported that it was "really slow" today).

There's certainly a need for blood right now (there always is!), as the Southern California Red Cross reports that they have only a 1-day supply of O-.

So, if you haven't given blood in the last 56 days, and haven't been officially informed by your doctor or a blood-donating agency that you cannot donate blood, go schedule an appointment at the Red Cross's Give Life website (or whatever your local blood donation agency's website is) and go donate. At the worst they'll tell you that you can't donate, and at the best you'll walk out about a pound lighter than when you walked in.

Arg! Bugs everywhere!

One of my relatives got a taxonomic nightmare for a present: a bug vacuum. Considering that I had just written about problems surrounding use of the word "bug" (see this post), I had to get a picture of the packaging:


"Bug" everywhere, yet not a bug to be found
The primary problem with this product's name is that users will most likely not be using it to catch bugs: they'll instead be using it to catch arthropods. Since bugs are a specific type of insect, I was at least hoping that the box would have pictures of insects being caught. But no, the box is adorned with three pictures of spiders (which look suspiciously like plastic toy spiders) being "caught" by the device. So not only does Sharper Image not have a single bug on the packaging, but they don't even have an insect. Sigh.

Since the "bug" vacuum was a hit with the present-opening crowd, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to educate a few folks about the taxonomic errors of the packaging. I received mostly sighs, rolled eyes, and desperate attempts to change the subject (as usual), but the best response came from my 12-year-old cousin: "Okay. Whatever." Not more than 15 minutes later, however, she was aggressively correcting everyone else on their use of taxonomic terms; it was a glorious end to the evening.

I will say that this vacuum does have one good characteristic: unlike many "bug" vacuums that are designed to kill their prey, this vacuum is designed to keep whatever it catches alive, so it can be observed and released (though how this is different from a cup and stiff piece of paper is rather beyond me).

Oooh.

The ACLU has a provocative ad in the New York Times today. Nice.

Dover decision links

The Dover decision is becoming old news, but if you haven't yet read enough on it, Blogarithmicly has a very good collection of links to other collections of links on the ruling. And, of course, the Panda's Thumb is also providing continuing coverage.

Timeshares - you may be able to get out of the contract if you act quickly

A friend IMed me a few weeks ago to tell me that he'd just bought a timeshare; considering that I didn't think him the type to be suckered, I was surprised.

I became skeptical when I learned more details. My friend had attended a 90-minute sales pitch and done no comparison shopping. The presentation was fairly high-pressure: to be entered into a prize drawing (for a free Hummer) my friend had to stay for the entire 90 minutes, and incentives were given for signing a contract right then and there. My friend signed a $10,000 contract on site.

The timeshare was with Trendwest, a company that sells "point-based" timeshares wherein people get a set number of points each year (6,000 in my friend's case) that can be spent on the company's various lodgings worldwide. The $10,000 was for a "premier" contract, which meant that it lasted for life, and the company even bragged about how the timeshare could be "willed" to people. In addition to the one-time $10,000 payment, there was also an annual fee that lasted for the lifetime of the contract. These "maintenance dues" started at $400 per year, but could be increased from year to year.

Trendwest's website is suspiciously sparce; while it has basic information about the company and its properties, the website does not list how many points it takes to make a reservation at each property, nor does it list how far in advance the properties book up. It also has no information regarding whether resorts are already booked at specific times. Since how much money you save is entirely dependent on how many points each property costs per night (and how available the properties are), this makes calculating the potential cost/benefit of the transaction extremely difficult. Presumably, once you have a contract you can find this information out, but by then it's too late.

My SO and I did more research on the company and found a number of interesting things. First, Trendwest was sued by the state of California in 2003 for "deceptive sales practices;" Trendwest settled the suit, agreeing to more than $700,000 in damages, with penalties and fees possibly exceeding $3 million.

"The complaint alleged Trendwest engaged in deceptive marketing and sales practices, and misrepresented its timeshare products. Additionally, the firm violated cancellation notice requirements and unlawfully failed to accept cancellation requests, according to the complaint."

My SO found what appears to be an old Trendwest contract on the Trendwest website. The contract has annual dues data from October 2001 ($340 per year for a 6,000 point contract). My friend reported that the current dues were $400 a year for the same contract. A quick calculation showed that if my friend owned the property until he was 84 (his lifetime, statistically) and Trendwest continued to increase their dues as they have historically, my friend would pay more than $44,000 in annual dues over his lifetime. That's a lot of hotel rooms.

Also found in the contract was this notice, which implies that Trendwest is drastically marking up their product (caps are original):

"AS A GENERAL RULE, A SPONSOR'S PROMOTIONAL AND MARKETING COSTS IN A TIME-SHARE OFFERING CONSTITUTE A MAJOR PORTION OF THE PURCHASE PRICE. SHOULD YOU PURCHASE A TIME-SHARE INTEREST, YOU MAY FIND IT DIFFICULT TO RESELL YOUR TIME-SHARE INTEREST WITHOUT THE USE OF AN EXTENSIVE PROMOTIONAL AND ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN OR USE OF A SALES ORGANIZATION."

This statement seems to be accurate, as secondhand Trendwest contracts are easily available online. Searches on eBay showed numerous equivalent contracts (6,000 points per year for a "premier" lifetime contract, some with even more points already accrued than my friend had bought) for less than $5,000 total payment. Other websites selling "used" timeshares appeared to have similar prices. Since it appears to be perfectly legal to sell timeshares (and this is often one of their supposed benefits), this means that my friend could buy the exact same thing for less than half the cost.

Happily, consumer protection laws in California require that timeshare contracts can be terminated by the consumer within a few days of the purchase (a "cooling off" period; see this website for a summary of what applies in California). The amount of time allowed to cancel the contract depends on state law, and even in California isn't always reported to be the same (the last link reports a seven-day cooling off period for a timeshare; this website says it's three days), but it is clear that the contract can be cancelled within a few days of purchase and that the contract should include a statement of how it can be cancelled. Laws may vary in other states.

I'm happy to say that my friend did in fact cancel the timeshare contract. I look at it this way: even if buying a timeshare turned out to be a good decision for him, it'd be much better to shop around and make an educated choice than to choose based on a single 90-minute presentation by someone with a strong financial motive. That'd be like buying a $50,000 widget without ever comparing different widgets or even having used a widget before.

More sluggy cuteness

To carry on the tradition of posting cute slug pictures after visiting my folks, here's another one:


A slug with its pneumostome clearly visible
While my prior picture (seen here) showed the overall head anatomy, this one highlights the slug's pneumostome. The pneumostome is an opening in the slug's mantle tissue that lets air into the slug's mantle cavity; inside the mantle cavity the slug has a highly vascularized section of tissue that functions as a lung.

Both slugs and snails have pneumostomes; on terrestrial snails they're located at the tissue covering the opening at the base of the shell (on the right-hand side, as with slugs). The pneumostome is not an anus; the anus is a much smaller opening located (on slugs) under the mantle behind the pneumostome.

As with insects (which use trachea and spiracles to respire), slugs and snails separate respiration from ingestion (which conveniently prevents choking). Pneumostomes can be opened and closed by both slugs and snails; I always like to imagine the cute little gastropods huffing and puffing when their pneumostomes are open.

Hickman et al. 2004. Integrated Principles of Zoology, 12th edition. McGraw Hill.

Home

We're back! Unfortunately, we're back about two hours later than we had hoped, as there was stop-and-go traffic on I-5 (the major north-south interstate in California, which almost never has traffic where we were). I-5's speed limit is 70 mph for cars; in our first three hours we averaged about 45 mph.

The rest stop in the middle of the traffic jam was scarily packed with people. Cars were parked anywhere there was space (dirt shoulder of the offramp, over the curbs on the dirt and lawns, in truck spaces), and each of the four restrooms had lines at least 30 people long.

If you're dying to find out more about I-5, there's an entire Wikipedia page on it, and I've got a few mediocre pictures of the section we were on here.

Considering that we've just been to three family gatherings and one museum (the new de Young) in four days, we're ready to collapse for a bit.

Spirit of the season

I just can't leave my fine readers with that last post for Christmas, so here's a fun snow globe to play with. I must admit, however, that my all-time favorite snow globe has to be this "California Snowman" globe I saw on a coworker's desk.

The administration's justification for wiretapping

I'm busy having fun with family, but couldn't help checking Democratic Underground tonight, where I learned more about the NSA wiretapping issue.

On Thursday, the Justice Department sent out a memo summarizing their legal justifications for why the government can spy on US citizens without obtaining a warrant. Yesterday, Rep. Conyers posted his opinion (which includes many good background links) on the topic:

The Justice Department has written (PDF) the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Intelligence Committees with its legal arguments. In a nutshell, the letter argues that the President's Article II authority as Commander in Chief allows him to do whatever he wants. He doesn't need congressional authorization or oversight. He does not need to go to any court. His decisions are unreviewable by the Supreme Court. It is a similar argument used to justify torturing detainees.

My assessment of the legal basis for this argument would likely break the rules of discourse on this blog. Suffice it to say, it is not going to fly.

To bolster this pathetic Constitutional argument, the Administration also points to the September 11 use of force resolution. But here they are really playing fast and loose with the facts. In a classic heads I win, tails you lose fashion, we learned today from fromer Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle that the Administration asked for this authority and was denied it (the Washington Post has more). Having been denied this authority by Congress, they proclaim they had it anyway. See more from Armando at DailyKos.

Bush's bin Laden satellite phone leak story is a myth

I'm supposed to be packing (or sleeping) right now, but I can't help but post a link to this Washington Post story:

President Bush asserted this week that the news media published a U.S. government leak in 1998 about Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone, alerting the al Qaeda leader to government monitoring and prompting him to abandon the device.

The story of the vicious leak that destroyed a valuable intelligence operation was first reported by a best-selling book, validated by the Sept. 11 commission and then repeated by the president.

But it appears to be an urban myth.

The al Qaeda leader's communication to aides via satellite phone had already been reported in 1996 -- and the source of the information was another government, the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan at the time.

The second time a news organization reported on the satellite phone, the source was bin Laden himself.

(via Rawstory)

Holiday trip

My SO and I will be heading out of town to see family this weekend; posting will likely be light until we get back next week. This will be the first of two out-of-town trips we will take this break ... so much for spending the whole vacation working on the house (and playing Civ).

Happy holidays!

Firefox session saver

But She's A Girl alerted me to an amazingly cool Firefox extension: session saver. This extension saves all open windows and tabs, and automatically reopens them when the browser restarts. This seems especially useful in the event of a browser crash, but I'm using it so that I can shut down my computer at night even if I have pages open I want to save.

[As a side note, I've posted about some other extensions I use here.]

An early Christmas present

The judge in the Dover Intelligent Design trial has ruled that "it is unconstitutional to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom." PZ Myers is all over the story, and The Panda's Thumb has a ton of good posts. Orac, Wesley Elsberry, BoingBoing, The Education Wonks, and Scalzi have all chimed in as well. News stories on the topic abound; the Guardian's story has a satisfyingly high proportion of background to length. And, if you want even more, the judge's full decision is online (PDF), though I suspect you could recreate it by piecing together the quotes in all the articles above.

I get distracted for a week and look what happens ...

Bush and McCain agree on the torture ban wording, and leave it as McCain's (which I've written about here and here). The House just passed the torture ban, but also added wording that "would let information gleaned by coercion to be used against Guantanamo inmates."

The New York Times reported that Bush authorized the NSA to spy on US citizens communicating overseas without getting a warrant. Bush acknowledged that he authorized the program, then had the nerve to say that the newspaper that revealed the program was "endangering national security;" Bush insists he will continue the program. As a side note, the New York Times held the story for a year at the request of the White House.

Bush admitted that "much of the intelligence [leading up to the war in Iraq] turned out to be wrong. As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq." Is he just realizing this now?

The LA Times reported that the US military has clear ties to the Lincoln Group, the contractor that was planting stories (paid for by the US military, but not attributed to them) in the Iraq media. The military had apparently initially attempted to deny responsibility.

Sauteed apples with brown sugar, butter, and rum

Sauteeing apples with sugar is probably one of the best ways to eat apples (oh how I love tarte Tatin), and it makes for a great topping. We just made this as a topping for a puff pancake, so its this week's second end-of-the-week recipe blogging post.

2 apples
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 sploosh (~1 tablespoon) dark rum (optional)

1. Peel, core, and slice the apples.
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add the apples and sautee, stirring regularly, until lightly browned on both sides.
4. Add brown sugar, stir, add the rum, and cook until the apples are soft and the sauce is syrupy.

Notes:

This recipe made enough to top a puff pancake for two people; the recipe could be easily scaled up. We suspect this would make a good topping for ice cream, though we haven't tried it.

This recipe is based on a serving suggestion from Rombauer et al. (1997).

Rombauer, I. S., M. R. Becker, and E. Becker. 1997. Joy of Cooking. Scribner, NY.

Puff pancake

Puff pancakes are very easy to make - all you have to do is mix up a simple batter, pour it into a hot, buttered baking dish, and bake. After about 15 minutes the pancake will have puffed up to extraordinary heights, making a grand (if short-lived) presentation. The finished pancake is sweet and buttery, with crispy edges and a soft center. Since we just had one of these for breakfast, it's this week's end-of-the-week recipe blogging post.

1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 large eggs
6 tablespoons butter

0) Preheat the oven to 425F.
1) To make the batter, whisk the flour, sugar, salt, eggs, and milk together until smooth.
2) Cut the butter into a few pieces, place in a 9x13" glass baking dish, and place the dish in the oven until the butter is melted (a few minutes).
3) Remove the baking dish from the oven. Carefully rotate the dish to coat the bottom and sides with melted butter. Buttering the sides thoroughly helps the pancake rise.
4) Pour the batter into the hot baking dish and bake for 15 minutes, or until the pancake has puffed up, the top edges of the pancake are well-browned, and the center of the pancake is lightly browned.
5) Slice into pieces and serve immediately.

Notes:

This pancake should easily serve four for breakfast; it reheats relatively well in a 350F oven (though it never regains its puffiness).

The pancake will start to deflate almost immediately upon removing it from the oven; if you want to impress people with the pancake's "puffiness", make sure they see it as soon as it comes out of the oven.

This pancake does not need syrup; we almost always eat it plain (but use syrup if you want). However, this morning we sauteed apples with brown sugar and butter for a topping; the two went together well.

To save time, we often melt the butter in the pan (step 2) while we're mixing the batter (step 1). However, if you're easily distracted (or mix things slowly) don't try this, as the butter will burn if left in the oven too long.

If, when cutting the pancake, you find that it isn't quite cooked in the center, just pop the pan back in the oven for a few minutes more.

If you find that you're out of fresh milk, but absolutely must have this pancake right now, you can substitute evaporated milk in place of the milk in the recipe: just use 2/3 cup evaporated milk mixed with 1/3 cup water.

This recipe is slightly modified from Rombauer et al. (1997).

Rombauer, I. S., M. R. Becker, and E. Becker. 1997. Joy of Cooking. Scribner, NY.