Category: word of the day

good stuff, Health and wellness, science, word of the dayLeave a comment

Science Continues to be Unsettled

therandomtexan

Local geology doesn’t yield such a sight, so Frank went back a few weeks later and crawled inside. It was a single shaft, about 15 feet long; at its end, while on his back, he found what looked like claw marks all over the ceiling. Unable to identify any natural geological explanation for the cave’s existence, he eventually concluded that it was a “paleoburrow,” dug, he believes, by an extinct species of giant ground sloth. Continue reading Science Continues to be Unsettled

Health and wellness, word of the dayLeave a comment

Today I learned some new phrases

therandomtexan

Say what you will about mindlessly surfing the Internet, I’m always learning something in my semi-random virtual peregrinations Those places aren’t sh!th*les, they’re “fecalized environments,” I had no idea the urge to knock 20 pounds off my lazy ass was “healthism,” and Skipping the purchase of a shooting vest kept me from becoming a “tactical hobo.” I do have a long-standing peeve against the phrase “earth tones” when applied to clothing.  In my experience that means dirt-colored, for which the widespread remedy seems to be washing everything together in hot water, so it all comes out a dingy grey, like … Continue reading Today I learned some new phrases

teaching, word of the dayLeave a comment

Collegiality…

therandomtexan

…is one of those flexible terms academicians use to describe fellow faculty who  “do what I like” or “do the committee work I abhor” or “don’t vote for Republicans” or something of that sort.  But I’ve come up with a simpler, more objective, and operationally measurable definition:  A fellow faculty member is collegial if he erases the blackboard at the end of his lecture, especially if my class immediately follows his. Update:  I’ve found out where the missing collegiality is at UTSA!  Right next to the sushi & tapas, opposite the cash bar… Continue reading Collegiality…

1984, bullshit, dumb ideas, teaching, word of the dayLeave a comment

Here comes the DYSCALCULA epidemic

therandomtexan

Back in grad school, whenever a statistical problem had us stumped, we would joke about having a bad case of dyscalcula, comparing ourselves to dyslexics because the problem was so puzzling we weren’t sure we understood the question, let alone had a clue about finding the answer.  Well, dyscalcula is making its real-world debut. Oh goody! another friggin’ made-up disability just begging for an army of thumbsuckers to cater to it.  I can already see the Math Ed folks gearing up to teach college-level courses in counting your fingers.  Right behind them come the Food Nazis, who’ll jump on this … Continue reading Here comes the DYSCALCULA epidemic

1984, bad Americans, dumb ideas, too stupid to be fiction, word of the dayLeave a comment

Just tatoo “Redneck LOSER” on your forehead…

therandomtexan

…it would be a lot cheaper than Confederate license plates. But what the heck, we’re catering to every other gang of perverts, layabouts, and degenerates in society, so why not let these hapless mooks self-identify? Update (10 May).  The affliction isn’t confined to pseudo-conservative Jacksonians!  The Guardian has a series of essays (inadvertently) explaining why the term public intellectual merits the forehead tattoo “Shill for the State.”   Here’s the money quote from philospher Alain de Botton: “Most of the really influential public intellectuals are now employed by the state and we’ve never heard of them. They don’t generally have … Continue reading Just tatoo “Redneck LOSER” on your forehead…

1984, bullshit, too stupid to be fiction, word of the dayLeave a comment

Let’s push the “abstract behavior rules”

therandomtexan

The latest in NewSpeak is renaming Easter Eggs as “spring spheres”. We were doing some linguistic horsing around yesterday, and decided “spring spheres” lacked any sort of multicultural element.  We decided to call them “cojones colorados.”  That should provoke some discussion. Tip from the Corner. Continue reading Let’s push the “abstract behavior rules”