I'm about to pay $65 for a dude to come over and push a button to ignite the pilot light on my heater/furnace. Yay.

Know a good recipe??

...and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

When I told them that exons were expressed, while introns were not, they questioned this and thought I had it backwards. This person had majored in math; I'd majored in biology. Guess who won? =P

I guess that'd be like if they'd told me the canonical form of the derivative, after which I would've questioned their memory of the formula because I thought I knew limits better.

People are so silly sometimes! But I guess questioning even basic, elementary biological knowledge from time to time can be fruitful: In science, laws and assumptions are more saliently empirical (and therefore subject to warranted doubt) than are mathematical formulae.

Just don't be surprised if your friend is mildly insulted because your assertion means they spent 4+ years of their academic life completely oblivious to the fact that they got the basics entirely wrong. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNyg1ftMIU

=DDD

(This entry is about M. Night Shyamalan's live-action adaptation of the popular Avatar animation/cartoon in the movie The Last Airbender. For more from the opposition, check out www.racebending.com.)


I. Where my opposition comes from (along with an admitted hole in my argument).

The "mere exposure effect" is a well-investigated phenomenon in cognitive psychology that I first encountered back in college while working on my concentration in cognitive studies around 1998-2000—one that has been hypothesized (by myself and many others much more expert than me) to be associated with degrees of likability or preference for members of racial groups other than your own. The linked paper below has investigated this putative relationship between the mere exposure effect and subject preference across visually apparent ethnic features; I'm still vetting it for logic, evidence (i.e. theoretical and empirical assumptions), and methods—but it looks good so far. I'll also be poking around for similar research papers over the next few months. I'm SO glad people have been researching this stuff!

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2705986

If these and other corroborating findings hold up, they support my assertion (i.e. expression of my own educated opinion—my extension/generalization of findings WITHOUT strong evidence—just a strong intuition) over the last few years that it's therefore VERY important for underrepresented ethnic groups to be represented as much as possible at very obvious opportunities (e.g. Asians in The Last Airbender). So yes, I may be wrong—but I'm more than willing to bet I'm not. =)

Also, I AM first-generation Asian-American—so that is an obvious source of bias, DUH; sorry, but I can't un-Asian myself. If you want a mitigated opinion from someone who's less ethnically biased, ASK SOMEONE ELSE. =P

Helpful Hint: If you're having trouble finding a parallel in your own experience, try to think of socially "normal" situations where you'd consistently felt yourself to be in the minority (over a considerable time span of your life). I, for example, also strongly identify as a nerd or geek, and as a "weird" person (the fun kind!): apart from really enjoying "non-weird" social outlets like clubbing, dancing, and mainstream food and fashion, I've also heartily partaken of goth nights/fashion/music, and immersed myself in college student theatre; I was also raised by anime, video games, bookstores, science fiction, and the high school art/literature magazine. (Yes, I'm one of "those people". Thanks for judging, society.)


II. On ethnic casting in current American cinema in general.

I, like my friends and loved ones, believe that ethnicity shouldn't contribute to many commonplace inter-personal and social assessments and judgements—and many of us indeed work towards this. Along those lines, say that I assume that I can bring this more ideal world about by asserting policies that I believe are in line with such a world (e.g. "anyone should be able to play the characters in The Last Airbender"). To me, this strategy becomes more valid the closer the world as I perceive it (i.e. the "real world" to me) is to my ideal world.

Moving to North Carolina has taught me that living in California, my perception of the "real world" (of American racial disparities) wasn't quite as egalitarian as I'd thought (not that I thought it was totally egalitarian, either; far from it). Hence, I am now of the opinion that the social terrain of the American ethnic/racial landscape isn't "flat" enough for the strategy above to be useful: The focus now, rather than encouraging actions and policies that discount race in such settings as film casting (which SHOULD be the strategy once the social landscape is "flatter", mos def), should be on encouraging the casting of actors from underrepresented ethnic groups into roles that more obviously reflect their ethnicities. I do not see this as reverse racism or reverse discrimination—which I think it would be if the ethno-racial landscape were flatter.

To sum up my opinion using the landscape analogy, the methods specific to film casting to "flatten" the landscape of socio-racial disparities depend on how "flat" the landscape is right now; i.e. methods that apply to molehills do NOT apply to hills—though molehills (and their methods) will come in time.


— E

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=145739

Responsibilities:

* Apply advanced statistical methods.
* Apply and research the latest survey research methods.
* Work with large, complex data sets and solve difficult, non-routine problems.
* Clearly communicate highly technical results and methods.
* Interact cross-functionally with a wide variety of people and teams.

Requirements:

* PhD in Statistics, Biostatistics, or Survey Research required or relevant work experience.
* Experience with sample design, missing data/imputation, non-response.
* Experience with manipulating large data sets.
* Proficient with R, SAS, SQL etc.
* Experience with longitudinal data and causal methods a plus.



HOLY CRAP.

I will have exactly ALL of the requirements listed (assuming interchangability of DrPH and PhD) when I graduate--INCLUDING the "plus" for longitudinal and causal experience. It's marketing (blech), but it's for Google... hrmm...

Put your love to the test
You know, you know, you've got to
Make him[her] express how he[she] feels
And maybe then you'll know your love is real
...
You deserve the best in life
So if the time isn't right then move on
Second best is never enough
You'll do much better baby on your own


Amen, Madonna. Amen. =)

Spectacularly awesome review of the new Transformers movie! (I'd warn you of spoilers, but really, do any of us care? It's Michael Bay, after all.) They talk about the limbic system--that makes me happy! =D (Thanks for the link, KA.) http://io9.com/5301898/michael-bay-finally-made-an-art-movie

To clarify, I am interested in snap judgements: I say "Filipino" and you IMMEDIATELY think "???(insert ethnic/race category here)???" I.e. For the purposes of this brief survey, I'm not interested in reasoned nuance and logical analysis; I'm interested in immediate gut feeling.

I've gotten enough varied responses from American or American-born friends, that now I'm curious about this construct in the context of the USA. I would post actual response categories, but I want to see what y'all think in a brief but open-ended reply. I'll post my own pre-conceived perceptions of what I think are American standards after I get enough responses. =)

Calling all sociologists, anthropologists, economists, and religious studies scholars!

So, I was just reflecting on an online Facebook conversation I was having on the merits/demerits of organized religion, and I thought:

What if today's religions with long-standing source texts—which I use here just to set apart this class or set of religions (i.e. not speaking to their degree of dogmatic interpretation)—were instead treated like free-market capitalism, where sociocultural "market" forces supposedly drove practitioner "consumer" trends, instead of being dictated through a perhaps more corruptible—and thereby, more damaging in scope—hierarchy of authority, analogous perhaps to what happened in the actual execution of communism and socialism?

To start with something more specific, in my naive understanding, isn't much of modern Islam this way? I.e. Loci of regional/culture-specific versions of the religion, vs. the global organization of the Catholic church? Please understand that I'm not making a judgement here; just trying to get the conversation started with something perhaps more empirical and manifest.

yum!

you won't read this anyway because you never read my LJ, but you know who you are, and i just had to tell someone

I am kindly requesting that you e-mail me your cell-phone numbers, as my now-defunct phone decided to go swimming with me in Vegas this past week. =P Cheers!

By the way, do NOT purchase the Nokia 7205 Intrigue; it sucks major domo! It turns on-and-off unprompted every minute or so. I've already had TWO such phones in a row exhibit this debilitating behavior. Grrr! Too bad; 'twas such a pretty pink phone. =(

Now, I don't want to lose you
but I don't want to use you
just to have somebody by my side.
And I don't want to hate you,
I don't want to take you
but I don't want to be the one to cry.

And that don't really matter to anyone anymore.
But like a fool I keep losing my place
and I keep seeing you walk through that door.

(Chorus)

But there's a danger in loving somebody too much,
and it's sad when you know it's your heart you can't trust.
There's a reason why people don't stay where they are.
Baby, sometimes, love just aint enough.

Now, I could never change you
I don't want to blame you.
Baby, you don't have to take the fall.
Yes, I may have hurt you, but I did not desert you.
Maybe I just want to have it all.

It makes a sound like thunder
it makes me feel like rain.
And like a fool who will never see the truth,
I keep thinking something's gonna change.

(Chorus)

And there's no way home
when it's late at night and you're all alone.
Are there things that you wanted to say?
And do you feel me beside you in your bed,
there beside you, where I used to lay?

And there's a danger in loving somebody too much,
and it's sad when you know it's your heart they can't touch.
There's a reason why people don't stay who they are.
Baby, sometimes, love just ain't enough.

Baby, sometimes, love... it just ain't enough.

Speaking as a long-time fan to non-fans, all I gotta say is, don't judge a book by its cover. Go see it, seriously. =D

           =D   =D
           =D   =D
           =D   =D
           =D   =D
           =D   =D
           =D   =D

=D=D=D=D=D=D=D=D
=D                          =D
=D                          =D
   =D                  =D
        =D=D=D=D

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/key_facts.htm

For a livejournal account with a patently emidemiological title, I sure am late in posting this. Sorry, folks! Silly final exams... =P

Be well,
Me.