The Plural of "Anecdote"...

My status message for the last few days has been:

 

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

 

As a few people have asked me to clarify, I thought I'd just post my response.

 

The status came as a result of an article by The SciGuy over at the Houston Chronicle. This specific article was about a study that found that children who were spanked a certain number of times per week lost a point to 3 points off of their IQ over the course of 3 years. In the comments section, there were a number of people saying variations on the theme: "I was spanked as a child and I have an IQ of 130! Imagine if I hadn't been spanked! I'd be a genius!"

 

I was getting frustrated because these people seemed to think that:

 

1. If their IQ was high, that meant it hadn't been lowered.

2. If their IQ was 3 points higher, that would be a noticeable change to them.

3. Their personal assumption that their IQ hadn't been lowered meant that the research was false.

 

#3 is where the status update stems from. The study evaluated over 1000 children. Of those 1000+, there were some who did not follow the pattern of the majority, that doesn't mean that the pattern is wrong, it just means that there is variation. Some children lost much more than 3 IQ points. Some may have gained. Some of those children may have had extenuating circumstances not captured in the research. Your one personal story does not mean that the research is false.

 

My dad said it like this:

 

I could sit in McDonald's and watch an old guy come in and say, "MacDonald's is where old people go to eat." I could see another old person come in and say, "That confirms it! All old people must eat at MacDonald's!" But that anecdotal evidence does not mean that it's good research. Until I study a large, random group of old people, I can make no conclusive statements about the eating habits of old people. The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

O Brew Pub, My Brew Pub

It's all I can think about. Constantly trying to come up with the perfect name for the pub. Or, a good theme, so the beer can all be named thematically. I've thought about TV Shows (see Previous Post about ideas for beer names), maybe a movie? It could be an engineering theme, since that's my actual profession. Maybe "The Fermentary". Does that sound gross?

Regardless, the Brew Pub is on my mind even more today because it's Home brewing Class Day!

M and I signed up for this class with another friend. The first week, we made a batch of beer. It will be a Pale Ale-style beer. The teacher of the class is the owner of the home brew supply store in town. He is, shall we say, NOT a germophobe. The first night, he coughed right into our precious boiling beer! We boiled it out on the sidewalk and laughed that a squirrel might land in the pot "But don't worry, that will filter out!" The second week, we tried 14 different kinds of Ale. We learned that the difference between Ale and Lager is that Ale is fermented warm, while Lager is fermented cold. Some of the ales we tried were really good (Frambois = Panty Dissolver, according to the teacher). There were Fresh Hopped India Pale Ales, and malty brown ales. Yum! The third week, we bottled our brew and tried a few more kinds of beer. We also had more of a chance to look around the store and find what we wanted to buy. This week, we're trying several different kinds of Lagers and taking a field trip to a Brew Pub in the Village called "Two Rows."

Taking this class has been a blast. I'm really glad M got it for us for my birthday. I'm really hoping that we can start to brew some of our own beer. I want to start really getting some good recipes together for The Fermentary!

My Kind of Protest

And "Yes, Barack, if you do one thing in your presidency, make it this!"

Of all the tweets...

Of all of the things I've tweeted over the past few months, the one that had to get Re-Tweeted by TWO people, was this:

Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work!

1. Don't put drugs in people's drinks in order to control their behavior.

2. When you see someone walking by themselves, leave them alone!

3. If you pull over to help someone with car problems, remember not to assault them!

4. NEVER open an unlocked door or window uninvited.

5. If you are in an elevator and someone else gets in, DON'T ASSAULT THEM!

6. Remember, people go to laundry to do their laundry, do not attempt to molest someone who is alone in a laundry room.

7. USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM! If you are not able to stop yourself from assaulting people, ask a friend to stay with you while you are in public.

8. Always be honest with people! Don't pretend to be a caring friend in order to gain the trust of someone you want to assault. Consider telling them you plan to assault them. If you don't communicate your intentions, the other person may take that as a sign that you do not plan to rape them.

9. Don't forget: you can't have sex with someone unless they are awake!

10. Carry a whistle! If you are worried you might assault someone "on accident" you can hand it to the person you are with, so they can blow it if you do.

 

Remember: ONLY RAPISTS CAN PREVENT RAPE.

Brew Class

For my birthday, my husband, from here forward referred to as "M", signed us up for a class to learn how to brew our own beer at home. I have had a desire to learn the art of home brewing for a long time. I have dreams about someday going to culinary school, buying a little pub, and opening a little brew pub. I dream about it when I'm out running, and I dream about it when I'm sleeping. Taking this class is not helping me focus on the present, but only making me think more and more about our someday brew pub.

Last night, during class, we were thinking up names for future brews. They are all based on Arrested Development Characters, and therefore, we would never have the rights to actually use the names, but here are some:

1. Loose Seal (a bitter, IPA-style beer)

2. Loose Seal 2 (high alcohol content, makes you tipsy!)

3. The Claw!

4. Bob Lablah Lobs Lager

5. Afternoon Delight (grassy, fresh hopped beer)

Someday... ... ...

Running Entry #1

For those of you reading along who don't know me, I am currently training for The Chevron Houston Marathon.

Background:

I ran Cross Country and Track in High School - 1997-2002 (now you know how old I am). My high school athletic prowess peaked my junior year track season (All-Regional! 800m time - 2:27!) And my senior year cross country season (21:21 5k!). My senior year track season was disappointing and I didn't want to run after that for a long time.

Then, I moved to Houston and started gaining weight. I tried joining a gym, but I got bored with the elliptical and felt lame being on a treadmill when I could just go run outside. In March/April 2008 I started running outside, did a 5k in June '08, and caught the bug. Trained for a 1/2 marathon in February 2009 (2:15!). Took a few weeks/months off, and now I've been training with InFlight Running since May 30, 2009.

This past weekend, I had my first ever 16 mile weekend. Ran 10 miles on Saturday morning at 11:30 pace (as has been the pattern) and ran 6 miles on Sunday night. My first 3 miles were a little slow, but I was a little achy and tired from the 10 miles the day before. My second 3 miles were faster and I felt really good. I got home and felt like I wanted to just go out and run more! Unfortunately, the result of my big weekend is that I am sore sore sore today. And it does not help that I am sitting down all day. I need to remember to get up every now and then just to stretch out my legs!

I am feeling good, though. A few aches and pains here and there, but overall, good. And starting to feel like I'm really getting in shape. This marathon thing might be doable after all! Eek!

Upcoming Races:

United Space Alliance 10 Mile race 10-11-09

Koala Luke's Houston Half Marathon 10-25-09

San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon 11-15-09

TXU Turkey Trot 10k  11-26-09

YMCA Jingle Bell 5 Mile - 12-6-09

Chevron Houston Marathon 1-17-10

Health Care Part 1

This health care conversation happening in the US these days is really interesting to me. I've been trying to think about how I use my purchasing power and almost 100% of the time, it is motivated by what is best for me, my family, and my close friends. As a Christian, I should be using my choice of health care insurer to give aid to the weak, sick, lame, "least of these", right?

So, my understanding of how insurance works is that it works based primarily on probability.

100 people are insured under Plan A.

100 people are insured under Plan B.

Plan A has higher deductibles and co-pays, excludes pre-existing conditions, excludes annual exams, excludes prescription medication.

Plan B has lower deductibles, lower copays, covers pre-existing conditions, covers annual exams, covers prescription medication.

Plan A is cheaper, not only because of the higher deductible and copay, but also because it attracts younger, healthier people who don't need prescription meds, and don't go to the doctor except in an emergency, but also because only 5% of them use their insurance, so the ratio of people paying in to people taking out is very low.

Plan B gets people who need to have insurance that covers pre-existing conditions, people who are have family history of illnesses, people who need medication to maintain their health, etc and the cost goes up, because 25% of them need to use their insurance more regularly.

If I were looking out for my own best interest, Plan A is my plan, for the most part. I don't go to the doctor that often. I don't have any pre-existing conditions. I don't take medicine regularly. I would be paying for coverage I don't need if I got Plan B. But, if I think about society as a whole, and what is best for the people who are sick, I should go with Plan B, because increasing the pool of healthy people in Plan B means lowering the cost for everyone else who needs that plan. Right?

But no one looks at it that way. No one considers that when buying their insurance. So the people who are sick, who have a harder time paying for their insurance due to being out of work sick or being on fixed income, have an even harder time affording their health care. While the people who are healthy and can afford to work, keep getting cheaper insurance, choosing the cheaper insurance, and costs for them go down.

Which is why I believe someone needs to step in, and if no one else is, then I believe it is up to the government. Which is why I support health care reform.

Wastefulness: From the Top Down

At work, we have little fliers in the kitchen with 10 ways we can save energy. They include the usual things like turning the thermostat up in the winter, turning off lights in your house, changing the set temperature of your hot water heater, etc. What they don't include is anything you can do at work. How about this:

Turn off your desk light when you leave at night.

Turn off the power strip that powers your monitor, cell phone charger, docking station, and desk light.

Turn off the lights in conference rooms when you leave.

Wear light clothing so that the thermostat at work can be turned up. (This is unlikely to happen, so bring a sweater or blanket so you can adjust to the temperature setting without using more energy in the form of a space heater.)

Or, even more annoying:

Two months ago (MONTHS!) I got an alert on my computer that the batteries in my mouse were beginning to die. Many people would take that warning and replace the batteries. I wanted to see how long the batteries would last without changing them. TWO MONTHS. And today, my scroll wheel started to be less sensitive. The scroll wheel. That's it! If I had changed my batteries when I got the message, I'd be two months into a new set of batteries and probably would have already received a warning about those batteries.

I would also like to add that space heaters are a great thing for the winter. They allow you to save energy by keeping the thermostat low and only heating the areas where you will be working. When you use them to counteract your air conditioning, you only cause a ripple effect of more energy usage. Using the space heater makes the temperature heat up, which makes the air conditioning turn on, which makes the space heater turn up, which makes the air conditioning work harder. This is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. It's also the reason I'm wearing a knit shirt, jacket and blanket at work today instead of firing up the space heater. /rant

My Musical Tastes and a Sandwich You Won't Believe

I just signed up for an account on last.fm. After signing up, it prompts for a list of your favorite artists, presumably so that it can suggest new artists for you to check out. Unfortunately, due to the crappy Internet connection I get at work, which randomly redirects me to google, I didn't get any results. Not that I think I'd get a lot of coherent results anyway, with a list like this:

 

Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Imogen Heap, Jem, Black Eyed Peas, Goo Goo Dolls, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Miley Cyrus, Shakira, Incubus, System of a Down, and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

 

That would be a pretty fun radio station to listen to, though. Definitely wouldn't be boring.

 

 

And- FYE: check out the new sandwich in testing from KFC: GROSS. Estimated to have 1220 calories. Ew.

A Few of My Favorite Things

So I read so many blogs, I realized I should give back. :-)

Plus, I have things to say, dang it. I think about things. And I've been sharing some of those thoughts on my twitter feed. But there are so many things that can't be said in 140 characters or fewer. (YES! FEWER!)

So, tune in for topics such as:

1. Reality TV
2. Politics
3. Green Things
4. Feminism
5. Running
6. Meaningful or hilarious quotes
7. My thoughts on Christianity as it relates to the above (mostly, politics)

Looking forward to this journey!