Sox Win!

Megan and I had the pleasure of getting a little involved in this year's world series as the Red Sox made a clean sweep of the Rockies. It helps when you know a life long Sox fan and they invite you over to watch! (with some studying thrown in for good vet school karma). I liked the reaction to the final *swoosh* of the bat right here - the pitcher Jonathan Papelbon jumped about 3 feet in the air!

College Rankings

St. Olaf has always ranked around 50th in the US News rankings (54th this year), far below Carleton (5th) and Mac (26th). However, the Washington Monthly Magazine a little while ago put out their own version of college rankings that attempts to: "provide a guide not just to what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country." They also include such things as social mobility, research, and service.

Given this as a foundation it is not a surprise that Olaf rises dramatically! Not quite in the top 10, but 12th (PDF) nation wide for Liberal Arts Colleges. Further reinforcing the stereotype that Olaf students graduate, search for meaning in their life and work at an urban non-profit after school program for at-risk students and earn $21k a year. While Carleton grads go to law school and represent big tobacco. (I jest).

College rankings seem to be a big issue now - the Mac president mentioned skipping the US News rankings - and this is an interesting perspective. More please.

Loud MP3s, too much CCTV, a broken darknet, and whos Beer is it?

I have been mulling some of these things over in separate posts for a bit, so I decided to combine them into one post about the current events of our globe.

Copyright law: The UK "Performing Rights Society" is suing an auto shop for for £200,000 because while working, the mechanics were playing their radio too loud. Not even a CD, their radio. See, if you play music loud enough for others to hear, and it is outside one room, you need a £30,000 license for "public performance." These people need to be stopped! This is not just a UK issue either, not with the woman from Duluth getting a $220,000 fine for making songs "available" to be shared on Kazaa and the RIAA saying that if you rip a CD to MP3 at all - you are stealing it. Aka every ipod owner is a criminal.

Police Surveillance: Speaking of the UK and Big Brother. In the past decade they have decided to place and pay for Close Circuit cameras every where, flying camera drones, auto speed-trap cameras, and so on. The only problem is, they don't seem to stop crime. I am reminded of something Temple Grandin said in her talk a few weeks ago - people always want the technological fix and ignore the management side of things. Even when good management can often do the trick far easier and for less money. She was referring to people wanting the quick fix for cattle - build me a new facility vs. work with the animals better - but I think it can be true across all sorts of things. In this case, good old police work does far better than dumb CCTV cameras. Even if they can talk back now.

Terror: Again and again. Good PR is more important for the Bush administration than good intelligence. Short version, a private intelligence firm who had penetrated the Darknet of Al Qaeda finds the new Bin Laden tape that was to be shown on 9/11/07. They share it with the Bush administration, who promptly leaks it to the Media. Result? Al Qaeda knows they have been infiltrated and shut down/move their entire network. The President gets to talk about how Iraq and Al Qaeda are the same thing on your TeeVee.

Bonus Question! Why does a private intel firm know more than the CIA? And since when are there private intel firms anyway?

Belgium: Did you know that Belgium, that small European country that exports such wonderful Beer, is in crisis mode and there is a chance it will split into two? The Flemish speaking (and rich) north and the French speaking south (see the white line to the left) are distinct culturally but deeply tied economically. They have been with out a working government for months, but the official word on the break up is still, "no."

A Night Out With Kevin Kling

Megan and I just got back from the Fitzgerald theatre where we saw Kevin Kling preform some of his works from his new and first book, "The Dog Says How." Both Megan and I have intersected with Kevin a few times, first at a wonderful performance three years ago this Christmas at St. Olaf. Megan and I got rush tickets for a show because we thought we just should because it was free! We ended up sitting 4 rows back and in the middle - directly in front of Kevin Kling. The show was amazing, I think it is the best bit of theatre I ever saw at St. Olaf. He took you up so you were laughing until you were crying, and then moments later crash you down so you were crying for real. Or for joy - it was amazing.

The second connection is his partner, Mary Ludington. At the State Fair juried art show, I saw this print of a horse from down the room and I loved it. Best piece in the show. I took this photo of it assuming that I would never see it again, but then for Christmas I got completely surprised when it showed up under the tree thanks to Megan and lots of helpers :)

Well it turns out that they are partners and live together with their dogs! So at the event tonight we bought not only Kevin's book (as pictured above) but also Mary's book "The Nature of Dogs." We got Kevin to sign his book, but we will have to wait for Mary's.

So anyway, thats the background to the show tonight - and the show was great! Kevin is a natural story teller who moves you around in time and space in ways that connect seemingly random events into a clear picture that is much bigger than any one story. We both thought that it was a little more geared towards the humorous side of his work compared to what we saw at St. Olaf, but that's fine. Some of the stories we had heard before and a few were new but like any good story teller, it is great to hear them re-told in a new light. Its like I said, each time he brings in new details from some other part of his life that makes each old story new again.

The night was highlighted with preformances by The Brass Messengers - a rocking horn band with a kind of Romanian/Gypsy/Brass sound. I liked them a lot!

Vindication

Being a kid who grew up on a steady diet of PBS (oh Square One, how I loved you) and Nickelodeon (back when it was good), I've always been a little suspicious of the new wave of children's television: Baby Einstein videos. Turns out my suspicions might be justified, as this article came through on ScienceBlog the other day:

Despite marketing claims, parents who want to give their infants a boost in learning language probably should limit the amount of time they expose their children to DVDs and videos such as “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby.” Rather than helping babies, the over-use of such productions actually may slow down infants eight to 16 months of age when it comes to acquiring vocabulary, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

It's an interesting little research project. They compared the vocabularies of groups of kids who were exposed to Baby Einstein videos, "normal" educational baby TV (like Sesame Street), "junk" baby TV (like SpongeBob), and adult TV (like Oprah). The babies who watched educational kid shows, non-educational kid shows, or adult shows were all about the same, but the babies who watched Baby Einstein videos knew six to eight fewer words for every hour per day they spent watching the videos. Here's why they think there's a difference:

“The results surprised us, but they make sense. There are only a fixed number of hours that young babies are awake and alert. If the ‘alert time’ is spent in front of DVDs and TV instead of with people speaking in ‘parentese’ – that melodic speech we use with little ones – the babies are not getting the same linguistic experience,” said Meltzoff, who is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki endowed chair in psychology at the UW.

“Parents and caretakers are the baby’s first and best teachers. They instinctively adjust their speech, eye gaze and social signals to support language acquisition. Watching attention-getting DVDs and TV may not be an even swap for warm social human interaction at this very young age. Old kids may be different, but the youngest babies seem to learn language best from people,” Meltzoff said.

Of course, when I was little, we did lots of reading and listening to music and all that other kid stuff too, which is probably a more important factor than what was on TV. I wonder how the TV-watching babies would compare in vocabulary to those who don't have a TV in the home?

Nimrod

Last night, I went to see the Minnesota Orchestra with Bjorn and Jeanette. Before they started their planned concert, the conductor announced that they wanted to perform a musical response to the bridge collapse. They played Edward Elgar's Nimrod, "not because it was written in sadness, but because it was written in celebration of the power of friendship, love, and hope." Here is the Chicago Symphony's version:

Bridge

Being a St. Paulite, I was having a hard time picturing where the bridge was, as we travel mainly by 94, 494, and 35E. Then I found this photo from our trip back from the cabin in 2003. I took it from the bridge, since it's one of the best views of the city. You can see half the Metrodome on the left side.

Surreal

This has been a surreal afternoon. I just heard on TV the news caster saying that this does not seem like our city. This is the kind of thing that gets reported far away from earthquake zones. But no, its that bridge that we as Minnesotans travel all the time. Every one has been on it. 150,000 people a day travel over it. Now it has fallen killing and wounding many people. It has such an emotional impact because virtually anyone in the Twin Cities could have been on that bridge. Its just the way you go. Thats why cell phone service was virtually shut down due to the massive number of calls - every one thought that their friends or family could have been on that bridge.

Here is a map the way traffic is going to go for the next 2-3 years. The blue dot is our apartment, so suddenly we live next to the freeway. It is going to make it a different neighborhood.

Before and after

Before and after. I had no idea that the bridge looked so, cheap..

OK

You probably have heard now of the horrific and crippling bridge collapse on 35W as you leave downtown Minneapolis, cross the Mississippi and arrive at University Ave. Megan, Winnie and I are ok. I was listing to music on the radio and a stunned DJ came on, telling me to turn to the news NPR and that a bridge collapsed.

So, we will see what happens after this. It is a traumatic tear to the very fabric of this city, and it is going to take years and years to recover.

This photo is a shot I took off the live feed on WCCO.com

Hospice cat

This story has been making the rounds lately... Apparently, there is a dementia unit that is home to Oscar the cat, a kitty who has the uncanny ability to predict the deaths of residents. Oscar seems to be able to sense when death is imminent, and will curl up next to whoever is due to pass about 4 hours before they go. This gives the staff enough time to notify the family.

It is probably a good thing the residents that Oscar decides to visit are usually out of it enough to be unaware of his presence...

Designer dogs

I read a good article the other day about the "designer dog" phenomenon (you know, the doodles and poos and puggles and such), and it got me wanting to write down my own feelings on the trend.

Basically, I don't know how anyone can justify spending $1000+ on a genetic mixed-bag that may or may not be "the perfect family pet." The premise behind a designer dog is to take two breeds that have desirable traits (say, the intelligence and hypoallergenic coat of a poodle and the loyalty and work ethic of a Golden retriever), breed them, and out come puppies that are better than either parent. The truth is, genetics just doesn't work like that. You can't pick and choose which traits the pups will take from either parent- you could get a hypoallergenic goldendoodle, or you could get a perfectly allergenic one, depending on which coat type the pups end up with. More than likely you'll end up with something in the middle, although good luck marketing your "partially-allergenic" pet doodles.

 

The doodles I've met at daycare are uniformly unique, each one different in coat type, behavior, and personality. Although they're only supposed to get the good characteristics, they also often pick up bad traits of both their parents' breeds- in particular, the labradoodles all seem to take the barkiness and mouthiness of a poodle and combine it with the hyperactive, bull-headed nature of a lab, leading to a bitey, uncontrollable big dog that barks incessantly. 

My favorite point of the above-linked article is that, while "designer dog" breeders like to say that their pups will be less prone to genetic diseases due to hybrid vigor, the opposite is more likely. Think about it- if your mom's family has a history of skin cancer and your dad's family has a history of heart disease, do you consider yourself more healthy than either one because you'll get your mom's good heart genes and your dad's good skin genes? No, you consider yourself predisposed to both diseases, because you'll get a mix of genes from your parents. The same goes for designer dogs.

If you want predictability in appearance, behavior, and predisposition to particular diseases, choose a purebred from a reputable breeder. If you want a dog that is least likely to develop genetic diseases, and has a unique appearance and personality choose a nice Heinz 57 (and give a shelter dog a forever home!). If you want to spend a lot of money for an unpredictable pup with just as great (if not greater) a predisposition to genetic diseases as a purebred, get a designer dog.

Not to say that the doodles and dachsi-poos and shi-chis and all the others are worth any less as pets and family members... But when mixed-breed dogs are dying in shelters, how can any responsible breeder bring mixed-breeds into the world just to tap into the "designer dog" trend?

Booooo, boooooooooooo!!!!

Boo on Rep. John Lesch, who says he plans to introduce a bill that would ban five dog breeds (Akitas, Rottweilers, pit bulls, wolf hybrids, and Chow Chows), or "mixed-breed dogs with any of the above traits."

Here are my favorite points on the above-linked article:

• good luck getting the government to reliably identify "pit bulls". Can you?
• even better luck getting the government to reliably identify "mixed breed dogs with any of the above traits". What traits? If it has sticky-up ears, does that make it part Akita? If it howls, does that make it part wolf? Who gets to decide?
• "The dog that attacked Brianna was previously declared "potentially dangerous" by city inspectors." And why was the dog allowed to get into a situation where it could attack again? Because, the city stated, they don't have enough resources to follow up with people who have dogs that are deemed dangerous to ensure they are following the rules (using muzzles when in public, etc). If they can't enforce existing laws (which would have prevented the recent attacks that Rep. Lesch is using to promote his bill), how will they possibly enforce an even more stringent law?
• "But you do hear about the pit bulls, who are responsible, according to Minnesota statistics, for up to one third of the vicious attacks in this state in the past five years." Here is a the major flaw- the dogs are the ones attacking, but are they the ones responsible? I would place responsibility on their owners, where it belongs. It is owners who are either not training and socializing their dogs properly, training their dogs to be aggressive, or not controlling their dogs if they know they have an aggression problem. It's rare to see a story of severe aggression in a dog that has never exhibited aggressive behavior towards humans or animals before... Dogs don't attack out of the blue. Some human knew, and didn't take responsibility. Why punish the dog and let the owner of the hook?
  
• "A half-dozen members of a group that finds homes for neglected or abandoned Rottweilers, pit bulls and other nontraditional breeds criticized the proposal as too difficult to enforce and unfair to responsible dog owners." Uh, 'non-traditional breeds'? Is anything other than a lab or a golden 'non-traditional'? It's not like owning a Rottie is a sign that you're a social delinquent... According to the AKC, in 2006 Rottweilers were #17 in terms of number of dogs registered. They beat out collies, corgis, huskies, dalmatians... American Staffordshire terriers (one of the breeds usually considered a pit bull) ranked higher than Jack Russells. How are these breeds non-traditional?
• Take a look at other cities and countries where 'dangerous breeds' have been banned... Have the bans had any effect on bite statistics? Our behavior professor said no for European bans, and apparently they haven't affected statistics in the states either.
  

Breed bans turn a handful of breeds into "dogs that bite" and all the rest become "dogs that don't bite". People who don't deal with dogs often end up assuming that anything that isn't a rottie or a "pit bull" is safe to pet or safe to own. Our neighbor was upset that some people in the building were violating the apartment's banned breeds list, but that didn't mean she was upset with Winnie, because "obviously she wouldn't bite." People quit using common sense when they think about dogs in a "dangerous/not dangerous" light- of course in reality, anything with teeth can bite. In 2000, a Pomeranian killed a six-week-old baby, and the only dog at daycare that has bitten an employee badly enough to need stitches was a poorly-socialized land-shark of a Miniature pinscher. I understand that some breeds have physical characteristics that make them more potentially dangerous, but if you want to make a pre-emptive strike on all potentially dangerous dogs, I think you'd have to go ahead and ban the whole species.

Death by dog attack is terrible, especially when the victims are children... but considering that about 10 children die per year by dog attack, that number is relatively small. Lord knows how many kids die in car accidents every year. An average of 10 children per year die in school bus accidents. 826 die annually at the hands of caregivers (usually family members). 25 die per year drowning in buckets. I think I shall ask Rep. John Lesch to introduce some anti-bucket legislation next year.

Rep. Lesch is also ignoring the fact that dog attacks have been decreasing in recent years... Frankly, the only reason dog attacks seem like such a threat is because they make good news, and I think it's terrible that some people are willing to be so fleeced by the media that they will support the deaths of thousands of well-behaved, well-adjusted pets to try and catch the handful of poorly-socialized dogs in a breed ban. Responsible owners with good dogs will comply. Irresponsible owners (who are the whole reason these attacks occur) will not, and the only ones who pay the price will be the good dogs.