Fat Pedestrian on Cellphone Crossing

Check out this sign from City College:

I'm not completely sure what the CUNY Public Safety Department is trying to insinuate about CCNY students, but, whatever it is, it sure ain't pretty.

Open letter to Scott McLaughlin, PhD

Dear Professor McLaughlin,

My class in language development is using your text, Introduction to Language Development (second edition, Thomson) and I have run across something which I would like to ask you about.

On page 86, Chapter 3, the section on Physical Contact, second paragraph (last one on the page) I quote:

"Physical contact between infants and caregivers is as necessary as breathing. In the most basic sense, infants would not survive without it."

First, by what metric do you define "as necessary as," or in what measure of necessity are they equal.

Second, what references do you have to back up this claim. I could not find any myself and so I suspected you may have accidentally written the statement in language implying it were true.

Thanks very much for your help in this,

-Jonathan

When I brought this up in class the other students and professor were actually defending it. But it turns out that saying "they have done studies" when you can't name a single one, is just like saying "I made it up."

Update, Professor McLaughlin responded extremely politely with a good answer to my question. The statement was metaphorical. You may also notice that he is a talented author as this email is very well written

Hi Jonathan,

First, I want to thank your for taking the time and showing the interest to inquire about my book. I'm always gratified that someone has chosen to use my book. When I decided to write it, I never planned on getting rich (and I have not), but I was enriched by the thought that maybe my approach to the subject matter would be helpful to someone - an instructor or a student. I hope you have found it to be a "student friendly" text.

With regard to my statement about physical contact being as necessary as breathing, on one level I would say that it is metaphorical - the way someone might say, "I would just die if I couldn't watch baseball every night." On the other hand, in a more real way, there were a number of studies that occurred in the U.S. during the 40s and 50s investigating the effects of "psychosocial deprivation" in orphanages. They found that even though orphaned babies were provided with sufficient nutrition, the ratio of infants to caregivers in the institutions was so high that infants were fed regularly but rarely cuddled. As a result, they had stunted physical and neurological development - failure to thrive - even to the point that some died without any apparent physical cause.

Because mine is a "normal development" text, I didn't think to go into that kind of background information to substantiate my metaphor, but you may be correct in the suggestion that it should be substantiated and maybe even backed up with citations. At the very least, I might include a "text box" that relates the anecdotal evidence from the orphanage studies I mentioned in the next edition.

I always appreciate any suggestions or questions that serve to improve the book so thank you for taking the time and interest to pose your question. Good luck in your studies - ours is a very complex, exciting, and challenging field so continue to give it your all!

Sincerely

Scott F. McLaughlin

We Choose the Moon

Today is the 40th birthday of the launching of Apollo 11. You can watch a simulated "real-time" reconstruction of it at the website We Choose the Moon, complete with recorded sounds and everything. Or you can follow Houston Control, Apollo 11 Spacecraft and the Eagle Lander on Twitter. Nature News is also Twittering it.
T -11 minutes.

Also, check out Aryeh's post from two years ago regarding the Rutgers Lunar Symposium where he met one of the few lucky men to walk on the moon.

Finally, be sure to see NASA's restored moonwalk videos.

No Bike

A week ago I brought my bike to Rutgers. In the evening I would bike while some friends ran, this was a good way for us all to get exercise and stay in shape. Additionally, due to the number of us we had momentum so that we would all encourage each other to keep going and not miss a night. Well this Sunday someone stole my bike, I left it at 8:22 PM and came back at 9:35 to go for a ride. It was not there, the friend I was with told me that he had gotten in at 8:40 and had not seen it. I of course reported it to the police that evening, and this afternoon I spoke with them and they said that the camera on the door near where I had locked my bike (to a brick wall) had picked up activity around that area at 8:30 I know the times because I friends with the person who controls the cameras in the engineering building and had him look to see the exact times, in fact the reason i had been at my bike at that time was so that he could show me counter steering. Also, when I told him about the theft he called the Rutgers people who monitor the cameras and told them what camera and what time, which is why I figure the Rutgers police department got the footage so quickly. so we shall see what happens.

You where a great bike I hope I get you back.

Fun with Matlab, why

Lately I've been running a few Matlab programs that take about 5 minutes to finish. Naturally I continue to use my computer - but then I don't know when its finished. To solve this problem I add a bit of code to the end of all my programs which will play a sound - like the beep of a microwave, or the ding of a toaster to let me know that my numbers are fully crunched.

If you would also like to have this for your own programs just slip the following into the end.

%% To play a sound

T=419*2; T2=419*4; st=[1:.3:T]; t2=[1:.3:T2];

S=(sin(t*pi/T).^.2+sin(t*pi/T).^2).*sin((t+sin(t/2)*.2).^1.0)/2;

S2=(sin(t2*pi/T2).^.4+sin(t2*pi/T2).^4).*sin((t2+sin(t2/2)*.2)*1.5)/2;

sound([S S],8192); sound(S2,8192);

Another great thing to do in Matlab: type "why" into the command line (without quotes) and see what it answers. Just the word 'why'. Now I would love to show you an example (they are quite funny) but the computer I'm using doesn't have Matalb. The person who posts a comment with the longest answer that matlab gives to that question wins.

An Exploratorium Book

I recently purchased a secondhand copy of the second edition J.D. Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics.  (I actually own the latest edition, but the 2nd has Gaussian units as opposed to the annoying MKSA in the 3rd.)

It's always interesting to get secondhand books and see where they came from.  Well, I now own a piece of the Exploratorium.

I wonder why they got rid of this book.

Machinists Vice

I am currently machining a machinists vice. It is part of a pseudo machine shop class.

This is a 3-axis end mill, this is the machine we are using most.

From right to left is the progress of the main part. From a large piece of stock, we then cut out the center, from there we flip it over and make a groove. More as I complete my vice.

Good for ages 1+

Franconia Notch State Park

Franconia Notch State Park, the park with the old man of the mountain profile for New Hampshire is very close to the highway. Its not only very convinient to drive too, but also supplies a great view from the top . . . of the highway.

I came, I saw, I lit a fire.

Note: this fire is smaller than it appears.

No marshmellows, but the toasted bread this fire provided was nice.

They have a tourist attraction there called the Flume Gorge, which is $13 a person to walk on a boardwalk style "hike" through this gorge with escalators in the steep parts. Not my cup of tea, though I remember it being nice when I went a long time ago - with the Lansey Brothers and the Parental Units.