When To Say "No"

My daughter has recently embraced the word "no".

Do you want to go potty?

 No

Do you want to have dinner?

No

Do you want to read a book?

No

In my equally ornery mind set, I  replied back:

Can you say "No"?

...

And then there was no more "No".

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

Ok, so you may recall my recent blasting of Ranger Rick, Jr. March 2014 issue for publishing incorrect data on shark bones.

WELL

I found out that Americans continue to surprise me with their incompetence, particularly people in power...because here's the answer I received from the Editor-in-Chief:


Professor Irish Lass,

Thanks for taking the time to contact me regarding our March issue. 

I'm not a biologist of any kind, but I do try to fact check all content that appears in the pages of Ranger Rick Jr. In regards to sharks having bone, my research indicated that a shark's jaw was made of cartilage that was strengthened with calcium salts which formed a "calcified cartilage that has similar strength characteristics of bone without the added weight." I did not pursue this issue further with a marine biologist because it seemed fairly straightforward. The jaw isn't exactly cartilage, nor is it bone. Given the fact, the magazine is written for young children, I didn't think it was appropriate to try to explain the differences between the types of cartilage in the various parts of a shark.

Thanks again for your interest in Ranger Rick magazine. 

Sincerely,

--- -----
Editor-in-Chief
Early Childhood Publications


I want you to notice the second line again:
I'm not a biologist of any kind


And then the part about how she did some research on her own and thought she had the right answer and then didn't bother to confirm it.

<EYE BLINK>

wow

So, here's my response to her.

Dear Ms. Collins,

Calcified cartilage is what bone is.  All bones, even bones in vertebrates, start out at cartilage models and then calcium "ossifies" or hardens it to make bone. There are different types of bone that can be made from this model, however, all calcified cartilage is BONE.  

Chrondrichthyes are bony-jawed fish.  

The issue is incorrect.

There are several other incorrect items in this issue:

1. Primates are missing from the Vertebrate class.

2. The story about Ricky and friends features "Ms. Cardinal"...who is actually drawn as a male cardinal.  Female cardinals are not bright red.  They are two different colors of drab, with black faces and bright orange beaks.

I'm really disappointed with the editing in this issue.  Ranger Rick has always been a source of education about our biological world and it seems that there are several oversights were are teaching children errors.

Ranger Rick, Jr. needs to recall the issue and fix the problems.

Sincerely,

Professor Irish Lass

While I doubt it will get the necessary response, I at least have her quotes here to share with the world.

And, yes, sharks do have a bony jaw.

English Expertise

Why is it that we expect people from England to speak proper English?

Granted, I'm not talking (ha ha) about accents and dialects.  I'm talking about the grammar.

It's like we naturally expect that people from that country are good communicators in their own language.

But, I've discovered several times in the past week, developers from any country speak about the same...both over the phone and in writing.

It's amazing.

For example:

"these ones"

GUHGUHGUHGUHGUGH!!!!

It's "one of these" of "this one" or just plain old "these".

DRIVES ME CRAZY!

And it's so much more of an affront to my ears when you hear someone from York (that would be where Downton Abbey is filmed just to get a gauge on the accent) say "these ones".

ARGH!

I also, wrongly, expect that people from California are better communicators than most Americans (sorry, but that's been my experience).  Perhaps it's the quick talking or the enforced standardized testing standards in reading and writing.  Californians, in my experience, are also great at presenting, because they're all secretly hoping someone in the audience will make them famous.

I dunno.

But that, too, has been shattered today when I was on the phone with someone (supposedly) from California that could barely string two words together about a product he was representing.  And it is times like these where a poker face or a phone call will save your career.

Just don't let them hear the nails on the chalk board.

And These Are The Experts!

Dear Ranger Rick Jr.,

I'm a biology professor at the local college.

I received the March 2014 issue of Ranger Rick Jr. and there's a 2 page article with incorrect information.  It asks if sharks are boneless.  The issue says "yes".

This is wrong.  Sharks belong to the Class Chondrichthyes, which is cartilaginous fish, HOWEVER, they have a BONE JAW!  It is full bone.

I'm really amazed that the editor wouldn't know this simple fact and I'm quite upset about Ranger Rick Jr. misrepresenting information in their magazines.  I think you owe my daughter, and all of the children who read this issue, an apology and a credit for printing false information.

Sincerely,
Professor Irish Lass


....and upon further inspection...the issue is about "vertebrates", but they leave out primates all together.  Then, later in the book, "Mrs. Cardinal" comes to tell Ricky Raccoon about frogs...only the illustration is a male cardinal.

hmm- drag queen cardinals, huh?

great editing job

Heavy Breathers

It drives me crazy.

I spend all day on the phone with people from work.  And it really irritates me that people pant into their microphones.

So, in preparation for this blog post, I went looking for the perfect diagram of where to place your headset mic...

And this was the ONLY picture I could find online.



And it's WRONG!

No wonder people are spitting and panting all over the mic!

Huuuuh, huuhhhhh

Just for the sake of argument, you're supposed to put the mic BELOW your mouth- preferably at chin-level (about two fingers).  That way, you aren't breathing or spitting on your mic.

If you're worried about people hearing you, go to your Sound>Microphone settings and up the volume on the mic.

Now, if I can only find a way of sending this info to my colleague without her knowing it's me.

Sexist Shirts

I love geeky shirts.

And Think Geek has the largest selection of geeky Tshirts.

Now, that part, makes me happy.

What makes me sad is this:

Think Geek is sexist.

They don't have, for example, the Ferrous Wheel Tshirt in the "women's Tshirts".  Evidently, women aren't chemists in the minds of Think Geek overlords.

Nor do they have the Resistance Tshirt in women's cut.  Evidently, women aren't physicists or Star Trek fans in the minds of Think Geek overlords.

In fact, there are only 110 geeky Tshirts for women, but they have 227 Tshirts for men.  If anything, the women's shirts offerings should be MORE than the men's because they offer sleep shirts and maternity- neither of which apply to men.

It's just pretty irritating that these subliminal gender roles are continuing to be reinforced by retailers.

Bathroom on The Right

A few years ago, I started making mental notes of which public toilets women use most.

You know, you're occupying a cell and someone, without looking, jiggles the door, giving you quite the moment of terror as you're rousted from your private efforts to double check that the door bolt is holding.

And I've noted that there are definitely some doors that are more likely to be disturbed than others.

Take for example, the first couple of doors- these seem to be very popular- but which door seems to depend on the particular bathroom.

And why is that?

Is it that it is more natural to continue your U turn into the bathroom at a certain radius?  Or is it that we more naturally prefer the first pot?  And then there's the habitual marking aspect that needs to be taken into account- once you go there and it was clean, you're more likely to return to that pot, right?  Even though it's a public pot and it's got an equal share of the action, as it were?

I'd love to see a sociological experiment on this:  Toilets starting at different distances from the entry wall to see which toilets are used more vs. which door count vs. the angle of the turn you have to make to enter the pot...

It might actually help us understand how many pots should go into a bathroom....

...but the answer is "always one more" in the women's.