Smart-blind

My brother is color-blind. But smart-blind is by far the greater disability. Ever since I read this article about the Dunning-Kruger effect a few months ago I've been paying attention to this. I recently availed myself of the opportunity to do some first hand investigating into the matter. There was a guy on my favorite online dating website that answered the question, "What do you think about healing crystals?" with the answer, "I think they work." But he claimed to be an intellectual and he only wanted to meet women "if their smart." He was online, so I started a chat with him. I opened with a remark that he'd attract more smart women if he knew the difference in "their" and "they're." Yet he kept talking to me. Turns out he believes in astrology, thinks the government has a secret 20 year plan to try to take away all rural land ownership to force people to live in cities, and he thinks global warming is a hoax to increase taxes. He honestly believes he is smarter than everybody else and wants to meet a smart woman.

Dunning-Kruger effect! I never realized how that applies to people who believe mis-information. This guy is SO STUPID he thinks he's brilliant, therefore also believes that everybody else in the world is a lot smarter than they really are. The government is perpetrating a plot to take away my land? Impossible. I have met people that work for the government. Again I say, impossible. They are not competent to pull that off. I need no further argument. I stated as much to this fellow, that government employees at their most brilliant can still only do something that can be completed in a single fiscal budget cycle. A 20 year plot is untenable from a budget standpoint.

He logged off suddenly when I stated plainly that 2 years of studying oceanography with the people that actually collected the data makes me qualified to say definitively that anthropogenic global warming is real (I may have used all caps. I was trying so hard not to be a dick, too.) Anyway, the next day I got two long emails from him. All I can say is that I'm glad I was able to waste so much of his time. I didn't actually click any of his links. I knew it would just make me mad. At the end he informed me that I have a lot to unlearn.

When I was trying to find the link to the original article about anosognosics I found this one about ignorant people contradicting scientists over their methods for predicting climate change. I identify with this article a lot. I didn't struggle through three classes with Dr. Philip Froelich without a healthy appreciation for what we know, what we don't know, and what we might figure out soon. Having some smart-blind git telling me I have a lot to unlearn makes me a little bit angry. It's so hard for scientists to explain climate change to ignorant people because it's REALLY FUCKING COMPLICATED. I mean, damn, anybody remember the phase diagram for ice from high school? Try to tell Sarah Palin that water expands when it freezes AND when it gets hot and she probably won't believe you. Not even if you were Lord Fucking Kelvin.

So first the smart-blind thing made me angry, and then later it made me sad. There are SO many people in the world like him. A colleague at work showed me the dancing parrot video on YouTube because she thinks it's funnier than the ninja cat. Well the parrot has twice as many views as my rocket video, so I guess that says a lot. Ninja cat, on the other hand, has FOURTEEN TIMES as many views. As much as the Japanese like the sonic boom sky ripple, they like a stealthy cat more.

And then it made me mad again when I read this tweet from Phil Plait:

The comments on my UFO posts are always amusing, but people accusing me of not knowing Jupiter are awesome.http://is.gd/g41eT

And sure enough there was a comment where somebody contradicts Phil Plait.

There are NO reports of balloons and Jupiter was not actually visible in the NYC night sky according to the National Weather Service. ALSO, the daylight sightings would not be Jupiter either? I suggest some calming tea and maybe read Richard Dolan’s UFO & the National Security State 1973-1992. ‘We have never been alone.’ -Major Robert Dean

Oh shut up.

There's another one that was suspicious because he questioned if you could see Jupiter from New York, but that guy was just being innocent, not ignorant. Somebody gave him a nice response.

@20 NAW: “But can you really zoom a news camera in to get that nice of an image of Jupiter in the middle of New York city?”

Yes, a TV camera can show Jupiter very well, since it has a nice zoom and keeps steady. The city lights don’t bother the planets nearly as much as other nighttime objects. You only need 8x zoom or so to see the moons. Most binoculars will do, if you can hold the darn things steady.

I remember watching an outdoor sporting event on TV (I think it was the Winter Olympics), and coming out of commercial, there was this beautiful shot of Saturn. You could clearly see its rings and color bands. Then, the camera zoomed out to show just the dot and then the bright landscape that’s normally shown. That was wonderful.

And then the original commenter replied

@24. AliCali: thanks, never really being to a large city and/or working with a camera like that, I didn’t know.

See? Isn't that civil? Everybody is learning? Accepting each other's expertise?

You need to go watch the video. It made me go "Nuh UH! That reporter can't be that STUPID! And the cameraman TOO?!" I looked at Jupiter with binoculars the other night. I could only make out three moons, but that's exactly what it looks like, what they show in the video. I think the part that struck me as smart-blind was not that the reporter didn't know it was a planet and moons, but that she didn't know anybody to ask! And she didn't CARE! She just went on and on about it without feeling self-concious that she couldn't find out what she was talking about. There is almost no strange phenomenon I encounter where I don't know an expert I can ask about it. Be it biology, electromagnetism, geology, astronomy, computers, psychology, construction, weather, sewage, skydiving, cars, food....

But other people just don't care that they don't know, like the Fox News person, or they think they are so smart they contradict and criticize people that are probably smarter than them. Like this other comment on Phil's blog.

....your post in no way proves that the observed phenomena was a combination of balloons and Jupiter. Therefore I respectfully respond with some reasonable steps someone could take to actually prove the point that you falsely claim to have demonstrated. You know, the sort of things a science journalist should be expected to do.

First, you need to compare the location of Jupiter that night to the time and location of the video. Shouldn’t be too hard.

Second, you need to establish that the Fox News video camera has a powerful enough zoom to see the moons of Jupiter in Chelsea. I am actually a bit skeptical of this because of light pollution, but I have no real idea how powerful their zoom is.

Finally, any account has to also deal with the other objects that we seen after dark (ie, the earth cam footage) and the photos that have found their way to flickr. There is also the footage of the pyramid shaped object from the 13th, but that footage looks a bit hokey to me. Still, a thorough scientific analysis would not simply ignore it.

I am not claiming that there isn’t a conventional explanation for this event. Rather I hope that I have shown that you have not proved your assertions. 

OK, that guy is just a dick. Sounds kind of like the same sort of jackass that graded my GREs and gave me a 30th percentile on the written section. Phil Plait says it's Jupiter, it's Jupiter. He's not on the stand in a capital murder case, he's just refuting an patently idiotic Fox News bit. Now shut the fuck up.

As for the pyramid shaped object, you must have missed this Tree Lobsters post.

See, now I'm angry again. Smart-blind blow-hards need to be dealt with. I don't have any idea how to do this. The best I can figure is that children should be exposed to smart people, namely scientists, as role models from an early age. Give Phil Plait a TV show, good idea. Neil DeGrasse Tyson on a sit-com, excellent. (Twitter says Bill Prady asked him to be on Big Bang Theory) Hopefully these smart people will have an influence on people who don't have any cultural exposure to brilliance.

I have developed a new litmus test for guys on the online dating site. I ask them, "Who is the smartest person you know?" If they can't think of anybody, that's bad. If they say, "Hmm, I'd have to say I am the smartest person I know." Epic fail. If you don't know somebody smarter than yourself, and you have a masters degree, then you either went to the worst college in the country or you are just smart-blind. Why would you take instruction from somebody you didn't think was smarter than you?! I mean, outside of high school where you don't have any choice. I did have one or two high school teachers that I thought were smart. But before college I pretty much relied on my family for smarter-than-me role models. I'm trying to think of a smart TV character from my formative years.... There was that nice white-haired guy on Wild Kingdom. He knew a lot about animals. I thought he was cool. And Dr. Who. Oh, and Dr. Mr. Spock! Fascinating.

From the Autumnal Equinox. Jupiter is the speck. I don't have a TV camera.

Update Feb 4, 2015

Jack Klaff, @jackshebang on twitter, posted this John Cleese video about this topic on January 28th. John Cleese is friends with David Dunning!

Pears Pie

I'm cooking again! 
I got my kitchen set up so I can start making real recipes with my fancy gadgets. I hope I haven't completely lost my touch. To try to get my inspiration back I've been watching Good Eats on Hulu. I used to enjoy watching it back when I lived in Atlanta 6 years ago when I had a real TV with cable. It's nice I can enjoy it now with nothing but my iMac.

Pear Pie 2009

Last year in Beachton I made Pear Pie. Meaning a pie containing just one pear. I picked it off my pear tree and I ate the pie all by myself. I used a frozen pie crust because my Cuisinart was boxed up in a mini-warehouse. It was a good looking pie and delicious. When I saw similar looking pears at the green market Saturday I bought them. I bet the ones back home probably just rotted on the tree. That makes me sad. 

Still Life After Marketing Oct 16, 2010

The following recipe for Pears Pie is based on Alton Brown's  Super Apple Pie recipe I watched on Hulu.  I copy/pasted the recipe here with my changes.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/good-eats/super-apple-pie-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 6 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 ounces vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 5 to 7 tablespoons applejack {I decided not to buy a $20 bottle of booze to make one pie. I just used 5 T ice water.}
• 12 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 2 3/4 cups, plus extra for dusting
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

For the filling:

• 3 to 3 1/2 pounds apples, mixture of Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Braeburn and Golden Delicious, about 6 large apples {I used 6 crisp pears that they called Asian pears at the green market. I got a basket of them for $5. They weren't exactly the same as the apple pears I grow back home. Not as crisp. But they were not nearly as soft as a Bosc pear.  The skin is tough like the pears back home. They had a bit of a flavor note that reminded me of the smell of epoxy resin. This brings back fond memories of my uncle's boat shop so I didn't care. Let's eat 'em.} 
• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 3 tablespoons tapioca flour {I got regular Minute Tapioca in the pudding section at HEB, the grocery store nearby}
• 2 tablespoons apple jelly {I used Guava jelly. I just thought it would be good with pears. Plus it was on sale.}
• 1 tablespoon apple cider {I used Swedish pear soda. I had some cans of it I got at Ikea.}
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground grains of paradise {I used whole allspice, ground ginger and ground nutmeg from a brand new jar that cost half as much as whole nutmeg. My nutmeg grinder is in Beachton and I couldn't find one at the store.}

Directions

For the crust:

Place the butter, shortening and applejack into the refrigerator for 1 hour. {I portioned out the butter and Crisco in little pieces on a plate and put them in the refrigerator for about a day. It comes out to a stick and a half of butter and 4 tablespoons of Crisco. I got the kind that comes in fat sticks.}

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, salt and sugar by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add the butter and pulse 5 to 6 times until the texture looks mealy. Add the shortening and pulse another 3 to 4 times until incorporated.

Remove the lid of the food processor and sprinkle in 5 tablespoons of the applejack {ice water}. Replace the lid and pulse 5 times. Add more applejack as needed, and pulse again until the mixture holds together when squeezed. {I left it real dry. 5 T only} Weigh the dough and divide in half.  {I just guessed. I knew my pan was smaller than what the recipe called for so it wouldn't be a problem of not having enough.} Shape each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to overnight. {I did it the night before. This is the same Cuisinart technique my Aunt Dorian taught me when I was a teenager.}

For the filling:

Peel and core the apples {pears}. Slice into 1/2-inch thick wedges. {I squeezed (squoze) two limes over the pears as I cut them up to slow the browning.} Toss all of the apples with 1/4 cup of the sugar, place in a colander set over a large bowl and allow to drain for 1 1/2 hours. {I left this while I went to HEB to look for tapioca flour.}

Transfer the drained liquid to a small saucepan, place over medium heat and reduce to 2 tablespoons. Set aside to cool. {I didn't have much juice and I don't trust my stove to not burn stuff up so I didn't concentrate this juice.} Toss the apples with the remaining sugar, tapioca flour, jelly, cider, lime juice, salt and grains of paradise. {I put the tapioca in a coffee grinder with about 7 allspice and whirred it up good. I put some ginger and nutmeg in there and gave it another whir. It was the consistency of flour with medium grind pepper in it like you'd use to coat chicken. I added that to the pears with the two spoons of guava jelly and one of the pear soda but no more lime juice. I shook in a few dashes of Angostora bitters too. I love that stuff. I did remember to add some salt and 1/4 cup of sugar. See photo below.}

For assembling and baking the pie:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator. Place the dough onto a lightly floured piece of waxed paper. Lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with flour and roll out into a 12-inch circle. Place into a 9 1/2 to 10-inch tart pan that is 2-inches deep. {I used a 9" pie plate that fits in my pie keeper. I can't eat up a whole pie so I probably have to take it somewhere to get somebody to help me eat it.} Gently press the dough into the sides of the pan, crimping and trimming the edges as necessary. Set a pie bird in the center of the bottom of the pan. {I found a pie bird at HEB for $3.95. This was after I'd already cut up the pears. I'd searched online to see if I should go to Williams Sonoma at the mall but they didn't have them on the website. It's pretty amazing that they had this obscure item at my grocery store.}

Place the apples {pears} into the unbaked pie shell in concentric circles starting around the edges, working towards the center and forming a slight mound in the center of the pie. Pour over any liquid that remains in the bowl. (Mine wasn't really liquid so much as gritty goo. Man oh man was it delicious though.} Roll out the second pie dough as the first. Place this dough over the apples, pressing the pie bird through the top crust. Press together the edges of the dough around the rim of the pie. Brush the top crust with the reduced juice everywhere except around the edge of pie. {I just used it straight out of the pan it drained into. It beaded up on the greasy crust. I saved the extra in a jelly jar to use as a sauce.} Trim any excess dough. Place the pie on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake on the floor** of the oven for 30 minutes. {I did it on the bottom rack for 20 minutes since my pie pan is a little smaller than specified. I didn't have any parchment paper either.} Transfer to the lower rack of the oven and continue to bake another 20 minutes or until the apples are cooked through but not mushy. {I took it out and put my pie crust edge protector on it. I moved the rack up one notch and put it back in for another 20 minutes.} Remove to a rack and cool a minimum of 4 hours or until almost room temperature.

**If you're using an electric oven with coils on the bottom of the oven, place the pie on the sheet pan on the lowest rack over the coils, NOT directly on top of them.

My flavorings and thickener for the filling. Salt and sugar not shown.

Bottom crust done. Pie bird deployed.

Pears arranged in the pie plate.

Rolling out top crust. I guess I haven't forgotten all I knew because it didn't bother me at all when my crust looked like this. I knew I had more than I needed so I just kept rolling.

After rolling it as thin as I wanted it was fine.

Ready to go in the oven. I didn't use the flash and it was hard to adjust the color in this picture.

After 20 minutes I put this thing on there and put it back in one rack higher.

 I just pulled the extra rack out of the oven for cooling.

Not sure what my plan is for eating the pie yet. I'm a little worried about where to leave it overnight. I've been hearing something running around in my ceiling downstairs. I'll be really really mad if I go down to the kitchen and find the rats ate my pie.

* Update: I ate a piece of the pie. The allspice was too strong for the delicate pears. I think next time I might go with just the bitters and maybe a little ginger. The pears were done al dente and the crust was flakey and nicely browned on the bottom. There was no runny liquid. The moisture was the consistency of warm jelly. I might put more liquid in next time or less tapioca. 

Homesick

From Miscellaneous

My eyes welled up when I smelled this pine straw today. This photo is from the entrance to the Whole Foods in downtown Austin, TX. Pine straw from back home. I'm sure it's organic too! Nobody fertilizes pine trees. They should say that on the sign. Charge extra. Although $9.99 is more than enough already.

This is just the crappy slash pine straw that goes for about $4 a bale in Georgia. I guess the extra $6 is for transporting it to Texas. Or maybe it's just more prestigious to have some if it's expensive. I haven't seen anybody in Austin use pine straw for mulch, so I guess it's just for piling up on the front porch with pumpkins for a fall display. Wonder what they do with it after that?

Must. Not. Pick. Up. Acorns.

I read a story on Discovery yesterday correlating women's shopping when they travel to their evolution as gatherers. Apparently the men that are traveling with them find this annoying and cannot relate. As I walked back to my office from lunch I noticed what an effort it was for me to not stop and pick up the acorns in the parking lot. They look so green and plump, the little caps are so charming. This compulsion to collect them can only be explained by my evolutionary instincts. Because I know in my logical mind that acorns are impossibly bitter and don't even make good decorations. They shrivel up and get worm holes in them. I know this because I gave in to this base response to acorns in the past. I have collected buckets of acorns, for no discernible reason. I have the same rush of excitement when I see plums on the ground when I'm walking on the greenbelt. I immediately look up to find the tree, marking it in my mind. Do men not do this? This whole time of year fills me with a bit of excitement. Yellow and purple wildflowers mean there are things out there that are ripe and I need to be finding them and collecting them!

But I didn't pick up the acorns or the plums. In my rational mind I know that I can buy more calories worth of food than I'd get out of those acorns if I go back to work and earn money instead. I left the plums because my friend would get bored waiting for me to pick them up, plus I recall the dozen jars of plum jam I left back in Beachton. I have this year's Christmas presents covered already. Back when I didn't have a job it was acceptable to be a gatherer. Now I have to be efficient. Gathering is not efficient.

I suppose finding a plum tree feels similar to finding a great faucet for 85% off at Home Depot. But I can repress the urge to buy a faucet I don't need the same way I can repress the urge to pick up the acorns. I think it's pretty rude of these women to insist on going shopping when the men want to do something more unique to the destination. I do enjoy shopping in foreign cities a little bit, but only if I'm by myself, and I won't go in chain stores. Seeing an familiar facade on the Champs-Élysées because it looks identical to the one in Lenox Mall in Atlanta kind of fills me with revulsion, not an urge to buy eyeliner.

Some things are better as a shared experience, like a beautiful view or anything involving crowds. But when I'm trying to blend in with the French I feel comfortable in a fruit market. And I will always get excited when I find something edible in the wild. I am grateful I don't have the instincts of a male to kill any meaty looking animal that crosses my path. As much trouble as it is to make mayhaw jelly, cleaning and cooking a turkey is WAY worse.

Ig Nobel Prizes

http://www.youtube.com/improbableresearch

I'm watching this ceremony live. I feel really connected to this crowd.

They chanted for Ira Flatow. I'm starting to cry. It's a whole roomful of people who know about Science Friday and Math Monday. I wonder how many of them think of football on Saturday.

The inventor of the pink plastic flamingo knows how to write a twitter length speech. He says they're the only animal safe from bacteria. Give them to all your friends. It's good for business.

2003 Winner for finding homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks plugged his new book.

The emergency bra inventor has the best accent. All bra inventors should be Russian.

Dr. Nakamatsu, bane of Twitter and Facebook users who are tired of seeing pictures of other people's food, has taken a photo of every meal he's eaten for 35 years.

OK! Time for the 10 new prizes! 7:17. This is a long ceremony. It started at 6:00 Central Time. The Ig Nobel Prize is an object I can't describe. The master of ceremonies was waving it around too much and YouTube can't keep up. They get a ten trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe.

Engineering Prize! A method to collect whale snot using a remote control helicopter. OK, that's really useful. You could use that to put microphones on their head too. They said that whales smell bad. I did not know that. They said that's why they wanted to collect phlegm from the blow hole -- they thought it would give information about infection. Good idea!

Medical Prize! Symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller coaster ride. The authors of the paper, a blind man and a man who was previously afraid of roller coasters, found the emotional reaction to waiting to get on the roller coaster induced breathlessness, but the euphoria, aka positive emotion, at the end of the ride cured the asthma attack. Brilliant!

This ceremony could use fewer entertaining interludes. The transitions are not smooth. The flow of the experience is thrown off. They're going along great then they trip over these musical numbers. The performers are all great, don't get me wrong. I'm giving them a pass on overacting.

Somebody hit the target with a paper airplane! Everybody cheered.

They're going to show live microscope images on the screen. Calibration jokes. I love it. The 1 micron beads and brownian motion on the screen.

Ecoli doesn't look like much. Slides never cooperate. Matches everybody's experience in middle school.

Missed the category: Japanese team wins a second prize for slime mold. This time they used it to design high speed rail tracks. In 2008 it solved puzzles.

Physics Prize! For demonstrating that on icy footpaths people fall down less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes. They called it an "off-label use of socks," which got a laugh. Apparently the treacherous icy conditions in their town in New Zealand only occur a few days a year. So it wouldn't really wear out that many socks. It's probably a lot more economical than buying special shoes. They put them over rubber boots in the demonstration, which are probably are treacherous on ice indeed, sans socks.

Peace Prize! Two scientists confirmed the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain. This reminds me of the time my niece spent the night with me in Beachton where I have an outdoor shower. I told her about being bitten by honey bees three times in the shower. I explained it in detail. Later when I took her back to her dad she told him, "Aunt B has honey bees in her outdoor shower and she named them! They're called, Fucker! Bastard! and Son-of-a-BITCH!"

Public Health Prize! Microbes cling to bearded scientists. There is plenty of information about how beards affect the fit of face masks, but there was no literature on how beards affected contamination transfer in a microbiology lab. There is now. Microbiologists -- shave your beard if you don't want to take your work home with you.

Another moment of science. People in lab coats and black light set up a fan on a stand.... Oh, they're making a vortex. Aaaand YouTube gets stuck. It's ok. I've seen it.

Oh no, the feed is back in time for more faux opera. Not crazy about the faux opera. But they got a cheer when they put on shirts reminiscent of Star Trek. They have big titles onscreen in the hall so people know what they're saying. Can't read it on YouTube that well. I don't think it would help anyway.

Economics Prize: Goldman Sachs, AIG, etc. win. You can guess why. Not that amusing because it's just sad.

Chemistry Prize: BP et al for disproving the idea that oil and water don't mix. Oil and water mix because the ocean is in motion. Might turn out good that the oil is all over the ocean floor instead of in the coastal zone because now they can be degraded by bacteria.

How many bacteria can dance on the head of a pin? Professor Wilcheck gave a large number and then specified that there is A PIN that would match that number of bacteria or fewer. Dr. Nakamatsu. There are many kinds of pins in the world. So he invented his own head of pins then calculated how many billions of bacteria can dance on it.

Win a date with a Nobel Laureate! Bill Lipscomb is the prize. He's about 90 years old and in a wheelchair. A guy in the balcony won the prize and seemed very excited.

Management Prize! Companies would be more successful if they promoted people at random. Incompetence is the theme. I'm going to have to read about this one.

Missed the category: For scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats. "Thank you for this prize! I am BLOWN AWAY!"