MiL's doctor at the comprehensive cancer center at Dartmouth recommended a low glycemic index diet to lower recurrence risk for breast cancer. There is lots of research on low GI diets and cancer rates, especially for IGF sensitive tumors. As I recall, the evidence is weak but significant . I'll see if I can find out what papers she looked at to decide. A ketogenic diet by definition is going to be ultra low glycemic index so any of those studies would apply regardless of other possible benefits of being in full on ketosis.

I agree this doesn't sound like influenza. DS8 goes to public school. Their rule is stay home for 24h after having vomiting, diarrhea, or a fever. For a kid sick on Monday and a Wed. night class, that sounds fine. It is unfortunate but not obviously out of line for me. Public school kids are sneezy and snotty all the time. Limiting activities when you aren't floridly contagious just isn't realistic.

DS10 is getting a lego x-wing fighter from grandma. A Magic:Arena of the Planeswalker expansion I got for $5 on a sale. A stuffed plush squid. A D&D campaign. $20 to spend on Magic cards of his choice at our local game store and clothes... and fencing lessons which aren't really a Christmas gift but don't tell anyone ;)

I don't know the particulars of the current storms... but your tittle reminds me of "The Year Greg Nickels Stole Christmas" and the 2008 storm. No christmas tree, minimal gifts. DW and friends spent a week walking into work at the UW hospital and Harborview w/ no plowed roads or bus service. Good old boys in 4WD trucks shuttling people to and fro... city officials on vacation in Hawaii...

Road bike with studded tires, winter helmet, goggles, and pogies/bar mitts to keep your hands from freezing. Our bike paths and grade separated bike lanes typically get plowed before the roads.

Minneapolis -5F this morning when DW biked in. 0F now at noon. 5F projected high. ~5 inches of snow on the ground. Forecast: Friday 5-8inches of snow. Saturday High 7F Low -23F. Sunday High -9F Low -14F But, next week's in the teens and twenties during the day... great sledding and skating weather :)

For me, the professor's intent is not relevant. This is exactly the damaging legalistic approach I was criticizing. Training kids to exploit loopholes to cheat is *much* worse than grade inflation. Just give everyone a study guide with the exact questions on the exam. Do an open book exam with the same problems as in the text. Just curve everyone to an A. Whatever, that is a separate issue. However,encouraging folks to cheat in this particular way, normalizes it to an extent that is not morally justifiable and is unequivocally cheating in my view.

I took plenty of unproctored tests in college and have reported folks violating this trust. This is completely normal at honor code schools. I'm not naive, "recent" scandals at Harvard, Darmouth, and the Naval Academy show the problems with this approach. But, I think the legalistic approach to what is and isn't cheating has as many or more downsides, especially in the post college years. Presenting someone else's work as your own is absolutely cheating. All an open book, collaborative project changes is the definition of the scope of "your own work". Any thing produced by the group is fair game. So if everyone submitted the 90%+ work as their own, fine. However taking the test early and providing others with the correct answers is cheating. Having a standin from alpha centauri take the exam for you is cheating. Hacking the system by technical or social engineering means to get the test is cheating. Copying the test answers without doing your own work is dishonest. In the listed case I think both the first student and the others should have known they were cheating. If they had instead got the result verbatim out of the textbook, class notes, or even an old exam test bank from whatever source it would be more of a gray area. In that case there would absolutely be a moral obligation to disclose that(much like on math camp applications) and let the prof decide to ignore it or not.

And the strong Scotch Irish influence on Appalachian English, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_English which includes the common use of "might could". Double modals are also common in most creoles including Gullah. So while "might could" doesn't originate there, it does further normalize the grammatical form.

Even less in reality... Dominion was ~$29 earlier this week so at ~$26 that is more like a 10% discount... though I am excited about the $5 Magic:Arena of the Planeswalkers expansion.

I agree some Mieville is very Gaimanesque. "Kraken" reminds me of a noirish, very London version of American Gods. "Un Lun Dun" is on par with Gaiman's YA/kids stuff... different but comparable to Graveyard Book. Mieville's other stuff can be a bit more "literary" which can be hit or miss depending on your tastes and the book.

DW and I both have the classic "1964" Sorels. Mine are 20+ yo and I've replaced the liners once and they have some tarnish on the eyelets but other than that are in perfect shape. When DW was middle and high school in VT/NH everyone had sorel's and folks just used different color shoe laces to tell them apart. The kids have LL Bean northwoods boots that are indestructible. We have bought Kamiks in the past and had trouble with durability. The rubber shell eventually dries out, gets brittle, and cracks. It takes 3-5 years but we've never had that problem with Bean boots.

Checkout instructables.com

From a taxpayers perspective, I don't know that it really matters. Most of this is just bad debt that's never getting repaid. The loans have government guarantees so we're on the hook for the $108B either way. I think forgiveness could be both more humane and cheaper long term than "extend and pretend".

Tonight DS10 comes in during bed time having finished "The Left-handed Fate" and looking for something else to read. I scramble around and find something... ME: Here's "Itch" its about a kid who collects the elements and is sort of a mystery... I was going to pre-read it but haven't so I don't know much more... DS10: Cool! <various humorous comments about the protagonist being named Itchingham ensue and then> DW: He better be careful not to set his room on fire when he gets to astatine. DS10: Mom!<big eyeroll> Maybe you're thinking of flourine, it wants to be on fire. Astatine wants to not exist.

I think of Durham to Tysons Corner as being 4 1/2 hrs. I did that commute weekly for a number of years in the 90's and early 00s. My standard routine would be to get up at 4:30 on Monday, grab sausage biscuits and cheerwine at the northernmost Bojangles in South Hill VA and roll in to work around 9:00am. The reverse commute on Friday nights was a little more variable but rarely over 5hrs.

Ilhan Omar's my rep. I caucused for her and voted for her in the primary and the general. I can't even name what nobody she won against today. She won her race in the primary and it was a bittersweet thing especially for women in politics. She beat Phyllis Kahn; a jewish woman who entered politics after a gender based tenure dispute in '72. Phyllis entered politics the year before I was born. She is a feminist icon. She's one of those MN liberal lions who can't tell when history has passed them by... like Hubert Humphrey or Walter Modale. Ilhan Omar is a gifted, inspiring politician but so was her real opponent. The real message here is if you want to effect change build a coalition. Kahn's was students, blue collar hippies, and university professors. Omar's was Somali immigrants, blue collar ex-hippies, and liberals. Times change... and neighborhood demographics change.

Touche

We're shifting into more "Forgotten Years" or even "Mountains of Burma" territory as the night goes on...

When I was a kid, our local McDonalds' had a deal that anyone who brought in a yard sign got a free soft serve cone... great way to clean up all those abandoned signs and con mom and dad into eating fast food for dinner.

I'm just ready for the Get out the vote people to leave me alone. I just talked to the 4th canvasser since last night. I know we are in a 90%+ precinct and they want to run up the score to offset out state... I could see out precinct having no Trump voters this year since he explicitly called 25%+ of the local electorate terrorists. ETA: I voted early this time since it is now an option... much better than the 2hr+ wait in '12.

Garnet Rogers' "Election Night: North Dakota"...lyrics http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Garnet_Rogers:Election_Night:_North_Dakota

Steve Earle's "Christmas in Washington" and on that note maybe Woody's "Old Man Trump" about Donald's dad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jANuVKeYezs

Local Paper + Local Alt-weekly NYT Guardian Economist HackerNews for tech/science All online except Economist in print.

One of the kids in the first Harry Potter was down for Eton but went to Hogwarts when he found out he was a wizard IIRC. ETA: Justin Finch-Fletchley in Hufflepuff in "Chamber of Secrets"