Jump to content

Menu

jplain

Members
  • Posts

    2,187
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by jplain

  1. :bigear: which statements/claims in the article are inaccurate?

    I haven't studied the paper myself, not am I familiar enough with the field to offer an educated opinion, but this blog posting provides one criticism. In a nutshell, the authors of that Au afarensis article previously published another paper demonstrating the wide range of variation within Neanderthal jawbones. Why then would they not assume a similar range of variation in australopithecine jawbones?

     

    An earlier post by the same blogger includes several other interesting thoughts.

  2. $600 rings a bell.

     

    Did you receive the full economic stimulus payment in 2008? If not, you may have qualified for a recovery rebate in 2009. (We did, and TurboTax prompted us for the information needed to determine that.)

     

    In any case, the IRS should send a letter explaining the check. Most people receive the letter within a week or so of receiving the check. But it can't hurt to call and ask if you don't want to wait.

     

    Link to IRS for information on economic stimulus payments

  3. So I'm still out $140.00.

    I wouldn't take that as the final word.

     

    Did you pay by credit card? If so, talk to your credit card company about getting a chargeback for the $140. They'll send you a letter asking you to write out your side of the story, and they'll want copies of any relevant information. Then they'll decide if you deserve your money back. Sonlight will have to live with their decision.

  4. How/why did the animals freeze to death in a block of ice while eating fresh vegetation? If they had first died, then froze then surely they would not be so well preserved, or have vegetation in their mouths that was likewise preserved. How did this come about?

    As far as I know, the vegetation in their mouths was seeds found stuck between teeth, not vegetable matter. So mammoths didn't floss.

     

    I don't have the answers to your question. But what do the mysterious circumstances of their deaths have to do with the theory of evolution? :confused:

     

    The fact that it isn't clear what happened to these mammoths doesn't really have anything at all to do with evolution, does it?

  5. What i find insulting and anti-science is judging a work based on the author's beliefs, not the content of the work itself.
    Peek, I agree ~100% with what you've written in this thread, so I'm not trying to be argumentative. This atheist is completely comfortable with both RS4K and NOEO.

     

    However, the one thing that trips me up is trying to figure out whether an author's belief system might lead to a subtle bias that I might miss in the content.

     

    From the other thread on secular resources, the example of the use of the word design in RS4K is a good one. I'm a biologist, and in my training the word design was thrown around all the time. No one was using it in the creation sense! It was a sort of abbreviation that referred either to something encoded in the DNA, or more directly to a structure and its intended (ha! another loaded word!) function. So I'm not flustered if the word design is used once in a while, even if the writer is a proponent of ID/creationism. I know that's how many biologists talk, and context makes it clear that religion isn't the reason for the use of the word.

     

    But moving on to one of the other curricula discussed in the other thread, I'll freely admit that I don't know enough about either history or Objectivism. So I'm not confident that I could identify subtle bias in HAOH, because I'm not sure I know enough about what Objectivism is and isn't. And that makes me think I might fail to provide alternative points of view when necessary.

     

    Maybe I sound like an idiot for saying that. Shouldn't I be able to recognize what I do and don't believe? Ack, send those kids to school where the real teachers are! ;) But this is hard stuff, even for adults. I not sure that I"ll have a firm enough grasp on it to make sure I'm not leaving my kids with attitudes about history that I didn't intend to convey.

     

    So I can see why a profession of beliefs, inside or outside of curriculum materials, might lead some to reject a curriculum. Even if it seems fine on a first browsing, the curriculum taken as a whole may be problematic.

  6. Honestly? No, you can't. This is worth budgeting for.

     

    I think I'd go with another curriculum, probably MEP or Singapore, if I felt I couldn't afford a set of rods. (Of course MEP requires paper and printer ink, so it really isn't cheaper in the long run. And Singapore is not cheap either once you factor in the HIGs.)

     

    I'd highly recommend avoiding the connecting rods and going with either the plastic (the unscored ones) or wood. Ideally you'd get a small group set. Including shipping, you can get the plastic small group set for $18.45 at Rainbow Resource: link. A plastic introductory set (including shipping) would be $13.05: link.

     

    They do show up on the FS board here once in a while. You could post a WTB thread here. Also check vegsource.com and homeschoolclassifieds.com.

     

    Good luck getting your hands on some rods!

  7. Oh that does sound very stressful. Misplacing the title is inexcusable. Trying to suggest that there are buyers growing on trees is completely inappropriate. It sounds like she's dangerously close to illegally interfering with your right to sell the unit.

     

    You should be able to order a replacement title. What about contacting the local government housing board for advice? Typically you can get free advice for these types of situations. If you do order a replacement title, ask the housing office if you can force your landlord to pay the fees.

  8. The test is usually a standard blood panel that will include 2 different antibody tests, and if either of those are positive it may be followed up by a third, more complicated test.

     

    You might want to ask why they're testing. In what way will the results be used? I ask because with health care provider confirmed erythema migrans (bullseye rash), the CDC does not recommend testing for confirmation.

     

    Validated laboratory tests can be very helpful but are not generally recommended when a patient has erythema migrans.

    source

     

    Part of the reason for this recommendation is that the rash can appear long before the antibodies are detectable in the blood. So if the test came back negative, would she be taken off the antibiotic? If she does have an infection, but hasn't seroconverted yet, taking her off the antibiotic before the infection is eradicated could be a very bad thing.

  9. :grouphug: Lovedtodeath, I know you didn't need to read it. :grouphug:

     

    But unfortunately sparing the details hasn't been enough.

     

    The technology for providing additional layers of safety to prevent this type of accident (motion sensors, alarms) has been around for a long time, and there are plenty of people working passionately to get them into our cars. But car manufacturers aren't convinced they're wanted or needed, so it hasn't happened yet.

     

    Maybe it takes an article like this to wake (some) people up and make them realize, none of us are immune. The details are horrifying, but because of them we can no longer pretend we are immune. That might be exactly what is needed to get these devices into cars.

     

    An excerpt from the article

    For years, Fennell has been lobbying for a law requiring back-seat sensors in new cars, sensors that would sound an alarm if a child's weight remained in the seat after the ignition is turned off. Last year, she almost succeeded. The 2008 Cameron Gulbransen Kids' Transportation Safety Act -- which requires safety improvements in power windows and in rear visibility, and protections against a child accidentally setting a car in motion -- originally had a rear seat-sensor requirement, too. It never made the final bill; sponsors withdrew it, fearing they couldn't get it past a powerful auto manufacturers' lobby.

     

    There are a few aftermarket products that alert a parent if a child remains in a car that has been turned off. These products are not huge sellers. They have likely run up against the same marketing problem that confronted three NASA engineers a few years ago.

     

     

    In 2000, Chris Edwards, Terry Mack and Edward Modlin began to work on just such a product after one of their colleagues, Kevin Shelton, accidentally left his 9-month-old son to die in the parking lot of NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. The inventors patented a device with weight sensors and a keychain alarm. Based on aerospace technology, it was easy to use; it was relatively cheap, and it worked.

     

     

    Janette Fennell had high hopes for this product: The dramatic narrative behind it, she felt, and the fact that it came from NASA, created a likelihood of widespread publicity and public acceptance.

     

     

    That was five years ago. The device still isn't on the shelves. The inventors could not find a commercial partner willing to manufacture it. One big problem was liability. If you made it, you could face enormous lawsuits if it malfunctioned and a child died. But another big problem was psychological: Marketing studies suggested it wouldn't sell well.

     

     

    The problem is this simple: People think this could never happen to them.

  10. I don't know how you can call it anything else but negligence..... Just because each parent thought the other removed the baby from the car doesn't make it ok. One of them should have been in charge to get the baby.
    No one has said anything "makes it ok." :glare: Sure does feel good to have a satisfyingly derogatory word like negligent to throw around, doesn't it? It allows you to feel smug and protected, doesn't it?

     

    I'm not religious. However, I'll repeat this very appropriate quotation: there but for the grace of God go I. And by I, I mean you too.

     

    The article link I posted earlier includes some research findings which are an attempt to understand why these accidents happen.

    You might find it eye-opening. And I wonder if it might open your heart a little bit too.

     

    Fatal Distraction (warning: article contains disturbing content)

  11. Where is the rash? It it in the folds or on more exposed skin? Is it spreading up onto her outer labia and lower pelvis, or is it staying lower down?

     

    What is in the cream you were given? I'm guessing it might already have an antifungal in it. But it wouldn't hurt to try another antifungal. If you don't have time to get nystatin from the doctor, you can try an over-the-counter antifungal (Lotrimin, etc.) first.

     

    How old is she? (I can't tell if you've indicated that she's 2yo, or if she's your second daughter.) With a younger child who is being introduced to new foods either directly or through breastmilk, sometimes a nasty rash is a food reaction. My older daughter had a horrible diaper rash (peeling, blistering, scabbing) of 6 weeks duration that I was convinced was yeast. My ped looked at it and said it looked to her like a "garden variety food intolerance rash" that she should eventually outgrow. I did eliminate dairy for 2 weeks with no obvious change, but oddly enough when I reintroduced dairy the rash completely faded away over the next few days.

     

    Good luck figuring it out!

×
×
  • Create New...