NewsDaily/Reuters (2011-08-31) -- British scientists have devised a way of using graphene, the thinnest material in the world, to capture and convert more light than previously, paving the way for advances in high-speed Internet and other optical communications.
Gender gap in spatial abilities depends on females' role in society by John Timmer, on Nurture affects gender differences in spatial abilities, by M Hoffman, U Gneezy, & J.A. List. Two closely related tribes in Northeast India share many qualities but differ in one respect: one is patrilineal and the other is matrilineal. Three American researchers decided to see if they could use these research conditions to answer some questions about the innate biological differences between men and women. There couldn’t be a more perfect situation of isolated, biologically similar but culturally disparate polities. The first thing I thought of when I saw the article was, "They've found the perfect research situation."
1. Single salient characteristic, all other physical points being equal. To have two isolated groups of people who share lifestyle (stresses, labor patterns, etc.), diet, proximity, and genetics, yet primarily differ culturally, is a research designer's dream. Often you have to account for external factors that may cause you to conflate one effect for something else. In trying to answer a nature-vs.-nurture question like this, you want to get all your variables down to as discrete a level as possible. Unlike other studies that are deliberately taking into account multiple lines of evidence, from culture to economic status to physical behavior to diet, here we have a question that requires us to make sure culture is the only variant (alternatively, biology is the only variant, but that's not the case here).
2. Ability to analyze or account for variation within a population. To have multiple villages within these two (culturally) isolated groups, so as to get a decent sample size and intra-polity variation is fantastic. This means the researchers can better understand of how one group functions absent any expectations generated by their knowledge of the other group, because they can look at group of substantial size as a whole.
3. Decent sample size With 1,300 participants in the sample size, that's pretty good for statistical purposes, to contribute to the body of scientific work focusing on gender and reasoning. John Timmer is absolutely right when he says "abilities of the tribes in Northeast India are only ever going to provide a small snapshot of the full range of human diversity," because that's what science often is, the accretion of studies depositing their findings year after year until (ideally) a decent and more holistic understanding is born.
4. Objective, quantifiable test that does not rely on self-reporting. One of the things I always liked about archaeology was that all my research subjects were dead; much of any error came from us, because a 2.7 C/N ratio was a 2.7 C/N ratio, but only the researcher could decide whether a pelvic bone was remodeled enough to make the subject 45 years old rather than 25. One of the things I disliked about psychology (and some diet studies) was the reliance on human subject self-reporting. The ideal way to cut down on self-reporting or result-expectation errors is double or even triple blind design, where the research assistants don't even know what they're testing for. The test here doesn't have to worry about that; the only variable I can even think of is the incentive given that might influence what kinds of people you end up getting for the test, but I'm willing to gloss over that because of the sample size and the fragmentation of variables.
The researchers accounted for other cultural factors as well, such as education and property ownership, but my first reaction to hearing the research conditions was, "Jackpot!"
Feminist Media Criticism, George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire, And That Sady Doyle Piece by Alyssa Rosenberg A much more level-headed response to criticism of GRRM’s approach to women that asks us to take a more objective view of storytelling, and refuses to equate the story with the writer or the reader.
My friends and I have remarked how GRRM’s mothers (those without grown children: Cersei Lannister, Catelyn Stark, Tanda Stokeworth, Lysa Arryn, etc.) are characterized as having “mother’s madness”. Their attempts to protect their children seem ill-advised, and at times harm their other offspring (Rickon, Myrcella). We had a hard time naming sane mothers who behaved rationally, other than the Queen of Thorns (Olenna Redwyne). Daenerys, the ultimate Mother, also fears the madness of her house’s blood, and my friends and I have yet to decide what this exception might mean for the series’ future and GRRM’s stance on mothers. All the same, it would do our minds a disservice if we reacted to this question with nothing but all-caps outrage and exceptionalism. I’m not saying Sady Doyle doesn’t make some good points about orientalism, etc., but Alyssa Rosenberg points out some telling flaws in her arguments that, I feel, often characterize the more embarassing portions of New Wave Feminism.
In 2007, the Ministry of Justice (rather than the Home Office) became responsible for regulations concerning exhuming human remains from ancient graves. The Guardian reports that the Ministry of Justice introduced a law in 2008 which declared that all human remains found in British digs must be reburied within two years. This makes sense if you have contractors and construction teams who are shoving deceased ancestors of living people out of the ground and then leaving them there without proper reburial. This does not make sense when you are an archaeologist digging up someone two thousand years old. Why?
It completely ignores the damage to the human remains themselves in the process of excavation and reinterment. For example, many of Harvard's human skeletons (the ones that haven't been repatriated through NAGPRA) are stored in boxes in climate controlled rooms, forever preserved and protected from the diagenetic processes of soil and sand and clay.
If we were to reinter many of these ancient human remains, we would completely lose:
This is different from NAGPRA, which is a very narrowly defined piece of legislation that targets native groups who can reasonably prove a genetic or ancestral link with those to be reinterred or studied respectfully per tribal/Nation traditions and beliefs. What the UK has here is an overbroad rule that needs to be tailored to the needs of archaeology.
A California judge finally declared that the US military's policy of "don't ask, don't tell" was invalid. I thought it was inevitable, but with any controversial ruling, appeals are an inevitable result. The response?
A day after a judge in California ordered the Pentagon to cease enforcement of its policy barring gays from openly serving in the military, Gates told reporters that the question of whether to repeal the law should be decided by Congress, and done only after the Pentagon completes its study on the issue.
The reason the California judge's stance is surprising is that for any issues dealing with the military, US courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States, have traditionally deferred to military policy. In the interests of national security, courts tend to defer to whatever the US military thinks is best for defensive purposes, regardless of the issue at hand (property, trespassing, human rights). I emphasized Defense Secretary Gates' statement because that particular section is tantamount to reminding courts what their traditionally accepted position ought to be on these matters. The Family Affairs spokesperson also declared this to be a case of "liberal activist judging," a term which I ordinarily dislike because it is an over-broad stigmatype. Taken from a traditional view, though, it is a departure from the weak deferral stance that US judges have taken in the past towards military policies.
Regardless of historical stance, I applaud this move towards greater equality and recognition of the contribution to national defense that many gay men and women make. Whether or not they're gay and military, recognition for their sacrifices should not be hidden.
quoted from NY Times here.
This was my answer to a short writing prompt: where do you find beauty? If between the falling angel and the rising ape lies man, then between ecstasy and horror does beauty reside. That undefined realm of possibility bears witness to humanity's distilled grace and disgrace. In each duality that makes up our lives, neither can exist without the other, and yet at some point, both were equally possible.
There is beauty in the longing of an injured bird for flight, because it has the sweet memories of sky and a future full of soaring. There is beauty in realizing truth, because everyone has a chance to lie and sometimes choose not to. There is beauty even in destruction, because out of the ashes emerges hope.
In a world of love and hate, war and peace, and life and death, there are moments of simply being. I wonder at those grey pauses, because for me, the most beautiful thing of all is to feel that crucial moment when everything changes.
Some find beauty in things. I find it in the space between.
It's been a while! Here are some moleskine sketches from April through now. This moleskine's been through France, South Korea, China, and Bali (Indonesia)! Unlike previous moleskine posts, these drawings are from my own head. I didn't have time or easy access to other pictures and styles that I wanted to practice drawing. (I apologize for any blurriness. I think there's something wrong with my scanner. I'll have to troop to the library to get a BookScan machine for future posts.) I'm showing favoritism and putting the ones I like the most on top. Scroll down for increasing embarrassment.
Above, rice paddies in Bali.
Above, an eagle from a painting in the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
These two above were practice sketches of Team Fortress 2 characters. I eventually drew a birthday card featuring the Pyro lighting the candles on a Portal cake.
Above, a sculpture of two deer in the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
I sketched these above at a seaside restaurant overlooking cliffs at Jeju Island, South Korea.
Above, some Korean-style houses.
An attempt to do a children's rendition of "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" for Bali.
Musings about Insadong.
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" was playing on the flight to South Korea.
This is 'supposed' to be Robert Downey, Jr. from the film "Sherlock Holmes." I say "supposed to be."
The above boy's head is a riff off of James Jean, I believe.
For my birthday, the lovely Eric J. Suh gave me a domain name! I have a website now! I was so excited I went and built it in about four hours. I'm going to move this blog over there when I have the time this weekend, as well as add more content and tweak the code. For now, my website is at JenniferGong.com. (I'm debating whether I should use JenniferZGong.com or JenniferGong.com.)
My friend was looking for some kitchen art to hang up on her wall. I offered, with due hubris, to make some in her desired style. It ended up being some half-breed of my own style and the sample, but here they are anyway.
I did this for a friend's birthday (which is why you see 'name redacted' instead of the actual name).
Oompah, it's been quite a busy year so far, with a publishing job, museum work, a visit to Paris, and law school. All that left not enough time to scan moleskine pages. I did find some time today, so here is a smattering from between March and now. I am so behind on my scanning that since I last posted, I filled up an entire book and started a new one! A lot of these were efforts at exploring other artists' styles, and where they were copies I shall endeavour to note them as such. I would, however, appreciate any reminders in the event that I have missed one.
Entirely mine:
(Above, some people I saw on the T. I loved the man's nose!)
(Above, James Hacker, portrayed by Paul Eddington in Yes, Minister)
(Above, one of my original characters, Adelice Kalani)
(Above, don't know why this scanned so badly, but it's the Seine.)
Entirely others':
(Above, from JLA Shogun of Steel)
(Above, from Lackadaisy)
(Above, from Lackadaisy)
(Above left, Doctor Who in Charles Schulz style. Above right, from Nextwave)
Some of mine, some of others':
(Above left, from Lackadaisy)
A recent federal hearing revealed that Judges Ciavarella and Conahan took more than $2.6m in kickbacks for sending teenagers to youth detention centres run by private parties. That's about 5000 juveniles who may have been sentenced wrongly, including
Hillary Transue was sentenced to three months in juvenile detention for a spoof Web page mocking an assistant principal...[Susan Mishanski's] son, Kevin, now 18, was sentenced to 90 days in a detention facility last year in a simple assault case that everyone had told her would result in probation..
This case hits close to home because I was assigned to represent the government in my moot court oral argument in my first year of law school. My task was to defend the constitutionality of juvenile court orders, so that they could be counted as part of the number of prior convictions required in order to reach an enhanced sentencing for a repeat violent crimes and possession offender who was now of age.
Juvenile courts are an interesting constitutional conundrum. The system keeps these proceedings private to the general public to not only protect the privacy of juveniles, but also to lock the records after they have become adults (I'm not sure if this happens in all states). Hidden from public scrutiny, the welfare of these juveniles is purely in the hands of officers of justice. Juveniles have the right to counsel, the right to proof beyond a reasonable doubt (in the eyes of the judge presiding), and other rights which can be waived. In this recent case, all the officrs of justice who might have intervened were too 'intimidated', according to the Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center, to object.
It extends, I surmise, beyond mere intimidation. There is little incentive not merely on the part of judges, but on the part of these officers (parole officers, public defenders, etc.), to act in such a situation. They are commonly inadequately paid for dealing with heavy workloads and a wide range of bewildered (joke Web sites) to problematic (violent) offenders. It is not merely monetary incentive they are lacking. They are working in a system that lacks the capacity to handle juveniles with the full moral and legal probity that we owe to all minors.
The NYTimes raised the question of requiring counsel (instead of allowing it to be waived) at juvenile proceedings. It may be a step in the right direction, but I fear it would not be enough.
via NYTimes (link)
Individual on the right is from another deviantart.com user's work, but I can't find it now. If you recognize it, please let me know and I will provide proper attribution.
The lack of brush control in the ink Sakura Pigma Brush means I'm only ever going to use it for shading/inking. I much prefer my sumi brushes for actual painting work. Dur.
It's starting to get hard to keep up, and to think of things to draw that aren't completely ridiculous. Whenever you see a comic book character, it means I'm being lazy.
No one told the octopus no smoking underwater.
(Who's really going to complain?)
(Besides the molluscs? and crustaceans?) Octopus is studying to enter monastery. (Octopus monastery has 8 dots.)
