Look, friends. I’m far from a fan of authority, per se. On any given day there’s like a 30% chance that I will assent to full-on anarchism. But I need to discuss how annoying (and possibly pernicious) this “question authority” catchphrase truly is. The concept of authority is pretty closely tied up with that of expertise. …
Category Archives: makes me stabby
I don't care about the original intent of value-added models
I’m taking a break from end-of-semester madness to offer this mini-rant, inspired by a passage in this WP article, “Leading mathematician debunks value-added”: When value-added models were first conceived, even their most ardent supporters cautioned about their use [Sanders 1995, abstract]. They were a new tool that allowed us to make sense of mountains of …
prizes, payments, and donating blood
This old post, on the moral status of donating blood, still attracts a trickle of Google searches to this blog. I wonder who the searchers are — perhaps people trying to get motivated to donate, people trying to rationalize not donating, or biomedical ethics paper writers? Anyway, I hadn’t donated blood in over six months …
“appreciating” secretaries, “appreciating” teachers
Last week was Administrative Professionals’ Day. On this day, you are supposed to take some time to thank your secretary and/or other support staff, usually with a gift or lunch or whatever. A Facebook friend who shall remain nameless expressed bafflement at the existence of said holiday, claiming that administrative professionals should not get extra …
so be good for goodness sake
I’m taking a break from serious content to bring you frivolous xmas post, 2009. You know that song “Santa Clause is Coming to Town?” It contains the lyric: “so be good for goodness sake.” But this is clearly inconsistent with the content of the song, and it drives me crazy. Being good for goodness’ sake means that …
makes me stabby: soda thieves
Welcome to the first instantiation of ‘makes me stabby,’ a running series of posts on things that upset me & which might upset you, too. People who steal soda from dining establishments where you dispense your own MAKE ME STABBY. Every week I sit in Chipotle and monitor whether people are doing that, and I give …
