Up From Facebook

I was a Boy Scout for about three years as a teenager. The troop I was in was sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Every evening on camping trips we said the rosary around the campfire. I progressed to Star Scout rank before dropping out. One of my younger brothers was in a different troop and made it to Eagle Scout, the highest rank. I can’t say that scouting made a big difference in my life. I recall a few hikes and campouts in the Smokies. The other boys were certainly not the kind of role models my parents would have wanted for me, and I didn’t look up to the older boys as any sort of example. But if Pete Hegseth is unhappy with scouting, they must be doing something right. “According to a leaked proposal obtained by NPR,   Hegseth is unhappy  with the organization and wants his Department of War to end a 100-year relationship, which would leave officials running the annual National Jamboree scrambling to fill the void.   “NPR reported that Hegseth believes the organ...

I don’t know if my IQ   was tested.  Needless to say, I  don’t know what my IQ is. I do know that I was awarded a BA in microbiology with honors at the age of 22, a PhD in genetics at the age of 27, a tenure  track  assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the age of 32 and served as a medical school professor for 37 years . IQ? I don’t know. “ As so often happens, a short cut evolved into the standard of practice. Moderate correlations have been found between IQ scores and school grades and occupational success. But correlations are not proof of causation and even those findings may have been skewed by publication bias and poor research design. In other words, the validity of IQ tests as a predictor of performance is questionable. This is not to say that IQ scores are therefore inherently invalid. Only that their meaning and usefulness are not unambiguously clear. ” I’m not in MENSA, so I can’t be bothered with IQ. https://angrybearblog.com/...

I lived in Tennessee from 1958, when my parents moved to Oak Ridge, until 1977 when I moved to Chapel Hill NC to start grad school. While these might be considered my “formative years,” I don’t consider myself a Tennessean. Judged by number of years spent in a state, I’m Missourian, since I lived in St. Louis for 40 years. I don’t think any native St. Louisans would consider me one of them, though. It’s ok. I eschew tribalism in all its manifestations. With that disclaimer, I disown Tennessee on this one: “ One hundred and eighty-one public libraries in Tennessee are reviewing their children’s collections after Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) ordered them to remove books with LGBTQ themes or characters. Hargett suggested that libraries that made such books available to children were violating federal and state law. Some libraries have closed for days so staff could focus on weeding out prohibited volumes.” *snip* “In Tennessee, Hargett is attempting to censor the idea that...

My wife and I did our PhDs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It took us five years after we finished undergrad. “ Typically, the philosophy department at Boston University funds PhD candidates for up to seven years. Grippo, who uses they/them pronouns, started PhD coursework in 2019, and as of September, still had a dissertation to finish and undergraduate writing classes to teach before graduating, likely in spring 2027.   “That was until a few weeks ago, when Grippo was told they   were expected to graduate this coming May — a consequence of BU’s decision to tighten funding for PhDs beyond their fifth year.     “There was suddenly a hard line that no post-fifth-year PhDs should be eligible” for university funding or teaching opportunities on campus, Grippo said. “If I knew that I was meaningfully going to have five years to finish my PhD earlier on, I would’ve done a lot of things differently.”   Time from BA/BS to PhD in the life sciences wa...

Artificial fluoridation of public water supplies, which reduces dental caries, tooth decay, and dental health disparities, is one of the 20th century’s great public health achievements. The idea began with the observation that communities where the natural levels of fluoride in the water is high had unusually low levels of dental decay.   When I was growing up in East Tennessee, the John Birch Society and other right-wingers considered water fluoridation to be a communist plot. If so, the commies not only plotted to put dentists out of business, but it appears that it made me and my high school classmates smarter. No wonder we won the Cold War. From a recent Science Advances paper: “We use data from the nationally representative (United States) High School and Beyond cohort, characterize fluoride exposure from drinking water across adolescence, adjust for confounders, and observe cognitive test performance in both secondary school and at age ~60. We find that children exposed to re...

There are plenty of good reasons to maintain high levels of physical activity throughout your life. In addition to reducing risk of heart disease, diabetes and clinical depression, we can add reduced risk of dementia:   “Physical activity in both midlife and late-life was linked to substantially less dementia risk, a long-term analysis of a large cohort showed.   “Compared with the lowest quintile of midlife physical activity, the top two quintiles were associated with 40% lower all-cause dementia risk over 26 years (HR 0.60 for quintile 4, 95% CI 0.41-0.89; HR 0.59 for quintile 5, 95% CI 0.40-0.88), reported Phillip Hwang, PhD, MPH, of Boston University, and colleagues.”   *snip* “The early adult group had 1,526 participants who were 26-44 years old. The midlife group had 1,943 people ages 45-64, and the late-life group had 885 participants ages 65-88. Overall, about 53% of participants were women. Participants in each ascending age group were followed for an average of ...