"Studies have shown"

How much authority do we give a statement when it is prefaced by the phrase "studies have shown?" Anyone can say "studies have shown" something and no one really doubts what they say. Usually when someone says that, there are no actual studies that are referred to. If there was a study, who conducted the study? What control group did they use? What were their methods for conducting the study? What presuppositions might they have personally that would taint their results? What was the purpose of the study? Very importantly, who funded the study? Where was the study done, and did it have enough variables to achieve accurate results? I no longer lend much credit to someone who says "studies have shown" (I am referring mostly to people in the media) because when someone refers to a "study" they are usually using that study to enforce something that they already believe. Next time you hear someone say "studies have shown," think about what their reason is for quoting the study and see if they mention anything about the actual study, or just mention the results.

Nature Shows

So Michelle and I are watching this nature show miniseries on the Discovery Channel and I recommend that everyone watch it. Its called Planet Earth and its on Sunday nights for the next couple weeks or so and it is literally breathtaking. There are some awesome shots that you might not ever see anywhere else. For instance, there was a scene in one of the episodes where a snow leopard (one of the most rarely seen animals on Earth by the way) snuggling its kids and then hunting a mountain goat. It was pretty amazing to see. Each episode has a theme and we watched the "under-water" themed one last night. It seriously blew my mind!! I was sitting there for 45 minutes in some hypnotic trance not being able to turn my eyes from all of the stuff that I was seeing. For those of you who know me, you would know that it took me a little bit ot get over some whale shots, but once they were done with that they went deeper in the ocean and showed some of the most bizarre looking, bioluminescent, blobs of goo that somehow had the intelligence to look for food. Then they showed a time-lapse shot (I think it was over a few days) of a sperm whale that had died and sunk two miles to the ocean floor and all of the scavengers coming to eat the carcass. Anyways, if you like to see all of the most beautiful things about this planet that we live on, then you should definitely check this show out.

Conservativism vs Liberalism

I am really curious to hear everyone's response to this. I know what these words mean to me, but what does it mean to you to be conservative? Liberal? What does it mean to be a Republican? Democrat? And what do you consider yourself?

Chuck Norris wears Jack Bauer pajamas

How freakin cool is 24 right now???? Thats all I really need to say I think!

Lost Spoiler

This may or may not be accurate, but here is a lot of spoilerish info about the next episode:

Not In Portland Exclusive Summary - - The episode opens with Juliet visiting her sister. She is injecting her with an experimental drug that they hope will allow her sister to become pregnant. Juliet is visited by Ethan and someone we haven't met before (he played a terrorist on 24 though) who want her to come work 'in Portland'. Unfortunately, she is bound to a contract with her nasty Ex-Husband. She makes the offhand comment that he would need to be hit by a bus before she could come work for them. Next day, as she is strolling to work... he gets hit by a bus. Juliet is having a bittersweet sending off at the morgue when Ethan and his cronies show up again. She decides to take the job. But the job is "Not in Portland" which reveals the purpose of the title. She only agrees to six months. - - They want her because she is some world-famous fertility researcher. This lends a lot of support to the theory that the Others can't reproduce. - - The situation with Jack gets hairy when Ben wakes up and over-hears Jack telling Mr. Friendly that Juliet asked him to kill Ben. So much for Jack having any loyalty to Juliet! Ben converses with Juliet in private for a while. It is almost as if he sends her out to help Sawyer and Kate escape because immediately after the conversation, that is exactly what she does. - - Speaking of Kate and Sawyer, yes they run through the jungle and exchange gunfire with Pickett and his cronies. Just when the chips seem down, Alex shows up and starts taking out guys with her sling shot. At this point, they have realized they can't get off the island without a boat and Alex promises to alleviate that situation, with a catch: they must help her rescue her boyfriend Karl who is being held in a building on the island. Sawyer beats the snot out of the guard at the building (played by Rob McElhenry from "Always Sunny in Philadelphia"). - - The scene with Karl is definitely one for the freeze framers. He is tied up and drugged and being forced to watch a movie with a lot of fast moving images and words. Very 60's style brainwashing stuff. - - When they finally get to the beach, Pickett is way ahead of them. He knew exactly where they would turn up and is waiting for them. Just as he is about to execute sawyer, Juliet comes in and kills him. She tells Alex that Karl can go with Sawyer and Kate, but she will have to stay. She refers to Ben as "your father". - - Jack finishes the surgery and Ben survives. He talks to Kate via Pickett's radio and tells her to never come back to try to rescue him. It is kind of an emotionally intense moment. You can see that Sawyer is uncomfortable with the amount of pain Kate is exhibiting over this. - - There is an uncomfortable respect between Juliet and Jack now, but Juliet still seems to be open to him... as if the request to kill Ben was a gag maybe? Jack asks Juliet what Ben said to her and she replies that he is finally going to let her go home. She reveals that she has been on the island for 3 years, 2 months, and 23 days. According to the various LOST time-lines out there, this means she arrived on 9/11/2001.

New Semester

So, the new semester started this week and is already well under way and I have not even been to all of my classes yet. I have finished all of my GE classes and all of my lower division major requirements and now have nothing left but upper division and I have to say, it's kind of overwhelming. The classes are hard, half of the students in all of my classes so far are grad students, and I just found out how well I need to do in the classes to continue with my education. I met with a counselor in the history department on Monday (ironically she is also one of my teachers this semester) and I am meeting with a credential advisor next Friday. I was told by the history department counselor that I need to get a C in all of my classes from now on (since they are all upper division) in order to graduate, which is no big deal. But I also found out that in order to get into the credential program I need to get straight B's (not just a 3.0) and I need to get a 3.5 in order to get into the graduate program. I was going to take 6 classes this semester so I can graduate in December, but I do not think that I can get a 3.5 GPA while taking 6 classes. So I dropped to 4, and am graduating in May of '08 instead. Not only is this going to be the hardest semester so far, but it is also the most expensive. I have the same teacher for 2 classes and between the 2, he has assigned 26 books. So, this is going to be an interesting 15 weeks. More to come.....

Lost Fans Unite...Form of....a 6th season

For all of you lost fans out there, one of the writers of the show has announced that they do not plan to do more than 100 episodes which at the current rate would finish the story in mid-5th season. It is not official yet, but in a recent interview he answered direct questions about the length of the series 4 different times with the 100 episode answer. Bummer!