Outliers

I just finished the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

Its good...you should read it...

Project Implicit

I actually got involved in the Harvard Implicit Association Tests a few years ago, but was feeling the urge to go back to them today...

Check it out at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

I found out today that I have a automatic preference for Clear rather than ambiguous and a strong automatic preference for individual when compared to group. I had no preference between Labor and Management.

They are pretty cool test. I have taken them for race and age in the past.

Check it out!!!

Twisters in Transition

Back to nature posts...sorry Renae and your welcome to Dorothy and Allanna. Its funny that certain blog topics are the most popular and most dreaded depending on who you talk to.



Tornadoes are among nature's most unpredictable events: once a twister drops from a supercell cloud and starts raising a ruckus, it's difficult to anticipate the exact path it will follow. For many decades, these frightening storms have at least followed certain patterns; they are usually confined to a sector of the nation's midsection dubbed Tornado Alley, which runs from Oklahoma through Kansas and Missouri and east to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky. There was also an apparent Tornado season; midwesterners scouted the skies for twisters from spring into the first few weeks of summer.

Of course, as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency reminds us on its website: Violent or killer tornadoes do happen outside Tornado Alley every year and tornados can happen any time of year Until recently, these warnings seemed pro forma, an acknowledgement that Uncle Sam can't predict the weather, but consider the events of March 14, 2008 in Downtown Atlanta. While 18000 fans filled the Georgia Dome for the Southeastern Conference basketball tourney and 16000 NBA fans jammed Philips Arena for a game between the hometown Hawks and the LA Clippers, a twister cut a 6 mile path of ruin through the cities heart. Wind gusted up to 130 mph, crushing homes, ripping facades off buildings, downing trees, and shattering glass. Authorities in both buildings chose not to alert fans of the severe weather outside, even as tiles fell from the ceilings and catwalks swayed in the Georgia Dome.

When the Weather Channel's version of March Madness ended, some 27 people had been injured in the first tornado to ever strike in the downtown of Georgia's capital city and the damage came in at 250 million. Thevnext day smaller twisters claimed two lives in areas of rural Georgia.

Tornadoes are also jumping the tracks of their predictable seasons these days. Over four days from Jan 7 - 11, 2008, in the depths of winter (never regarded as a twister breeding season), a barage of 72 seperate tornados roared through areas around Mississippi Valley, rangin from SW Missouri and NW Arkansas to Alabama and Mississippi; four people were killed. Less than a month later, on Feb 5-6, a staggering 82 confirmed tornadoes touched down in Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Southern Ohio Valley, killing 58 people in four states. It was the deadliest tornado assault in the US since 1985.

What's going on? Meteorologists fear that climate change driven by global warming is brewing up a new generation of tornadoes that will strike more frequently and with greater severity and over a broader swath of the country than before. Their advice: prepare today, for Tornado Alley is now Tornado Superhighway, and twisters are now storms for all seasons.

Sorry

It has been awhile since I have blogged...I havent and still dont have anything to say...

Strange for me

Crisis Avoided

So, I was panicking about a dress for the military ball...I was so stressed that I was considering (seriously) making a dress...

REnae saved me. After sitting at Jo Annes for an hour and a half and getting frazzled, she suggested I try one of her dresses on and offered to do some alterations if needed.

No alterations need and it is adorable!

YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!

Amanda and I

Amanda and I are going to start a blog together. It is going to be super inappropriate and I imagine super hilarious. We are thinking of names for it right now, so stay tuned!

What if I Dont Like Women?

This is what I used to say. The truth is, now I love women. As you can surely imagine, there was a time when I was not particularly fond of them. Not only did I not like women, I resented being one. Therefore, I was not surprised by the concert of anti-sentiment from my fellow sisters. I have heard one form or another of this sentiment by women of all ages and walks of life.

Here are some things I often hear:

"I get along with men so much better than women."
"I think I am more masculine than feminine."
"Men say what they mean and mean what they say. Women are just confusing."
"Female relationships take too much energy."
"Women are petty gossips who talk behind your back."
"women are so emotional."
"They are so passive aggressive."

I am fairly certain that either publically or privately, I too have expressed all of these sentiments and frustrations. When I really think about this dynamic, it is a bit frightening. Let's dress it up a bit differently. I cannot even imagine a group of men affirming another brother as he openly declares his disdain for the male populace.

Why are the majority of women in agreement with their general disgust and frustration with females? We usually like individual women, but wrestle with the concept of women as a whole.

I think this epidemic of anti-female sentiment needs some explanation. Why don't women like women? What could possibly cause a large portion of the female population to reject their own gender? Unfortunately, many of us have not been taught an appreciation for who we are as women. Is is surprising that we would distance ourselves from the role if we have never had an understanding of what it is to be a woman?

For years, I have heard many different and mixed messages about women. I am not exactly sure what it means to be one, but I think I am happy to be one. So, I have to sit down to pee...I can handle that... At least I don't have to worry about my sexual daydream becomeing apparent visually.....

You Fight Like A Girl!

Hey, you fight like a girl! Of course, this phrase is usually meant as an insult. Whether it is spoken guy to guy, boy to girl, or woman to man, it is not meant as a compliment. No, it is hurled in response to a weak punch, a scratch, or even a cheap shot.

I think we should fight like girls. So, why would I be encouraging anyone to fight like a girl? First, what is meant for an insult (valid or not)to men or boys shouldnt necessarily be heard as one by women. Of course, girls are going to fight like girls, but for some reason, most of us would rather be told that we fight like men.

Before I continue, I dont want you to think that I am a girly girl advocating whipping people with pink frilly ribbons. I am not. I just think we need to ask why it is an insult to fight like a girl. What would fighting like a girl look like if it were done right?

Just my thought of the day....

Spectacular Spectrums

I can't see rainbows, but I think most people would agree with William Wordsworth: "My heart leaps up when I behold, a rainbow in the sky." I hear that it isn't difficult to be dazzled by this evanescant visual phenomenon, which the Old Testament describes as a sign of God's covenant with Noah after the flood. The fascination fo this offspring of sunlight and raindrops never dims: the hipsters of British rock group Radiohead titled their 2007 album In Rainbows.

I wish I had seen a rainbow, but since I havent, I have to write about what I have heard of them. I have heard that the rainbow has the power to thrill. Let's skip the poetry and move to the prosiac: What is it, exactly, that you are beholding when your heart makes that familiar leap? Rainbows are only the most common form of a number of fascinating visual phenomena that adorn the planet, some so fragile that they simply cannot be photographed.

Rainbows are formed by the interplay between water and light. When white sunlight moves through a water droplet, it is refracted, or bent, and splits into the seven visible colors that compose it: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (Roy G. Biv). Why? Because each of those colors operate on its own distinct wavelength. In this case, raindrops are acting like the prisms through which Isaac Newton passed light and seperated it in his pioneering work on the science of optics.

There is more to rainbows than meets the eye; the light spectrum usually forms a round rainbow in the sky, but our view is limited by the horizon, so it appears as a semi-circle. From an aiplace, it is possible to see Mr. Biv as a complete circle.

Rainbows are elusive phenomena, but if you have seen a moonbow, congratulations. This much less common optical phenomenon occurs when moonlight passes through raindrops or water vapor and forms a circular spectrum. Moonbows are generally only seen on clear nights when the moon is full. Certain waterfalls, like Africa's Victoria Falls and Lower Yosemite Falls in Cali, are noted for the frequency in which moonbows appear.

Sundogs are another of nature's fascinating optical phenomena. Scientists call them parhelions; they most often form when the sun is low in a sky filled with ice crystals within cirrus clouds. The effect varies: sometimes two false suns appear of either side of the star, at other times a full halo is visible, sometimes the visual effect more resembles a stained smudge of light with a tail than it does a falso sun. In all cases, your eye's are playing tricks on you; nature is.

Tutoring Blog

So, those of you who I tutor, or I guess are just obsessed with everything I do online (Allanna and Amanda) can check out my tutoring blog that I have set up to help you all. Go check it out and give me feedback.....

http://brooketutoring.blogspot.com/