PicoBlog

[This blog will always be free to read, but it’s also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I am available for speaking engagements.] I’m afraid the rumor is true: Taylor Alison Swift, the 34 year-old singer-songwriter who was recently named TIME’s Person of the Year and won her fourth Album of the Year gramophone yesterday, is, in fact, a highly successful psyop chiefly created by the Central Intelligence Agency.

This week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) releaseda long-awaited report on the use of bitemark analysis. This is the disipline in which a specialist matches an apparent bite mark on human skin and to the teeth of the person who did the biting. The field has a horrendous track record: More than two dozen people arrested or convicted with bitemark evidence have since been exonerated. The NIST report has been a long time coming.

Next time you visit the Department of Motor Vehicles on Teutonia Avenue, I suggest that afterwards you celebrate the rare sweetness of bureaucratic liberation by going two doors north to YICK INN.  You might miss it as, from a cosmetic standpoint, it is the most unprepossessing looking of restaurants.  Who could be captivated by it?  If one is prone to over-thinking, the idea might occur that its complete plainness is a celebration of a paradox.

“Loraine, you are my density.” “What?” “My destiny.” “Ohhhh.” An awkward George McFly stumbled through his attempt to invite Loraine to the “Enchantment Under the Sea” dance. He’d planned his poetic words carefully and tried to follow the script as he approached her in the diner. Maybe he was nervous. Maybe it was the after-effect of the chocolate milk he j… ncG1vNJzZmiaop6ur7%2FPmp%2BrZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe9iorGaZopp6rsWMnZynq5mpxg%3D%3D

This year, I taught an introductory Research Methods class for the first time. I’ve taught related courses and topics (e.g., statistical modeling) but Research Methods starts from the ground floor. The high-level goal is to teach students how to be better producers and consumers of research—and that involves building up the foundations of what constitutes good empirical practices. In particular: what makes a scientific claim valid? The tl;dr of the course is that any given claim—whether it’s a claim about frequency, association, or causation—can be evaluated with respect to four distinct validities:

My friends, hola! Happy Monday!  Today, I am writing about a topic I have talked with you about in the past…paella! This classic Spanish dish was a big part of my childhood growing. I spent many Sundays helping my father make a giant paella over an open fire. Sometimes we would make it in a park in the mountains—and we would have as many as 100 people! These days when I make paella I usually don’t have that many people, but I still follow the same process as my father did—cooking it over an open fire in my backyard.

To read this issue in your browser, click on the headline above.12/6/22 Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Every few days now it seems I read another story about perpetually aggrieved attention slut Kyle Rittenhouse.

You know about the side-eye. You’ve had a hilariously harmless version for years. You’ve even hit me with it a few times. You need to know how to use your side-eye when it comes to money. You tell me I’m always preaching. You haven’t heard me preach that lesson as much as I should. People act funny with money. For as many money talks as we’ve had, safeguarding yourself isn’t one I’ve harped on enough.

You remember Cat’s in the Cradle, the song about a father who doesn’t really connect with his son. It was made famous by Harry Chapin, but the lyrics were actually written by his wife, Sandy, as a poem about her first husband’s relationship with his father. It begins like this: Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy child arrived just the other day He came to the world in the usual way But there were planes to catch and bills to pay He learned to walk while I was away And he was talkin’ ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew He’d say “I’m gonna be like you, Dad You know I’m gonna be like you”The lyrics continue to describe a busy father who isn’t around for his son.