Record Amounts of Rain!

I received the following data from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Albany.  The data was collected from the Dutchess County Airport near Poughkeepsie (41° 37' 28" N, 073° 52' 58" W) here in the mid-Hudson Valley.

A listing of rainfall, and departures from normal, for each month in 2011 to date:

	Month		Precipitation
	January		1.78 in.
	February		3.65 in.
	March		5.17 in.
	April		4.63 in.
	May		5.16 in.
	June		4.40 in.
	July		2.24 in.
	August		13.23 in.
	September		7.30 in.
	Total		47.56 in.

The National Weather Service (NWS) uses a 30-year average for "normal" climate values of temperature, rainfall, etc. They also compute them in 10-year intervals such that the last yearly report, for 2010, compared the year to an average of values from 1971-2000. When the NWS prepares the yearly report for 2011, however, it will use an average of values from 1981-2010.

Anyway, how does this year stack up to what a "normal" amount of rainfall is in the Hudson Valley? Well, according to the 1981-2010 data, "normal" rainfall for the year is 46.53 inches. We've already exceeded that by 1 inch and we're only 3/4 of the way through the year!

On August 28-29, courtesy of Hurricane Irene, we had a record 24-hour rainfall total of 7.07 inches!

Enough already!

Parents and Professors

So, if you're the parent of a young-adult (notice I didn't say child) in college, should you even try to help out your son or daughter by giving their professor a call?

No, no, no, and no.

Here's an article from U.S. News & World Report on 10 Reasons Parents Should Never Contact College Professors.

There's another reason too.  At my institution, we've been told we're not allowed to talk to parents, not even allowed to verify that their son or daughter are even registered in our classes, because of FERPA - the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act.  The only exception is if a student goes to our Registrar's Office and fills out and signs a waiver.

So, when a parent calls me to discuss their little darling, I just tell them "Sorry, due to federal privacy laws, I'm not allowed to talk to you about this."  Many parents view this as horribly unfair, especially when they're the ones paying for the tuition and books.

But, to be honest, most parents who would call a professor are not the kind of parents who'd want to hear my honest appraisal of why little Jimmie or Katie is failing my course.  It's a community college, virtually all the kids who attend are smart enough to pass the 100-level courses.  If they're failing, it's because:

     1.  They don't come to class
     2.  They don't give a shit and aren't putting any effort into the course
     3.  They don't turn stuff in

It's not rocket science.

Homeopathic ER

I love this video! Why don't mainstream scientists believe in things like homeopathy (read my post here if you don't know what homeopathy is), crystal healing, reiki, etc.



Still support these "alternative" healing practices? Willing to be treated with them when wheeled into an ER in critical condition? Or maybe you'd prefer "Big Pharma" drugs, expensive medical equipment (x-rays, MRIs, and the like), and traditionally-trained MDs?

Banned Books Week

It's Banned Books Week (September 24 - October 1). Here's a list from the American Library Association (ALA) of banned and/or challenged books from a Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century list.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

Ulysses, by James Joyce

Beloved, by Toni Morriso

The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

1984, by George Orwell

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morriso

Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

Native Son, by Richard Wright

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey

Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London

Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin

All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie

Sophie's Choice, by William Styron

Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles

Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs

Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh

Women in Love, by DH Lawrence

The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer

Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller

An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser

Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Here are some interesting statistics from the ALA:

Read one of these books today and celebrate your freedom to do so. Give one to your kids to read too!