Mood Elevation.

This video of Victor and Regi Wooten lifted my spirits immeasurably.

For Memorial Day.

Nothing I say or do can ever adequately acknowledge the sacrifices of those who have fought and died for this country.

Book'im Danno.

The other night after returning home from the local library, I noticed that I had not checked out the books I was holding. I had been so preoccupied while at the library that I had simply walked out with them. The alarm must have sounded without my noticing.

So the next day when I had some spare time I went back to the library, half expecting to be taken down and handcuffed as soon as I walked in. Or maybe there would be on prominent display some grainy black-and-white photos of me from the closed circuit video. Or at least I would receive a few strong words when I showed up at the checkout desk.

But when I did explain to the clerk at the checkout desk what had happened, her eyes went wide, and she started to gush about what an honest man I was. It was embarrassing. I think she was genuinely shocked that someone, after successfully absconding with some books, would actually return them. Sheesh. The times we live in.

Sentence of the Day (Category: Propositional Logic)

``If Peaches never existed, she surely would have invented herself.'' --Jonathan Valania, writing in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Reading Roundup.

1. I came across two recent John Sandford novels, one in the local library and one in the bargain section of Barnes & Noble: Invisible Prey, and Dark of the Moon. I had found the last few Prey books a bit tired, but Invisible Prey was very good (VG). Dark of the Moon, kicking off the Virgil Flowers series, also rates a VG. By ``very good'' I mean that both novels are well plotted, feature believable characters, and have reasonably well crafted prose. I started reading Sandford maybe seven or eight years ago, and I still think that the first four Prey novels are excellent. (However, I still haven't completely forgiven Sandford for naming one of his side characters ``Del Capslock.'')

2. I finally read Michael Connelly's, The Brass Verdict. I'll rate this one a VG+, the plus for some clever tricks. In particular, Connelly places his longtime protagonist Harry Bosch in a supporting role, without providing any of Bosch's internal thoughts -- giving the reader of Connelly's Bosch series a chance to view this familiar character from the outside.

3. In the early 1980's I read and thoroughly enjoyed Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park, the first in the Arkady Renko series. I revisited the author a few weeks ago, finishing the Renko series: Polar Star, Red Square, Havana Bay, Wolves Eat Dogs, and Stalin's Ghost. These books all rate an Excellent. My favorite was Wolves Eat Dogs, set in contemporary Chernobyl and its surrounding area. Reading Cruz Smith's detailed descriptions of that contaminated region, and the few souls who scratch out their existences there, was exhilarating, revelatory, and terrifying.

In Honor of the End of the Semester.

Here is my favorite anonymous review of my teaching, from ratemyprofessors.com:

This guy is a really good teacher but he's a complete jerk. no social skills whatsoever. if you don't mind- again, he is a great teacher, just don't expect any jokes.

I particularly enjoy the proximity of ``great teacher'' to ``complete jerk.''

Journalism.

It is now widely known that the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine (AJBJM), complete with honorary editorial board, was in fact an advertising ploy for Merck, created by Elsevier; see, e.g., here for details.

A few comments and questions:

1. It has been reported that all of the articles included in AJBJM were legitimate peer-reviewed articles already having appeared in ``real'' journals. So the primary deception appears to have been in collecting Merck-friendly research into a single neutrally titled volume -- so that an unsuspecting reader would conclude that these articles were chosen only for their scientific merit and not for conclusions favoring the drug company. If Merck had bundled the same articles into a volume entitled, say, Merck Research Review, and had explicitly said in a ``from the editor'' page that these articles were chosen to highlight Merck's contributions to medicine, then there would have been no fraud. Moreover, assuming that the articles involved in this scandal all originally appeared in respected journals, it seems to me that an honestly labeled presentation would have had essentially the same advertising impact.

2. Were the authors of the original papers clearly and honestly informed of Elsevier's republication of their research in this context? (Were they paid?) If these authors were unaware, then the author copyright agreements Elsevier and most journal publishers require need to be modified. How aware were the members of the honorary editorial board?

3. I wonder if the editors at non-fake journals from Australasia (for example, The Australasian Journal of Dermatology) are offended by this abuse of their geography. I'd also be interested in the process that led to Merck/Elsevier choosing this particular location.

4. Questionable journals are not limited to medical research. For several years I received e-mail announcements for the Antarctica Journal of Mathematics, which appeared to exist somewhere on the border between fraud and self delusion.

Sentence of the day.

``Not only did Waits and Lurie co-star in Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law, but avant-garde guitarist Marc Ribot infuses fresh blood into the spoken-word delivery from Lurie punctuated by a female chorus.'' --Bill Melville, blogging here about an album by John Lurie.

Indeed, an infusion of fresh blood into the the spoken-word delivery happens to be the only known medical treatment for punctuation by a female chorus.