Mathemetistas, I have a question.

I have a series of data between zero and -1 (not including zero) that I know is of limited accuracy. I don't want to graph the actual numbers because this I know the extreme inaccuracy makes them misleading. What seems reasonable is to classify results into terciles. However I have graph the data for decision making. Is it reasonable to translate all numbers into -0.1666 , -.6666, and -.9999 with error bars of -.16?

Basically I know that if I graph the real data and then list a wide confidences interval and low confidence level, this will be ignored and the resulting curve used for splitting babies without taking the tentative nature of the results into consideration. The data conversion I'm doing would just produce a step function (I'd put in large error bars), which I think more reflects actual choices. With error bars it would really look like a stair case. And I'd disclose what I was doing, including a table of original and converted data - which of course would also be ignored. But the question is whether this is valid?

I knew a woman in college who had a bit of bone shaved off the bridge of her nose over a Christmas vacation. So, not the kind where they chop off your whole nose and reattach it, just incredibly sharp implements up your nostrils. She looked fine afterward, but, she's also looked fine beforehand.

(She reported that every woman in her family had it done, to decrease the Romanness of the nose; I think the subtext of it all was "I want to look less Indo-Hispanic" because the result was inevitably a less strikingly Inca-type profile.)

The kinds of physical "improvements" I might do are all technically impossible -- make my eyes less closely-spaced; make my waist longer -- so I'm secure in the knowledge that I will not change my personal aesthetic via knives. I mean, also, knives, on purpose, and not of necessity. But knowing that I'd have to rearrange my whole skull to make my eyes more widely spaced reassures me that I'll never even fantasize about doing it, you know?

Happy Belated Birthday to 'Ouise and Zenkitty!

has anyone here had plastic surgery (i.e. for cosmetic reasons, not for reconstruction after a car accident or something)?

I've had 13 plastic surgeries to repair my partial cleft lip. The last surgery was a nose job, and to this day I have NO idea why anyone does it for purely cosmetic reasons. It WAS NOT FUN.

And that's all I have to say on the matter.

If I were to ever have plastic surgery, it would be lipo. I'm pretty happy with the way I look, just wish that there was less of me! plus, if I had lipo, I'd be sure to keep the boobs!

The only plastic surgery I've ever considered has been breast reduction. But it can lead to loss of sensation, plus it can cut off the milk ducts, and I tend to scar really badly from even pretty minor cuts, so I've always decided against it.

I got my book! (2 actually. Couldn't resist.)

Only on page 12 and sniffling and getting teary.

Thanks for being so brave, for writing the book, for everybody who helped, for just everything Allyson and buffistas.

I'd love to have breast reduction. My sister's ex-boyfriend had his eyes done and a chin implant. And I know someone who had reconstruction after a double mastectomy. But that's it.

Bad news: Bob Bob was at a conference in Halifax this weekend, and his plane back to Ann Arbor was canceled because of weather, and they didn't book him on another flight until tomorrow afternoon.

Good news: He was in Newark at the time! Unexpected Bob!

Freaky sidenote: I had made a bet with someone that there's no way Bob would unexpectedly show up in NYC between June 20 and the end of July (his next scheduled visit). I ...lose?

Here's another one: I learned that a couple I know are having fights about money. The problem is, he has a $500 a month "personal spending money" budget and regularly goes over. I don't know enough about their finances to know exactly what's in personal spending, but hers is $125 a month. They are a 2-income couple, both civic employees, with 2 kids.

That seems like a hell of a lot of "personal spending," right? I mean, that's an iPhone (admittedly a lame 4G one) a month!! I have no idea what he spends it on, but it's not anything like drugs or loose women, I'm pretty sure.