Thursday, May 7, 2009

Final Exam Day!

Earlier this morning I gave the final exam for my course "The Tree of Life." Click the image to the right if you'd like to try your luck with the first page of my exam!

9 comments:

John Harshman said...

I'm pretty sure I could get the main question, but I can't summon the answers to the extra-credit questions. Could you provide the f#%!ing answer key?

Anonymous said...

ML?
FIsher?

Glor said...

First, thanks to Poletarac for pointing out the grammatical error in my question: it should read "which method" not "what method." He chose to communicate this to me privately, presumably so he could also insult my Pomeranian heritage in his message without also insulting all the other Pomeranian-American readers of this blog.

Warning: spoiler below

Second, Turelli was referring to independent contrasts when he introduced the students at the Bodega workshop to the "secret f***ing key" a few years back. He referred to it in this way partly because most people who use this method have no idea what the method is doing or what it's assumptions are.

Poletarac said...

Of course Glor, as you know, I continually refer to your Pomeranian ancestry only because I'm part-Dalmatian.

I think you should invite Turelli to explain the secret fucking key (TFS), or at least paraphrase. Your brief description makes me feel insecure about my own understanding of TFS .

John Harshman said...

I prefer the term "frakking". OK, but independent contrasts are the secret frakking key to what, exactly? All comparative biology? Life, the universe, and everything? Just how secret is this method, if it's been widely used for the past 20 years or so. And does Felsenstein know this?

Glor said...

It wouldn't be a bad idea to have someone detail the SFK here (how does secret f***ing key translate to TFS?). Ask 10 people who've used independent contrasts to explain how the method works and you'll understand why some might regard it as a persistent secret. It's not that the IC is particularly challenging, just that most people don't have too strong a foundation in the underlying mathematics before they use it. I'll ask Turelli if he wants to share any thoughts on the SFK. Perhaps we can also get a guest post from Justen Whittall, he's taken over Turelli's role explaining the SFK at the Bodega workshop and has a nice series of lessons on the topic.

Glor said...

Harshman - Does your reference to "frakking" indicate that you're a fan of BSG? I saw a bumper sticker on my way to work the other day that said "Don't blame me I voted for Rosalind." I almost fell off my bike laughing.

Glor said...

Discussion of one aspect of the SFK is ongoing at R-sig-phylo . Felsenstein and Garland have already chimed in.

Anonymous said...

Rich, the title of your course sounds very attractive. Is the syllabus available somewhere online?