I don’t usually post YouTube links and that sort of thing, because I figure everybody else in the world has watched them before I get there, but this clip of the Colbert Report is too good not to link. He gets right in the metaphorical face of a couple of morning shows that have done […]
Month: July 2006
Irreconcilable Differences
Via Dave Sez, Ed at the Sports Frog wants a divorce from ESPN: I have carefully thought this through and I believe a divorce is our only resolution. I have been loyal and faithful to you and you have shit on me, cheated, lied, took 5 months to send me a check and you won’t […]
Science Is Hard
Jonah Lehrer at the Frontal Cortex asks an interesting question: Why is science so much work? But I’m curious why science takes so long. I know this is an incredibly naive question, but why do post-docs have to work so hard? What is it about the scientific process that forces the average researcher to come […]
Why They’re Leaving
Inside Higher Ed had a piece yesterday about leaks in the science pipeline— that is, reasons why so few students end up majoring in science, math, or engineering these days. The hook for the article is some Congressional hearings on the subject, but the author lists some possible explanations related to the structure of academia […]
Something New Under the School-Choice Sun
Harry Brighouse at Crooked Timber is enthusiastic about something that appears to be that rarest of rarities, a new idea in the education funding debate: instead of giving the best students money to move to different schools, let schools bid for the best students. Betts suggests this: first fund the schools equally on a per-student […]
A Good Road to Drive Fast
I drove down to NYC yesterday to have dinner with some of my ScienceBlogs colleagues, and put faces to names. Seven or eight years ago, I probably would’ve driven back that night, but I’m old and settled, so I shelled out for a hotel room the size of our spare bedroom (maybe 9′ square), and […]
Less Dorky Poll: Karaoke Supernova
So, here’s a different sort of scenario for an audience-participation post: Imagine that you are in a weirdly well-stocked karaoke bar, and you have to sing a song. There’s no way out of it– if you don’t you’ll lose your job, rabid squid will eat your family, deranged America-hating terrorists will kill a puppy, whatever. […]
Wednesday Dog-Blogging
Greetings from Chateau Steelypips, home of the world’s saddest dog: Why is she pining away? Because I’ve gone down to New York for a ScienceBlogs get-together, and left her alone. .. (Bonus pathetic picture below the fold.)
New Dorky Poll: Favorite Particle?
Well, the extremely dorky poll on favorite fundamental constants seems to have petered out at 48 comments, two short of the threshold at which it would’ve become non-dorky. Still, that was a good effort. Since that worked pretty well, here’s another dorky poll question: What’s your favorite fundamental particle? And, for the sake of concreteness, […]
Academic Anxiety Update
I’m beginning to put my tenure review materials together, which means lots of angst about academia generally. Happily, there’s the Internet, which can always make matters worse by providing more links: For example, a couple of my ScienceBlogs colleagues are blogging about family issues and academic careers: Janet Stemwedel has the first three posts (one […]