Lest it be said that I never say anything nice about anyone from Duke, let me second Dave’s recommendation of Al Featherston’s article about coaching consistency at the Duke Basketball Report. It being a Dukie publication, he goes on rather too long about the greatness of Mike Krzyzewski, but the opening point about how even… Continue reading Duke: Good and Bad
Month: March 2007
Let’s Hear It for the Little Guy 4
Two more automatic bids handed out last night: Central Connecticut: The Blue Devils beat Sacred Heart in a battle of small Connecticut schools, winning the Northeast Conference title behind 25 points from Javier Mojica. The high-profile UConn Huskies lost to Syracuse yesterday in the Big East tournament, so Central Connecticut will be the sole representative… Continue reading Let’s Hear It for the Little Guy 4
Yo, Adrian!
Dave and Jim Munger are doing their annual male-bonding fest this weekend: Over the course of the next four days, Jim and I are going to watch, and review, every Rocky and Rambo movie. […]Here’s our tentative viewing schedule: Today: Rocky I and II Tomorrow: Rocky III Friday: Rocky IV and V Saturday afternoon: First… Continue reading Yo, Adrian!
March Meeting Updates
I forgot to post this earlier, but there are a few posts out there about the second day of the APS March Meeting: Cocktail Party Physics has interesting comments on a bunch of biophysics. Doug Natelson gets roped into chairing a session, and talks about some STM talks. Matt Leifer talks about research on foundational… Continue reading March Meeting Updates
Rate Three Professors
Here’s the scenario: You are the sole executive authority of Hypothetical College, which has a faculty of three. It’s performance evaluation time, and you have $1,500 in bonus money to distribute, in increments of $500 (that is, you can award $0, $500, $1,000, or $1,500 to each faculty member, but the total amount of all… Continue reading Rate Three Professors
What’s In a Name?
On Monday, I lectured about the strong nuclear force. It’s called that because it’s, well, a force, that acts within the nucleus of the atom, and is, um, strong. On Wednesday, I’m lecturing about quarks, which are called that because, um, well, because Murray Gell-Mann is a pretentious git, and wanted to show off the… Continue reading What’s In a Name?
The Role of Textbooks
Inside Higher Ed has an op-ed piece up urging faculty to abandon textbooks: Here’s a statement with which everyone can agree: College instructors cannot assume that students come to their classes in possession of basic knowledge. Now here’s one sure to generate some controversy: In many cases textbooks deter the pursuit of knowledge more than… Continue reading The Role of Textbooks
Let’s Hear it for the Little Guy 3
Three more automatic bids last night, earning three teams their coveted one-paragraph summary on Uncertain Principles: Wright State: The shocker so far (for small values of “shocker”), the unranked Raiders beat #19 Butler to win the Horizon League title and a trip to the NCAA’s. Though Butler is nationally ranked, they were co-champs with Wright… Continue reading Let’s Hear it for the Little Guy 3
Tenure: Threat or Menace?
Over at the Freakonomics blog, Steven Levitt takes up the question of tenure in academia. As you might expect, it’s bad from an economic perspective, and ought to be eliminated: If there was ever a time when it made sense for economics professors to be given tenure, that time has surely passed. The same is… Continue reading Tenure: Threat or Menace?
March Meeting Updates
Arcane Gazebo provides a picture of a giant blue bear, a few notes on talks about quantum computing, and thoughts on the Kook Session.(*) Cocktail Party Physics offers thoughts on Irish giants and large-scale pattern formation in geological systems. Physics World offers three posts: on carbon-trapping windmills, the physics of icicles, and the 20th anniversary… Continue reading March Meeting Updates