Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » What’s Wrong With “Social Justice”? “If you really mean it, however, you have to seriously leave room for, even encourage, someone to answer the question, “Should we pursue social justice or be socially responsible” by saying, “No”.” (tags: academia education society culture ethics politics) Dynamics of Cats : string […]
Month: April 2008
Notes Toward “Science in the 21st Century”
The organizers of the Science in the 21st Century conference at the Perimeter Institute have started to collect talk abstracts for the meeting. Actually, they started a couple of weeks ago, but I’m a Bad Person and haven’t gotten around to writing anything for them yet. It doesn’t help that this sort of thing is […]
Abstraction, Compartmentalization, and Education
Given the amount of time I’ve spent writing about academic issues this week, it’s only fitting that the science story getting the most play is about math education. Ed Yong provides a detailed explanation, and Kenneth Chang summarizes the work in the New York Times. Here’s Ed’s introduction: Except they don’t really work. A new […]
Shinto Love God
I’m kicking myself for not using this as a filler post a couple of weeks back when it was Easter: This is from one of the shrines at Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto– the temple with the gigantic wooden platform looking out over the city. The sign at the lower right identifies it:
links for 2008-04-25
Princeton scientists discover exotic quantum state of matter “Writing in the April 24 issue of Nature, the scientists report that they have recorded [the quantum Hall effect] in a bulk crystal of bismuth-antimony without any external magnetic field being present.” (tags: physics experiment materials news science) ‘Buckypaper’ stretches in a strange way – physicsworld.com “[R]esearchers […]
The Japanese Directions Theory of Pedagogy
We had a great time on our visit to Japan last summer, but we had one incredibly frustrating experience, on our first day in Yokohama. We couldn’t bring three full weeks’ worth of clothing with us, so we brought a bit more than one week’s worth, and planned to get things cleaned there. The hotel […]
Busy, Busy, Busy
Monday 9:00-10:15 am Grade exams from last week. 10:15-10:30 am Prepare for lecture 10:30-11:35 am Lecture about magnetic field of current loop, in-class activity on field of solenoid 11:35-12:45 pm Gasp, pant, eat lunch. 12:45-2:45 pm Tweak up apparatus for laser spectroscopy of rubidium lab 3:00-5:00 pm Test and set up lab on finding Earth’s […]
Warning! Leering Demon Hand Zone!
Lest you think that people in the US are uniquely alarmist about threats to Chiiiiillllllldrruuuun, a picture from last summer’s trip to Japan: I have absolutely no idea what that says, but it sure is lurid.
links for 2008-04-24
Acephalous: Interview with a Candidate for Many Jobs (but Winner of None) “So your advice to candidates is to take consolation in the fact that the entire planet isn’t being devoured by The Eater of Worlds?” (tags: academia jobs blogs silly) nanoscale views: Career comments There’s really no end to the number of people willing […]
FutureBaby Chronicles: Naming Names
We’ve asked not to be told the sex of FutureBaby, even though Kate’s doctors know it, having done an amniocentesis to screen for genetic defects. So far, they’ve been very good about not hinting at anything. We may have cause to reconsider this decision, though, as we get deeper into the issue of names. There’s […]