Month: July 2008

The Innumeracy of Intellectuals

I know nothing about art or music. OK, that’s not entirely true– I know a little bit here and there. I just have no systematic knowledge of art or music (by which I mean fine art and classical music). I don’t know Beethoven from Bach, Renaissance from Romantics. I’m not even sure those are both… Continue reading The Innumeracy of Intellectuals

links for 2008-07-26

Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-To-Door Trying To Shock People | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source A classic, having no relevance whatsoever to recent events. (tags: silly internet music) Setshot: Basketball for the Aging and Infirm: Women’s basketball star returns to action–at 50! ” Lieberman has taken old lady hoops to the next level.… Continue reading links for 2008-07-26

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Categorized as Links Dump

Proportionate Response

I was just saying at dinner that I didn’t think there was anything interesting to say in response to the whole “cracker” kerfuffle. Then I got home, and saw Daniel Davies’s post, which is too good not to link. My hat’s off to him. No, I’m not going to quote what he said– it’s short,… Continue reading Proportionate Response

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Categorized as Religion

Reader Request Thread

I’ve hit a point in the book-writing where I’m sort of spinning my wheels: waiting for beta-reader comments, fiddling with figures, looking at dog pictures for potential illustrations (my contract calls for me to provide some number of reproduction-quality pictures of the dog). This would be the perfect time to do some blogging. The problem… Continue reading Reader Request Thread

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Categorized as Blogs

In Which I Defend Co-Education

There’s a piece at Inside Higher Ed today about everybody’s favorite topic, gender bias in science, that opens with an anecdote about a student who showed up to every office hour, and brought her friends. This is familiar to every faculty member, though the author apparently thinks it isn’t: I wonder if Tahnee, as much… Continue reading In Which I Defend Co-Education

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Categorized as Academia

links for 2008-07-25

Study: No gender differences in math performance “Whether they looked at average performance, the scores of the most gifted children or students’ ability to solve complex math problems, girls measured up to boys.” (tags: gender math education social-science news society) Kids Say The Darndest Things To Evil Spirits | The A.V. Club “[T]here comes a… Continue reading links for 2008-07-25

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Categorized as Links Dump

NOVA ScienceNOW

I think there were ads running on ScienceBlogs for PBS’s new science “magazine” show NOVA ScienceNOW, which premiered a while back. I never got around to watching it until last night when I caught the start of it completely by accident (quite literally– I dropped a book on top of the tv remote, and it… Continue reading NOVA ScienceNOW

links for 2008-07-24

A Priest Walks Into Qatar and . . . – washingtonpost.com “Talking with Americans about faith and religion… is like having coffee with Forrest Gump: pleasant enough, but not of much substance.” (tags: religion politics society culture academia education) How are we coming on Phoenix mission success? – The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary… Continue reading links for 2008-07-24

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Categorized as Links Dump

Books, Books, Books

Via Tom, a big long list of books with which to showcase either my broad cultural background or pathetic cultural ignorance. As Tom’s original source notes, the claim that most Americans have only read six of these is kind of hard to credit, given that I was assigned more than six of them by the… Continue reading Books, Books, Books

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Categorized as Books