Dear Email Recipients: Thank you very much for responding rapidly to the question I sent you. Now, please go back to my original message, and respond to the other four questions that were in that message. Thank you for your reading comprehension, Annoyed Re-Sender of Emails
Month: June 2009
Matter and Interactions: Post-Mortem
OK, it’s not really a full post-mortem, because I haven’t graded the final exams yet, but I wouldn’t tell you about those, anyway. Still, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past term, which was my first teaching introductory mechanics on the Matter & Interactions curriculum. On the whole, I continue to… Continue reading Matter and Interactions: Post-Mortem
Unhealthy Obsessions of Academia
Over at Cosmic Variance, Julianne is annoyed at Nature‘s embargo policy. It seems that somebody or another posted a paper to the arxiv while submitting it to Nature, and included a note on the arxiv submission asking people to abide by Nature‘s embargo. So, instead of blogging about the Incredibly Exciting Discovery (which I’d loooove… Continue reading Unhealthy Obsessions of Academia
links for 2009-06-10
Connecticut District Tosses Algebra Textbooks and Goes Online – NYTimes.com "Westport school officials say their less-is-more approach has already resulted in less review in math classes, higher standardized test scores and more students taking advanced math classes. The percentage of the districtâs 10th graders receiving top scores on state exams rose to 86 percent last… Continue reading links for 2009-06-10
A Day at the Races
I’m watching Pardon the Interruption after work, and they’re talking about the Belmont Stakes. They show a clip of horses running, and Emmy pipes up: “I like horses!” She does this when she feels I’m not paying her enough attention. “Horses are okay,” I say. “Okay? Horses are really neat!” She thumps her tail on… Continue reading A Day at the Races
Algebra Is Like Sunscreen
Every year around this time, references to that damn sunscreen speech pop up again, as people start thinking of graduations. It’s in the air (Union’s graduation is this Sunday, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see the end of an academic year). And, of course, I have actually been asked to give… Continue reading Algebra Is Like Sunscreen
links for 2009-06-09
Youâre Like School in the Summer⦠« The First Excited State "Summertime is a time to focus on your research, without the distractions of tests, homeworks, and (hopefully) teaching duties. But many grad students, at least in physics, take the summer as an opportunity to attend summer schools, which are short, intense sessions aimed at… Continue reading links for 2009-06-09
Kissing and Comic Books
Two things that are worth a plug beyond the Links Dump level: 1) Over at the Intersection, Sheril Kirshenbaum wants you to look at pictures of people kissing. This is for Science, so stop giggling, and tell her what you think of the pictures. 2) There’s a new blog, Ecocomics, dedicated to exploring the burning… Continue reading Kissing and Comic Books
Anonymity and Pseudonymity
Somebody recently asked me whether I had figured out who Female Science Professor is. I truthfully replied that I haven’t even tried. That was the first thing that came to mind when some jerk from the National Review revealed the identity of “Publius”, kicking off another round of discussion about the etiquette of revealing identities… Continue reading Anonymity and Pseudonymity
Meetings From Hell: Round Wire or Square Wire?
Tom at Swans On Tea comments on an article about meetings: The most common meeting in my experience is the status meeting, where everyone gets together and reports on what they’ve accomplished. If it’s a small group, these are usually fine because you already have familiarity with the tasks. But when you get a large… Continue reading Meetings From Hell: Round Wire or Square Wire?