Confessions of a Middlebrow Professor – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education “Beam makes light of Adler’s inflexibility, but he does not entirely embrace the by-now clichéd disdain for the Great Books, because they represent something admirable that, perhaps, should be revived in our culture: “The animating idea behind publishing the Great… Continue reading Links for 2009-10-07
Month: October 2009
DonorsChoose Payoff: Duality and Self-Promotion
We’re six days into the DonorsChoose challenge, and at the time of this writing, ten people have contributed just over $1,700 to the Uncertain Principles challenge entry. That’s an impressive average, and I thank you all for your generosity. I also offered a number of incentives, and Lauren Uroff is claiming one: I’d like to… Continue reading DonorsChoose Payoff: Duality and Self-Promotion
Nobel for High-Speed Internet and Digital Cameras
The sneaky folks at the Nobel Foundation have thrown a spanner in the works when it comes to the Physics prize. All the speculation has surrounded exotic quantum effects and theoretical esoterica, and they turn around and give it to something –gasp– practical… The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics is split three ways: half to… Continue reading Nobel for High-Speed Internet and Digital Cameras
Links for 2009-10-06
Career Advice: I’m Sorry I Published – Inside Higher Ed “Given that it seems to be common wisdom that publications are helpful, two anecdotes I heard in the past week or so scare me a little bit. Both anecdotes are about departments that were searching or are planning a search. Both departments see their department… Continue reading Links for 2009-10-06
Publishers Weekly on How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
In this week’s issue of Publishers Weekly there’s a short review (scroll down) of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog (which will be released December 22): How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Chad Orzel. Scribner, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4165-7228-2 What do dog treats and chasing squirrels have to do with quantum mechanics? Much… Continue reading Publishers Weekly on How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
Congratulations to Elizabeth Blackborn, Carol Greider, and HI
The Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak for “for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.” Who’s HI, you ask? HI is the commenter who picked Blackburn and Greider in the official Uncertain Principles betting pool. Congratulations to Blackburn, Greider,… Continue reading Congratulations to Elizabeth Blackborn, Carol Greider, and HI
Stargate: Universe and the Myth of the Lone Genius
As you may or may not have heard, there’s a new Stargate franchise on the SyFy channel with John Scalzi as a creative consultant. It may have slipped by without you noticing, because John is too modest to hype it much… Anyway, given the Scalzi connection, I checked out the pilot on Friday, and it… Continue reading Stargate: Universe and the Myth of the Lone Genius
The Re-Training Begins
Sunday morning, Chateau Steelypips: Everybody’s in the library. Why does SteelyKid look so pleased with herself, you ask? Because she’s found a new game:
Links for 2009-10-04
Posthumous Novels by Vladimir Nabokov, David Foster Wallace and Ralph Ellison – WSJ.com “A new wave of posthumous books by iconic authors is stirring debate over how publishers should handle fragmentary literary remains. Works by Vladimir Nabokov, William Styron, Graham Greene, Carl Jung and Kurt Vonnegut will hit bookstores this fall. Ralph Ellison and the… Continue reading Links for 2009-10-04
Links for 2009-10-03
Effect Size (Again) « Easily Distracted “I agree that if a researcher can establish that a particular effect or phenomenon has a statistically significant influence or role in social behavior, it matters, that this is a finding worth reporting. The problem is, as McCloskey notes, that some findings matter more than other findings, and that… Continue reading Links for 2009-10-03