News: Technologically Illiterate Students – Inside Higher Ed “The assumption that today’s student are computer-literate because they are “digital natives” is a pernicious one, Zvacek said. “Our students are task-specific tech savvy: they know how to do many things,” she said. “What we need is for them to be tech-skeptical.” Zvacek was careful to make… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-17
Month: July 2010
Two Cultures in Ducking Requirements
Back in one of the communications skills threads, Karen comments about science and humanities: It’s easy enough for a humanities major to avoid doing much science in school. The converse is not true. It strikes me that for those earlier scientists who attended univeristy, both their early education and university years were more suited to… Continue reading Two Cultures in Ducking Requirements
Reader Poll: ScienceBlogs Front Page
I’m kind of curious about how people read the site, in particular the ScienceBlogs front page, so: I look at the ScienceBlogs front page:customer surveys As a bonus, if you feel so inclined, take a look at the front page, and leave a comment letting me know what you think. Is there something they ought… Continue reading Reader Poll: ScienceBlogs Front Page
Links for 2010-07-16
Mightygodking.com » Post Topic » Grading every country’s national anthem, part one “Burundi. Sounds more like a movie soundtrack than a national anthem – a really awesome movie, though, about African cowboys looking out over the savannah as the sun sets over the elephants, and then maybe they fight evil white people from some European… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-16
Thursday Toddler Blogging 071510
We’ve been doing weekly Baby Blogging (now Toddler Blogging) for a long time now– this is week 101– but it occurs to me that we’ve been shortchanging someone in all these pictures: Appa. He is, after all, a sky-bison, so it’s about time we got a picture of him in flight: SteelyKid says “I could… Continue reading Thursday Toddler Blogging 071510
Why Would Anybody in Their Right Mind Build the LHC?
In the comments following the silly accelerator poll, onymous wrote: [T]he point of the LHC isn’t to discover the Higgs. No one in their right minds would build a 14 TeV pp collider if their only goal was to discover the Higgs. While it’s true that the ultimate goal of the LHC is to discover… Continue reading Why Would Anybody in Their Right Mind Build the LHC?
John Orzel for New York State Senate
If you’re in Broome County or environs, the biggest political event of the year is today: John Orzel is officially launching his campaign for the New York State Senate. This will apparently involve a number of events around the 52nd state senate district, ending with a rally and cookout in Scenic Whitney Point: “What does… Continue reading John Orzel for New York State Senate
Links for 2010-07-15
Mightygodking.com » Post Topic » What if Bertie Wooster, rather than being a mere layabout, was also Batman? “”Good morning, sir. I have prepared a breakfast of scrambled egg, kippers and bacon, as per your request.” “Fantastic, Jeeves! I tell you truly, I’ve worked up a massive appetite and that’s no mistake.” “Am I to… Continue reading Links for 2010-07-15
I Write Like a Random Selection of Famous People
Via Crooked Timber, there’s a silly web site that lets you put in a chunk of text, and does some sort of statistical analysis of it to determine what famous writer’s prose it most closely resembles. It turns out, I’m kind of hard to categorize. For instance, when I’m writing about Holy Grails, I apparently… Continue reading I Write Like a Random Selection of Famous People
Holy Grails of Science
With the rumors of a Higgs Boson detected at Fermilab now getting the sort of official denial that in politics would mean the rumors were about to be confirmed in spectacular fashion, it’s looking like we’ll have to wait a little while longer before the next “Holy Grail” of physics gets discovered. Strictly speaking, the… Continue reading Holy Grails of Science