Month: May 2012

Links for 2012-05-11

Next Time, Fail Better – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education Humanities students should be more like computer-science students. I decided that as I sat in on a colleague’s computer-science course during the beginning of this, my last, semester in the classroom. I am moving into administration full time, and I figured that this… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-11

Genre Fiction and the Real Problem With Philosophy of Science

There’s been a bunch of discussion recently about philosophy of science and whether it adds anything to science. Most of this was prompted by Lawrence Krauss’s decision to become the Nth case study for “Why authors should never respond directly to bad reviews,” with some snide comments in an interview in response to a negative… Continue reading Genre Fiction and the Real Problem With Philosophy of Science

Links for 2012-05-10

A rare interview with former no. 1 overall pick Greg Oden about his injury-plagued career – Grantland He was just … Greg. For instance, as we were finishing our meal, three separate groups of fans approached him and asked for autographs and pictures. Like always, he granted their requests with an annoyed expression, didn’t say… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-10

Exploring Space: Don’t Sell Robots Short

One final thought on the Big Science/ Space Chronicles stuff from last week. One of the things I found really frustrating about the book, and the whole argument that we ought to be sinking lots of money into manned space missions is that the terms of the argument are so nebulous. This is most obvious… Continue reading Exploring Space: Don’t Sell Robots Short

Links for 2012-05-09

Confessions of a Community College Dean: Adjuncts on Food Stamps The general idea isn’t new, of course, but the numbers are. The story notes a threefold increase just from 2007 to 2010 in the number of people affected. I have to admit that my first response was “there but for the grace of God.” Anyone… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-09

Ten Years Before the Blog: 2005-2006 (Part I)

Continuing the blog recap series, we come to the “split year” of 2005-2006. The blog was initially launched in late June, so that’s when I’m starting the years for purposes of these recaps, but ScienceBlogs launched in January 2006, so this year was half Steelypips and half ScienceBlogs. This post will cover the Steelypips half,… Continue reading Ten Years Before the Blog: 2005-2006 (Part I)

Links for 2012-05-08

A Visual Approach to Simplifying Radicals (A Get Out of Jail Free Card) | Reflections in the Why Consider a square with an area of 24. The side has length √24. This square can be divided into 4 smaller squares, each with an area of 6. The sides of these smaller squares have length √6.… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-08

For Extra Credit, Estimate Your Chances of Winning: Ballparking Giveaway

Some time back, I reviewed a cool book about Fermi problems by Aaron Santos, then a post-doc at Michigan. In the interim, he’s taken a faculty job at Oberlin, written a second book on sports-related Fermi problems, and started a blog, none of which I had noticed until he emailed me. Shame on me. Anyway,… Continue reading For Extra Credit, Estimate Your Chances of Winning: Ballparking Giveaway