I really had intended for Tuesday’s dog pictures to be my only comment on the recent framing debacle (well, Monday’s expertise post was an oblique commentary on it, but nobody got that, which you can tell because the comments were civil and intelligent and interesting to read). But Chris Mooney is making a good-faith effort… Continue reading The Framing Fracas
Author: Chad Orzel
Better Teachers Cost Money
Kevin Drum points to a report comparing international education systems from McKinsey and Company management consultants. The report (9.5 MB PDF) does double duty: it serves as a useful and important contribution to the study of education reform, and also as a case study in how to use PowerPoint to generate documents that are well… Continue reading Better Teachers Cost Money
links for 2008-04-03
Analytics According to Captain Kirk A detailed statistical analysis of the Red Shirt Phenomenon in Star Trek. (tags: articles economics math psychology statistics television SF silly science)
Dorky Poll: SI or CGS?
I have a doctor’s appointment this morning, and then class, so here’s another Dorky Poll inspired by the fact that I’m teaching intro E&M: What system of units do you prefer for E&M: SI, or CGS? This is even dorkier than usual, so I suppose I should provide some context…
SETI in My Inbox
One of the nice things about being a semi-pro blogger is that people send me tips about things that might be blogworthy. Most of these go into the daily links dump posts, but every now and then one hits at a time when I’m short of material, and looking for something to write about. Such… Continue reading SETI in My Inbox
Edit Wars: Now With Extra Credentials!
In what is, alas, probably too deadpan to be an April Fools’ joke, Mark Wilson offers a breathtaking suggestion on Inside Higher Ed: I propose that all academics with research specialties, no matter how arcane (and nothing is too obscure for Wikipedia), enroll as identifiable editors of Wikipedia. We then watch over a few wikipages… Continue reading Edit Wars: Now With Extra Credentials!
links for 2008-04-02
Anil Dash: Your April Fool’s Day Joke Continues to Suck “The exception, of course, is if you’re doing something truly hysterical or on a magnificent scale. But I fear we won’t run into too many of those.” (tags: blogs internet society stupid) Practical Jokes – Psychology – April Fool! The Purpose of Pranks – New… Continue reading links for 2008-04-02
When You’re Up for Tenure, You’re Never Paranoid Enough
It’s weird how blogs go in cycles– I’ll blog nothing but science for a while, and then flip into Academic Mode, as I have this week, and blog about nothing but tenure issues and academic politics. But, that just seems to be how things work, and the stories catching my eye recently are all about… Continue reading When You’re Up for Tenure, You’re Never Paranoid Enough
Two-Word Lyrics Quiz
In which I steal post ideas from Kate: The following are two-word phrases from songs in my iTunes library that ought to be enough to identify the song in question. Leave your guesses in the comments: Pre-Raphaelite curls Chrome horse Pink torpedo Jasmine tea Ashtray floors Quartet practiced Lickety splitly Burnt sienna Guaranteed personality Danville… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics Quiz
The Definitive Statement on “Framing” and Expelled
I’ve managed to avoid most of the recent fracas over Expelled and what Matt Nisbet and Chris Mooney have said about it, mostly by unsubscribing from the RSS feeds for most of the participating blogs a few months back. Prescient of me, no? I’ve kept my RSS subscription for Chris’s blog, though, and I read… Continue reading The Definitive Statement on “Framing” and Expelled