The college basketball season started off well last night, with Maryland defeating Hampton in the first game of the “Coaches v. Cancer Classic” pre-season tournament. Or possibly the “2K Sports College Hoops Classic”– I’ve heard both, and don’t really care. “Big deal,” you say, “it’s another meaningless game where a big school beats up hapless… Continue reading Big Victory
Author: Chad Orzel
Squeekectomy
Rhymes With Orange explains the state of the art in dog surgery, and the Queen of Niskayuna demonstrates the technique: (The patient is an Awful Mad Kitty from Fat Cat Toys, who make great dog toys.)
But Is It Dingbat Kabuki?
Two links from the always interesting Tim Burke, on “Free Speech Kabuki”, and a humorous student response to it. The former will sound familiar to most academics, the latter is the sort of thing that makes this job rewarding.
Get Out the Vote
Two links to speed you on your way to the polls: 1) Jim Macdonald writing to Democrats. 2) John Scalzi writing to Republicans. Now step away from the keyboard, and go vote. The Internet will be here when you get back. (This assumes you’re a US citizen, or coincidentally holding an election in your home… Continue reading Get Out the Vote
Seven Questions
I’m going to be too busy to blog much for the next few days. This is partly a matter of it being the end of the term, with lab reports due (drafts tomorrow, the final reports Thursday), and exams (next Thursday), and grading, and an end-of-term push in the lab with one of my research… Continue reading Seven Questions
How to Do a Good PowerPoint Lecture
Having strongly stated my opinion that PowerPoint is not actively evil, but can be used to give good scientific presentations as well as soul-crushingly dull bullet-point talks, I feel like I ought to say something to back it up. Here, then, are some of the rules of thumb I use when putting together a good… Continue reading How to Do a Good PowerPoint Lecture
Election Rule
I’m officially about three “Ask a ScienceBlogger” questions behind, but I didn’t want to pass this one up completely: What’s the most important local political race to you this year (as a citizen, as a scientist)? It’s tough to say, because the answer is either “all of them” or “none of them.” I thought about… Continue reading Election Rule
Jackass Wide Receiver Night in America
So, the Cowboys-Redskins game yesterday apparently had a wild finish. There were three field goal attempts in the final 31 seconds, one of them blocked and partially returned, with a penalty setting up the game-winning attempt with no time on the clock. Wild stuff, sure to be good highlight fodder, right? So, I made a… Continue reading Jackass Wide Receiver Night in America
Looking Ahead
My Giants fianlly got the chance to play a bad team today, and true to form almost honked a game to the Texans. They trailed in the fourth quarter, but rallied to win 17-14. Their bad play was a combination of being generally banged up (the defense was without Osi Umenyiora, Brandon Short, Sam Madison,… Continue reading Looking Ahead
A Good Craftsman Never Blames His Tools
Over at Effect Measure, Revere (or one of the Reveres, anyway, I’m not certain if they’re plural or not) has posted another broadside against PowerPoint, calling it “the scourge of modern lecturing.” This is something of a sensitive point for me, as I use PowerPoint for my lectures in the introductory classes. I’ve been using… Continue reading A Good Craftsman Never Blames His Tools