I’m getting considerably more email from people I don’t know these days, which has me wondering about the ways people address one another. Hence, a poll: You are writing an email to a person you have never met before, who you know to be employed by a college or university. What salutation do you use?(survey… Continue reading Academic Poll: Hail, Stranger
Category: Academia
Academic Language Poll: Weekly Wossname
A comment on the earlier poll asked about regular series of departmental talks, which the author called a department seminar. We have such a series of talks, bringing in roughly one outside speaker per week, but we call it a colloquium. This calls for a poll to settle the question: An academic department has a… Continue reading Academic Language Poll: Weekly Wossname
Academic Poll: How Do You Like Your Interviews?
The always interesting Timothy Burke has a post on the economics of conference attendance, inspired by Brian Croxall’s essay about why he didn’t attend the MLA. The key problem for both of them is that the way the academic job market is structured inn the humanities forces job seekers to attend the MLA for “screening… Continue reading Academic Poll: How Do You Like Your Interviews?
Dog Physics and Academic Blogging
I’ve made a few references to book-related things that were in the pipeline in recent Obsessive Updates. The first of those has just gone live, an opinion piece for Inside Higher Ed on how the book came about and why more academic scientists should have blogs: When I started my blog in 2002, I had… Continue reading Dog Physics and Academic Blogging
The Internet Is Making Me Hate Your Website
Every year, John Brockman asks a big selection of smart people to answer some question or another, and posts it on the Internet to provoke discussion. This year’s question is “How is the Internet changing the way you think?“ This always seems like a better idea than it ends up being in practice, because the… Continue reading The Internet Is Making Me Hate Your Website
Paying For Free Stuff Is a Solved Problem, Isn’t It?
A couple of days ago, the LHC Blog asked about the future funding of the arxiv pre-print server, currently hosted at Cornell. Cornell is looking to get some external funding, though: Currently the plan is to ask the “heaviest user institutions” (other university library systems) to voluntarily contribute to support arXiv operational costs. The FAQ… Continue reading Paying For Free Stuff Is a Solved Problem, Isn’t It?
Is Frank Wilczek Making Us Look Bad?
Today is Question Day when it comes to post topics, I guess. Over at Fine Structure, Nick asks about the effect of spotlighting brilliant scientists: I can’t help but think about the repercussions of looking at his clearly above average career as something that’s normal in physics. It’s a deterrent, I think, for all those… Continue reading Is Frank Wilczek Making Us Look Bad?
Does Pinkification Fool Anybody?
Over at Faraday’s Cage, Cherish is thinking about gender color codes: I know I may be in the minority here, but let’s look at it this way: if someone might consider getting a microscope or telescope for a girl because it’s pink rather than a traditional “girl toy” (read: BARBIE) in the absence of a… Continue reading Does Pinkification Fool Anybody?
Think of It as Kid Insurance
Janet has a typically thoughtful post about tuition benefits, following on a proposal to eliminate tuition benefits for employees of the University of Illinois. Janet does a great job of rounding up the various pros and cons of the benefit and its possible elimination. It takes no time at all for the “Tuition benefits are… Continue reading Think of It as Kid Insurance
Unclear on the Concept
I was sitting in my office on campus, working on some computer stuff, when I noticed a bunch of guys from Facilities out in the hall, bustling around doing something. A few minutes later, one of them stopped right outside my door, and called into the main Facilities office on his cell phone. “We’re up… Continue reading Unclear on the Concept