Over at View from the Corner, Mary is planning to run the Chicago marathon, and raising money for charity in the process. Her charity is the Union League Boys and Girls Club, and it looks like they do some good stuff. If you’ve got some disposable income burning a hole in your pocket, and want… Continue reading Run, Physicist, Run
Category: Academia
DAMOP Day 2
I spent a whole bunch of time running around between talks on Thursday, and at one point was grumbling to myself about the way the organizers had scheduled all the good stuff at one time. Only later did I realize that it really wasn’t their fault– it’s all good stuff, and there are only a… Continue reading DAMOP Day 2
Nerd Famous
Most of my reaction to this weekend’s Emily Gould article in the Times was “Gosh, who knew that writing for Gawker might have a corrosive effect on your personal life…,” but there were some interesting bits. She did a nice job explaining how blogging can be sort of addictive, and also had some good bits… Continue reading Nerd Famous
Associate Professor Stemwedel
In happier news, Janet’s passed her tenure review. Go congratulate her.
Publish or President?
The pinhead filling in for Colin Cowherd (himself a pinhead of epic proportions) yesterday on ESPN radio was unduly proud of himself for coming up with the following hypothetical (paraphrased from memory): Suppose that you had a choice between having your favorite candidate win the presidential election, or having your favorite sports team win a… Continue reading Publish or President?
Thank You for Listening
The Female Science Professor is musing about thank-yous at thesis defenses: When I was in grad school, a prominent faculty member (who was department chair near the end of my grad years) made it known that he hated the “thank you” part of the thesis defense and strongly discouraged students from including any sort of… Continue reading Thank You for Listening
The Frankenstein Moment
Over at Swans on Tea, Tom has a great story of his Frankenstein Moment, that moment in science when the lightning flashes, and it’s immediately clear that everything just worked, and you have successfully reanimated your creation, or split the atom, or discovered high-temperature superconductivity, or whatever. As he says, these are rare. My own… Continue reading The Frankenstein Moment
Dorky Poll: Trick Questions
I’m giving an exam this morning (magnetic fields, circuits, magnetic forces on charges), which is always a carnival of boredom– happily, I have papers to grade during the test, which will keep me busy. Sadly, this is not a final exam, as Female Science Professor and others are making or grading right now– we still… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Trick Questions
NYC Trip: Bad and Ugly at the Met
Having done a whirlwind and somewhat disappointing swing through the Museum of Natural History, I strolled across Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to get me some culture. I guessed correctly that it was less likely to be choked with middle-school kids, and I never fail to find something interesting to look at.… Continue reading NYC Trip: Bad and Ugly at the Met
NYC Trip: American Museum of Natural History
Some colleagues organized a bus trip to New York yesterday, which I went on, on the grounds that a) it was cheap, and b) in a few months, we won’t be doing much traveling at all for a while. This required me to get up at an ungodly hour to catch the bus on campus,… Continue reading NYC Trip: American Museum of Natural History