Category: Links Dump

In Praise of Footnotes (Polar Bear Cub/Anything But The Republicans Dept.) « The Inverse Square Blog Exit, pursued by a [actual, live, polar] bear. OCD, Vampires, and Rants, oh my! – Men’s Versus Women’s Poses As mentioned yesterday, I took some inspiration from Jim C Hines’s Striking A Pose blog entry and figured I’d do… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-13

Confessions of a Community College Dean: What If Colleges Ran Attack Ads? The rise of Super PACs and the glorious display of democracy that is the Republican primary season got me thinking about attack ads in other contexts. What if colleges ran attack ads? How Many Stephen Colberts Are There? – NYTimes.com he new Colbert… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-11

The Active Class » Blog Archive » Do they do the reading? Helping students prepa… It’s a common complaint: Students don’t read the book before class. It’s probably equally true in the humanities, but my main experience is in the sciences. Science textbooks are dense, full of extraneous diagrams and pictures, and it’s a real… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-10

Frontier experiments: Tough science : Nature News & Comment As the media spotlight shines on the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva and its high-profile hunt for a certain boson, other scientists are pressing forward with experiments that are just as challenging — and just as potentially transformative. These often unsung researchers are willing to spend… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-06

The Messenger – Ta-Nehisi Coates – Politics – The Atlantic I’ve thought a lot about Farrakhan, recently, watching Ron Paul’s backers twist themselves in knots to defend what they have now euphemistically label as “baggage.” I don’t think it makes much sense to try to rebut the charges here. No minds will be changed. Still… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-05

Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us | Magazine For “Science” read “Medical Science” throughout, but other than that, it’s a good discussion of the problem of biological complexity. Teach For America: A Review of the Evidence | National Education Policy Center Teach For America (TFA) aims to address teacher shortages by sending graduates… Continue reading Links for 2012-01-03

Determining the ultimate champion from the year that was – Grantland It wasn’t until I attempted to fill a draw of 64, and got stuck at 7, did I realize what a huge year this was for losers. If you weren’t getting financially screwed over, you were probably getting divorced, locked up, or pepper sprayed.… Continue reading Links for 2011-12-31

Tests Cast Doubt on F.A.A. Restrictions on Kindle and iPad – NYTimes.com The Federal Aviation Administration has its reasons for preventing passengers from reading from their Kindles and iPads during takeoff and landing. But they just don’t add up. Since I wrote a column last month asking why these rules exist, I’ve spoken with the… Continue reading Links for 2011-12-29

Armageddon Rock by Alan Smale | Lightspeed Magazine The Doomsday Asteroid is coming. An immense boulder with our name on it is cruising through the Solar System, and we all know what will happen when it arrives. Innumeracy on the Faculty! | Blog I’m convinced that the Standards for Mathematical Practice are doomed to fail… Continue reading Links for 2011-12-28

Reminder: Tis the Season Not to Be an Ass ě°˝€” Whatever But — but — what about all those horrible atheists taking over holiday displays with crucified Santa skeletons? Surely that’s evidence of a war! Well, no, it’s evidence of some non-believers taking a page out of the PETA playbook, i.e., being dicks to get… Continue reading Links for 2011-12-22