Category: Links Dump

Auto Destruct "[F]or all of Detroit’s mistakes, it is also a victim of something it did right: ensuring a middle-class lifestyle for bluecollar workers. When the carmakers, pushed by unions, agreed to provide workers with a steady level of purchasing power, comprehensive health benefits lasting into retirement, and various forms of workplace rights, they were… Continue reading links for 2008-12-31

The Quantum Pontiff : A Curmudgeon’s and Improv’s Guide to Outliers: Introduction "Gladwell’s books are fun, but I find myself often disagreeing with his analysis, so I thought it would be entertaining to take my time reading his latest and jot down my thoughts as I progress. " (tags: science social-science society culture medicine books)… Continue reading links for 2008-12-30

nanoscale views: What does it mean for a material to be an "insulator"? "We broadly lump solids into two groups, those that conduct electricity and those that don’t. Materials in the latter category are known as insulators, and it turns out that there are at least three different kinds." (tags: science physics blogs education materials… Continue reading links for 2008-12-28

The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media » Far from the Peer-Reviewed Journal,Scientists Confront How-Tos of Op-Eds "So how can scientists strategically convey their messages to a broad audience without losing the nuances of their field? " (tags: science politics writing journalism) Christmas, please, but hold the treacle: 42 holiday entertainments that don’t… Continue reading links for 2008-12-23

Sciencewomen : Thoughts on my AGU experience Don’t tell my university administrators, but sharing my latest science results is only a tiny fraction of the reason to go to a conference like AGU. Even hearing the latest and greatest science is not the entire reason. This is a lesson that is taking me a long… Continue reading links for 2008-12-21

EzraKlein Archive | The American Prospect It’s possible there are other solutions than EFCA. But it needs to be solved, one way or the other. EFCA has its problems, but pretending that it’s somehow a perversion of workplace democracy as compared to a world in which 25 percent of organizing campaigns see a worker fired… Continue reading links for 2008-12-20

The Art of SATergy – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com "Consider the following question for the GMAT (the test given to MBA applicants). Unfortunately, issues of copyright clearance have prevented us from reproducing the question, but that shouldn’t stop us. " (tags: science education academia psychology social-science) Op-Ed Contributor – It’s a Narnia Christmas – NYTimes.com… Continue reading links for 2008-12-19

Confessions of a Community College Dean: “It’s Just a Job” vs. “We’re All in This Together” "[T]here’s been a fascinating exchange in blogland between Tenured Radical and Dr. Crazy. Both addressed the ways that budget issues are being discussed at their respective colleges. Stipulating upfront that neither was really arguing with the other, and that… Continue reading links for 2008-12-17

nanoscale views: Manhattan and Apollo project metaphors "Relatively regularly these days there are calls for a Manhattan or Apollo style project to address our energy challenges. While this may sound good, it’s worth considering what such a project would actually mean." (tags: science economics energy environment US politics blogs) Brandon Sanderson: Sanderson’s First Law "For… Continue reading links for 2008-12-14

Introduction to conservation of momentum and collisions | Dot Physics "This is an introduction to objects that interact. To describe this, I will need to pull several different ideas together (that you have probably already looked at)." (tags: physics science blogs education) Spot the math errors! « Skulls in the Stars The ins and outs… Continue reading links for 2008-12-13