A thousand curses on Kevin Drum for making me read some idiocy from the National Review’s attempts to find things wrong with Sonia Sotomayor: Deferring to people’s own pronunciation of their names should obviously be our first inclination, but there ought to be limits. Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural… Continue reading Put the EmPHAYsis on the Right SyLABle
Category: Politics
Banking in the Future
I’m currently the president of the local chapter of Sigma Xi (an honor society, not a fraternity, thankyouverymuch), and as such have been collecting RSVP’s and dues for this year’s new inductees. As part of this process, I’ve been struck by how many students don’t have checks– I’ve had a couple of students give me… Continue reading Banking in the Future
Show Me the Pony
So, the President gave some sort of speech to a bunch of smart people yesterday (video, transcript), and hearts are a-flutter all over the science blogosphere, as President Obama promises great things for science: We double the budget of key agencies, including the National Science Foundation, a primary source of funding for academic research, and… Continue reading Show Me the Pony
Time Scales, on Campus and in the Blogosphere
My major “service” activity at work is involvement with the Minerva program, which attempts to blur the line between academic and residential life. I enjoy this because it gives me the opportunity to work closely with students outside a narrow academic context, and I’ve been very impressed with the creativity and responsibility of the students… Continue reading Time Scales, on Campus and in the Blogosphere
Actions Are Less Fun Than Words
Over the weekend on FriendFeed, Paul Buchheit posed an interesting question: Assume that I’m going to get rid of $20,000 and my only concern is the “common good”. Which of these is the best use of the money: give it to the Gates foundation, buy a hybrid car, invest it in a promising startup, invest… Continue reading Actions Are Less Fun Than Words
Questions for Howard Dean?
Howard “Yaaaaah!” Dean, the former governor of Vermont, Presidential candidate, and head of the DNC, will be speaking on campus tonight. It’s exceedingly unlikely that I’ll ask him any questions, because I prefer to leave that to students when possible, but if anybody has any really brilliant suggestions of things he ought to be asked,… Continue reading Questions for Howard Dean?
How to Make the World Safe for Science
Over at the Intersection’s new digs, Sheril has posted a rather long list of fellowship programs for people interested in science policy. Sponsors include government agencies, private universities, professional societies, and private foundations, and cover pretty much every branch of science. If you’d like to take a look inside the sausage factory and spend some… Continue reading How to Make the World Safe for Science
CBS: Polling for the Innumerate
Via Matt Yglesias, a new CBS/ New York Times Poll has been released, accompanied by quite possibly the stupidest graphics ever. The pseudo-pie-chart at right is one of three, all of which have the same glaring flaw as this one. Somebody really ought to lose their job for this. There’s just no excuse for putting… Continue reading CBS: Polling for the Innumerate
Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment to Its Rightful Place
Over at his new digs, Chris Mooney talks about efforts to re-launch the OTA: I’m starting to detect some buzz on this very important front, which I wrote about in detail in 2005’s The Republican War on Science and elsewhere. Basically, the story is this: In 1995 the Gingrich Republicans, looking to slash budgets–and looking… Continue reading Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment to Its Rightful Place
How Much Information Is Too Much Information?
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, we instituted a complicated emergency alert system, involving sirens, loudspeakers, text messages, and emails. The whole thing gets tested far more frequently than it really needs to– every few weeks, we get a barrage of emails warning us that a test is coming up, then another barrage… Continue reading How Much Information Is Too Much Information?