I’ve gotten really bad about posting pictures of the kids, but we got the official school picture proofs today, featuring a smiling SteelyKid and an insouciant Pip: Both pictures pretty accurately reflect them at this stage, which is kind of nice. SteelyKid’s kind of camera-averse at the moment, and it apparently took some doing to… Continue reading Official Portrait Blogging 050212
Trickle Down Science
A week or so ago, lots of people were linking to this New York Review of Books article by Steven Weinberg on “The Crisis of Big Science,” looking back over the last few decades of, well, big science. It’s somewhat dejected survey of whopping huge experiments, and the increasing difficulty of getting them funded, including… Continue reading Trickle Down Science
Clock Synchronization Done Right: “A 920-Kilometer Optical Fiber Link for Frequency Metrology at the 19th Decimal Place”
I’ve been busily working on something new, but I’m beginning to think I’ve been letting the perfect be the enemy of the good-enough-for-this-stage, so I’m setting it aside for a bit, and trying to get caught up with some of the huge number of things that have been slipping. Which includes getting the oil changed… Continue reading Clock Synchronization Done Right: “A 920-Kilometer Optical Fiber Link for Frequency Metrology at the 19th Decimal Place”
Links for 2012-05-02
Self-enhancement and imposter syndrome: neither is good for your teaching | Science Edventures McCrickerd points out it is only through dissatisfaction that we change our behavior. An instructor with an overly-enhanced self sees no reason to change when something bad happens in class. “Not my fault they didn’t learn…” And who else does a lot… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-02
Ten Years Before the Blog: 2004-2005
Delayed again by the need to do actual, you know, work, here’s a look back at the third year of this blog’s existence. You can also read posts covering year one and year two. 2004-2005 was the last complete year before the move to ScienceBlogs in January of 2006, after which the making of these… Continue reading Ten Years Before the Blog: 2004-2005
Links for 2012-05-01
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: The Only Thing That Can Stop This Asteroid is Your Liberal Arts Degree. Don’t think I don’t have my misgivings about sending some hotshot Asian Studies minor into space for the first time. This is NASA, not Grinnell. I don’t have the time or patience for your renegade attitude and macho bravado.… Continue reading Links for 2012-05-01
Outland It’s Not: Billionaires Plan Asteroid Mining
I’m about a week late talking about this, but I’ve mostly resigned myself to not doing really topical blogging these days. Anyway, there was a lot of excitement last week over the announcement that an all-star team of nerd billionaires is planning to do commercial asteroid mining. (The post title is a reference to the… Continue reading Outland It’s Not: Billionaires Plan Asteroid Mining
Links for 2012-04-30
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Class Dismissed In my darker moments, I sometimes wonder if the root of the problem with public higher education in America is that it was designed to create and support a massive middle class. And we’ve tacitly decided as a society that a massive middle class is not a… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-30
It’s Organic Pixie Dust, from Fair-Trade Pixies
SteelyKid: Daddy, would you like to go to visit Jake and the Never Land Pirates? Me:: In principle, sure. But it’s a cartoon. We can’t go there, it’s not a real place. SteelyKid: Yes it is. Never Land is real, we can go there. Me: Well, look, if you find some pixies dust that we… Continue reading It’s Organic Pixie Dust, from Fair-Trade Pixies
Links for 2012-04-28
Learning about science education from the experts: Kids « Boundary Vision By far the best panel on science education I’ve seen recently was given by a few of the most important people in the field: kids.