For Free Throws, 50 Years of Practice Is No Help – NYTimes.com "Since the mid-1960s, college menâs players have made about 69 percent of free throws, the unguarded 15-foot, 1-point shot awarded after a foul. In 1965, the rate was 69 percent. This season, as teams scramble for bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament, it was… Continue reading links for 2009-03-06
You Can’t Get To DAMOP From Here
I’m looking travel arrangements for this year’s DAMOP meeting in Charlottesville, VA in May, and, boy, do the options suck. Flying into Charlottesville itself involves at least one stop, and undoubtedly one of those ridiculous little prop planes that require me to spend the whole flight in something close to a fetal position. Driving would… Continue reading You Can’t Get To DAMOP From Here
Science Is Festive
Two announcements of science-related festivals have turned up in my email in the last week or so: The second annual World Science Festival will be held in New York June 10-14 this year. They feature an impressive array of speakers again, including Nobel laureates (Physicists David Gross, Frank Wilczek, and William Phillips), well-known authors, distinguished… Continue reading Science Is Festive
How Not to Write a Press Release
EurekAlert had a press release yesterday titled Quantum paradox directly observed — a milestone in quantum mechanics, which sounds like it ought to be great. The actual release, though…. For one thing, the description of the actual experiment is so vague as to be completely useless. It’s not easy to quote without copying the whole… Continue reading How Not to Write a Press Release
links for 2009-03-05
The Verne Gun â KarlSchroeder.com "I call it the Verne gun because frankly, a name like THE ATOMIC CANNON would just not go over well in certain circles. In any case, the principle is the same as Verne’s original idea, but using modern technology: you set off a nuclear charge underground where the blast, heat,… Continue reading links for 2009-03-05
“Global Warming: Facts and Myths (an All That Jazz)” On the Web
A couple of weeks ago, I moderated a global warming panel at Boskone. The panel was recorded by Richard Amirault, who has now posted the video on his Boston fandom website (Episode 41, if it moves off the front page before you click that link). I haven’t watched the video, but I listened to the… Continue reading “Global Warming: Facts and Myths (an All That Jazz)” On the Web
Best and Worst Interview Questions
I spent a few hours Sunday afternoon interviewing students for positions in the Minerva House program, a student life initiative that I’m involved with. The interviews were don by a panel– me and four students– and we tried to mix in a few oddball interview questions with the serious stuff. The most successful of these… Continue reading Best and Worst Interview Questions
How Do You Teach Critical Thinking?
I went to a panel discussion yesterday on teaching critical thinking skills. It was more of a panel presentation than a panel discussion– the panelist-to-allotted-time ratio was too high to allow much discussion– but it was interesting to see how different disciplines approach the task of teaching students to think critically, and support arguments with… Continue reading How Do You Teach Critical Thinking?
links for 2009-03-04
Science in the open » What is the cost of peer review? Can we afford (not to have) high impact journals? "I believe in post-publication peer review because it reduces the costs and time wasted in bringing work to community view and because it makes the filtering and quality assurance of that published work continuous… Continue reading links for 2009-03-04
Overbye on Kepler
Having complained about the lack of recognition for good physical science writing recently, it would be bad form for me not to note Dennis Overbye’s story about the Kepler spacecraft in today’s New York Times: Presently perched on a Delta 2 rocket at Cape Canaveral is a one-ton spacecraft called Kepler. If all goes well,… Continue reading Overbye on Kepler