The sports talk shows today were all abuzz with chatter about the death of second-place finisher Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby, with no end of hand-wringing and moralizing about the nature of horse racing. I have to admit, I find the whole thing a little puzzling. I’m not puzzled that people are upset– I… Continue reading What’s the Deal with Horses?
Relative Dog Motion
As I’m driving down the street, a squirrel darts out into the road a block or so ahead of me. From the back seat, the dog says “Gun it!!!! Hit the squirrel, hit the squirrel, hitthesquirrel!” “Will you sit down and be quiet?” We’re having some work done on the house, and I’m taking her… Continue reading Relative Dog Motion
On the Bitterness of Academics
Jake Young points to a Bloggingheads conversation between Dan Drezner and Megan McArdle about, among other things, whether academics are bitter and why. This mostly comes out of a post Megan wrote (link is a leap of faith– the site is down as I type this), and serves as a lead-in to a discussion of… Continue reading On the Bitterness of Academics
“Door Close” Dialogue Boxes
I collect and grade lab reports electronically, and both classes I’m teaching this term had labs due yesterday. I’ve also agreed to be on a faculty committee to evaluate proposals for a fellowship program, and they had a preliminary application deadline yesterday or today. As a result, I’m spending a lot of time downloading Word… Continue reading “Door Close” Dialogue Boxes
links for 2008-05-05
Open Left:: The Fear Before the Launch “[T]here’s just something weird about putting two years of your life into something – from traveling, to reporting, to editing, to re-editing, to proofing, etc. – and then having it all be in one neat place, all laid out and ready to be consumed by the pu (tags:… Continue reading links for 2008-05-05
FutureBaby Guess-the-Lyrics
I’m typing this on the tablet in my in-laws’ kitchen, while Kate sleeps in– we’re in Boston for a wedding, heading back home this afternoon. I need some sort of post to keep things going on our travel day, and I see Scott doing the guess-the-lyrics thing, so that’s as good a topic as any.… Continue reading FutureBaby Guess-the-Lyrics
It’s Not Science Without Graphs
As a sign of what an enormous geek I am, here’s what I did to pass the time while Kate was getting ready for the wedding we went to yesterday: Yes, I amuse myself by making graphs. If I knew Python, I’d be an xkcd character. Anyway, that’s the monthly traffic for this blog from… Continue reading It’s Not Science Without Graphs
links for 2008-05-04
Closing the achievement gap in math and science “The latest results from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program show not only improved proficiency among all elementary and middle school students, but also a closing of the achievement gaps between both African (tags: science education academia race) Computational modeling « Confused… Continue reading links for 2008-05-04
links for 2008-05-03
The Bohr paradox – physicsworld.com “Pais also reports a distinguished younger colleague asking with puzzlement and scepticism “What did Bohr really do?”.” (tags: history science physics quantum) Mind the hack – physicsworld.com “But are the public and other scientists entitled to know about discoveries like this as soon as possible? Or is it right that… Continue reading links for 2008-05-03
Non-Dorky Poll: Fake News
I’m going to be busy all day (more or less) at the Steinmetz Symposium, listening to talks about the fantastic things our students have been doing with their research projects. So it’s going to be a “talk among yourselves” day here at Uncertain Principles, for the most part. For this one, I’ll crib from Popdose,… Continue reading Non-Dorky Poll: Fake News