There’s a quick mention in Inside Higher Ed today of the latest news on the college presidents opposed to the US News rankings. They’re up to 61 signatures on their letter committing college presidents to 1) refusing to provide information for the rankings, and 2) refusing to use the rankings in their publicity. 61 signatories… Continue reading Rejecting US News
Journamalism Question
Why is it that when non-famous people are quoted in the news media, their ages are always given? Just about every story in the paper features a sentence like: “Of course, I’m aware of the wave nature of matter,” said Tallulah Johnstone Black, 47, a homemaker from Waterloo who witnessed the incident while walking to… Continue reading Journamalism Question
IN UR INTERNETZ, ENABLIN UR ACTIVISTS
There’s been some discussion recently in places I can’t link to about the Purpose of Blogging, and whether it’s really appropriate to be using the medium to exchange silly pictures of cats. Ethan Zuckerman made an important point about the utility of banality (that link 404’s at the moment, but I assume Ethan will eventually… Continue reading IN UR INTERNETZ, ENABLIN UR ACTIVISTS
Idle Dylan Question
The random pla feature on my iPod coughed up Warren Zevon’s cover of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” this morning, which got me wondering. I own at least four different versions of that song (Dylan, Clapton, Zevon, G’n’R), and iTunes offers over a hundred different versions (not counting the twenty-odd different takes by Dylan himself). There… Continue reading Idle Dylan Question
Recommend Some Genre Trash
Next weekend will mark the start of Vacation Season here at Chateau Steelypips. Or, rather, out of Chateau Steelypips, as we’ll be spending four of the next seven weeks in other places. This, of course, will require books for me to read on the various airplane flights needed to reach our vacation destinations. And while… Continue reading Recommend Some Genre Trash
True Lab Stories: Evil Professor Tricks
A week or two ago, one of my students measured the power output of a grating-locked diode laser, and came into my office saying “I think I may have killed the laser.” The power output was much too low for a laser of that type, which is a bad sign. So, we went down to… Continue reading True Lab Stories: Evil Professor Tricks
Heresy and Humiliation
John Scalzi makes a startling admission: I’ve never read a Harry Potter book. In the same post, he also links to an old piece expressing the heretical opinion that the Lord of the Rings movies are better than the books. He’s got reasons for both of those, and you can go read them, but what… Continue reading Heresy and Humiliation
American Science In Decline?
Inside Higher Ed reports on two new NSF studies showing a decline in American scientific publishing. Sort of. What the studies found, however, was that besides the well-known decrease in the relative share of journal articles originating from the United States, there was a slowdown in absolute numbers as well. This “plateau,” as the reports… Continue reading American Science In Decline?
Thursday Night Dog-Blogging
Emmy says “Boring posts about religion and politics make me sad. You should post more about me.” There’ll be news to make her happy in the next week or so. Until then, here’s a picture.
Not Your Mother’s Title IX Argument
Because it seems to be a good day for psoting about totally non-controversial political topics that I will undoubtedly not have time to follow up on, here’s an article from Inside Higher Ed that takes a dim view of current arguments about Title IX: Right now, the situation is getting us nowhere. Ultimately, all we… Continue reading Not Your Mother’s Title IX Argument