Scott Eric Kaufman of Acephalous is blogging the MLA. (I’m sure he’s not the only one, he’s just the only one I’m reading…) As I understand it, the Modern Language Association meeting is pretty much the be-all end-all of humanities meetings. It’s sort of fascinating to read about, coming off as sort of a cross… Continue reading Pith-Helmeted Anthropological Reporting
The Year in Music
It’s that time of year again, when everybody who has the slightest interest in pop culture starts making “Year’s Best” lists. I’m usually at a major disadvantage when it comes to this sort of thing, as I can never really remember when any particular album was released, and I buy a lot of stuff that… Continue reading The Year in Music
Value Added Testing (or “Merry Christmas, Novak”)
One of the more contentious recurring topics around here over the years has been education policy, mostly centering around the question of teacher evaluation and teacher’s unions. It’s probably the subject for which there’s the biggest gap between my opinions and those of some of my regular readers. As this is a good time of… Continue reading Value Added Testing (or “Merry Christmas, Novak”)
Why I Could Never Be a String Theorist
I’ve managed to leave string theory alone for a while, but a post came across Mixed States today that I can’t avoid commenting on. Lubos Motl points to a news article about a recent measurement at MIT and NIST, in which Dave Pritchard’s group used their cyclotron mass spectrometry technique to mesure the change in… Continue reading Why I Could Never Be a String Theorist
Grad School Advice
It’s that time of year again, when eager undergraduates start thinking about their futures, including the possibility of graduate school. This inevitably leads to emails of the form “Hi, Professor, could you write recommendations for me for these nine schools? And by the way, they’re due Friday. Thanks!” Happily, Sean Carroll comes to the rescue… Continue reading Grad School Advice
“Breathtaking Inanity” Would Be a Great Album Title
I’m probably just about the last science blogger on Earth to note this, but the Dover Panda Trial decision was handed down today, and it’s a doozy. I particularly like the summation: Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred… Continue reading “Breathtaking Inanity” Would Be a Great Album Title