Windows is pleading to be allowed to install updates, so I’m going through closing browser tabs that I opened foolishly thinking I might write about them. In that list is yet another blog post on how electronic books will kill traditional publishing. This one is fundamentally an economic argument, claiming that it will soon be… Continue reading Spoken Like Somebody Who’s Never Read Slush
Category: Society
Tenure: Threat, Menace, or Market Failure?
I’ve been a little too busy to participate, but His Holiness and Eric Weinstein on Twitter have gotten into an interesting exchange about the structure of academia, and the appropriate number of Ph.D.’s in science. As usual, I suspect I’m not fully understanding the majesty of whatever Eric is arguing in favor of, but it’s… Continue reading Tenure: Threat, Menace, or Market Failure?
How to Generate Scientific Controversy
Some years ago, I heard Bob Park give a talk about pseudoscience, using “How to get rich and famous abusing your science knowledge” as a framing device. He ran through the deceptions involved in a bunch of high-profile “science” based scams and scares– homeopathy, free energy, power lines causing cancer, etc. Over at Live Granades,… Continue reading How to Generate Scientific Controversy
Where Were You When…?
I failed to write something on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall yesterday, partly because I think the other six million blog posts on the subject had it pretty well covered. Another factor, though, was the fact that I don’t have the sort of crystal-clear recollection of where I was and what… Continue reading Where Were You When…?
Academic Poll: All Greek to Me
I am curious as to what people at other institutions think about “Greek organizations,” the slightly confusing catch-all term for fraternities and sororities (very few of whose members are ethnically Greek, and very few of whom know more Greek than a handful of the letters of the alphabet). Thus, a totally scientific poll on the… Continue reading Academic Poll: All Greek to Me
Poll: A Question of Character
“It’s a question of character, of friendship. Hell, Leo, I ain’t afraid to say it, it’s a question of ethics.” –Giovanni Gaspari I’m back to lunchtime hoops after a two-week layoff due to teaching responsibilities. And this has reminded me of one of the great character tests that sports provide. Imagine that you’re playing basketball,… Continue reading Poll: A Question of Character
Communicating Science in the 21st Century
My panel on “Communicating Science in the 21st Century” was last night at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival at the Perimeter Institute. I haven’t watched the video yet– Canadian telecommunications technology hates me, and I’m lucky to get a wireless connection to stay up for more than ten minutes– but if the video feeds I’ve… Continue reading Communicating Science in the 21st Century
Taking Off for the Great White North
I’m heading to the airport right after my second class today (I’m doing two weeks of our first-year seminar class), to appear at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo. This promises to be a good event– I had a great time at the Science in the 21st Century workshop last… Continue reading Taking Off for the Great White North
With Polymaths Like These…
It’s hard to say exactly why I found Edward Carr’s article on polymaths so irritating, but I suspect it was this bit: The monomaths do not only swarm over a specialism, they also play dirty. In each new area that Posner picks–policy or science–the experts start to erect barricades. “Even in relatively soft fields, specialists… Continue reading With Polymaths Like These…
Someone in Norway Has a Sick Sense of Humor
The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize went to Al Gore and the IPCC. The 2008 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel went to Paul Krugman. And now, the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize goes to Barack Obama. Really? I mean, really? I like the guy as much as the next person, and… Continue reading Someone in Norway Has a Sick Sense of Humor