Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an associate professor of philosophy at San Jose State University. Before becoming a philosopher, she earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Email her at dr.freeride@gmail.com.
David posted his holiday letter, but I didn't feel up to composing one of those. So instead, I'm going to do this "year in review" meme I saw at Geeky Mom's pad. (She got it from Trillwing.)
The rule: post the first sentence of the first post for each month.*
January: It must be a law of nature that when past and current graduate students dine together at the end of December the conversation turns, sooner or later, to cheaters.
February: These are the offerings for the semester starting February 1, 2006. [This was the month I hosted Tangled Bank #46.]
March: I have noted before that communicating science to non-scientists can be, to put it technically, wicked hard.
April: On April 1, internet quizzes seem at least as appropriate as renouncing our principled stands on the world, so here we go again.
May: Hey, it's May already!
June: I must report the following, although the protagonist wants to be left out of it.
July: First I saw it at Feministe, and then at Pandagon, so I had to try the face recognition program that matches one's face to the faces of celebrities.
August: It was another full day at the BCCE, starting with an excellent plenary address by Peter Atkins (who wrote my p-chem text, plus dozens of other books) and David Harpp (of the Office of Science and Society).
September: Younger offspring: I drew this picture of what we saw at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Duke and Super Sally last weekend.
October: It's Monday, it's cold and overcast, and I'm grading papers.
November: First the really important thing: if you haven't done it yet, write some letters (or send some faxes) to save the Tripoli six.
December: Dr. Free-Ride: What science have you been learning in school lately?
So, to review: I grade papers, talk to my kids, and get sucked into internet quizzes and such. There are worse ways to start a month.
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*I cheated a bit by dropping first-of-the-month carnival-barking posts.
