Social issues:
On April Fool's Day, our local Socrates Café had an interesting discussion around the question of what makes something funny. One observation that came up repeatedly was that most jokes seem aimed at particular audiences -- at people who share...
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Posted on April 26, 2008 2:55 PM • 110 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Another Earth Day rolls around, and I still have major qualms about the typical American approach to it (which seems to boil down to "Consumer choices will save the world!"). Possibly, viewing ourselves and each other primarily as consumers explains...
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Posted on April 22, 2008 12:33 PM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Via Bint Alshamsa, this is a version of a "social class awareness experience" used in the residence halls (and possibly also classrooms?) at Indiana State University by Will Barratt et al. In the classroom, students are asked to take a...
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Posted on January 24, 2008 1:03 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Maybe you remember that fund-raiser we did for DonorsChoose last June. We're kicking off another today. But this time, it's not just ScienceBlogs bloggers -- partners like Google, Yahoo!, Six Apart, and Federated Media are watching the efforts across the...
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Posted on October 1, 2007 9:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I know obscenity when I see it. Facebook is confused.
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Posted on September 20, 2007 12:51 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
So, there's some amount of Harry Potter mania out there in the world this weekend, what with a new movie and the last book in the series being released. (To show you how disconnected I am from the mania, I...
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Posted on July 13, 2007 3:14 PM • 26 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Last May, on my way back from a mini-conference in Stockholm, I had a long layover in Munich. Since major airports are now essentially shopping malls with parking for commercial jets, I used a little bit of that time...
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Posted on June 23, 2007 8:20 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
How much does it matter that certain groups (like women) are under-represented in the tribe of science?
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Posted on June 1, 2007 7:58 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In the May 18th issue of Science, there's a nice review by Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg [1] of the literature from developmental psychology that bears on the question of why adults in the U.S. are stubbornly resistant to...
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Posted on May 30, 2007 5:47 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Since many of you were kind enough to suggest questions to ask of Margaret Spellings at SJSU's Founders Day "The Future of Higher Education" panel last Friday, I thought I should report back on that session. First, the bad (but...
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Posted on May 9, 2007 1:40 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Depending on your blog reading habits, you may already have heard the news that feels almost like cosmic justice that a law firm has rescinded an offer of employment from a third year law student whose online activities the firm...
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Posted on May 5, 2007 6:27 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is another piece in the discussion currently raging about the latitude members of a profession ought to have to follow conscience over the dictates of the profession. Professions are communities of a sort. What unites them is that the...
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Posted on March 1, 2007 11:31 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
On Abel's post on conscience clauses, Bob Koepp left this comment: It's a pretty warped understanding of professionalism that would require professionals to violate their own sincere ethical beliefs. After all, someone lacking personal integrity probably isn't going to be...
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Posted on February 28, 2007 4:20 PM • 26 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A "classic" post on conscience clauses for pharmacists.
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Posted on February 28, 2007 3:25 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Razib tossed off a post expressing amazement that a very attractive wine bar hostess was making science fiction recommendations. The noteworthy feature, apparently, was "the intersection of science fiction & female physical hotitude." Predictably, others have commented on this post,...
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Posted on December 15, 2006 9:53 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It started when someone asked Dr. B. for advice about starting a Ph.D. program with three kids in tow. Since then, the question has been bouncing around the academic blogosphere, with posts you should read at Academom and Geeky Mom....
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Posted on December 6, 2006 6:27 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an assistant 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.
