Janet D. Stemwedel
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.
jstemwedel
Posts by this author
April 5, 2006
The U.S. Department of Education has just announced the results of a study comparing what's going on in 8th grade science classrooms in the U.S. , the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Japan, and Australia.
You will be shocked -- shocked! -- to learn that U.S. science students did not do as well as…
April 4, 2006
I told you it was coming ...
The UConn philosophy graduate students have launched a new group blog, named "What is it like to be a blog?"
Procrastination (which is an essential part of the graduate school experience) may yield some interesting philosophical reading for the rest of us.
April 4, 2006
Last week Kevin Vranes wrote an interesting post about "skeptics". One of the things he brought out is that, depending on the context, "skeptic" can be an approving label (here's someone who won't be fooled by flim-flam) or a term of abuse (there's someone who stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the…
April 2, 2006
In a post last week, I was trying to work out whether science journalism can do something more for us than just delivering press releases from the scientists. Specifically, I suggested that journalists with a reasonable understanding of scientific methodology could do some work to assess the…
April 1, 2006
Oh wait, it looks like I don't ...
GrrlScientist, the resident online quiz maven, points us to the online tool EgoSurf. Said tool does a "deep search" with the search word you provide, looking for links to the domain you indicate (like, for example, your weblog).
So, I went egosurfing with this…
April 1, 2006
On April 1, internet quizzes seem at least as appropriate as renouncing our principled stands on the world, so here we go again. GrrlScientist poses the first part of the question: are you an idiot?
But she doesn't deal with the obvious follow-up question: what are you going to do with that…
March 31, 2006
Nature study has taken a turn from the macroscopic to the microscopic. Is it a coincidence that the Free-Ride family has also been passing around a cold? While your blogger felt sure she would be able to avoid catching it, the young Free-Riders are extremely effective vectors of disease.
Dr.…
March 30, 2006
In response to my first entry on Steve Fuller's essay on Chris Mooney's book, The Republican War on Science, Bill Hooker posted this incisive comment:
Fuller seems to be suggesting that there is no good way to determine which scientists in the debate are most credible -- it all comes down to…
March 30, 2006
Has it been two weeks already?
The 31st Skeptics' Circle is now available at Terra Sigillata. Not only has its host, Abel PharmBoy, put together a delightful selection of the blogosphere's best skeptical writing, but he's given it the feel of a meeting of a smallish scientific society.
So grab…
March 29, 2006
As promised, here are some more thoughts on Steve Fuller's contribution to the Crooked Timber seminar on Chris Mooney's book, The Republican War on Science. My last post on Fuller's essay took up his picture of the workings of science, where it seemed to me he was gesturing toward the influence of…
March 29, 2006
Tangled Bank #50 is now up at The Island of Doubt. James Hrynyshyn (the lighthouse keeper of the aforementioned Island) has put together a smorgasbord of tasty science essays from the blogosphere's many ports of call. Paddle over and enjoy!
March 28, 2006
You'll recall that the Lancaster(California) school district has recently adopted a "science philosophy" that calls for critical thinking about evolutionary theory ... but no other scientific theory in the curriculum.
You'll recall that the school district trustees didn't seem to view this as…
March 28, 2006
Yes, another real post is coming soon, but the cool kids are abuzz about a new internet quiz, so ...
You Are 32% Evil
A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.
How Evil Are You?
It is worth noting that I did not check the box…
March 28, 2006
By now you have seen the excellent Crooked Timber seminar on Chris Mooney's book, The Republican War on Science. In addition to the CT regulars, sociologist of science (and Kitzmiller vs. Dover expert witness) Steve Fuller contributed an essay to the seminar. While some in these parts have…
March 27, 2006
My students know that plagiarism is bad. You'd think a major wire service would know it, too.
But it would seem that maybe the Associated Press doesn't know that failing to properly cite sources is plagiarism. Or perhaps the AP does know, but doesn't care. When your business is built on the…
March 26, 2006
Hey, guess what? A California school district has adopted a new science policy aimed at getting students to think more critically ... about evolutionary theory. It is not entirely clear whether members of the Lancaster School District board of trustees recognize that the policy effectively…
March 26, 2006
Because GrrlScientist asks, I took the quiz about whether my blog is working for me or I am working for my blog:
31.25 %
My weblog owns 31.25 % of me.Does your weblog own you?
Thank my students, my colleagues, and my family for providing me with conditions where the real world keeps my virtual…
March 25, 2006
My university had events on campus today for newly admitted students. My department tapped me (and two of our fabulous philosophy students) to man the Philosophy Department table at the College of Humanities and Arts open house.
Hundreds of admitted students -- many with their parents -- milling…
March 24, 2006
The last two meetings of my ethics in science class have focused on some of the history of research with human subjects and on the changing statements of ethical principles or rules governing such experimentation. Looking at these statements (the Nuremberg Code and the Belmont Report especially)…
March 24, 2006
The younger Free-Ride offspring has been studying alligators and crocodiles in nature study. Some preliminary findings below the fold.
The younger offspring explains that the crocodilian pictured above, "Little Sarah", is a crocodile, not an alligator. "You can tell because she has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…
March 24, 2006
Elder offspring: I think at recess I might start a bird watching club.
Dr. Free-Ride: You'll have to be careful with it.
Elder offspring: Huh?
Dr. Free-Ride: When you swing it, make sure you don't hit any kids or birds, and don't break the lens at the end.
Elder offspring: Not that kind of club! (…
March 23, 2006
Do people routinely assert that the tools and activities of your field are utterly worthless in real life? Do they go so far as to say that what you're doing is worse than nothing, because it distracts from the real tasks that need tackling?
Or is it mostly just philosophers who get this kind of…
March 22, 2006
You may as well know that I'm as susceptible to peer pressure as the next geek.
This means that even though I myself was dismissive about the prospects for creating an accurate and/or useful taxonomy of my people in the tribe of science, now that my sibling ScienceBloggers are soliciting…
March 22, 2006
Do other bloggers ever stalk you in real life?
OK, maybe it doesn't count if (1) it's someone you know from real life (and I think even an online course counts as real life here), and (2) it's someone who actually has business to transact in the building in which you run into her. Besides, Julie's…
March 22, 2006
In comments to a pair of posts about research with animals, some issues that are germane to the subject of research with human subjects have come up. In particular, they raise the question of whether scientists ought to use results from ethically flawed experiments. And, this question pushes the…
March 21, 2006
Alex Palazzo at The Daily Transcript has posted his lighthearted take on the disciplines within the life sciences. Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers notes some important omissions while pointing out that the categories are more porous in real life. Meanwhile, Chad Orzel at Uncertain Principles sets…
March 20, 2006
There are two features of science that I think a lot of people (myself included) find attractive.
One is that scientific representations of the world (theories and other theory-like things) give you powerful ways to organize lots of diverse phenomena and to find what unifies them. They get you…
March 18, 2006
This week my students (the ones who you already know are so smart) and I talked in class about the ethics of research with animals. One thing that came up in these discussions is the likelihood that a lot of people hold internally inconsistent views when it comes to how we ought to treat animals.…
March 17, 2006
Eszter Hargittai at Crooked Timber points out another silly online quiz: Web 2.0 or Star Wars character?
So of course, I had to take it.
Out of 43 possible points, I scored a 32 -- a mere point below Eszter's 33 -- leading to the diagnosis:
As your doctor, I recommend moving out of your parents'…
March 17, 2006
This being St. Patrick's Day and all, the elder offspring would like to conduct an experiment. However, we want to make sure it's above-board, ethically speaking.
The device pictured above is a prototype of a leprechaun trap. The experiment, of course, involves determining the efficacy of the…