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
November 7, 2006
Chad Orzel has an excellent post up about good ways to use PowerPoint for a presentation. In a similar vein, I'd like to offer some reasons for academics in disciplines (like philosophy) in which it is the convention to read papers to each other at professional meetings to consider breaking with…
November 6, 2006
Something quite unexpected happened to me: I managed to pay off a student loan nearly a year before I go up for tenure! Who'd have thunk it?
Here's the letter they sent me, with a bit of reading between the lines:
Dear Janet,
On behalf of [the school where I got the student loan], I wish to thank…
November 6, 2006
ScienceBloggers meet in the three-dimensional world: (from left) Janet Stemwedel, John Lynch, Prof. Steve Steve, John Wilkins, David Ng, Ben Cohen.
I managed to get back home last night from the PSA meeting in Vancouver, although just barely. My co-symposiasts got a rental car and headed off to…
November 4, 2006
Guest Blogger: Prof. Steve Steve
My adventures with John Wilkins at the PSA meeting in Vancouver continue. Last evening, Wilkins brought me to a reception where I had the pleasure of mingling with a great many philosophers who have made philosophical studies of various aspects of evolutionary…
November 3, 2006
Guest Blogger: Prof. Steve Steve
My esteemed Panda's Thumb colleague John Wilkins invited me to attend the PSA meeting in Vancouver. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I agreed.
Last evening started pleasantly enough. I met Wilkins, John Lynch, Ben Cohen and David Ng, and Janet Stemwedel…
November 3, 2006
This week, the elder Free-Ride offspring's science class was reviewing for a test. (In second grade? Did we used to review for science tests back in second grade? Maybe things have changed since then.) One of the issues in the material they were reviewing was sound, which prompted a discussion…
November 2, 2006
First the really important thing: if you haven't done it yet, write some letters (or send some faxes) to save the Tripoli six. You'll be glad that you did something to stand up for truth and fairness.
Less life-or-death, but still worthy: Shelley Batts from Retrospectacle is up for a Student…
October 31, 2006
Yesterday, I recalled MIT's dismissal of one of its biology professors for fabrication and falsification, both "high crimes" in the world of science. Getting caught doing these is Very Bad for a scientist -- which makes the story of Luk Van Parijs all the more puzzling.
As the story unfolded a…
October 30, 2006
Just over a year ago, MIT fired an associate professor of biology for fabrication and falsification. While scientific misconduct always incurs my ire, one of the things that struck me when the sad story of Luk Van Parijs broke was how well all the other parties in the affair -- from the MIT…
October 27, 2006
At school, the Free-Ride offspring have been celebrating Red Ribbon Week. For the lower grades, this mostly amounts to wearing sunglasses or crazy socks or whatever that day's Red Ribbon "theme" calls for. But there is also a wee bit of discussion in the classroom about drugs. The Free-Ride…
October 26, 2006
So, I'm getting ready to go to Vancouver, BC, next week for the Philosophy of Science Association meeting (which coincides with the Society for Social Studies of Science meeting and the History of Science Society meeting). And I'm really jazzed that I'll get to meet John Lynch and John Wilkins and…
October 26, 2006
We're just past the midpoint of National Chemistry Week, so I thought I'd share a "classic" post (from last year's National Chemistry Week) about how studying chemistry can nourish one's human yearnings.
What's so great about chemistry? Of course, if you're a kid, chemistry has the allure of magic…
October 24, 2006
There is a bunch of interesting stuff to read on the subject of teaching, learning, and being part of an academic department right now. Here are a few links I think deserve your attention:
Inside Higher Ed reports on a new study (PDF) whose results suggest that married grad students may do better…
October 23, 2006
Hey, it's National Chemistry Week (and it has been since yesterday). Also, from 6:02 AM until 6:02 PM today, it was Mole Day.
I had hoped to have lots of time to wallow in the festivities, crack Mole Day jokes, and so on, but as it turns out I have 6.02 x 10^23 things on my to-do list today, so y'…
October 23, 2006
Adventures in Ethics and Science field operative RMD alerted me to a recent article in the New York Times (free registration required) about an ongoing debate on the use of online instruction for Advanced Placement science classes. The crux of the debate is not the value of online science classes…
October 22, 2006
Riffing on a Fark.com thread, John Lynch ponders the pearls of wisdom he might offer his 12-year-old self. This got me to thinking that there is useful advice I'd want to share with that earlier time-slice of me, but there is also information about which I think I'd keep earlier-me in the dark.*…
October 20, 2006
Regular commenter Blair was kind enough to bring to my attention an article from The Globe and Mail, reporting research done at the University of British Columbia, that illustrates how what we think we know can have a real impact on what we can do:
Over three years, researchers gave 135 women tests…
October 20, 2006
It's the time of year when the mailbox starts filling up with catalogues. At the Free-Ride house, many of these are catalogues featuring "educational" toys and games. Now, some of these toys and games are actually pretty cool. Others, to my mind, are worse than mere wastes of money.
For your…
October 20, 2006
Of course, we don't really think the sprogs are dumb. Sometimes they just remind us that some of the things their parents find intuitive are not intuitive to them.
Dr. Free-Ride: (arriving home after an evening seminar) How were the kids tonight.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: They were fine. But,…
October 19, 2006
Things have been busy here, but there are some interesting stories I've been watching that I thought I should mention (as well as the usual fodder for rants, and a cartoon series that might be funny, if it's not just seriously twisted):
A few atoms of element 118 have been created and detected by…
October 16, 2006
I'm starting to wonder if some of my grinding fatigue can be laid at the feet of untenable choices.
Would you prefer:
Students who make a conscious choice never to come to your lectures (which means they haven't even seen one lecture and used it as a basis for the decision) yet faithfully do all…
October 16, 2006
Ben thinks it's time to start auditioning for a ScienceBlogs house band.
Under the guidance of the Adventures in Ethics and Science Musical Advisory Panel (i.e., the sprogs), I've come up with a few suggestions:
They Might Be Giants. In their prodigious catalogue, they have made it clear that they…
October 14, 2006
As Revere notes, the trial of the Tripoli six is scheduled to resume on October 31. This means the time for serious action is now.
As Mike Dunford points out,
If you want to do something more than just get mad, if you want to try to change things, you will need to do more than read blog articles…
October 13, 2006
Pictured above: Not anything to do with Pokemon, but rather an imagined scene from Okami, in which, as far as I can gather, a solar-powered wolf battles a garlic bulb.
Dr. Free-Ride: Can you explain some stuff about Pokemon to me?
Elder offspring: Sure! How much time do you have?
Dr. Free-Ride:…
October 12, 2006
It's no Puzzle Fantastica #1, but it's what I have at the moment.
In a comment on my post about what I think the point of a college education is (or is not), Caledonian left this tantalizing comment:
I've noticed a fascinating trend among those people who have responded to this post favorably.…
October 9, 2006
I'm blaming the folks at Three Bulls! for the post that incited this one. Indeed, I started my descent into what is clearly a delusional plan in a comment there.
The short version: Pinko Punko was disturbed at how very little actual communication of content was involved in a presumably science-…
October 9, 2006
As usual, there are more interesting tidbits in the science-y blogosphere than I have time to deal with sensibly, so it's time for me to pass you some links:
Over at Cosmic Variance, Sean takes note of a finding that kids in the U.S. may think they're better at science than they really are. On the…
October 9, 2006
In a post months and months ago, I wrote the following*:
I've heard vague claims that there are some cultures in which "plagiarism" as defined by U.S. standards is not viewed as an ethical breach at all, and that this may explain some instances of plagiarism among scientists and science students…
October 7, 2006
I've been thinking about Zuska's post on the negative impacts the Nobel Prizes might be having on the practice of good science. She quotes N. David Mermin, who opines:
[T]he system [of prizes] had become a destructive force...these things are systematically sought after by organized campaigns,…
October 6, 2006
Dr. Free-Ride: So, what kind of science are you learning in school these days?
Younger offspring: I don't know.
Dr. Free-Ride: You don't know?! You have been going to school, right?
Younger offspring: Of course.
Dr. Free-Ride: When [Dr. Free-Ride's better half] was in the classroom helping with…