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
March 17, 2006
Dr. Free-Ride: (to younger offspring) Could you teach me all the words to your song about the planets.
Younger offspring: It's secret.
Dr. Free-Ride: Please?
Younger offspring: Oh, alright!
Nine planets, fine planets,
In our solar system.
Nine planets, fine planets,
See if we can list 'em.…
March 16, 2006
My post a couple days ago about Laurentian University's lock-out of researchers from their animal care facility sparked some heated discussion in the comments. Also, it sparked an email from someone close enough to the situation to give me an update on the situations since December. The issue of…
March 15, 2006
Now available, the 30th Skeptic's Circle, hosted at Paige's Page.
I believe I'd enjoy settling in and reading all the fine skeptical posts it features, but ...
...still grading!
March 15, 2006
Tangled Bank #49 is now up at Living the Scientific Life. GrrlScientist has lined up an impressive array of science writings from the blogosphere. Go and partake of them!
(Me, I'm grading papers ...)
March 14, 2006
Catching up on some news from Canada (yes, I'm really far behind on Canadian current events!):
At the end of last year, the administration at Laurentian University changed the locks to the research facility housing the animals used in research in the behavioural neuroscience program. The lock-out…
March 13, 2006
When I was a kid, my mother went back to school with the intention of getting the physics training she needed to pursue her dream of a career in astronomy. Part of this journey, of course, required that she be plunged into the life of a graduate student. It wasn't any prettier then than it is now…
March 11, 2006
GrrlScientist, trendsetter that she is, took the Simpsons Personality Quiz. Thought I, "Gee, that looks like fun."
I totally didn't see this coming:
You Are Barney
You could have been an intellectual leader...
Instead, your whole life is an homage to beer
You will be remembered for: your…
March 10, 2006
Despite the younger offspring's unwillingness to provide details last week, it would seem that they really were studying turtles. This rendering was made with leaves and other plant matter. Also, I learned from the younger offspring that the "tummy" part of a turtle's shell (not shown) is called…
March 10, 2006
A conversation during the early-morning "power snuggle", during which all four members of the Free-Ride family stay under the covers pretending they don't have to get up, like, five minutes ago:
Elder offspring: Did you hear that loud thunder last night?
Younger offspring: (pouting) I didn't hear…
March 9, 2006
Overheard walking back from class:
Challenge yourself; major in Biology!
Why do you want to do a social science?
What kind of challenge do you suppose we're talking about here? And how does this reflect an undergraduate's understanding of the different scientific endeavors?
March 9, 2006
What do you get the biologist who blogs everything for his birthday? Probably something better than this -- but it will have to do.
March 8, 2006
... the Holocaust deniers turn to arson.
I'm a fan of reasoned arguments, especially those that comport well with empirical evidence. Some people are not. People of this sort have targeted the Holocaust History Project not only with denial of service attacks, but also by setting the physical…
March 8, 2006
It's Blog Against Sexism Day.
There are those inclined to think that sexism is no longer an issue in science. Yes, it's horrible that in the past women were kept from pursuing science and barred from science jobs. But now, the doors are wide open and anyone who wants to can be a scientist.
Things…
March 7, 2006
... which is where I've been lately. (But I think of you all often, amidst the stacks of essays.) Once you're a blogger, the mind starts collecting bloggable issues like Post-It Notes. Here are the stickies I've accumulated in the past few days:
OK, maybe it's not really economics that bugs me…
March 6, 2006
I had a bit of an epiphany this weekend about economics. More accurately, I had an epiphany about why it is that economics rubs me the wrong way as often as it does.
Let me get the disclaimer out of the way up front: I'm not bugged by all economists. I'm probably not bothered by all economic…
March 4, 2006
Y'all know that I'm an advocate of kids being able to get their science on. It's great when they can do this is school, under the guidance of knowledgable and enthusiastic teachers. But sometimes the teachers are ... not so knowledgable, or not so enthusiastic. Even when they are both, sometimes…
March 4, 2006
... or as some of my fellow ScienceBlogs bloggers are. Nay, it would appear I would be slightly more at home on Babylon 5 (although it required a tie-breaker to make that determination).
I trust the good folks at the Seed Spaceshipyards will find a way to make a craft that will suit all of us (…
March 4, 2006
The polls for 2005 Koufax Awards are now open! There are 15 award categories, and a good representation of science bloggers (including ScienceBlogsers) among the nominees.
Including (aw, shucks!) "Adventures in Ethics and Science" in the Best New Blog category. Of course, I would be honored if…
March 3, 2006
A reader asks me to dig up a post he thinks I might have written about various careers, other than research careers, that one might pursue with a science degree. As far as I know, I haven't written a post on this subject (although maybe he has a time machine and is remembering it from the future…
March 3, 2006
(At the dinner table last night)
Dr. Free-Ride: (to younger offspring) What are you learning about in nature study these days?
Younger offspring: (slurping noodles) Turtles.
Dr. Free-Ride: What are you learning about turtles?
Younger offspring: (chewing) Turtles.
Dr. Free-Ride: What?!
Younger…
March 2, 2006
You know how, when you go to your day job, the relevant stories keep unfolding? And you say, "Gee, I should think more about that so I have something useful to say here," but meanwhile another story pops up? And soon, you've got like 20 tabs open on Firefox with the things you want to deal with,…
March 2, 2006
(Apologies to John Hodgman for swiping his nifty title.)
There has been some discussion in these parts about just who ought to be allowed to talk about scientific issues of various sorts, and just what kind of authority we ought to grant such talk. It's well and good to say that a journalism major…
March 1, 2006
No, not for me (although some comments elsewhere in the ScienceBlogs galaxy have been rather more anti-philosophy than pro); for John Perry and Ken Taylor, the guys who do Philosophy Talk on public radio (and on streaming audio on your computer).
They've been doing the show for more than two years…
March 1, 2006
Yesterday I flailed vaguely in the direction of a case we could make for funding basic research with public monies. I was trying to find an alternative to the standard argument usually advanced for funding such research (namely, that basic research frequently brings about all manner of practical…
March 1, 2006
I have noted before that communicating science to non-scientists can be, to put it technically, wicked hard. Some of this has to do with the current state of science journalism -- journalists who don't really understand scientific methodology or rules for engagement in disagreements between…
March 1, 2006
Tangled Bank #48 is up at Aetiology. Tara gives the science iPod a shuffle and comes up with 13 tracks of grunge-y scientific goodness.
It's got a good beat and is easy to dance (or wear flannel) to!
February 28, 2006
News from Inside Higher Ed: Apparently there's a movement afoot in U.S. colleges and universities to add math requirements and add "quantitative reasoning" content to non-mathematics courses. You might guess, from my post on the "who needs algebra" column, that I view this as a good thing. And…
February 28, 2006
My ScienceBlogs sibling Kevin Vranes asks an interesting question (and provides some useful facts for thinking about the answer):
Why do we even spend taxpayer money on basic science research? Is it to fund science for discovery's sake alone? Or to meet an array of identified societal needs?
The…
February 27, 2006
Student Pugwash USA, whose mission is to promote social responsibility in science and technology, is having the first of a series of regional conferences March 31 - April 1 at Purdue University. (Other conferences are planned at Rockeller University, Carnegie Mellon, and UC-Berkeley.) The…
February 27, 2006
A friend who has been lurking here sent me an email the other day to get my take on the apparent attitude of American scientists toward stem cell research and toward the American public. My friend writes that he has been struck by the reaction of scientists in discussion of stem cell research that…