links for 2009-01-07

"According to the article almost 40% of the 59 science education specialists, surveyed in the California University system, were "seriously considering leaving" their current jobs and some (20%) were considering leaving the field entirely."

The paper mentioned in the press release below.

An amusingly garbled press release about some interesting quantum optics results.

"After the human race is enslaved by robots, there are going to be small rebel groups hiding out somewhere and Elliot Spitzer's going to be writing op-eds about how "no one could have predicted" that the robots would rebel and overthrow their masters. "

"NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered 12 new gamma-ray-only pulsars and has detected gamma-ray pulses from 18 others. The finds are transforming our understanding of how these stellar cinders work.

"We know of 1,800 pulsars, but until Fermi we saw only little wisps of energy from all but a handful of them," says Roger Romani of Stanford University, Calif. "Now, for dozens of pulsars, we're seeing the actual power of these machines.""

"She said that while cc grads who transfer to her university do just as well academically as native students, they don't donate as much back to the university as alums. They only spent two years there, instead of four, so they don't feel the same level of attachment. The university knows that, so it puts a pretty tight lid on transfer admissions. It admits a few students to fill out the numbers in some upper-level courses, but that's it. It doesn't want to jeopardize the future funding stream from donations."

"The best of colleges' "family friendly" policies may be profoundly unfriendly if you tell new parents about them, but not other key people -- such as those who evaluate those new parents for tenure."

"I had invited Ms. Corriher [food biochemist] and her husband, Arch, who were in New York from Atlanta for a visit, to dinner to help answer some kitchen curiosities. Cookbooks bark out instructions like boot camp orders -- Add oil to pasta water! Salt the eggplant! Brown meat to seal in juices! -- and legions of home cooks obediently follow them.

I wondered how many of these truisms had a scientific underpinning and how many were but myths."