Links for 2009-10-06

"Given that it seems to be common wisdom that publications are helpful, two anecdotes I heard in the past week or so scare me a little bit. Both anecdotes are about departments that were searching or are planning a search. Both departments see their department as mainly a teaching department, but they do have research requirements (I think 3/3 or 3/2 loads). Also, according to both anecdotes, these departments consider publications in top journals as counting against a candidate!"

"The defining mark of an educational community is its commitment to the subject matter it is studying-the calculus, the double helix, the golden mean, E=mc2, the Ode to Joy, the face that launched a thousand ships, the "invisible hand," the voyage of the Beagle, stories of love and loss, of helping and healing, of war and peace, of brokenness and redemption. These are what Palmer calls "the Great Things," the love of which should dominate the college campus and determine what its community means.

So, a college community is not, at bottom, best understood in terms of intimacy, democracy, customer satisfaction, or therapy-although it may include aspects of these various models. A college community is best understood in terms of conversation: disciplined, sustained, devoted discussion about important things. A college is a community whose way of life is shaped by devotion to understanding the Great Things."

"The American Physical Society has awarded [Peter] Higgs and five other physicists the 2010 J.J. Sakurai prize, one of the most distinguished awards a theoretical physicist can hope to get, "for elucidation of the properties of spontaneous symmetry breaking in four-dimensional relativistic gauge theory and of the mechanism for the consistent generation of vector boson masses"--that is, developing an explanation for how particles get their mass."

"I don't always know for sure why Maya's upset, and sometimes can't think of what else to try to calm her down and yes, that's difficult as hell. But let me put two scenarios to you:"

"I've never been clear what "accommodationist" means, it seems to adapt itself in perfect Calvinball style to suit whatever enemy someone might have. "

"For some reason, I never see Ezekiel 23:19-21 at games, so I figured I'd go ahead and do it myself."