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How I spent Evolution Sunday

Today is Evolution Sunday, and as part of the "festivities" I headed up north to speak to the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Morris County about evolution. I had an absolutely wonderful experience (I felt very welcomed by the group and they had terrific questions), and although I do not have a transcript of the events, I hope I can accurately sum-up the lecture and following discussion here. The lecture I delivered today focused on a topic that is a common one on this blog; contingency. In trying to make sense of the unity and diversity of life on earth over time, I tried to pick out…

Let's Meet Atheist and Author, William Lobdell, Today!

tags: books, memoir, godlessness, losing faith, William Lobdell I am most pleased to tell you that William Lobdell, an award-winning journalist from the LATimes, who is also a new book author, as well as a blog writer, college lecturer and public speaker and media consultant, will be in NYC this coming Saturday to talk about and read from his hot-off-the-presses book, Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- and Found Unexpected Peace. When: Saturday, March 14, 300pm - 430pm Where: The third floor of the Muhlenberg Branch of the Public Library, 209 W.…

Meet Author William Lobdell

tags: books, memoir, godlessness, losing faith, William Lobdell I am most pleased to tell you that William Lobdell, an award-winning journalist from the LATimes, who is also a new book author, as well as a blog writer, college lecturer and public speaker and media consultant, will be in NYC this coming Saturday to talk about and read from his hot-off-the-presses book, Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- and Found Unexpected Peace. When: Saturday, March 14, 300pm - 430pm Where: The third floor of the Muhlenberg Branch of the Public Library, 209 W.…

World Water Day 2011: Water for Cities

Every March 22nd is designated as World Water Day, with the goal of "focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources." This year's theme is "Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge," in recognition of the fact that half the world's population now lives in an urban area. Nearly 40% of this urban expansion occurs in slums, where the infrastructure is insufficient for delivering clean water to residents and properly handling sewage. I addressed the sanitation aspect of urban growth a few months ago in "From the…

Why I Don't Worry About Immigration

Aard regular Phil often expresses worry about the effects of immigration. This has reached the point where I've decided to collect a few points to explain why I am not worried. Phil recently even claimed that when I say I'm not worried, I create more support for anti-immigration movements. This makes no sense to me. I know a lot of fear-and-hate voters are poorly educated, but I don't think they're all stupid. So here's why I don't worry about immigration. I have lived for 21 years (and counting) on a multicultural 1970s housing estate and seen very few problems. My first wife was a second-…

Parasites preaching prosperity

When I read this tale of woe, I have to admit I had a hard time feeling much sympathy for the victim. The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches. And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Florida, area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White. Only the…

The Australian’s War on Science 79: Maurice Newman versus your lying eyes

Maurice Newman, former chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, has the necessary lack of scientific qualifications to write about climate science in The Australian (Google “Losing their religion as evidence cools off”): So when in 1969 Paul Ehrlich claimed because of global cooling it was an even-money bet whether England would survive until the year 2000, he could not immediately be proven wrong. After all, this was a cooling period. Newman is just making things up here. Ehrlich did say that there was a 50% chance of England’s collapse by 2000, but not because of global…

The Moral Mind

There's an odd article in the NY Times today on Marc Hauser's hypothesis that the human mind contains a "moral grammar," somewhat akin to a Chomskyan linguistic grammar. The article is odd because, while it acknowledges that Hauser's idea is supported by almost no direct evidence, it never mentions any alternatives to Hauser's theory. (If you're going to write about a tentative hypothesis, you should at least mention that other hypotheses exist.) If you only read this article, you'd assume Hauser was the first person to argue that human morality is an evolved, biological trait, and that his…

Cool conferences = mental overload

My brain is completely overloaded at the moment after the two absolutely fabulous conferences I've attended in the past week. I'm going to do individual posts about each conference, but I thought I'd give some initial impressions in this post first. As a reminder, the conferences were BookCamp Toronto and Managing Data for Science. First of all, BookCamp Toronto, an unconference attended mostly by people from the trade book publishing industry, the Canadian version of which is centred here in Toronto. There were quite a few authors in attendance as well as some publishing people from other…

SSP09: Wrap up of day one

I wasn't complete sure what to expect with this conference. There were some old acquaintances from the society publishers who spend a lot of time with the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division at the Special Libraries Association (Hi Tony! Hi Terry!). I also spoke with a representative of IMLS, some other librarians, and Victor from Mendeley. Some sessions had some people spouting marketing BS about impressions and conversions and librarians as checkbooks, but the majority were friendly and looking to better scholarly communication. In the morning after the keynote, I went to We Have…

World Opera, Collaborative Science, and Getting On The One

(blows off the dust since the last entry) (Life trumped blogging; my first child was born in March) Just before I went into the parent tunnel, which is awesome by the by, I attended a seminar conducted by Niels Windfeld Lund, General Manager of the World Opera. Not my usual event. But music's always been a passion for me, and I performed a lot as a kid - lots of trumpet, both the sort of american wind orchestra stuff (seated and marching...yes, a band geek) and some jazz, a little bit of drums. These days I plink around on an acoustic bass, badly, but well enough that I'll be able to sing…

Depression Holidays - Not So Depressing After All!

During a three month period, between September 9 and December 16th, we have Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchas Torah, Asher's birthday, Simon's birthday, Thanksgiving, Isaiah's birthday and eight nights of Chanukah. It was manifestly poor planning on my part to produce three kids between Rosh Hashana and Chanukah, but it also means I don't have the luxury of slacking off on holiday prep - not if I want to do them sustainably. Now on the one hand, I think most of us realize that the traditional Western holidays and birthdays are kind of ridiculous. Less is good for our kids, good for…

From the Archives: Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social media by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here. This one, of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, is from January 23, 2009. ======= The first wave of social media books, like Wikinomics or even Here Comes Everybody, were of the "what the heck is…

New issue of the Journal of Science Communication

New issue of the Italian Journal of Science Communication is out with some excellent articles (some translated or abstracted from Italian, all in English): Cultural determinants in the perception of science: Those studying the public understanding of science and risk perception have held it clear for long: the relation between information and judgment elaboration is not a linear one at all. Among the reasons behind it, on the one hand, data never are totally "bare" and culturally neutral; on the other hand, in formulating a judgment having some value, the analytic component intertwines -…

Citizen Science and Digital Biology: ScienceOnline 2010

Is there a place for citizen scientists in the world of digital biology? Many of the citizen science projects that I've been reading about have a common structure. There's a University lab at the top, outreach educators in the middle, and a group of citizens out in the field collecting data. After the data are collected, they end up in a database somewhere and the University researchers analyze them and write papers. At least that's my impression so far. It seems to me, that with all kinds of databases out there, on-line, there should be plenty of opportunity for both citizens and student…

Food Storage and Preservation Syllabus

There is still space in my upcoming (starts April 15) Food Storage and Preservation Online class, for those who are interesting. If you've wanted to start preserving or building up a food reserve and have no idea how to start, or perhaps you learned to can once upon a time, but want to explore the full range of food preservation options, or you've joined a CSA and want to know what to do with all that food you are getting, or cut your grocery bills - this is the class for you. Each class includes a couple of practical projects for you to try out each week. The class is offered…

Citizen Science and Digital Biology: ScienceOnline 2010

Is there a place for citizen scientists in the world of digital biology? Many of the citizen science projects that I've been reading about have a common structure. There's a University lab at the top, outreach educators in the middle, and a group of citizens out in the field collecting data. After the data are collected, they end up in a database somewhere and the University researchers analyze them and write papers. At least that's my impression so far. It seems to me, that with all kinds of databases out there, on-line, there should be plenty of opportunity for both citizens and student…

The Friday Fermentable: Some Wines of Virginia, by Erleichda

In late August, our colleague and correspondent Erleichda conducted a winetasting of some offerings from Virginia, picked up on a tour with his beloved Sweetpea. The tasting fell on PharmPreKer's birthday, so we were unable to make it, but here is Erleichda's missive. Two things strike me: first, is a whole new education he is giving us about cheeses, an area of my supreme ignorance. Second, is something many of you have known for years: that lovely wines are being made all over the US outside of California and the Northwest. All I can say is that I have to start plotting out our own tour…

Never Say Goodbye: Gopher Tortoise

tags: Gopher Tortoise, Gopherus polyphemus, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus). Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view]. The photographer writes; Gopher tortoises in the southeastern U.S. often end up as roadkill. Invasive fire ants and armadillos also prey on their eggs and young, while urban expansion, land conversion for pine plantations, and fire mismanagement degrade tortoise habitat, pushing these reptiles closer to the edge. Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you…

Around the Web: Everyone is angsty in higher ed, not just librarians

Academic library existence at risk? The Myth and the Millennialism of "Disruptive Innovation" Fending off university-attacking zombies The online threat to the American professor Educational Hucksterism: Or, MOOCs are not an Educational Technology Laptop U: Has the future of college moved online? Libraries into career centres, campus residences into senior homes Embrace Moocs or face decline, warns v-c Library holds consultation sessions on proposed closure of the Life Sciences Library (McGill) Editorial: why academic freedom matters to librarians The Librarian Doesn’t Exist Harvard…

Around the Web: Disruption, disruption, disruption and more disruption

Silicon Valley goes to school – notes on Californian capitalism and the ‘disruption’ of public education The End of Higher Education’s Golden Age The Death Of Expertise Closing Time for the Open Internet Tech Workers, Political Speech and Economic Threat Does Ikea Hold The Secret To The Future Of College? Let’s Be Real: Online Harassment Isn’t ‘Virtual’ For Women Can Pearson Solve the Rubric’s Cube? Who Takes MOOCs? For online higher education, the devil is in the data Making It: Pick up a spot welder and join the revolution Higher Education Is Now Ground Zero For Disruption Stupid Simple…

Desperately seeking suggestions: what works best with on-line teaching?

When in doubt, turn to the internet. In a couple of weeks, I'm going to start teaching my first on-line course. So far, I've been preparing by: learning how to use Blackboard getting a subscription to iFinch so we can do bioinformatics in style, and share data and other files getting a microphone and some software for making video podcasts But, since this is brand new and I'm used to seeing students face-to-face, I have a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I do not want to be one of those people who simply puts lecture notes on a web site. So, I'm turning to you for advice dear…

Sheep Dash!

Lack of sleep can affect your reaction times. This is a cute online game that tests how alert you are and also reveals the impact of a cup of tea or coffee on your performance. What was your reaction time? Did it improve after a cup of coffee or tea? I have not tried this after a cup of coffee or tea. Yet. Update 1: okay, after one cup of black tea, my reaction times are improving: 0.2042 seconds and counting (down), although I still rank as a bobbing bobcat. Next experiment: coffee. Update 2: after a decent night's sleep and one vente iced latte, my reaction times have improved. I am now a…

US FDA: 125 Fake Cancer 'Cures' Consumers Should Avoid

This link is just to quickly follow up on yesterday's post, "FDA Warns Individuals and Firms to Stop Selling Fake Cancer 'Cures'." The US FDA has specifically listed those companies and individuals as well as their specific products that were cited in yesterday's action: 125 Fake Cancer "Cures" Consumers Should Avoid And for more information to share with your family, friends, patients, colleagues, etc: Beware of Online Cancer Fraud This latter post is of great general value for the lay public to detect red flags for fraudulent cancer treatment or prevention products as well as some general…

Technopolitical news

Fife Wikileaks Hactivists Arrested in UK Police have arrested five people over their alleged roles in an online campaign to support WikiLeaks. Five males - aged 15, 16, 19, 20 and 26 - were arrested under the Computer Misuse Act in raids across the country at 7am this morning, with the suspects held in local police stations for further questioning. source Sony determines that having autism is "cheating" Jennifer Zdenek, the mother of an 11-year-old boy who lives with autism, is outraged at Microsoft Xbox Live for labeling her son a "cheater" and taking away everything he's earned online.…

Chat chat chatty chat

This easy chat room I tried out a while back is still idling along. It's mostly rather quiet, but now and then conversations get going. Anyway, just as another experiment, I'll be online tomorrow (Saturday) evening at 5pm Central time (that is, right around an hour ago, if you're reading this right around the time I posted it). I wonder if it would be an added attraction if I tried to convince Skatje or my wife Mary to be online at the same time—should I try? Also, I know that IRC would be much better, and that there is a #pharyngula channel on DALnet. That would be better in the long run,…

MedHelp brings eye experts online to answer your questions

I was recently sent this news and thought some readers may be interested. MedHelp, an online health community that connects people with physicians and medical experts, has just added the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) to its repertoire. The website has liaisons with over a dozen medical organizations and one of its main goals is to connect people with medical professionals for expert advice to compliment doctor's visits. So, in addition to the many other specialists available, members and visitors can now have their eye care questions answered by AAO specialists. I briefly…

A year in Open Access advocacy: 2012

While it has not generally been my practice to do year end review posts, artificially trying to tie the various and disparate strands of my blogging habits together into some sort of coherent story, I think for this year it's worth doing. And that's because my blogging year did seem to have a coherent theme -- advocating for a fairer and more just scholarly publishing ecosystem. In particular I spent an awful lot of time advocating for Open Access in one way, shape or form. Not that I haven't always done so, but with all the various events happening in the academic and library worlds this…

Interview: Susan Greenfield on the internet-fed brain

Last May I heaved myself out of bed a little before 5am so I could undertake a mammoth 12 hour round trip to that pantheon of industrial decay, Rotherham. What did the home of Jive Bunny and the Chuckle Brothers have to entice me on such a journey? Why, only Science World 2011, Fisher Scientific's annual trade fair. And their keynote speaker for the day, the Baroness. No, not that Baroness. I'm talking about Professor Susan Greenfield, who has made something of a name for herself with her theories about the effects of the internet on the brain. Namely, that the pervasiveness of digital…

Reading Diary: Five books on the environment

I read these five books over about the last year or so and they all represent something I really look for in books on complex subjects -- for the most part, they concentrate on things individual people can actually do to make a difference. In this case, a difference in the future of the planet. Whether it's where you live, what you eat, what you buy or how you get around, the choice is ours. Each of us, me and you, can make choices that, in the aggregate, can make a difference. Mark Bittman's Food Matters and Betty Fussell's Raising Steaks are at least as much about food and food culture…

Is Linux currently at a fundamental disadvantage owing to how computers are set up?

A gingerbread computer can be complicated. When you, Joe or Mary user, buy a computer at Best Buy or Computer Village or order a computer from Dell or Gateway, you get a computer with a system already installed. Do you think they had any trouble installing that system on that computer? Do you think that if Dell sells Mary a computer with Windows installed and they sell Joe a computer with Linux installed, that Dell had a differentially hard time installing one of those systems compared to the other? Think about it. ~ Repost from one year ago this month ~ Linux and Windows each have…

Is Life Expectancy Going Down?

According to this life expectancy calculator, I should plan on living to 102 years old---a result of quite a lot of factors, including the fact that my family is particularly long-lived and cancer-free. Not sure I buy into these types of calculator (but they are morbid fun), but the general topic of life expectancy has been hot in the news lately. Some sources are claiming that the upward-creeping life expectancy that developed nations have been enjoying for decades might come to a screeching halt, or even worse, begin to decline. The subject of much finger-pointing is, unsurprisingly,…

Hard-pressed

Martin Cothran, Discovery Institute blogger, Focus on the Family stooge, and generally unpleasant person, quotes Patrick Buchanan on Yom HaShoah. Buchanan, in addition to being a failed presidential candidate, is a conspiracy loon and a anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. In any event, Buchanan is on about how President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton didn't create a diplomatic spat when the President of Nicaragua complained about American military involvement with the terrorist Contras.: After Daniel Ortega finished spitting in our face, accusing us of inhumanity toward Fidel Castro's…

It's all connected, if you are smart enough to see it

Al Gore's big issue is the environment. He says he is not running for President. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But no matter what happens, it is obvious that the environment is Gore's passion and that he will spend the rest of his life fighting for it. His passion is what drives so many people to push him to run for office again. John Edwards' big issue is poverty. He is likely to run for President again. Maybe he will win, maybe he won't. But no matter what happens, it is obvious that eradication of poverty is Edwards' passion and that he will spend the rest of his life fighting for…

What do we know about nanomaterials?

Via a press release from Consumers Union, the July 2007 issue of Consumer Reports will include a call for more testing and regulation of nanotechnology: [T]he risks of nanotechnology have been largely unexplored, and government and industry monitoring has been minimal. Moreover, consumers have been left in the dark, since manufacturers are not required to disclose the presence of nanomaterials in their labeling. Your first question may be, what the heck is nanotechnology? From the press release, Nanotechnology involves creating new materials or reducing the particles in standard materials…

$30 Billion to Lend, and Treasury Can't Figure Out How to Do So

This is another resounding success by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: Nearly nine months after its formation, a $30 billion government fund to foster small-business lending has yet to pay out a single dime, even as the nation struggles with traumatic levels of unemployment.... As of this week, 844 institutions have applied for $11.6 billion from the Small Business Lending Fund. In theory, money from the fund would free up capital so that banks could then grant more loans to companies looking to buy new equipment and hire more workers. But vetting the financial soundness of each bank has…

Hannity and Carlson's War on Entomology

Right wing TV bloviators oppose scientific research. And in other news, dog bites man. By way of Bug Girl, I came across this story about Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson opposing the use of $187,632 of stimulus money to buy storage cabinets for Michigan State University's Albert J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection which houses over 1 million insects collected over 143 years: Fox News host Sean Hannity launched a series of "investigative" reports this week, in which he claims he will reveal oodles of wasteful stimulus spending by the Obama administration. In his first report, Hannity and…

National AIG Bailout Protest Tomorrow!

Are you upset about the latest AIG scandal where millions of dollars of the American taxpayers' bailout money were misused to pay special bonuses to their corporate executives -- the very same executives who swindled thousands of their clients and ran the company -- and the world's economy -- into the ground? Of course, at the same time that 73 AIG executives are receiving bonuses of one million dollars or more, tens of millions of American taxpayers are facing unemployment, crushing debt, and loss of their housing, health insurance, and even the ability to buy food! If this makes you angry…

ENOUGH ALREADY!

Join the protest on 19 March 2009 in your city! Are you upset about the latest AIG scandal where millions of dollars of the American taxpayers' bailout money were misused to pay special bonuses to their corporate executives -- the very same executives who swindled thousands of their clients and ran the company -- and the world's economy -- into the ground? Of course, at the same time that 73 AIG executives are receiving bonuses of one million dollars or more, tens of millions of American taxpayers are facing unemployment, crushing debt, and loss of their housing, health insurance, and even…

Knowing which way the weather man blows

The 60s radical group, the Weathermen, took their name from a Bob Dylan song, Subterranean Homesick Blues: s' "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." Now we have the converse. You don't need to break wind to know this weatherman blows. On his blog, Chris Allen, the TV weatherman from WBKO, Bowling Green, Kentucky, explains to us why he doesn't believe that humans are responsible for climate change. He is quick to say that just because he doesn't have a "Dr." in front of his name is no reason we shouldn't take his arguments seriously. We agree. This is why we shouldn't…

Speculation and World Food Prices

Yesterday was World Food Day, and NPR has a good piece about the role of speculation in food prices: The economists argue that increased trading is a significant part of the reason grocery prices are higher this year. And grocery prices are indeed up this year. For example, in August, the average price of bread in U.S. cities was up 17.4 percent over last year, while milk was up 12.4 percent, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Brandon Kliethermes, an agriculture economist with the forecasting firm IHS Global Insight, agrees that speculators do increase…

1-2-3, the Goosed/Book meme

Oh-oh, it seems it's a meme season again! I'll dutifully do them, one at a time. Today - the good old 123 book meme, which memeticized over time into being called "Goosed meme". I was tagged by Lance Mannion who was hoping that the book closest to me is the OpenLab07. Sorry. It's not. It was until earlier today. Tough luck, Lance, you'll just have to buy it. Anyway, the rules first: ⢠look up page 123 in the nearest book ⢠look for the fifth sentence ⢠then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123. The nearest book is the one which arrived in the mail…

Thanks to all of you ...

I want to thank several people who have recently sent gifts to me during my hospital stay (yes, I am still in the hospital by the way, and probably will remain so for another month). I know that some of my benefactors would like to remain anonymous, so I'll just leave notice of my appreciation on my blog where I know you will find it (you know who you are, and you can reveal yourselves, or not, as you wish). Gifts that I recently received are books (ooo, lots of beautiful books) and a DVD; Books of poetry and prose by one of my two favorite living poets, the amazing and gifted Mary Oliver…

$53.6 billion fine.

Japan to secretly join CERN? Two travelers with $134 billion in US Treasury and Federal Reserve bonds hidden in a suitcase, seized at the Italian-Swiss border. Seriously This is just fascinating: who tipped the Italians off, and why? will the Italians really take their 40% fine for failing to declare if the bonds turn out to be real? How to tell if US Treasuries are real NB: UST bearer securities were discontinued in 1982. sample fake UST $100 million bond. Here is the NY Federal Reserve page on scams, with images of past sample scams They note in particular claims of $500 million…

Misogynist?

The entry about the Fake Advertising Mom provoked a reaction I didn't see coming. I said that pregnancy and nursing changes a woman's body in plainly visible ways and that the fake moms in ads usually show no such signs, in addition to being too young to be realistic mothers of the children they're photographed with. This, to my mind, was a feminist observation. I picked up feminism from my first wife who had been a women's-lib radical on the extreme left during the 70s. In that mode of thinking, feminists accept and celebrate the female body for what it is. Attempting to look like 20 when…

Most Gay Friendly Companies

Pam Spaulding has a post up about the most Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign. As in previous years, the report documents a major increase in efforts by corporations to provide benefits and protections to gay and lesbian employees. 138 major companies received a perfect 100 rating from HRC, as opposed to 101 in 2005. Pam is absolutely right when she says: While our government, which is supposed to represent us, drags its feet on civil equality and fairness, corporate America is the one venue where equality for LGBT citizens has been on a constant, positive trajectory. I…

A very promising inexpensive Android tablet

I'm just passing this information on, I've not handled this device. But the price and performance seem like such a sweet spot that I am compelled to tell you about it. Let me know in the comments if you have experience with this item. The Dragon Touch M8 2016 Edition 8 inch Quad Core Tablet is a competitively priced high quality tablet, with excellent reviews. It costs 80 bucks. A while back, I asked if you should buy a $50 Kindle Fire Tablet. I concluded that maybe you should, because it is cheap and if the main thing you are doing with your tablet is grazing your Amazon Kindle booklist…

Argento on Bonsell's Testimony

Mike Argento has been sort of the HL Mencken of the Dover trial, making pithy comments daily about the trial. And you knew he wasn't going to let Bonsell's testimony go unscathed. This is pretty funny stuff, but it's long so I'll put it below the fold. It was remarkable. Judge John E. Jones III asked for a copy of Bonsell's deposition and started asking him questions about why he felt the need to cover up where the money came from to buy the 60 copies of "Of Pandas and People" that wound up in the Dover high school library. Bonsell didn't explain very well. At one point, he replied to the…

Ten Years Before the Blog: Historical Recap

June 22, 2012 will mark the tenth anniversary of the founding of this blog. While I would like to one day be famous enough to be able to staple together a collection of loosely related blog posts and call it a book, I'm not there yet. This particular arbitrary numerical signifier does, however, seem worth some commemoration. Also, while I have some idea of how the site has evolved over the last ten years, it's been a slow process, so I thought it would be interesting to troll back through the archives and see how things used to be. Next Friday, appropriately enough the 13th, will be exactly…

arXiview: A New iPhone App for the arXiv

Over 9 months ago I decided to apply for teaching tenure track jobs. Then the economy took what can best be described as a massive, ill-aimed, swan dive. Thus creating an incredible amount of stress in my life. So what does a CS/physics research professor do when he's stress? The answer to that question is available on the iTunes app store today: arXiview. What better way to take out stress and at the same time learn objective C and write an iPhone app that at least one person (yourself) will use? What is arXiview? It is yet another arXiv viewer (there are two others available, last I…