Linkfest
jstemwedel | October 19, 2006Things 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 Russian scientists and scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Labs -- without any fabrication this time, which is good. However, the unofficial name of the new element (ununoctium, which is Latin for "one-one-eight"), needs some work. Yeah, the atoms of 118 lasted less than a microsecond, but…
jstemwedel | October 9, 2006As 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 one hand, I find it refreshing that science teachers may not be as effective as I feared at convincing students that science is way too hard for anyone of normal intellect to learn. On the other hand, it would sure be nice if science teachers could impart more scientific knowledge with that self-…
jstemwedel | October 2, 2006There are some recent carnivals of note that I should mention:
*Skeptics' Circle 44 at Salto sobrius.
*Carnival of the Godless 50, also at Salto sobrius.
*Teaching Carnival #13 at A Blog Around the Clock.
As well, if you have a hankering for SAT-style essays, you'll want to check out the results of the bloggers SAT Challenge.
jstemwedel | September 19, 2006Avast, it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and we've seized this blog from that landlubber Stemwedel! We've run up a new flag (designed by that pirate's pirate Pough), and Cap'n Free-Ride is drivin' this ship now.
But, me hearties, ye know that there's honor among pirates, don't ye?
Hie ye off to read the Jolly Roger Manifesto of the dread pirate Beyerstein, who captains that bucket Majikthise.
Tonight be "Back t' School Night" for the wee Free-Rides, where we'll be promotin' the all-pirate science curriculum. Avast!
Ye best be studyin' that pirate curriculum, as a shortage of sea…
jstemwedel | September 12, 2006I actually have a longish post I'm working on (about whistleblowing), plus a bazillion submissions for the upcoming Skeptics' Circle to sort through, but between teaching and grading and coaching and making lunches, well, there are a bunch of important tidbits that will fall through the cracks unless I give you a random bullets post:
*DonorsChoose is in the middle of a California Back to School Challenge, a drive to raise $250,000 to fund teachers' proposals for California classrooms by September 30 -- and they've lined up matches to double contributions. If you're so inclined, toss them a…
jstemwedel | September 7, 2006It's been cool to see my ScienceBlogs sisters Sandy, Shelley, and Tara represent in our little nerd-off. I'm inclined to say this offers at least some evidence that women can get as geeky as the geekiest men. Sadly, there seem still to be many people -- including people selling stuff -- who just can't wrap their heads around that idea.
The most recent commercial monstrosity demonstrating the belief that females have a fundamentally different relationship to technology than males is the "Digi Makeover", descibed in horrifying detail by Kyso Kiasen at Punkassblog. The short version: it uses…
jstemwedel | August 17, 2006*Updating syllabi to reflect the coming semester's actual meeting days and assignment due dates? Really, really boring. The boredom further propagates when it requires updating a kazillion webpages, then uploading the updates to your site (one at a time, since Fetch thinks it's cute today to "lose" the connection when you use the feature that lets you set up the whole list of files to "Put" all at once). And don't get me started on the tedium of undoing the MS Word crappy formatting when you turn your word document into a webpage. I'm guessing there would be buckets of money (plus rose…
jstemwedel | August 12, 2006I'm going to dump these links now because I'd hate to get distracted and forget 'em.
Not a fan of the stench-blossoms? Would you prefer a peckish plant? Jo(e) shares a story (and picture) about a vacation visit to darlingtonia californica, a carnivorous plant.
Think stench-blossoms are the only non-human lifeforms worthy of cool blogs? Check out the PigeonBlog that will (as part of ZeroOne San Jose) map air polution data gathered by sensor and GPS equipped pigeons.
And please, check out a timely phase diagram at Cosmic Variance. If I were still teaching P-chem, I could totally see…
jstemwedel | July 26, 2006Here are a few items that have been bouncing around in my head of late. Are they connected to each other? You be the judge.
"In science, feeling confused is essential to progress. An unwillingness to feel lost, in fact, can stop creativity dead in its tracks." That is, hands down, my favorite sentence in K.C. Cole's article in the May/June 2006 Columbia Journalism Review. The article tries to explain why editors (and their penchant for making things absolutely clear) can get in the way of good science journalism, but it has some interesting observations on the nature of science, too.…
jstemwedel | July 6, 2006You know the thing about holiday weekends and kids? You end up feeling like you need some kind of vacation -- and here's the work week again. Wheeee!
Here are some of the things I've been reading and thinking about while trying to piece together enough continguous space-time bits to craft a proper blog post:
At Crooked Timber, Ezster Hargittai wonders about the sociological research that seems to draw broad conclusions based on surveys of smallish samples of traditional aged college students. She writes:There are several fields that base a good chunk of their empirical research on studies…
jstemwedel | June 19, 2006Lots of items kicking around in the blogosphere that deserve more attention than I have time to give them right now. (I'm off to start taking soccer classes in about an hour -- hold a good thought for my knees, please!) But I wanted to share.
At Log base 2, Nick Barrowman considers the epistemic (and perhaps ethical) consequences of missing values in statistics. He writes:Missing values are a bit of a dirty secret in science. Because they are rarely mentioned in science education, it's not surprising that they are often overlooked in practice. This is terribly damaging--regardless of…
jstemwedel | May 9, 2006Very busy. I plan to resurface soon. In the meantime, a few items:
Help a blogger out: Coturnix (aka Bora Zivkovic) is a science blogger extraordinaire, keeping not one but three excellent blogs (Science and Politics, Circadiana, and The Magic School Bus). He's also a graduate student and a parent, which means the money's tight. Tight enough that keeping the electricity (and the internet) turned on is a challenge. If you have a few bucks to spare and enjoy Coturnix's writing as I do, you might help him out.
Wood chippers are for chipping wood, not (10,000) hens: Via Pharyngula, part of…
jstemwedel | 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. Can I state for the record that my commenters are some of the coolest folks ever? They responded to my cranky post with careful comments about the nature of actual economics and the difference between the content of economic theory and the free-and-easy "economics" is used in journalism and public…
jstemwedel | March 2, 2006You 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, but you're going to have to restart the computer because your software update requires a restart and you're not ready to deal fully with those stories you've been tracking?!
Yeah, me too. So, until I can catch up, here are some links:
At The Well-Timed Period, incorrect information about emergency…