Passing thoughts
jstemwedel | February 11, 2010Following DrugMonkey's lead, I'm going to play along on the meme proposed by Female Science Professor:
What tradition or other general characteristic of academia would you like to see eliminated completely?
According to the rules, which I just invented, the things to be eliminated have to be of a general nature. So, for example, the answer "my department chair" or "my university's moronic president" are unacceptable unless you want to eliminate the general concept of department chairs or university presidents.
The candidates for disposal can be anything to do with academia, from the most…
jstemwedel | February 10, 2010Earlier today, I had this conversation with my better half.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: (with a look of deep concern) So, I saw something in your post today.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh? (Wondering if a heinous typo got through cursory attempts at editing)
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Yes.
Dr. Free-Ride: What?
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: In the photo.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh, that blogiversary cake!
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Yes. Where is it?
Dr. Free-Ride: You may not remember, but that was actually what we used to celebrate the fourth blogiversary last year.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: There were…
jstemwedel | February 10, 2010Five years ago today, I put up the first post on a blog that was mean to capture the overflow of discussions and ideas from my "Ethics in Science" class. Back then, I wasn't entirely sure that I'd manage to maintain the blog through the end of the semester.
It just goes to show you that you can't always tell which of the things you try will become sustainable practices (although maybe the ones that don't involve exercise equipment have better odds).
On the occasion of my fifth blogiversary, I'm reflecting on a question posed by BlogHer upon BlogHer's 5th anniversary:
What are five…
jstemwedel | January 28, 2010... to the student in my "Ethics in Science" course.
Today was our second class meeting, which is essentially the first real class meeting -- the one in which, instead of just focusing on the overall arc of the course, and the assignments you'll be doing, and the mechanics of finding the information you need on the course website, there was actual content to discuss.
Owing to my sabbatical year, it's been two years since I taught this course. It's true that much of that sabbatical was devoted to thinking and writing about the subject matter of the course, but I'll admit that I had a moment…
jstemwedel | January 26, 2010While I meet my students and try to mitigate freak-outs about enrollments, I offer for your consideration some of the search strings that brought people to this blog during the month of January:
sloth jokes
3 toed sloth cocktails
pandemic flu rationing
shark on beach eating seals
the cheating is the bad way
people that don't approve of the evolution
all academic social implications of beleiving in Santa Claus
actual size of the solstice
difference between chemistry physics
how to get a whiteboar
i can't believe I finished my dissertation
marriage name change philosophy
honorific for my…
jstemwedel | January 25, 2010(As before, I'm still not sure whether, in the metaphor, the factory is building monkeys or staffed by monkeys. Perhaps, really, we're in the business of making educated monkeys, and the problem is that our administration views this as akin to making widgets. Anyway, the point is: Explosions! Chaos! Shrieking! Brachiating along the pieces of wreckage!)
We had our beginning-of-the-semester faculty meeting today, and I have to conclude that our department is in an abusive relationship with the university (and system) administration.
Why I'm convinced of this is the simple fact that we have…
jstemwedel | January 21, 2010In a comment on a post at Henry Gee's blog (I'd link the comment itself, but for the life of me I cannot figure out where the permalink is), Ed Yong offers his view on the relation between politeness and civility. Quoth Ed:
My objection comes when people mistake politeness for virtue rather than what it actually is - artifice masquerading as virtue. Politeness is what you teach children to tell them when and how to speak and behave before they are fully rational and capable of thinking through the moral consequences of their words and actions.
Adults, being (technically) able to do this…
jstemwedel | January 20, 20101. The barometric pressure has dropped from what it was last night (when it was raining).
2. The Doppler radar map indicates that this is where the action is.
3. It sounds like squirrels are tap-dancing on the roof.
4. There are no longer any wool socks in my sock drawer.
jstemwedel | December 31, 2009If I were not involved in preparing food for Casa Free-Ride's New Year's Eve celebration (after which, I will be joining my family members to celebrate and/or test our endurance in the face of fatigue -- I'll let you know afterward which of those it ends up being), I would totally be writing you a nice ethics-y and/or science-y post.
Since I'm not, and since you appear to have a moment to be reading this, let's make it a party. Use the comments to share:
What you're doing (or have done) to ring in 2010
What you're eating and/or drinking as part of your celebration
Your hopes, fears, goals,…
jstemwedel | December 26, 2009... once my fingertips holler "Uncle!" and tell me to take a break from my new ukulele.
To help you pass the time, some uke players who are way better than the n00b that I am on day 2 of my musical odyssey:
jstemwedel | December 25, 2009
Yeah, sure that plush Borrelia burgdorferi (the bacterium that causes Lyme disease) is playfully cuddling the plush penicillin now. But can their friendship last?
(Actually, in light of the fact that penicillin inhibits transpeptidase in gram-positive bacrteria, and of the fact that Borrelia burgdorferi is gram-negative, maybe those two love-sick kids can make it work.)
Uttered by Dr. Free-Ride's better half upon extracting the plush penicillin from the Christmas stocking: "I'm going to have to keep that away from my syphilis!"
jstemwedel | December 24, 2009Well, technically, wrappings for Christmas eve dinner: discos para empanadas.
It turns out, peeling them apart requires some patience and dexterity. Luckily, I had sufficient quantities of both.
I ended up making four different fillings. One was made with veggie ground beef, cheese, and green onions, another with potatoes, onions, and mushrooms, a third with plantains, and a fourth with ricotta cheese, raisins soaked in spiced rum, and chocolate chips.
The Free-Ride family (including the Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment) judged them tasty.
Next time, however, I plan to skip…
jstemwedel | December 24, 2009To the young people wandering around Casa Free-Ride singing Christmas songs (not just the refrains but all of the verses):
None of the canonical reindeer is named Connor. And Santa does not have a reindeer named Nixon.
Love,
Dr. Free-Ride
P.S. The last batch of cookies will be out of the oven in one minute. But you need to let them cool before you sample them -- just like the other batches.
jstemwedel | December 22, 2009Possibly related to the last post. The lyrics are original.
(For this, you need to imagine the younger Free-Ride offspring humming in the background as the elder sings.)
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
We're sorry that we killed ya.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
At least we didn't grill ya.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Our only Christmas casualty.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Be thankful we don't "nil" ya.
jstemwedel | December 18, 2009The better half and I were trying to decide this morning whether there was a way to follow the progress of "health care reform" in the U.S. Senate without getting really mad or really sad. (Conclusion: It seems logically possible that such a way exists, but we haven't found it yet.)
The one player that seems likely to get much of what it wants in all this seems to be the insurance industry. Given that the folks working out who gets what are politicians, this does not surprise me.
So it occurred to me that maybe we shouldn't be trusting politicians to achieve health care reform.
Instead…
jstemwedel | December 16, 2009An open letter to the handful of students during today's exam asking whether I could "explain" the fourth short-answer test item to them:
Dear students,
The question you are pointing to is unambiguously phrased.
The wording of the item is quite clear in asking you to explain what that particular author is arguing about that particular scientific explanation. Indeed, the question you are asking me in anxious whispers indicates that you understand what this test item is asking for, and that what you are asking from me is a hint about the right answer.
That's not how it works on the final…
jstemwedel | December 15, 2009If my congested head is upright today, I must be administering final exams.
This puts me in mind of a question that has not come up this semester (and, with luck, will not), but that has come up on occasion in the past.
I frequently teach multiple sections of the same course in a given semester. On the one hand, this simplifies things, because it means that I have fewer exams to write. (A single final exam works for both section of Philosophy of Science.) But, since our final exams are scheduled based on the regular meeting days and times for the courses, there are then necessarily…
jstemwedel | December 14, 2009One of the sprogs gave me a cold. There is nothing like being knocked on your butt by a cold to take all of the fun out of a weekend spent not-grading research projects.
Also, it seems to have filled my head with phlegm that then got ... phlegmatic. Not quite congealed, but on its way in that direction. Desperate for relief, this led me to try something new.
OK, a neti pot is actually a very old treatment, but its use is new to me. Also, it's apparently mainstream enough that you can find it in Walgreen's, and that the package insert claims that "it has been clinically proven to provide…
jstemwedel | December 11, 2009Whereas the commenters on this blog have on numerous occasions proven themselves to be whip-smart and very funny, and whereas this humble blog comes up near the top of Google searches for "three toed sloth sex jokes", I propose that we write some worthy three-toed sloth sex jokes.
Indeed, I'd like to write some jokes that turn on factual information about the three-toed sloth while not relying on sexist (or ableist, etc.) tropes for their "humor". Bonus points if we can generate genuinely funny three-toed sloth sex jokes that would turn up as results of a safe search.
Here's some potentially…
jstemwedel | December 10, 2009The elder Free-Ride offspring drew this:
I'm told it's a cat-mantis-kangaroo-lizard-horned toad robot. I'm pretty sure it's not yet available in stores (although maybe there's a kit?).
But I really want one. And not just to set against a Roomba in gladiatorial battle.
Speaking of Roomba, my better half was professing a need for yet another haircut, which got me to thinking that someone should develop a hybrid of the Roomba and the Flowbee. I mean, who wouldn't want a robot going on regular reconnaissance missions across one's head to determine whether the hair growth warrants a trim and…