Passing thoughts
jstemwedel | November 29, 2006It turns out I've been a member of the Americal Chemical Society for three years now. How do I know?
They sent me a new mug.
While I enjoy my weekly issue of Chemical & Engineering News -- which, I imagine, most ACS members see as the most tangible benefit of their membership -- I must confess that I really love the mugs.
Last year, for my second anniversary of membership, they sent me a mug with helium (element 2) on it. This year, the third anniversary, it's lithium (element 3). On the first anniversary, there wasn't a hydrogen mug, but rather a pop-up card featuring hydrogen.
So,…
jstemwedel | November 28, 2006I have a question for the scientifically informed hive-mind:
Why is it that no matter what I do, I end up with a head-cold by a few days after Thanksgiving?
Back when I was doing the frightening make-fifteen-dishes-to-bring-to-the-potluck Thanksgivings (with graduate classes and teaching and research in the background), I could kind of understand the sneezy fallout as a natural consequence of too little sleep and too much stress. Whose immune system wouldn't strike back against such rough treatment?
Similarly, when the kids were smaller and they brought home every exotic virus they could…
jstemwedel | November 18, 2006This morning, younger offspring asked me what "hyperbolic" meant. (Yeah, I'll admit that this is because I used it in conversation with younger offspring. It was not a conversation about conic sections or trigonometry, though, so cut me some slack.)
Anyway, long story short, I now have a product I totally need to market, even though it'll probably result in Orac lambasting me in his "Friday Dose of Woo" feature:
I want to sell hyperbolic chambers. (Not hypobaric chambers, hyperbolic chambers.) The obvious buyers would be hospitals and medical centers that specialize in the treatment of…
jstemwedel | November 13, 2006Yeah, I'm grading. (Maybe you would be too if you weren't reading the blogs, hmm?) But I wanted to check in.
I pulled my back loading the car for the last soccer game of the season. What's the proper inference to draw from that (besides the obvious: that I'm getting old and all this grading is doing nothing for my muscle tone)?
How is it that if I make assignments at school they often are left undone, whereas if I make assignments on my blog, people do the work and turn it in? (Are we now awarding ScienceBlogs course credit?)
As much as I hate feeding capitalism (seriously, ask these…
jstemwedel | November 6, 2006Something quite unexpected happened to me: I managed to pay off a student loan nearly a year before I go up for tenure! Who'd have thunk it?
Here's the letter they sent me, with a bit of reading between the lines:
Dear Janet,
On behalf of [the school where I got the student loan], I wish to thank you for repaying your student loan and not being a deadbeat. I commend you for fulfilling this very important financial obligation instead of treating it like an obligation to one of those magazine CD clubs. The student loan programs are revolving funds, so your repayment will be used to make new…
jstemwedel | November 2, 2006First the really important thing: if you haven't done it yet, write some letters (or send some faxes) to save the Tripoli six. You'll be glad that you did something to stand up for truth and fairness.
Less life-or-death, but still worthy: Shelley Batts from Retrospectacle is up for a Student Blogger Scholarship, and you can vote for her here.
Now, I'm off to meet John Wilkins for lunch. From our phone conversation:
John: You know what I look like?
Me: Kind of like an albino gorilla?
John: That's an old photo ...
More soon!
jstemwedel | October 26, 2006So, I'm getting ready to go to Vancouver, BC, next week for the Philosophy of Science Association meeting (which coincides with the Society for Social Studies of Science meeting and the History of Science Society meeting). And I'm really jazzed that I'll get to meet John Lynch and John Wilkins and Ben Cohen and David Ng in the three-dimensional world.
But I'm also psyched that I'm going to be able to get rid of all the Canadian coinage that has found its way into my hands over the last several years.*
Naturally, this has led me to wonder whether there is a typical Canadian experience that is…
jstemwedel | October 22, 2006Riffing on a Fark.com thread, John Lynch ponders the pearls of wisdom he might offer his 12-year-old self. This got me to thinking that there is useful advice I'd want to share with that earlier time-slice of me, but there is also information about which I think I'd keep earlier-me in the dark.*
Here's what I'd share with my 12-year-old self:
Hardly any academic setting will be so insulting of your intelligence as seventh grade -- so hang in there.
There are very few creatures more willfully vicious than teenage girls -- but much of this is in response to cultural forces that don't want to…
jstemwedel | October 16, 2006I'm starting to wonder if some of my grinding fatigue can be laid at the feet of untenable choices.
Would you prefer:
Students who make a conscious choice never to come to your lectures (which means they haven't even seen one lecture and used it as a basis for the decision) yet faithfully do all the assigned reading and turn in the papers, or students who come to every single class meeting and participate enthusiastically but who never do the assigned reading (which shows in their papers)?
A department chair who holds the line on a reasonable upper limit for his department's class sizes but…
jstemwedel | October 16, 2006Ben thinks it's time to start auditioning for a ScienceBlogs house band.
Under the guidance of the Adventures in Ethics and Science Musical Advisory Panel (i.e., the sprogs), I've come up with a few suggestions:
They Might Be Giants. In their prodigious catalogue, they have made it clear that they value the nerdy as a contribution to pop culture. They rock the accordian. But, as younger offspring asks, "Why aren't there any girl Giants?"
Shonen Knife. Don't dare to laugh them off as "bubblegum". This cute package will mess you up if you try to resist the beat it's serving. But more of…
jstemwedel | October 12, 2006It's no Puzzle Fantastica #1, but it's what I have at the moment.
In a comment on my post about what I think the point of a college education is (or is not), Caledonian left this tantalizing comment:
I've noticed a fascinating trend among those people who have responded to this post favorably. Hopefully additional responses will reveal whether this pattern is genuine or spurious.
Of course, Caledonian isn't going to bias the data by telling us what the pattern is (at least, not until the data is all in). But now I can't help poring over the comments to try to discern just what pattern (or…
jstemwedel | October 2, 2006Disclaimer: Plagiarism is bad. A quick search for "plagiarism" on this blog will demonstrate that I've taken a clear stand against plagiarism.
That said, if one were, hypothetically, planning a little online-copy-and-paste plagiarism, and if one's instructor has earned a Ph.D., in Philosophy, from Stanford, one might reconsider using the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as the source of several uncited sentences.
There is a better-than-average chance that the instructor is familiar with SEP -- indeed, even with the specific entry you (hypothetically) are tempted to plunder.
Even if she's…
jstemwedel | September 28, 2006
Elder offspring: Hey, that's a cool chili pepper necklace.
Dr. Free-Ride: Do you know that I've had this necklace for about ten years and you are the first person who didn't think it was a carrot?
Elder offspring: A carrot? That doesn't look like a carrot!
Dr. Free-Ride: I didn't think so, either. But I'm guessing it's because the chili is orange, and people don't recognize orange chilies as easily as red ones.
Elder offspring: Still, the shape's all wrong for a carrot.
Dr. Free-Ride: I'm really pleased with your powers of observation and your ability to distinguish different fruits…
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 18, 2006
The entries have been gathered, the aspects of geekiness quantified, and the composite scores calculated.
While computer-love made a positive contribution in the nerd index, the development of knowledge in other venues (and frequently, in multiple areas for the same nerd) was factored in as well. After all, the thing about nerds that made those beautiful people in high school so scared is that nerds enjoyed learning things for the sheer joy of learning them. That this is learning for learning's sake is pretty evident from some of the areas to which the formidable brain power on display was…
jstemwedel | September 12, 2006
I wanted to remind all the nerds (a term I use to encompass as well geeks, poindexters, dweebs, and those in allied fields) that you'll need to nerd things up by Sunday evening if you want to be considered for the final nerd-off rankings. The time remaining to represent is ticking down.
And that reminded me of my nerdy DARPA time piece, pictured here. You can't buy this watch in stores!
But perhaps even nerdier is the reason I always opt for analog over digital watches: analog watches remind me of the unit circle, for which I have a deep and abiding love.
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 10, 2006Today, at a local outpost of a large chain bookstore, the sprogs and I endeavored to spend some gift cards. Since this is a chain which does not make book-locator terminals available to browsing customers, we were waiting at the customer service desk.
Patron ahead of us in line: I'm looking for The Prince by Machiavelli.
Bookstore employee at the customer service desk: Can you tell me what kind of book that is?
Patron ahead of us in line: What do you mean?
Bookstore employee at the customer service desk: What genre? Is it fiction? Non-fiction? Children's?
Patron ahead of us in line:…
jstemwedel | September 9, 2006("A strong mind in a nerdy body", from the Latin, five years of which also contributes to my nerd cred.)
There's this stereotype that the really brainy kids have some difficulty moving around the physical world successfully. Sometimes it holds true, I am sad to report.
In junior high, my physical education grades (Bs, generally) routinely kept me off the highest tier of the honor roll. In high school, though, I managed to earn varsity letters:
for Math Team, Chemistry Team, and Quiz Bowl. (They looked darn good sewn over the pockets of my cardigan-style letter sweater, though.)
My senior…
jstemwedel | September 9, 2006Although it would seem that some suspiciously hott ScienceBloggers think they have enough data to call a winner in the nerd-off, it's not over yet.
There are more nerds poised to represent. (Not just ScienceBloggers, either. I'm curious to see whether anyone at Cosmic Variance will throw down.) As well, there will be a proper analysis and weighing of the data in evidence.
So there's still a chance to get your nerd on in the nerd-off. Anything posted (and detected via Technorati or Google Blogsearch) by next Sunday evening is eligible. The results will go up Monday, Sept. 18.