personal
clock | September 26, 2007This was Anton's idea, at the dinner the other night, but I will get it started here anyway.
An interesting animal I had
I never owned an unusual species of animal. As a little kid I had small turtle named Aeschillus. Later I had two horses, half-brothers, whose names meant the same in two different languages - Meraklija in Serbian and Kefli in Hebrew both mean "one who truly enjoys life and good things in life". My wife was a better namer of horses - her last one, the one she brought into the marriage, she named Double Helix and his barn nickname was Watson. A cat and a dog also became "…
jstemwedel | September 26, 2007Sean, Chad, and Steinn ponder the lameness of academics in self-reporting their "guilty pleasures".
Quoth Sean:
I immediately felt bad that I couldn't come up with a more salacious, or at least quirky and eccentric, guilty pleasure. I chose going to Vegas, a very unique and daring pastime that is shared by millions of people every week. I was sure that, once the roundup appeared in print, I would be shown up as the milquetoast I truly am, my pretensions to edgy hipness once again roundly flogged for the enjoyment of others.
But no. As it turns out, compared to my colleagues I'm some sort of…
jstemwedel | September 25, 2007
You may have noticed a lull in my postings here. I've been laboring to put the finishing touches on my dossier for my sixth year review. This dossier is the document on which a succession of committees will be basing their decisions as to whether San José State University will be tenuring me and promoting me to associate professor, or whether they will be thanking me for my service and sending me on my way.
It's an awful lot of responsibility to put in the clutches of a three-ring binder, don't you think?
I should explain a little bit about the "retention, tenure, and promotion" (or RTP)…
tqa | September 24, 2007
When I was a kid, baseball was very important to me. It was very important to most of the boys growing up in my neighborhood. Almost all of the boys (and a handful of the girls) at my school signed up for Little League most years. The season started with a parade - and what kid doesn't like to be in a parade - and ended with everyone getting a trophy. It was great.
The only problem was that I wasn't very good at baseball. That wasn't much of a handicap the first couple of years, but as games got more competitive I found myself spending less time playing, and more time sitting. And sitting…
sciencewoman | September 24, 2007Notes for new readers: Mommy Monday is a regular feature on this blog, and Fish is my husband. This week I am responding to a request from amy, sara, and jenn to explain how I "find time for Fish on top of being a scientist and a mommy"
The short answer is "I don't do it very well." It's probably the biggest thing I'm letting slide right now (other than sleep).
But Fish swears that I do make time for him (he's really very sweet). So what do we do?
We've always gone grocery shopping together, making a list and looking at recipes beforehand, cutting out coupons, and then just going for impulse…
sheril | September 24, 2007
Last night, Craig McClain of Deep Sea News visited us in North Carolina for fun with Bora, Anna, Abel Pharmboy, and me. Craig also loves marine inverts so we had lots to discuss. More evidence NC is where the SciBlings are!
clock | September 21, 2007Wow - this was a busy and exhausting week! But Trackbacks are in place and (mostly) working.
I did not even have time to unpack everything from last weekend's pseudo-move - the house is nice and clean but still looks like a war-zone.
And tomorrow I am teaching Lab 3 (out of 4) in the morning and going to a wedding in the afternoon.
Sunday is the beginning of the Foodblogging event and I'll also meet some science bloggers in the evening.
Blogging? Backburner until Monday, most likely....
In the meantime, learn how to draw a magpie.
sheril | September 20, 2007Today our very own Chris Mooney has officially been spinning around the sun for three decades! It's hard to imagine that's only a few revolutions more than me considering all he's accomplished... As Darth Vader once said, 'The Force is strong with this one.'
In 30 years, my co-blogger's penned a couple books, made some folks uncomfy on Capitol Hill, and kept the blog going strong with higher traffic than ever. Now while most of us would agree that's quite a lot already, our favorite New Orleans native didn't stop there... His work is part of the Best American Science and Nature Writing…
sb admin | September 20, 2007I'm the new mommy blogger here at ScienceBlogs.
I don't write about the latest ground-breaking research in my field. I don't even publicly reveal what my field is.
What I do write about are my experiences as an early career scientist who also happens to be a woman.
I share my life as the mother of a spunky seven-month old girl who has already "helped" with field work and seminars. I describe the dramas of being a first-year assistant professor, scrambling to write lectures and grant proposals and figure out what "service" means, while trying to be home for a little playtime before my…
sciencewoman | September 20, 2007I'm the new mommy blogger here at ScienceBlogs.
I don't write about the latest ground-breaking research in my field. I don't even publicly reveal what my field is.
What I do write about are my experiences as an early career scientist who also happens to be a woman.
I share my life as the mother of a spunky seven-month old girl who has already "helped" with field work and seminars. I describe the dramas of being a first-year assistant professor, scrambling to write lectures and grant proposals and figure out what "service" means, while trying to be home for a little playtime before my…
pharyngula | September 19, 2007You just can't trust Canadians. I let a couple of them into my home, and what do they do? They reveal all my secrets, that's what.
Man, I'm just glad I didn't take them on a tour of the basement. There are things down there mere men weren't meant to see.
For some reason, this seems like the perfect place to cite LOLTHULHU.
harderkid13 | September 18, 2007I am another one of PZ's students just introducing myself. I am a biology major. When I am finished with my undergraduate work I hope to attend medical or physician assistant school. I am in neurobiology because I love learning about how the body works. It is part of what attracts me to the medical field.
sheril | September 18, 2007Over the months I've been blogging at The Intersection, I've shared a little bit about myself here... Readers may remember I'm drummer in a girl band, have a strange affinity for sea cucumbers, and a habit of pulling crazy stunts as a radio personality. What you may not know is it also happens I can legally preside over weddings. Just another little thing I do.
This past Sunday, family, friends, and community from all over the world and all walks of life converged in the misty mountains of western Massachusetts for three days of celebrating the marriage of my big brother, Seth, and new…
jstemwedel | September 17, 2007
However, it would seem that the disclaimer is ambiguous. Otherwise, why would my better half and I disagree about what the disclaimer means?
It's not like either of us is the sort to propose an alternate interpretation just to be difficult. Honest!
Anyway, here's the front of the mug. It's a nice design. (And if you have a serious hankering for a mug like this one, my understanding is that they are currently being given away to folks who subscribe to Seed. I don't know that any are available yet on eBay, but surely it's just a matter of time.)
For my money, though, it's the back of…
drorzel | September 17, 2007James Oliver Rigney, better known to the world by his Robert Jordan pseudonym, has passed away after a long illness. I didn't know him personally-- I met him very briefly once, at a signing-- but the Wheel of Time books were ridiculously important in my life. I met a great many friends through Robert Jordan fandom on Usenet, which helped keep me sane during graduate school. And Kate was among the people I met there, so I really owe him more than I can easily express.
Making Light has more, including links to a number of other tributes. Whatever you may think of the books (and this is neither…
clock | September 15, 2007Mrs. Coturnix and I (amidst all of the packing and cleaning), are also celebrating our anniversary today. I just put some champaign to chill and, just in time for this, the mailman brought us something to drink out of:
Brought to you from the same folks who make serotonin earrings. Well, geeks like us need to know exactly what we're drinking....
mark_antimony | September 14, 2007 Hello. I'm a student in PZMyers' Neurobiology course. I've never blogged before, but hey, there's a first for everything I guess. My major is Biology. My strengths are ideas and problem solving; weaknesses include porcrastination. When I'm not in class, I enjoy swimming, swing dancing, and Rock & Roll.
I don't really have any reason for taking neurobiology over any other bio elective I just figured that it would be fun. I've found that I have more interest in studying the micro level over the macro level. If I decide that I like neuro, maybe I'll look into a grad program…
tqa | September 14, 2007
I'm making a few changes to the left-hand sidebar for the blog this weekend. One of them is already in place - if you look to the left, you'll see a presidential election poll. It's linked to Newsvine's ElectionVine project. You can vote once a month, and if you play around with the widget, you can pull up different sets of results based on the entire project, not just this one site. (I cheerfully stole this idea from Joseph.) Later on this weekend, I'll be changing my blogroll a bit. I'm also in the process of re-working my categories, so expect to see some changes there, too.
lua yar | September 14, 2007I am currently taking the neurobiology course offered by Dr. Myers, and being as this is my first blog entry on his site, I will give a little introduction about my interest in neurobiology and why I am taking this class.
To begin, I will say that I really do not know much about neurobiology. I know the basic idea: that the brain is responsible for transmitting signals that tell the rest of the body what to do. What I would like to learn more about is the act of signal transduction, specifically the propagation of the action potential down the axon and the role of the sodium-potassium pump.…