personal
jstemwedel | December 10, 2009Uttered by an administrator:
"It's not a curricular decision. It's a resources decision."
The decision pertained to classes that were being cut.
Also, instruction, it turns out, requires resources.
We have not yet hit bottom here, and I am really tired of the sensation of plummeting.
drorzel | December 10, 2009SteelyKid was kind of overtired today, so she needed a little nap around dinnertime. This provided a nice opportunity to get a sleepy-baby picture for this week's Baby Blogging:
Bonus Kate for extra "OMG! Huuuuuge Baby!!!1!" effect.
She's wearing a way-cool roaring dinosaur shirt (purchased from the boys section, again...), but you can't really see it in any of the pictures I got tonight. We'll get it the next time she wears it, though. Unless she outgrows it first...
jstemwedel | December 10, 2009For those of you who have heard me issue calls for dialogue (not debate) on the subject of research with non-human animals -- especially if you're in the Los Angeles area -- I'm pleased to announce that there's an event coming up in February that's aimed at fostering just such a dialogue, in the three-dimensional world. Here's the announcement:
Save the date!
Perspectives on the Science and Ethics of Animal-Based Research
UCLA, Covel Commons, 6pm-8:30pm, February 16th, 2010
With the goal of opening an on-going dialogue between individuals who are in favor or opposed to the use of animals in…
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…
sciencewoman | December 9, 2009When I began to blog almost 5 years ago, I wanted to share stories of my graduate school experience with other women scientists in the hopes that we could form a virtual support network for each other. Back then it took me weeks to find even one other woman doing the same thing with a blog. Today, there is a whole community of women blogging about their experiences in science and engineering, from undergraduates to tenured faculty. A google search of "woman science blog" or similar will point to some prominent blogs and from there a newbie blog reader can use blog rolls and comment threads…
jstemwedel | December 7, 2009In comments on my earlier post about what happens to a college course in progress when the professor teaching it dies, a lot of folks raised interesting questions about what would be the fair policy to adopt with respect to student grades. I think actually implementing whatever we might agree was a fair grading policy could be complicated by practical considerations, like whether the professor had left behind updated grade records that were accessible to his or her department, whether he or she had already written a final exam (and a guide to grading that final exam), etc.
It's an…
drorzel | December 7, 2009It's that time of year again when I have to fill out my annual Faculty Activities Sheet, reporting on everything I did last academic year. Technically, I should've done this a while back, but it always slips into the December break.
This always takes much longer than it ought to, in large part because it's hard to remember exactly when certain significant things happened, which leads to a lot of searching of my email trying to determine when various things saw print, and which of the available categories it fits in. I probably really ought to keep a running tally of my activities as the year…
jstemwedel | December 4, 2009To amuse you while I attend to work that needs doing, I offer a picture of an object on my desk at work.
A couple of questions for you, dear readers:
1. What is this?
2. Why do I have it?
(I did not, in fact, get it for myself. It was given to me in a specific context. If necessary, I'll entertain yes-or-no questions in the comments to help you along.)
The first commenter who answers both questions correctly gets to assign me the topic of my next substantive post.
edyong | December 4, 2009For the last day, ScienceBlogs has been teasing some big news on Twitter. Perhaps we were all Belle de Jour in disguise? Maybe we would rip off our masks to reveal the mainstream media lurking underneath? Maybe we would even, gasp, shock, start blogging about science?
No, it's none of these. The cat, now let loose from its bag/box in a flurry of collapsing probabilities, is that we're joining up with National Geographic for a big, sciencey love-in.
There'll be a fair bit of cross-promotion on both sites, and we suddenly get access to a massive archive of pics and videos. And to clarify, Not…
jstemwedel | December 3, 2009As DrugMonkey reminds us, it's time for the year-in-review meme.
The rule: post the first sentence of the first post for each month.
January
... as drawn by the younger Free-Ride offspring.
February
Some of you may be aware that, at least in certain corners of the blogosphere, November is celebrated as International acaDemic Writing Month.
March
During our second day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium last weekend, I finally got my much needed jelly time.
April
I've gotten word that another blogger who has been tracking IP addresses associated with comments (on his own blog and on the blogs of…
pharyngula | December 3, 2009I'm going to be speaking at the U of M tonight. I actually have to leave soon for this, because we had a light snowfall yesterday, and last I checked, the roads were slick as shellacked snot. I'm giving myself lots of extra driving time to improve my odds of actually getting there intact and with a still functional vehicle.
Also, some of us will be meeting at the campus club in Coffman Union sometime before the 7:30 talk. Feel free to stop by and say hello!
Skatje and I are here — the roads were good and we made it plenty early. Stop by the Campus Club (4th floor of Coffman Union) any time…
drorzel | December 3, 2009It's been a while since we had a sleeping-baby picture, so here's SteelyKid at bedtime last night:
I swear I wasn't going for the Catherine Wheel album cover effect, but what can you do?
SteelyKid and I are off to Boston today, where she'll be visiting her grandmother while I head up to Maine to give a colloquium talk at Bates. If you have any message for Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe, leave it in the comments, and I'll be sure to pass it along if I see them.
terrasig | December 3, 2009Dear Readers:
No I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I've only been quiet because I am getting crushed during this last week of the semester. I have a couple of topics I want to share with you but it may not happen today.
Please accept my apologies for slacking on my commitment to each of you.
Regretfully,
Abel
jstemwedel | December 2, 2009One is that my hands are tired from writing all those comments, which means I don't feel like typing.
Another is described in this brief video.
pharyngula | December 2, 2009My house is in chaos! The cats are yowling in panic! My fingers are fragile little icicles at the ends of my arms! It may be quiet here for a while. This morning, the contractors showed up to install new doors on my house — wonderful energy-efficient insulating doors to replace the old thin sheets of plywood — that were ordered way back in October. The first step, of course, is removing all those old doors, opening up the interior to the open air. In Minnesota. In December. And it's snowing, lightly.
Anyway, if you think this is a perfect opportunity to charge in and penetrate the normally…
pharyngula | December 1, 2009I'm interviewed on the latest edition of The Big Podcast by two people on two different continents at the same time, via the magic of technology. Check it out!
jstemwedel | November 30, 2009It's the last day of November. I have three more meetings with each of my classes before finals. I have oodles of grading to do before finals. I have one big administrative task and at least a dozen smaller ones to do before the end of the semester.
And, at the moment, I feel as though the weight of the semester is pressing down on me, like the stones used to press to death that one man so sentenced in the Salem witch trials.
I have always thought I preferred the semester system to the quarter system, as academic calendars go -- a longer calendar giving you a more reasonable amount of time…
laelaps | November 28, 2009For months now I have been hammering away at individual chapters of my first book, Written in Stone, but this weekend I finally put all the individual parts together into one document. I still have a lot of editing to do, but it still feels good to move past the stage of large-scale construction and get down to fine tuning.
With the greater body of work properly arranged I could hardly resist creating a Wordle cloud for the book. For those unfamiliar with Wordle, it is an online program that will scan through a body of text and pick out the most frequently used words and display them in a…
drorzel | November 27, 2009Windows MovieMaker has inexplicably decided to work again, today. Maybe it can only produce useful output on odd-numbered Fridays. Whatever the reason, I was finally able to edit down and paste together a couple of really cute video clips of SteelyKid playing in her babypod:
We can (and do) watch this sort of thing for hours. She very clearly has something she's trying to do, even if we can't quite tell what it is. It's fascinating to see the wheels turning, though, and I can't wait until she can explain what she thinks is going on. whatever it is, she obviously thinks it's pretty cool.
pharyngula | November 27, 2009I'm going to be on radio station KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, at 10:15am California time (12:15 Central time). You can also listen in via the web.
This is a left-wing Pacifica station, so I'm sure they'll be piping it into all the California shopping malls in place of Muzak, so if you're out shopping, maybe you'll hear me too.