personal
pharyngula | March 12, 2008There are all these PharynguFests going on, but they all make me entirely superfluous…I may have to pout. Why isn't anyone inviting me to London or Anchorage? I know, it's because you don't need me, and you're cheap and don't want to spend the money on some distant nerd, since you've got plenty of local nerds right at hand. And that's OK. I do have some traveling in my near future, in case anyone wants to take advantage of it.
I'll be in Washington DC for the AFT/NEA conference the weekend of 28-30 March, so I might be available that Friday or Saturday evening.
I'll be in Eugene, Oregon the…
jstemwedel | March 11, 2008Since Alice and Sciencewoman and DrugMonkey and Razib are discussing it (and because Zuska has discussed it before, including in real life), I wanted to say something about my reaction to the observation that science blogosphere in general, and ScienceBlogs in particular, seems pretty white:
I'd noticed that, too! And I'd like it a lot if there were more racial diversity among the science bloggers and the blogging scientists.
There would be some clear benefits to achieving more diversity -- but there might also be costs, and looking at who would bear those costs seems pretty important.
To…
pharyngula | March 10, 2008Thank you to everyone who noticed that yesterday I was one day older than the day before! And a special thanks to Bora for collecting all the various links together in one place.
Archaeoporn
bathtubnz
Rev. BigDumbChimp
Blue Collar Scientist
decorabilia
Thoughts in a Haystack
Archy
Jyunri Kankei
Maryannaville
Sandwalk
Aardvarchaeology
Afarensis
Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge
Dynamics of Cats
Discovering Biology in a Digital World
Effect Measure
Adventures in Ethics and Science
Evolving Thoughts
Green Gabbro
Greg Laden
Living the Scientific Life
Page 3.14
Stranger Fruit
Terra Sigillata…
pharyngula | March 9, 2008So a guy gets a little older, and what happens? All these people try to draw attention to my age, largely with a collection of photoshopped pictures of yours truly. Don't they know I'm funny-looking enough that no photoshop is necessary?
By the way, I got a nice present from my family: a new, ergonomic Cephalopod Throne. You'll be reassured to know that now, when I fling thunderbolts of furious vituperation about the web, I shall be doing so with excellent posture.
terrasig | March 7, 2008
Eve Carson | student body president | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This photo was taken on Monday, 3 March. Eve was shot less than 36 hours later. The entire campus, community and alumni mourn her death. She had a ethic of public service so strongly symbolized in her response to why she does what she does. [Photo by Tony Deifell]
Primary UNC-CH website
10,000 celebrate Carson's life
Rose Hoban WUNC-FM report on celebration of life
Chancellor's message to students following arrests of suspects (13 March)
Remarks of Eve's father, Bob Carson
Remembering the student's president…
j7uy5 | March 6, 2008In late winter, 1979, I knew an architecture student at the University
of Michigan. She wanted some pictures of buildings, in
downtown Chicago, for a presentation she had to do. She was
from Chicago, but did not have a car and did not have a camera.
I, on the other hand, had a Mazda Rx-3 and a Minolta SRT-202.
So off we went. Little did I know, they were having
record snowfalls that year. It was awfully treacherous
driving in that Mazda.
The snow piles on the street outside of her house were taller than my
little car. In fact, it was impossible to see the house.
Now, Chicago is…
jstemwedel | March 4, 2008Abel Pharmboy and Drugmonkey are having a conversation that I wish I could approach completely abstractly, about what parents ought to be telling their kids about drugs (whether legal or illegal) and their use. (Also, Page 3.14 has a reader's poll about whether teens can be scared off illegal drugs. Poll results will be published in the ScienceBlogs Weekly Recap newsletter, for which you can sign up here.)
Of course, having two kids who are not yet teens but don't seem to be getting any younger, the issue doesn't feel abstract at all. The clock is ticking.
Here's what is currently…
edyong | March 3, 2008We interrupt you regularly scheduled dose of news on peer-reviewed papers to bring you a short tribute to Sir David Attenborough.
As I write this, the final episode of Life in Cold Blood, and thus the final episode of the entire "Life" series, has just finished airing on British telly. And what a climax it was - for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, you're in for a treat of caring mother caimans, bellowing alligators and a sequence of green turtle mating that was truly one of the most awesome pieces of natural history video I have ever seen. And I mean awesome in the traditional sense of the…
edyong | March 3, 2008As part of the welcome package for new bloggers, the good folks at ScienceBlogs interviewed me and the results are now up.
clock | March 2, 2008Wow! This is nuts! And this is nuts in a different way! Fortunately, Scott McLemee, Chad Orzel, Josh Rosenau and Brian Switek bring in some reality to the topic: what goes on the living-room bookshelf? Commenters chime in. Good stuff. Read it.
So, what are "rules" in the Coturnix house?
First, the house is too small to allow too much fine planning as to what the guests will see.
Second, we do not have guests very often (again, lack of space), so the bookshelves are not aimed at them.
Third, we have about 5000 books and they have to be stored somewhere, in some fashion.
Fourth, we have…
sciencewoman | March 1, 2008I know I've written before about how I reward myself with iTunes purchases (but I can't find the links right now). Well, I am due for some serious spending on iTunes, as I recently had a paper accepted and recently celebrated a birthday. But here's the problem, I think I'm in a musical rut, and I don't know what to purchase. So I need your help, oh Internets.
Here's what I've purchased most recently (all Pandora finds, but my Pandora is in a rut too.):
Chantal Kreviazuk
Alice Peacock
Tara McLean
Beth Orton
Deb Talan
Leslie Tucker
Carla Werner
October Project
Here are some of my…
jstemwedel | February 29, 2008I recently received an email, prompted by my series about having a family and an academic career, asking for some input:
I am a mere first year in a Ph.D. program and am a bit older than the other students. I am wholeheartedly committed to the program I am also considering the seemingly traitorous act of having a baby.
Do you think it's essential to wait until ABD status?
From the point of view of getting things done, it is certainly possible to take classes (and TA classes) while pregnant. A lot depends on your work-style. I'm the kind of person who's better off doing something…
jstemwedel | February 28, 2008All the cool kids were doing this particular round of navel-gazing yesterday and the day before, while I was either dreadfully ill and out of commission or somewhat better and working. (Today was also quite full of work stuff.) However, it's not an unimportant set of questions, and possibly you're curious about the answers, so let's give it a go:
1. Why do you consider this blog a science blog?
You know, initially I'm not sure I would have claimed that designation. This started as a blog about what's involved in being a responsible scientist -- so to that extent, the activity of science…
jstemwedel | February 27, 2008Regular readers of this blog know that I am hoping to be on a sabbatical leave during academic year 2008-2009. Indeed, some of you have asked, "Where are you going to go?"
The answer:
My brand new desk at home.
As it turns out, it has been years since I've had a proper desk of my own at home. The computer table that functioned as my desk for the last year of my chemistry studies pretty much became community property once the sprogs arrived. (You'd be amazed at how quickly babies become territorial about computers.) This means that much of my philosophy dissertation was hammered out on my…
drorzel | February 27, 2008I'm very happy with my 2007 Ford Freestyle, but there's one major design flaw that drives me nuts. It's only a problem in the winter, though, which makes me wonder what the hell the folks in Detroit are smoking.
If you look at the picture, you can just make out the antenna, on the passenger side of the windshield. It's attached to the car just an inch or two from the lower right-hand corner of the windshield, seen from inside the car.
Now, take five seconds, and think about what you would need to do, and where you would need to stand, in order to remove snow or ice from the windshield. Do you…
edyong | February 25, 2008Greetings all,
Not Exactly Rocket Science has now officially transformed and rolled out into the ScienceBlogs network. So to readers who have tracked me here, new Not-Exactly-Rocket-Science virgins, my new SciBlings, and people who have mistakenly stumbled here during their search for porn - hello! The blog is about explaining new research in a way that anyone can understand, regardless of their scientific background. I generally post about 3 times a week and more if time permits.
Also, I'm giving a talk on science blogging this Thursday at London's Apple Store on Regent Street, alongside…
drorzel | February 25, 2008Thanks again to all the people who left congratulations and well-wishes on last week's ultrasound picture post. The positive thoughts are much appreciated, especially since it's been a bit of a roller-coaster here in Chateau Steelypips.
As you can guess from the fact that the ultrasound looks fairly baby-ish, we've known about this for quite a while-- that's an 18-week ultrasound, and we told our parents about the pregnancy at Christmas. Things took a somewhat unpleasant turn in early January, though-- all appears to be well now, but there were a couple of really unpleasant weeks in there.
In…
clock | February 23, 2008Last night we went to Raleigh Memorial Auditorium and saw the opening ("student") night of "Annie Get Your Gun", starring Larry Gatlin, who is apparently some big name in country music, and Raleigh-born Lauren Kennedy who we last saw as Lady Of The Lake in Spamalot when we went to NYC two years ago (btw, Spamalot is coming to Raleigh in April, but the Lady will be played by someone else).
It was fun (a couple of minor glitches that they skillfully masked or played for laughs, the biggest being when Larry forgot his line in one of the songs and Lauren saved him by singing them for him without…
terrasig | February 22, 2008I am very deeply touched (as I was literally yesterday) by the outpouring of support and best wishes from fellow bloggers on the liveblogging of my vasectomy.
For all of the dark humor and puns, you have each been instrumental in supporting my aim of telling men relatively quick and painless the procedure is, or at least getting them to think about this as a contraceptive alternative to having their wives undergo a more involved tubal ligation.
I'll still never understand what makes things fly in the blogosphere as I spend hours writing what I think are thoughtful posts about drug safety…