As we’re listening to Weekend Edition, the younger Free-Ride offspring asks, “Why don’t they ever have weekend subtraction?”
(I think it was the elder Free-Ride offspring, years ago, who asked why Morning Edition had puppet words. It took us a few long moments to figure out the “puppet words” was actually Bob Edwards.)
Author Archives: admin
Friday Sprog Blogging: weekend experimentation.
Elder offspring: [Dr. Free-Ride’s better half] said we’re going to do some experiments this weekend.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh really? Do you know what the experiments will be, or are you going to make them up as you go?
Younger offspring: One of them will be making milk curdle.
Elder offspring: With vinegar or lemon juice, I think.
Dr. Free-Ride: Ah, that’s a classic.
Younger offspring: We’re going to curdle the milk before lunch. That will make cottage cheese, which we can eat for lunch.
Dr. Free-Ride: Clever! What else will you be doing?
Younger offspring: I can’t remember.
Elder offspring: Maybe we’ll make [younger offspring] a zombie.
Dr. Free-Ride: You know my rule: No zombies in the house!
Younger offspring: Awww …
A question for those who teach.
Do you ever get to the point where if you haven’t checked your syllabus within the last few hours, you have no confidence that you actually know what day it is?
Or is it just me?
Sustainability starts with sustainable habits.
Another Earth Day rolls around, and I still have major qualms about the typical American approach to it (which seems to boil down to “Consumer choices will save the world!”). Possibly, viewing ourselves and each other primarily as consumers explains how we have had such a dramatic effect on the environment in the first place.
Still, while we try to muster the political will and get ourselves together to respond collectively to the challenges to the Earth we all share, it’s undeniable that our individual choices do have impacts. Here in the U.S., some of those impacts can be pretty big. So, I’m marking this Earth Day by taking stock of some of the habits I’ve tried to cultivate to lighten my impact.
Considering the science world’s ‘massive communication problem’.
In the aftermath of a pretty enthusiastic pile-on to a claim that Expelled! had a successful first week of release, Chris Mooney calls for “serious introspection about the massive communication crisis we’re facing in the science world”.
You know I’m always up for introspection.
Getting students to ask good questions.
Neil Sinhababu (aka the Ethical Werewolf) lays out one approach to making an impression in a job interview teaching demo:
Before giving my job talk, N[ational] U[niversity of] S[ingapore] had me give an hour-long presentation to the graduate students and advanced undergraduates to prepare them for the talk and also evaluate my teaching abilities. Since my talk was on the Humean theory of motivation, I taught them about the puzzle involving cognitivism, internalism, and the Humean theory — if you accept all three, you end up having to say that humans can’t make moral judgments, so you’d better deny at least one of the three. I’d planned the talk to include about 20 minutes of student questions, but a third of the way through, the students hadn’t asked me anything.
So I looked at them and tried a trick that I had spontaneously come up with in the previous session of the lecture I’ve been teaching at Texas. I said, “If someone asks a question, and it’s a good question, I’m going to dance.” Amid lots of giggling, a brave young man raised his hand and asked a question — I’ve forgotten what it was now, but it was good, and the students laughed again when they saw me dancing. After that, good questions flowed freely. When students see that their teacher is willing to do comical and mildly embarrassing things to reward student participation, they get the idea that class really is a place where they’re suppose to participate.
I wondered at the time what the NUS faculty evaluating me thought of that stunt. They didn’t express emotion in any obvious way, and it seemed kind of high-risk, high-reward — would I look like a dynamic, exciting teacher, or a maniac?
Neil totally got the job — so you might want to congratulate him. Then you can ask for advice on your own dance moves.
Words of advice for new tenure track faculty.
ScienceWoman has a great post on balancing responsibilities in a new tenure track job, with an eye to publishing papers and setting up a robust and productive research program. It’s a must-read, especially for those who are lucky enough to be starting tenure track gigs in the fall. Since I’m getting toward the end of my probationary period before the tenure decision (ask me on May 23, I’ll know by then), I thought I’d offer my words of advice for hitting the ground running in a tenure track job:
Friday Sprog Blogging: book review of ‘Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid’.
The foreshadowing last week was accurate. This week, we offer a review of Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid by Shirley Raye Redmond with illustrations by Bryn Barnard.
Younger offspring: We should talk about my new squid book for the Friday Sprog Blog.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK. What do you like about this book?
Younger offspring: (Gazing at the cover) I like the cute face of the giant squid.
Dr. Free-Ride: You think that’s a cute face, huh?
A dialogue on pseudonymity, personae, and interpersonal relations in the blogosphere.
Janet D. Stemwedel: Hey, can we talk about pseudonymous blogging?
Dr. Free-Ride: Haven’t you already written a bunch of posts about that?
Janet D. Stemwedel: Yeah, but the blogosphere seems to be discussing it again.
Dr. Free-Ride: You know I only work on Fridays, right?
Janet D. Stemwedel: Get your pseudonymous butt in gear and help me have a proper dialogue!
A tax-related question.
Actually, a few of them. Since we sent our tax return off already, the answers to the questions probably doesn’t have much practical import, but here they are:
Y’all know that I get paid a (pretty modest) amount for blogging. As such, Seed sent me a 2007 Miscellaneous Income report (Form 1099-MISC).
This form shows the modest amount that I earned in box 5, “Fishing boat proceeds”. Under “Instructions for Recipient” it says:
Box 5. An amount in this box means the fishing boat operator considers you self-employed. Report this amount on Schedule C or C-EZ (Form 1040). See Pub. 344.
My questions: