It seems the IAU ruling on what counts as a planet has stirred a little controversy in the Free-Ride home.
Dr. Free-Ride: You heard what happened with Pluto, right?
Younger offspring: It’s not there any more.
Dr. Free-Ride: Uh, it’s still there, just as big as it was and pretty much where it was before.
Elder offspring: But it’s not a real planet any more. Pluto got kicked out and they made Xena a planet instead.
Dr. Free-Ride: Umm, that’s not right either.
What should my students call me?
OK, it’s the time of the semester when I get a bazillion emails from students enrolled in my classes, and students trying to enroll in my classes, and assorted others. And, the emailers each choose a manner of address out of thin air, since usually they haven’t met me yet and have no idea how I prefer to be addressed.
The problem is, I’m not sure how I would prefer to be addressed!
A brief list of reasons I’m against capital punishment.
Because Shelley asked (and Josh, Mike, Chad, Nick, PZ, and John have all posted answers), I’m going to chime in.
Shelley asks:
Are you for or against the death penalty, or (if it’s conditional), in what cases? Furthermore, do you believe that societies that sanction war are hypocritical for opposing the death penalty?
Rather than giving a detailed argument in favor of my position on capital punishment, I’m just going to enumerate my reasons. Then, I’ll see if I can say something sensible on what this ought to mean for my position on war.
Review of Coming to Life
Like a bunch of my ScienceBlogs SiBlings, I read Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard’s book, Coming to Life: How Genes Drive Development. As I am not a trained biologist of any stripe (and haven’t been enrolled in a biology course since the 1980s), I’ll give you my impressions of the book from the point of view of a curious non-expert.
Spatial synchronicity (or, how should I feel about this?)
As I noted earlier, the population density in my office at school decreased enough to free up some room for a couch. The original plan had been to adopt an ugly orange love seat from a colleague’s apartment, but it looks like the UOLS will be going in his office, since the couch he was planning to bring in for himself won’t fit his office.
So, I hied myself to IKEA and bought the maximum amount of couch that would fit in the trunk and folded-down back seat of my car. (If you must know, it’s a Prius. Not cavernous, but good with the mileage.) And seriously, if the flat-packed box of couch pieces had been even half an inch wider, I would not have been able to cram it into my car.
With the kind assistance of two students and a colleague, we got the couch to my office, whipped it out of the box, perused the non-verbal instructions (which seemed to suggest that the people assembling the couch should be naked while doing so — a suggestion that we ignored), and put that couch together. It fit perfectly into the bit of space that had opened up in my office.
Which is to say, that huge amount of extra space I was all excited about getting? Amounts to roughly the back of a Prius. How sad is that?
Younger offspring offers a new visual representation.
Robert Fludd, “The Great Chain of Being”, 1617
Maybe you’re familiar with the classical notion of the “great chain of being”, the hierarchical relationship between all the stuff in the universe. It was meant to show the connections between animals (including humans), vegetables, minerals, and the stuff out beyond the Earth, including angels and God.
Younger offspring felt (and I can’t help but agree) that it was time for an update.
Friday Sprog Blogging: bloody minded.
Elder offspring: Blood is cool.
Younger offspring: (Covering head with blanket) I hate blood, because I hate owies!
Dr. Free-Ride: But your blood does all sorts of good things for your body. You know that you’re filled with blood, right?
Elder offspring: Actually, your body is two-thirds water.
Dr. Free-Ride: And what do you think there’s lots of in blood?
Elder offspring: Oh yeah, water.
Younger offspring: I hate blood. I wish I didn’t have any.
Dr. Free-Ride: You need it to get oxygen to all the parts of the body.
Younger offspring: No I don’t, I’ll just breathe harder.
* * * * *
The sprogs recommend:
Silicon Valley job how-tos, adapted for the academic job search.
That Julie and her challenges!
A few days ago, Guy [Kawasaki] wrote a post called Everything You Wanted to Know About Getting a Job in Silicon Valley But Didn’t Know Who to Ask. Having spent several years in the mid-90s being a contractor, meaning every six or eight weeks I was off on an interview with someone or another, I can tell you his post is spot-on.
THE CHALLENGE…
All you academics who have been through the job market, how would you amend his list for academics?
I’ve looked at the tips. There are 15 of them! Tips 4, 5, 6, and 10 carry right over in a fairly straightforward way. I’ll adapt two of the remaining 11 tips. The adaptation of the other 9 is wide open for anyone else who’d like to chime in.
Angels, or angel hair pasta?
From field reporter Andy, proof that the Flying Spaghetti Monster supports our troops.
Random quotations meme.
Because Julie tagged everyone:
The rules: “Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that you think reflect who you are or what you believe.”
I’ll add: Go with the first five that work for you (i.e., don’t worry about getting global optima). It took me two bundles of quotations with the randomizer, but here’s what I end up with: