Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
A student with a very enthusiastic yet serious demeanor, and very responsible habits, recently asked if he could work in my research group.  He has few relevant skills at this point, and my crew is pretty full, but I want to help him, so we’re applying for some programs that support undergrads in research.  [...]

By Thoreau
Recently, The Economist had an interesting special report on the problems in California’s version of democracy.  They largely focus on the problems in the initiative process, and note (correctly) that many other US states and also some other industrialized democratic countries (e.g. Switzerland) use some form of direct democracy without experiencing problems comparable to [...]

By Thoreau
In the past month, two things have put prescription drug policy on my mind:
1)  I have a relative who is in severe and chronic pain due to some injuries and illnesses.  She is also a healthcare professional, so I trust her assessment of the situation when she says that doctors have become increasingly frightened [...]

By Thoreau
Jason Kuznicki does a class analysis of 4 libertarian issues (eminent domain, drugs, war, and intellectual property) and concludes that the common libertarian stances are, at least on these issues, very contrary to our stereotypes as apologists for the elite class.  On the size of the military budget, I think he’s being too harsh [...]

By Thoreau
Or, if you must feed trolls, at least do it in an amusing way.  Maybe get some URKOBOLD bloggers involved.  Ask Gilbert Gottfried to do something tasteless.  Put on a three ring circus with dancing tigers and give front row seats to PETA.  Something.  Bottom line, either don’t feed them at all or feed [...]

By Thoreau
I am not the only person in higher education to note that some college freshmen can’t do a fricking percent error* or percent yield calculation in lab classes.  I propose an experiment:
1)  Don’t write tests and assignments where the maximum possible points are 10 or 100.  Make the possible points on the test some [...]

By Thoreau
An aspiring high school physics teacher (and college junior majoring in physics) thinks that (Sin(x))^2 = (Sin(x^2))^2.  Yes, yes, I am aware that there are plenty of grown-ups who do just fine not remembering their trigonometry.  Most of them aren’t planning to teach physics.
Now consider one of my top students:  His [...]

By Thoreau
I spend most of my time complaining about bad students, but we do have some good ones.  One of them is good but quiet and hasn’t been on my radar (or anybody else’s).  So he’s working for a crackpot emeritus professor who claims to be doing cold fusion “research.”  As an ethical matter, I [...]

By Thoreau
So far today I’ve explained percentages in a freshman lab, and I’ve explained very basic mathematical notation to 3rd year physics majors.  I’m not talking about antisymmetric tensors in the Einstein convention or anything like that, I’m talking about stuff like vector notation, spherical coordinates (the basics, not vector spherical harmonics or whatever), and [...]

By Thoreau
Friday, April 22, 2011:  CIA sources confirm that radical West Bank cleric Issa Bin Allah was killed in a Predator drone strike.  Two thieves were also killed in the attack.
Sunday, April 24, 2011:  CIA sources are admitting that previous reports of the death of Issa Bin Allah were mistaken, and that he was probably [...]