Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
If I could do this, I would become the boss just so that I could give my enemies the grossly disproportionate resources that they feel entitled to.  When pressed by my bosses, I would offer their various politically convenient excuses, shrug and say “Whaddaygonnadoaboutit?” and then get myself the go-ahead for scorched earth reallocations.
I’m [...]

By Thoreau
It is news to nobody that professional physicists have tremendous self-confidence.  The implications of this were driven home to me today in noticing the timidity of some students.  For starters, I said at the beginning of class “The graded homework is at the front of the room for you to get.”  A guy comes [...]

By Thoreau
A 24 hour Wikipedia blackout was enough to defeat the RIAA and MPAA.  Now we see where power lies.  Imagine what would happen if Wikipedia, Facebook, and Youtube were to join forces and blackout together?  Now THAT is a terrifying trio to contemplate!
Meanwhile, Anonymous has flexed its muscles, albeit to less impressive effect.  Still, [...]

The funniest thing about ex-Cheney goon John Hannah’s whine about how it’s no fun around here any more is that he refers to our late “regional order” as “Pax Americana.” Should Pax Americana have come with some, you know, peace? (Via Kevin Drum.)

By Thoreau
So, here’s a puzzle for our readers to chew on:  We have five shareholders.  One of them has 5% of the shares.  The shares are more-or-less evenly divided among the other shareholders, so that any 3 shareholders are enough to form a majority coalition, but there’s no combination of 2 that forms a majority.
So, [...]

To protest SOPA/PIPA, I, personally, will not blog all day, Wednesday January 18. Sometimes you gotta take (in)action. No come on!!!
(The Doctor is on his own lookout, as is only appropriate.)

[NOTE: I really did start on this post in December. Don't think of it as late, think of it as a year-in-review post that really reviews the whole 365 days.]
This year sucked, politically and personally. But when the world is running down, there’s still stuff we like. Hence this post. Ground rules: this is not [...]

By Thoreau
Infamous blogosphere blowhard Physioprof says that he doesn’t have to read papers because he’s so well-connected that as soon as he sees the title and author list he already knows what is in the paper.  I agree, reading is for ****.
However, knowing what is in the paper before you read it is still way [...]

By Thoreau
Inspired by FSP’s post on 2-body problems in hiring, i.e. situations where both members of a couple are seeking academic jobs, I’d like to pose some challenges to those of my readers with opinions on academic hiring.  This topic is usually considered as a moral issue, rather than as a resource issue, and often [...]

By Thoreau
At the beginning of this news video, they say that the offensive parts have been blurred from the images.  What are the offensive parts?  Not the dead bodies.  No, the penises of the guys pissing on the bodies.  The fact that The Viewers At Home are more offended by penises than by killing tells [...]