The Supreme Court recently handed down two rulings [1] [2] [3]regarding using racial quotas to determine school enrollment. The court ruled 5-4 with a conservative majority that the use of race to determine where students are enrolled in a school district is unconstitutional. Despite the fact that it may be an unpopular ruling, I am definitely in favor of it. Read more »
Posted: June 28th, 2007 under Education, Politics.
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At the request of the fine folks at the SomethingAwful forums, I’ve convinced Julia Gray/Novak to write about her work at the LHC this summer. She will be out there until I believe early/mid August working to calibrate the instruments using Z boson decays.
I’ve asked her to post weekly updates on Fridays, and hopefully she’ll be able to contribute regularly. Be on the look-out starting next week or so.
Posted: June 23rd, 2007 under General.
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A few years back, University of Colorado professor of ethnic studies Ward Churchill created a national controversy for calling the victims of the 9/11 attacks “little Eichmanns”, referencing the Nazi SS officer who organized the logistics of evacuating the ghettos and setting up the extermination camps of World War II. Now, his research methods have come under scrutiny and he may have his tenure revoked and lose his position as department chair. Read more »
Posted: June 19th, 2007 under Education, Politics.
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   Today I was waiting for some of my friends to go grab lunch, when I heard some undergrads talking just outside their calculus class. I was mostly not caring what they had to say, but then I overheard that they were discussing the curve in their class. They were going over various scenarios that would lead to an A, or a B, or what have you, and then one remarked
I guess if you’re failing half your class you have to do something.
This comment struck me as a rather strange attitude to have. Why is it the responsibility of the professor to insure that a certain fraction of his class reached a certain minimum grade? Read more »
Posted: June 7th, 2007 under Education.
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During a debate hosted by CNN, the question of evolution hit the Republican candidates yet again. During this debate, Mike Huckabee, who previously had said that he did not believe in evolution, resented the question being brought up again, claiming it was unfair:
“I’m not planning on writing the curriculum for an eighth-grade science book. I’m asking for the opportunity to be president of the United States.”
While this statement is true, it is a perfectly fair question to ask. The current president’s religious convictions that stem cells are, in fact, life, has impeded research into stem cell applications in medicine by eight years. It was during the current administration that the question of Intelligent Design as a scientific theory even came up (it isn’t). Under No Child Left Behind, the national government has a fair amount of control over national curricula. Governor Huckabee, it is a perfectly fair question, and a very valid test of how your administration would interact with the nation’s scientific community.
Posted: June 6th, 2007 under Politics.
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If you want to be a physicist, you have to go through graduate school. There’s the enormous application process, flanked by months of preparation for standardized tests beforehand and then trying to decide what community of physicists you would want to spend the next four, five, or six years living with based on a whirlwind three days afterwards. Everyone you see who holds a tenure track position at a research university has the abbreviation “PhD” or the British/European equivalent after their name.
But why do we put our lives on hold for half a decade while everyone else is busy getting a “real job”, getting paid, and getting married? Why do we need another five years of education to learn things that we can’t learn “on the job”? Accountants, real estate agents, and a variety of other professions require maybe another year of certification. Lawyers and medical doctors spend just three, but they can tell you exactly what year, month, and day they will be done the moment they enroll. So why the uncertainty? What are we here for? Read more »
Posted: June 5th, 2007 under Education.
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I just recently returned from a wedding in Indiana between my two friends Julia Novak and Ty Gray. Ty and Julia were married on June 2, and are now spending their honeymoon in Australia. Julia will be going to Geneva later this summer to work on ATLAS and Ty has just recently completed his first year of law school. Good luck to the both of them, and may many years of happiness await them.
Posted: June 5th, 2007 under Personal.
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