Blogs

Microryza launches its official beta today. It's a crowdfunding platform for scientific research with an emphasis on social learning and the scientific process -- not just on outcomes or "a product."

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about using Twitter as way to develop an academic identity. Mike M. asked me about the large amount of people who I follow and how I go about "filtering out the noise." That question inspired this post because I realized that, while I spend a lot of time discussing how to engage with various social media sites, I rarely talk about when and why I intentionally disengage with them.

Not finals, not Spring (although it’s related), not baseball; it’s HOCKEY PLAYOFFS! Not finals, not Spring (although it’s related), not baseball; it’s HOCKEY PLAYOFFS!

Over the last two years I've made the point numerous times here that world university rankings have become normalized on an annual cycle, and function as data acquisition mechanisms to drill deep into universities but in a way that encourages (seduces?) universities to provide the data for free.

Thanks to my daughter and her friends, I have been exposed to the computer game “Angry Birds.” In it, some nasty pigs try to steal the eggs of a group of birds. These birds then fight back by flinging themselves (with our help) in an attempt to destroy the pigs, who sit laughing at the whole matter. I am most intrigued by the fact that much of what I learned in my first college physics class can be put to use to progress through the game.

First, let me respond to David's request by posting a digital version of the hand-drawn sketch which is the working version of my current model of sustainability:

Two weeks after the publication of an attack on professors for not working enough to justify our salaries, the AAUP Faculty Salary Survey proves that there is no such thing as “a faculty salary.”

Another in a seemingly endless supply of Adjunct Heroes