By Peter Lui. I was at the bedside of a Nicaraguan newborn. Suddenly, his hand clenched around my finger as he burst into tears. When I saw purple patches of blood engulfing his tiny belly, I began to recognize the true fragility of human life. His desperate cry for help paralyzed my body as it made me understand the excruciating pain of a devastating illness. More...
By David Kent. The Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars Facebook group pointed me in the direction of a large survey conducted in Germany (PDF) across their research workforce. Around 1,700 researchers were asked their opinions on the state of science employment conditions at German research institutes and universities after a shocking 25,000 strong petition demanding improvements sent shock waves through the community. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Fast Food Commercials Aimed At Kids 'Deceptive'
News Staff, Science 2.0, 2015/03/11
I have long argued that if we are to filter web content for kids at all, we should be censoring things that are really harmful, like fast food products. I'm not alone, maybe. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Mythology of Leadership
nick shackleton-jones, aconventional, 2015/03/10
With nick shackleton-jones I tend to agree that "leadership models tend to overstate and rationalise the role of leaders, politely glossing over the fact that in most organisations many leaders were probably not ideal candidates for the role." It's a common instance of the tendency to overascribe outcomes to a single or pivotal cause. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Time Slows Down When We’re Afraid, Speeds Up as We Age, and Gets Warped on Vacation
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, 2015/03/10
Doug Belshaw flags this interesting account on time created by Brain Pickings's Maria Popova. The core thread of the discussion describes how our perception of time changes. More...
By Jackie Lewis - EvoLLLution. I often feel like I’m a player in the popular board game, “Life.” I’m at that really fun part where you spin to find out what your life is going to look like. You’re probably familiar with the four categories: career, salary, house deeds and stocks. More...
By . A specter haunts academia, we are told: the specter of sexual paranoia. In a much-shared essay for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Northwestern professor Laura Kipnis decries the 21st century prohibition on fraternization between teachers and undergraduates.
“When I was in college,” she writes, “hooking up with professors was more or less part of the curriculum.” But now their adult choices are corralled by infantilizing conduct policies designed by impersonal bureaucrats who are just trying to protect themselves from lawsuits. More...
By Matt Reed. Arizona’s move to eliminate all operating funding support for community colleges was both shocking and not. It’s the logical conclusion of a longstanding trend, surprising mostly in its speed and clarity. And it even makes a kind of cynical sense. Read more...By Matt Reed. Based on the first day of the League for Innovation conference, held Sunday in Boston, I’d say that the theme for this year is “what to do without money.” Funding issues have never been far from the surface at League conferences, but I’m seeing a funny blend of fatalism -- “the money isn’t coming back” -- and optimism -- “but here are some things we can achieve anyway.” It strikes me as a basically healthy response to a frustrating situation. Read more...
By Susan O'Doherty. I grew up believing that I was "dumb at math."This was partly because my father, an IRS agent, would routinely try to help me with my homework and end up yelling at me that I was "stupid" for not immediately grasping the concepts he tried to communicate, but the belief was also supported by a school environment that presumed that girls weren't competent in STEM subjects. Read more...
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