In a chat with a colleague today, I learned the following:
1. My colleague thinks the media coverage of swine flu is very overblown.
2. My colleague has already stocked up on face-masks.
Hmmmmm.
More like this
I should say up front that I work in a fairly family-friendly department. They were fantastic when I interviewed (Minnow was just 1 month old) and my colleagues have occasionally asked after her development. I brought her to class once last semester and nobody said anything negative.
As the new calendar year approaches, I can't help but anticipate the coming spring semester -- and to hold out the hope that this one will be the semester in which none of my students commits plagiarism. Otherwise, I'm facing a perfect 12-semester streak.
Over the last couple of years I've added contacts to Linked In with a certain amount of consideration. In other words, I've added only links that are "real" in some sense; they are friends and friends of friends, and colleagues and colleagues of colleagues who's name I recognized.
Female Science Professor describes the amazing (and amazingly depressing) power of invisibility women in science seem to possess - at least when Distinguished Schmucks are visiting the department:
Hmmmm ....
Maybe you need new colleagues? :-)
See, Whitman got it wrong on the nature of human contradictions. It shouldn't have been "I am large. I contain multitudes." It should have been "I am large. I contain platitudes."
~Peter
3. The media reports that face masks don't help.
Your colleague wants no competition for supplies?
Is it then safe to deduce that said colleague is not a scientist?
It's ingenious. Buy low, before the hysteria has *really* hit it's stride, then sell high to panicked people who think it'll help while laughing all the way to the bank.
Evil, but ingenious.
your colleague is in Mexico...:)?