Janet D. Stemwedel
Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an associate professor of philosophy at San Jose State University. Before becoming a philosopher, she earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry.
jstemwedel
Posts by this author
Fifty years ago today, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, Earth's first artificial satellite. I don't remember it (because I wouldn't be born for another decade), but the "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" heard 'round the world left indelible traces on the fabric of life for my parents' generation, my…
I'm pretty sure the National Collegiate Athletic Association doesn't want college athletes -- or the athletics programs supporting them -- to cheat their way through college. However, this article at Inside Higher Ed raises the question of whether some kind of cheating isn't the best strategy to…
Mike the Mad Biologist has mounted a challenge in the drive! Help him make some teachers and kids happy.
We're in day 2 of the ScienceBlogs Blogger Challenge, during which we're working with DonorsChoose to raise some money for classroom projects. The amount contributed by ScienceBlogs readers is creeping up on $4000, which is pretty impressive.
But it looks like the real competition may be for which…
You know from my last post that we're working with DonorsChoose to raise some money for public school teachers who are trying to give their students the engaging educational experiences they deserve. You also know that our benevolent overlords at Seed will be randomly selecting some donors to…
Maybe you remember that fund-raiser we did for DonorsChoose last June. We're kicking off another today. But this time, it's not just ScienceBlogs bloggers -- partners like Google, Yahoo!, Six Apart, and Federated Media are watching the efforts across the whole blogosphere to see which blog has…
Mike Dunford just passed on most excellent news: Six Apart is giving away $30 gift certificates for my favorite philanthropic organization, DonorsChoose. Here are the details:
We've got a challenge for the entire Movable Type community, and for the blogging community as a whole. Starting this…
Have you ever bought a present for a loved one where you weren't totally sure that he or she would be enthusiastic about the present, but you figured that you could always keep it if it was a dud?
I have this hunch that a good number of "educational" gifts that parents get for kids fit in this…
Somehow, the Florida State University Office of Athletic Academic Support Services had in its employ a "Learning Specialist" who seemed to think it was part of his or her job to help a bunch of student athletes cheat.
As reported by the Orlando Sentinel:
A months long Florida State University…
This is a question that occurred to me earlier this month when I had occasion to observe an undergraduate laboratory course: If something goes wrong in the lab, do you tell the lab instructor? The "something wrong" could range from breaking a piece of glassware, to getting a stick with a syringe (…
Sean, Chad, and Steinn ponder the lameness of academics in self-reporting their "guilty pleasures".
Quoth Sean:
I immediately felt bad that I couldn't come up with a more salacious, or at least quirky and eccentric, guilty pleasure. I chose going to Vegas, a very unique and daring pastime that is…
You may have noticed a lull in my postings here. I've been laboring to put the finishing touches on my dossier for my sixth year review. This dossier is the document on which a succession of committees will be basing their decisions as to whether San José State University will be tenuring me…
While discussing poop with a bunch of life scientists -- in particular, we were discussing its utility in a wide variety of research projects -- one of the scientists at the table related a rousing cheer which I simply must share:
Starts with an S
and it ends with a T.
It comes out of you
and it…
The Free-Ride offspring are 2.5 weeks into the new school year and still bubbling with enthusiasm. This week they share some of what they've been thinking about, and some hopes for the school year as it unfolds.
* Material you saw when the first kid encountered it is still there for the next kid…
Tara notices that social networking site Facebook has decided, in the enforcement of their policy against "nudity, drug use, or other obscene content", that pictures of breastfeeding babies are obscene. As such, the Facebook obscenity squad had been removing them -- and has deleted the account of…
Avast, ye bloglubbers!
We be starin' down the crow's nest at another International Talk Like a Pirate Day, a holiday marked in these seas by the seizin' o' this bucket by the Dread Pirate Free-Ride. Aye, it happened last year, and by the beak o' the squid guardin' Davy Jones' locker*, it's…
Via Ed Cone I found one of those stories that makes me love the Wall Street Journal: "In the Philippines, Ex-Judge Consults Three Wee Friends":
As a trial-court judge, Florentino V. Floro Jr. acknowledged that he regularly sought the counsel of three elves only he could see. The Supreme Court…
Civilization's imminent collapse is upon us. What's in your survival pack?
There are many ways that civilization could collapse, so let me put my assumptions on the table: I'm considering a world where the electrical grid, phone and internet communications, and running water and waste water…
However, it would seem that the disclaimer is ambiguous. Otherwise, why would my better half and I disagree about what the disclaimer means?
It's not like either of us is the sort to propose an alternate interpretation just to be difficult. Honest!
Anyway, here's the front of the mug. It's a…
It has seemed to me for some time now that the landscape of news and information sources has changed since the end of the last century. Anecdotally, I seem to know an awful lot of people who rely primarily on online sources (both online versions of traditional newspapers and magazines and blogs…
We've already noted the prevalence of Canada geese in our area. The other day, as we were walking home, we found ourselves directly under a low-flying gaggle.
Younger offspring: Those geese are flying really close.
Elder offspring: And they're flying in a giant check-mark.
Dr. Free-Ride:…
At least, for scientists in the UK.
The BBC reports that the chief scientific advisor to the British government, Professor Sir David King, has set out an ethics code of "seven principles aimed at building trust between scientists and society".
The seven principles:
Act with skill and care, keep…
Perhaps you've already seen the new(ish) AAUP report Freedom in the Classroom, or Michael Bérubé's commentary on it at Inside Higher Ed yesterday. The report is such a clear statement of what a professor's freedom in the classroom amounts to and, more importantly, why that freedom is essential…
We're going to discuss this at a Socrates Café gathering next week, but I suspect there are current and former students and educators reading who have a view, so I'm opening it up:
Is extra credit fair?
You're free to consider the question from whatever angle you like -- fairness to the person…
The good news: My department chair really likes the project I've proposed for my sabbatical leave.
The bad news: The smart money says that my leave won't be approved unless I cut down the amount I say I'll accomplish during the year off.
That's right. If you have a lot you want to get…
Over-amplified live music. (You'd think a church group -- which is what this band turns out to be -- would be down with acoustic music instead.)
If we don't get our DSL back soon, I'm going to need some really good earplugs.
While sometime the phone would ring
Just as we were sitting down to eat
Or telling a bedtime story
Or trying to get out the door
Or drifting off to sleep,
There was a comfort in being
Reachable
By those who needed to reach us
And in whose reach we wanted to be.
But now, the unsteady dial tone is…
The school year just started again for my kids, and it's pretty hard to escape the conclusion that as public school teachers are being asked to do more, their resources are dwindling. During the summer, the school mailed out the (extensive) lists of basic school supplies needed by kids at each…
Younger offspring: The bad thing about all the Canada geese on the fields this summer is that the fields have lots of goose poop.
Dr. Free-Ride: Well, geese gotta poop.
Younger offspring: I don't like stepping in goose poop when we're playing soccer.
Dr. Free-Ride: I can understand that.
Elder…
The bullets are addressed to different people and organizations, and I doubt very much that some of them would recognize these were addressed to them even if they received an actual memo. (It's been that kind of week.)
Be it known that:
I do not at present have the power to be in more than one…