Links Dump
drorzel | March 13, 2011
Bowing to the Future: Just for the record...
"It takes a bit of work to make a decent ebook. I've been overseeing the conversion of the Pyr backlist for two months now, so I know. I've also bought about 15 ebooks in the last two weeks on iBooks, and I'm sorry to say that I wish a few of the publishers whose books I've bought had taken a little more time with the conversion process. In one sad case, every single first letter of the first word on every line of the contents page is omitted. In another, every instance of the word "pilot" has been rendered as "pi lot," where about a quarter of…
drorzel | March 12, 2011
What if editors got royalties? - Hey, There's A Dead Guy in the Living Room
So okay, publishing is risky no matter the paradigm. But what if, rather than a traditional publishing house glomming most of the risk into one big beach ball, each participant in the publishing process took ownership of his/her own little ping pong ball of risk?
Which brings me to: What if editors got royalties ... instead of salaries?
As a freelance editor, I can choose to help mitigate an author's risk by eliminating any up-front cost to hire me. What do you think, does that sound like an intriguing idea?
(tags:…
drorzel | March 11, 2011
Among the Assisterati: Bottoms Up with the Highbrow Bottom Feeders | The New York Observer
"For six weeks, at a cost of $7,000, Columbia University offers recent college graduates forgettable workshops, fleeting encounters with important editors and access to the best unlisted job openings in book publishing and magazines. After swift job placement, these hyper-literate 20-somethings occupy a peculiar professional class: the Assisterati. Their institutional affiliations lend them a sense that they are the caretakers, soon to be inheritors, of a sublime patrimony. Their proximity to literary…
drorzel | March 10, 2011
When Lew Alcindor defeated Scott Ostler at Pauley
"The UCLA freshman team featured Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Lucius Allen and three other prep All-Americans. In a game to open the new Pauley Pavilion, UCLA's frosh beat the varsity by 15. The varsity was coming off back-to-back national championships and was ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Our foes trotted out not only the future NBA career scoring leader, and a future NBA star guard in Allen, but also another guy who played briefly in the NBA and a fourth player who started for UCLA's subsequent three NCAA championship teams.
So…
drorzel | March 9, 2011
How Much Could the Real Floating House Lift? | Wired Science | Wired.com
"The internet is all pumped up over this real floating house recreating the scene from Up! (the movie). Here is a video:
Or perhaps you prefer some pictures. Here is a website full of pictures. here is the deal. National Geographic has some upcoming show and they built this for one of the episodes.
Where do I come in? Well, at first I was like "that is cool - but there isn't much for me to say." But then someone said that they weren't giving out many details of how they did this - you know, saving it for the real show.…
drorzel | March 8, 2011
syracuse.com : Upstate NY schools bear the brunt of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's cuts
"Syosset is nearly 3 1/2 times wealthier than West Genesee. It spent $25,990 per pupil in 2008-09, compared to West Genesee's $13,854.
And that disparity is likely to grow under Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget.
The governor's school aid cuts would equal 0.77 percent of Syosset's general fund budget. But they would blow a 6.8 percent hole in West Genesee's general fund. Superintendent Christopher Brown told his school board recently that the district would have to cut 62 full- and part-time positions, drop a year…
drorzel | March 7, 2011
How bad is the Templeton Foundation? : Thoughts from Kansas
"This is the consistent pattern in [Sunny] Bains's story [about the Templeton Foundation]. The problem is not that her conclusions are demonstrably wrong - she may well be right about Templeton, and she may even have gathered evidence which would support her conclusions. But the story she wrote is not convincing. Key assertions are couched in equivocal language that relies on her judgment or her assumptions, not on any evidence offered to the reader. Obvious opportunities for detailed investigation - financial records, grantmaking…
drorzel | March 4, 2011
The man who went nuclear: How Ernest Rutherford ushered in the atomic age - Science, News - The Independent
"Rutherford regarded "all science as either physics or stamp collecting" but saw the funny side when he received the 1908 Nobel prize for chemistry for this seminal work. By then he was in Manchester.
"Youthful, energetic, boisterous, he suggested anything but the scientist," was how Chaim Weizmann, then a chemist but later the first president of Israel, remembered Rutherford in Manchester.
"He talked readily and vigorously on any subject under the sun, often without knowing anything…
drorzel | March 3, 2011
Gnome Physics - Cap'n Refsmmat's Blog of Doom
"All subatomic particles -- electrons, protons, neutrons and so on -- are composed of extremely small gnomes.
While relatively unknown, the gnome theory of matter can successfully explain many physical phenomena, including gravitation, electromagnetism, the photoelectric effect, and the wavelike properties of matter."
(tags: science physics silly blogs)
Media old and new are mobilized for effective causes - O'Reilly Radar
"The bright light of social media has attracted the attention of followers in every discipline, from media and academia to…
drorzel | March 2, 2011
Charlie Sheen Quotes Cats « Medium Large
"Because turnaround is fair play...or some nonsense like that."
(tags: internet silly culture television movies pictures)
Neil Tyson's Advice to Young Science Communicators | The Intersection | Discover Magazine
"So in graduate school, I wrote a question and answer column for StarDate magazine, out of the University of Texas, and that became a book, and when you have a book, TV shows want your views on things-one thing leads to another. But in all cases, the common denominator is that it starts out by writing.
So my advice to someone who wanted to…
drorzel | March 1, 2011
Science education for all « through the looking glass
"A friend recently said that schools are so important because it's the only time when everyone is exposed to science. I couldn't agree more. Not because it means a load of young people will have to sit in a room while a teacher bangs on about some super-important topic or another, but because these young people will have to do so together. Before we go about the ever-so-modern business of specialisation, school is a time where we can build shared experiences and so sow the seeds for trust between those who grow up to be scientists (or…
drorzel | February 28, 2011
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Fracking | The Intersection | Discover Magazine
"I just watched this video of Cornell University engineering prof Anthony Ingraffea giving a lecture on fracking-a long, long lecture. But it's tremendously informative, gives more perspective than I've found anywhere else, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the issue:"
(tags: energy environment blogs intersection video academia science politics us)
I'd buy that for $50,000 | Bors Blog
"The fact is Detroit is one of America's most economically devastated cities and could…
drorzel | February 26, 2011
Go To Hellman: HarperCollins and the Suspension of eBook Disbelief
"A good business requires a good story. The customer needs to understand the story of how the business can help solve a problem or deliver a benefit. There are many ways of telling a business story. Some stories are utilitarian; others are romantic or inspiring. Many stories require the consumer's willing suspension of disbelief. This isn't dishonesty, but the customer has to benefit broadly from a business's services and not be harmed by bits of the story that aren't really true. Macs sometimes crash. Facebook sometimes…
drorzel | February 25, 2011
Caltech Scores First Conference Victory Since 1985 - NYTimes.com
"The team's 46-45 home victory over Occidental, in the final game of the season, was the first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory for Caltech since a 1-point win over La Verne more than 26 years ago, before any of the current players were born.
Ryan Elmquist scored the winning point by making the first of two free throws with three seconds left. He missed the second, and Occidental's desperation shot from halfcourt was off target, sending students and fans in the small Braun Athletic Center gym onto…
drorzel | February 24, 2011
Pseudoteaching | Action-Reaction
"Pseudoteaching is something you realize you're doing after you've attempted a lesson which from the outset looks like it should result in student learning, but upon further reflection, you realize that the very lesson itself was flawed and involved minimal learning.
We hope that though discussion, we'll be able to clarify and refine this definition even further. The key idea of pseudoteaching is that it looks like good teaching. In class, students feel like they are learning, and any observer who saw a teacher in the middle of pseudteaching would feel like…
drorzel | February 23, 2011
A Science Fair Project about Science Fairs | Wired Science | Wired.com
"I can't say no. People ask me to be a science fair judge. If they have good food, I am there. Of course there are problems with the science fair.
Students tend to focus on non-important things like the materials they used.
There is often a lack of error analysis on any level. Students will take 1 data point and draw conclusions based on this.
Don't get me started on "and so in the end my hypothesis was correct".
But we all want science fairs to work. We want them to be awesome. Change is difficult. But that is not what I…
drorzel | February 20, 2011
What Watson Can Learn From the Human Brain | Wired Science | Wired.com
"Watson won. That set of microchips will soon join the pantheon of machines that have defeated humans, from the steam-powered hammer that killed John Henry to the Deep Blue supercomputer that battled Kasparov. Predictably enough, the victory inspired a chorus of "computer overlord" anxieties, as people used the victory of microchips to proclaim the decline of the human mind, or at least the coming of the singularity.
Personally, I was a little turned off by the whole event -- it felt like a big marketing campaign for IBM…
drorzel | February 19, 2011
DISCOURSES OF THE DIGITAL NATIVE - Information, Communication & Society
"Teenage delegates to the Blast workshops rarely validate interest based on technological facilities, enthusiasm or competency. Instead, it is peer groups and social alignments which shape declarations and, more importantly, enactments of interest. This suggests that while the concept of the 'digital native' may be pertinent for generational comparisons of technological use, or is a useful concept for the operationalization of creative media workshops, it is simply not recognized by teenagers to whom it refers, nor…
drorzel | February 18, 2011
News: How Class Dictates Delay - Inside Higher Ed
"A new study to be published in the upcoming issue of The Review of Higher Education examines more closely the root of the reality of who delays going to college, and why. Not only are high school graduates of lower socioeconomic status more likely to delay college, but they also experience longer gaps and are less likely to graduate once they do enroll.
"The popular press frequently writes about students who take a gap year and the many programs arising to serve them," writes the study's author, Sara Goldrick-Rab. "It is troubling that so…
drorzel | February 17, 2011
Career Advice: Why We Said No - Inside Higher Ed
"My department has run a search for at least one faculty member every year for the last 10 years. I literally cannot remember how many search committees I have served on, let alone how many candidates I have interviewed. A few years ago I was the chair of a single search committee that hired four tenure-track professors at the assistant or associate level. This year we have two separate search committees going.
Institutions and departments have different policies and cultures, so I certainly cannot speak for search committees everywhere, but I…