Recommendation: The Rubin Report (esp. Dr. Everett Piper Interview)
Oklahoma Wesleyan is not a “safe place”, but rather, a place to learn: to learn that life isn’t about you, but about others; that the bad feeling you have while listening to a sermon is called guilt;...
View ArticleGreat Introduction to R (esp when you come from SPSS or the like)
Data science is the process by which data becomes understanding, knowledge and insight. Hadley Wickham I still love R, perhaps to the chagrin of my students 😉 But yeah, coming from SPSS (or rather,...
View ArticleRegulating citizens to the mean (with an SD of 0)
«Any social organization does well enough if it isn’t rigid. The framework doesn’t matter as long as there is enough looseness to permit that one man in a multitude to display his genius. Most...
View ArticleLegal Side Effects of Logging User Behavior (esp. when driving)
«It’s not that I have something to hide. I have nothing I want you to see.» Anon, why she hides her life in an age of digital surveillance, in «Anon» Yesterday, a group of students presented their app...
View ArticleGrading Paper Exams with an iPad
This isn’t right, this isn’t even wrong. Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958), upon reading a young physicist’s paper Recently I had to correct exams of 55 students, 11 pages each. Normally, I’d do it on paper,...
View ArticleShould AI be explainable or should it just evaluate its predictions?
«Worlds governed by artificial intelligence often learned a hard lesson: Logic Doesn’t Care.» Yin-man Wei, «This Present Darkness: A History of the Interregnum», CY 11956 in Andromeda One topic last...
View ArticleThe best predictor for future behavior is past behavior. — Or: What I...
Many things went on at Unseen University and, regrettably, teaching had to be one of them. The faculty had long ago confronted this fact and had perfected various devices for avoiding it. But this was...
View ArticleThe Right Kind of Wrong. Or: Using bad practice just because it’s industry...
«First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement, so I must do nothin’. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the Pirate’s Code to apply, and you’re not. And thirdly,...
View ArticleDEVONthink 3 — Where the heck is DEVONthink going?
Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. If you want to be smart, be smart in the shower. Then get out, go to work and serve the customer! Gene Buckley, President, Sikorsky Aircraft DEVONthink is...
View ArticleConsensus in Science
If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Michael Crichton I recently read the quote above by Michael Crichton — and it pretty much sums up my opinion of consensus in...
View ArticleScience and “The Good Cause”
Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so. Excerpt from the Notebooks of...
View ArticleNeeded Rule for Symposia: The Time-Keeper Speaks Last (and has only the...
My father gave me these hints on speech-making: «Be sincere … be brief … be seated.» James Roosevelt During the past few days I have been thinking quite frequently about negative events of the past....
View ArticleLoving to Solve Problems — like a Cat seeing a Ball of Wool
A problem is a chance for you to do your best. Duke Ellington One of the peaks of working in Academia, and especially with students, are the problems to solve. Not personal ones — I’m not a therapist —...
View ArticlePsychology in a Crisis (and check the sources)
«How can you design for people if you don’t know history and psychology? You can’t. Because your mathematical formulas may be perfect, but the people will screw it up. And if that happens, it means you...
View ArticleScience and the Hard Sciences
«?» he said. «Good Omens» by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman Retraction Watch [here and here] pointed me to an opinion piece that was removed from a high-impact Chemistry journal. Not retracted, but...
View ArticleRecommendation: Gad Saad on “Racism in Academia? My Reply to the Editor of...
«My wife will often come nervously behind me when I’m working on my laptop and she looks nervous and ‘What are you writing?’. And I say, ‘Well, I am writing something, what is it?’ And she’ll say...
View ArticleDanegeld (paid to outrage mobs by academic institutions)
«WARNING. At this university students could be exposed, at any moment, without warning, to ideas, comments, readings, or other materials that they find shocking, offensive, absurd, annoying, racist,...
View ArticleYou show me yours, I’ll show you mine
My favorite thing about the Internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps without having to smell them. Penn Jillett I’m not a fan of the lockdown and the home office rules (at...
View ArticlePeople Filter
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. Andrew Carnegie I was recently reminded of the quote above — perhaps a consequence of getting old(er). I have met some...
View ArticleFinding a Bachelor, Master and perhaps even PhD thesis Topic in Media and...
Be always sure you’re right, then go ahead. Davy Crockett After advising a couple of bachelor and master theses in media and computer science, I’ve created a short document to help students with...
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