tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40386135299416842922024-03-05T03:34:11.621-08:00The Heaping TeaspoonThis is my open letter to all of my family and friends, to replace those long, hand-written letters that I used to write to each of you individually. Everyone is welcome to join the conversation.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-66407668773531067352010-06-12T10:57:00.000-07:002010-06-12T10:59:44.714-07:00World Cup Soccer<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I am back after a four month hiatus from blogging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have a bit too much going on in my life, but I am restarting for the summer, at least.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’ll see how it goes.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Today is my 17th wedding anniversary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’re off for the night and friends are taking the kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>First though, my daughter has her end-of-the-year dance recital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She’s turning into a great dancer, and I am excited to see her happy about dancing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have to record the US-England World Cup soccer game, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Soccer is the one sport that I actually still watch regularly on TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Here is our country’s first game of the biggest tournament in the sport, and I will have to miss it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t know when I’ll actually get to watch the game, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps Sunday night.</p><p class="MsoNormal">I will try to post more often over the coming weeks. Probably about soccer. Lots of soccer in the coming weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Life is good!</p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-20989325529711355372010-02-03T11:56:00.001-08:002010-02-03T11:56:50.297-08:00Project Management<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I had lunch yesterday with a colleague who had just downloaded new project management software to keep track of the work on his various grants/contracts/projects and to keep track of the work his various people are doing for these projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I can only imagine that he is in Gant Chart Bliss about now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Everything is organized and all of his students, postdocs, and research scientists are accounted for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Life will be beautiful for him for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Until he gets bogged down with all of the things he has to do, and he realizes that he didn’t have time to add a time management upkeep task to his life. The charts will go unmaintained for a few months and everything will be out of date when he gets back to it. He will then have to start over, recreating the entire project management structure again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Bliss will not be a word that he will use to describe this situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No, he will most likely be in Gant Chart Hell.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Well, at least that’s my prediction for what will happen by this summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For me, I am not ready for project management software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have a small enough group that I can keep track of it in my head, for the most part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Yes, I have a calendar that is rather full, and I am very glad that my computer beeps at me to tell me when I am supposed to be doing some things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am also fortunate enough to receive reminder emails about project progress reports and other management tasks that I have to deal with occasionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But, as for what should be getting done on the specific grants and projects, I don’t try to over manage it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps this isn’t the best option, but people in my team of researchers seem to stay motivated and get stuff done, and things seem to be moving forward at a reasonable pace on most of the projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am sure that some could go faster if I were a harder nosed manager with those people, but so far I am willing to allow that slack in the system so that I don’t have to resort to project management software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t want to be sentenced to Gant Chart Hell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That just doesn’t sound fun to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At least not yet.</o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-16673449600792603132010-01-18T05:05:00.000-08:002010-01-18T05:06:07.352-08:00Two Liter Bottle Caps<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Welcome to 2010 on The Heaping Teaspoon blog!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I promised myself weekly posts this year, and I am already off to a bad start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Oh well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Better late than never.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>I distinctly remember a conversation I had back in my youth about how best to screw on the cap of a 2-liter bottle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The issue was which thing to turn: the cap or the bottle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My siblings and I debated this for a while and decided that it was easier to turn the bottle than the cap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This seems to make no sense, but for some reason it felt more natural to us to turn the big bottle instead of the little cap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We couldn’t explain it.</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>My current house gets its water from a well in a corner of the property.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So, the water isn’t fortified with fluoride, and my kids’ dentist recommended that they use Act every night to get some extra protection for their teeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This weekend, I watched my daughter screw the cap onto the Act bottle by twisting the bottle, not the cap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She did it again the next night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I asked her about it and all she could say was, “I don’t know.”</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So, here’s my thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I think it’s easier to twist the big bottle rather than the small cap for two (related) reasons: the gripping surface area is bigger and the turning radius is larger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The first reason means that you do not have to grip as strongly to secure the cap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The second reason means the motion is more linear than circular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The action is therefore more like a big pipe wrench than a needle-nosed pliers.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-22831729027257984652009-12-29T04:33:00.000-08:002009-12-29T07:48:17.764-08:00Books I've Read 2009<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve been keeping track of the books I read each year for about 10 years now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I usually just write a page about them in my planner and move on, but this year I thought I would share the list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My goal is to read at least a book a month, on average.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sometimes I get bogged down with other things, or I pick a really long one, so the cadence isn’t right, but I usually catch up with a shorter book or when I travel for work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I usually only get a half hour or so of reading in before bed, but that isn’t every night, so a typical book takes me several weeks to get through it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’m not a particularly fast reader...20-50 pages an hour, depending on the density of words and ideas in the text.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Instead of going through them in the order I read them, I am clumping them according to subject.</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Work-related<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Introduction to Space Weather</i>, Moldwin:</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I used it for the text for my class for the first time this year, so I am counting it as a “new” book read in 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s a switch from what I had been using, but the other one wasn’t really a textbook, so I thought I’d try this out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s the right subject, but I think it is too low of a level for the junior-oriented class I teach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, one student (out of 15) complimented it very highly in their open-form evaluation. I have a few months to decide if I want to use it again or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For those of you not in the space weather business, this is a nice introduction to the field (with easy problems at the end of each section).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Religious<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Call to Conversion</i>, Wallis</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I really like the Christian viewpoints of Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine and author of several books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is one of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s not a new book, but it was very well written and I enjoyed it very much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about Christianity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Shack</i>, Young</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I don’t know whether to put this here or in general fiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s not a particularly well-written book , in my opinion, but others were raving about it, so I gave it a try.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I like the main religious idea of the book in that God wants to have a personal relationship with us, but I don’t like the make-believe fantasy aspects of the story and I really don’t like the attempt of the author to make it seem like a true story (in the foreword and afterward sections).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Political/Current Events<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">How Soccer Explains the World</i>, Foer</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Clever book in which the author travels to famous soccer venues around the world and then uses the stories and sights of the area to interpret world events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His main conclusion is that even though globalization has made the world smaller and made local name brands meaningless, the local people still have strongly held views of nationalism, even to the point of xenophobia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even though capitalism loves globalization, actual people usually do not.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Federalists, Anti-Federalists, and the American Tradition</i>, McWilliams</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A long and arduous book containing various essays regarding the Founding Fathers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A good read, overall, but some parts were very slow going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I think that I am somewhere in between the Federalists (strong central government, weak state governments) and anti-Federalists (just the opposite), but in general my political leanings are towards the Federalists.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Citizen Paine</i>, Kaminski</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This book had a short biography of Thomas Paine and then several hundred pages of quotes from his writings, organized by category. I found the quotes difficult to understand without the rest of the text around them, so after a while I just breezed through them. The bio, however, was very informative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I didn’t know Thomas Paine came to America just a year or so before 1776, and wrote his major works (The American Crisis and Common Sense) after only being here for a very short while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He was a man looking to start fight, one who wholeheartedly committed himself to a cause with fervent zeal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He went on to be a rabble-rouser in France during their revolution a few decades later.</p><!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment--> <!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">One United People</i>, Millican</p> <p class="MsoNormal">An excellent (but slow-going) examination of every single one of the Federalist Papers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Federalist is still one of the most authoritative works on the thoughts behind the Founding Fathers regarding the Constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Millican reaches the conclusion that the 3 writers of these essays are all in agreement that the Constitution supports a strong central government and weak state governments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After reading his book, I agree.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">General Fiction</span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Streets of Laredo</i>, McMurtry</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Larry McMurtry is an excellent storyteller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is number 4 in the Lonesome Dove series (Lonesome Dove is number 3, but it’s the most famous of the set).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Host</i>, Meyers</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Yes, I read a Stephanie Meyers book this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At least it wasn’t one of the Twilight books, okay?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Seriously, though, she is also an excellent writer and this was a terrific book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I highly recommend it, especially to science fiction lovers.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Kids’ Books<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Lightning Thief</i>, Riordan</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Sea of Monsters</i>, Riordan</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Titan’s Curse</i>, Riordan</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Battle of the Labyrinth</i>, Riordan</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Last Olympian</i>, Riordan</p><p class="MsoNormal">Yes, I read the entire Percy Jackson series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My son was so excited about them and kept asking me to read it that I eventually gave in and plowed through them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are good books, and Rick Riordan has a nice way of weaving a storyline together throughout several books. It was worth the time.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane</i>, DiCamillo</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Okay, I’ve read <i>a lot</i> of kids’ books this year, but this is another that I am including in the list because my son read it for his school “book club” and parents are invited to the discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So, I thought I’d read it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s a 200-page book, but with the large font and pictures, it took about 2 hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s a captivating story about learning to love, losing love, and moving on to new love.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>I’m currently reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Jews and Christians: A Troubled Family</i> as well as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Eragon</i>. The latter is a back-and-forth deal with my son where we each read a page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not quite as good as the Riordan books, but my son is enjoying it. So, I don’t think these two books actually make it on the list, since I am not done with them yet, but I’ll mention them here at the end.</o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-52550993927179839562009-12-28T12:04:00.000-08:002009-12-28T12:06:04.856-08:00Kind Of Dense<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I just realized that pantsmonkey is a friend of mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This blogger has posted comments on my site several times over the summer, but just now I finally made the connection. I guess I’m kind of dense sometimes.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>I see on her <a href="http://www.maybemonkeys.com/">blog</a> that she is deeply passionate about GLBT rights, especially gay marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She is saddened each time another state declares that marriage is only between a man and a woman, taking away the possibility of GLBT people to experience “the full range of human experience.”</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>I completely agree with her.</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I should also do more to stop the legislative assault on common decency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I do not see how limiting the private affairs of other people helps those who vote for these law and state constitutional amendments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Like I have <a href="http://theheapingteaspoon.blogspot.com/2009/08/homosexuality-and-christianity.html">said</a>, I think that the Bible (yes, I am a Christian) is not anti-gay, and a good website that summarizes some of the arguments in favor of this position are posted <a href="http://www.soulforce.org/article/homosexuality-bible-gay-christian">here</a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am not a Biblical scholar, but I think I know enough to understand that the premises laid on this post are valid and cast serious doubt on fundamental Christianity’s staunch resistance to anything GLBT related.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There is a chance I could be wrong, but I would like to at least discuss it and publicly, objectively scrutinize the arguments for and against Christian condemnation GLBT rights.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS""><o:p> Not today...another post sometime.</o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-91846935946637082762009-12-23T11:34:00.000-08:002009-12-23T11:43:23.253-08:00WritingI love to write, but lately I have not had the chance to really complete a manuscript. Other things just seem to get in the way, and the few hours I occasionally spend on a paper isn't enough to bring one to fruition. This is something I don't like about my job: I like so many things about it that spending time on one thing means not doing something else I actually like to do.<div><br /></div><div>Last week I was at a meeting, and a colleague reminded me that I had missed the deadline for a journal special issue. I was very sad, and a bit frustrated, that I had let this slip. He then said that if I can get him a manuscript by December 23, he would include it in the bundle he is sending off to the journal (apparently this journal wants all of the papers for the special issue at the same time). Tuesday night I started converting my Powerpoint slides into a paper outline. I flew home from the meeting on Wednesday, continuing to work on the text on the plane. Thursday I finished my final exam preparations and dove back into writing. Friday I gave my exam, continued writing, and sometime past 5 pm sent out an email to my potential coauthors with a completed (but still a bit rough) manuscript of the study.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am glad that I have not lost my mo-jo for writing, and that I can crank out a paper in less than a week, given that I completely ignore everything else that I am supposed to be doing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today I got an email from my colleague: he had a number of people at the meeting ask him for an extension, so he talked with the journal and the new deadline is January 22. I have time to revise. Ahh. Life is good.</div>Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-9825979245022105542009-12-16T08:12:00.000-08:002009-12-16T08:14:07.141-08:00Big Class Next Term<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Next semester I get to teach a large survey course for non-science majors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s already full and I am giving overrides (I am sure some will drop), and expect the final class size will be the capacity of the lecture hall: 120.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Last time I taught it this was the case (hitting 175 that time).</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s a fun class to teach and I enjoy the challenge, but last time I it was a difficult chore to get them involved in the classroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At the beginning of the term I used an electronic survey tool, but not enough were bringing their laptops to class and not enough of those were participating in the free response answers, so I eventually dropped it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I did it the old-fashioned way: having them raise their hands for the survey and waiting for someone to speak out loud when I asked a (simple) question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Discussion was limited to small groups, occasionally forcing them to talk to their neighbors for a minute or two, but large-group discussion, even feedback to the whole class on the small-group conversations, was like pulling teeth with tweezers...not exactly painful, just impossible.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>This time around, I plan to do it differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am going to incorporate a lot more about identifying good-vs-bad science in everyday life than I did last time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I put in a bit of this last time, but not that much and only late in the term, once we had covered the basics of the science concepts for the class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This time I have been collecting “interesting” newspaper, magazine, and web articles this a science component to it (hopefully somewhat relevant to the class topic).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am going to have the small-group discussions again, but force them to report back to the class, and then make those reports part of the homework and test content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hopefully my teaching assistant will take good notes on the whole-class discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I plan on doing this once a week, providing a mid-lecture break every Thursday class session.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On Tuesdays, I will do the other thing I did last time: show and discuss videos (web, TV, or movie clips).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Again, these were mainly shown last time to identify good versus bad science, but I would do it only on a few dedicated class sessions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This time, I will spread it throughout the term, doing this every Tuesday as the mid-lecture “something different.”</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This “every class session” interaction will, I hope, make the class sessions more interesting for the students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I also hope that they learn something from these discussions about being critical of “scientific” information they receive through informal or unintended avenues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s going to require some time investment on my part, but I think it will be worth it for me as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am looking to the new term. </p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-79267219135629342382009-12-08T03:40:00.000-08:002009-12-16T08:14:43.000-08:00One United People<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve read several books on the Founding Fathers this past year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In particular I wanted to learn more about Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I had already read the big tome<a href="http://www.amazon.com/John-Adams-David-McCullough/dp/141657588X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260272579&sr=1-1"> “John Adams</a>” a few years ago...excellent book, if you have the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>David McCullough poured through all of the letters known to exist that were written by or to John Adams in order to write that book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Apparently some of our Founding Fathers were very prolific letter writers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I only wish I could write that much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Thomas Jefferson is an interesting character because he was so young when it began.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence while in his mid twenties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Thomas Paine is peculiar in that he came from England literally just a year or two before he starting writing his booklets to stir up support for the independence movement against his home country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He seemed to be zealous in all he did throughout his life, but had a caustic personality that kept his friend count to a minimum (and alienated those he had pretty quickly).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He was not a “fancy” writer like Adams or Jefferson, but he was a good one that spoke in a clear and passionate voice that resonated with many people.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> The book I just finished was “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/One-United-People-Federalist-National/dp/0813116783">One United People</a>,” a detailed commentary by Edward Millican on the entire 85 essays of “The Federalist.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Federalist is a collection of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison under the pseudonym of Publius and published in a few newspapers around New York in order to help with the ratification of the newly signed Constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They were written over the course of 8 months or so, starting in October 1787, just after the Constitution Convention that summer had passed a new document binding the states together under a stronger central government than the original plan under the Articles of Confederation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Articles had left extensive power with the states, and they were hampering anything getting done on a national level (like repaying the debt from the Revolutionary War, or maintaining an army or navy).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Trade was also a big issue, as the states were starting to impose tariffs on each other and squabble about economic concerns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There was a grave fear that European countries would soon take control of various states and cause the new country to fracture apart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The new Constitution addressed this problem with the creation of a strong central government, essentially placing all sovereignty at the national level and making the state governments completely subordinate to the new central government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Federalist essays were written to inflame passion for the Constitution and rebut the arguments of the anti-Federalists, and were not specifically intended to be a complete and polished masterpiece of intellectual discourse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In fact, they might not have actually swayed the legislators of New York to ratify the new Constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, with their publication as a bound book in late 1788, they became the foremost treatise of political thought from America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are still used today as a reference for interpreting the Constitution, as it is the best collection of essays on what the Founding Fathers might have been thinking when they originally wrote the law of the land.</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> The argument in One United People is that the Federalist papers provide a clear and unwavering defense of nationalism and a strong central government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hamilton and Jay were certainly nationalists who didn’t want to leave any power with the state governments, except to manage local affairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even these few duties of the states were at risk of being taken away, as the Federalist writers often stated that the federal government should expand its scope as local issues become national concerns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Madison is the only one of the three authors who might be suspect as a strong nationalist, particularly his “fragmented society” article (the famous No. 10) that argues in support of competing special interests as a necessary part of the deliberations of the national government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is not, however, a defense of states’ rights and a call for a weak central government, and Millican repeatedly shows other places in Madison’s essays as Publius that call for a strong central government and a very limited role for the states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Overall, the Federalist shows that the Founding Fathers wanted the new government under the Constitution to be the only sovereign entity of the United States of America, and to put an end to the infighting that was developing between the states in the period immediately following the Revolutionary War.</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> So, for those that want to call up the ghosts of the Founding Fathers to argue against a strong central government, specifically for addressing domestic issues like health care and economic regulation, I think that you are mistaken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I think that most of the Founding Fathers would be fine with the current state of the union.</o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-91979487412805463462009-11-27T05:57:00.000-08:002009-11-27T05:58:47.298-08:00Keeping Up<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Okay, I realize now that regularly writing a blog post is not a trivial endeavor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I started at the beginning of the summer, and kept up with it pretty well for a few months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then, the term began.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Woah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Too many other things demanded my time and this blog, along with all of my other e-social activities, dropped off to nearly nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I also realized that writing the blog was, indeed cutting into time I used to spend writing papers, and that my publication productivity dropped off this summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The blog is not entirely to blame, this was a crazy summer on the home front that also cut into work time, but I think it contributed to my slip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I actually thought that writing the blog would help, because it would be keeping me in the writing mode and I would be mentally prepared to jump in and work on a manuscript for an hour whenever I had the chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps, but maybe not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I was already a decent writer who could focus on writing when I needed to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I think the blog is just getting in the way.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> That said, I will not give it up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I like to write it and hope that anyone out there reading it is actually enjoying it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But, that said, I make no promises at how often I will post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I will probably post a few more times over the next week; I just finished a good book analyzing The Federalist Papers and have a few things to say about it, and this is my venue for those thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I will try to be better than I have over the past 3 months, and certainly better than the past month (when I posted nothing), but it will probably be more like a weekly post, at best, than a daily post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t know how bloggers like <a href="http://science-professor.blogspot.com/">Female Science Professor</a> write as much as they do. I suspect she is either so senior that she has lots of time and ideas at the ready, or she is really a team of people all contributing to the same blog.</o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-10295226200657276982009-10-14T15:58:00.000-07:002009-10-14T16:01:58.862-07:00Allocating TAships<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Prof-Like Substance has a good post (<a href="http://proflikesubstance.blogspot.com/2009/10/really-seriously.html">here</a>) on how his department allocates teaching assistantships to PhD students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His department is similar to mine: using TAships as buffer/bridge funding when grant-funded research assistantships temporarily dry up for an existing PhD student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We rarely give them to first-year PhD students, and instead only take new PhD students if a faculty is willing and able to “promise” funding for the expected 5-year dissertation timeline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We are still in that happy naive state, however, of not enough PhD students needing TAships compared to the available slots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So some of the TAships<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>usually go to the Master’s students, who almost never get funding otherwise.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">PLS has emerged from this state and his department is now struggling with how to allocate TAships when there are more PhD students needing such slots than the openings available. In particular, PLS raises the question of what to do when a faculty member with little or no research funding/projects asks for a TA slot. These are actually 2 separate (but related) issues.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">For me, I see two clear priorities for TA positions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The first and foremost is this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>existing students whose professor has been unlucky renewing the grant that’s funding the student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Most grants are 2-4 years long, yet the PhD timeline (in my field) averages 5 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We expect the faculty member to fund the student for all of the years of the student’s PhD, but the faculty makes this promise without actually having the out-year funding in hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So, it is very easy to see the need for bridging funds in such a situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These cases, in my opinion, should get first priority.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The second use of TAships should be to help untenured faculty build their group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s hard to get grants, especially without a proven track record of productivity with grant funding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Much is asked of new Assistant Professors, and making them sweat about not graduating enough PhD students before tenure review is not helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If, after the first priority students are taken care of, there are still open slots, then the junior faculty should be asked if they would like to take on a new student or even have an existing student TA for a term (to stretch out their start-up or grant funding).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is tricky, though, because the junior faculty also wants scientific productivity out of their PhD students, and TAing often slows this down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But, that’s a choice the Assistant Professor should make (in consultation with a senior faculty mentor) to balance their resources.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">After this the prioritization gets fuzzy for me, but here are two other criteria that might come into play.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Existing PhD students who simply want the experience of teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some grad students (like me, way back when) were continually on RAships and never had to teach as a grad student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I didn’t really know it was an option, and I doubt I would have taken it anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I wanted to get through quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Others, though, want that experience, and should be allowed to do it, if their advisor doesn’t veto it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In fact, I am not even sure that I would want the research advisor able to veto such a request.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">New PhD students for highly productive faculty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This seems backwards, but I believe in the saying that “to those who have much, more will be given.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That is, I think that such faculty have proven themselves able to handle multiple grad students and lead them through to successful dissertations, usually with ample funding throughout for all of their students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, sometimes such a faculty wants a new student to start a new project or to continue an existing project for which the current student is about to finish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The promise of funding is there and real, but just not in place that first semester or year (while proposals are written and/or senior students finish up).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is a low-risk situation, and the department is usually well served by such a TAship.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">As for the deadwood faculty asking for a TAship, the chair or grad director needs to speak frankly with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I would not rank this faculty high on my priority list for getting a TA slot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not only would it be a new PhD student position but also there is no recent track record of successfully advising (let along funding) a student through completion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Such a position would be high risk for the department and the student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I would have serious reservations about making such an assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That said, I am not totally against such a faculty getting a TA slot, for a term or two, with the expectation of copious proposal writing and the threat of losing the student to another faculty if funding does not materialize.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I would also ask the grad director to regularly check with the student to make sure that things are going well, and intervene if they are not.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> In summary, vague rules need to be drafted and adopted and a TAship czar needs to be appointed, one who will make the unfair decision regarding which students get this slots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This decision cannot be done by committee.</o:p></p><!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-40846362255751643012009-10-01T08:36:00.000-07:002009-10-01T08:37:38.190-07:00Could've Been BetterI finished the book “<a href="http://theshackbook.com">The Shack</a>” by Wm. Paul Young. I don’t think that this was a well-written book. I like the philosophy behind the personality of God in the book: God’s relationship with us is one of love, care, and compassion. It’s the story that I didn’t like. There actually wasn’t much plotline, and instead it had these lengthy dissertations by the three God characters. The writing wasn’t that compelling and I often found myself questioning the emotions stated for the characters. The text would say that Mack was comfortable with the God characters and loved the way they talked with each other and interacted, but then didn’t convince me of that feeling by actually detailing the comfort-inducing conversation. So, instead of being engrossed by the story and not wanting to put the book down, I found it easy to stop reading each night because the story rarely left in a state where I just had to get to the next page.<br /><br />I also greatly dislike the fantasy encounter of it and the bitterness it might make others feel who have undergone similar loss. Why hasn’t God invited me out to the Shack yet and had a personal, read encounter with me? This is where I greatly dislike the Foreword and Afterward of the book, in which the writer attempts to convince the reader that this is a true story. These two parts of the book should have been omitted because it completely soured the novel for me. Why even pretend it’s a real story? Then I went to the website and realized that the author’s life is remarkably similar to Mack’s life situation...many kids, lives near Portland, experienced unbearable tragedy. This frustrates me. My understanding of the book now is that it is his advice to others about the style of God he found when dealing with his grief. Yet he wrote it as a novel instead of a nonfiction inspirational/spiritual book. It isn’t that I dislike the image of God that he found and is sharing with others, I just chafe at the method he chose for this distribution.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-59906423235670243482009-09-28T05:34:00.000-07:002009-09-28T05:35:26.140-07:00Almost Mad TodayI almost got mad today. I am traveling to Europe, and had the unfortunate experience of getting into the slowest passport control line available this morning. This is not a good thing after flying all night and only getting a couple hours of sleep. I was watching the other lanes continue forward at a much faster pace than the one I was standing in. I was committed, though, with no way to switch, knowing that switching meant going to the end of a different line and risking that one suddenly becoming slower. I was stuck. Frustrated. Tired. Grumpy.<br /><br />I almost got mad. I was beginning to get all steamed up about the incompetence of the officer in the booth ahead of me. Clearly this man was a systemic obstacle to efficiency and needed to be beaten with a stick. He was delaying everyone in his line and I could see that others were visibly frustrated with his lack of processing speed. The thought was boiling up within me that he doesn’t care about us and is intentionally wasting our time. I was starting to consider him as not only incompetent but evil.<br /><br />Then I realized how tired I was. I tried to stem my anger, brushing it off as just my less-than-fully-awake state. Then the thought occurred to me: he might also be near the end of his shift and running on less than full perkiness. He might have been approaching the end of his shift and in need of a break from the fast-paced scrutinization of passport after passport. I started to feel sorry for the guy and let my mind wander about the scenarios he might have been through to put him in this less-than-optimal processing pace.<br /><br />When I was about fifteen people away from the front, another lane opened right next to mine. I jumped into it and, in so doing, cut the line ahead of me in half. Wouldn’t you know, my new line ground to a halt and my original line picked up. I made it up to the counter just a couple people ahead of where I would have been in the original line. The officer behind the window was not incompetent and processed me through passport control very quickly. <br /><br />So, a new thought entered my mind: the original line was slow because the particular mix of people ahead of me were especially complicated to process and clear. Perhaps the delay had nothing to do with the officer at the head of the line, that they were all roughly equal in their ability, and that the delay was beyond their control. All anger within me was defused, because I realized that, in the end, I had no idea why the lanes were slow when they were.<br /><br />My only conclusion is that, when I am in a situation that starts to frustrate me, I should not jump to conclusions about the cause and start blaming people. I will most likely be wrong, and if so, making a fuss would only make a fool out of myself (or worse).Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-42476891815444944902009-09-18T13:53:00.000-07:002009-09-18T13:54:58.154-07:00Scary News Story<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">The death of Annie Le at a Yale laboratory (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/nyregion/18yale.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=Yale%20Le&st=cse&scp=1">here</a>) brings up the very real threat of violence on campus. I work at a big university in a fairly urban setting, and I am sure that on any given day, there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of graduate students working late into the night in their corner of some building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I know that one of my female grad students prefers a shifted work schedule, getting in around noon and working until 10 pm or midnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That’s her choice, and I don’t have a problem with it, except that it means that she is walking home, alone, nearly every night, well past dusk (even in the summer).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is a safe campus, but we get crime alert emails whenever something happens, and so we are all aware of the potential danger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We have card readers on the building’s outside doors, so only those with reason to have access can get in, but there is nothing to stop the violence like that which occurred at Yale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The charge is that it was an employee attacking another employee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Our safeguards wouldn’t have caught this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I doubt that such a crime could be prevented without intense (both invasive and expensive) security measures.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I guess the answer is that it is a personal choice and depends on how safe you feel and how much you really need to do what you are doing while in the building (instead of, say, on a computer at home).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We have desktops for our students, not laptops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I could let them check out a desktop and have it at home, but then would I ever see them again before graduation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hmm.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">How do you keep a workplace safe yet accessible?</p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-33420252272807315852009-09-16T06:19:00.000-07:002009-09-16T06:21:43.131-07:00Strange Coincidence<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">About a week ago I started reading the book “The Shack” by William Young. It’s this novel about a man who becomes extremely sad when his youngest daughter is abducted while they are on a camping trip together, and the police track the perp to a remote shack, where they find the truck and the girl’s dress but not the girl or the kidnapper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Three years later, he is called back to the shack to have a very strange encounter with three very loving and generous people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Over the course of conversing and interacting with them, he learns to understand his pain and accept his loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am only halfway through the book, so I don’t know how it ends yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s well written and entertaining, and I am enjoying the break every evening to get absorbed into this man’s adventure at the shack.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sidenote about The Shack:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I greatly dislike the Foreword, which is written from the author’s perspective and tries to convince the reader that the following story is true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I cannot accept this premise, and my impression of the book is negatively tainted because of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To me, the author has spoiled an otherwise engrossing tale with the intentionally misleading deception of trying to make me believe that the events in the book really happened to someone. That is dangerous false hope and unreal expectations for others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He should have simply left it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If you ever get the gumption to read this book, I encourage you to skip the Foreword.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, back to my story:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>a friend from college has been battling cancer for several years, but passed away this last weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She is a mother of 4, and was diagnosed with the illness during her last pregnancy (I think that was 8 years ago now, or maybe more).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I haven’t seen her in over a year, at which time she was well enough to make the trip to another mutual friend’s wedding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Before that, it had been several years, probably since before the diagnosis, that I had last seen her and her family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was a slow decline with ups and downs, but never particularly good and cancer free anywhere in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She lived her life as well as she could, and fought the disease with all she had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am sad that I won’t get to see her again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am sad for her husband, who is a great guy full of life and overflowing with opinions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am sad for her children, who really only knew their mom while she was sick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I am not looking for a lesson from her death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It pretty much sucks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is a strange coincidence, though, that I am reading a book about sadness after loss and the redemption and healing that God can give you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps the book will help me deal with this.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-55778888184643093932009-09-11T08:51:00.000-07:002009-09-11T08:53:58.469-07:00Prayers for Tenure Casebook<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">My friend (since childhood) is up for tenure this fall.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Tenure didn’t work out so well as University #1 for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was a hard blow, and no one likes to be told to move on, but I think that the culture of that college and that town wasn’t right for him anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He seems to be more comfortable at University #2, and from what I hear, the administration has been treating him better than his former management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The fit is also particularly good for his wife, as I hear that this town is an excellent location for her profession and that she has developed a well-established network of contacts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">As with most tenure reviews, this is an up-or-out assessment of his abilities, and the future of his life at University #2 is in the balance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He is very hopeful about his chances of tenure, but there is still that uncertainty providing a bit of stress to the start of this new school year.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Being in a humanities field, his casebook I am sure will look substantially different from mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Books are far more prevalent and expected on his publication list than on mine. I am sure he has topical journals in which to publish, and hopefully he has an ample stack of such papers to show for his years in the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In my research area, numerous peer-reviewed journal articles per year are the norm, and books before tenure are an extreme rarity. In fact, I was specifically told <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">not</b> to write a book too early, because it detracts from the regular and expected measures of productivity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I can only trust that he has received good mentoring from senior faculty in his department (or others in his field elsewhere around the country), that they are advocates for him within the college, and that he has accomplished all that he needs to have done regarding teaching, service, and research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I can only trust that others in his field beyond University #2 have a favorable impression of his contributions to the field, that they know and respect his work, and that the evaluation letters clearly reflect these positive opinions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I can only trust that he has mentored one or more graduate students through thesis or dissertation completion, that these former students have favorable impressions of their time with him at University #2, and that they will adequately voice their opinions back to the casebook committee.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So, I hope that you will join me in praying for the success of his tenure casebook, and should it not work out for him, to ask for God to give him the courage and perseverance to move on with his career, wherever it might take him and his family.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-53505933086418720162009-09-02T13:28:00.000-07:002009-09-02T13:30:00.592-07:00Bad Advisors<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">To go along with the “how many grad students” question from the last post, there is a discussion on <a href="http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2009/09/bas.html">FSP’s blog</a> about Bad Advisors (BAs). I hope that I am not a BA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I hope that just being aware that there is such a thing as good and bad advising is half the struggle to avoiding the BA label.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I might be an unintentionally bad advisor (UBA) for some of my students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I try to err on the side of over-advising, sometimes at the expense of my own first-author publication production.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This summer has not been good for paper writing, but I have been helping others get out papers and proposals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I did get to code <a href="http://theheapingteaspoon.blogspot.com/2009/07/nerdy-addictions.html">for a while</a> this summer, and that was fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t think I could do this with 10+ PhD students at once, or even 5 grad students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I would have no time for myself and my own pursuits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I think that I would be in constant manager mode and wouldn’t get to actually do any science directly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It would all be vicariously through my employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That’s not what I want to do, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am still very interested in coding and making plots and spending time with a problem, and I don’t want to simply be one who gets the money for others to able to do these things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So, I will not grow my group too fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For one, that takes a lot of money, but for another, I want to be able to (very slowly) transition into the permanent manager position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am pretty happy with the state of things right now, although I would have liked to have had more time this summer to write a paper or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But, I do not regret my time advising others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is productive time for me, just in a different direction, and I am not bitter about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Just a little nostalgic for the days when I did everything myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No, not really.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-88323658402851583102009-08-31T14:46:00.001-07:002009-08-31T14:46:57.301-07:00How Many Grad Students?<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I have 3 graduate students working for me right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I find this to be enough, along with the undergraduate students I advise on projects (usually 1 or 2 at any time), other faculty I collaborate with, and post-docs or research scientists that I support and/or work with around here. There are a few faculty in my department who have 5 or 6 PhD students at a time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am not sure I want that many people reporting to me and looking to me for direction and mentoring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I know of a few in our field who claim to have 10-20 graduate students in their group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t see how this is humanly possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In fact, I don’t see how that is even remotely responsible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">To me, having more than 5 PhD students, let alone 10 or 20, is irresponsible on several levels. It means that the faculty member is continuously in meetings with these people (assuming that they have regular interaction with each student).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This cheats the faculty out of time to do their own research investigations, and they are probably giving up all home life in order to publish the first-author papers that I see from them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It also means that the students don’t get very much one-on-one time with their advisor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps this is fine for some students, but I have found that most PhD students like regular interaction with their advisors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the early years, they like it so that they learn the field and discover a research project that suits them well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the later years, they like it because they have results and need to show them to someone and get feedback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is also not good for the field, because such a faculty member is replicating themselves (well, at least producing new PhDs in the field), which increases the pressure on the already over-subscribed traditional funding sources for the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is probably only acceptable to have so many PhD students if you know that most of your students will leave the field and not pursue research careers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In this case, under-advising and over-producing them is fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But, even still, for the few grad students in your group who want to continue as a researcher in the field, life in a huge group might not be the optimal situation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I will probably have a student graduate this year, and I will probably take a new PhD student next fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Somewhere between 2 and 4 grad students seems like a good number for me.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-33482192404960823992009-08-24T08:48:00.000-07:002009-08-24T08:51:09.844-07:00Homosexuality and ChristianityI was recently sent this link:<br /> <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/us/us_lutherans_gays/2009/08/21/250805.html">http://www.newsmax.com/us/us_lutherans_gays/2009/08/21/250805.html</a><br /><br />It comments on the recent proposal before the governing board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) to allow open, practicing gays to serve as clergy. The article is posted on NewsMax, so it is written with an anti-gay slant and hints that the ELCA will be split apart if this proposal is passed.<br /><br />So, the question is this: is homosexuality incompatible with Christianity? As a Christian, should I hate all homosexuals and make it my mission to point out their transgression and actively persuade them to give up their life of sin? Should I protest Gay Pride marches and vocally oppose gay marriage laws?<br /><br />I think the answer is no. As the article states, the ELCA, and in fact most Christian denominations, do not follow a literal prescription of every verse in some English translation of the Bible. Like the article states, what about women? Paul says that they should be silent with covered heads and no braids. <span style="font-style: italic;">What?!</span> I don’t get the no braided hair rule at all. Why should I not braid my daughter’s hair? She likes it!<br /><br />In reading the Bible, especially Paul's letters, I believe that you have to take into account the context of the culture and the local circumstances that the particular church was facing. The braided hair concern of Paul most likely was directed at a local custom of another religious sect (like the followers of Isis or Aphrodite). I think he was concerned about people trying to turn Christian worship services into worship of one of these other gods. He probably wrote it to preserve the integrity of the local Christian community, and physically distinguishing themselves from the actions of other religions was a way to do this. Did he mean for the no braids rule to become part of everlasting Christian doctrine? No.<br /><br />So, what about homosexuality? The book of Romans has a lot to say about this. All negative. It is easy to think that Christians should be anti-gay. However, the local custom was that gays were promiscuous. I believe that this is what Paul was arguing against, whether it is heterosexual or homosexual promiscuity. Paul would probably dislike the scantily-clad leather outfits I have seen on groups of gays in the French Quarter, and would probably have strong words against the one-night-stand mentality of gay pick-up locations. However, I do not think that he would condemn loving, monogamous homosexual partnerships.<br /><br />Why? Because I believe that our relationships with others <span style="font-weight: bold;">is</span> our relationship with God. We should treat others as we want to be treated, and I cannot see how two consenting adults in a loving relationship is against God or creating any problems for me. I fully support gay marriage and I hope that other Christians realize that allowing someone to fully care for their life-partner is the loving, compassionate, Christian thing to do.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-87300125743943084932009-08-17T17:56:00.000-07:002009-08-17T17:57:55.839-07:00Old White MenAfter a week of frantic proposal writing, that document is done and sent in to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. I am now at a meeting organized by this same agency on this same topic. Why they scheduled the meeting on top of the proposal deadline is truly bizarre, but that’s what they did. I suspect most of the people here did not write proposals, as it was only open to universities, and there are only about 3 of us here from academic institutions. Tomorrow I get to give my pitch, and hope that those here from the military like it. As I have never actually done anything with modeling (or any research) of artificial radiation belts (i.e., from a high altitude nuclear explosion), I call my talk a pitch because I will only show “natural” radiation belt results, and talk about how the model could be used for this specialized source term. There are about 40 of us here, and I’d like to describe this crew. One of the attendees is female. She also looks Native American, and works for the Air Force in LA. There is another guy here from the Naval Research Lab who is Indian born (now a US citizen, as is everyone in the room). Everyone else is a white guy. About half are over 60 years old, a good number of them over 70. I don’t think I am the youngest in the room, but I am pretty darn close...perhaps 2 or 3 are younger than me. Many at this meeting are a crew that began in this field at the dawn of the space age 50 years ago. The field has lost interest over the years, and I am sure there is some decay lifetime for the number of researchers in this field. In the last few years (okay, since 9/11), this field has gotten more attention within DoD. So, that’s why there are the younger people here, but the younger crew is not a particularly diverse population, and the room (and the opening speaker list) is certainly dominated by <span style="font-weight: bold;">old white men</span>.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-76094803467436129222009-08-06T19:25:00.000-07:002009-08-07T05:21:40.165-07:00Pittsburgh Day 5: Going GlobalToday, I heard the leader of the Stephen Ministries organization, Ken Haugk, say that they are very close to unveiling a “whole church leadership system," analogous to the Stephen Ministry leadership and management system that I have been learning about all week. This is truly fantastic, as I think that this system is universally applicable to any management situation (see <a href="http://theheapingteaspoon.blogspot.com/2009/08/pittsburgh-day-2-management-training.html">Day 2 post</a> below). I think I might quit my tenured faculty job and go to work for Stephen Ministries to help them develop a “whole scientist leadership system." I did not receive any leadership or management training when I became a professor, or a research scientist, or whenever it was that I had to start writing proposals and funding myself and hiring grad students and building a group. I know that our department offers nothing like this for any of our junior faculty, tenure-track or research-track. While I am not actually serious about quitting my job, I am serious about developing a leadership and management toolkit for scientists...unless someone can tell me where such a thing already exists.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-71252919391748269892009-08-05T19:56:00.000-07:002009-08-05T19:58:25.915-07:00Pittsburgh Day 4: HumorThey keep throwing in funny little tidbits at the beginning of the training sessions. Most of them are very good.<br /><br />I have nothing for you today, it’s late and I am tired. So, just in case you have not yet discovered this website, here is something that is sure to make you laugh:<br /><br />http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/<br /><br />A truly funny website. Enjoy.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-51655298058492856812009-08-04T15:35:00.000-07:002009-08-04T15:36:33.131-07:00Pittsburgh Day 3: Leadership TrainingThis is one of the few meetings I’ve attended where I come back from the sessions more energized than when I went down in the morning. This stuff is great.<br /><br />I have this nagging fear that I will forget it all when I get back to reality next week, and that the excitement I have for implementing good management practices will fade away and I will simply continue on with how I am doing things now. Actually, I am not that far off from the system they are presenting this week, except perhaps on the planning stages. I think I do a pretty good job with defining tasks to achieve near-term goals (vision and strategy) and pretty good at supervising and mentoring those in my group. Where I need help is in the long-term thinking section of the master plan: defining core values, defining a mission/purpose, and assessing progress against such universal principles. In short, I think I am becoming a good manager, but I have not yet become a good leader.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-55270282435622906192009-08-03T19:00:00.000-07:002009-08-03T19:41:53.705-07:00Pittsburgh Day 2: Management TrainingI am enjoying this Stephen Leader Training Course. It’s basically an intensive bombardment of information and activities on how to lead a church program, specifically a Stephen Ministry program. They seem to have taken fundamental management practices and put a Christian twist on them. It’s very nice for me, as I am essentially a manager at work and have never had a formal managerial training course like this. While the day was long without much time for wandering my thoughts to other topics, I’m taking some time this evening to reflect on how the day’s lessons could be applied to my work environment.<br /><br />The 10 steps in the system:<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Leadership:</span> picking the right team to lead the program. For work, this is me, but should I expand into a scientific empire, then I need to pick the right people to lead with me. <br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Vision:</span> I should create a long-range, in some sense unattainable, vision statement for myself and my research team, then keep this on my mind as I do everything else I do as a professor.<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Awareness:</span> I need to publicize my work in multiple ways so that (a) other researchers know what I’m doing and (b) potential students/hires will know what I’m doing.<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Recruit:</span> I need to actively and conscientiously pursue the best students and potential hires for my group.<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Train:</span> I need to have a plan for training new students and group members, and then diligently implement that plan. I can see that this will be a hard one to follow, because doing science is an inexact science, but I think I should come up with a general philosophy about training, at the very least.<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Commission:</span> graduation of undergrads and grad students? Promotion of research scientists?<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Referrals:</span> not the best translation, as this is Stephen Ministry specific, but I think it means, for my work life, getting my students directed toward the proper project for each one of them, and thinking seriously about these assignments.<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Supervise:</span> I should regularly meet with them, as a group, to provide affirmation of their accomplishments, support for their ongoing endeavors, and constructive feedback on areas where improvement is needed.<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Affirm:</span> this is not only part of the last one (affirmation during supervision), but also affirmation in other venues, especially public ones, like promoting my students to other researchers while at meetings.<br /> -- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Evaluate:</span> I don’t think I want to implement a periodic evaluation of my students and group members, but I do think that I should occasionally think critically about how things are going, especially with regard to the vision/plan mentioned above.<br /><br />They give advice and examples on how to do each of these steps. While their material is all slanted towards Stephen Ministry, I can easily see how it is universally applicable to whatever program you are leading and/or managing. So, this is going to be a good week.<br /><br />Still not much progress on my funding proposal for the military. I will spend time on that now. More tomorrow.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-90587071797997601772009-08-02T15:21:00.001-07:002009-08-02T15:23:06.399-07:00Pittsburgh Day 1Woah. That was quite a week. Last weekend, we took off for a weekend to my wife’s high school reunion. It’s amazing how quickly complete strangers open up and spill their life histories to each other. I especially find it odd the way some of the reunion-goers’ spouses instantly revealed the details of their lives to other spouses of reunion-goers. We have basically nothing in common except that people we married knew each other several decades ago. No matter! Let me tell you about the time my son threw up in the family minivan while going to see grandma last summer... It was a good time, but just a little creepy at moments when a person you really don’t care to get to know has you cornered for a while. Otherwise, a nice evening.<br /><br />On Monday, my daughter got sick. Coughing and fever. Then wheezing and shortness of breath. With her asthma, we decided to take her in to the doctor’s office. They sent us on to the ER, and then she was admitted. Respiratory issues, with a low blood-oxygen level. She was finally released Friday morning.<br /><br />Just in time for closing on the sale of our house Friday afternoon. We actually got a small check back, which is something to be thankful for in this day. But, you know what that means...packing, moving, and cleaning, all week long. With one parent in the hospital at my daughter’s bedside. Oof da. I’m tired, and work (let alone this blog) were neglected. It was my summer undergrad student’s last week, too. Fun for him, I only spent about 20 minutes with him all week. Not enough, but it couldn’t be helped.<br /><br />So, now I am in Pittsburgh at a training conference for a church leadership role (a Stephen Ministry training conference, for those that know about this). It’s going to be a long week of drinking from the firehose, I think, but I have to make time for work, considering the last 3 weeks were blown on programming and then moving/caretaking. The military money proposal is due in mid August, and I am nowhere near done with it, like I wanted to be by this time. Wish me luck.Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038613529941684292.post-14123089582986642882009-07-23T05:05:00.000-07:002009-07-23T05:08:08.765-07:00Nerdy AddictionsI learned something about myself: programming is like mainlining heroin. Okay, I've never actually mainlined heroin, but I have seen the movie "Trainspotting," which is a sad but excellent portrayal of heroin addiction (in my very amateur opinion). I just got into a small programming task, and every day for the last 2 weeks I would blow off other work in order to get back to debugging. I <span style="font-weight:bold;">had</span> to find this error and make this work, and <span style="font-weight:bold;">nothing</span> was going to stop me. Okay, perhaps it’s not quite as bad as heroin, as I did remember to prepare and give a presentation to the summer undergrad students last week. But it is a short-term addiction in that I felt physically drawn to the code and the output files, studying them to find the clue that would solve my puzzle. I am glad the task was manageably small, so that closure could be reached without too much time consumed.<br /><br />You see, I have not had a good chance to make modifications to my main computer code, myself, in a few years. My students (grad and undergrad) have been working on it, doing the things I used to do myself. Helping them learn how to make these changes usually takes more time than if I just did it myself, but that is no longer my job. I am supposed to educate others, and so hiring these people and spending time with them, to slowly do what I could do faster, is what I do.<br /><br />Except this month. I laid out a long list of things to do this summer, and programming a new feature into the code wasn’t on the list. As I was cleaning off my desk recently, I came across a printout of an email from a coworker here. It was a mid-cycle review of one of his larger grants, on which I have a very small role. Within the review was a recommendation for a specific code modification, and it even suggested the reference for easily making this change. I had printed it out thinking that I (well, actually, one of my students) should incorporate this change, because it is a change directed at my part of the big project. I sat there staring at this sheet of paper and finally I decided: I would do it. Myself. Right now. Nothing else was that urgent that I couldn’t push it off for a few days, which is a how long I figured this would take, even with the times two factor on my estimate.<br /><br />It is now 2 weeks later, and I am done. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Success!</span> This programming task I undertook so completely absorbed my attention that I didn't do much else and ignored many things until I reached the end. I feel like 2 weeks of my life have disappeared, and all of those things I was supposed to be doing are still waiting for me to do, only now I have 2 weeks less to work on them. I can't afford to do that very often, or I will get into serious trouble.<br /><br />But I succeeded at a programming task. I’m pretty pumped up right now. I need another hit. No, I can’t go there! I have proposal deadlines approaching!Space Profhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403855042122380655noreply@blogger.com2