Category: Nerdery
From a news story on the CTV website: Dozens rescued after B.C. gondola tower collapses Emergency crews evacuated dozens of skiers and snowboarders who were left stranded aboard sagging gondola cars when a support tower collapsed Tuesday. and By 6:15 p.m., all of the passengers had been evacuated, CTV B.C. reported. The skiers and snowboarders […]
Just received this in the mail the other day1: That sounds like an interesting book, yes? I mean, who wouldn’t want to read about prenatal alcohol and bone development? And wait, what is that there? That author’s name looks awfully familiar, doesn’t it? Yup, that’s my thesis2, in handy book form! Back in the summer, […]
I promised that I’d snap a picture of my copy of the grant application that I just submitted. Because I knew you’d never believe me about its ridiculous size. That is me with just one copy of the grant application1. We had to submit the original, plus five copies. Ostensibly, that’s a 13 page proposal. […]
OK, I have to say this because it’s been driving me crazy. The election of the first African-American president is an historic event. I can’t count how many times I have read and heard in the last two days that it was an historical event. Now, technically it is true that it was an historical […]
In honour of today being the first day of school1, I decided to share with you some education-related podcasts I’ve listened to/watched lately. First, up from the Philosophy Bites podcast, I give you M.M. McCabe talking about the Socratic Method. The Socratic Method is: a form of philosophical inquiry in which the questioner explores the […]
I’m looking for topics in the area of nutrition that would make for good debates (specifically, topics that have good scientific evidence to support both sides of the argument). So I thought I’d put it out to the blogoverse – any thoughts? What controversial topics in nutrition would you want to see debated? Photo by […]
Kalev and I were going for a post-dinner walk around English Bay, eating our post-dinner ice cream from Marble Slab1, when we saw this2: Alternative captions for this photo include: Is it unhumble of me to correct your grammar? This cardboard’s unperfection is its lack of spellcheck. 1Mine, I will hasten to add, was misleadingly […]
I was reading up on the dictionary definition of irony1 and came across this definition of the term “Socractic irony“: Socratic irony –noun pretended ignorance in discussion. I’ve never heard this term before. I’m familiar with the concept of dramatic irony, but Socratic irony is a new one for me. I think I would merely […]
I never thought I’d live to see this day. But I have, in fact, finished Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. A book that I started A YEAR AGO. I mean, it’s not like I was reading it non-stop – I read a few other books during the past year and during the time that […]
Comprehensive exams: com·pre·hen·sive ex·ams n. an especially cruel form of torture to which Ph.D. students are subjected —Synonyms 1. comps 2. hell Props to Erika for passing her comps yesterday!