Category Archives: Uncategorized

1)  I don’t think most students understand how difficult it is to give bad grades.  With good papers you get the joy of offering simple encouragement and ideas for taking the work further.  Who doesn’t like grading good papers?  But … Continue reading →

A recent New York Times article: Birth Control Allowed at Maine Middle School PORTLAND, Me., Oct. 17 — The Portland school board on Wednesday approved a measure allowing middle-school students to gain access to prescription birth control medications without notifying … Continue reading →

Earlier this year a Cornell student was arrested for savagely beating and pouring a bleach mixture on a dog that he was ostensibly taking care of for his friend. He was just sentenced to six-months for felony animal abuse. The … Continue reading →

Cornell has made it a practice of posting the median grades for each class online.  Not surprisingly, recent studies have shown that students are drawn to classes with higher median grades, thus encouraging grade inflation.  This is no small difference: … Continue reading →

A few months ago we got a letter in the mail from an IRS informing us that we were being audited for 2005.  As in, the year we married, moved states, had more than four jobs between us, and changed … Continue reading →

There is now a CV at my academic website (I think one of you said at some point that you wanted to see it — beats me why). I also updated the reading page to better reflect what a blinkered … Continue reading →

An old post at Philosopher’s Playground explains why philosophers, at least those of the analytic persuasion, can’t dress themselves. In short, it’s because there ‘is no algorithm by which one can in a finite amount of time, much less in … Continue reading →

I’ve often wondered why news sites like the NYTimes, BBC, and so on bother allowing readers to comment on stories, since the comments are almost without exception so appallingly stupid that they make me embarrassed to be human. Since it’s … Continue reading →

We need to get a cow.  Obviously.  Sydney has farmed his way into our vegetables, taken a stab at several favorite fruits, and canned until our shelves are full.  We have squash lining the walkway to our house, tomato juice … Continue reading →

A new Kohl’s opened in our area and I, who find this the haven of good deals on socks and other stuff, wanted to see if it had any potential.  Sydney dropped me off and went to pick up groceries.  … Continue reading →