4 Months of Holidays? Not Quite!

Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.

Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: 4 Months of Holidays? Not Quite!

Nonresidents of the Ivory Tower of Academia often believe that we professors have nothing to do when we’re not teaching, that we spend much of our time outside the classroom engaged in leisurely activities, resting on hammocks sipping mint-juleps while pretending to be absorbed in deep contemplation during the bucolic summer season (“Hey professor, how’s life treating you these days?”).

I enjoyed reading this because I hear that all the time. Wow, life must be great since you have the summer off. To be honest, I can’t wait until fall, when things get a little more quiet. That’s when I’m ‘just teaching’ (plus everything else that goes on like papers and conferences and editing the journal, and committees and committees, oh, and committees). But since teaching is the focus then, it gives some pacing and focus. Summer time is just hell bent for planning, proposal writing and editing. No teaching and almost no committees. A whole week can go by and you wonder where it went, but proposal X is almost done.

Right now rochelle and I are supposed to be working on a paper… but I’m behind on my bit and am sad.

If You Were a Terrorist, How Would You Attack?

Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.

This is steven levitt speaking not me. He wrote Freakonomics. Check out the comments at the end. It has a very Michael Moore feel.

[What would I] do to maximize terror if I were a terrorist with limited resources. I’d start by thinking about what really inspires fear. One thing that scares people is the thought that they could be a victim of an attack. With that in mind, I’d want to do something that everybody thinks might be directed at them, even if the individual probability of harm is very low. Humans tend to overestimate small probabilities, so the fear generated by an act of terrorism is greatly disproportionate to the actual risk.

If You Were a Terrorist, How Would You Attack? - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

JavaGami

Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.

I just discovered JavaGami. A java based origami making program for kids. Can’t wait to try it. It has windoz versions, but was made on a mac.