"Like they're reading a science article written by a journalism major"
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"Like they're reading a science article written by a journalism major"
In one panel, a stick-figure Tevis greets a constituent by rattling off a stream of personal facts he's found online about her -- including her birthdate, voting pattern, divorce, paycheck, credit card balances and medical history -- to illustrate his interest in protecting individual privacy.
When she slams the door in his face, the cartoon Tevis muses, "Maybe I should rethink my approach."
"I figured I'd raise a few thousand dollars, at most," for his bid to become a state representative, said Tevis, a computer systems manager who works for an industrial manufacturing company.
In fact, before he created the comic strip, Tevis spent weeks asking cash-strapped friends and family for help and walking door-to-door in the district. He raised $1,525.
The comic strip -- at www.seantevis.com/3000 -- was first posted online July 16. Today, when he files his campaign finance forms with the Kansas secretary of state's office, Tevis will report that he has raised $95,162.76 in donations through PayPal, the online service that allows payments and money transfers via the Internet.
My name is Sean Tevis. I'm an Information Architect in Kansas running for State Representative. I've decided to "retire" my current State Representative. I'm going to win. This is my story (XKCD homage style) so far.
The second subtext, however, is disturbingly accurate. We do make special accommodations for students who are uncomfortable with science, and particularly mathematics. We offer special classes that teach science with a minimum of math, and we offer math classes at a level below what ought to be expected of college students. Admissions officers and student tour guides go out of their way to reassure prospective students that they won’t be expected to complete rigorous major-level science classes, but will be provided with options more to their liking.
It's difficult to imagine similar accommodations being made for students uncomfortable with other disciplines. The expectations for student ability in the humanities are much higher than in the sciences. If a student announced that he or she was not comfortable with reading and analyzing literary texts, we would question whether that student belonged in college at all (and rightly so). We take the existence of "Physics for Poets" for granted, but nobody would consider advocating a "Poetry for Physicists" class for science majors who are uncomfortable with reading and analyzing literature.
I am very pleased to finally announce my Big News: the Bad Astronomy Blog is now a part of Discover Magazine Blogs.
Members of the House of Representatives recently disobeyed the White House and gave NASA an additional $2.9 billion for its yearly budget. The House approved $20.2 billion for the U.S. space agency for the fiscal year starting in October.
Two-thirds majority was needed, but the spending bill received an overwhelming 409-15 vote that helped send a "strong message" to the next president of the United States.
The BBC is reporting on a recent study in the UK that found that the difficulty of high school level math exams has declined. The study looked at mathematics from 1951 through to the present and found that, after remaining roughly constant through the 1970s and 1980s, the difficulty of high school math exams dropped precipitously starting in the early 1990s. A comparison of exams is provided in the appendix of the study. Are other countries, such as the US, noticing a similar decline in mathematics standards?
Many of the comments seem to agree, though the plural of anecdote isn't data.
I would like to see the full report, however.
New York is a tough town to open a show in, but the World Science Festival already looks like a smash. The first day's events were sold out on Thursday. Of the 46 events in the four-day festival, all but five are either sold out or virtually sold out (meaning there are a few single tickets left), says Adam Pockriss, a spokesman for the festival.
"Despite the fact that we are programmed against ourselves," he says, "with almost seven or eight of our events happening at the same time in some instances, we have sold more than 90 percent of our seats and may in fact sell out the entire event."
I wish I could have made it to Brian Greene's talk.
Senior Review and rankings for the ten missions under evaluation for NASA Astrophysics in 2008 have been published.
Bottom line here is that NASA funds are too tight, so some operating missions are being reviewed for descoping or shut down.
If you are anywhere near Long Island, NY, you really shouldn't miss the opportunity to visit Brookhaven National Laboratory during one of their Summer Sundays. You get to visit not only the lab in general, but also get to tour the facility that's open for visitors for that day. Typically, the days highlighting the NSLS and RHIC are two of the more popular and tend to have the largest number of visitors, and understandably so.
This is one of the few opportunities one gets to tour a world class science facility and gets to ask questions to scientists working there.
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider sounds fun!