Teaching more by grading less, or differently
Here is a sublime profile of biologist Art Shapiro. And apparently, everybody I know who has worked with him says it’s spot on.
A librarian discovers many rare books have had images of beetles cut out of them. It sounds like a disaster, but turns out to be a very cool story.
Clarifying Amazonia’s burning crisis
An Oral History Of Blade Runner’s 2019 Los Angeles, Because The Future Has Arrived– This article interviews folks behind the production of Blade Runner. In which the a guy who bumps into Ray Bradbury along the street, forgets exactly who he is, but then ends up asking Bradbury for Philip K. Dick’s phone number to get hooked up with him to write the screenplay, though he never really does.
The video that changed my approach to science communication
Insects can’t be virgins, and their forced copulation isn’t rape
The Effect of Perceived Classroom Competition on the Daily Psychological Experiences of First-Generation College Students. Here are some real data about the imposter syndrome that can teach you how to teach your class differently to help students achieve and minimize achievement gaps.
Kindness: a new kind of rigour for British Geographers. Wow. This article is about how one particular academic field is pervasively unkind, and how this is destructive to the field. But, really, it could be about most academic fields.
What the West doesn’t get about the climate crisis
Concerned about an insect apocalypse? For starters, kill your lawn.
Should academic societies advertise jobs for institutions that refuse to hire some candidates on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity? I’ve read this through this argument twice, and the rhetorical gymnastics leave me dizzy. I’m all for ideological diversity (including “social conservatives”) in our professional societies, but societies can’t promote or endorse institutions or viewpoints that actively some fraction of the membership because of the way they were born. Supporting diversity means not giving space to bigots. Kudos to AGU and GSA for doing the right thing.
For all the USians, best wishes for a peaceful thanksgiving.