Monthly Archives: April 2011

Publish and Perish

Should the stigma attached to self-publishing be jettisoned? “Publish or Perish,” an old saw of the academic world, refers to the unremitting pressure to publish in scholarly journals to advance an academic career. These articles are rarely read outside the … Continue reading

Posted in Open Access, Public Philosophizing | 2 Comments

A New Lexicon

[Philosophical problems] are, of course, not empirical problems; but they are solved through an insight into the workings of our language, and that in such a way that these workings are recognized – despite an urge to misunderstand them. The problems are … Continue reading

Posted in New Lexicon, Public Philosophizing | Tagged | 1 Comment

Capturing quality… whatever that is

Adding to the slew of academic rankings, the Times Higher Education released its own “state-of-the-art” ranking of world institutes of higher education. Harvard is #1 and seven out of the top 10 universities in the world are American, which shouldn’t … Continue reading

Posted in Metrics, Public Philosophizing | 1 Comment

A Rising Tide?

Last Wednesday, downtown Ft. Worth was the scene of a protest against fossil fuels, and in particular hydraulic fracturing. A reporter for the Texas Tribune framed the event as “the latest sign of a backlash against drilling in Texas.” But … Continue reading

Posted in Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | 1 Comment

Getting a new hand

Andrew Sullivan posted a link to a video about the UCLA medical center’s recent transplantation of a hand onto a 26 year old woman who had lost hers in an accident. The video runs 7 and a half minutes. It … Continue reading

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Burning Down the House

Texas is in the thrall of an extreme drought.  Wildfires this season have already burnt an area larger than Rhode Island. “This is a situation of historic proportions,” said Victoria Koenig, public information officer with the Texas Forest Service…”The fuels are … Continue reading

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Development At What Cost?

‘Quality of life’ is a tricky concept – in a pluralistic society, there is no ultimate authority to arbitrate just what constitutes ‘quality.’  But as political and economic pressure increases to develop risky sources of energy such as biofuels, oil … Continue reading

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Parsimony & predictive ability: Competing values?

A common assumption as far as statistical modeling and their predictive powers is that as databases grow in size and scope and available computing power increases, the models will become more and more accurate at predicting choice, behavior, risk, etc. … Continue reading

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Emerging Plain Speak

Among my many travails on the trip to Houston, I had to go to the emergency room at St. Luke’s Hospital. A staph infection on my left eyebrow had swollen the eye beneath almost totally shut. I was staying in … Continue reading

Posted in Interdisciplinarity, Public Philosophizing, Transdisciplinarity | 2 Comments

Major Measuring

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that universities are experimenting with a new metric machine not only to help students pick their next classes but possibly their major. Or in the thinking of most people trying to graduate from college, their life … Continue reading

Posted in Future of the University, Metrics, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | 2 Comments

The Giving Body

I lit out on a rare journey from my beloved home town to attend a conference in Houston, TX, on the intersection of the humanities & digital technologies. As travelling goes, the experience has been one of the worst. The … Continue reading

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Business as usual

Unfortunately for environmental protection and regulation bodies, this means new budget restrictions at the state and federal level that cut even deeper into the wound of continued ideological attacks on their existence. Even if most have weathered the political blows, … Continue reading

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You too can be a Geoengineer!

But don’t do it without an operator’s manual – you might mess it up. Luckily for us, climatologist Richard Alley disclosed an instruction manual for how to operate the planet Earth last weekend. “Earth: The Operators’ Manual” opens with a … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Economics & STEM Research, Interdisciplinarity, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | 1 Comment

Log on to Learn?

Online learning is a good example of how an uncritical or even ideologically motivated application of technology to social problems simply shifts problems to other institution, regions, or classes. As state budgets come under strain, there is a temptation to … Continue reading

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AAUP shows bleak future for university instruction

The American Association of University Professors recently released a report on the economic state of the profession, noting a number of alarming trends in American colleges and universities that, while not entirely new, are being accelerated by the recession and … Continue reading

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Research and metrics and impact, oh my!

I recently undertook a sojourn with CSID director Robert Frodeman and asst. director Britt Holbrook across the Ditch (my first ever!) for a workshop at Brunel University just outside of London. Our hosts, Claire Donovan and HERG (the Health Economics … Continue reading

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Breaking Out of Standing Around

Last evening, a trio of CSIDers–Alex Mosiak, myself, and Kelli Barr–co-presented a panel at the 41st North Texas Philosophical Association. Finding a Transdisciplinary Path: Philosophizing in the Age of Ethereal Control Reclaiming Cynicism: Philosophy Beyond the Academy Alexander Mosiak The Philosopher’s … Continue reading

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Wasp up? Ant we all just get along?

Pick on someone your own size, you mean old wasp! This is fascinating, in some sense. In another, I have to wonder about, well, wonder. If Aristotle is right, all of us human beings naturally desire to know things. But … Continue reading

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Facebook may save philosophy… this time

At Greenwich University in the UK, the honors BA in philosophy is on the chopping block. The Times Higher Education (UK equivalent of the Chronicle of Higher Education) describes the backlash from philosophical faculty and department heads that are members … Continue reading

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State of the Art in Assessing Research Impact

Recently returned to the States after a fascinating workshop at the Health Economics Research Group (HERG) at Brunel University, in Uxbridge (west London), UK, on the “State of the Art in Assessing Research Impact.”Thanks to Claire Donovan, who organized the … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Peer Review | 2 Comments

The Cynical Turn

What it means to be a ‘cynic’ has taken on connotations not in keeping with its philosophical heritage.  It is often applied to someone  skeptical of the professed motives of individuals and institutions. This limited, defeatist interpretation of a cynic … Continue reading

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Helsinki

I always feel a little less relevant here in Europe. The basics underlying every conversation are a couple degrees more sane. And so my outrageousnesses are a little more commonplace. The President of Finland came to the meeting today. It … Continue reading

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Oot the wa’, technology!

Just back from a conference in London, so of course I’m channeling my Scottish roots this morning. Translation: Get out of the way, technology! This is also the message Apple — yes, Apple — is sending in its ads for its … Continue reading

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Commodifying Academic Credit

Institutions of higher learning, rather than opposing the rising exploitation of  internships by corporate and non-governmental organizations, are jumping on the bandwagon. In the NY Times, Ross Perlin argues that “the academy should critique, not amplify, these trends”: ON college … Continue reading

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Fallows on Beck

“To understand what Beck is doing, to understand him, you must suspend your capacity for rational thought and just let the emotions wash over you and try to take note of them as they assault your endocrine system,” Seaton wrote. … Continue reading

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