In the 1920s, we did. Here’s the map.
One more class hour to go, and it’s a review. Then a unit exam on Thursday, a unit exam in another class on Friday, a final exam next Wednesday and one last final on the Thursday after that, which means I’m substituting hours of lecture prep for days and days of non-stop grading. I may have to rethink my syllabi in the future to avoid this last-week crush of tests, because grading exams is my very least favorite thing about teaching.
Can I just give them all a C and pretend I read their work? That would be fair, wouldn’t it?
We now know who purchased James Watson’s Nobel prize.
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
I haven’t been slacking — next week is the last week of classes, and everything is coming due. I just got a stack of lab reports to grade by Monday; I’m giving a lab final next week; I’m giving two unit tests at the end of the week. The students are freaking out a little bit, realizing that all their sins are coming home to roost and they only have a few shots at redemption. So it’s going to be a crazy week and a half.
James Watson’s Nobel medal sold for more than expected. He’s very happy.
After the sale, he said: “I’m very pleased. It’s more money than I expected to give to charity.”
I’m about to go off to the local clinic for a visit with a specialist, who’s going to figure out all the things wrong with me. It could take days, weeks, or months, who knows…but if I don’t make it back this afternoon, just figure I gave up and have donated my body to science.
That went unexpectedly well. I’m in good shape, the infection that was making me miserable is clearing up, I’m not getting shipped off to the body farm just yet.
I guess it’s time to start opening the little doors on your advent calendar, if you have one. If you don’t, I recommend the Cosmic Genome Advent Calendar. It’s free, and every day gives you a new little science clip. Today’s is about a weird little experiment you can do in a dimly lit room with a mirror…which I can’t try yet, because I’m on my way to work, and everything in the science building is brightly lit with Science and Technology and the Fluorescent Glow of the Future.
Later, when I get home…
Now I don’t know whether to believe this article or not: it claims that self-assessment of narcissism is just as accurate as taking a psychological inventory, because narcissists aren’t shy about saying what they are. So I tried it myself: on a score of 1-7, I gave myself about a 3.
It’s going to suck, isn’t it? My expectations are pretty much pegged at zero on this one.