Kon-Tiki Raft Voyage to Be Re-Created OSLO, Norway — An effort to recreate the late Thor Heyerdahl’s famed 101-day Pacific crossing aboard the Kon-Tiki balsa raft resumed Tuesday after a postponement forced by last year’s southern Asia tsunami. The team, which includes the Norwegian adventurer’s grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, plans to sail from Peru in late April, a year later than originally scheduled.
I’ve been thinking more about my post from yesterday. I wrote: I have to ask myself, would I be willing to review a manuscript by a senior faculty member, and just to make the stakes higher, someone I was considering as an outside reviewer for my tenure case? … Would I take that risk, not knowing if the manuscript would be good? If I took the job, would I be.. Read More
I’m thinking out loud here… Opinions expressed in this post may not reflect the opinions of the management, or indeed even of the author. I recently reviewed 2 article manuscripts for 2 different journals. Journal A, in its instructions for authors, claims to be refereed but not double- or even single-blind; journal B does claim to be double-blind. The manuscript I received from journal A had the author’s name right.. Read More
I went to see Bob Mould last night at Cat’s Cradle. The last time I saw Bob Mould was in Boston at the Paradise. That would have been, well, when I was still living in Boston. And thinking about it, since he was solo, probably on the tour to support Hubcap, so 1996 or ’97. So 8 or 9 years ago. Oy! Ok, now that I feel old… That was.. Read More
This year marks the 10th year of the Internet Public Library‘s existence. And heaven help me, I actually remember quite clearly when it looked like this. I have to say, I never did understand what the sofa had to do with Associations. (And that’s not a sentence you get to write very often.) This Friday & Saturday, the IPL is hosting a symposium: the Internet Public Library Symposium: A Global.. Read More
The Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke has recently launched the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. As I understand it, the Nicholas School wants to get more involved in setting environmental policy, & this is essentially a think tank to help move them in that direction. As part of the launch of the Institute, they’re even as I write this running a day-and-a-half long Environmental.. Read More
One of my favorite things every year is to read the bios of the people who win the MacArthur Fellowships — the “Genius” grant. First of all, I love the tag line: One call out of the blue – $500,000 – no strings attached. Every grant-seeking academic’s dream. But really, the MacArthur Fellows are just so cool, the work they do is so diverse & just so damn interesting. And.. Read More
Ok, not really. A few days ago I reported on my Blue Screen of Death adventure. Well, I have my laptop back now, as of this morning. Apparently the system board had gone bad, though I have not been able to get more detailed information than that. So I have a brand-spanking new system board & accompanying MAC address now. In a way, I was hoping that it would be.. Read More
Enthusiast uses Google to reveal Roman ruins, from Nature Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Mori, who describes the finding on his blog, Quellà Della Bassa, contacted archaeologists, including experts at the National Archaeological Museum of Parma. They confirmed the find. At first it was thought to be a Bronze Age village, but an.. Read More
Last night Yvonne & I went to see Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! at the newly-renovated Memorial Hall. First of all, they did a really beautiful job on Memorial Hall! I don’t know what it looked like before — the construction on it has been going on since before I moved here — but it’s a very functional space that’s also very attractive. Nice big lobby, comfy seats, terrific architecture.. Read More