Funniest Thing Ever

Alright, I should be working. Really. Perhaps if I could use this awesome xkcd joke in class next week, I'd be inspired to work harder?

Review of Books - 2010

Alright, I'm a little late, but here's my review of books for 2010. I read 66 books, meeting my goal of reading an average of one book per week. Here are some of the standouts:

• Kid vs. Squid - Greg van Eekhout - Yup, I'm biased here, but this was fun and gross and sweet and whimsical and all the things that middle-grade readers like. I also got the bonus audio version, a chapter per night read by the author himself!
• Flash: Terminal Velocity and other Flash back issues - Mark Waid, writer - At Comic-Con this past summer, I was at a panel where Matt Fraction gushed at Mark Waid about how awesome the issues of Flash were that Waid wrote. Since Waid's Flash, Wally West, is the one I'm familiar with from the Justice League animated series, I picked them up and really enjoyed them for their simple, yet emotional storytelling. Now, if only Waid would write the only Green Lantern who matters, John Stewart.
• The Conspiracy of Kings - Megan Whelan Turner - I reread the other Attolia books before reading this, and you'd be hard-pressed to find another series as strong as these. You'll find these in the Young Adult section, but any fan of fantasy would enjoy these books.
• Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold - Another Vorkosigan book, finally! No spoilers here, but this whole book seemed like a setup for the final chapter and epilogue, and I found them just devastating.
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan - Two teens with the same name, their lives intersect. I don't know how to describe it other than to say that it explores the issues that all teens face in honest ways and I'll never hear Tiny Dancer by Elton John without thinking of this book. And this is the book that introduced me to David Levithan's writing and he was the discovery of the year for me.
• Boy Meets Boy and Realm of Possibility - David Levithan - I read almost all of Levithan's singly-authored works this year, and these were the two standouts. Boy Meets Boy is more well-known, but Realm of Possibility is one of my favorite books of all-time. Yeah, these are young adult books, but one never forgets being a teen, right? Levithan's characters are almost brutally honest and emotionally raw and bracing. Love him. Love love love him. Picked up his latest, a book for adults called The Lover's Dictionary today.

Hope your readings were as enjoyable as mine. Here's to another great year of books!

Astro stuff

I am not at the current meeting of the American Astronomical Society, but thanks to Twitter, I've been able to keep up with some of the more exciting news.

• Hubble observations of Hanny's Voorwerp, first discovered using the citizen science project Galaxy Zoo:

  

• The very awesome and somewhat disturbing discovery that, not only do thunderstorms produce gamma rays, they also produce anti-matter!

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• And, most importantly, the first discovery of a rocky planet outside of our solar system - only 1.4 earth masses!

Looking ahead

I hope y'all have been having a lovely 2011 so far. The holidays have been leisurely and mellow here, which is how we like it. The rain has returned, so nesting at home has been encouraged.

So many people make resolutions at this time of year, but I prefer to call them "goals". Here are mine for this year:

• Continue to read books at a minimum of a book per week. (I'll post my yearly book review in the next day or so.)
• Allow myself some "me" time by doing my best to NOT work on Saturdays, with the exception of responding to student emails.
• Focus on living healthier by cooking more at home, with the following specific cooking goals
• Prepare interesting weekend breakfasts
• Cook enough on the weekends to provide leftovers during the week
• Learn how to make nasi kuning and rendang
• Cook with fresh ginger
• Develop more satisfying vegetarian meals
• Exercising more, especially enjoying the lovely climate here in San Diego
• Take more photos

Alright, when I started this blog entry I thought the list of goals would be shorter! I wish all of us a happy and healthy 2011!

40

Turning 40 years old isn't so bad. My wonderful Greg took me to see TRON: Legacy in IMAX 3D. Then he took me to Mysterious Galaxy, where I pointed at books and he purchased them for me. I also received some Star Wars bakeware from family members and the Jedi bathrobe! Basically, I spent my 40th birthday enjoying geeky things and feeling loved by friends and family, and it was great! I know that 40 is a milestone year, and I'm looking forward to the decade ahead. Thanks for your well-wishes and your friendship!

Semester in Review

• Read that a former student died in freak accident.
• Coped with student reactions to fellow college student being murdered by her estranged husband in the room next to my office.
• Offered new astronomy lab course.
• Sweltered while college A/C was out during the hottest week of the year.
• Shivered while college heating system was out during coldest week of the year.
• Facilitated design process for new science building.
• Learned from students that Al Gore invented global warming to make money off of green technology.
• Fielded waaaaaay too many questions about 2012.
• Exploded many brains while teaching cosmology.
• Informed that I will be recommended for tenure effective in the Fall.
• Described as "absolutely adorable" on Rate My Professor

Colors and shadows

Views from tonight's beach walk:

Earth and Space

Lovely ISS view of the Southwestern United States:

And I can never get enough of the light and shadows of Saturn as seen by Cassini:

Still here, just tired

It's been a busy September, but largely work-related stuff. Most of my students are bright and interested, so that's a plus. There have been many trips for katsudon and ramen, comics and hot chocolates in between all the grading and writing new lab exercises. Thunder and lightning freaked out my coastal dwellers in class today. Um, yeah. That's about it!

Survived!

The first week of classes is over, and I survived despite the following:

• Between 25-50% more students showing up to each class than were enrolled in the hopes of getting in. I'm allowing people in my classes up to the fire code limit on the capacity of each classroom.
• A construction accident knocked out the air conditioning to the entire campus during San Diego's warmest week of the year so far. Combine that with the overflowing classrooms and it was quite uncomfortable. Many thanks to the students, who all remained in good humor.
• A minor lab disaster in which the internet capability (or lack thereof) of the available laptops made me send the students away to complete the lab on their own. Sigh.
• The State Legislature has yet to pass a budget. Look at these statewide numbers: The 58 day delay in the California budget has resulted in a blockage of all state payments to the community colleges including $116 million that was due in July and $277 million due in August. Deep budget cuts and more than $1 billion in funding deferrals have left the colleges vulnerable. The state’s September payment, scheduled to go out on September 28, is one of the largest payments of the year at nearly $450 million. If this payment is missed, it will bring the cumulative funding delay to $840 million, or roughly 15 percent of districts’ total annual funding. And yet the State keeps taking taxes out of my paycheck. At least I'm still getting a paycheck.
• Spent the week hobbling around on a bum left foot, due to a mole removal that I had done two weeks ago. Pathology came back okay (remember to get your moles checked, people!). Greg drove me to and from school, to get me as close to my office as possible. He was really the key to my survival last week.

I did manage to stick to my goal of taking Saturdays off, except for answering student emails. I really can't handle working seven days per week any more. The new crop of students seems like a good one so far. One week down.... sixteen to go!

End of Summer

Tomorrow is the first day of the fall semester. I'm materially, but not emotionally, prepared. Summer is never long enough. Where did the time go?

• Did enough classroom prep that this past week hasn't been too bad.
• Went through the first half of a general chemistry text, to brush up.
• Visited a few museums in Balboa Park.
• Finally visited Julian and Oceanside.
  
• Performed the July planetarium shows at the RH Fleet center in Balboa Park.
• Quick trip to see the family in Sacramento.
• Visits from Paolo, Carl, Bob and Laura and kidlings, and Kirsten and Aaron.
• Saw four (FOUR!) movies - Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (awesome), Inception (solid), Predators (silly entertainment), and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (enjoyable, sorry it isn't more successful).
• Glorious, glorious Comic-Con
• Concerts - Rush and w00tstock.
• Great staycation, with pics below.

Took the train to Carlsbad.

From Staycation August 2010

Visited the USS Midway with its spectacular view:

From Staycation August 2010

Took the ferry to have lunch on Coronado:

From Staycation August 2010

Got in some quality beach time:

From Staycation August 2010

Looks like the time mostly went to having fun! Hope y'all had a good summer, too!

Perspectives

Crescent Enceladus above Saturn's cloudtops, from Cassini:

Earth and its moon, from MESSENGER:

Comic-Con in pictures

I might do a full Comic-Con report, but until that mythical time allow me to share with you a brief summary of the glorious experience:

From Comic Con 2010

From Comic Con 2010

From Comic Con 2010

From Comic Con 2010

From Comic Con 2010

From Comic Con 2010

From Comic Con 2010

Pretties

Once again, I have been remiss in updating this page with pretty space images. Time to rectify that situation.

Last week's total solar eclipse, as viewed from Patagonia and presented on Astronomy Picture of the Day:

City lights and moonlight glinting off the Mediterranean as seen from the International Space Station:

Saturn in the quarter phase from the Cassini spacecraft:

A beautiful star-forming region from ESO's La Silla Observatory:

Have a great weekend!

Stream of consciousness

For the second summer in a row, I had the opportunity to present the planetarium show at the RH Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. As always, the questions from the kiddies hearten me. I just wish we could find a surefire way to keep them asking such insightful and free questions as they get older.

The open letter from Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert to LeBron James is one of the most amazing pieces of writing I've ever seen. Is it the height of professionalism? No. But then again, neither is letting your team and fans know that you're dumping them on national television. It'll sure be easy to cheer against the Heat next year.

Speaking of heat, May Gray and June Gloom have turned into Misty July. Haven't seen the sun in awhile, not that I'm complaining!

The Comic-Con schedule is slowing coming out. Getting excited!

Now I'm at the point in the summer when I am officially freaking out that I haven't done enough work to prep for the fall semester. Vacation... bah!

I have been going through an introductory chemistry book as review, and I've found some interesting uses of terms that I want to discuss with the chemistry faculty. The term "nature" is used instead of "Earth, one atmospheric pressure, room temperature", so sometimes the authors say that something does NOT occur in nature but I know that we witness it in space. Also, "air" = "O₂", but air is mostly N₂ so I find this disturbing. And we wonder why our students have so many misconceptions!

Mellow

I have been enjoying a very mellow summer so far. Sure, I've done some work - planned out most of my fall semester courses, worked through about one-third of a general chemistry text as review - but mostly I've been reading and resting and enjoying the outdoors.

Went to Julian with Greg and lunched at an old soda fountain:

From Summer 2010

One of the few things I miss about Arizona is the dry blue desert sky, so Julian scratched that itch (and also the itch for apple cider donuts):

From Summer 2010

Carl visited this past week, which was fun. There was much geekiness - gaming, watching BSG, discussing physics education - and lots of beach walks and good food. Here's the scene from an after dinner beach walk in my neighborhood:

From Summer 2010

Nice view from La Jolla Cove:

From Summer 2010

Lunch at Super Cocina:

From Summer 2010

June gloom at Torrey Pines State Beach:

From Summer 2010

Picnicking with a view of San Diego Harbor:

From Summer 2010

Yup, a mellow and enjoyable summer so far!

Daring to discuss being female AND being good at math

Many folks more eloquent than me have discussed John Tierney's recent article in the New York Times: "Daring to Discuss Women's Potential in Science". Boing Boing has the views of four female scientists here. Female Science Professor shares her thoughts here. Female Science Professor sums up Tierney's perspective this way:

There are flawed studies that show that females and males have similar quantitative skills and better studies that show that more males than females are extremely talented at math.

Or, as Dr. Isis says in the Boing Boing article:

Personally, I would find it much more interesting if he would start posting recipes for pies we could make with all the cherries he's picking..

Here's my take: you cannot apply the results of subject tests taken by people under the influence of a cultural bias to say that there IS no cultural bias and any difference noted in the results therefore must be INNATE. Period. The girls taking the tests have been influenced all their lives by the cultural portrayals of math as being a male-dominated pursuit and not as necessary or easy for girls. Has Tierney ever heard of the concept of "stereotype threat" or does he dismiss that out of hand? Or perhaps the recent widely publicized study that one indicator of math success rates is tied to the anxiety exhibited by female teachers? (Who, as education majors, come into my classroom already telling me that they are not "math people".)

As an educator, I see so many students coming into my classroom full of doubt about their abilities, and it is true that females seem to lack confidence more than males. However, what the females don't lack is innate ability.

Another week

Hanging out with Greg

From Summer 2010

View from the beach where I attempted jogging

From Summer 2010

Geisel Library on the UCSD campus

From Summer 2010

Beautiful sight of Saturn's rings and two moons (Rhea and Janus)

And an impact on Jupiter! (via the Bad Astronomer and Anthony Wesley):

The past few weeks

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

Various bits

Go Suns!

We had a lovely time picnicking in Griffith Park in celebration of Aaron's birthday. I must remember to hike around there more.

The article "Among Dorms and Dining Halls, Hidden Hunger" in The Atlantic featured my college prominently. At the community college level, I think it is misunderstood how many hungry and even homeless students we serve.

According to the study cited in this article Depressed? You must like chocolate, I am the most depressed person in the history of humankind and should be committed soon.

Speaking of community colleges, a lot of people seem to enjoy the TV show "Community". Would I be able to watch it without wanting to harm the writers?

Greg's next book comes out on Tuesday - Kid vs. Squid! Very excited!

I'm also very excited that there are only two weeks left in the semester. I'm ready for summer! I get to put together curriculum for a new astronomy lab I'll be teaching in the fall. I'm also planning on doing a review of chemistry, because I feel rusty. And yes, I'm excited about this!