Archive for October, 2009

What Would Galileo Teach Today? from Galileo’s Classroom Now Available

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Passing on some news about an educational project I contributed to: Science educators Stephanie Slater (University of Wyoming), Janelle Bailey (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), and Michael Gibbs (Capitol College) have compiled and edited a coherent set of IYA2009 educational materials that provide both content knowledge for classroom teachers and classroom-ready materials suitable for use, […]

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The Best Movie Villains of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

I’m participating in another Mind-Meld over at sfsignal.com, this time on the best movie villains of sf/f/h.   Many common choices (e.g., Heath Ledger’s Joker) yet still a lot of diversity.   Here was my entry: Science Fiction Terminator Alien Predator Darth Vader (in the original 3 films, not the prequels) The Borg (Queen) Martians from War […]

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College Professor, One of the Top Ten Jobs?

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

So as is not unusual at any time, and especially not at a time when unemployment is up, I came across one of those articles about what are the best jobs out there today.   Here is there list: 1. Systems Engineer 2. Physician Assistant 3. College Professor 4. Nurse Practitioner 5. Information Technology Project Manager […]

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Heroes for a Scientist of My Generation

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

I used to think I didn’t have heroes.   Not in the sense that most people mean, and not being allowed to count superheroes. But I realized I did, and had had a lot of them growing up through college. Mine are biased toward physics and astronomy.   Here they are, in no particular order. Einstein.   Sort […]

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Science Fiction Words in the Mainstream

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

There seems to be a little, but not very much.   I mean, if we go way back, we have the word robot: “The acclaimed Czech playwright Karel Capek (1890-1938) made the first use of the word ‘robot’, from the Czech word for forced labor or serf. Capek was reportedly several times a candidate for the […]

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