Crime: n. a logical extension of the sort of behavior that is often considered perfectly reasonable in legitimate business.
(Ambrose Bierce)
PHD Movie: Finally, a film about the weird and wacky world of Academia.
I have been following PhD comics for many years, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a movie is also coming out called “The PHD Movie”. It looks like the comic to be a wickedly funny movie about the life of academics. I am sure it will not appeal to 98% of the population who are not academics, but I can’t wait to see it 🙂
PHD Comics: How Grad School is just like Kindergarten
THE SOCIAL INDEX: A brilliant analysis of social relationships in the Facebook age in New Yorker.
Human relationships used to be easy: you had friends, boy- or girlfriends, parents, children, and landlords. Now, thanks to social media, it’s all gone sideways. I decided to try to index these new entities—to draft a sort of Social Media Bestiary. Here it is, so far:
MODERN RELATIONSHIPS
- The friend you know well, have encountered frequently in the flesh, perhaps even hugged, have visited domestically, and would invite to your child’s wedding, and with whom, coincidentally, you might occasionally communicate via social media in addition to more traditional friend channels such as lunch dates, telephone calls, et cetera (formerly known simply as “a friend”)
- The friend you sort of know, because you have friends in common and have maybe attended the same events—not together, but you’ve both ended up there because you know a lot of the same people. You perhaps would not have thought to invite this person to a small party, and yet you do include him in your wider sense of your social circle—and you now communicate with him via social media more than you ever did before such a thing existed, and you now have a surprising intimacy after years of static, unenergetic just-sort-of-knowing one another (formerly known as “an acquaintance”)
- The friend, or friend-like entity, whom you met initially via Facebook or Twitter or Goodreads or, heaven help us, MySpace. You met—online, that is—because… well, who remembers now, anyway? Maybe through some friend of a friend of a friend, or because some algorithm on Facebook “suggested” that you should be friends. In any case, you now interact with this person/stranger frequently—in fact, maybe many times a day—and, as a result, she enters your conversation the way anyone would with whom you exchange chitchat several times a day. When a real flesh-based friend asks you who this person is, you describe her as a friend, for lack of a better word. It’s an awkward description because you have a) never met in real life b) might not actually know this person’s full name or profession or background. Yet you look forward to interacting with this person, and if/when she mentions experiencing a sad event, a birthday, a job loss, a cute baby experience, or a car accident, you have a strong, actual reaction (this sort of friendship formerly had no name at all, since the only kind of liaison that even comes close to this in the history of human relations is that of pen pals)
- The friend-like entity mentioned in No. 3—that is, someone whom you know only virtually—but in this instance you and this person have actually met. The meeting was probably brief and a one-off encounter, and it probably occurred because one of you happened to be passing through the other’s hometown. When you finally meet, you spend most of your time chuckling over how much smaller/taller you look in your profile picture.
KEYWORDS
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/susanorlean/2010/11/the-social-index.html#ixzz1qc2KCV4e
I actually worked on a whole bunch of patents in my career over the years and I have to say that every single patent is nothing but crap.
A software engineer explains to This American Life that even he didn’t understand the patents he was granted. It was part of a seminal story about patent trolls and the way that a system designed to foster innovation can crush it.
From New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2011/12/the-years-best-tech-quotes.html#ixzz1qc1h5iv7
Super cool post modern paintings of Super Mario and other game characters
Great shot kid, that was one in a million
Great words from the legendary Bruce Lee
Biggerbrains: An excellent site for Ph.D students and young researchers.
Biggerbrains: An excellent site for Ph.D students and young researchers.
When I was a Ph.D student, it seemed a very lonely and strange career path. Frankly speaking I would not recommend anyone to contemplate doing a Ph.D and doing a research career, or worse, becoming a Professor. In terms or ROI or “return on investment” (time, energy, money) I think it is one of the worst career choices. Nevertheless, for those crazy or strange people (like me) who have passion to be a researcher, one advantage of the internet age is to be connected with other young researchers. This site is an excellent resource for young researchers.
A poignant reminder of how life can be sweet and tragic
A poignant reminder of how life can be sweet and tragic
I came across this story of a person who had a kindergarten friend, a girl who grew up to have a glamorous but tragic life. The words of a person remembering being just four, reminded me that my own daughter seems so small, but she really is a person of her own. I wonder what life my daughter will have. Time goes so fast and soon she will be grown up. Of course I hope she has a happy and wonderful life.