Decius wrote:

Getting a Ph.D. today means spending your 20’s in graduate school, plunging into debt, writing a dissertation no one will read – and becoming more narrow and more bitter each step of the way.

Yep, that sounds about right. Funny, this article is mainly written about graduate students in other fields and not science, however, grad students in science face the same problems. Universities are supplying many more science PhDs than are "academic" positions. Lucky for us, there are MANY other jobs out there in which our degree is useful, and most of those jobs aren't even research oriented. Graduate school is an interesting process...some people, by the end, are so happy to go off to do an "alternate" career. On the other hand, in my opinion, if I have worked so long and so hard to obtain the ability to do research, my next job had better come with my own lab bench and a pipette (and some minions....yeah....).

Gray matter is the new black of the hip social scene.

In the New Dating Scene, the Attraction Is a Beautiful Mind

Holy shit....I am speechless

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Science and math have zoomed to the top of the nation's education agenda. Yet Amanda Cook, a parent of two school-age girls, can't quite see the urgency.

"In Maine, there aren't many jobs that scream out 'math and science,"' said Cook, who lives in Etna, in the central part of the state. Yes, both topics are important, but "most parents are saying you're better off going to school for something there's a big need for."

Nationwide, a new poll shows, many parents are content with the science and math education their children get -- a starkly different view than that held by national leaders.

Fifty-seven percent of parents say "things are fine" with the amount of math and science being taught in their child's public school. High school parents seem particularly content -- 70 percent say their child gets the right amount of science and math.

Oh. My. God. I think I've just had a stroke and heart attack.

-janelane, WTF??!!

CNN: Parents don't see a crisis over science and math

The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying "intelligent design" is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.

Vatican paper article says 'intelligent design' not science

This looks pretty rad - Nano

This paper by Steven Huybrechts won the National Defense University President's Award for Excellence in Writing in 2004. It's an interesting fusion of influences, many of which may be familiar to the MemeStreams community.

In a sentence, the basic message is that human genetics precludes world government.

Perhaps the best way to encourage you to read the paper is to highlight some of the footnotes.

Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 1976.
Plato: "only the dead have seen the end of war."
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
The National Security Strategy of the United States
The Dialectical Logic of Thucydides' Melian Dialogue (JSTOR subscription required)
Samantha Power, A Problem From Hell (New York: Perennial, 2003).
Robert Upshall, Antibiotic Resistance (United Kingdom: Whinfield, May 1998).
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. (article), (chapter 1).
Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees
Robert Kagan, America's Crisis of Legitimacy, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2004, 65-87.
Sisterhood is hungry: An egalitarian society of ants, The Economist, 23 August 1997
Joseph Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004).
Alison George, "March of the Superbugs," New Scientist, 19 July 2003, S1.
Robert D. Kaplan, The Coming Anarchy, The Atlantic Monthly, February 1994.
Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology (Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1986).
Errol Morris, The Fog of War. Sony Pictures Classics, 2003.
Joshua Blu Buhs, The Fire Ant Wars, 2004.
Natalie Angier, "Is War Our Biological Destiny?" New York Times, 11 November 2003.

The Biology of Conflict [PDF]

] Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring
] from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really
] Want to Give You One

Ten reasons why you should never accept a diamond ring

skullaria wrote:
] I did 72% with an average of 80 miles error.
]
] What's your score?

On first try: 88%, 16 miles, 277 seconds. Those New England states always screw me up. That, and trying to exactly place Arkansas or some other inland state without any rivers or other markers for guidance. ;)

Fun test though!

[First try 80% with 87 mile avg. error.....damn the midwest:) I have been cooped up in the lab too long...need to go see more of the world now - Nano]

RE: Test your knowledge - US geography

] ODESSA, Texas (AP) -- A student who drank a chemical from
] his high school lab on a dare was recovering in a
] hospital, but not before a scare.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.....I am actually speechless

Student drinks lab chemical on a dare

] SB 500, the bill to require all electronic voting
] machines in Georgia to produce a permanent paper record,
] has passed out of the committee! To gain passage of
] SB-500 in this 2004 session, the bill now requires
] immediate action by the Senate Rules committee, the body
] responsible for putting legislation on the debate
] calendar for the Senate floor. Again, your calls and
] emails can tip the balance.
]
] Any parties who are interested in seeing this legislation
] passed (ie, any and all voters with a basic understanding
] of computer technology and/or standard accounting
] practices) are again urged to lobby, call, write, fax or
] email our Georgia representatives and members of the
] Senate Rules committee from now through Tuesday, March
] 16, with their [succinct] comments in support of this
] important VVPB bill. The list of committee members and
] their contact information links can be found here.
]
] This bill must pass the full Senate by the 33rd day of
] the 40 day session, the "crossover" day, in order to be
] debated and passed in the house, and subsequently signed
] into law by the Governor.

Blog for Democracy: SB-500 Update

] FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin answers some tough
] regulatory questions raised by the "constantly morphing"
] VoIP services
]
]
]
] When is a phone call not a phone call? That's the
] question the Federal Communications Commission will try
] to answer this year in its deliberations over voice over
] Internet protocol (VoIP), a technology that allows voice
] calls to zip over the Net instead of across traditional
] copper wires. Unfortunately for the FCC, the answer is
] anything but clear.

BW Online | January 6, 2004 | New Rules for the New Telecom