Category: Academic Geekiness

Every Time You Make A Powerpoint

This happens, although don’t click on that link unless you have some tolerance for dark humor. Well, I think it’s funny, and I also think Edward Tufte’s stand on PowerPoint is interesting (if not news at this point): Slideware may help speakers outline their talks, but convenience for the speaker can be punishing to both

National Grammar Day

To the dismay of linguists everywhere, it is once again National Grammar Day. Yes, you read that right: dismay. As my colleague Gabe explains on his blog Motivated Grammar: My problem with National Grammar Day (and most popular grammarians in general) is that it suggests that the best part of studying language is the heady

On Facebook and Twitter

danah boyd is a researcher specializing in social issues surrounding new technology, particularly social networking. In a recent blog post, she discusses differences in the cultures of Facebook and Twitter status updates. She points out that despite their superificial similarities, these two networks have different norms with respect to the directionality of communication: Facebook’s social

Khan Redux

You might remember earlier this year, Kevin Martin’s post about how many a’s people put in Khan. He also mentioned that one might fit an equation to the curve. To a geeky statistician, those are dangerous words. Dangerously appealing words. Before you continue, let me warn you: extreme geekitude follows; performing some analysis of this

Ideas Worth Spreading

I expect that most of our readers are familiar with TEDTalks. The TED Conferences takes place annually and “bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).” Their talks are then published on their website, so that we mere mortals can experience

Keep Libel Laws Out Of Science

Sense About Science, a UK-based science outreach organization, has launched a campaign to prevent British libel law from being used to stifle scientific debate. The direct motivation for this campaign was a lawsuit brought against Simon Singh by the British Chiropractic Association. Singh holds a PhD in physics and has written bestselling popular science books