Cancer Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 Since I'll have a second office, I can turn on more lights! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 14, 2016 Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 But no minions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted July 14, 2016 Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 Why don't I ever get promoted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 14, 2016 Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 Well, this is a completely new position, and while I am astonished that decisions about what to offer when has always been left to guesswork and prior experience (i.e., carrying forward others' earlier guesswork), that's what has always been done here before. In a departmental major program, the department chair, and usually several others, gets a full view of what students are taking, and that's a small enough bailiwick that the approach can work. This isn't working well with the cross-disciplinary Core courses where every undergrad has to negotiate the Core, but no single department sees more than a small fraction of the Core offerings. Frankly, it would be impossible even if it were that way: there's too many students in too many programs for a single person to wrap the complete picture in their head at the old complete-view approach. So the new position is to turn statistical analysis tools and whatever else I can think of on the problem and arrange course offerings in a better way than seat of the pants. They advertised the position in April and May, and from what I gather, they got a couple of dozen applicants, none of whom was actually interested in crunching numbers. I looked at the ad then but with the quarter in full slog mode I decided I didn't have adequate time to apply. They reopened applications in early June, with a closing date well after grades were in, I thought about it, talked to a couple of people about the job before applying, talked it over with my department chair, and wrote up a coherent application. Though I know they interviewed at least one other person, I have the impression they didn't get anyone else even close to what they wanted. So the whole Core prgram is built around the Jesuit and liberal arts education grand concept, but they've ended up with some geek from the Physics Department trying to hammer out the logistics of that education's delivery. I find this incongruous, and I expect a few WTF reactions from some quarters. The laugh may be on me, though: they need some analysis products by mid-October, and I have only the barest hints of what the data actually look like. My summer just got very busy. Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 14, 2016 Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 But no minions? No; I'm basically the minion, but with a title that goes "blah Director blah blah" it doesn't sound like a minion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 14, 2016 Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 Vice President In Charge of Statistics. Congrats and sympathies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 BTW, Bazza, among my birthday presents was a book titled The Jazz of Physics by Stephon Alexander, who is an African-American theoretical physicist and jazz musician. He also describes himself as a Pythagorean. Scientifically, he lives further out in the theoretical boondocks than I usually go, but he's not a crackpot. I'm about halfway through the book. Thanks very much for the tip. This reinvigorates me (to a degree) to read some of the science-philosophy books I have. I'll get around to it eventually. I read most of the chapter on Pythagoras, via Amazon and like it. The author strengthens my hunch that Pythagoras-Platonic tradition is still useful for today's society and science. Pythagoras' quadrivium (the "number arts" of arithmetic, geometry, harmony*/music and astronomy) are just as important as ever. *I use the word Harmony as this seems to be the preferred ancient term for the subject. I have a Neopythagorean book on Harmonics which pore than likely has the story about Pythagoras and the blacksmiths. Something for me too look up later tonight or during the rest of the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 But no minions? Cancer is director of minions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 Bump. because physics needs to be jazzy, or blues, or folk-rock, or prog-rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 15, 2016 Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 Lots of new duties, quite time-consuming. I couldn't even get ready for the regular Friday night gaming session that happens in 3.5 hours. Yeesh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 15, 2016 Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 Just a touch of deodorant and you're good to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 Yep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aylwin13 Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 And now we're done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 How done are we? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aylwin13 Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Not done as waiting for Cancer is like waiting for Godot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 He's well worth waiting for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 I once answered an astronomy exam question with an alliterative poem. Got full marks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Okay, I'm impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Punkten på pulsarens yta Anar aldrid vad den vill Vandrar väl på vissa villkor Sällan snabbare än c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 I thought so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted July 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Well i don't understand Swedish. Care to translate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Well, the question was to determine the maximum theoretical radius of a pulsar. As no point on the surface can travel faster than c, and given the frequency of the pulsar in question, the rest is trivial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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