Reasons to fundamentally change the way we hire….

Really interesting blogpost by Jesse Singal over at NY Magazine, here. Short version: cover letter and resume short change both applicant and employer.

Another look at our National Labs….

ScienceInsider has the report here. Money quote:

Yesterday, DOE announced the nine members of the latest outside commission to review the effectiveness of the national labs. The study will be led by Jared Cohon, a civil engineer and president emeritus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and T.J. Glauthier, an energy consultant and former deputy DOE secretary during the Clinton administration.
Reviewing the health and direction of the national labs is practically a cottage industry, and Glauthier admits that his panel’s challenge will be to “find something new to say.”

What about doing rather than saying?

I’ve blogged about the National Labs before here , here and here.

Cass Sunstein interviewed on conspiracy theory thinking and political partisanship…

From Vox, interview is here. I’ve blogged on this topic previously here. Not much to add except the notion of epistomological closure seems to be important. That is hanging out with like-minded conspiracy theorists seems to harden belief in the conspiracy theory.

The other interesting tidbit from the Cass Sunstein video is the notion that when the authorities deny a conspiracy theory, that also acts to harden belief in the believers.

Horizon 2020–the EU’s science fundings scheme….

Scheme in the European sense of the word of course. An excellent summary from colleagues at the Austrian Embassy, here. This is the successor program to the Frameworks Initiatives and it represents a really substantial investment by the EU states.

Microbiome therapies rising…

Story in Nature, here. Seems like a smart business approach to me: tweaking the ecosystem that lives in our gut–the same one that takes it on the chin when we take antibiotics.

Commencement 2014

Provost and Deans, George Mason University 2014

My colleagues and I got together for our annual informal photo just prior to commencement this morning. These are wonderful folks to work with. Today’s ceremony marks the end of my 16th year in this position. It’s been an incredibly fulfilling job. Happy Summer!

0.2% of the SSL certificates out on the Net are bad….

This according to a new paper from Carnegie Mellon scientists here [pdf]. Considering the size of the Internet, that number is extremely worrying. The geographic distribution of the forged certificates is actually the most interesting part of the paper to me…it’s not what one might expect.

Propublica muckrakes on Medicare fraud….

Apparently there are a cadre of doctors who, as a rule, always charge Medicare top dollar…for virtually all of their patients. Excellent investigatory journalism, story here. Part of bending the health care curve down is going to be about ending this kind of fraud….

Thoughts on California…

It was good to be back in my native state last week. In spite of the drought, Pasadena had that certain lushness that no doubt enhances a Caltech education for those lucky undergraduates. That said, the traffic was as terrible as its ever been and my aggressive use of the carpool lanes was pretty much continuous.

As a state, California seems to be getting its act together again about public higher education. To my mind, investing tax dollars in the UC system is a no-brainer–it’s still the flagship of flagships among its brethren. If the Golden State can protect that golden egg, I think its future economy is going to be in really excellent shape.

On the private side, increasingly USC is comparable and complementary to Stanford. And of course Caltech is in a league of its own.