Yes, even this blog takes time off occasionally. For me, that involved a quick trip to the Eastern Shore. The image is just another sunset off a cove near St. Michaels. That water is crawling with lots of blue crabs and oysters–so it all fits with the theme of marine biology (meep meep).
But now we’re back, and just in time for DC’s muggiest and hottest days. We get through these, with the AC running, and it’s all down hill.
That’s the headline in the paper edition. The on-line article is here. Behind the firewall, the Chronicle of Higher Education weighs in with what a default would mean for colleges here.
For public universities like Mason, the problem is likely to be in what happens with on-going sponsored research, Pell grants and to a lesser extent the George Mason University Foundation portfolio.
On August 2 (D-Day as default), I’ll be on my way to the MBL in Woods Hole for my annual stint. Sometimes the best way to get perspective on what goes on here in Washington is to get away from it.
From Politico, the link is here. I’m sure, likewise, the GOP is hiring.
For my computer science colleagues, Kim Zetter’s excellent long piece in Wired is here. Fascinating story of reverse engineering code to figure out the target.
The article from Scientific American is here. Naturally, in the best traditions of open-source and new types of scientific collaborations, I support it.
At once both insightful into Silicon Valley culture and the human dynamo named Sheryl Sandberg. It’s here.
Long-form journalism at its very best.
My question: why doesn’t she insist on being a Facebook Board member?
The link from today’s Chronicle on-line is here. The problem in a nutshell is making use of social network data (like Facebook) in a way that truly anonymizes the data. In the case of data that appears to come from Harvard University, that proved impossible.
Clearly, at Krasnow, we are interested in this kind of data. What can we do to use it in a responsible manner?
We had an excellent meeting last week on the Phase III expansion project at Krasnow. Phase III of the Institute will bring all of our satellite programs into our current 55,000 square foot facility by adding an additional 20,000 square feet to the south end of the current Institute. The new wing will house our Center for Social Complexity plus two additional new centers, both of our academic departments and a medium-size auditorium.
When completed, the facility will serve as a magnificent home to the scientific program envisioned by our founders, pretty much exactly two decades after the seminal conference that got us started in 1993.
Probably the coolest interactive map I’ve seen is here. Chose your US county and see where the cell calls and text messages are going. Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan.
Over the future of higher ed. Latest news is here. In a world of commoditized education delivery, America stands to loose a crucial soft-power advantage on the global world market: the excellence of its public research universities.
Discoverers and Discoveries 