The diary of a PhD student and a pastry chef
I admit I didn’t march in the Women’s March. I had a lot of homework and I’m not particularly fond of crowds or being up at 7 am on a freezing winter weekend. But I couldn’t resist heading to the March for Science. Not only was it being held at a more civilized hour and in my neighborhood, I’m a scientist (alright a political scientist–but my field employs the scientific method and depends on government grants too!)
I’m so glad I went. Continue reading “Earth Day and the March for Science: WPC”
It’s time we bring back analogies on the SAT. Okay, okay, we probably shouldn’t. They were racist/classist and not remotely reflective of actual college preparedness skills.
On the other hand, being able to make comparisons is a useful life skill. I always thought coming up with a passable comparison was as easy as falling off a log (but I was also rather perturbed that I was among the first batch of students who didn’t have analogies on their SATs, so what can I tell you?) As we’ve seen recently, however, I was mistaken.
Sean Spicer said Assad is worse than Hitler because Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons on his own people. How dumb do you have to be to say that? I mean even if you don’t remember 10th grade world history, you should know that making a comparison where Hitler comes off favorably is a bad idea. Continue reading “Make the SAT Great Again (Or: Politicians Need to Learn what an Appropriate Analogy Sounds Like)”
Yesterday I went to the beach. It was in the low 70s and I had the day off!
Isn’t it just beautiful? And surprise! It’s only a subway ride from central Manhattan–and still in New York City! Coney Island may be known for Nathan’s hot dogs and the cyclone rollercoaster. But it’s also got a beautiful sandy beach. Who’d have thunk this is in a city?
Also surprising is that I took these photos with my iPhone. I know these aren’t as good as they would have been if I’d brought my canon, but I hadn’t really expected to be so awed and, well, surprised, by Coney Island. Although, I suppose, that’s the point of surprises. At least my iPhone takes a reasonable photo, even with zoom–the second surprise of my day.
Cee’s Black and White Photography Challenge has been alphabet themed recently. At some point I’ll have to catch up–but here I am, starting at I and J.
I is for icing.
J is for Johnny jump ups.
They’re both dense! *crickets chirping*
I was actually planning on taking this week’s challenge literally, just as I’ve done the last couple weeks (with “green” and “atop“). I like the idea of working through different elements of photographic composition–color and perspective, respectively, and now texture. Fun!
But as I was sitting doing one of my readings this week, I couldn’t help but interpret “dense” as “(of a text) hard to understand because of complexity of ideas.” I’d already selected and edited my “dense” as in “having the constituent parts crowded closely together” photos. So they’re here too!
