Friday, December 19, 2008

Recommend a car?

My 10 yr old American sedan is showing its age. The power windows fail yearly ($400 to replace each motor), the paint is faded, the suspension bounces like a Jumpy Castle, and the mileage (21 city) is criminal for a midsize car. Plus, no recent safety features like side airbags or anti-lock brakes.

Replacement suggestions? Breaking from my past as a loyal Big 3 customer, I'm willing to buy a Japanese car if >50% is manufactured in the US.

Needs to be a wagon or hatchback with folding seats, for surfboard & crap-hauling.

Good op-ed piece from P. Krugman

Paul Krugman's column about Ponzi schemes is good. Two highlighted quotes:

"In recent years the finance sector accounted for 8 percent of America’s G.D.P., up from less than 5 percent a generation earlier. If that extra 3 percent was money for nothing — and it probably was — we’re talking about $400 billion a year in waste, fraud and abuse."

"Meanwhile, how much has our nation’s future been damaged by the magnetic pull of quick personal wealth, which for years has drawn many of our best and brightest young people into investment banking, at the expense of science, public service and just about everything else?"
When I was finishing my B.S. in Physics, I felt a bit foolish heading off to Astro grad school -- when my classmates were off to jobs at Wall Street investment banks, large consulting firms, and internet start-ups. And several of the junior scientists I'd met left academia for hedge funds.

Then came the tech bust, the accounting scandals, and now the financial meltdown. So now my choice looks less obviously financially dumb than it did. But it would be nice if young scientists were paid at levels that allowed, as Krugman says, "our best & brightest young people" to go into science. A post-doc salary in L.A. doesn't go far....

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Long article on LGBTQ scientists from "Science"

There's a long article on LGBTQ scientists in Science Magazine's "Science Careers", linked for your reading pleasure.

Thoughts?

(Pictured is Stanford's Ben Barres.)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Prop 8, the musical



I guess it was only a matter of time... But wait, that's Allison Janney! And Margaret Cho! And Doogie Howser!

(Amazing how Allison Janney's still gorgeous, even dressed up as a homophobe.)