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Apparently, Isocrates was not a sports fan

Lillian Bowles posted this quote on the wpa-l mailing list from one of my favs of the ancients, Isocrates:

“Many times have I wondered at those who first convoked the national assemblies and established the athletic games, amazed that they should have thought the prowess of men’s bodies to be deserving of so great bounties, while to those who had toiled in private for the public good and trained their own minds so as to be able to help also their fellow-men they apportioned no reward whatsoever, when, in all reason, they ought rather to have made provision for the latter; for if all the athletes should acquire twice the strength which they now possess, the rest of the world would be no better off; but let a single man attain to wisdom, and all men will reap the benefit who are willing to share his insight.�

From Isocrates, Panegyricus, Volume I, p. 121, translated by George Norlin. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1980.

Yeah, but what smart guy is going to get a bunch of complete strangers in the same place and inspire them to do the wave?

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Interesting article on an IRB Blog (aka, "Human Subjects Review")

Quite an interesting piece in the January 19 issue of Inside Higher Ed: “Reviewing the Reviewers,” which is an article mostly about a blog called “Institutional Review Blog” started by a George Mason University historian named Zachary M. Schrag. There are a variety of interesting issues that strike me here.

  • This blog that Schrag has set up is actually pretty interesting for a whole bunch of different reasons (though, I will admit, they are all pretty academic reasons). And Schrag is clearly not some crackpot, either.
  • When I was in my Ph.D. program, I took a course that was specifically about research methodologies like this that involve subjects. As far as I can tell, I was the only one of the students in that class who a) went through the official channels at BGSU for getting my study approved, and b) did something vaguely quantitative. Interestingly enough, that’s the only Ph.D. -level course I took where I got a B.
  • In part because of problems with this sort of review, I quite purposefully decided to do a project that did not involve people because I didn’t want to deal with the paperwork. Things worked out for me fine, though it does make one wonder….
  • In my experience, this sort of review (which at EMU is referred to as “Human Subjects Review”) varies tremendously from institution to institution, and even within the institution. At EMU, I think the process is relatively painless, I suppose because we aren’t a “Research I” with a medical school or something like that. Of course, I’ve only put myself through this review process once or twice.
  • Speaking of which: one of my many “to do” list items is putting together the paperwork for review of my blogs as writerly spaces project….
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Some assembly required….




P1150014.JPG

Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but I’ve been distracted by pesky things like work, life, etc.

Anyway:

I ended up spending up quite a bit of the MLK holiday assembling various products. Because, after all, what else was Dr. King talking about other than putting together various consumer goods?

The first project was the result of a Christmas present from the Wannamaker grandparents, a Star Wars lego model that had (I shit you not) over 1,000 pieces, and mostly itty-bitty pieces, too. The second was an Ikea purchased kitchen island/cutting board sort of table/station.

A bit about this second project: essentially, our dishwasher (one of those deals that hooked up to the kitchen sink via a hose and such– that is, it wasn’t built-in) died. Since we’re likely to move in about a year or so, it didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to go out and buy a new dishwasher. So we decided to buy a piece of furniture that would replace the dishwasher’s duel function as a counter top, that would add shelving, and that we could take with us.

Ikea, as I am sure most of you know, is a wonderful wonderful place for a wide variety of consumer good needs. Indeed, I found it kind of bizarre that they had a couple of model home set-ups where everything (including the flooring!) were things you could buy in that store. I suspect you could point to one of these rooms, say “I’ll take one of those,” and have the whole thing loaded into a truck that you could take home.

In any event, it was loads of fun to visit the store, and we were pleased with our lunch (and you see in the picture at the top here of Will and I enjoying some Swedish meatballs) and our purchases.


I know that Will and I made several mistakes with this Star Wars walker thing– we had both extra pieces and missing pieces. But it still looks pretty cool:

Star Wars Walker

By the way, this is about 18 inches or so tall.

The second piece was the more utilitarian Ikea hunk of furniture:

How to compare these pieces? Well, in many ways, the furniture was dramatically easier to put together than the lego project. I mean, the lego thing took days to finish and involved at least 100 “steps,” maybe more. On the other hand, putting together the cutting board thing involved a couple of rather physically demanding steps– well, demanding for someone like me who a) didn’t have the right tools in the first place, and b) is a whimp.

I’m sure we’ll enjoy both of these things for a while, so I guess it was an MLK weekend well-spent. Though I’m not sure what one actually does with a lego star wars walker….

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I wonder if Mashup Camp is for me?

Via Anne 2.0,I learned this morning a bit about something called Mashup Camp. Truth be told, I found this rather indirectly on Anne’s blog since her entry is mostly about getting to the airport.

After being sucked into the title, I quickly have learned that Mashup Camp is not for me. Probably. This is much more of a computer programmer/software developer kind of affair, and not so much about content. It certainly doesn’t seem to be about education. Of course, maybe this is something these people could use at this conference….

Beyond all that, one thing I very much like is the use of a wiki for providing content about the conference itself. Just a little hunting around here reveals some “about” info, the layout of the conference, schedules, sponsors, etc., etc., and also some links to the mashup pieces of software that are subject of the conference. A good use of a wiki for sure.

Begin Snarky Comment Of course, the CCCCs has this awesome blog… End Snarky

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What a bunch of weather babies!

I write this after being hazily and partly awoken at about 5:15 am or so this morning.  It turned out to be the Ypsilanti school district calling (automated, of course) announcing that school was canceled.  As I listen to the radio now, I am hearing that they’ve canceled classes in Ann Arbor and lots of other places in Washtenaw County, too.

So, winter is finally here, you’re thinking, right?  Barely, as far as I can tell.  It’s in the 20s– hardly even what would normally be called “cold” around here in January– and there is barely a dusting of snow.  Granted, there is some ice and such out there, but that’s what road salt is for.  But the forecast for the day is just for a typical winter day.

All I can think of is that it has taken only about a month or two of unseasonably warm winter weather for the whole state to turn into a bunch of weather babies.  I haven’t seen such an exhibition of weather weakness since I lived in Virginia.  Sheesh.

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Unofficial Remodeling

Just a note to my millions of readers: I’m going to attempt to finally update to the latest version of WordPress, which might cause some problems and which will probably result in a different look to the site. So be patient and don’t be surprised….

Update:

So, what do folks think about this set-up?  I can always switch back, of course….

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Howto: A Simple Paper CD Jacket

This is actually kinda cool: How to make a folded paper CD case. For Christmas, we gave the parents a DVD that had a little movie and some pictures of our trip to Europe last August, and I can tell you that one of the things that was an ENORMOUS pain in the ass was figuring out how to package it nicely. Besides being quite a bit cheaper than a plastic case, this seems to have a bit more of a personal touch. Anyway, a good tip.