Several days ago, I suggested that the current flurry of national and US state governments concerned about budget deficits and reining back spending was a good idea. Two big-shot economists, Princeton professor Paul Krugman and former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, disagree.
I’ve just updated my WordPress audio plugin. The only time I’ve ever used it was for this post on Cantonese pick-up lines. This is one of my most popular posts that always brings in a steady trickle of horny expats who’ve just found out their firm is relocating them to Hong Kong. “Quick! How do you say, ‘Your place or mine?’”
After writing about the lack of satisfying career paths for math/science graduate students in a previous post, I got a slew of responses from grad friends who said I’d ruined their day. One friend made a good point that this situation only applies to math/science doctorates who choose to remain in academia. There’s still demand for specialists in the private sector where a Ph.D. opens doors and bumps up pay. But of course, to the scientists sticking it out through academia, these guys are simply fallen angels and turncoats.
For those who are embarking on the Ph.D. path, I’ve found some advice.
For a long time I’ve considered putting ads on this blog. Not because I think I’ll make any significant amount of money. The traffic that goes through here is frankly quite pitiful. Maximum number of hits I’ve ever received in a day? 353. I had to write about a college student pissing in bottles to get that. I wanted to install ads to learn how they work.
So I signed up for Google Adsense. Can someone please read their terms and conditions and translate it for me?
A friend sent my ever-useful Cantonese pick-up lines post to his cousin in Beijing. Unfortunately, his cousin cannot view it. Damn firewall of China! To make sure it was blocked instead of an outdated browser problem I checked for myself. Sure enough, this blog’s restricted in China.
At the beginning of the summer, I had the idea of setting up my own server at home. I’m getting tired of paying for hosting, even though Godaddy.com has served me well. Moreover, I’m getting tired of having my photos and other media files that I embed into my blog scattered across various hosts like Flickr and Picasa. One consolidated place would be much easier. Then there are also other perks that come with one’s own server such as remote storage.
Many European countries and American states are just plain out of money these days. Last week’s This American Life podcast will tell you just how broke and dysfunctional the New York state government really is. Countless headlines about austerity measures and their consequent social discontent in Greece have now spread to other European countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland.
Recent news about FBI busting into suburban homes and handcuffing couples they accuse of being Russian spies are quite intriguing and ridiculous. The Times has an article with a money quote:
Jessie Gugig, 15, said she could not believe the charges, especially against Mrs. Murphy. “They couldn’t have been spies,” she said jokingly. “Look what she did with the hydrangeas.”
I spent the entire day today tweaking the look and layout of this blog. After days of learning javascript, PHP, and mySQL, I decided I would rather swallow molten solder. I put down the books and hoped I was literate enough to dig deep into the bowels of WordPress code. I was wrong.
Last time I wrote about college students entering the private sector. This time I want to talk about students who want to continue in academia. One of my friends who’s interested in neuroscience research recently called me in distress the other day. He told me to read this article in Miller-McCune. I read it. I was freaked out. No wonder he was so alarmed and depressed by the article. Miller-McCune argued that his interest in pursuing a career in academia would be one of his worst financial decisions. Why? Because there are no clear or easy career paths in academia anymore.