Dissertation related: An article in today’s New York Times about a drug bust gone wrong. An officer shot an unarmed suspect without waiting for special forces to come do their job: The Police Department has acknowledged that the officer who shot Mr. Graham, Richard Haste, had never received the classroom instruction required of officers in …
You might know that I’m currently working on my dissertation on emergency response teams. I’m particularly interested to know how much emphasis is placed on structure vs. flexibility in training. Here’s a good quote from Participant #9, a firefighter in Central Texas: No matter how organized it is, there’s always a little bit of chaos. …
I ran my first half-marathon this weekend in Austin. My goals were to finish and not get injured; I’m happy to say I accomplished both and finished under 2 hours. From 2001 to 2010, I had probably run a total of 150 miles willingly. I like team sports and am not much for athletic activities …
Navy pilots, that’s who. There’s a great article in the New York Times today about simulation training for survival. Navy pilots are placed in controlled situations involving underwater, overturned aircrafts. And apparently they don’t like it so much: “I hate it with a passion,” (Lt. Farley) said. “But if you are in a bad situation …
Read more “Who Doesn’t Love Being Strapped in and Dunked Underwater?”
The University of Texas at Austin has been rated the 10th best value among public universities by the Princeton Review. Full list here. Coming from California, I know I was surprised to see how affordable both undergrad and graduate tuition was at UT.
From the Daily Mail: Eight out of ten women involved in a car crash denied it was their fault and looked for something – or someone – else to blame. This latest research is bound to bring a smile to lips of many a man who has found himself at loggerheads with females drivers. Women will rarely …
Read more “Women Don’t Admit Driving Mistakes, and Other Issues of Illusory Superiority”
I need your help making contacts with people who work in emergency response. If that’s all you need to know, would you be willing to connect me with your friends, relatives, and colleagues that work in emergency response? If so, you can connect us by email (ishak@utexas[dot]edu) and send your contact a link to this …
Read more “Looking for Firefighters, Veterans, and First Responders”
I do more than my fair share of complaining, especially with regards to college football–heck, I did some more of it last night on my Alabama friend’s Facebook status, which is never a good idea. I also read a lot of complaints (again, about college football) in the form of articles, tweets, blogposts, etcetera. And …
I’m fooling around with publishing from my phone. This picture was taken on New Year’s Eve, and the saxophonist was playing Auld Lang Syne.
As I mentioned previously, I put together an album each year of my UC Davis friends’ favorite songs. Here’s last year’s album, as well as this year’s survey results and my 30 favorite songs of 2011. And here are the rules for this mix, copied from last year: Refresher: the FC12 Music Project started when …
Here are the results of my annual music survey. I received 28 responses and about 115 unique songs. Then I added my 30 favorite songs of 2011. The songs with the most mentions are at the top; “Pumped Up Kicks” was the most popular song of 2011, and Adele was clearly the most popular artist, …
I compiled a list of my 30 favorite songs of 2011, not so you can see how cultured I am and how awesome my taste is, because the answer to both is “not very.” I made this list for the same reason I ask for your favorites at the end of each year: networking is …
So I started writing this diatribe against the current college football system and all its dysfunction when I realized that maybe we’re all taking the wrong approach. One of the first things you learn in public speaking–a class I have taught numerous times in all my stuttering, rambling glory–is that you have to analyze your …
Read more “Who Wants Money? – Final College Football Ratings”
Well here we are. The BCS has rendered the SEC championship game as useless as the Meineke Car Care Bowl. You see, if LSU beats Georgia this Saturday, they keep the #1 spot and go the national title game. On the other hand, if they LOSE…they go to to the national title game anyway. Mark …
We were in New Orleans this past weekend for an academic conference. They love the LSU Tigers down there. I love their cajun accents more. Okay, this is weird: my college (Texas) and pro (SF) teams are playing at the same time on Thanksgiving night. And the Niners game actually matters more. But, as you …
Read more “This Thanksgiving I am Thankful for Thanksgiving”