I like taking research-based quizzes on line. Last week I wrote about a two-part personality test I took to determine my empathy and systemizing quotients. Once I had the results, I could determine if I had a balanced, female, or male brain. My results were smack in the middle, and I was classified as having … Continue reading Think You Know What It Takes to Be Original? →

Dan Ariely to the rescue once again. It was getting late in the evening, and I didn't yet have a viable idea for a blog post. I knew that Dan usually has a post every other Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, and I didn't think he had one last week. So I logged into … Continue reading Engaging in Moral Licensing →

Every Friday, the Wall Street Journal has a real estate section. Of course just calling it the real estate section is not good enough for the Journal. This part of the paper is called "Mansion". And if you spend a few minutes paging or browsing through the section you can see why. Here is a … Continue reading Where Did I Go Wrong? →

My wife and I share each other's Google calendars, and while she was going through her calendar the other day, she came across a somewhat cryptic entry I had entered for August 27: "take a picture of each class" She asked me what the entry was for, and other than telling her that August 27 … Continue reading I’ve Got to Start Leaving Better Notes to Myself →

"I’m not a fan of outright bans or ultimatums in the classroom." That's a line from a post I wrote last November in which I shared some research regarding student use of electronic devices in the classroom. Here's what that research found: “…a growing body of evidence shows that over all, college students learn less … Continue reading OK; I Guess It’s Time to Listen to What the Data Says… →

This is the third in a series of blog posts based on Dan Pink's book, A Whole New World: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. This post is based on a couple of the tests Pink mentions that can be used to gauge one's level of empathy. The two tests are known as the Empathy Quotient … Continue reading Do You Have a Female or Male Brain: A Test to Measure Your Empathy and Systemizing Quotients (EQ and SQ) →

First, let me just share how I arrived at the idea for today's blog. I often find it interesting to think about how things are connected, and how the world wide web makes it so easy to start one place, and end up somewhere you never imagined. I was going through my usual sources for … Continue reading Having a Bad Day? Here’s Some Music That Will Make It Even Worse →

As many of you know, I am a strong supporter of gun-control laws, and wish such laws would go even further, all the way down to the complete elimination of guns in our society. I've written about my thoughts on gun violence several times: What If We No Longer Died of “Natural Causes”? Gun Control … Continue reading A Nightmare Scenario →

The Chronicle of Higher Education had a story this week about an upcoming Guinness world record attempt by a History professor at University of North Texas. On August 24 at 9 a.m., Andrew Torget will take to the podium armed with 500 pages of notes and 1,600 PowerPoint slides. Forty-five students will be seated in … Continue reading I Think I Could Set A Guinness World Record →

Last week I wrote about one of Dan Pink’s earlier books, “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future“, and how I planned to write several blogs based on the exercises that are at the end of each of the chapters. At the end of the Design chapter, there was a list of … Continue reading An Inspirational Walk →