Politics
- Postdoc Push in Canada | Inside Higher Ed
(via Adam Kraus) - Ireland Cuts Back on Ph.D. and Postdoc Support | Science News
- Antonelli, A.: A decline and fall in the future of Italian Astronomy? | astro-ph
Career and Professional Development
- Report from the 2010 AAPT New Faculty Workshop | ProfHacker
The American Association of Physics Teachers provides workshops designed to help new faculty at research and four-year institutions understand how to become more effective educators and support their quest to gain tenure. - Career Advice: Support on the Tenure Track | Insider Higher Ed
Strategic and practical advice. (via Adam Kraus)
Python
- Style Guide for Python Code
I’ve been looking for something like this! (via Alejandro Núñez)
Productivity Tips and Apps
- 6 Ways to Avoid Letting Your Computer Distract You | ProfHacker
Surprised I’ve never heard of these network blocking apps before! Definitely going to try out SelfControl and Anti-Social. And I want to check out how Time Out compares to Anti-RSI. Gus Muench recommends Freedom. - From the Archives: Calendars and Scheduling | ProfHacker
I really liked the bit about how to Create Your Syllabus With a Spreadsheet and a Calendar App. - How-To: Combining Hazel and Dropbox to Automate File Management | theAppleBlog
Hey guys,
Thanks for the links! I want to work with this researcher in Canada so I was really excited to see the link about the new Banting Postdocs in Canada for people of any citizenship. However, there are some weird things about the deadlines, at least to me from the perspective of comparing it with the national fellowships in the US. You apply in early November, must have your PhD by the end of December, find out at the end of March, and then start between April-October. So the application, notification, and start dates all seem aligned with the US national fellowships — but why does the fellowship require a PhD by December (2010), instead of the spring? (I’m finishing up this year — not sure if I can make it by December…) Is this normal? I guess there’s nothing I can do about it, but man am I bummed out if I can’t apply until next year for the 2012 one!!!
http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PD-NP/Banting-Banting_eng.asp
Most of what’s in the Python style guide I think is great, but I completely disagree with the “limit code to 79 characters wide” rule. Sure, some people still have 80-character wide displays, but personally I do most of my coding on a 30″ monitor, and even my 13″ laptop can fully display xterms well over 150 characters wide (up to 209 wide in the default Terminal font, in fact!). So down with needless line continuation!