I'm back! In more ways than one

Regular readers have noticed that I've been away from blogging at this site for a while. This happens periodically when my creative muses flit off in directions away from writing. I also needed to take a deep breath after an extremely busy semester. Hooray for Summer! Another reason is that I've been doing quite a bit of blogging over at Women In Astronomy.

But never fear, I have returned! For now.

Not only am I going to start posting again (for now), I have also decided to take my own advice and created a new website. It's embarrassing that I've been at Harvard for almost a year, and yet my group's only web presence is at my old Caltech site. D'oh!

So I present to you, dear readers, The Johnson ExoLab @Harvard! Since Apple discontinued iWeb, I decided to try out an online WYSIWYG editor called Wix. I have to admit, I didn't search and test drive many options. But after signing up for a premium account, I really like the Wix editor interface, and $12.99/mo isn't bad for all the features you get with a premium account.

Comments

Johanna said…

I love your introduction, "Of all the wonderful diversity we experience day to day, there is one thing we all have in common: planet Earth." I hope more astronomy (and all STEM) labs adopt a philosophy similar to the one you advocate through ExoLab.

June 23, 2014 at 11:35 PM

A view from your shut down

The Daily Dish has been posting reader emails reporting on their " view from the shutdown ." If you think this doesn't affect you, or if you know all too well how bad this is, take a look at the growing collection of poignant stories. No one is in this alone except for the nutjobs in the House. I decided to email Andrew with my own view. I plan to send a similar letter to my congressperson. Dear Andrew, I am a professor of astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). The CfA houses one of the largest, if not the largest collection of PhD astronomers in the United States, with over 300 professional astronomers and roughly 100 doctoral and predoctoral students on a small campus a few blocks west of Harvard Yard. Under the umbrella of the CfA are about 20 Harvard astronomy professors, and 50 tenure-track Smithsonian researchers. A large fraction of the latter are civil servants currently on furlough and unable to come to work. In total, 147 FTEs

The Long Con

Hiding in Plain Sight ESPN has a series of sports documentaries called 30 For 30. One of my favorites is called Broke which is about how professional athletes often make tens of millions of dollars in their careers yet retire with nothing. One of the major "leaks" turns out to be con artists, who lure athletes into elaborate real estate schemes or business ventures. This naturally raises the question: In a tightly-knit social structure that is a sports team, how can con artists operate so effectively and extensively? The answer is quite simple: very few people taken in by con artists ever tell anyone what happened. Thus, con artists can operate out in the open with little fear of consequences because they are shielded by the collective silence of their victims. I can empathize with this. I've lost money in two different con schemes. One was when I was in college, and I received a phone call that I had won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas. All I needed to d

back-talk begins

me: "owen, come here. it's time to get a new diaper" him, sprinting down the hall with no pants on: "forget about it!" he's quoting benny the rabbit, a short-lived sesame street character who happens to be in his favorite "count with me" video. i'm turning my head, trying not to let him see me laugh, because his use and tone with the phrase are so spot-on.

Mahalo.ne.Trash

Search This Blog