Monday, September 29, 2008

Journal Rankings

The Australasian Philosophical Association has released a ranking of Journals in Philosophy. Much of this (as you can imagine) is based on reputation, not research. As a result, the rankings are heavily influenced by disciplinary biases, including the relative prestige of various sub-specializations in the discipline. But it *may* give you a sense of which journals to prioritize in your research.
http://aap.org.au/publications/AAP_ARC_ERA_Journal_Ranking_Flatfile.xls

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Updates to the McDaniel Dictionary

Stargasm (n) orgasm from watching stars. Related to 'mathgasm'). "I don't want to go look at the stars tonight. I'm not in the mood for a stargasm" (Sept, 2008)

Henticular (adj) Anything good that an asian does. From 'Henti', the anime version of porn. "Lin, that was henticular!" (Sept, 2008)

hella (adj) modifier - as in 'hella good'

obvi (adj) shortened version of 'obvious'.

hollabread (exclamation) general enthusiastic / celebratory exclamation. From 'Challah bread', the sweet breaded bread.

soulja boy (n) synonym of 'awkward turtle'.

awkward turtle (n) hand symbol used to silently express 'awk-WARD', which was popular a few years ago.

party foul (n) Spilling beer at a party

creeper (n) noun version of 'creepy'. "Sam Paxton, you're such a creeper" (reported by S. Dunne, Fall 2008).

camp-po (n) Campus police

straight (adj) shorthand for 'having everything I need' - "Do you have enough beer? Yeah, I'm straight."

deco (n) Contraction for diet coke

cra-cra (adj) pronounced cray-cray. shortened version for 'crazy'. "Girl, you cra-cra".

WoWer (n) World of Warcraft player.

jockitude (n) the attitude typical of jocks. "That guy is has some serious jockitude" (Fall 2008)

labby (n) Someone who attended the Lab school in DC

Doucheweasel (n) Someone who is really irritating (i.e. even more than a Douchebag).

cho-cho (n) vagina.

fooding (v) present participle of the verb 'to food'.

friend (v) to add someone as a friend on facebook.

ACSlatering (v) to go to the bathroom backwards (male only). From the character 'AC Slater' on Saved by the Bell, who always sat on his chair backwards.

boomer (n) magic mushrooms

crysterbation (n) from scrubs (probably) to masturbate using own tears as lubricant.

OGC - look at the word sideways (with the C down). You'll figure it out.

dick fest (n) a game of verbal one-up-man-ship, usually played by males, where each member of the group attempts to show the vastness of their intellect by producing trivial facts. The content varies, but is always tied to the area of discourse that defines the particular sub-culture: i.e. 'You said that X first appeared in Spiderman 3, but in fact, he made his first appearance in Spiderman 5'.
"I'm not going to GLAR today, but I'm not in the mood for a dick fest" (9/10/2008)

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

What is Philosophy?

Read this post - and the interview upon which it was based - to discover the opinions of four significant contemporary philosophers:
Four Philosophers Answer Questions about Philosophy: Its Purposes, Nature, History

Monday, June 02, 2008

Grad School admissions

Eric Schwitzgebel has put together a report on Grad School admissions. Read it here:
More Philosophy Ph.D. Admissions Data from U.C. Riverside
It is pretty daunting. McDaniel has little, if any, prestige. His analysis of how that hurts you is pretty much right on- we are not known to the admissions committee, there is a suspicion that grade inflation is higher at small schools for good students due to the lack of competition, and, as he puts it: "talented students will find it easy to get top grades and it may be rare for them to have their feet held to the fire about their essays, may not get the harsh and detailed criticism necessary to transform those essays into excellent writing samples". That is true - I try to offer the same level of critique whether you get an 'A' or an 'F', but I often fail to do so for the top grade papers. We're hoping that the new Jr. Level writing requirement will address that somewhat. And we're probably going to institute a new 'directed writing' class for students interested in grad school.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Philosophy as Blood Sport

By Norman Swartz. It is a distressing part of our field, but Swartz's analysis is worth reading:
http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/blood_sport.htm

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

How not to email your profs...

These are from profs around the country. Just read them. You'll see what I mean...

"Favorite" student email