Brain Contour

Eric in Nebraska's Sandhills

Here I am, taking the seat at the corner, the only elevated area of the coffee shop. I never take this seat unless nothing else is available. I always have this unusual feeling when elevated, like being stared at (although I do not possess the charming looks people would want to even take a glance at), jeered at (I’m thinking too much), and pestered by rowdy and vicious juveniles (alright, let me jog my memory — crumpled. paper. hit. face. New York. coffee shop). Crush out the last one, it is very unlikely that it could happen in Brookings.

Credit: QS World University Rankings

QS, the leading global career and education network, released the 2011 Asian University rankings with mostly universities from Hong Kong and Japan occupying the spots for best universities in the top 10. The rankings were based on Academic Peer Review (index), Recruiter Review, Student Faculty Ratio, Bibliometrics (Papers per Faculty and Citations per Paper), and International Factors (proportion of international students).

Matt Might, University of Utah Assistant Professor, came up with a visual guide to explain in easy manner what a PhD really means. I am sharing the pictures to you.

Imagine a circle that contains all of human knowledge:

Everyone in the GIS Center received an email requiring us to undergo the online harassment training. The training took about 20 minutes to complete, and it was worth it. Let me share to you some of the things I read from the South Dakota Board of Regents document.

Online Harassment Training

NASA provided satellite images of Sendai, Japan before and after the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit and devastated the region on March 11, 2011. The images vary in spatial resolution. One set of images came from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellite. MODIS provides daily reflectance data of the entire Earth’s surface that are specifically designed for land and water applications with spatial resolutions as small as 250 m. The other set of images came from the imaging instrument Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) flying on Terra. ASTER has a much higher spatial resolution of 15 m, which means you could see more details of the earth’s surface.

NASA Image of Tsunami Damage near Ishinomaki, Japan

The title refers to the 4-piece chicken I ordered last night at Boss Pizza and Chicken in Brookings. Having tried different chicken recipes all my life and, the fact that I came from a “chicken-eating” country, I had high expectation that my order will be served perfectly seasoned, hot and crisp, and with a twist. The chicken came hot, but overly fried. It stayed too long in the deep fryer that I could even smell the burning aroma.

Boss Pizza and Chicken

The South Dakota road conditions right now (Monday, Feb 21, 9.30am/c) are nothing but normal to me. Alright, a winter storm warning was issued yesterday and the roads are currently covered with thick snow, but what else is surprising about South Dakota? It has always been like this, as far as I can recall in all the years I have lived in this central State.

Brookings, South Dakota

I have reread the book “The Craft of Scientific Presentations” by Michael Alley. The first time I read it was four years ago when I was still starting to appreciate scientific research and writing. Fast forward: Now that I often find myself presenting my own research results to the scientific community, I realized that I still haven’t learned the basics and that there are still tons of things to know and avoid when presenting. So I scanned the pages of the book once again and listed all the critical mistakes usually committed in a scientific presentation.

Book Cover: The Craft of Scientific Presentations

1. Giving the wrong speech
This has something to do with not orienting yourself on the various fields of expertise your audience is into. Before any presentation, make a quick background information of the attendees. This way, you will have at least a general idea of whom you are talking to.