Spillway's Samson Rothman's Birthday 

Our Sam was born 18 years ago today. We miss him so much, but today we celebrate his birthday and, as we do every day, we remember all the wonderful time we spent with him during his life. Sam, happy birthday. We will always love you!

 Amorosa's Max Bear Rothman's Birthday

Our Max was born in 2002, 7 years ago today. We miss him so much, but today we celebrate his birthday and, as we do every day, we remember all the wonderful time we spent with him during his life. Max, happy birthday. We will always love you!

Joseph is six years old today 

Today we celebrate Joseph's birthday. Kloofbear's Joseph Rothman (aka Joey aka Joe aka Joe Beaner aka Joe Biener Schnitzel) Rothman, we love you and wish you a happy birthday with many happy returns to the day. We are so lucky to have you in our family.

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Mathematician ranked best job in new study

According to a new study reported in the Wall Street Journal, mathematician is ranked as the best job.  Frankly, I take such rankings with a grain of salt (best job for whom?), but I guess it might motivate some students to consider a major in mathematics.  Of course, students should not major in mathematics unless they really love mathematics, are mathematically talented, and are willing to work very hard.

In Loving Memory of David Gottlieb: November 14, 1944 - December 6, 2008

I was very saddened this morning to find out that Professor David Gottlieb, Ford Foundation Professor of Applied Mathematics at Brown University, passed away yesterday.   

David Gottlieb was my PhD thesis advisor, and I owe nearly everthing I have now as a professional to him.  He was a great mathematician, and a wonderful human being.  David Gottlieb was one of the kindest people I ever knew. During my years at Brown, Professor Gottileb invited me to his family's Passover seder.  Participating in the Passover seder at Professor Gottlieb's house is without a doubt my foundest memory of my graduate school years.   Through his tireless commitments and generosity both to his profession and to his fellow human beings, I learned so much from Professor Gottlieb, about mathematics, science, and life.  He was truly a great man.

David, thank you for everything.  You will be forever in our hearts.

"Yitgadal ve-yitkadash, Shmei rabbah---May His name be magnified and made holy..."

UPDATE: Please visit a blog devoted to David Gottlieb

Inside Higher Ed: RateMyRankings: Ridiculous! 

Patricia McGuire, President of Trinity Washington University,  recently wrote an insightful article entitled RateMyRankings: Ridicuous! in Inside Higher Ed.  My favorite quote from the article: 

"Pretending to measure instructional quality, Forbes uses the profoundly scurrilous RateMyProfessors.com for 25 percent of its scoring method. Why stop there? Why not add a category for the number of campus sluts outed on JuicyCampus.com? RateMyProfessors invites just as much vicious gossip and cruel slander while providing no legitimate assessment of excellence in teaching (except for those who think that ratings of “Easy” or “Hard” or “Hot” or “Not” are good ways to judge the quality of collegiate instruction!)." 

The great irony here is that while "critical thinking" is often promoted as an increasingly important aspect of "modern" education, the most popular sources of rankings for educational programs demonstrate no critical thinking whatsoever.   

On a different, though somewhat related topic, I should add that I completely share Arturo Portnoy's view of actual student course evaluations, expressed in his article, A Crisis in Higher Education: Student Evaluations and Failing Standards.  It's not that I object to student course evaluations. In fact, I would always make use of them to solicit student feedback.  But I would never use them to measure teaching effectiveness.  They're useless in that regard. Even worse, when used to measure teaching effectiveness, they're damaging to the educational process.

Mac OS X For Unix Geeks, 4th Edition

It gives me great pleasure to announce the release of  Mac OS X For Unix Geeks, 4th Edition, which I co-authored with Brian Jepson and Rich Rosen.  

Raccoons living in a nearby tree 

In Loving Memory of Amorosa's Max Bear Rothman

  In Loving Memory of Amorosa's Max Bear Rothman 

4/19/2002 - 5/5/2008

7th of Iyar, 5762 - 30th of Nissan, 5768 

Vn.Am./Can.Ch Kloofbear's Mystic Seaport, OFA "Oslo" x Ch. Kloofbear's Victory at Amorosa, OFA "Tina Turner"

Please visit our dearest beloved Max's memorial web site. 

Spillways Samson Rothman's Birthday

Our Sam was born in 1991, 17 years ago today. We miss him so much, but today we celebrate his birthday and, as we do every day, we remember all the wonderful time we spent with him during his life. Sam, happy birthday. We will always love you!

Max is six years old today 

 Today we celebrate Max 's birthday. Amorosa's Max Bear Rothman (aka Maxie Maxim aka Maxie aka Cookie Cookens) Rothman, we love you and wish you a happy birthday with many happy returns to the day. We are so lucky to have you in our family.

Joseph is five years old today

Today we celebrate Joseph's birthday. Kloofbear's Joseph Rothman (aka Joey aka Joe aka Joe Beaner aka Joe Biener Schnitzel) Rothman, we love you and wish you a happy birthday with many happy returns to the day. We are so lucky to have you in our family. 

Bumblebee enjoying front yard plants

A bumblebee enjoying our front yard plants.

Toad that lives on our deck

A cute little toad that lives on our deck (in the flower pots).

Butterfly on Flowers

A butterfly resting on the flowers on our deck, as seen through the kitchen window.