ZapperZ asks about a possible “marker” for becoming a scientist in Astronomer Looks Back at Telltale Childhood, namely, jumping out a window with an umbrella to see if one can fly, after having watched Mary Poppins.

OK, now that’s freaking scary because *I* too did almost the same thing AFTER I watched Mary Poppins (hum… does this mean that Mary Poppins is a good indicator of future scientists?)

I didn’t try this — not even tempted. I’m not particularly fond of heights. Some few extremely low altitude stunts involved bicycles, but I never had all that much daredevil in me. I was able to injure myself doing more mundane things.

Rhett and Chad discuss strategies for learning student names. They both admit to being terrible at learning names. Add me to the list. When I was in the navy I had the advantage that nametags are part of the uniform, and the students also had name signs on their desks. (That helped a little less as my vision drifted away from being 20-20 and before I got glasses)

Is it a prerequisite to teaching physics that you be bad at learning names? Three data points here!