What makes a good PhD student ?

Relevant for the PhD students:

1. http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2006/060511/full/nj7090-252b.html

2. http://www.qimr.edu.au/research/labs/georgiat/Guideforphds.doc


acknldg.suman.iisc

Impact Factor Again

Do low impact journals carry materials that are scientifically not up to the mark? Or, is it the other way round -- journals with high impact factor get an elevated status only because of an influx of large amount of papers and in the process a majority of them get rejected because the volume of the journal is restricted?
How do you actually capture the importance of someone's contribution through scientific publication?  Is it only the impact factor of journals (based on citation) to which the paper was sent , or the reach of that publication to common mass (who may not be researchers and may not write papers with a citation of other works), thus contributing to the society at large by improving the quality of life?

Whats your views? Follow the link for a high profile discussion on this issue from reputed editors of various journals.
http://www.wame.org/impactfactor.htm

@tatha

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition Now in Public Domain

See the scanned pages of this huge encyclopaedia from wikipedia (the second link):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Edition
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:Tim_Starling/ScanSet_TIFF_demo


u just need a tiff plugin to view in IE.

Life After Death

BOSS asked an employee: "Do you believe in life after Death?"


EMPLOYEE : "Certainly not! There's no proof of it", he replied.


BOSS : "Well, there is now. After you left early yesterday to go to your
friend's funeral,

                " he came here looking for you"
acknldg.mail.adt

The Lion of India

no malice intended.....just read on....

In a poor zoo of India, a lion was frustrated as he was offered not
more
than 1 kg meat a day.
The lion thought its prayers were answered when one US Zoo Manager
visited the zoo and requested the zoo management to shift the lion to
the US Zoo.

The lion was so happy and started thinking of a central A/c
environment, a goat or two every day and a US Green Card also. On its
first day after arrival, the lion was offered a big bag, sealed very
nicely for breakfast.

The lion opened it quickly but was shocked to see that it contained
few
bananas. Then the lion thought that may be they cared too much for him
as they were worried about his stomach as he had recently shifted from
India.

The next day the same thing happened. On the third day again the same
food bag of bananas was delivered.
The lion was so furious, it stopped the delivery boy and blasted at
him,
'Don't you know I am the lion...king of the Jungle..., what's wrong
with
your management?, what nonsense is this?, why are you delivering
bananas
to me?'

The delivery boy politely said, 'Sir, I know you are the king of the
jungle but .. did you know that you have been brought here on a
monkey's
visa!!!

Moral of Story : Better to be a Lion in India than a Monkey
elsewhere!!!!!