I opened my local newspaper this morning to find faculty opining that any cuts to their salaries should be reflected as reduced time spent in the classroom. For example, the article quotes Professor Keith Watenpaugh of the University of California, Davis religious studies department:

Any job can be complicated by pregnancy or motherhood, but scientific careers may be in their own special category. Depending on the field, you've got exposure to toxic chemicals, radiation, or all manner of microorganisms in the lab; the multitudinous dangers of field work; and the odd and sometimes exceptionally hours required of some experiments or observations in the lab and field.

Members of the University of California, Davis Academic Senate (mostly tenured and tenure-track faculty) recently received an e-mail that contained this warning:

College students tired of the low-level, short-term retail or temporary office jobs they frequently hold during the summer are increasingly looking abroad for opportunities to serve. Today I want to introduce you to the blogs of a few young women who are working and studying abroad this summer, as their blogs are already quite engaging.

Think back to a time when you took a risk that succeeded. Now reflect on a time when you tried something and it bombed. What did you or others do differently in the first instance and the second? How did you recover from your failure in the second instance, and what would you do differently if you had another chance?