links for 2008-07-30 : Uncertain Principles

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"Uncertain Principles" features the miscellaneous ramblings of a physicist at a small liberal arts college. Physics, politics, pop culture, and occasional conversations with his dog.

You've read the blog, now try the book: How to Teach Physics to Your Dog will be published December 22nd by Scribner.

"Prof. Orzel gives the impression of an everyday guy who just happens to have a vast but hidden knowledge of physics." (anonymous student evaluation comment)

Emmy is a German Shepherd mix, and the Queen of Niskayuna. She likes treats, walks, chasing bunnies, and quantum physics.

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links for 2008-07-30

Category: Links Dump
Posted on: July 30, 2008 5:32 AM, by Chad Orzel

The Nature of Glass Remains Anything but Clear - NYTimes.com

"David A. Weitz, a physics professor at Harvard, joked, "There are more theories of the glass transition than there are theorists who propose them.""

(tags: physics materials science)
Medium Large

It's back! Maybe the best Web comic going.

(tags: comics internet silly)
Game Over: Scrabulous Shut Down on Facebook - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

What am I going to use for procrastination now?

(tags: internet games stupid law)
Laser beams are entangled in space - physicsworld.com

"[P]hysicists created two entangled laser beams such that the direction of travel of the beams is correlated."

(tags: physics quantum optics science news)
The Popdose Guide to the Pogues | Popdose

"MacGowan hit upon an idea as simple as it was audacious -- to apply punk's DIY, anyone-can-do-it aesthetic to Anglo-Irish folksong, a musical form that valued scholarship and tradition."

(tags: music review culture)
Girls=Boys in Math | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

"But linear algebra was the only thing that ever made me feel like a man."

(tags: gender math silly)
The Jetpack - From Comics to a Liftoff in the Yard - NYTimes.com

"People come up and go, 'Is it safe?' " Mr. Martin said. "Safety is a relative thing. We think we have done a lot to make this by far the safest jetpack ever built."

(tags: science gadgets silly)

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Comments

Thank you very much for plugging my webcomic! Means a great deal to me. Glad you enjoy it.

Posted by: Francesco | July 30, 2008 12:34 PM

Does it strike you that EA Games (who developed the 'legitimate' version of Scrabble for Facebook) dropped the ball?

I wonder how much they spent writing, testing, and debugging the one they had. I bet it was more than it would have cost them simply to buy Scrabulous itself and adapt it. Certainly cost more in time.

If they'd just bought Scrabulous and tweaked it a bit to make it legitimate (rename it, add some branding, whatever), everyone might have won - users, EA, the Scrabulous developers, Hasbro.

As it is, only the lawyers are happy. They get paid, no matter how much goodwill is lost to their clients.

Maybe buying Scrabulous wasn't possible; maybe they tried - I have no idea. Still...

Posted by: Wilson | July 30, 2008 2:46 PM

Thanks, Chad. I've been lamenting the demise of Medium-Large for months now, so I hadn't been checking. One of my favorites: "Things That Confuse Sean Hannity."

Posted by: Daniel Black | July 30, 2008 5:31 PM