Links for 2009-11-14 : 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 2009-11-14

Category: Links Dump
Posted on: November 14, 2009 7:40 AM, by Chad Orzel

WTF, Aerosmith? WTF? | Popdose

"Never has there been a band so unbelievably great and so sadly shitty at the same time. That, to me, is the Aerosmith legacy, and it's only bound to get worse. Yet, there is something that still seems sacred about this band, beyond mere nostalgia. I just think they need to go away for good before we'll be able to figure out exactly what that is."

(tags: music culture popdose blogs)
Book Review - 'What the Dog Saw - And Other Adventures,' by Malcolm Gladwell - Review - NYTimes.com

"The themes of the collection are a good way to characterize Gladwell himself: a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates the hazards of statistical reasoning and who occasionally blunders into spectacular failures."

(tags: books review psychology statistics social-science)
Millikan Oil Drop Lab without the oil | Dot Physics

"The basic idea that Lowell McCann and Earl Blodgett from U of Wisconsin propose is to do an experiment similar to the oil drop experiment, but not so squinty (if you have done the oil drop experiment, you know what I mean). Instead of dropping charged oil in an electric field, they drop containers with metal nuts in water. The goal is to find the mass of a nut."

(tags: science physics education experiment blogs dot-physics)
What Are the Most Sucessful Examples of New Media Science Communication? | The Intersection | Discover Magazine

"I'm going to argue that blogging is not the best or most effective form of existing science communication online, for many of the reasons outlined in Unscientific America. But trying to be positive rather than negative, I'm also going to point out what is: Viral YouTube videos that introduce nonscientific audiences, in the millions, to scientific thinking in a very thoughtful and memorable way."

(tags: science youtube video internet media society culture education blogs intersection)