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Uncertain Principles

Thoughts on physics, politics, and pop culture, by a physics professor at a small liberal arts college, plus occasional conversations with his dog.

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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.

Chad Orzel "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, the Queen of Niskayuna 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 2010-09-02

Category: Links Dump
Posted on: September 2, 2010 6:58 AM, by Chad Orzel

  • BBC News - Would more holiday be good for America?
    "Whenever citing Americans' acceptance of the longer hours they work or their lack of paid leave, the cliche is to say it goes back to the country's Puritan heritage or the Protestant work ethic. I disagree. I think it comes from raw fear."
    (tags: us world society economics class-war vacation jobs)
  • The View From Mercury : Starts With A Bang
    A slew of pictures of Mercury, plus one of Earth from Mercury.
    (tags: science astronomy pictures blogs planets starts-with-bang)
  • Science and religion vs. humanities and religion § Unqualified Offerings
    "If you already regarded the first 2 chapters as Genesis as figurative, or if you regard them as literal but not the most important parts of the Bible, science class is not the biggest challenge to your faith that you'll encounter in college. After Genesis, miracles are (mostly) discrete events in the Bible, rather than the main theme of the book. Even Jesus's miracles in the Gospels are all set alongside moral lessons. An education that raises hard questions about people, society, culture, literature, and values may cause more re-examination of religious beliefs and religious texts than any amount of scientific training. This is not to say that religious teachings don't have valid responses to some or all of the questions raised in those re-examinations, but at the end of the day the chemistry major probably has fewer discussions with religious implications than the sociology or philosophy major."
    (tags: science religion history philosophy humanities blogs unqualified-offerings)
  • WTF Case File #170: Dune | DVD | My Year Of Flops | The A.V. Club
    "Heaven knows what attracted David Lynch to the project, since according to Cinefantastique, he hadn't read the novel, and didn't even know the story. Yet he signed on anyway, and committed roughly three years of his life to directing a movie whose daily outlay for bottled water was probably more than Eraserhead's entire budget. It consequently fell upon a filmmaker not particularly interested in linear stories to make sense of a mammoth, insanely complicated tome for a mass audience. He did not succeed, to put it mildly."
    (tags: sf books movies avclub review culture)
  • Why can you turn clothing right-side-out? - Mathematics - Stack Exchange
    "My nephew was folding laundry, and turning the occasional shirt right-side-out. I showed him a "trick" where I turned it right-side-out by pulling the whole thing through a sleeve instead of the bottom or collar of the shirt. He thought it was really cool (kids are easily amused, and so am I). So he learned that you can turn a shirt or pants right-side-out by pulling the material through any hole, not just certain ones. I told him that even if there was a rip in the shirt, you could use that to turn it inside-out or right-side-out, and he was fascinated by this and asked "why?""
    (tags: science math topology clothing education stack-exchange)
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