Silliness
Category archives for Silliness
Musical Poll: Lyrical Crimes
Posted by Chad Orzel on April 6, 2012 I’m killing time waiting for something I can’t talk about yet, so here’s a silly poll to pass the time, brought to you by a couple of songs served up on the radio this morning while I was running errands: Which of these awkward song lyrics is the worst lyrical crime against English grammar? I…
The Story of the One Little Pig, the Nice Wolf, and Materials Science
Posted by Chad Orzel on April 6, 2012 I want a story. The story about one little pig, and the wolf. I’ll need you to help me with it, OK? Yeah. OK, once upon a time, there was one little pig, and he… What did he do? He built a house out of straw. Right. He was a little bit silly, so he…
The Story of the Three Giant Hippopotamuses
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 27, 2012 Once upon a time, there were three giant hippopotamuses… No, Daddy, it was three little pigs. This is a completely different story, honey. Once upon a time, there were three giant hippopotamuses, who lived together in a river in Africa. They lived in a house. Well, hippos spend most of their time in the water,…
Quantum Musical Interlude
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 26, 2012 The title says it all: an animated video of Heisenberg singing about the Uncertainty Principle: So, you know, there’s that. It’s pretty good, but he’s no Feynman:
Wacky Football Mishap Poll
Posted by Chad Orzel on February 6, 2012 So, my Giants edged out Kate’s Patriots again in the Chateau Steelypips Bowl, in a game that was certainly not without its drama. I’m not going to gloat about it, because a couple of different bounces here or there easily could’ve changed the outcome. Also, I didn’t see the third quarter at all, really, because…
The Best of All Possible (Football) Universes
Posted by Chad Orzel on February 5, 2012 Proving that you can find physics in everything, Sean Carroll points to a strange anomaly in the Super Bowl coin toss: the NFC has won 14 coin tosses in a row. The odds of this happening seem to be vanishingly small, making this a 3.8-sigma effect, almost enough to claim the detection of a new…
Incredibly Serious Sunday Poll
Posted by Chad Orzel on February 5, 2012 Like many Americans, I’m going to be hugely preoccupied today. Thus, a poll for your blog-like entertainment needs: The Super Bowl is today. Who’s going to win? If you choose the last option, please arrange to have contacted me in the past to tell me who to have laid a significant bet on so I…
Academic Poll: Day One
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 4, 2012 It’s the first day of class today (for me, anyway– classes technically started yesterday, but I don’t teach on Tuesdays this term). This, of course, means that something will go horribly wrong. The question is, what? What will go wrong on the first day of class today? This is a class for first-year students, so…
It May or May Not be 2012 Somewhere
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 31, 2011 A while back, a reader from Bulgaria sent me a photo of a highly topical bottle of local spirits: You can either know where you are, or how much you’ve drunk, but not both… Having spent my last day of 2011 taking SteelyKid to the mall for bouncy-bounce and midway games, and then having her…
Christmas Physics: How Strong Is One Grinch?
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 13, 2011 And what happened then? Well, in Who-ville they say That the Grinch’s small heart Grew three sizes that day. And then the true meaning Of Christmas came through And the Grinch found the strength Of ten Grinches, plus two – Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas It’s nearly Christmas, so SteelyKid keeps demanding to…
