Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
Thoughts on physics, politics, and pop culture, by a physics professor at a small liberal arts college, plus occasional conversations with his dog.
You've read the blog, now try the books! How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is published by Scribner, and available wherever books are sold. How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is published by Basic Books and will be available 2/28/2012, as foretold by the Maya.
"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.
"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.
Category: Humanities
Prompted by a number of people using the phrase "vast majority" recently, I wonder where the line between "majority" and "vast majority" is. Thus, a poll: What is the minimum level of support that constitutes a "vast majority" Assume for...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 12:18 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
In comments to Friday's snarky post, I was chided for not engaging with the critique of standardized testing offered by Washington Post education blogger Valerie Strauss. I had intended to say more about the general topic, as there have been...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 2:48 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
On last month's post about the public innumeracy of a Florida school board member, Tom Singer posts an update, which includes a link to a follow-up at the Washington Post blog that started the whole thing. In the course of...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:35 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards." -- Mark Twain In last night's post about a school board member failing 10th grade standardized tests, I may have unfairly slighted our...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:28 AM • 58 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
Including pretty much anybody wearing a helmet in this video from UC-Davis: That's just disgraceful, all the way around (with the possible exception of the chubby hatless cop in the first part of the video, who appears to be behaving...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 8:53 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humanities
As mentioned earlier in the week, I recently read Charles C. Mann's 1493 (see also this interview at Razib's place), which includes a long section about the colony at Jamestown. Like most such operations, the earliest colonists were almost comically...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:44 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
A currently popular explanation for the increasing price of higher education is that all those tuition dollars are being soaked up by bloated bureaucracy-- that is, that there are too many administrators for the number of faculty and students involved....
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:19 AM • 24 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
The new school year is upon us, so there's been a lot of talk about academia and how it works recently. This has included a lot of talk about the cost of higher education, as has been the case more...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:01 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Physics
A physics story makes the front page of the New York Times today. Sadly, it's with the headline Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel Stir Terror Fear. Sigh. The key technological development, here, is that General Electric has been playing around...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 4:27 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
