December 15, 2008
kast_sko
Throw a shoe at George Bush. In Norwegian.
(tags: politics silly games internet)
Kevin Drum - Mother Jones Blog: DC Charters
"Look: even your most novice educational researcher knows that comparing test scores is useless unless you control pretty carefully for things like parental…
December 15, 2008
Day four of the power outage, with the added angry-making twist that the people across the street from us have their power back. Staring across the road at their warm, shiny lights, I could feel the beginning of the sort of rage that fuels torch-and-pitchfork mobs storming medieval castles. Only,…
December 14, 2008
We're into our third day without power at Chateau Steelypips, and as a result, the household has temporarily been relocated to a hotel near SUNY Albany. National Grid says probably Tuesday, but they really don't know when they'll get our electricity back.
This is, of course, deeply annoying, but…
December 13, 2008
nanoscale views: Manhattan and Apollo project metaphors
"Relatively regularly these days there are calls for a Manhattan or Apollo style project to address our energy challenges. While this may sound good, it's worth considering what such a project would actually mean."
(tags: science economics…
December 12, 2008
Introduction to conservation of momentum and collisions | Dot Physics
"This is an introduction to objects that interact. To describe this, I will need to pull several different ideas together (that you have probably already looked at)."
(tags: physics science blogs education)
Spot the math…
December 12, 2008
A big storm has coated everything in the vicinity of Chateau Steelypips with a quarter-inch of ice. Trees are coming down all over the place (a big limb smashed the gate to our back yard), and the power is out for God knows how long.
We've temporarily relocated to Kate's office, which has heat and…
December 12, 2008
I subscribe to Scientific American, but I'm usually several weeks behind on reading it, so it was only Thursday that I noticed this surprising article about particles bouncing back from attractive forces:
This effect is the converse of the well-known (if no less astounding) phenomenon of quantum…
December 11, 2008
Mike the Mad Biologist : Why Aren't U.S. Toyota Workers Paid Better?
"What has struck me throughout all of these discussions, however, is that Honda's and Toyota's current lower wages and benefits are seen as 'natural', while the Big Three's are seen as inflated. It's odd to hear progressives and…
December 11, 2008
Following last week's picture with Kate for scale, here's one with me holding SteelyKid and Appa:
And, just for kicks, here's last week's picture again:
This way, everybody can have a good laugh at the size mismatch between me and Kate...
This week's exciting development is that she had her four-…
December 11, 2008
I'm beat, and I have a ton of stuff to do today, so here's some seasonally-appropriate filler. I spent a while in a big chain bookstore's cafe area yesterday, doing some edits on the book-in-progress (I can't do this effectively anywhere where I have Internet access), and was stuck listening to…
December 10, 2008
Water confirmed on distant planet - physicsworld.com
Any lingering doubts about whether water exists on a planet orbiting a star 63 light years away have been quashed by astronomers in the US. The team measured infrared light emitted by the planet, known as HD 189733b, and found distinct spectral…
December 10, 2008
Cosmic Variance (among others) reports that 1997 Nobel Laureate in Physics Steve Chu will be the next Secretary of Energy. Sean gives a good run-down of the many reasons why this is a Good Thing.
Like Sean, I've met Chu in person. Unlike Sean, my one meeting with him doesn't shed any light on…
December 10, 2008
Will Wilkinson has some comments about an article by Malcolm Gladwell from The New Yorker. I basically agree with him about Gladwell, but I'm bothered by the last paragraph:
Now, there's no point in saying things that will make your readers think you are an evilcrazy person, so I can understand why…
December 10, 2008
I'm a little cranky after a day of reviewing grant proposals, so it's possible that I'm overreacting. But commenter Neil B has been banging on about quantum measurement for weeks, including not one, not two, but three lengthy comments in Tuesday's dog post.
For that reason, I am declaring this post…
December 9, 2008
Swans on Tea » The Migration and Herding Tendencies of Tools
"Tools are routinely used and then set aside on the most convenient unoccupied flat surface, after which they are shuffled around to create more unoccupied surface area, which eventually obscures some of the items that have been piled…
December 9, 2008
SteelyKid turned four months on Sunday, and thus went in for a four-month check-up today. Since I'm sure you're all dying to know her progress, here's the OBGraph:
She's one ounce shy of 14lbs, putting her in the 55th percentile for her age. She's now 25.5 inches in length, up from her initial 20…
December 9, 2008
I'm sitting at the dining room table eating lunch, when I get the feeling of being watched. I look around, and see the dog across the room, curled up on her pillows staring at me. She's quietly chanting to herself "I get stuff. I get stuff. I get stuff."
"You're not trying that hypnosis thing again…
December 8, 2008
Hope in a box: The A.V. Club's guide to holiday gifts for the new era of good feelings | The A.V. Club
"Words like "need" or "necessary" lose all meaning around Christmas, even when the economy is collapsing. For example, does anyone actually need a flexible plastic case to prevent their bananas…
December 8, 2008
In comments to last week's rant about the low esteem in which science is held, taffe writes:
Ok then, what should scientists be doing, individually or as a community? Maybe the masses just plain find political info more interesting. I mean hell, you had to use dog fans as a hook for your popular…
December 8, 2008
I made a run to the library last week on one of the days I was home with SteelyKid, as an excuse to get out of the house for a little while. I picked up three books: Counterknowledge, The Devil's Eye by Jack McDevitt (an Antiquities Dealers Innnnn Spaaaaaace novel, and a good example of Competence…
December 8, 2008
SteelyKid was kind of fussy for the early part of the afternoon, and my Giants lost. It's hard to say whether she was fussy for reasons of her own, or just picking up on my irritation at the Giants' lousy play. In any case, the correlation between Happy Baby and football victories remains intact--…
December 7, 2008
Holiday Guide 2008: Gifts - Best Books of 2008 (washingtonpost.com)
Only three science books, but at least they have a Science category.
(tags: books review science society culture)
Mike the Mad Biologist : Framing Good Transit Policy Poorly: The Efficiency Argument
"I don't like the…
December 7, 2008
Carl Zimmer sent me a message via Facebook, which made me think I might owe the New York Times an apology for last week's ranting. Publishers Weekly has come out with their list of the best books of the year, and they do even worse than the Times: not one of the 27 books in their "Nonfiction"…
December 7, 2008
I spent most of yesterday helping out with an on-campus workshop for high school teachers and students. Seven high school physics teachers and seventeen high school students spent the day doing a half-dozen experiments to measure various physical constants.
I was in charge of having them measure…
December 6, 2008
Grading Medical Students (and More on Grade Inflation) -- Crooked Timber
"But, if grade inflation is supposed to be analogous with price inflation, rising grades do not, in themselves, constitute inflation. Rather, grade inflation occurs when grades rise relative to the quality of the academic…
December 6, 2008
As always, if you want penetrating analysis of the news, you need to go to a comedian. Jon Stewart explains why Congress is willing to bail out Wall Street, but not Detroit:
*/
The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Autoerotic Explanation
Barack Obama InterviewJohn McCain Interview…
December 5, 2008
The Intersection: Announcing Unscientific America
A new book, from Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, coming to fine bookstores everywhere in May
(tags: science books writing politics society)
PLoS Genetics: Taken to School: An Interview with the Honorable Judge John E. Jones, III
The judge…
December 5, 2008
One of the links in the previous post was to Josh's thoughts on the CNN science shutdown. Toward the end, he had an interesting note on why science doesn't get more play:
This is especially bad for CNN, since so much of their airtime is taken up by talking heads yelling at one another. Science…
December 5, 2008
A few days ago, I complained again about the relative lack of science books in the New York Times "Notable Books of 2008" list. Yesterday, one of the big stories was CNN axing its entire science unit, such as it was, which drew comments from lots of blogs (and more whose links I can't be bothered…
December 4, 2008
The weekly baby pictures have been getting a little monotonous, so Kate graciously agreed to help out with this week's shot. Here, SteelyKid is showing off her ability to "stand," like a big girl:
(She's not really standing, but this is one of her new things. She enjoys being held upright in a…
