July 27, 2008
Having admitted that I know noting about fine art, here's an opportunity to prove it...
A week or so ago, I was in the Schenectady library looking for something else, and noticed a book called Categories: On the Beauty of Physics, which is packaged in such a way as to make it difficult to attribute…
July 27, 2008
Over at bloggingheads, they've posted a video conversation between Peter Woit of Not Even Wrong and Sabine Hossenfelder of Backreaction. They talk about string theory a bit, as you might imagine, but also about a wide range of issues in math and physics, and math- and physics-blogging.
Sabine…
July 26, 2008
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Blog
As you would expect, they have cool pictures. via Steinn.
(tags: astronomy space science blogs)
Freezing images in an atomic vapor! « Skulls in the Stars
An introduction to Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and how to use it to store information.
(…
July 26, 2008
It was a lovely afternoon at Chateau Steelypips. I sat in the back yard reading a biography of Ernest Rutherford (about which more tomorrow), while Emmy guarded against intrusions of various sorts: squirrels, inferior dogs out for walks, the next-door neighbors' kids.
There comes a time, though,…
July 26, 2008
I know nothing about art or music.
OK, that's not entirely true-- I know a little bit here and there. I just have no systematic knowledge of art or music (by which I mean fine art and classical music). I don't know Beethoven from Bach, Renaissance from Romantics. I'm not even sure those are both…
July 25, 2008
Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-To-Door Trying To Shock People | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
A classic, having no relevance whatsoever to recent events.
(tags: silly internet music)
Setshot: Basketball for the Aging and Infirm: Women's basketball star returns to action--at 50!
"…
July 25, 2008
I was just saying at dinner that I didn't think there was anything interesting to say in response to the whole "cracker" kerfuffle. Then I got home, and saw Daniel Davies's post, which is too good not to link. My hat's off to him.
No, I'm not going to quote what he said-- it's short, you can go…
July 25, 2008
I've hit a point in the book-writing where I'm sort of spinning my wheels: waiting for beta-reader comments, fiddling with figures, looking at dog pictures for potential illustrations (my contract calls for me to provide some number of reproduction-quality pictures of the dog). This would be the…
July 25, 2008
There's a piece at Inside Higher Ed today about everybody's favorite topic, gender bias in science, that opens with an anecdote about a student who showed up to every office hour, and brought her friends. This is familiar to every faculty member, though the author apparently thinks it isn't:
I…
July 24, 2008
Study: No gender differences in math performance
"Whether they looked at average performance, the scores of the most gifted children or students' ability to solve complex math problems, girls measured up to boys."
(tags: gender math education social-science news society)
Kids Say The Darndest…
July 24, 2008
I think there were ads running on ScienceBlogs for PBS's new science "magazine" show NOVA ScienceNOW, which premiered a while back. I never got around to watching it until last night when I caught the start of it completely by accident (quite literally-- I dropped a book on top of the tv remote,…
July 23, 2008
A Priest Walks Into Qatar and . . . - washingtonpost.com
"Talking with Americans about faith and religion... is like having coffee with Forrest Gump: pleasant enough, but not of much substance."
(tags: religion politics society culture academia education)
How are we coming on Phoenix mission…
July 23, 2008
Via Tom, a big long list of books with which to showcase either my broad cultural background or pathetic cultural ignorance. As Tom's original source notes, the claim that most Americans have only read six of these is kind of hard to credit, given that I was assigned more than six of them by the…
July 23, 2008
There's a classic paper on the Quantum Zeno Effect that I discuss in Chapter 5 of the book. The paper does two tests of the effect, and presents the results in two bar graphs. They also provide the data in tabular form.
My question is this:
If I copy the data from the table, and make my own version…
July 22, 2008
'Theology in Life' :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs
"Benedictine's new "Theology in Life" certificate program includes one class each in the theology of freedom, justice, love, and science, respectively. Majors will go on to take upper-level courses in…
July 22, 2008
I've been somewhat decoupled from blogdom in general recently, as I've been busy working on the book and getting ready for FutureBaby. It's also been a useful mental health break, though, as I'm a little less worked up about stupid stuff than I was a few months ago.
Every now and then, I catch the…
July 22, 2008
Via Will Wilkinson, James Pethokoukis at US News considers the state of the economy, and draws the same conclusions I did, for exactly the opposite reasons:
My theory is that the amazing resilience of the American economy through this slowdown--as well as the lack of a bad recession in a generation…
July 22, 2008
I finally manage to get my pants buttoned on the fourth try. I've had to dig out a pair from before I lost weight, because the splint on my left hand won't let me grip the fabric enough to button pants that fit properly. Even with the extra slack, it's difficult.
"God damn it, I hate this," I say…
July 21, 2008
Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal - Religion and World-Building
Notes for people thinking about inventing a religion for a fantasy story.
(tags: SF religion writing history humanities culture)
How to blog, get tenure and prosper: Starting the blog | john…
July 21, 2008
I've finished a first pass through the second draft of Bunnies Made of Cheese: The Book, doing revisions on all of the chapters to make it a little more comprehensible. I'm still waiting for beta-reader comments on the re-written Chapter 8 (hint, hint), but other than that, I'm going through doing…
July 20, 2008
Measurement of the Casimir Force between a Gold Sphere and a Silicon Surface with Nanoscale Trench Arrays
"We report measurements of the Casimir force between a gold sphere and a silicon surface with an array of nanoscale, rectangular corrugations using a micromechanical torsional oscillator."
(…
July 20, 2008
We'll keep this short and spoiler-free:
Kate and I went to see The Dark Knight yesterday afternoon. The verdict: It was an excellent entry in the "gritty comic-book adaptation" genre, and a very solid follow-up to Batman Begins.
Heath Ledger as the Joker was excellent. I see here in my blogger…
July 20, 2008
Kevin Drum is pondering the economy:
A few days ago, in passing, I remarked that I was impressed (surprised?) by the ability of our economy to absorb so much catastrophe in such a short time without things being even worse than they are. What accounts for this?
He goes on to quote part of a…
July 19, 2008
1) I see that as a SF fan with a blog, I am contractually obligated to say something about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Enh. It's well-done, but I'm not that much of a Whedon fanboy, and the hapless villain conceit isn't enough to get past the fact that I don't really like musicals.
2) The…
July 18, 2008
Purdue Panel Finds Misconduct by Fusion Scientist - NYTimes.com
Expect a lawsuit in 3... 2...
(tags: physics science fraud ethics energy experiment academia stupid)
slacktivist: L.B.: Pistol-packing pacifist
"As Alice discovered in Wonderland, this kind of confident, reassured madness can be…
July 18, 2008
On a happier note than the previous post, the American Physical Society has launched a new publication, called simply "Physics." The goal is "to highlight exceptional papers within the body of excellent research that the American Physical Society publishes each year in all of the Physical Review…
July 18, 2008
Yesterday, I had an appointment at the local orthopedic associates to get my dislocated thumb looked at. The receptionist escorted me to a curtained-off corner of a big room, where I got to spend ten or fifteen minutes listening to the physician's assistant on call dealing with other patients. One…
July 17, 2008
Kieran Healy's Weblog - Elementary Particles
"Particle physics has been in the doldrums a bit lately, so they could do with some interdisciplinary reinvigoration. Also, their research budgets remain quite large."
(tags: social-science silly physics blogs)
Crooked Timber » » Necrotrends: The…
July 16, 2008
Bush Lifts Offshore Drilling Ban | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"Is there a ban on printing more money? If so he should lift that too and fix the economy while he's at it."
(tags: silly environment energy politics)
July 16, 2008
The comically large cast/splint thing is the result of dislocating my thumb playing hoops at lunch today. Let me just note that looking down to see one of my major joints bending in the wrong place was not what you would call a highlight. And once was enough, thankyewverymuch, at least for this…
