May 20, 2008
Welcome to today's exciting episode of "How Big a Dork Am I?" Today, we'll be discussing the making of unnecessary models:
In this graph, the blue points represent the average mass in grams of a fetus at a given week of gestation, while the red line is the mass predicted by a simple model treating…
May 20, 2008
I think it's the bright thing right in the middle of this ultrasound image. Because, of course, in the Future we'll all have personal jet packs, even the babies...
A somewhat more recognizable picture:
That's a profile shot of FutureBaby's head. The other is a wider shot, showing some of the body…
May 20, 2008
The new Death Cab for Cutie album was released last week, and I've been intermittently earwormed with the first single, "I Will Possess Your Heart." And, wow, is that one of the creepiest songs ever-- you get the sense that he's not entirely sure whether he needs to possess the rest of her, or if…
May 20, 2008
Matt Nisbet has a post up talking about McCain's environment ad, and linking to a Media Curves study tracking people's reactions to the spot.
What's interesting from the results, is that in the beginning of the ad, Democrats respond positively to the opening pandora's box frame focusing on…
May 19, 2008
New family of quaternary iron-based compounds superconducts at tens of kelvin - Physics Today May 2008
"Last year it looked as though high-Tc superconductivity takes place only in CuO2 planes. Now that LaOFeAs has broken the cuprates' monopoly, what other superconductors wait to be discovered?"
(…
May 19, 2008
Kevin Drum wades into a discussion over a claim that religion leads to happiness (started by Will Wilkinson and picked up by Ross Douthat), and offers an alternate theory for why religious people are happier in America by unhappier in Europe:
This is way outside my wheelhouse, but here's another…
May 19, 2008
We're just starting out on a walk, and no sooner do I open the gate from the back yard than the dog takes off at a run, hitting the end of the leash and nearly pulling my arm out of the socket.
"Whoa, there," I say. "Take it easy."
"Come on," she says, "We need to go fast! Let's go, let's go,…
May 19, 2008
Mike Hoye rides the Tokyo subway and takes a picture of it:
Here's my view of the same scene (from this Flickr set):
I really hope he was sitting down when he took that.
May 19, 2008
Over at Inside Higher Ed they've got a piece titled "Massachusetts Should Tax Harvard" taking the position that most of the arguments against taxing extremely wealthy institutions of higher education are nonsense. You have to read all the way to the last paragraph to get to the one really…
May 18, 2008
ruhlman.com: Flour, egg, milk
Really simple popovers.
(tags: food blogs)
Dynamics of Cats : grade inflation
"I had been worrying that my "curve" was tipping too far, too many As and Bs, but [threats are] not why - in fact student whingeing, if anything, would tip me towards harsher grading."
(…
May 18, 2008
We're very happy with Chateau Steelypips, and we especially enjoy our back yard:
Of course, it's not without its problems, as you can see in that picture (and another that I'll put below the fold). The yard is pleasantly private and shady, thanks to a row of maples along the right side, and an…
May 18, 2008
Continuing the morning's theme of "crushingly depressing stories from the New York Times," there's also a downer article about cities where there are more deaths than births:
What demographers call a natural decrease has been occurring for years in tiny rural towns and in some retirement meccas in…
May 18, 2008
Some cheery Sunday morning reading from the Times, showing the perils of short-term thinking when it comes to staying ahead of agricultural pests:
The damage to rice crops, occurring at a time of scarcity and high prices, could have been prevented. Researchers at the International Rice Research…
May 17, 2008
California's gay-marriage decision reflects the difference between judicial activism and, um judging. - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine
"Even though the majority did what it was supposed to do and offered up a rigorous close reading of state law and precedent, it will be defended and also…
May 17, 2008
"What the hell is this?"
"We're remodeling the garage into a family room."
"Oooh! That's a good idea!"
"Thanks. We're so glad you approve."
"So, where are you going to put the bunny hutch?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"For me to keep my bunnies in!"
"You don't have any bunnies."
"Not yet, I don't, but…
May 17, 2008
Behold, an ordinary garage:
Now, watch as it is transformed:
Obviously, there's a good deal of work yet to do, but it's really remarkable how much difference sheet rock makes-- between Day 8 and Day 9, it goes from looking like a construction site to looking like a room that just needs…
May 16, 2008
World Science Festival Blog
Of course they have a blog-- it's 2008, for God's sake...
(tags: blogs science society culture education theater television movies art physics biology chemistry environment)
Pharmaceuticals in the Environment, Information for Assessing Risk » Home
"The database…
May 16, 2008
I've had recurring problems with hives for a couple of years now. I have, at times, jokingly attributed this to an allergic reaction to George W. Bush continuing to be President, but I really have no idea what, exactly, is causing the problem. My allergist says that it's most likely an autoimmune…
May 16, 2008
Matthew Yglesias's first book arrives burdened with one of the longest subtitles in memory ("How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats"), which is a little off-putting. Of course, it also features a back-cover blurb from Ezra Klein calling it "A very…
May 16, 2008
Over at Cocktail Party Physics, Jennifer Ouellette offers her Top Ten events at the upcoming World Science Festival in New York City the week after next. The full program is at the festival site, and it looks like there's even something for the stamp collectors. Probably to keep the cool physics-…
May 16, 2008
We had a colloquium talk yesterday from the very energetic Jessica Clark of the American Physical Society's outreach office who talked about the many things that the APS does to bring positive physics experiences to a wide audience. It was a terrific talk, and brought to my attention a couple of…
May 15, 2008
Learning Curves: Verizon Wireless Reminds You to Silence Your Cell Phone During Class
"I'm willing to put corporate logos on my PowerPoint slides if the Math Department gets to keep a decent share of the ad revenue. "
(tags: academia education economics math silly)
Pre-K students benefit when…
May 15, 2008
Over at Swans on Tea, Tom has a great story of his Frankenstein Moment, that moment in science when the lightning flashes, and it's immediately clear that everything just worked, and you have successfully reanimated your creation, or split the atom, or discovered high-temperature superconductivity…
May 15, 2008
I'm giving an exam this morning (magnetic fields, circuits, magnetic forces on charges), which is always a carnival of boredom-- happily, I have papers to grade during the test, which will keep me busy. Sadly, this is not a final exam, as Female Science Professor and others are making or grading…
May 15, 2008
I have to go to work unpleasantly early to give an exam, and then I'll be occupied for most of the day with a visiting speaker. Here's something cute and fuzzy to compensate:
That's the plush triceratops I bought Tuesday at the Natural History museum shop, as an advance gift for FutureBaby. We're…
May 14, 2008
Fafblog! the whole world's only source for Fafblog.
That's that no-nonsense down-to-business style I like about you, Hillary Clinton! You don't just talk about change. You talk about how much you don't just talk about change!
(tags: politics US silly blogs society)
How to Turn Your Vacuum…
May 14, 2008
I feel a little bad about posting a long ranty thing about stupid and annoying art at the Met, because every time I go there, I find something new and really impressive. For example, the renovations underway in the museum forced me to cut through the European Decorative Arts section, where I never…
May 14, 2008
Having done a whirlwind and somewhat disappointing swing through the Museum of Natural History, I strolled across Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to get me some culture. I guessed correctly that it was less likely to be choked with middle-school kids, and I never fail to find…
May 14, 2008
Some colleagues organized a bus trip to New York yesterday, which I went on, on the grounds that a) it was cheap, and b) in a few months, we won't be doing much traveling at all for a while. This required me to get up at an ungodly hour to catch the bus on campus, and the trip itself reminded me of…
May 13, 2008
Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » The bullet-swallowers
"Some connections are obvious: libertarianism and MWI are both are grand philosophical theories that start from premises that almost all educated people accept (quantum mechanics in the one case, Econ 101 in the other), and claim to reach…
