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…
March 27, 2012
No More Mister Nice Blog
The paranoia of George Zimmerman had a large, race-specific fear component, but I'd say it also had elements of pleasure. I see this in what gun fans say all the time -- they like thinking of themselves as besieged, and as people who have the means to defend themselves if…
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:
And that's your silly musical break for the day.
March 26, 2012
Richard Feyman famously once said that the double-slit experiment done with electrons contains everything that's "'at the heart of quantum physics." It shows both particle and wave character very clearly: the individual electrons are detected one at a time, like particles, but the result of a huge…
March 26, 2012
Tutorial and Critique Services -- Debra Doyle, Ph.D.
Now-a-days, lots of folks are self-publishing. I'm doing it myself. If you're planning to self-publish, and if you haven't yet heard the advice that since you're now a publisher you need to hire an editor, well, you will. Other folks want to…
March 25, 2012
I had a signing yesterday at the Barnes & Noble in Vestal, NY, which drew a smallish crowd mostly of friends and family. SteelyKid came, of course, and while she spent most of her time bopping about other parts of the store, she came over to the signing area while I was signing books for people…
March 23, 2012
So, the previous post poses a physics question based on some previous fooling around with modeling my commute:
A car starts from rest at the beginning of a straight 1km course, accelerates up to some speed, cruises at constant speed for a while, then decelerates to a stop at the end of the course.…
March 23, 2012
Back in the summer, I did a post mathematically comparing two routes to campus, one with a small number of traffic lights, the other with a larger number of stop signs, and looked at which would be faster. Later on, I did the experiment, too.) Having spent a bunch of time on this, I was thinking…
March 23, 2012
The quick publicity items for this weekend:
1) I will be on the Science Fantastic radio show either Saturday or Sunday, depending on when your local affiliate runs it (or when you choose to livestream it over the Internet). The interview has already been recorded, which leaves me free for:
2) I…
March 23, 2012
Not To Us, And To Us | Storied Theology
"Not to us" is an important step in biblical interpretation. We need to have ears to hear how a story would have resonated with Babylonian exiles; we need ears to hear how "Jesus is Lord" might have resonated, or caused dissonance, for a first century Roman…
March 22, 2012
"Hey, dude," the dog says, looking concerned. "We need to talk."
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Look, it's great that you're transcribing the human puppy's stories into Twitter and all, but I'm feeling left out. I've got my own Twitter account and all, but you hardly ever type any of my tweets any more. I…
March 22, 2012
CourtVision by Kirk Goldsberry
Some shots are easier than other shots; that's a basic tenet of basketball. Many factors influence the probability of a field goal attempt resulting in a made basket, but one factor in particular has been mostly overlooked in basketball analysis: location. The most…
March 21, 2012
It's been a while since I did any ResearchBlogging posts, because it turns out that having an infant and a toddler really cuts into your blogging time. Who knew? I keep meaning to get back to it, though, and there was a flurry of excitement the other day about a Nature Physics paper proposing a way…
March 21, 2012
Drug smuggler? Victim of scholar envy? UNC prof in Argentine jail - Crime/Safety - NewsObserver.com
A 68-year-old UNC-Chapel Hill physics professor with three degrees from Oxford University is being held in an Argentine prison on charges of trying to smuggle two kilograms of cocaine. Paul H.…
March 20, 2012
So, this is the new book from the authors of Why Does E=mc2?, covering quantum mechanics in a roughly similar manner. This book, or, rather, Brian Cox talking about some material from this book, created a bit of controversy recently, as previously discussed. But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how…
March 20, 2012
A couple of cool items in the promotion of How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog:
-- A little while back, I spoke to Alan Boyle, who writes the Cosmic Log blog for MSNBC, who posted a very nice story about the book last night. Mainstream media, baby!
It also uses this very cool picture of Emmy and me…
March 20, 2012
Strange Quark Comics Mar 18, 2012
"Understanding doesn't matter. You've got to show confidence or no one will believe you're smarter than me."
Liberals Started the Culture War, and We Should Be Proud of Continuing It | Mother Jones
We tend to mock conservatives for endlessly keeping the culture…
March 19, 2012
I'm trying not to obsessively check and re-check the Dog Physics Sales Rank Tracker, with limited success. One thing that jumped out at me from the recent data, though, is the big gap between the book and Kindle rankings over the weekend. The book sales rank dropped (indicating increased sales,…
March 19, 2012
The Top Science Questions Facing America: 2012 Edition: New (71 ideas) - Customer Feedback for ScienceDebate.org
What do YOU think are the top science questions the candidates for president should answer? We've posted the original 14 from 2008, preceded by their question numbers, and users have…
March 18, 2012
Captain's Log, Stardate 031812
USS BabyPod
Lieutenant Commander The Pip reporting:
Hey, this space pod thing is pretty neat:
Wait, what? You mean I get to be in charge of this. All by myself?
That's so awesome!!! Woo-hoo!
I can fly it however I want! Look, Ma, no hands!
Whee!!!! This is the…
March 17, 2012
I've done a bunch of publicity stuff for How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog, some of which frustratingly continue to not appear yet, but one thing from this week has gone live: a podcast interview on the Matt Lewis Show, where I talk about why and how I explain physics to the dog, and a little bit…
March 16, 2012
A little more tab clearance, here, this time a few recent stories dealing with those elusive little buggers, neutrinos. In roughly chronological order:< /p>
The Daya Bay experiment in China has measured a key parameter for neutrino oscillation (arxiv paper), the phenomenon where neutrinos of…
March 16, 2012
While I was editing and posting the pictures for last night's family blogging, SteelyKid came in and said "Daddy, we watched [indistinct name] today, and they created their own story on the show. But I don't know how to do that."
"Sure you do, honey," I said. "You create stories all the time. You…
March 16, 2012
[1203.1895] Classic Nintendo Games are (NP-)Hard
We prove NP-hardness results for five of Nintendo's largest video game franchises: Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon. Our results apply to Super Mario Bros. 1, 3, Lost Levels, and Super Mario World; Donkey Kong Country 1-3;…
March 15, 2012
Yesterday was "Pi Day" (3-14, in the American style of writing dates), and while I personally find it kind of silly, The Pip took it to heart, using it as the occasion for his first rotation of π radians about his long axis. That is, he rolled from his back onto his stomach. Which is both good and…
March 15, 2012
Over at the Scholarly Kitchen, Kent Anderson complains about the uselessness of comments on journals:
Comments in online scientific journals have been notoriously poor -- either too much material of uneven quality or too little discussion to amount to a hill of beans. All too often, commenting has…
March 15, 2012
There was a nice piece at Inside Higher Ed yesterday on the myth of more time:
A lack of confidence in one's abilities as a writer, researcher, speaker, etc. is at the root of the myth of more time. When a deadline looms, we become acutely aware of the imminent reception of our work by others. As…
March 15, 2012
Ask Moxie: Welcome to Moxie Madness!
Welcome to Moxie Madness 2012: Misery Poker Tournament! 64 mothering calamities go mano-a-mano in a single elimination tournament like you've never seen before. Only one mothering problem can be the champion... Vote for which problem is worse in a series of…
March 14, 2012
One of the things that made me very leery of the whole Brian Cox electron business was the way that he seemed to be justifying dramatic claims through dramatic handwaving: "Moving an electron here changes the state of a very distant electron instantaneously because LOOK! THE WINGED VICTORY OF…
March 14, 2012
Top Five March Madness Predictions - Grantland
There are so many things you can count on every year that the tournament has lost almost all of its renegade charm. It's a product now. As such, it is required to be safe and reliable, the way we want all our products to be. You make peace with that,…
