links for 2007-11-06

Hand-waving is the key to any calculation.

A historian reads Novik's Temeraire books.

The conclusion of the series: "I think it has very little to do with religion and everything to do with politics."

"It reminds me, somehow, of a little kid doing art therapy in the school guidance counselor's office, drawing elaborately violent fantasies in which he, in the form of his World of Warcraft avatar, wreaks bloody revenge on the class bully. This book is th

This is sitting near the top of the to-be-read pile

Hollywood explains the proper organization of a committee

"[W]e present a novel theoretical approach to macroscopic realism and classical physics within quantum theory. It focuses on the limits of observability of quantum effects of macroscopic objects, i.e., on the required precision of our measurement apparatu

Two separate clouds of atoms have their collective states entangled by interaction with light.

a novel way of entangling the state of a photon with the state of a group of atoms, which could be useful for quantum communications

A proposal of ways to create physical structures that mimic the behavior of wormholes and magnetic monopoles.

A technique that could allow measurements of blood flow rates deep in living tissue.

Little glass beads behave like a quark-gluon plasma

"If you insist on being actively involved every single time someone else in your institution is doing something objectionable, you will almost certainly devolve into being a crank and an asshole."

Today's candidate for "Worst Headline Ever"