links for 2009-05-03

"It's simple, really. If a private school wants to discriminate, fine. I don't like it, but it's a private religious entity. Don't, however, discriminate and then ask the government to use tax dollars to subsidize the institution."

"When the Large Hadron Collider was fired up for the first time back in September, it caused much wailing and rending of clothes by people who were convinced that the device would create miniature black holes which would destroy the Earth, even though the initial test wouldnât come close to the energies hypothetically required for such an unlikely event. After the test, others were irrationally convinced that the LHC had spawned earthquakes around the globe; I did a rather thorough criticism of that idea here.

Itâs interesting to note that such fears have been cropping up since the dawn of atomic physics, sometimes seriously and sometimes as a joke. "

"WTF is wrong with kids these days? Look, I know that astrophysics has always been cool and has always packed rooms, so Iâm not disappointed that they showed up to the astrophysics talk. However, when I was in college, when alumni business leaders came to campus, students showed up wearing suits and holding resumes. "