links for 2009-07-03

"Overall, I like administering the list because I can virtually guarantee that any time I want to play, there will be others to play with. I also like the fact that I have some control over who gets on the list, and more importantly, who is excluded from it. Now don't get me wrongâthis isn't some velvet rope thing, and it certainly isn't as exclusive as this basketball list. I invited almost all the regular players at the gym. However, I was also able to subtly exclude a few bad apples by intentionally failing to mention the list when they were around."

"The Fourth of July is this Saturday, and I can't resist trying to inject a little physics fun into the holiday celebration. My apologies to those of you who just wanted to sit in your backyard, eat a burger, and enjoy some fireworks without mentally calculating the trajectory of your bottle rocket or trying to guess at the chemical composition of your Roman candle."

""Time, I think, is a little bit like love. It's accessible to all of us; it is intuitively experienced by all of us in the same way; yet it retains its mystery at whatever level you weigh in on it. It is a mysterious force that we all can experience and share." That's how journalist and session moderator John Hockenberry opened "Time Since Einstein," at the World Science Festival in New York a few weeks back."

Which makes sense, because it's much more anxiety-inducing that way...

"The study, which surveyed four psychology classes at North Hennepin Community College in Minnesota, concluded that the clothing instructors wear has little effect on how students perceive them over longer periods of time. "