Links for 2009-12-03

  • "Batman takes a lot of blows to his head. These come from his fighting activities and from being routinely thrown--or leaping--onto or into hard objects like walls, floors, and moving vehicles. The issue of concussion in Batman's career is something I addressed in Becoming Batman. In examining the scientific possibility of a human training to achieve the pinnacle of physical skill of comic book icon Batman, I reckoned him having a pretty short career. The main thing to shorten Batman's career would be his accumulation of injuries, with concussion figuring prominently."
  • "This is a list of job interview questions I compiled when I was applying for college or university positions in American studies, history, and architectural history. Every category of question I have ever been asked at a job interview is represented below. Good luck in your job search."
  • ""Nuts to your shy!" says Giblets. "If they were really out there in space with their space-cars and their space-guns and their metal-bikini-wearing space-babes they would totally come over here to show off all their space-stuff and make us feel like losers! That's just science!"
    "Well you can't argue with science," says me.
    "No you can't," says Giblets."
  • "Physicists in the US have become the first to use laser light to make neutral, ultracold atoms behave like charged particles in a magnetic field - even though the atoms have no charge. The set-up could be used as a "quantum simulator" to gain a better understanding of how electrons in solid materials respond to magnetic fields. "
  • "Legend has it that the blues guitarist Robert Johnson acquired his haunting style by selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads. West, as a "bluesman of the life of the mind," has clearly also been to the crossroads. The devil gave him a team of publicists. I don't think this was a good bargain on West's part. It left him unable to recognize that self-respect is often the enemy of self-esteem"
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