Links for 2010-01-15

"Why the long discussion about the period of a pendulum yesterday? Because we're actually going to take a look at a particular pendulum today. This one hangs in the central atrium of the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, which constitutes half of the beautiful and brand spanking new two-building complex now housing the Texas A&M department of physics."

The Damn Book is finally -- finally!! -- in production. I've been working on revisions intermittently for so long, my friends started saying, "But you were revising the manuscript a month ago, weren't you? Isn't it done yet?" It's never done. But at some point you have to let your baby go out into the world, warts and all. There's no cover, or even a Web page for the book yet, but here's a sneak peek at the catalog copy and my favorite of the many excellent illustrations Jason Torchinsky created for the book:

"The Guide is designed for the physics professor, teacher, researcher, student and any other physics enthusiast who is just as excited about physics as we are. We know you want to share your passion with others through outreach. We will describe how to pick an outreach program, how to work with audiences, how to work with schools, safety issues, and even public relations tactics you can employ to advance your outreach effort."

Very cool Java simulation of a laser, allowing you to play with all the parameters.

"Physics To Go is an online biweekly mini-magazine, and it's also a collection of more than 800 websites that you can search and browse. We welcome you to view our January 1, 2010 issue below, Laser 50th anniversary."

"As played by Bill Pullman, Zero is both a cool, serenely confident logician and a certified nutcase--contradictions well-suited to an actor square-jawed enough to be the president in Independence Day, yet right at home in David Lynch's Lost Highway. His one tic has always been a tendency to squint through performances, not as if he doesn't understand things, or he's dubious about what someone else is saying, but more as if he's lost in some bizarre train of thought. In one of my favorite moments in Zero Effect, Zero drags Arlo away from his girlfriend in Los Angeles, puts him on a flight to Portland, and winds up communicating with him via two payphones about 10 feet apart from each other. When Arlo asks him why they're on payphones, the mysteriously bearded Zero replies, with that trademark Pullman squint, "We can't be too careful. Two guys in an airport... talking... It's a little fishy.""

"America is just different from our friends in the industrialized democratic world when it comes to our views about science. The most important reason is that science is politicized here to a degree found in few other places. It's not a recent development -- the politicization of science in America can be traced back at least as far as the Scopes trial in 1925, where the forces of religious faith in that great media event were represented by three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. But in the latter half of the 20th century, the ideological lines between the Republican and Democratic parties became more clearly drawn. The GOP evolved into the party that opposes secularism and its rational sidekick science, a process hastened by the emergence of the Christian right in the 1980s. Bush simply turned that antipathy into policy with particular zeal."