drorzel | August 11, 2010
Crowd Sourcing Loses Steam - Newsweek
"There's no shortage of theories on why Wikipedia has stalled. One holds that the site is virtually complete. Another suggests that aggressive editors and a tangle of anti-vandalism rules have scared off casual users. But such explanations overlook a far deeper and enduring truth about human nature: most people simply don't want to work for free. They like the idea of the Web as a place where no one goes unheard and the contributions of millions of amateurs can change the world. But when they come home from a hard day at work and turn on their computer…
drorzel | August 10, 2010SteelyKid had her two-year checkup this morning, which means we got new weight and length measurements for her. It's been a while since I did anything really dorky with her data, so here are a couple of graphs tracking her growth:
(Yes, they're in English units, not SI. Deal with it.)
Using the rule of thumb somebody mentioned a while back that a person's final height is double their height at age 2, this projects her to be a bit over 5'9", so that's a prediction we'll be able to test in another fifteen years or so. There's some fairly large uncertainty in these, though, especially today's…
drorzel | August 10, 2010A reader emails to ask about a new-to-me theory of physics, called "Quantum Space Theory" being promoted by a fellow named Thad Roberts. I wouldn't usually bother with this, but Roberts was one of the speakers at TEDx Boulder. this is disappointing, to put it mildly-- TED is a respected organization, and I don't like seeing them lend their support to something that is just dripping with kook signifiers. The key paragraph of the overview of the theory is:
To start grasping this higher-dimensional intuÂitive picÂture check out the book excerpts in the book excerpts secÂtion. If you are more…
drorzel | August 10, 2010
Why Public Employees Are The New Welfare Queens | The New Republic
"To what extent is the problem that the retirement benefits for unionized public sector workers have become too generous? And to what extent is the problem that retirement benefits for everybody else have become too stingy?
I would suggest it's more the latter than the former. The promise of stable retirement--one not overly dependent on the ups and downs of the stock market--used to be part of the social contract. If you got an education and worked a steady job, then you got to live out the rest of your life comfortably.…
drorzel | August 9, 2010As seen in yesterday's post, SteelyKid got a grill this weekend:
This led to one of the cutest toddler anecdotes to date, which I'll put below the fold for the sake of those heartless souls who don't like cute kids.
SteelyKid was running around with an ice cube in a paper cup, because ice is pretty neat, and Kate's mom asked what she had. SteelyKid sumped it out into her hands, and Kate's mom said "Oh, that's cold."
SteelyKid replied "I warm it up," took the ice cube back, put it in the paper cup, put the cup on her toy grill, closed the lid for a few seconds, then brought it back. "Warm it…
drorzel | August 9, 2010So, last week, I talked about how superconductors work, and I have in the past talked about the idea of making cold atoms look like electrons. And obvious question, then, whould be:
Do cold atoms systems allow us to learn anything about superconductivity? The answer here is, unfortunately, "Yes and no."
That's pretty weaselly, dude. Yeah, well, there's nothing I can do about that.
There are a huge number of experiments out there using ultracold atom systems to look at Bose Einstein Condensation, which is related to superconductivity, and that transition has been studied in great detail. Those…
drorzel | August 9, 2010the hot topic in mathematical sciences at the moment is the draft proof that P≠NP (warning: PDF). This is one of the biggest issues in computer science, and one of the Clay Mathematics Institute's Millennium Problems, so a proof would be Big News in math/CS, and earn the prover a cool $1,000,000. Reaction among blogging theorists is mixed, with some intrigued and at least one willing to bet against it.
So what do I think of the proof? Honestly, this is so far out of my areas of competence that I need Google to remind me what the symbols mean. About all I know is that it's a Big Deal in…
drorzel | August 9, 2010
Young Engineer Uses Webcam, Laser to Build Budget 3-D Scanner | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
"Using little more than a webcam and a laser, a young engineer has built a cheap 3D scanner that dovetails perfectly with the Makerbot and other desktop fabricators. It could be used as part of a copying system that would allow hobbyists to duplicate solid objects at home.
"The technology exists to do this kind of thing, but it's much more expensive," said Andy Barry, a research engineer in the Autodesk Innovations Lab at NASA Ames Research Laboratory in Mountain View, California. "My goal is to make it…
drorzel | August 8, 2010SteelyKid was down in Boston at her grandmother's for a few days, which was a nice break, but it's always good to get home to Chateau SteelyKid:
Notice the spiffy new grill in the right corner of the patio, Of course, when you're out of town for a few days, all sorts of work piles up in your absence:
The mower was also a birthday gift. It blows bubbles, sort of, but the bubble stuff leaked out and hadn't been replaced yet. The nice part of life in the suburbs is that when you're done mowing your lawn, you can grill up a tasty burger:
I love the look of intense concentration as she…
drorzel | August 7, 2010
Happy second birthday, SteelyKid! That wasn't taken on her birthday, but it's one of my favorite early pictures of her. Now, of course, she looks like this:
That is, when she'll hold still long enough to be photographed...
drorzel | August 6, 2010In comments to yesterday's post about my favorite Many-Worlds story, a couple of people mention "All the Myriad Ways," a Larry Niven short story. I don't think I've ever actually read the story, but it gets brought up all the time, so I'm familiar with the concept. It's an angle on Many-Worlds that I don't like, and has something in common with the central conceit of Inception, which is also not high on my list of literary tropes, though my reaction isn't anywhere near as negative as Scott's.
If you're not familiar with it, here's the summary from Wikipedia:
A police detective, pondering a…
drorzel | August 6, 2010I was going to write something serious about physics, but it's my student's last day, so we're taking him to lunch. So here's a silly poll to entertain you until I get back:
If I suspected I might be living in a dream, but couldn't be sure, I would:survey software
You can only choose one answer... Unless it's all a dream! In which case, you should slap yourself repeatedly for dreaming about blog polls, because, really.
drorzel | August 6, 2010We haven't yet gotten to the point where we're comfortable leaving SteelyKid with a babysitter, so seeing the movie everybody's talking about took a while. Since she's off at Gammy's, though, we got a rare night to ourselves and went to the movies.
My immediate reaction is that it's great to see a movie that's kind of smart and not based on anything dominating the box office. If this helps break us out of the endless cycle of re-makes and comic-book movies, I'll be as happy as anyone.
This is an extremely well-done movie, with everything shot, acted, and choreographed very well. There was…
drorzel | August 6, 2010
Turn or go straight? Quick! : Dot Physics
This is a classic problem. You are in a car heading straight towards a wall. Should you try to stop or should you try to turn to avoid the wall? Bonus question: what if the wall is not really wide so you don't have to turn 90 degrees?
(tags: physics education blogs dot-physics science)
Stax | Music | Gateways To Geekery | The A.V. Club
"In the 1960s, Stax Records blazed the trail for sweaty, funky Southern soul, pioneering an earthy sound that was rougher and more immediate than the glossy productions of Phil Spector or Motown. Founded by brother…
drorzel | August 5, 2010I meant to take a picture of SteelyKid yesterday, before she left for Grammy's, so we would have a Toddler Blogging shot for the week. Alas, I am a dope, so you will have to make do with this out-take from last week's shots, in which SteelyKid shares her opinion of her father's dodgy memory:
She's down in Boston at the moment, where we'll be heading tomorrow for her second birthday on Saturday. At last report, she was having so much fun, she didn't want to sleep, so, you know, whee!
drorzel | August 5, 2010Today, Tor.com has posted the complete story "Divided by Infinity" by Robert Charles Wilson. This remains probably the best science fiction story ever using the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics (though it doesn't call it that explicitly), and also the creepiest:
In the year after Lorraine's death I contemplated suicide six times. Contemplated it seriously, I mean: six times sat with the fat bottle of Clonazepam within reaching distance, six times failed to reach for it, betrayed by some instinct for life or disgusted by my own weakness.
I can't say I wish I had succeeded,…
drorzel | August 5, 2010A reader emailed me with a few questions regarding How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, one of which is too good not to turn into a blog post:
What is a photon from an experimental perspective?... Could you perhaps provide me with a reference that discusses some experiments and these definitional issues?
The short form of the experimental answer is "A photon is the smallest amount of light that will cause a detector to 'click.'" (For some reason, hypothetical light detector technology has never really advanced past the Geiger counter stage-- even though it's all electrical pulses these days, we…
drorzel | August 5, 2010This Slate story on the number of Americans who can't swim was kind of surprising to me:
In a 1994 CDC study, 37 percent of American adults said they couldn't swim 24 yards, the length of a typical gymnasium lap pool. A 2008 study conducted by researchers at the University of Memphis found that almost 54 percent of children between 12 and 18 can do no more than splash around the shallow end of a pool. The difference between the two studies is somewhat surprising, as the CDC study suggested that children tend to be better swimmers than adults.
Having grown up in a town that features a large-…
drorzel | August 5, 2010
Judge Walker's decision to overturn Prop 8 is factual, well-reasoned, and powerful. - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine
"It's hard to read Judge Walker's opinion without sensing that what really won out today was science, methodology, and hard work. Had the proponents of Prop 8 made even a minimal effort to put on a case, to track down real experts, to do more than try to assert their way to legal victory, this would have been a closer case. But faced with one team that mounted a serious effort and another team that did little more than fire up their big, gay boogeyman screensaver for two…
drorzel | August 4, 2010On the reader request thread, commenter Brad had several questions; one led to yesterday's post about superconductors, another is a critical issue in pedagogy:
Finally, why did all of my stat[istical] mech[anics] courses suck?
Statistical Mechanics is the branch of physics that deals with building up macroscopic thermal properties of materials from a microscopic model of gas atoms with particular energy states. It's an important and powerful branch of physics dealing with things like the melting and freezing of various substances, and why entropy always increases, and things like that. It's…