drorzel | December 31, 2009A couple of days ago, the LHC Blog asked about the future funding of the arxiv pre-print server, currently hosted at Cornell. Cornell is looking to get some external funding, though:
Currently the plan is to ask the "heaviest user institutions" (other university library systems) to voluntarily contribute to support arXiv operational costs. The FAQ states that the library has already secured commitments from 11 of the 20 institutions that make the most use of the arXiv. (I've seen an unofficial list; these include many of the 'big name research institutes' around the world.) In return, besides…
drorzel | December 31, 2009Everybody with an opinion seems to be doing a decadal wrap-up of one sort or another, but I'm too tired to do anything serious. So, I'll let you do it for me: here's a list of ten songs that are, in my mind, inextricably bound up with the events of the decade. Which of them do you like the best?
Which of these songs of 2000-2009 is your favorite?(survey)
I'm not claiming that these are necessarily the best songs of the decade-- some of them aren't even the best song on their album-- but these are songs that, years from now, I'll hear and it will instantly be 200x in my head. Which ought to…
drorzel | December 31, 2009
Sketches and Paintings by Richard Feynman | Amusing Planet
"Richard Feynman started taking art lessons at the age of 44, and continued drawing for the rest of his life. These include portraits of his close friends, wife and daughter and professional models that posed for him at his friend's studio. Feynman was also an avid supporter of topless bars, which he used to frequent a lot while he was at Caltech, which also explains why he loved drawing nude models."
(tags: art science history sex)
Backreaction: What is a scientific prediction?
"In the last decade in high energy physics one…
drorzel | December 30, 2009Today is Question Day when it comes to post topics, I guess. Over at Fine Structure, Nick asks about the effect of spotlighting brilliant scientists:
I can't help but think about the repercussions of looking at his clearly above average career as something that's normal in physics. It's a deterrent, I think, for all those students that aren't so completely brilliant that they do Nobel winning physics by 21. And it's not exactly uncommon to hear about these minds anymore. Is it a function of community density when we funnel all the supremely smart people towards math and science? What does it…
drorzel | December 30, 2009Over at Faraday's Cage, Cherish is thinking about gender color codes:
I know I may be in the minority here, but let's look at it this way: if someone might consider getting a microscope or telescope for a girl because it's pink rather than a traditional "girl toy" (read: BARBIE) in the absence of a pink microscope or telescope, hasn't something good been done?
How much of the "pinkification" is as a result of adult notions of what a girl versus boy can do? And if a microscope is colored pink (or a baseball mitt or whatever else) means that the adults around that girl will be willing to…
drorzel | December 30, 2009 I should probably start date-tagging these updates about miscellaneous How to Teach Physics to Your Dog news. I don't really mean this to become a second daily links dump, but it's kind of looking that way...
-- As a general matter, it's dangerous for authors to acknowledge the existence of Amazon customer reviews (acknowledgment leads to responding, responding leads to madness), but the half-dozen customer reviews already posted are really good. These three especially. There are also a couple that aren't much more coherent than comment spam, so go figure.
-- At the risk of setting up a…
drorzel | December 30, 2009
YouTube - Tom Waits ã Heigh Ho ã ( The Dwarfs marching song ) from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs
Creepiest. Disney song cover. EVER!
(tags: music movies video youtube)
Gallagher | DVD | Interview | The A.V. Club
Kind of a surreal extended get-offa-my-lawn rant, only vaguely related to the questions being asked.
(tags: comedy avclub interview silly politics culture)
drorzel | December 29, 2009If you're still not sure whether you should be teaching physics to your dog, here's another good reason: Superconductors.
The "super" in "superconductor" refers to the fact that these materials conduct electric current with absolutely zero resistance, better than the best ordinary metals. This has obvious applications in the green technology field (which dogs should definitely be interested in, as discussed in a previous installment)-- if you could remove the resistance of power lines, you would lose less energy on the way from the generating plant to your home, increasing the energy…
drorzel | December 29, 2009 Today's miscellaneous information about How to Teach Physics to your Dog:
-- Following on yesterday's discussion about Barnes & Noble, which seems to have numerous in-store copies everywhere but New England, where I am, it's not some system-wide issue-- B&N stores have a healthy number of copies, and have sold a pretty reasonable number of them already. It's probably just a matter of shelving/ distribution associated with the holidays.
-- I couldn't really be the only blogger to think of connecting dogs and physics, and, indeed, I'm not. A bloodhound in Manhattan named Wimsey offers…
drorzel | December 29, 2009
Why your boss is incompetent - life - 17 December 2009 - New Scientist
"The "Peter principle" undoubtedly appeals to the cynic in all of us. It is also quite possibly true, if subsequent academic studies are to be believed. The longer a person stays at a particular level in an organisation, the more most measures of their performance fall - including subjective evaluations and the frequency and size of pay rises and bonuses. It is a finding entirely consistent with the idea that people eventually become bogged down by their own incompetence."
(tags: business psychology social-science jobs…
drorzel | December 28, 2009When I saw the data generated by the sales rank tracker Matthew Beckler was kind enough to put together, I joked that I hoped to someday need a logarithmic scale to display the sales rank history of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. Thanks to links from Boing Boing, John Scalzi, and Kevin Drum, I got my wish:
For those not familiar with the concept, a log scale plots values on a scale that represents each order of magnitude as a fixed distance. So, the top horizontal line on that plot represents a sales rank of a million, the line below that a hundred thousand, the line below that ten…
drorzel | December 28, 2009Various and sundry updates regarding How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, now available wherever books are sold:
Well, ok, that last sentence is a slight exaggeration. I spent a little while punching ZIP codes of places I've lived into the Barnes and Noble page, and couldn't find any stores that have copies in stock. Grumble, mutter, grump. Borders on the other hand, has sporadic availability. At least one copy has been sold in-store at the Clifton Park Borders, because a friend bought one there last week (the web page now lists it as "Out of Stock" for that store, so maybe they only had the…
drorzel | December 28, 2009
John Crowley Little and Big - Health Care Reform
"At least where I live, and I bet for almost everyone with health insurance, it's very difficult to avoid making several trips to the pharmacy to have various prescriptions filled. If you take (say) four pills a day, and will forever (or until death parts you from them), and you have prescriptions for a month's worth of each, it would be very nice to be able to go to the drugstore and pick them all up each month at once. However, if it so happens that one or another of these was first filled on a different day from the others, it can only…
drorzel | December 27, 2009The DogPhysics Pet Gallery is up to seven dogs, but as yet nobody has sent in a picture of a non-dog pet learning physics from How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. Emmy thinks this is because other pets are dumb, but I think she's getting a little conceited. You can prove her wrong by sending in a picture of your non-dog pet (birds, ferrets, hedgehogs, fish-- even cats are welcome) posing with a copy of the book, like this photo of my parents' Yellow Lab Bodie:
Send pictures to queen_emmy@steelypips.org, and prove her wrong.
drorzel | December 27, 2009We're back in Niskayuna after a fun visit with my parents. I'll have more to say about How to Teach Physics to Your Dog in the near future (including number crunching on the sales rank tracker), but I'm running a little slow at the moment thanks to what was either food poisoning, or some short-duration intestinal bug (either way, if you visit the Corning Museum cafe, avoid the mac and cheese). Thus, we will ease back into blogging with some cute-baby video:
This is SteelyKid in the newly refinished basement at my parents' house, playing her new game: she takes a tissue out of the box, mimes…
drorzel | December 24, 2009SteelyKid says "Look, Daddy! Somebody got me tissue paper!"
"It's the best Christmas present ever!"
Here's hoping you get everything you want this holiday season.
drorzel | December 24, 2009A couple of quick book-related items that I can't resist posting, even while on vacation:
First, the sales rank cracked the top 500 on Amazon last night, peaking at 396. I don't know if this is just a matter of relative sales volume being low, or what, but it's a huge kick all the same. For the moment, it's the top seller in the Physics category, and #35 in Science as a whole. Statistical fluctuation or not, that's very cool.
Even better is this excellent online review from New Scientist:
Talking quantum physics with a dog may seem a tad eccentric, but Orzel's new book is a true delight to…
drorzel | December 23, 2009Janet has a post grappling with the ethical implications of telling children about Santa Claus. SteelyKid is too young for this to be an issue yet, but on this issue, like many others, I turn to my favorite literary philosopher, Terry Pratchett:
"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little--"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE…
drorzel | December 23, 2009
Trapped in the USA: You're Just Not that into Science
"It's sad to say this but most people I work with are just not that into science. It's not that they're not good at it - they clearly are - it's just that they're interested only in their little niche, and are thoroughly satisfied with all that it entails."
(tags: science academia culture education writing essay blogs)
Jim C. Hines - Are Booksignings Worth It?
Define "worth it."
(tags: books publishing blogs sf business)
Teachers Defy Gravity to Gain Students' Interest - NYTimes.com
High-school teaches take parabolic flights to…
drorzel | December 22, 2009"Hey, dude, whatcha doin'?"
"I'm making dinner."
"Yeah? What are you guys having?"
"Well, since the book was published today, we're having a couple of nice steaks to celebrate."
"Just a couple?"
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"Well, you might remember, I had something to do with the book..."
"It'd be hard to forget."
"So, I should get steak, too. Right?"
"Why do you think your bowl is up on the counter?"
"Oooooh! I get steak! Steaksteaksteaksteaksteak!"
"Okay, I'm done. Can I have some more?"