drorzel | October 13, 2009The baseball playoffs are upon us, which means that most of the sports media are consumed with baseball talk. I find this faintly annoying, as I'm not really a fan of baseball. And, really, I can't be a fan of baseball, for the same reason that I can't be a conservative Republican activist-- I don't have the mental circuitry necessary to passionately believe self-contradictory things.
For example, being a baseball fan apparently requires one to simultaneously believe that a four-and-a-half hour game three hours of which are just players standing around scratching themselves is part of the…
drorzel | October 13, 2009
The Ostrom Nobel -- Crooked Timber
"To amplify what Kieran has just said - political scientists are going to be very, very happy today. I had seen Lin cited as a 50-1 outsider by one betting agency a few days ago, and had been surprised that she was at the races at all, given that economists tend (like the rest of us) to be possessive of their field's collective goodies. I'm delighted to see that my cynicism was completely misplaced."
(tags: economics Nobel blogs crooked-timber social-science politics)
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Princesses and cats: Kij Johnson's…
drorzel | October 12, 2009Somebody should look to see if there's a correlation between the weather on the days of campus visits and the number of prospective students who apply/ enroll at a given school.
We had pretty decent weather-- cool but seasonal, sunny in the morning, clouding over in the afternoon-- for today's Open House. Last year, we had dreary rain at least one of the Open House days. I'd like to think that something as random and trivial as the weather wouldn't really influence a high school student's college decision, but then, I've heard stupider things...
drorzel | October 12, 2009It's Adopt-a-Physicist time again, and I've been "adopted" by three classes: Susan Kelly's class at Blind Brook High School in Rye, NY; Lisa Edwards's class at Hickory High School in Hickory, NC (insert your own Hoosiers joke); and Suprit Dharmi's class at Terrill Middle School in Scotch Plains, NJ. So here's a shout-out to all of them, and their students.
Amusingly, my fellow adoptees include at least one occasional commenter on this blog, and somebody I know from NIST. Small world.
drorzel | October 12, 2009The Digital Cuttlefish looks at the Archie comics, and waxes poetic:
Two paths play out in a comic book,
When Archie walks down memory lane
"The road not taken" is the hook;
So now, the writers take a look
And re-write Archie's life again,
This time with Betty as his bride;
Veronica the woman spurned,
Who once upon a time, with pride,
Was wed to Archie. Thus allied,
They lived while many seasons turned.
Why am I commenting on this, given that what little I know about Archie I learned from The Comics Curmudgeon and Chasing Amy? Because he goes on to talk about the Many-Worlds Interpretation…
drorzel | October 12, 2009
Britain's Nobel winner condemns science funding reform | Science | guardian.co.uk
""There is a lot of focus now on trying to get very quick pay-offs in research. It is a huge mistake. Basic science has paid off far more than any directed research," Ramakrishnan said.
"If you don't invest properly in fundamental science, then you won't have the foundations to develop the technologies and applications of tomorrow. Ten years down the line, your technology will be based on obsolete foundations.""
(tags: Nobel science education academia business economics society)
Lazy vs. Bizarre §…
drorzel | October 11, 2009Over at Physics and Physicists, ZapperZ notes a fairly useless interview with Guy Consolmagno, and suggests some alternative questions:
1. How old do you estimate the universe to be based not only on your observation, but also the consensus among astronomers? Would this be contrary to the biblical interpretation on the age of the universe? What about the Young Earth's interpretation of the age of the universe?
2. What is your view of the treatment received by Galileo by the church? {Oh c'mon, you knew that one was coming, didn't you?}
These would be better questions than what was asked in…
drorzel | October 11, 2009
Physics - Protecting quantum superpositions from the outside world
"Quantum information science relies on superpositions of quantum states with a definite phase relation, but such superpositions are inherently fragile against interactions with their environment. Fortunately, if some kind of common property bounds these interactions, it is possible, though by no means easy in a practical setting, to come up with states that are essentially immune to their environment. In papers appearing in Physical Review A and Physical Review Letters, Magnus RÃ¥dmark and Mohamed Bourennane at Stockholm…
drorzel | October 10, 2009In the last couple of weeks, I have suddenly acquired a rather full travel schedule for the coming months. The odd thing is that none of these trips are book-publicity junkets-- they're all basically professional-type appearances, several of them taking place before How to Teach Physics to Your Dog hits stores on December 22. My schedule so far:
October 24, Waterloo, Ontario: I'm a late addition the Quantum to Cosmos Festival, as a panelist for a discussion on "Communicating Science in the 21st Century." This will also be webcast and recorded for television (my itinerary includes a "Speaker…
drorzel | October 10, 2009
Green Energy Should Trump Politics: Daniel Lyons | Newsweek Daniel Lyons | Techtonic Shifts | Newsweek.com
"[L]ook at what [scientists] are up against: a noisy babble of morons and Luddites, the "Drill, baby, drill" crowd, the birthers, and tea-party kooks who have done their best to derail health-care reform and will do the same to any kind of energy policy. [OSTP Director John] Holdren has an undergraduate degree from MIT and a Ph.D. from Stanford; he has won countless awards for his work on nuclear proliferation, climate change, alternative energy, and population growth. But now he must…
drorzel | October 9, 2009Inspired by yesterday's post about the speed of light, a poll about c:
What do you think of the speed of light?(surveys)
So, how do you feel about the speed of light?
drorzel | October 9, 2009The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize went to Al Gore and the IPCC. The 2008 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel went to Paul Krugman. And now, the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize goes to Barack Obama.
Really? I mean, really? I like the guy as much as the next person, and it's nice to see somebody in Washington trying "to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." But he really hasn't accomplished anything, yet.
Seriously, the best explanation for this is that they're trying to make American right-wingers' heads explode. That, or they're still trying…
drorzel | October 9, 2009
From Gourmet to the Daily Gazette « Easily Distracted
"This is the real issue for a lot of old media. They used to be a habit, a tradition, a part of life. As such, you ignored what you didn't use or like the same way you ignore a tear or a stain in a piece of furniture that you otherwise find comfortable and can't afford to replace anyway. But now I think a lot of audiences have a much more active imaginative engagement with what they read, and much less patience for a publication that isn't nimble in its response to the needs and desires of its readership. You go to old media for a kind…
drorzel | October 8, 2009Winter is coming, and SteelyKid is getting ready. Here, we see her modeling the latest in baby headgear (handed down from a friend):
It's very stylish. I'm not convinced that hugging Appa will take the place of a coat, though...
A slightly better Appa-for-scale picture is below the fold:
This morning at day care, Kate saw her playing peek-a-boo with another child, which was apparently about the cutest thing ever. It's neat to see that she's started to take an interest in playing with other kids, after months and months of viewing them as sort of mobile obstacles.
drorzel | October 8, 2009A couple of days ago, I answered a question from a donor to the Uncertain Principles challenge page in this year's Social Media Challenge (we've raised $1,807 thus far-- thank you all). If you'd like a question of your own answered on the blog, all you need to do is send me the confirmation email for a donation of at least $20, and your question.
The donor from the other day, Lauren Uroff, had a second question as well, also on behalf of her teenager:
He's an avid Discworld fan (where the speed of light seems to be variable) and wants to know what would happen in our real world if the speed…
drorzel | October 8, 2009
Less-Convergent Culture « Easily Distracted
"Here's what I find as far as standard commercial outfits [for Halloween costumes]. If you're female and a kid and you want to be a superhero, you're basically out of luck unless Wonder Woman is your favorite. "
(tags: kid-stuff gender stupid comics blogs society culture easily-distracted)
Nobel Physics Prize honors optical fibers and CCD sensors - Physics Update
A compact explanation of the physics behind the Prize.
(tags: science physics technology materials Nobel awards blogs physics-update)
US LHC Blog » A stroll down memory lane!
"I…
drorzel | October 7, 2009The Cutest Vaudeville Convict in the Universe says "Hi!"
SteelyKid is fourteen months old today. Between the arbitrary numerical signifier and the outfit, how could we not do some bonus Baby Blogging?
drorzel | October 7, 2009Prompted by working on lecture notes for Quantum Optics last night, a Dorky Poll about the mathematical formalism of photon number states
What's your favorite photon operator?(polls)
I know it's hard to pick, but choose only one.
drorzel | October 7, 2009I have a Dorky Poll idea for later in the day, but let's get this out of the way first:
Choose only one:(opinion)
Don't say I never gave you these options.
drorzel | October 7, 2009The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome." I know just about enough to recognize this as something biochemical, but I'm sure there will be plenty of commentary about this around science blogdom.
"Curious Wavefunction" is the name left by the commenter who predicted Yonath would win in this year's betting pool, and thus wins the right to author a guest post here. Congratulations, Curious. Send me email from the address you left in the comment form, and we can set…