drorzel | October 17, 2008I have to say, I had no idea that offering to dance like a monkey would be quite so appealing. Apparently, though, it's a big hit-- John Scalzi proclaimed it "the comedy highlight of 2008." This, from a year featuring Tina Fey as Sarah Palin.
In the two days since Scalzi's post, donations have jumped from $1,700 to almost $4,200. Which still isn't $6,000, so I'm not dancing yet, but I am making sure I know how to record video with the webcam, because the whole thing looks disturbingly possible....
Feel free to provide suggestions on what dancing like a monkey would look like. YouTube isn't…
drorzel | October 16, 2008
Physicists set new entanglement record - physicsworld.com
"Researchers in China and Europe have entangled a record-breaking 10 quantum bits -- an important breakthrough in the quest to develop practical quantum computers."
(tags: physics quantum computing science news experiment optics)
Ananova - Rabbit wins half marathon
Don't tell Emmy.
(tags: animals silly dog sports)
drorzel | October 16, 2008SteelyKid is ten weeks old today! To celebrate, here's the weekly picture with Appa for scale, with a special bonus Kate for additional perspective:
This is the "please, won't you go to sleep?" posture, but SteelyKid, sensing the camera, is having none of that.
Tomorrow, we're off to Scenic Whitney Point to visit her grandparents, where she won't be spoiled at all. Nope. Not even a little.
drorzel | October 16, 2008Another DonorsChoose incentive claimed: Ewan asks for a blog post about "the neatest attractions in Albany and the surrounding area."
"Neatest" is in the eye of the beholder, of course, and as is the case with any area, the worst people to ask about local tourism are local residents (ask a Manhattanite how often they visit the Statue of Liberty). Kate and I don't do a lot of sight-seeing.
What culture we do get mostly comes in the form of concerts and the like, and there are several venues for that sort of thing in the area. The Egg hosts a lot of different sorts of shows, and the Troy…
drorzel | October 16, 2008One of the annoying things about trying to explain quantum mechanics to a general audience is that the weirdness of the theory forces you to use incredibly convoluted examples. Pop-science books about quantum physics are full of schemes that the producers of the Saw movies would reject as implausibly complicated.
I wish I was posting to say that I had found a way around this, but I haven't. So here's another entry in the thriller-movie school of quantum analogies.
Imagine that you and a friend are out hiking, and find yourselves kidnapped by a sinister conspiracy of some sort. You're taken to…
drorzel | October 16, 2008Once again, God help me, I watched the entire debate last night. I don't quite know why, as it wasn't that great as spectacle, and it's not like there was any way it would change my vote...
I wound up being struck by something, though. The last eight years have made me pretty cynical about American politics and the American public. Hell, the last twenty-eight years have made me pretty cynical-- I first became politically aware during the Reagan era, after all. I've spent most of my life watching sleazy pandering contests-- Bill Clinton was a bright spot, and that tells you something.
I was…
drorzel | October 15, 2008
slacktivist: Racism and litigation
"[N]o, it's not an overstatement or an uncharitable characterization to say that anyone swallowing this ACORN-scapegoating is insane and a racist bastard. This is a baseless assertion that begins with the argument that poor people and black people are the powers that be in America -- that they run the show. That's insane. It's laughable on its face to anyone not infected by the voluntary mental illness of old-fashioned American racism."
(tags: US politics race society diversity stupid evil)
Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » What a Beautiful World
"…
drorzel | October 15, 2008Today, we have the first claimant of a donation incentive, from Sarah, who asks:
If you could go back in time to any lab and be there as X discovery was being made, which lab/when/where would you go? I figure this could be spun a couple of ways, either to talk about some really cool science or some really interesting personalities/history of science stuff, or both.
She suggests either the modern discovery of BEC, or the Michelson-Morley experiment for a historical entry. Both of these are excellent choices-- I was on the periphery of a group chasing BEC in 1995, and it was an exciting time,…
drorzel | October 15, 2008First and foremost, thank you to everybody who has donated to my DonorsChoose challenge this year. At the time of this writing, we've raised just over $1,700, temporarily good enough for first place on the ScieceBlogs leader board.
If you haven't contributed yet, we've got lots of incentives to try to get you to contribute. In addition to the various incentives I described this weekend, the Corporate Masters are once again raffling off prizes ranging from magazine subscriptions to an iPod Touch. Janet has the details.
If even that's not enough, I said back at the beginning of this that I…
drorzel | October 14, 2008
Fafblog! the whole world's only source for Fafblog.
"Okay okay but who is Barack Obama, really, while I am playing scary music and flashing this terrifyingly desaturated image of Barack Obama in a turban across your television screen? "Oh my god I have no idea, who is this mysteriously radical mystery radical!" Giblets is glad you asked!"
(tags: politics US race silly blogs fafblog)
And If You Direct Your Attention To The X-Axis, You'll Find I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"In today's class, we'll be exploring the following principles:…
drorzel | October 14, 2008Via Physics and Physicists, a breathtaking blog at the Washington Post proudly proclaiming the author's ignorance of algebra:
I am told that algebra is everywhere - it's in my iPod, beneath the spreadsheet that calculates my car payments, in every corner of my building. This idea freaks me out because I just can't see it. I sent out a query on my blog last week asking, Who among us in the real world uses algebra? Can you explain how it works?
This is exactly the sort of intellectual innumeracy I have ranted about countless times. The whole concept of the blog (subtitled "A year reliving high…
drorzel | October 14, 2008Going into last night's game, my New York Football Giants were 4-0, leading the NFL in a whole bunch of statistical categories. SteelyKid watched at least part of every one of those games with me.
Last night, just before kick-off, Kate took SteelyKid upstairs for a late-evening feeding. After eating, she dropped off to sleep fast enough that Kate just set her down in the crib, where she slept for a good four hours. And the Giants got thumped by the 1-3 Cleveland Browns, with Eli Manning throwing three interceptions, one run back for a touchdown.
I think the lesson here is clear...
... namely…
drorzel | October 13, 2008
Q and A - What Happened to the Golf Ball the Astronaut Hit on the Moon? - Question - NYTimes.com
"Alan Shepard actually hit two balls on the Apollo 14 mission of 1971, and they are still on the Moon, he said in a 1991 interview on the Academy of Achievement Web site for students."
(tags: space science sports US history)
Star Wars ABC - a set on Flickr
The real question is, can we get this as a cross-stitch primer for the nursery?
(tags: art SF silly movies culture nostalgia)
The Quantum Pontiff : Information Age Transcripts
A good idea, that would unfortunately require people to…
drorzel | October 13, 2008I've had miserable problems with hives over the past few years. I'm not sure what it is that I'm allergic to, but I take a distressing number of pills in an attempt to control the itching.
The past few days, I've been coming down with a cold-- sinuses full of gunk, a bit of a sore throat, etc. You might think that, presented with a real enemy to attack, my immune system could rally up and go after the viruses responsible, but instead, they've redoubled their efforts at self-immolation, and I'm itching like crazy.
Just what I need: my immune system is under the control of Paul Wolfowitz and…
drorzel | October 13, 2008Throughout the unfolding financial meltdown, I keep finding myself thinking that there might be one small, positive effect to come out of this: namely, a much-needed dose of realism and humility for market advocates. Because, really, after reading this Steven Teles post:
All through the financial crisis, governments have failed to act in a powerful, concerted way when markets were susceptible to a signal of a major shift in direction. The nature of market panics is that they don't necessarily find their bottom when they reach some measures of the "fundamentals"--they reach their bottom when…
drorzel | October 13, 2008The 2008 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Honor of Alfred Nobel has been awarded to Paul Krugman.
Usually it's the Peace prize that's awarded on the basis of what will make right-wingers' heads explode in the US. They went for a Scandawegian for that one, though, so the economics peusdo-Nobel was the next obvious choice.
Seriously, from what little I understand of economics, Krugman's a good choice, and congratulations to him.
drorzel | October 12, 2008
Swans on Tea » Grad School Camp
It's crazy, but it just might work.
(tags: academia silly education blogs)
The Reality-Based Community: Palin at the Flyers: What the @#$%& Were They Thinking?
Alternate title: "We Booed Santa Claus, and Governor, You're No Santa Claus."
(tags: US politics stupid)
Kevin Drum - Mother Jones Blog: Troopergate Finale
"In fact, here's the part that really puzzles me: what exactly did Todd and Sarah Palin hope to accomplish?"
(tags: US politics stupid)
drorzel | October 12, 2008Why I love New England:
That's the maple tree on the line between our house and the neighbors'. It's always one of the first trees to turn, and it's always spectacular when it does.
It's particularly striking when Emmy and I set off for our morning walk and the back yard is still in shadow, but like most things involving cool lighting effects, it's hard to get a picture of:
This is about the best I've been able to do with it. It's much more impressive in person.
drorzel | October 12, 2008Some time back, I saw Brother Guy Consolmagno talk at Boskone, and said "You know, I should invite him to campus." For those who don't recognize the name, he's an SF fan and an astronomer (well, planetary scientist) who also happens to be a Jesuit brother. He works at the Vatican Observatory, where he is the curator of the Vatican's meteorite collection.
After we were on a panel together last year, I asked him if he'd be interested in giving us a colloquium talk sometime, and he said yes. We exchanged a few emails, and settled on October 9, namely, this past Thursday, when he was going to be…
drorzel | October 12, 2008As you have no doubt noticed, the annual DonorsChoose fundraiser is under way, raising money to help school teachers and children. You can < ahref="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=19006">donate directly through my challenge, but you can also help them out by voting for them in the AMEX Members Project. Voting runs through midnight Monday, and is free, though you need to have an American Express card to vote. If they win the vote, they get $1.5 million, which is a bit more than ScienceBlogs is going to swing.
If you opt for donating through my challenge, you may…