As part of the library cull that accompanied moving our books to make room for SteelyKid, Kate and I are giving away some of our duplicate/ unlikely-to-be-read books. On Saturday, whatever is left will be donated to our local library book sale, but if you'd like to spare us the work of carting all those books down to the library, you can claim them for yourself by going to Kate's LiveJournal and following the instructions.

Via Alex, WNYC's Radiolab podcast features a wonderful commencement address by Robert Krulwich to the Caltech class of 2008, making the case for the importance of telling stories about science to the general public. This fits in wonderfully with what I said last week about science popularization. He comes at it from a different angle (and make an explicit connection to the evolution/ creationism debate, which I was avoiding), but it's the same basic argument. And, as a bonus, he has a good NPR voice, suitable for helping get a slightly fussy infant to go to sleep...

A while back, after handing in my manuscript and before SteelyKid, I asked readers to suggest blog topics. I got to a few of them already, but there's one more that I've been meaning to comment on, from tcmJOE: I'm a physics undergrad about to begin my final year, and while I'm still thinking of physics grad school, I'm starting to feel less and less inclined to go into academia. Would you talk some more about career options for physics students outside of academia/pure research? In many ways, I'm a lousy person to ask about this-- I went directly from college into physics grad school, with…

I am generally not hugely enthusiastic about the Olympics, and I really wasn't following the run-up to the Beijing games this year. The games turn out to be great mindless distraction while SteelyKid is between feedings, though, so I've ended up seeing a fair amount of them. I know you're dying to hear my comments, so: -- There's this kid for the US, a swimmer, something Phelps? You may not have heard this, but he's pretty good... -- Nobody who has met me will mistake me for a great runner, but I was on the track team in high school, so I have some small appreciation for track and field…

OK, I know, I said I was going to stop posting SteelyKid pictures every day, but, ummmm.... She made me do it! She's an evil genius, I tell you! Can't you just hear her saying "Eeeeexcellent..... Everything is unfolding according to my plan for household domination..."? Stewie Griffin, watch your back.

nanoscale views: Cryptophysicists "I think that we need to coin an official term, "cryptophysicist", to describe people who do physics research outside the mainstream." Hey to "Uncle Al." (tags: science physics stupid blogs) Built on Facts : Temperature of a Microwave What is the temperature when you nuke food? Does the question even make sense? (tags: physics science food blogs) Study examines the psychology behind students who don't cheat "The study of students at one Ohio university found that students who scored high on measures of courage, empathy and honesty were less likely than…

Five Secrets to Publishing Success :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs Not so much for the scientists, but a good look at the process for the humanities. (tags: publishing journals humanities social-science academia) If One Professor Gropes, Does Everyone Need Training? :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs Yes. (tags: academia gender politics stupid) FemaleScienceProfessor: FSP's Guide to Academic Etiquette "24. DonâÂÂt make faculty meetings last longer than necessary unless you have something really important…

I've seen this a bunch of places, but the most recent was Skwid's LiveJournal: below the fold is a big long list of foods (exotic and otherwise), with ones I've eaten marked in bold face. The standard instructions call for striking out anything you won't even consider eating, but I can imagine circumstances in which I might end up having to try any of these, even things I'm not likely to enjoy. The striking thing about this, to me, is not the gourmet stuff that I have eaten, so much as the non-gourmet things that I haven't. 1. Venison 2. Nettle tea 3. Huevos rancheros (I don't like eggs) 4.…

We live in a difficult era for satire. It's not that there's a shortage of targets deserving a humorous skewering, but the obvious candidates are so quick to dive headlong into self-parody, as with this recent gem from the anti-sex movement: It's been linked in all sorts of places, but I think Matt Yglesias has it about right: "If anything, characterizing the sex-engineering link in this manner seems overwhelmingly more likely to reduce interest in engineering than to reduce interest in sex."

I did a bit of running around yesterday, including one stop to drop off a rather large check to secure a day care spot for SteelyKid starting in January (Kate's taking a bunch of time off, obviously, and I was able to arrange my teaching schedule so I have no classes in the fall term, so I can spend most of my time home helping with SteelyKid). It occurred to me that SteelyKid is going to end up with a weirdly diverse background, at least in racial/ cultural terms: she's half Korean, half Polish/ Irish/ German; I'm a scientist and academic, Kate's a lawyer; my family is Catholic, Kate and I…

Green-Clad Olympic Archer Steals Gold Medals From Rich, Gives Them To Poor | The Onion - America's Finest News Source "Since entering China last month by using a forged Sherwood Forest passport under the name Robert Huntingdon, the archer has appeared at more than 70 medal ceremonies, escaping with the gold every time." (tags: silly internet sports) U.S. Charioteer Breaks 2,500-Year-Old Chariot-Race Record Set By Perseus | The Onion - America's Finest News Source "American charioteer Hank Fowler shocked those gathered in the Beijing Hippodrome Wednesday by breaking the four-horse chariot…

As much as I complain about the relatively low status of science and science writing, it could be worse. As Kevin Drum reminds us, media treatment of economic issues is even more toxic: Question for the folks who populate our newsrooms: Why is it that a 0.8% rise in inflation, the biggest since 1991, is huge, headline news, while a 0.8% decline in wages, the biggest since 1990, is only barely worth mentioning? In a newsroom with some connection to the normal world, wouldn't it be the other way around? So, um, I guess it could be worse...

SteelyKid is home from the hospital now, and settling in to her new environment. She had a pediatrician appointment yesterday, and all is well. Of course, the more difficult adjustment is for me and Kate, trying to learn to speak Infant while also maintaining a semblance of a normal life. And, of course, freaking out at every slightly unusual thing SteelyKid does. Happily, my parents have come up to stay with us for a few days, to help keep everyone sane. They've done a ton of stuff around the house, and have also occasionally agreed to take on the onerous baby-calming duties: Seriously, we…

I hate to break up the pattern of alternating cute baby pictures with rants about science and the general public, but I wanted to sneak in a plug for a new initiative that I'm very tangentially involved in on campus. Union has launched a new fellowship program, the "Minerva Fellows", providing funding for 7-ish students a year (it's supposed to be seven but they did eight this year) to spend most of a year providing aid to poor people in developing countries, and then return to campus to talk about their experiences. This year's Fellows and their projects are introduced on this page, with…

You may be wondering whether the recent spate of blogging about science in popular media and peer review (by the way, you should definitely read Janet's two posts on these issues) has any connection to my talk next month at the Science in the 21st Century workshop. Yes, yes it does-- I figure that I'm going to be getting so little sleep in the next few weeks that I need as much of a head start as I can manage. Of course, this also means that I will continue to go on and on about this topic for a little while yet... The thing that I think is most critical here is to recognize that the poor…

Kate and I have been watching DVD's of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender via Netflix for a while now. Around the originally predicted due date for SteelyKid (that is, a week and a half before she actually arrived), we were joking about what she could possibly be waiting for. During one episode, she squirmed really impressively during a scene featuring Appa the sky bison, and I suggested that she was holding out for a bison of her own. I made a sweep through local toy stores, but failed to locate a bison. Of course, they do sell plush bison on the Internet, so I ordered a "sixteen-inch"…

In the comments to yesterday's post about science in popular media, ZapperZ responds with a comment that illustrates the problem: I am not saying that the media shouldn't report ABOUT science, as accurately as they can. I am saying that DOING science isn't done in popular media. Science isn't done that way, especially when "research" is done haphazardly with little regards for proper scientific methodology. The popular media simply does not know how to do that. Now, one can argue that they should. But till they actually get to that stage, science has only been properly done in various…

The dog sniffs gently at the baby in my lap. "So, what the heck is this?" "This is SteelyKid. Be nice to her." "But, I mean, what is it? It's not a bunny, is it?" She sniffs some more, just to be sure. "What do you mean? Of course she's not a bunny. She doesn't look anything like a bunny." "Well, she could be, like, a bunny in disguise. Like, a bunny Terminator, from the future. They're very wily, you know." She looks concerned. "You're being ridiculous. She's not a bunny, she's a baby." "A baby?" "It's like a puppy, only human. A human puppy." "Ohhhhh... So where's the rest of the litter…

Lest you think I'm transforming the entire site into cute-baby-pictures-dot-com, let me reassure you that while the posting frequency may drop off a bit, Uncertain Principles will always be your go-to site for slightly ranty blogging about issues of science and larger culture. Well, one of them, anyway. This is brought to you by a recent post at Physics and Physicists, in which ZapperZ takes issue with the New York Times. The Times wrote a silly piece on radioactive granite countertops a while back, which the Health Physics Society responded to, prompting ZapperZ to write: When will these…

A few weeks back, I started a betting pool, inviting people to guess the birth date and sex of FutureBaby (now SteelyKid). Looking back over the entries, the winner was Kylinn, who correctly guessed August 7th and female. Kylinn wins, according to the original wager: The winner gets bragging rights, plus their choice of something small and tacky from Japan, or the right to dictate one post topic for the blog (that is, you name the topic, I'll write about it, while sleep-deprived from having a new baby in the house. Fun for the whole family!). If you're Kylinn, email me with your choice. If…