drorzel | July 20, 2008
Measurement of the Casimir Force between a Gold Sphere and a Silicon Surface with Nanoscale Trench Arrays
"We report measurements of the Casimir force between a gold sphere and a silicon surface with an array of nanoscale, rectangular corrugations using a micromechanical torsional oscillator."
(tags: physics quantum science experiment precision-measurement articles)
Feedback Cooling of the Normal Modes of a Massive Electromechanical System to Submillikelvin Temperature
"he same technique, implemented in a dedicated experiment at subkelvin bath temperature and with a quantum limited SQUID…
drorzel | July 20, 2008We'll keep this short and spoiler-free:
Kate and I went to see The Dark Knight yesterday afternoon. The verdict: It was an excellent entry in the "gritty comic-book adaptation" genre, and a very solid follow-up to Batman Begins.
Heath Ledger as the Joker was excellent. I see here in my blogger guidelines that I'm supposed to say something about Jack Nicholson, but really, the two movies are too different for that to make any sense.
It ran a bit long, but I'm inclined to forgive the length because it let them take one of the major plot lines in a different direction than I was expecting,…
drorzel | July 20, 2008Kevin Drum is pondering the economy:
A few days ago, in passing, I remarked that I was impressed (surprised?) by the ability of our economy to absorb so much catastrophe in such a short time without things being even worse than they are. What accounts for this?
He goes on to quote part of a proposed answer ("foreign capital," basically), which Brad DeLong has in more detail. Other versions of the same basic question have popped up a few other places, as well.
My personal guess at an answer is pretty much in line with my recent reading: the good times were never all that good for the…
drorzel | July 19, 20081) I see that as a SF fan with a blog, I am contractually obligated to say something about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Enh. It's well-done, but I'm not that much of a Whedon fanboy, and the hapless villain conceit isn't enough to get past the fact that I don't really like musicals.
2) The Watchmen trailer is, indeed, quite pretty, though in the manner of trailers these days, it's edited in such a way that you can't tell what the hell is going on. They've got the look down, though.
3) If you were subpoenaed in Texas, why on Earth would they sequester you in Memphis?
drorzel | July 18, 2008
Purdue Panel Finds Misconduct by Fusion Scientist - NYTimes.com
Expect a lawsuit in 3... 2...
(tags: physics science fraud ethics energy experiment academia stupid)
slacktivist: L.B.: Pistol-packing pacifist
"As Alice discovered in Wonderland, this kind of confident, reassured madness can be difficult to engage."
(tags: religion review books stupid politics US)
drorzel | July 18, 2008On a happier note than the previous post, the American Physical Society has launched a new publication, called simply "Physics." The goal is "to highlight exceptional papers within the body of excellent research that the American Physical Society publishes each year in all of the Physical Review journals."
The first issue features a really good piece by Steve Rolston on ultra-cold plasmas (full disclosure: Steve was my supervisor at NIST, and I was an author on the first ultra-cold plasma paper, so I'm inclined to like this stuff), and Steve Lamoreaux on Casimir forces. If they can maintain…
drorzel | July 18, 2008Yesterday, I had an appointment at the local orthopedic associates to get my dislocated thumb looked at. The receptionist escorted me to a curtained-off corner of a big room, where I got to spend ten or fifteen minutes listening to the physician's assistant on call dealing with other patients. One of them, a women distressingly close to my own age, was all but begging for medical clearance to go back to work. The PA refused to provide it, saying that it was out of the question until next week, when she removed the stitches from the surgery the woman had just had a day or two earlier.
In…
drorzel | July 17, 2008
Kieran Healy's Weblog - Elementary Particles
"Particle physics has been in the doldrums a bit lately, so they could do with some interdisciplinary reinvigoration. Also, their research budgets remain quite large."
(tags: social-science silly physics blogs)
Crooked Timber » » Necrotrends: The GOP Was The Party of Civil Rights
"So long as political considerations are divorced from concerns about biological vivification, the possibilities are endless."
(tags: politics silly stupid US)
Electron microscope sees single hydrogen atoms - physicsworld.com
"The team has also been able to watch…
drorzel | July 16, 2008
Bush Lifts Offshore Drilling Ban | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"Is there a ban on printing more money? If so he should lift that too and fix the economy while he's at it."
(tags: silly environment energy politics)
drorzel | July 16, 2008
The comically large cast/splint thing is the result of dislocating my thumb playing hoops at lunch today. Let me just note that looking down to see one of my major joints bending in the wrong place was not what you would call a highlight. And once was enough, thankyewverymuch, at least for this lifetime.
I popped it back in, but the PA in the emergency room was concerned about possible ligament damage, hence the cartoon-character hand wrap. I have a referral appointment with a local orthopedic practice tomorrow, where I hope to get something less unwieldy, because damn...
I'm sure you'll be…
drorzel | July 16, 2008Back when we bought the house, Kate's parents were having miserable problems with their cable Internet service-- at peak times, the real bit rate went down so far that it was impossible to get anywhere-- so we opted for DSL service. Five years later, we still have DSL, and even the same modem.
When we had the garage remodeled, we had the contractor install a phone jack near the front windows, with the idea being to move my computer downstairs to free up a bedroom to become a nursery for FutureBaby. The contractor put in the jack, and we dragged the computer downstairs, hooked everything up,…
drorzel | July 16, 2008Just before we turn the corner, a woman goes jogging past with a Golden Retriever. As we continue on our way, I can hear the Doberman three houses up barking at them as they go past. The windows muffle the sound, but I can make out a bit of it. "Get offa my lawn! Gonna bite you! My lawn!"
When we reach the end of their driveway, Emmy immediately squats. The Doberman goes nuts. "My lawn! Kill you! Go away! My lawn! Kill you!" Emmy hackles all over, all the way down to her tail, and makes little distressed noises.
When we get clear of the Doberman's yard, and the barking subsides, she stops and…
drorzel | July 15, 2008
Packer Is Leaving CBS After Calling 34 Final Fours - NYTimes.com
Woo-hoo! Now they just need to ditch Jim Nantz.
(tags: basketball sports television)
In depth: depth of focus and depth of field « Skulls in the Stars
An explanation of why you can't get everything in your pictures in focus.
(tags: optics physics science pictures)
drorzel | July 15, 2008As you have no doubt noticed, my early-morning review of Randy Olson's Sizzle was part of a concerted effort to get blogs to review the movie all on the same day. It's an experiment of sorts in using blogs to promote the movie.
Unfortunately for Olson, it seems to be an experiment designed to test the old adage that "there's no such thing as bad publicity, as long as they spell your name right." Most of the blog reviews collected at the ScienceBlogs page for the film were, um, less than glowing. My own kind of "Meh." review is one of the better ones on ScienceBlogs.
Having looked at a whole…
drorzel | July 14, 2008
FemaleScienceProfessor: No Man's Land
Why, as much as I gripe about our finance department, dealing with them is infinitely better than dealing with their research university counterparts.
(tags: academia science economics)
Thought For The Day -- Words Words Words -- The Dream Cafe Weblog
Also, things.
(tags: writing language silly)
Good Math, Bad Math : The PZ Cracker Mess
What Mark said.
(tags: blogs religion politics stupid)
Bubbles, Booms, and Busts: The Art Market in 2008 - July 10, 2008 - The New York Sun
"If you think that one inanimate shark is as good as another, your…
drorzel | July 14, 2008The forthcoming Sizzle, Randy Olson's follow-up to the well-received A Flock of Dodos, is a movie that's trying to do three things at the same time: 1) provide some information about global warming, 2) make a point about how scientific information is presented to the public, and 3) experiment with new ways of presenting scientific information to the public. As often happens with movies that are trying to do multiple things, it's not entirely successful at any of them, but it's a worthy attempt.
The film plays as basically a cross between An Inconvenient Truth and a Christopher Guest…
drorzel | July 14, 2008Matt Yglesias points to a Peter Suderman post talking about this post about finding jobs:
The last couple of years have seen my friends begin to start their honest-to-goodness careers, as opposed to jobs that were by design short-term. I'd say that among people I would call friends, a good two dozen have gotten long-term/serious jobs in the last couple years. And here's the thing: literally none of them got there jobs without some sort of "in", a personal connection that got them the job.
It goes on a bit from there, and Peter and Matt add some good thoughts about why this might not be as…
drorzel | July 14, 2008In a comment on the FutureBaby betting thread, Rivka writes:
(I'm laughing at all these people who are predicting early. The average gestation for a first time mother is 41 weeks, 1 day.)
Of course, as a physical scientist, my immediate reaction to that is "If they know that, then shouldn't that be figured into the projected delivery date?" It's not, though-- we can count up the weeks, and the projected date is at exactly forty weeks.
So why doesn't the projected delivery date reflect the average gestation time for a first-time mother? As someone who has taught pre-med physics, I have an…
drorzel | July 13, 2008
squishable.com: they're giant round fuzzy stuffed animals. hug them.
"They're giant, round, fuzzy, stuffed animals. Hug them."
(tags: animals silly toys kid-stuff)
drorzel | July 13, 2008OK, not really a betting pool, as there will be no cash wagered. This is strictly for amusement.
The projected arrival date for FutureBaby is July 28th, which is two weeks from tomorrow. Of course, the actual arrival date could be any day in the next month or so. We also don't know the sex of FutureBaby-- our doctors do, thanks to our adventure with the first-trimester screening test, but we asked not to be told.
Thus, this a perfect topic for a blog contest:
Guess the delivery date and sex of FutureBaby, win a prize.
Eligible dates are between July 14th and August 11th, inclusive. Eligible…