Neurophilosophy : C19th Japanese anatomical scrolls Cool anatomical paintings from 1819. (tags: art biology Japan medicine history science pictures) Population Density Increases in Hell § Unqualified Offerings "They say you should speak no ill of the dead, and indeed, with dead Jesse Helms I have no beef." (tags: US politics)

294 - Err Lingus « Strange Maps Aer Lingus demonstrates the fine grasp of Northeast US geography that we usually associate with Manhattanites. (tags: silly US travel) The Notes of Japanese soldier in USSR Fascinating cartoons drawn by a Japanese POW in the Soviet Union. (tags: art comics history Japan pictures war stories) Off the Kuff: It's not a dead heat if someone is leading Innumeracy leads to bad journalism. (tags: math statistics politics US news stupid journalism) A General Test of the Copernican Principle "To date, there has been no general way of determining if the…

The great Garage Remodeling Project is slowly drawing to a close (the contractor is running way behind), but the crucial elements of the room are now in place: we can haz bookshelves: That's looking from the front of the room back toward Kate's desk, but it give you the best idea of the room. The base cabinets will eventually have doors, to keep FutureBaby from getting into whatever we store in them. The front of the room, where my desk is, is dominated by windows: You can see my workspace here, which is freakishly clean at the moment, because I haven't been working in this room long. Over…

The Loom : The Loom Ends. The Loom Lives! One of ScienceBlogs' best leaves for Discover. Update your RSS readers. (tags: blogs science journalism writing biology) Meeting Program The Nobel laureates in physics get together to talk shop. (tags: physics meetings Nobel science) nanoscale views: What makes an experiment "good" "I think it's important, particularly since the lay public (and many journalists) don't have the background to judge realistically for themselves the difference between good and bad scientific results." (tags: science physics experiment) Viewbook Diversity vs. Real…

Achieving top grades in science subjects more difficult, proves research "On average, subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology at A-level are a whole grade harder than Drama, Sociology or Media Studies, and three-quarters of a grade harder than English, RE or Business Studies." (tags: academia education science social-science humanities) Physicists create millimeter-sized 'Bohr atom' A press release that is remarkable for its lack of scientific detail. (tags: physics atoms science news journalism experiment) Scientist at Work - David Pritchard - Scientist Studies Whether Hookworms…

It's been ages since I reported on the status of Bunnies Made of Cheese: The Book. For most of that time, that's because there was nothing to report-- I sent a draft off to my editor, and was awaiting comments. When I finally did get comments, the August 1 deadline was beginning to loom, particularly since the comments were of the form "Aiiieeeee!!!! Much too difficult!!!!" and called for really significant rewriting. That's been a large part of the reason for the relative lack of posting around here-- my computer time has been devoted to frantically revising draft chapters. I'm up through…

What Would Jesus Do (in College)? :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs A look at "challenges confronting a subset of religious colleges: Those looking to differentiate themselves from what's perceived as the prevailing norm - Christian colleges as bastions of social conservatism - without collapsing age-old faith tradi (tags: religion academia education society US) Report Critical of Math Teachers' Preparation :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs "The study attributes the inadequacy to a combination of low…

Via Matt Yglesias, an interesting twist on the shuffle-play "meme": 1. Take out your iPod (or Zune, I guess...really, who buys a Zune?) 2. Press shuffle songs. 3. Answer the following: a) How many songs before you come to one that would absolutely disqualify you from being President? b) What is that song? This sounds like fun. Whooosh goes the randomizer... And I'm screwed. The first song up is "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" by Bob Dylan. He's a former hippie radical, much too divisive a figure to be associated with. Also the song is kind of a downer. And "Even the President of the…

I create gods all the time - now I think one might exist | Mail Online Terrible, terrible headline for an excellent essay. (tags: books religion literature SF science)

The garage remodel is dragging on a bit-- the room is usable, but not all of the shelves are in yet. We have, however, cleared enough space to set up some of the piles of baby things we've acquired: A few details: The crib mobile establishes the reptile theme of the decor, with some incongruously cheery dinosaurs: FutureBaby already has a fine start on a stuffed animal collection, visible on the bookshelf in the back of the first picture: Note the awesome dragon puppet and cute plushie dinosaurs. And, of course, any baby needs to have at least one animal bigger than itself: Not visible in…

Dynamics of Cats : Who is Obama's Science Adviser? I'm available... (tags: politics US science) Colby pig could live happily ever after "If you were a pig and you go to a pig roast, you'd run away, too. It's not the ideal spot to hang out." (tags: animals academia silly) Graphic: How Class Works - New York Times Including a widget (under "components of class") to let you determine your own class standing. (tags: economics US society politics statistics education)

Over at Science After Sunclipse, Blake has a very long post about the limitations of science blogs. Brian at Laelaps responds, and Tom at Swans On Tea agrees. You might be wondering whether I have an opinion on this. Since I'm going to be talking about it at a workshop in September (first talk, no less...), I better have some opinions.. The original post is very long, but can probably best be summarized by the following paragraph: My thesis is that it's not yet possible to get a science education from reading science blogs, and a major reason for this is because bloggers don't have the…

Under the Same Sky How far apart can you and your beloved be while standing under the same sky? (tags: physics science math education literature) Confessions of a Community College Dean: Systems and Silos "[W]e don't have a [higher education] system. As in so many things, we have thousands of independent silos, each with its own internal politics." (tags: academia education economics politics society US)

A few days ago, some colleagues and I were discussing the year that just ended, and the curriculum in general, and the frequent lament about needing to repeat ourselves came up. Due to some quirks of our calendar, we have a lot of students taking courses out of sequence, and as a result, have to teach the same mathematical techniques in multiple classes. On top of that, though, the students tend to say that any given technique is entirely new to them, even when they've already seen it. When that part came up, one of my colleagues said "Well, of course they do that-- I did that when I was an…

Annals of Medicine: The Itch: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker The neurobiology of itching. Sadly, it doesn't include a cure for hives. (tags: medicine psychology science) Swans on Tea » Ghostly Visages Video of laser-cooled atoms in a trap with the magnetic fields not balanced. I used to spend half an hour a day tweaking the Xenon MOT using this sort of picture. (tags: physics low-temperature atoms experiment science video youtube) Plenty to Go Around :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs "A new book from Stanford University Press called…

From today's New York Times, and article headlined "White House Refused to Open Pollutants Email": The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week. When asked whether this wasn't maybe a little immature, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said "Nunh-uh!" After trading "Is not!" "Is too!" statements with Helen Thomas for a while, Fratto covered his ears and…

Teaching Business at a Liberal Arts College :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs "With its successful integration of multiple academic disciplines, the study of business is a highly developed form of area studies." (tags: academia education humanities social-science)

I'm deep in book revisions at the moment, which largely accounts for the relative blog silence. This is expected to continue for a while yet, broken by the occasional post when something comes up that is irritating enough to push me to write about it. Such as, well, now. In the chapter on the Copenhagen Interpretation, I spend some time laying out the basic principles of quantum mechanics, and mention the Schrödinger equation. I noted in passing that the name is taken from "the Austrian physicist and noted cad Erwin Schrödinger." Kate questioned whether this was really appropriate, but I left…

George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com Say a prayer to Joe Pesci in his memory. (tags: comedy society culture) Law Blog - WSJ.com : In Texas-Arkansas Spat, Judge Orders Parties to Midfield "Surely Defendant's corporate representative, a resident of Arkansas, would feel great humiliation by being forced to enter the home state of the University of Texas, where the legendary Texas Longhorns have wrought havoc on the Arkansas Razorbacks with (tags: law sports football silly) NOVA | scienceNOW | PBS A new science "magazine" show, premiering Wednesday…

Postcards from Nowhere "It is the artists, and a certain line of thinking about art, that have given the people with the cash permission to buy and sell what amounts to nothing, and to do so for ever larger and more insane sums of money." (tags: art culture society stupid humanities)