drorzel | February 3, 2008
Locus Online: Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading: 2007
A few books and stories to pass those quiet moments.
(tags: books stories SF)
Science in the 21st Century
Conference participants include a bunch of really smart people with innovative ideas about the future of science and the interplay between science, information technology, and society. And they invited me, too.
(tags: academia science computing society publishing internet)
...My heart's in Accra » Searching for common ground with Andrew Keen
"Keen [author of _Cult of the Amateur_] has some very important points. But he's also…
drorzel | February 3, 2008Over at Aardvarcheology, Martin complains about US politics. This is bog standard European oh-you-benighted-Americans stuff, with a convenient one-sentence summary:
From a European perspective, US politics are an ongoing battle between the extreme Right and the middle Right.
This gets up my nose a bit, because as I commented over there, it would be perfectly equivalent to say "From a US perspective, European politics are an ongoing battle between the extreme Left and the middle Left." It wouldn't let Europeans feel all smug, though, so you don't see it as often.
I don't disagree with the…
drorzel | February 3, 2008I predict that I'm going to throw something at the tv if Arlen Specter doesn't go away. Like the Senate Judiciary Committee doesn't have anything more useful it could be doing than making a stink about an utterly pointless pseudo-scandal. And giving Gregg Easterbrook an excuse to be smug, on top of everything else.
I hope somebody catches Specter soliciting sheep at a truck stop somewhere.
That said, if you have a moment between bouts of fretting over the scientifically approved way of dipping chips into salsa-- a surprisingly rich topic-- and want to try to predict the outcome of the…
drorzel | February 3, 2008Halfway through the movie, the dog got up, and curled back up with her back to the tv, presumably in disgust.
When it ended, I said to Kate, "Well, that was anvilicious..."
"Seriously," said the dog. "All that peace and love stuff was a bunch of crap."
"It was a mite heavy-handed," I said.
"Harmony with nature, my ass," said the dog. "Let me outside. I'm going to stalk and kill something small and fuzzy."
And you know, I kind of agree with her.
(Copied from a comment at Kate's LiveJournal. What a howling Mary Sue that was. The animation is pretty, but Jesus, the story is ham-handed...)
drorzel | February 2, 2008
Things That Would Be Weirder Than "Green Porno" | The A.V. Club
"Then you unexpectedly come across the news that Isabella Rossellini is dressing up like various bugs and making a series of comedic short films about the way that insects have sex."
(tags: animals sex silly biology)
Essay - Why Does It Still Take So Long to Publish a Book? - New York Times
"Although publishers can turn an electronic file into a printed book in a matter of weeks -- as they often do for hot political titles, name-brand authors or embargoed celebrity biographies[...] -- they usually take a year before releasing…
drorzel | February 1, 2008
Lost in the '70s: Steve Martin, "Grandmother's Song" | Popdose
"Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant."
(tags: music silly)
The Third Annual A.V. Club Film Poll | The A.V. Club
The readers have their say.
(tags: movies review culture)
Good Math, Bad Math : Idiot Math Professors, Fractions, and the Fun of Math
Why fractions matter.
(tags: education math stupid)
drorzel | February 1, 2008A counterpoint to Monday's question about tea:
The Super Bowl is Sunday, and a look in the fridge shows that I'm low on beer. What sort of beer should I buy to drink with the game?
Leave your suggestions in the comments.
Additional information: I generally prefer ale to lager, and don't much care for pilsner. I'm willing to try just about anything that doesn't have fruit in it, though-- when I buy beer, I expect beer. If I wanted fruit juice, I'd buy wine.
The title is a reference to party advertising at Williams, back in the day.
drorzel | February 1, 2008A quick review of an important concept going into this weekend's Super Bowl:
The "point spread" for a football game is set at the level required to get equal numbers of bets on the two teams.
The spread is not the consensus opinion of expert observers as to the likely outcome of the game. The two are often similar, but the point spread is fundamentally about the behavior of bettors, not the prediction of outcomes.
This ought to be trivially obvious from the fact that you don't see anybody on ESPN taking the Patriots and giving the points. It's surprising how many people who make their living…
drorzel | January 31, 2008
Songs for the Dumped: The Prelude | Popdose
"[A] two-week anthology in which music nerds write about tracks they've attached to a particular crippling breakup, let you splash around in the stories behind them and hopefully, if we've done our jobs, make you feel slightly better about your own mi
(tags: music culture society sex)
Pictures Reveal Mercury's Tumultuous Past - New York Times
""Our little craft has returned a gold mine of exciting data," said Dr. Sean C. Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the mission's lead investigator."
(tags: astronomy science news space)…
drorzel | January 31, 2008What's the difference between a "seminar" and a "colloquium"? Is there a difference?
drorzel | January 30, 2008
Jacks of Science â Pimp my Hypothetical Home Laboratory
"Ever since I saw the painting shown above, I've wanted to suffocate birds in my very own home laboratory. As I got older, the desire to destroy life subsided, but the desire for a home laboratory remained."
(tags: science biology chemistry silly gadgets)
The Washington Monthly
"Congratulations then, cold and flu, on prevailing over typhoid and cholera."
(tags: US politics silly)
Confessions of a Community College Dean: Administrative Personae
Academic adminstrators as movie characters.
(tags: academia education movies silly)…
drorzel | January 30, 2008I doubt I need to tell any ScienceBlogs readers that the omnibus budget bill passed in December was a disaster in terms of science funding. There is still a faint hope that something might be done, if Congress can be made to act on a supplemental budget bill to restore some of the lost funding.
In an effort to put some pressure on them, the American Physical Society has set up a web-based letter generator that allows you to write to your Representative, Sentors, and President Bush with a few mouse clicks and whatever typing you want to do in order to customize the letter (please keep it civil…
drorzel | January 29, 2008
The Edublogs Magazine : Who Are the Top Edubloggers?
"Aseem Badshah has created a listing of the Top Education Bloggers or edubloggers based upon Technorati's rankings." This page reviews some of them.
(tags: blogs education academia)
The Other Side of Graduate Admissions | Cosmic Variance
How the faculty at UW's Astronomy department choose next year's class.
(tags: academia education astronomy physics science)
The Sociology of 'Hooking Up' :: Inside Higher Ed :: Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education
An interview with a sociologist studying campus sexual culture.
(tags:…
drorzel | January 28, 2008
Toonish Lite
The Warner Brothers cartoon RPG.
(tags: silly television comics games)
gladwell dot com - the ketchup conundrum
The definitive article on ketchup.
(tags: culture food history science psychology society)
PEDABLOGUE - Behind the Scenes of Rate My Professor
A review of every academic's favorite site.
(tags: academia education internet review)
Scientists propose test of string theory based on neutral hydrogen absorption
"Ancient light absorbed by neutral hydrogen atoms could be used to test certain predictions of string theory... Making the measurements, however, would…
drorzel | January 28, 2008The folks at Physics Central are running a video contest, with the winner getting the world's smallest trophy:
Get your camera out... 'cause the world's smallest trophy is up for
grabs! You could win the smallest trophy ever made, and $1000 of (normal
sized) cash in the Physics Central Nano Bowl Video Contest To enter the
Nano Bowl video contest, make a video that demonstrates some aspect of
physics in football. Upload the video to YouTube with the tag
*nanobowl.* The deadline is Super Bowl Sunday, February 3, 2008.
More info: www.physicscentral.org/nanobowl/ The trophy will be created
in…
drorzel | January 28, 2008I don't drink coffee, and never have, but I used to drink a lot of tea. Unfortunately, I suspect that 6-8 cups of Earl Grey a day may have played a role in triggering the Great Stomach Unpleasantness a couple of years ago. Certainly, hot, acidic liquids with caffeine are on the List of things not recommended for heartburn sufferers.
I miss it, though, particularly because our science building is old, and the air-handling system leaves much to be desired (if you're rich, and would like a new physics building named after you, email me...). I miss having a nice, hot cup of tea to drink, or even…
drorzel | January 27, 2008
illuminating science » What should we learn?
"should we teach the "standard" methods for doing multiplication and division (the usual multiplication ("carry the 3â³ etc) and the usual long division) or are students would be better off learning more "intuitive" methods?"
(tags: math education academia science society)
Natelson Group: Useful Links
Learn solid-state physics with fun Java applets.
(tags: physics education computing internet academia science materials)
The Oscars Fade to Bleak - washingtonpost.com
"This year's celebrated films make for compelling viewing, but an awful lot…
drorzel | January 26, 2008
I got hit on the wrist with an elbow in Wednesday's lunchtime hoops game, which was painful enough to overcome my deep antipathy toward the medical profession, and send me to the doctor. After a referral to an orthopedist Friday morning, the verdict was a contusion of one of the umpteen little bones in my wrist. Nothing is broken, but I'm going to be spending the next few weeks wearing the brace in the picture, and icing it regularly.
The brace in question makes typing rather inconvenient, and I'm not a good typist to begin with. This means I'm going to restrict my typing-related program…
drorzel | January 25, 2008
Senators Scrutinize Well-Endowed Colleges :: Inside Higher Ed :: Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education
There are too few smutty headlines in academia...
(tags: academia economics politics US)
Sorting Out Science » Blog Archive » Carnival of Space, Week 38 -- The Adventures of Shorty Barlow, Private Eye
A hard-boiled blog carnival... in SPAAAACE!
Understanding art for geeks - a photoset on Flickr
The Thinker is probably my favorite
(tags: art pictures silly humanities culture computing internet)
YouTube - Hitler: Bloodthirsty Dictator, Die-hard Cowboys Fan
"Well, at least…