drorzel | January 5, 2008A couple of years ago, I decided to lose some weight. Because I'm a big ol' nerd, this involved keeping a more-or-less daily record of my weight, and inevitably, I made a graph of it. Here's the latest version-- the blue points are from 2006, the green from 2007:
(It's not science without graphs.)
The precipitous drop in early 2006 corresponds to my miserable heartburn/ acid reflux problem. That's not entirely gone, but it's at least under control these days (thanks to the healing power of beer), and my weight has crept back up since I've been able to eat again.
I've gained back almost half…
drorzel | January 5, 2008Tommaso Dorigo, in reviewing an assessment scheme for science projects:
Ironically, in the same table Knuteson includes the SBFB ["Scientific Bang for the Buck" factor] of the experiment of flipping a coin: the SBFB of the experiment is zero, not that different from the global search for new physics at the LHC!, although, to be fair, zero and 0.001 are indeed quite different when you take the logarithm.
drorzel | January 4, 2008
Report on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion
"In the aggregate, PhDs in the fields represented by the MLA appear to have about a 35% chance of getting tenure."
(tags: academia education humanities jobs)
Crooked Timber » » Closing the books
A list of the arguments Daniel Davies is no longer having.
(tags: politics religion economics academia education culture society war)
Physics Buzz: NOVA Tackles Hot and Cold
NOVa special on BEC, next Tuesday at 8. Don't miss it.
(tags: physics low-temperature science television)
The Box Of Paperbacks Book Club: Final Blackout by L.…
drorzel | January 4, 2008Wow, am I cranky today, or what?
To make up for the previous three tediously political posts, here's a more light-hearted physics poll question:
What's the dorkiest term in physics?
Physicists have no real flair for naming things-- either you get dull and prosaic names ("up" and "down" quarks), or strained attempts to be cute ("strange" and "charm" quarks). As a result, there are lots of dorky terms in physics, but what is the very dorkiest?
My vote goes to the Dirac notation for wavefunctions.
This one requires a little explanation: the Dirac notation comes out of the fact that certain…
drorzel | January 4, 2008Over at the Whatever, Scalzi has some acid comments for Prof. Will Barrat's Social Class on Campus diagnostic tools, particularly the step forward exercise (I've linked the Web version-- John refers to the Word file):
[F]or the purposes of this exercise -- showing indicators of privilege and class -- this list is not actually useful, and indeed counter-productive. In this exercise, it's entirely possible for someone of a lower social class to appear more "privileged" than someone who is of the "rich and snooty" class. This doesn't create awareness of privilege; it does, however, create…
drorzel | January 4, 2008One of the many annoying things about the Iowa caucus coverage is that what's really a faintly absurd and kind of trivial process gets magnified into this huge and all-consuming Event that bumps other, much more important, stories down the queue. Kevin Drum highlights what might be the perfect illustration:
On CNN, Bill Bennett just celebrated the Iowa caucuses because there's been "no violence, no killing." That's way better than Kenya! Anderson Cooper agrees, telling us that Iowans have invited strangers into their very own homes and.....haven't killed them, I guess.
The recent…
drorzel | January 4, 2008The Iowa caucuses are finally over, and Daily Kos has the scoop:
Finally, primary season is over, and it couldn't come soon enough. After a week of conflicting polls and a flurry of last minute campaigning by all parties, ______ has (narrowly / decisively) won the Iowa caucuses.
Numerous factors contributed to this very predictable Iowa win. First, the ground game, and/or lack thereof. Second, the weather, most specifically the fact that the weather was different from what it might have been. And third, as always in Iowa, caucus-goers' "second choices" were (futile / important / decisive). If…
drorzel | January 3, 2008
The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen - New York Times
Harold McGee on heat.
(tags: food science)
Inside college parties: surprising findings about drinking behavior
"A uniquely designed study instead had researchers visit college parties, gathering data on the spot. Findings revealed that drinking games and themed parties are associated with higher levels of drinking." I'm shocked-- shocked!
(tags: academia drugs psychology science news)
Iowa Caucus 101: How It Works (and It Does. Really.) - The Carpetbagger Report
For those who care.
(tags: US politics)
Justine Larbalestier »…
drorzel | January 3, 2008As nearly everybody with a blog has already noted, the annual "World Question Center" question has been posted, with answers from the usual huge range of thinkers. This year's question:
When thinking changes your mind, that's philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that's faith.
When facts change your mind, that's science.
WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?
Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?
I'd love to say something deep and thoughtful about the answers, but honestly, it's just too much. My…
drorzel | January 3, 20081) Kate and I went to a New Year's party at the home of a colleague in Math, whose kids got a Wii for Christmas. We spent a while playing with it, and it's way more interesting than any other gaming system I've seen in years.
2) Windows Vista sucks ass. Evidence: It is incapable of switching between users on my tablet without locking the entire system up in a way that requires a hard power off to reset. Kate set up a separate account for herself, so she wouldn't have to log me out of GMail and Bloglines to check her messages, but it is impossible to log in under one account, and switch to the…
drorzel | January 3, 2008Timothy Burke is disgusted with the New York Times, and soliciting nominations of people who would be more interesting on the Op-Ed page than the Times's current stable of established writers:
As an extension of my last post, let me start the nominations for online writers that you feel like could serve as better columnists for the New York Times than most of the current group. Basic things to consider: reasonably good writers in stylistic terms, evidence that they could handle writing regularly and could write within the space constraints, evidence of the ability to surprise either in their…
drorzel | January 2, 2008
A Wily Road Warrior's Airport Tips
Frank Luntz on how to survive modern air travel.
(tags: travel society US)
Drivers on cell phones clog traffic
I am shocked-- shocked!-- to learn that talking on the phone impairs drivers.
(tags: psychology US stupid science news)
Jon Swift: Best Blog Posts of 2007 (Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves)
A rather lengthy list, in case you find yourself with time to kill
(tags: blogs politics writing science culture society journalism)
io9. Strung out on science fiction.
SF gets the Gawker treatment
(tags: blogs culture news SF literature movies society…
drorzel | January 2, 2008Over at Inside Higher Ed, they've posted a report on the job market in history, which finds that there are more jobs than new Ph.D.'s, but that American and European history are overrepresented in the candidate pool, relative to the number of jobs. It also includes this comment about the number of degreees awarded to women:
The decline for women -- to 40.9 percent from 41.6 percent -- is the third decline in the last 10 years, and comes a time that a majority of Ph.D.'s in the humanities are being awarded to women.
The other two declines, from their handy table, were from 40.3% to 40.0% in…
drorzel | January 2, 2008As a Christmas present for her grandparents, Kate put together a coupld of albums of pictures from our Japan trip, including this shot of What Japanese Commuter Trains Look Like to Me:
(That was taken standing up looking straight ahead on a train from Tokyo to Yokohama. The Japanese have the best trains in the world, but they're not tall.)
Kate has posted all of the pictures from the grandparent albums over on her LiveJournal, along with the extensive captions she wrote for them:
Part 1 (27 pictures)
Part 2 (33 pictures)
Go on over there and take a look.
drorzel | January 1, 2008
Pop Culture News: Popdose.com
The new group music/ pop culture blog from Jeff Giles, Jason Hare, Py Korry, and others. Future home of Chart Attack! and Adventures Through the Mines of Mellow Gold. Adjust your RSS feeds accordingly.
(tags: music culture blogs television movies)
The World Question Center 2008
"What have you changed your mind about? Why?"
(tags: science politics religion psychology biology chemistry physics economics academia math)
My Year Of Flops Case File # 98 Rent | The A.V. Club
"The film and play follow a series of suspiciously middle-aged-looking scruffy bohemian…
drorzel | January 1, 2008Because it's not science without graphs:
That's the traffic for this blog for 2007. If you integrate the area under the curve, you get a total of 833,275 page views for the year, which is, frankly, kind of astonishing. That's up from last year's total of 574,676, so I guess the goal for 2008 is to break a million.
The top ten posts for the year, in terms of traffic:
Many Worlds, Many Treats: 52,667 (of course)
Bunnies Made of Cheese: 14,068
Stealth Creationists and Illinois Nazis: 9,048
It's Turtles All the Way Down: 5,539
New "Meme": Manly or Self-Sufficient?: 5,213
Why Do Polarized…
drorzel | December 31, 2007
Popless Week Zero: Stopping In The Name Of Love | The A.V. Club
Noel Murray plans to spend 2008 not listenins to any new music-- old songs only.
(tags: music review culture)
Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: God, Fashion, Affect
The hot new books at the MLA. Page-turners all, I'm sure.
(tags: academia books culture)
MLAde 2007
A helpful guide for people attending the MLA meeting-- note the policy on smirking.
(tags: academia culture silly)
Welcome
Disturbing numbers about law school admissions.
(tags: academia diversity race law)
drorzel | December 31, 2007There's really no global significance to January 1-- it's not even universally acknowledged as the start of a new year-- but it's good now and then to take a little time to reflect on things. As a culture, Americans tend to be fairly bad at this (we're a low albedo nation), but we've built two such days into our national calendar-- Thanksgiving, for looking back, and New Year's for looking forward.
(We also use these as occasions for excess, which probably says a lot...)
A year ago, I wrote that "2006 is going to be a hard one to top, for me at least," but 2007 came pretty close to topping it…
drorzel | December 30, 2007
The Bush administration's dumbest legal arguments of the year. - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine
"3) Alberto Gonzales: I am forced to put the former attorney general into his own category only because were I to attempt to round up his best legal whoppers of the calendar year, it would overwhelm the rest of the lis"
(tags: law politics US stupid war)
John Crowley Little and Big - Jesus and Satan Together At Last
A fascinating discussion of Mormon theology, among other things.
(tags: religion US politics history society culture literature)
Classical Music - New York Times
Classical…
drorzel | December 29, 2007
Crooked Timber » » Science, and anti-science, in action
The saga of the peppered moth as an example of evolution in action.
(tags: biology experiment politics science)
Some Road Songs
The official government list of songs that mention highways.
(tags: music travel US silly society culture)
Matthew Yglesias (December 28, 2007) - Predicting CW (Culture)
Why political betting markets aren't interesting or useful.
(tags: US politics economics)
Reason Magazine - The Amateurs' Hour
"Whatever Keen (or I) may believe the future holds, it's not society's job to ensure that journalism…