I can see the oncoming train at the end of the book-in-progress, so I'm going off the grid to try to finish a draft of the final chapter and introduction. Here's something to think about while I'm away from the Internet: Choose one:online surveys For bonus points, defend your choice in the comments using only lyrics from their songs.

Smaller government, smaller dreams, smaller people | slacktivist "Consider this account of the rebuilding and re-engineering of Galveston. Consider the scope and audacity of the project -- the cost, the labor, the years it took. Does any American city, or America itself, still have the courage, vision or capacity to attempt such a thing? I don't know. I doubt it. We seem to have become a small-minded people obsessed with smaller government, smaller visions, smaller aspirations -- a crimped, cramped people from whom it seems unimaginable to expect or ask for this kind of hard work and…

SteelyKid would like to remind everybody that sometimes you just need to kick back on the couch, eat some snacks, and watch tv: In her case, that means watching the same episode of Good Eats over and over and over... Other times, of course, you need to get out and feel the wind in your hair: Even if you're just saying "BA BA BA BA" into an oscillating fan. And that's as profound as we're capable of tonight.

The Procrastination Flowchart You Are Here (tags: internet pictures silly) Award-winning journalism job post | a few tasteful snaps "We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigative team. Every serious candidate should have a proven track record of conceiving, reporting and writing stellar investigative pieces that provoke change. However, our ideal candidate has also cursed out an editor, had spokespeople hang up on them in anger and threatened to resign at least once because some fool wanted to screw around with their perfect lede." (tags: journalism jobs internet…

I am less enthralled by the "molecular gastronomy" thing than someone with my geek credentials ought to be. As a result, I was a little disappointed when I clicked the link (from Jennifer Ouellette on Twitter) to this Wired story about a new tv show called Marcel's Quantum Kitchen. Because, you know, there are much more fun things that the combination of "Quantum" and "Kitchen" could evoke: A kitchen whose dishes all come in discrete and indivisible portions. You can't eat half and take the other half home-- it's all or nothing... You can either know what you're making, or how long it will…

News: Tabloid Science - Inside Higher Ed "The Sex Life of the Screwworm -- a silly subject for federally funded research, no? Some members of Congress thought so: they singled out the project about 30 years ago as the nation's top symbol of wasteful spending -- and later apologized when, upon further review, they realized the research was actually incredibly useful. Now, at a time when Congressional scrutiny of science spending (supposedly silly and otherwise) is rising, the other side of the debate is reviving the symbol of the screwworm to bring attention to its cause, through a method…

Kevin Drum re-posts a chart on wind power made by Stuart Staniford showing that the number of new wind power plants installed in 2010 was way lower than in 2009 or 2008: This is meant as a starting point for discussion about the big economic issues that might've caused this. One of the many, many reasons I'll never make it as a political pundit, though, is that when I see a graph like this, I'm inexorably drawn to speculating about aspects of it that really have nothing to do with the intended point. In this particular case, I look at this graphic and ask myself "Why are there so many wind…

How Josef Oehmen's advice on Fukushima went viral - opinion - 21 March 2011 - New Scientist "So who exactly is Josef Oehmen and why did he write about the nuclear accidents in Japan? Oehmen agreed to tell New Scientist his side of the story - and it suggests that a minimum of research by the mainstream journalists who quoted his essay could have established much earlier that it was not the definitive account they thought it was." (tags: science energy physics nuclear media journalism blogs internet culture world) Confessions of a Community College Dean: Ask the Administrator: Switching to…

I've been watching a lot of basketball lately, and between the channel-flipping and occasional single-game windows, it has not been possible to use the DVR to avoid seeing commercials. Which means I've seen a lot of the current paradigm of advertising in America, which seems to consist of two main modes: Smug and "dickish": The main exemplar of this is the Fidelity commercial in which a smug Fidelity customer at a cafe sneers at another customer for not knowing the wonders of his commercial invetment advice provider, but really, just about any investment commercial would do. Sam Waterston…

Awesome new physics blogs « Quantum Progress Because you need more things to read. (tags: blogs science physics internet) Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal A foolproof strategy for making money, that I am sadly far too ethical to use. (tags: science physics quantum comics smbc) Radiation Dose Chart But... but... but... When do I get to panic? (tags: xkcd comics internet physics environment medicine science)

Chimping and Other Photo Tips - NYTimes.com "Last week, for my birthday, a friend bought me an amazing gift: a private photo lesson, taught by a professional. I know a lot about photography, and I've come a long way, but I'm not a pro. Tom Bear, on the other hand, is the ultimate pro; his shots have graced many a magazine cover. And during my afternoon shooting with him, I learned a ton. I thought I'd share with you some of his tips." (tags: pictures blogs technology nytimes)

Just a quick reminder that I'll be giving my "What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics" talk (same basic one from Tuesday night) as part of the Saturday Morning Science program (pdf) at the University of Toledo tomorrow, Saturday the 19th. The talk will be at 9:30, with breakfast beforehand. If you're in the vicinity, stop by and hear about some cool physics. My cold is starting to improve slightly, so I should be audible, and I've added at least one Ohio-related joke to the talk, so you don't want to miss that. In only vaguely related news-- indeed, it's probably only of active…

This year's NCAA tournament is being spread over four tv networks, so that every game is shown in its entirety. Previously, you got whatever game was deemed to hold the most interest for your region of the country, plus occasional looks in at games elsewhere, that usually managed to miss the most exciting bits. For a hoops junkie like me, this was fantastic, with the only problem being how to manage to overload. I eventually settled on switching channels every time whatever game I was watching went to a commercial, so I got to see a bit of everything. I was struck, though, but just how often…

There was a lot of great basketball yesterday, but I want to talk quickly about one small thing at the end of the Kentucky-Princeton game, that I think is kind of the basketball equivalent of the oft-debated punt on fourth-and-short in the opponents' end in football. That is, it's the wrong play, but also the play that is dictated by conventional wisdom, so even people who ought to know better slip up. The situation was this: Princeton scored to tie the game with 37 second left. Kentucky couldn't quite hold for the last shot, so the Tigers were guaranteed a last possession with 2 seconds to…

The Virtuosi: Physics Challenge Award Show "So before we officially announce our winner, let's backtrack and build up some suspense.  The challenge was to come up with a bunch of MacGyveresque experiments to determine as closely as possible the standard second, meter and kilogram using only the materials handy to you on a desert [3] island. Just about every response we got successfully answered the question, so we had to base our final result on robustness and uncertainties.  We also tended to favor those that did not rest on precise knowledge of one's own height, weight, etc (though there…

SteelyKid is actually at Grandma and Grandpa's this week, having a ball, and freeing Kate from having to do solo toddler duty for the days that I'm traveling. As a result, you get some week-old pics (though if Grandma and Grandpa send us a picture from this week, I'll post it). Here we have an action shot of one of her current favorite games, which is riding on Kate's back like a backpack, while Kate runs around the house: This is a big hit, but as you may well imagine, it's exhausting for everyone: It's been a productive day here-- I wrote almost 4000 words on the book today, which mostly…

The 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship officially started Tuesday, with the first of the "First Four" games, formerly known as the "play-in" game. It gets going in earnest today, though, which means that once this posts, I'll be shutting the Internet down and working like crazy for a few hours, so I can justify moving everything into the living room and working at a slower pace through a long, glorious afternoon of hoops overload. I may or may not post periodic updates on Twitter (mirrored to Facebook), so if you want live-ish sort-of-blogging follow me there. As always, the run-up to…

What we know, and don't know, about Japan's reactors "In response to the confusion, speculation and apprehension surrounding the rapidly unfolding events at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the aftermath of last week's earthquake and tsunami, a panel of MIT nuclear engineering, public health and risk assessment specialists convened on Tuesday to explain how the reactors work, what we know about what has taken place there so far, and how to put the risks to the population in proper perspective. In introducing the panel discussion, Richard Lester, head of the MIT Department of…

I got home very late last night after my talk in New Paltz, the cold that I've been developing for the last week has hit full strength, and I'm giving an exam this morning. So here's something completely silly: Which sister do you prefer?Market Research For bonus points, guess which of these songs I have on my iPod.

Who Benefits Most From Attending Top Colleges? - Innovations - The Chronicle of Higher Education "Now [Stacy] Dale, a senior researcher with Mathematica Policy Research, and [Alan] Krueger, a professor at Princeton University, are back with an extension of their earlier research, examining earnings over a longer period of time, looking also at a second more recent cohort of students and using a new database for earnings. They find that neither average school SAT nor tuition cost affects earnings on average, but that certain groups--black and Hispanic students and those with parents with…