drorzel | March 8, 2011
syracuse.com : Upstate NY schools bear the brunt of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's cuts
"Syosset is nearly 3 1/2 times wealthier than West Genesee. It spent $25,990 per pupil in 2008-09, compared to West Genesee's $13,854.
And that disparity is likely to grow under Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget.
The governor's school aid cuts would equal 0.77 percent of Syosset's general fund budget. But they would blow a 6.8 percent hole in West Genesee's general fund. Superintendent Christopher Brown told his school board recently that the district would have to cut 62 full- and part-time positions, drop a…
drorzel | March 7, 2011
How bad is the Templeton Foundation? : Thoughts from Kansas
"This is the consistent pattern in [Sunny] Bains's story [about the Templeton Foundation]. The problem is not that her conclusions are demonstrably wrong - she may well be right about Templeton, and she may even have gathered evidence which would support her conclusions. But the story she wrote is not convincing. Key assertions are couched in equivocal language that relies on her judgment or her assumptions, not on any evidence offered to the reader. Obvious opportunities for detailed investigation - financial records, grantmaking…
drorzel | March 6, 2011I've been sticking to my "no Internet before writing something" quota fairly well the last several days, with a couple of exceptions: 1) writing or no writing, I read a bunch of RSS feeds on my phone when I'm putting SteelyKid to bed at night, and 2) I keep following events in the Middle East via Al Jazeera online, mostly their live blogging from Libya. It's fascinating to watch.
Of course, this blog also has an official Senior Middle East Correspondent, namely my friend Paul, who is a journalist based in Cairo. When the Egyptian revolution started, he was out of the country on a family…
drorzel | March 4, 2011As has been mentioned numerous other places, ESPN is backing a new Bill Simmons project, which basically sounds like a pop-culture blog network kind of thing, headlined by Simmons and Chuck Klosterman. I saw this a while ago (I think I may have tagged a press release for a Links Dump), but was reminded of it yesterday when listening to Simmons's podcast fro ESPN, which was a monster two-part thing with Klosterman as the guest (part 1, part 2).
I'm not much of a podcast guy-- I listen to Simmons and Klosterman, and that's about it-- but this is right in my wheelhouse. It's two guys, both of…
drorzel | March 4, 2011
The man who went nuclear: How Ernest Rutherford ushered in the atomic age - Science, News - The Independent
"Rutherford regarded "all science as either physics or stamp collecting" but saw the funny side when he received the 1908 Nobel prize for chemistry for this seminal work. By then he was in Manchester.
"Youthful, energetic, boisterous, he suggested anything but the scientist," was how Chaim Weizmann, then a chemist but later the first president of Israel, remembered Rutherford in Manchester.
"He talked readily and vigorously on any subject under the sun, often without knowing anything…
drorzel | March 3, 2011When I told her it was Thursday, and thus time for a picture with Appa, SteelyKid sprang into action with a very definite idea of what she wanted. As a result, there's a lot going on in this week's Toddler Blogging photos:
This is my favorite, which was an intermediate step on the way to her final vision. To unpack it a little for you, though, we have:
First and foremost, we have a big collection of stuffed toys being carefully arranged. This is all SteelyKid-- when I said I wanted a picture with Appa, she said "No, all my friends!" Then she started arranging them.
You can also see a remnant…
drorzel | March 3, 2011Brigham Young University dismissed one of its best post players, Brandon Davies, from the basketball team for violations of the university's honor code. Reportedly, this was for sex, which is one of many enjoyable things forbidden by the school's rules, which stem from the principles of the LDS church.
This really kind of sucks, as it further sets up the inevitable Jimmer Fredette backlash, and I really like Fredette, who is a local legend as well as a great player. In their first game without Davies, BYU lost to New Mexico, a team with a fairly mediocre record, and this bodes ill for them in…
drorzel | March 3, 2011
Gnome Physics - Cap'n Refsmmat's Blog of Doom
"All subatomic particles -- electrons, protons, neutrons and so on -- are composed of extremely small gnomes.
While relatively unknown, the gnome theory of matter can successfully explain many physical phenomena, including gravitation, electromagnetism, the photoelectric effect, and the wavelike properties of matter."
(tags: science physics silly blogs)
Media old and new are mobilized for effective causes - O'Reilly Radar
"The bright light of social media has attracted the attention of followers in every discipline, from media and academia to…
drorzel | March 2, 2011Another shameless self-promotion post, but since I was confirming some arrangements this morning, I thought I'd throw up a post, so:
- On March 15, two weeks from yesterday, I will be giving a talk for the Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association at 8pm on the campus of SUNY-New Paltz. If you're in the downstate NY sort of area, and want to know what your dog should know about quantum physics, stop on by.
- On March 19th, two weeks from this Saturday, I will be doing the same presentation at 9:30 am at the University of Toledo, as part of their Saturday Morning Science program (warning: PDF). If…
drorzel | March 2, 2011
Charlie Sheen Quotes Cats « Medium Large
"Because turnaround is fair play...or some nonsense like that."
(tags: internet silly culture television movies pictures)
Neil Tyson's Advice to Young Science Communicators | The Intersection | Discover Magazine
"So in graduate school, I wrote a question and answer column for StarDate magazine, out of the University of Texas, and that became a book, and when you have a book, TV shows want your views on things-one thing leads to another. But in all cases, the common denominator is that it starts out by writing.
So my advice to someone who wanted to…
drorzel | March 1, 2011Blogging will continue to be minimal, as I'm buried in grading, and feeling significant time pressure regarding the book-in-progress. I thought I'd pop up briefly, though, to provide a look at the current status of the book-in-progress.
The way this process works (or at least has worked for me) is that I write up a proposal describing what I plan to write about and giving some samples. For both books, this has included one full chapter worth of prospective text, plus a bunch of dog dialogues for other chapters. My agent then shops this around to publishers, one of whom buys it and sets a…
drorzel | March 1, 2011
Science education for all « through the looking glass
"A friend recently said that schools are so important because it's the only time when everyone is exposed to science. I couldn't agree more. Not because it means a load of young people will have to sit in a room while a teacher bangs on about some super-important topic or another, but because these young people will have to do so together. Before we go about the ever-so-modern business of specialisation, school is a time where we can build shared experiences and so sow the seeds for trust between those who grow up to be scientists (or…
drorzel | February 28, 2011Every year, Kate runs a fundraiser to help support SF fans who want to attend Wiscon, which takes the form of an auction of various cool items, such as a signed book about quantum physics. You can find a big listing of everything at the Con or Bust community on LiveJournal, but some items of possible interest to readers of this blog include:
A sixpack of books from Small Beer Press
Homemade cookies
Math and/or science tutoring from an EE PhD student
Hand-spun yarn
Homeade truffles
A slightly used Sony Reader
One photo a week for a year
John M. Ford books
A signed set of Rosemary Kirstein's…
drorzel | February 28, 2011
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Fracking | The Intersection | Discover Magazine
"I just watched this video of Cornell University engineering prof Anthony Ingraffea giving a lecture on fracking-a long, long lecture. But it's tremendously informative, gives more perspective than I've found anywhere else, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the issue:"
(tags: energy environment blogs intersection video academia science politics us)
I'd buy that for $50,000 | Bors Blog
"The fact is Detroit is one of America's most economically devastated cities and could…
drorzel | February 27, 2011A few lines of dialogue that I wrote today:
"So, the treats I eat represent the matter falling into the black hole, while my poop--"
"You are not coming to my class and pooping to demonstrate Hawking radiation. Don't even think about it."
"I guess that means you don't want to hear my take on the black hole information paradox, then?"
My life is very strange.
drorzel | February 26, 2011
Go To Hellman: HarperCollins and the Suspension of eBook Disbelief
"A good business requires a good story. The customer needs to understand the story of how the business can help solve a problem or deliver a benefit. There are many ways of telling a business story. Some stories are utilitarian; others are romantic or inspiring. Many stories require the consumer's willing suspension of disbelief. This isn't dishonesty, but the customer has to benefit broadly from a business's services and not be harmed by bits of the story that aren't really true. Macs sometimes crash. Facebook sometimes…
drorzel | February 25, 2011We're having our umpteenth winter storm here, which means everybody has to work at clearning snow away. And I do mean everybody:
OK, I did most of the work of clearing a path to the door, but SteelyKid insisted on helping sweep some snow up with her little broom afterwards. The color's a little wonky because it was getting dark, and this was taken with my cell phone. Had I had time to go in and get the good camera, it would've been a million times cuter, but you get the general idea.
Between making a snowman, clearing the door of her house, making snow angels, stage-falling into the snow…
drorzel | February 25, 2011Since people have asked about the lack of Thursday Toddler Blogging to this point, here's an update: We had a bit of a meltdown last night at dinner, which ended with SteelyKid asking to go to bed an hour earlier than usual. This morning, she slept in, and we got a bunch more snow overnight, so there wasn't time to get any pictures. We'll get something later tonight, I hope.
If you're desperate for a cute toddler fix, here's a rerun:
That was at a Union basketball game a few weeks ago. Sadly, the season is over, so we'll have to find another venue to drill SteelyKid on her ball-handling…
drorzel | February 25, 2011
Caltech Scores First Conference Victory Since 1985 - NYTimes.com
"The team's 46-45 home victory over Occidental, in the final game of the season, was the first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory for Caltech since a 1-point win over La Verne more than 26 years ago, before any of the current players were born.
Ryan Elmquist scored the winning point by making the first of two free throws with three seconds left. He missed the second, and Occidental's desperation shot from halfcourt was off target, sending students and fans in the small Braun Athletic Center gym…
drorzel | February 24, 2011My talk at the AAAS meeting was part of a symposium on the results from the 2008 Trends in International Math and Science Survey (TIMSS) Advanced. This is an international test on math and physics given to high-school students in nine different countries (Armenia, Iran, Italy, Lebanon, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden), and this is part of an ongoing survey, with a previous round given in 1995 or 1998. As part of the preparation for the talk, I got all the released items from TIMSS 2008, including score breakdowns and demographic information. My own analysis of this was fairly…