Links Dump
drorzel | May 25, 2009
At NIF, a Quest for Fusion Energy (or Maybe Folly) - NYTimes.com
"The $3.5 billion site is known as the National Ignition Facility, or NIF. For more than half a century, physicists have dreamed of creating tiny stars that would inaugurate an era of bold science and cheap energy, and NIF is meant to kindle that blaze.
In theory, the facilityâs 192 lasers â made of nearly 60 miles of mirrors and fiber optics, crystals and light amplifiers â will fire as one to pulverize a fleck of hydrogen fuel smaller than a match head. Compressed and heated to temperatures hotter than those of the core of a…
drorzel | May 24, 2009
The Physics of The (Football) Wave : Built on Facts
Why people at a football game are like atoms in a gas.
(tags: science physics blogs built-on-facts)
The Speed of Short People : The Frontal Cortex
Modern neuroscience explains why I have so much trouble keeping up with short little guards.
(tags: science neuroscience biology blogs sports)
Rad Geek Peopleâs Daily 2009-05-06 â Wednesday Lazy Linking
"After the end of the Civil War, many former slavers tried to contact the black men and women they had once enslaved â even those who had escaped during the war and headed north â to try to…
drorzel | May 18, 2009
Solar charging an electric motorcycle - how long? | Dot Physics
"Questions to be answered: How much energy would the bike need to go 50 miles? How much power (average) could you expect to get from the solar panels? Andâ¦how long would it take to charge this sucker. I am sure you can store enough energy in a battery to go 50 miles and even a tiny solar cell could charge this - but would it be practical?"
(tags: science physics energy environment blogs dot-physics)
New system for detection of single atoms | Eureka! Science News
"Scientists have devised a new technique for real-time…
drorzel | May 16, 2009
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Magic, family, uncertainty: Lisa Goldsteinâs <em>Tourists</em>
A brilliant book that ought to be much better known than it is.
(tags: culture SF books review fantasy tor)
The Big Lebowski | Film | A.V. Club
"Inspired by Raymond Chandler detective novelsâand the hazy L.A. vibe of Robert Altmanâs brilliant Chandler adaptation The Long Goodbyeâthe Coens have created a character not far removed from Elliott Gouldâs Marlowe in the Altman movie, a laid-back gumshoe dragged reluctantly into a case his conscience (and curiosity)…
drorzel | May 15, 2009
The Trouble with Double X | The American Prospect
"In the site's introductory video, one of the editors, Hanna Rosin, says, "If you take something like Slate and you have it edited by three women, instead of the people it's edited by, well that's the kind of magazine that we want to turn out." She goes on to say that the articles they publish "don't have to be 'women's issues'" -- she bends her fingers to make air-quotes -- "in the way that people have always defined women's issues. There can be a whole range of issues and you just put them through a slightly different lens." Color me…
drorzel | May 14, 2009
News: Students as Lemmings - Inside Higher Ed
"The researchers find "clear evidence that peer driven students on average perform worse than the ability driven in terms of both average and final grade," though they acknowledge that the "effect is small in magnitude" -- about two-tenths of a grade point on a 30 point grade scale."
(tags: education economics academia social-science business inside-higher-ed)
Mythbusters, please share your data | Dot Physics
Taking the "Open Science" movement to television...
(tags: science blogs culture television dot-physics)
Rules for Time Travelers |…
drorzel | May 13, 2009
Angels & Demons - The science behind the story
CERN explains what antimatter is really about.
(tags: science physics education movies particles)
Figgleton v. Ditchens « Easily Distracted
"As with many similarly well-worn discussions, Iâd just as soon review the available lines of argument about why secular or atheistic thinkers perhaps should have an interest in religion or spirituality which goes beyond being resolutely hostile, which takes religion to be an interesting subject to investigate with an open mind (rather than just finding new ways to arrive at familiar criticisms). Any…
drorzel | May 12, 2009
Spirit Stuck - The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society
"The Spirit rover on Mars is currently stuck in a patch of loose material. After a few attempts to get free, the team has wisely decided to do further experiments on Earth instead of on Mars. They will now recreate the conditions in our sandbox at JPL and test out different sequences until one works reliably here, then try it on Mars. "
(tags: science astronomy news space planets)
The GOP's misguided and confusing campaign against judicial empathy. - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine
"When did the simple act of…
drorzel | May 11, 2009
18 and Under - The Marks of Childhood or the Marks of Abuse? - NYTimes.com
"This year, the study of child abuse is coming of age as a medical specialty. In November, the first medical board exam will be offered in a new official specialty, child abuse pediatrics. Knowledge and research that have accumulated over decades about the effects of physical abuse and sexual abuse are being codified into a curriculum; fellowship training in the field will have to meet certain standards; an expert, testifying in court, can expect to be questioned about being board-certified. "
(tags: science medicine…
drorzel | May 10, 2009
Disco Hayes: It's all Greek to me
"And then the joke hits me. It's witty, it's relevant ... ah, it's perfect. It happens so fast, before I know it my lips are making a coy, dry grin to indicate I'm about to be a smart alec. I figure the Doctor has a hundred physicals to perform, I might as well make a part of his day funny. Accordingly, I ask, "Would you say it's my Achilles Heel?" I swear I'm not making this up. It was so perfect. Contextually ... My entire body functions perfectly, but there's one specific area that may be a flaw that could lead to an injury? And it's my Achilles? Gold.…
drorzel | May 9, 2009
The winners of Slate's "Define Baseball in 150 Words" contest. - By John Dickerson - Slate Magazine
"Seven guys wait for these other two guys to play catch but this other guy is jealous because he wants to play and so he's trying to stop them with a stick." should've won.
(tags: silly sports slate)
Manny being woman-y. - By Juliet Lapidos - Slate Magazine
"Major League Baseball suspended Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, after investigators turned up documents suggesting that the slugger was using human chorionic gonadotropin. Typically a fertility drug for women, HCG…
drorzel | May 8, 2009
The Final Frontier: The Science of Star Trek: Scientific American
"To get a sense of how much actual science has made its way into the science fiction universe of Star Trek, ScientificAmerican.com spoke to Lawrence Krauss, author of The Physics of Star Trek, the first edition of which appeared on bookshelves in 1995. [...]
We asked Krauss about the plausibility of crossovers from the Trek universe, including warp speed, humanoid aliens such as Klingons and, of course, whether anyone will be "beamed up" by Scotty or otherwise, anytime soon."
(tags: science astronomy physics culture…
drorzel | May 7, 2009
Evolution and the Second Law | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine
"Without even addressing the question of how âlifeâ should be defined, we can ask what sounds like a subsequent question: does life make thermodynamic sense? The answer, before you get too excited, is âyes.â But the opposite has been claimed â not by any respectable scientists, but by creationists looking to discredit Darwinian natural selection as the correct explanation for the evolution of life on Earth. One of their arguments relies on a misunderstanding of the Second Law, which they read as âentropy always increases,â…
drorzel | May 6, 2009
'Columbine,' by Dave Cullen -- New York Magazine Book Review
Most of what you think you know about the Columbine school shooting is wrong.
(tags: society books review history media)
The Laptop in the Classroom « Easily Distracted
"I am sure there are students in my classes who have multitasked during a lecture or discussion. Iâll be honest with you. Iâve done the same on my laptop when Iâve been in the audience during conferences or lectures, usually email. Iâve done that in response to being bored, but Iâve also done it as a kind of thoughtful doodling while feeling quite engaged and…
drorzel | May 5, 2009
Why Canât You? « Easily Distracted
"I had a fun conversation with a student this week who had a number of challenging questions about issues to pose to me. The question Iâm still knocking around: if academic cultural critics understand expressive culture so expertly, why canât they create it? Wouldnât it be better to always have experience in creating the cultural forms that you study?
I noted that this is an old and familiar (if legitimate) challenge. It popped up recently in Ratatouille, for example, but this is an old battle littered with bon mots and bitter denunciations. Thinking…
drorzel | May 3, 2009
International Act Like A T-Rex Day
"Our trademark application for "Act Like A T-Rex Day" has been OPPOSED by a very large company. In other words, we got servedâ¦
The company opposing the trademark is a restaurant called "T-Rex Cafe, Inc.". They have trademarked the word "T-REX". Any merchandise with the word "T-REX" anywhere on it according to their Opposition, "is
likely to cause confusion as to the source or origin" and "mislead consumers" doing damage to their business "T-Rex Cafe, Inc.""
(tags: stupid law dinosaurs)
The perils of analyzing test scores by race. - By William Saletan -…
drorzel | May 2, 2009
The Washington Monthly
"It's simple, really. If a private school wants to discriminate, fine. I don't like it, but it's a private religious entity. Don't, however, discriminate and then ask the government to use tax dollars to subsidize the institution."
(tags: education politics US religion)
Destroying the planet⦠with science! « Skulls in the Stars
"When the Large Hadron Collider was fired up for the first time back in September, it caused much wailing and rending of clothes by people who were convinced that the device would create miniature black holes which would destroy the Earth,…
drorzel | May 1, 2009
slacktivist: TF: Bruce's Big Plan
"Bruce, like Tim LaHaye, has a way of running off the rails when he gets into the details of his prophecy scheme. One can, in fact, open the book of Revelation and find mentioned there seven "seals" of divine judgment. By mentioning that fact first, Bruce casts a kind of biblical halo over whatever non-sequitur nonsense he says next -- "Remember the seven Seal Judgments Revelation talks about? Well, then Godzilla, lamb chop, munchkin, glockenspiel gumdrop." And everyone nods along as though he was somehow citing chapter and verse with authority."
(tags:…
drorzel | April 30, 2009
theweaselking:
Never trust a marsupial.
(tags: silly video animals)
Do You Have Swine Flu?
Because you need confirmation from the Internet.
(tags: silly medicine internet)
Jacks of Science » Blog Archive » Learning Science through Comic Books, A List
"Reading textbooks gives me scary flashbacks of my days as an undergraduate (about 2 weeks ago). I did a little research on the internet and supposedly there are these things kids are calling "light reads" that make reading fun again. Comic books/Graphic novels are the pinnacle of fun, so I put together a quick list of illustrated reading…
drorzel | April 29, 2009
Confessions of a Community College Dean: The Boy, On Scientists
"My hero is a scientist. Every day they mak EXITING discoveries. They also make AWESOME potions, space probes and cool new ships. They launch rockets and space ships. I like it when the Space Shuttle goes up. It always makes me think of the scientists who made it. Scientists are really cool!"
(tags: science kid-stuff dean-dad)
EzraKlein Archive | The American Prospect
"One of the quirks of the elite political debate is that it tends to occur in dense cities with extremely impressive transportation infrastructures. DC. New…