Links Dump
drorzel | February 22, 2009
What will be your Edward Gorey death? - Quiz | Get More Quizzes at Quizilla
"We are all going to die. Why not die in an Edwary Gorey way. Find out how which Gashlycrumb Tinies child you will die like."
(tags: silly literature books internet)
Cocktail Party Physics: when satellites collide, it's really a drag
What colliding satellites have in common with NASCAR cars, and how it's all the fault of sunspots.
(tags: science physics blogs education cocktail-party)
Helping under-prepared students in introductory physics « Confused at a higher level
"Although every class presents its own…
drorzel | February 21, 2009
Cocktail Party Physics: science, politics, and getting it wrong
"One surefire way to panic the heck out of people is to mention nuclear bombs and radical Islam in the same sentence. I dunno about you, but I kinda had a mini-freakout when I read about the amount of enriched uranium the United Nations says that Iran has at its disposal for bomb making. It was hard not to, with the alarming headlines: the LA Times said "IRAN HAS ENOUGH FUEL FOR A NUCLEAR BOMB, REPORT SAYS"; the New York Times was a little more low-key: "IRAN HAS MORE ENRICHED URANIUM THAN THOUGHT." Coupled with our mostly…
drorzel | February 20, 2009
mmcirvin: Some children's music
"We listen to a LOT of children's music these days. Maybe a little too much sometimes. On the other hand, we're fortunate to live in an age of relatively listenable children's music with some adult appeal. Here's some stuff Jorie's been hearing lately:"
(tags: blogs music kid-stuff)
Acephalous: Batman as a Monster in a Classic Horror Film (Batman Begins)
Another of Scott's really interesting shot-by-shot analyses of Batman movies.
(tags: blogs education academia movies humanities)
slacktivist: TF: Inaction Heroes
"For those who did read the first book,…
drorzel | February 19, 2009
Abstruse Goose » How Stuff Works
"Science killed my unicorns."
(tags: science comics silly abstruse-goose)
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Hugo Nominations
Including a few links to recommended-reading lists.
(tags: movies SF literature books hugos)
Physics and Physicists: What Did Galileo Actually Do? Most People Don't Know
"The name "Galileo" is one of those names that should be familiar with people, especially in light of the historical significance, not only in science, but also in christianity. So 400 years after his courageous work that shows that the Earth…
drorzel | February 18, 2009
slacktivist: Why I'm peeved
"House-of-cards fundamentalism allows for no distinctions between babies and bathwater, between the central tenets of the faith and the adiaphora and error. So once one part of this belief system begins to collapse -- as it inevitably will since young-earth creationism is disprovable -- then it all has to go."
(tags: science politics society culture US religion biology)
Astronomy Science Fiction
"If youâre looking for free science fiction stories featuring a range of astronomical facts and mind-blowing concepts, youâve found the right place. This collection…
drorzel | February 17, 2009
US LHC Blog » Higgs Hunting News
"Depending on what the mass of the Higgs boson is, it will decay into other particles that are easier or harder for an experiment to detect. So for example if the mass turns out to be about 170 GeV, the Tevatron experiments say their chances are almost 100 percent of finding it by 2011. If the mass turns out to really be 135 GeV, the chances are below 30 percent."
(tags: science physics blogs experiment particles)
RESONAANCES: Pauli's Other Principle
"Fermions are discovered in the US, whereas bosons are discovered in Europe. "
(tags: science physics…
drorzel | February 16, 2009
immlass: You have no privacy. Get over it.
"Facebook may be sleazy and selling more of your information than you like to advertisers, but the idea it wants to steal your IP and do something with it seems vanishingly unlikely. I suspect the change in TOS has something to do with protecting their asses against overzealous privacy claims or their right to hang on to data under some jurisdiction's stringent laws instead. If I really wanted to know, I'd ask Facebook, which nobody, including the authors of the article above, seems to have bothered doing.
"Treat Facebook with some caution, people…
drorzel | February 13, 2009
Notes on sociopathy
"Sometimes, a day of interacting with the rest of the human race on the roads and streets leaves you convinced that the world would be a much nicer place if most newborn humans were tossed in a burlap sack with some stones and then deposited in the nearest pond.
But hereâs the funny thing - thereâs the rest, which we tend not to notice. "
(tags: blogs society culture)
blarg? » Additional Songsmithery
"That Johnny Cash thing is the one thatâs going to keep the developers of Songsmith awake at night, staring at the ceiling and hoping thereâs no afterlife in which…
drorzel | February 12, 2009
Different Cliffs, Different Bottoms, Different Parachutes « Easily Distracted
"If one of the goals of stimulus is to get American consumers shopping again, then I think itâs going to take some substantial changes to the entire retail landscape for that to be more than a momentary upward blip in a relentlessly downward spiral. And at least some of those changes will involve rethinking the size, scale and ubiquity of retailing."
(tags: blogs economics society culture internet business)
Are College Athletes Psyching Themselves Out? :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News,…
drorzel | February 10, 2009
Fish Food « Easily Distracted
"Let me add to the âStanley Fish is just kind of patheticâ dogpile a bit here. In many ways, Fishâs latest column kind of reveals just how naked the emperor has become when it comes to hack complaints about the leftist intolerant academic-freedom abusing groupthink academy. "
(tags: stupid academia society culture)
Biocurious: Impact factors and Physical Review Letters
"An editorial titled Is PRL Too Large to Have an ââImpactââ? in this weekâs PRL addresses some of the issues surrounding the journal and the impact factor. Not surprising to me, that single…
drorzel | February 9, 2009
Backreaction: Singularities in your Kitchen
"I was fascinated most by what I've learned since then about singularities in fluid dynamics - singularities that actually occur in the kitchen, every time a drop of water falls off the tap."
(tags: science physics blogs liquids backreaction)
Attack of the 50-Foot Baby blocks turn your toddler into a vengeful goddess - Boing Boing
Oh, no! It's a Giant Monster Baby!
(tags: silly kid-stuff toys)
The Reality-Based Community: Ice cream in honor of the Beloved Leader
"Now that Ben & Jerry's has introduced "Yes Pecan" in honor of our new…
drorzel | February 8, 2009
A physics history-mystery: magnetism from light? « Skulls in the Stars
"Iâve been looking into Faradayâs contribution to the understanding that light is an electromagnetic wave. That investigation led me to some early work by other researchers on the light/magnetism connection, and led me in turn to a puzzler: how significant and accurate is that earlier research? I donât have a good answer, so I will pose the questions to the physics/blog community in the post."
(tags: science physics blogs optics history E&M)
Adventures of the Learning Assistant (Part 3) « Morning Coffee Physics…
drorzel | February 6, 2009
The Crowd-Sourced Reading List | The Loom | Discover Magazine
"Last week I blegged for examples of great science writing from over the years, and you did not disappoint. Rania Masri, who teaches writing to scientists in Lebanon, asked if I could share the list. Itâs the least I can do in exchange for everyoneâs generosity"
(tags: science blogs books writing)
drorzel | February 5, 2009
Textbooks have jumped the shark | Dot Physics
"I have been afraid to really speak my mind on this issue because I donât want to completely enrage the textbook publishers. They do send me free books sometimes. Oh well, first what is the chance they will read this? Second, I already have tons of books and there is always wikipedia."
(tags: physics blogs education academia books dot-physics)
Biocurious: Drew Endy on group meetings
Excerpts from a presentation on how to give better group meeting presentations, and a link to the original slides in PDF format.
(tags: science blogs education…
drorzel | February 4, 2009
NY Times article on force and physics and football | Dot Physics
"People say I am picky. Ok, sometimes I am. But somebody has to stand up for what is right and just. Maybe I am that person.
Please stop using the word force if you donât know what it is.
There. I said it. You can attack me now."
(tags: physics blogs stupid football sports journalism dot-physics)
Earth-friendly case file #130: On Deadly Ground | DVD | A.V. Club
"Mr. Wilkins promised that On Deadly Ground is just about the batshit-craziest bad movie in existence. He is not wrong. I have included an unprecedented number of…
drorzel | February 3, 2009
Bruce Springsteen misreads the national mood in his halftime performance. - By Stephen Metcalf - Slate Magazine
A desperately stupid article about the Super Bowl halftime show
(tags: politics stupid society sports music)
PHD Comics: Not a good sign
"I should be done in a year..."
(tags: academia comics silly)
Doing Physics is a two level system « Shores of the Dirac Sea
Oscillatory solutions are the worst.
(tags: physics blogs academia silly quantum)
The Quantum Pontiff : Teleportation Between Separately Trapped Matter Qubits
Lots of news about the Chris Monroe's group teleporting…
drorzel | February 2, 2009
Feministe » A Story in Pictures
See if you can spot the difference.
(tags: politics news gender pictures law history)
Fafblog! the whole world's only source for Fafblog.
""The earth will quake and the sea will boil and the moon will be as blood and every knee shall bow before the coming of the Fafblocalypse!" says Giblets.
"Or we could take the bus home," says me."
(tags: silly SF fafblog)
Gender bias found in student ratings of high school science teachers
"Researchers at Clemson University, the University of Virginia and Harvard University have found that, on average, female high…
drorzel | February 1, 2009
Misha Lemeshko's blog: The greatest math problem ever
"This is a problem, which can be easily solved by children before entering elementary school. If you want to give it a try, please forget everything you have ever studied."
(tags: blogs math silly)
The terrifying prospect of an America without lawyers. - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine
"So the question one wants to pose to Howard in the wake of all this lawyerly liberation is whether the country was better off for it. Did America achieve any of the benefits he predicts? Howard urges, for instance, that liberating ourselves from law…
drorzel | January 28, 2009
Astronomers get a sizzling weather report from a distant planet
"The researchers used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to obtain infrared measurements of the heat emanating from the planet as it whipped behind and close to its star. In just six hours, the planet's temperature rose from 800 to 1,500 Kelvin (980 to 2,240 degrees Fahrenheit). "
(tags: science astronomy news planets)
Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Real world reading for fantasy writers
"Yesterday, on the Deerskin thread, Mary Frances passed on Lois Bujoldâs recommendation of Womenâs Work: The First 20,000…
drorzel | January 27, 2009
Mike the Mad Biologist : To Restore Science to Its Rightful Place, We Need to Redefine Elitism
"Our Benevolent Seed Overlords ask "What is science's rightful place?" which refers to a line from Obama's inaugural address where he vowed to "restore science to its rightful place."
Since ScienceBlogling Jake discussed the importance of basing policy on evidence--as well as correctly recognizing that the method we use to solve problems does not shed much light on whether we should address those problems in the first place--I want to bring up one problem that science faces: it is, to a great…