Links Dump
drorzel | December 27, 2007
The Least Essential Albums Of 2007 | The A.V. Club
"Every year produces great music and a nearly equal amount of terrible music. Then there's the not-so-creamy middle, the albums that have no real reason to exist, but nonetheless find their way to music-store shelves and online music stores."
(tags: music review culture)
The Best Books We Read In 2007 | The A.V. Club
Genre fiction tops the list!
(tags: books review culture)
AFP: Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus
"Seven people were injured on Thursday when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over…
drorzel | December 26, 2007
Changing Courses at the Food Network - New York Times
No more Emeril Live, but still more Rachel Ray.
(tags: food television culture society economics)
Polarization technique focuses limelight
Rayleigh scattering off small particles in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet produces a detectable polarization signal, and allows measurements of the size and composition of the atmosphere.
(tags: astronomy physics optics science news planets)
Matthew Yglesias (December 26, 2007) - Innumeracy (Media)
The connection between innumeracy and bad journalism.
(tags: academia math statistics…
drorzel | December 22, 2007
The Muckraker's Progress: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com
"[Bob Livingston] said he thought I was a bottom-feeder. So they called me for a comment and I said, 'Yeah, that's right, but look what I found when I got down there.' " --Larry Flynt
(tags: politics US society stupid)
scifantasy: Bimbos And Zombies, or Getting Away...
He's a lot kinder to Sharyn McCrumb's fandom mysteries than I would be.
(tags: SF books culture society review)
YouTube - Principles of economics, translated
The "stand-up economist" explains economic principles in simple language
(tags: economics video…
drorzel | December 21, 2007
E Y E W E A R: The Failure of Interest In Poetry In Our Time
Today's nominee for Pompous Ass Comment of the Year: "The fact that poetry does not interest most people suggests most people are no longer interesting."
(tags: academia culture poetry literature books)
Christmas with Christopher Hitchens | The A.V. Club
Speaking of pompous asses, here's an interview with one.
(tags: culture society books journalism religion)
Stewart and Colbert to Return Without Writers - New York Times
The Good News: New episodes of the Daily Show and Colbert Report. The Bad News: It's not because the…
drorzel | December 20, 2007
COROT surprises a year after launch
Stellar seismology and a new extrasolar planet.
(tags: astronomy news science planets)
The quest for a new class of superconductors
An article positing superconductors in which electrons pair up through something other than phonon interactions.
(tags: physics science news low-temperature materials)
Boston College physicists find new explanation for superconductivity's 'glue'
An experiment claiming that hight-T superconductors have electrons that pair through spin interactions, not phonons. Also, hilarious self-promotion.
(tags: physics news science…
drorzel | December 19, 2007
The Year In Film 2007 | The A.V. Club
I don't see enough movies to do a sensible "Year's Best" list any more, but the AV Club is one of the most reliable review sites out there.
(tags: movies)
Are We Not Men?
Jon Zobenicaoverthinks Playboy and Maxim
(tags: culture gender journalism sex society)
Ampere could be defined one electron at a time - physicsworld.com
A new scheme for a single-electron transistor might make it possible to do a better definition of a current standard.
(tags: precision-measurement physics news materials)
Physicists make ripples with their 'magic carpet' : Nature…
drorzel | December 18, 2007
Monkeys perform arithmetic as well as college students
I knew that.
(tags: academia education biology math psychology news science)
Merck Manual for Pet Health - Ferret Hit by an Arrow? Here's a Book for You - New York Times
The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health: Home Edition: Because hypochondriacs have pets, too.
(tags: animals medicine books silly)
Teenage Risks, and How to Avoid Them - New York Times
"We found that teenagers quite rationally weigh benefits and risks," Dr. Reyna said. "But when they do that, the equation delivers the message to go ahead and do that, because to the…
drorzel | December 17, 2007
Video Clip - The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony 2007
If you have 86 minutes to kill, go ahead. I watched the 1997 ceremony, which is where I learned that you don't need to speak the language to identify a boring speech.
(tags: Nobel video)
St. Lawrence University: All-Nighters Equal Lower Grades
' "The data indicate that procrastination is not associated with all-nighters, although both practices significantly correlated with lower GPAs," she says.'
(tags: academia education science psychology)
drorzel | December 16, 2007
Bell Labs Is Gone. Academia Steps In. - New York Times
The pros and cons of partnerships between major corporations and research universities.
(tags: academia economics science industry)
Matter-Wave Interferometry with Phase Fluctuating Bose-Einstein Condensates
A new paper from the Ketterle Empire, on interference between different parts of a split BEC.
(tags: physics low-temperature experiment articles science)
Testing for Lorentz Violation: Constraints on Standard-Model-Extension Parameters via Lunar Laser Ranging
Measuring the distance to the Moon to within a few centimeters gives…
drorzel | December 15, 2007
The best music of 2007 | The A.V. Club
The top 25 albums, as voted on by AV Club writers.
(tags: music review)
drorzel | December 14, 2007
IKE 'BEATS' TINA TO DEATH
Kind of pushing the limits, even for the New York Post
(tags: music news journalism)
slacktivist: Charlie's Angels
Why does Chuck Colson hate little kids at Christmas?
(tags: religion politics US gender)
Ten Top Physics Stories for 2007 -- Physics News Update 850
The AIP's opinion
(tags: physics news)
drorzel | December 13, 2007
Chris Blattman's Blog: How to get a PhD *and* save the world
Advice for Econ/ PoliSci types who are interested in social change and graduate school both.
(tags: economics academia politics humanities social-science)
A Month of Writers, Day Ten: Wil Wheaton
A look back at the glory days of Star Wars action figures.
(tags: blogs movies toys nostalgia)
drorzel | December 12, 2007
[0712.1649] Warp Drive: A New Approach
"In this paper we demonstrate that a sufficiently advanced civilization could, in principal, manipulate the radius of the extra dimension to locally adjust the value of the cosmological constant."
(tags: physics theory science silly articles)
The Associated Press: Maine Newborns to Get $500 for College
"A foundation started by the late Harold Alfond, founder of Dexter Shoe Co., will give new parents an opportunity to sign up for a $500 down payment for their young son or daughter's college education."
(tags: academia education economics news US)…
drorzel | December 11, 2007
Malaria - Vaccine - Mosquitoes - Research - Medicine and Health - New York Times
A profile of efforts to make a vaccine for malaria.
(tags: biology medicine animals economics drugs)
Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: Campus Fight Club
Dorm-room boxing, yet another brilliant student idea I wish I hadn't heard about.
(tags: academia stupid)
drorzel | December 10, 2007
Catholic World News : Vatican astronomer likens creationism to superstition
Brother Guy Consolmagno, talking sense as always.
(tags: astronomy religion science biology)
Daily Kos: What was wrong with the debate education question
A good discussion of the issues involved with merit pay, teacher compensation, and teacher's unions, from a teacher and union member.
(tags: education academia society politics)
The Best Way to Deflect an Asteroid - New York Times
I won't believe it until they do the experiment.
(tags: astronomy space science)
If It's Fresh and Local, Is It Always Greener? -…
drorzel | December 9, 2007
The Little Professor: The Golden Compass
Less "atheist" than "Protestant."
(tags: literature religion review movies SF)
westerblog » Blog Archive » One Last Pullman Post
An important clarification regarding what happens to the Authority in His Dark Materials.
(tags: religion books literature movies SF)
drorzel | December 8, 2007
It Came Upon A Midnight Weird :: Cavalcade of Bad Nativities 2007
"The people who made this probably never even saw Star Wars, so they have no idea that they've just made a Jawa nativity. Sure, they're adoring the child right now, but tomorrow, they'll be out stealing droids again."
(tags: silly pictures religion)
drorzel | December 7, 2007
YouTube - Here Comes Another Bubble - The Richter Scales
Web 2.0, to the tune of "We Didn't Start the Fire"
(tags: internet music silly video youtube)
Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: Hope on Ph.D. Attrition Rates -- Except in Humanities
"Even after 10 years, a majority of humanities Ph.D. students have not finished their degrees, while nearly two-thirds of those in engineering have done so. After seven years, a majority of engineering and life sciences students have wrapped up, while tha
(tags: academia jobs humanities science)
Slusho!
Watch Happy…
drorzel | December 6, 2007
Cat Macros - Post a comment
LOLCat weighs in on the Russian acquisition of LiveJournal.
(tags: silly pictures blogs internet)
Hey Spot, You've Got Mail - New York Times
Dogster: because pets need social networks, too.
(tags: dog silly internet society)
The A.V. Club's Third Annual Surprisingly Specific Holiday Gift Guide | The A.V. Club
"Crap. It's the holiday shopping season again, and you don't want to go the gift certificate route one more time. Also, you've got a friend whose house smells like urine, and another who's constantly complaining about her inability to find adhesive…
drorzel | December 5, 2007
Angels and Demons
Frequently asked questions about antimatter at CERN. Dan Brown has a lot to answer for.
(tags: books physics science stupid)
Major physics breakthrough in understanding supersolidity
The weirdness continues, in this remarkable uninformative press release.
(tags: physics low-temperature news quantum science)
Tuneable gap semiconductor is a first - physicsworld.com
Applying a voltagee across a graphene bilayer produces an energy gap that depends on the transverse voltage, which might make it a tunable semiconductor.
(tags: physics science news materials experiment)…